82SiouxGuy

Goon, can't you understand that DaveK is a visionary? He sees the future of the NHL and all of hockey. He understands things that mere mortals like most of us on this forum just can't comprehend. He is wise beyond his years and his place on this planet. Some day he will be remembered as the discoverer of a brave new world of hockey. Why do you have such a problem understanding that?

Maybe the nephew became a Fighting Sioux fan while Uncle Terry was at UND.

Thanks for proving my point. You like to argue instead of debate. Enjoy SD television, stop supporting UND if they change the name, brag about how great Bret Favre is, complain about fighting in hockey and do all of the things that you enjoy.

Dave brought him into the discussion about 10 posts ago to make some kind of point.

And you wonder why people think that you like to argue or if you are just here to stir the pot.

Since a filmmaker I know says the exact opposite I think I will trust his opinion. He says that BluRay done well is the closest thing that he has seen to 35mm film, which is high praise coming from him.

I have a lot of Sioux stuff and will continue to wear it for a long time. But I would also probably buy stuff with a new logo and wear it.

That is an interesting topic to get so invested in that you feel a need to argue about it over and over.

I think they are telling you that they are not seeing what you are seeing on SD. The comparison using black and white was obviously an exaggeration to make a point. But many people see the difference closer to yellow and white. We know that you don't see it that way. You have made that point many, many times. But do you have to bring it up every time anyone mentions that they think HD is superior?

Tu-Uyen Tran has more information on the status of the nickname for each reservation in his latest blog entry.

More information on the status of efforts at Spirit Lake and Standing Rock. The folks that spearheaded the election at Spirit Lake are trying to get a resolution from the tribal council. Not much information coming out of Standing Rock so it is hard to say what kind of progress they may be making.

I wouldn't hate him. Blais spent a lot of time at UND and will always be part of the Fighting Sioux family. But I would definitely be rooting against him if he showed up leading the UMTC Maroon and Gold.

Hockey is one of the more difficult sports to follow on television. That is especially true for non-fans. If HD is better and makes it easier to follow the puck, than more non-fans may start to watch. And they may become fans. So HD broadcasts will probably help increase viewership.

I predict that the team will have a couple of good games early in the season, but will struggle through much of the early part of the season. They will start to gel around the end of the 1st semester. They will play really well through the last half of the season. They should compete for one of the top 2 or 3 spots in the WCHA. And they will ride the late season success into the national tournament. You know, just another year.

I don't think so. According to this post from last night he will be going back to Juniors for 1 more year. My guess is that Forney will be coming back to UND. If he doesn't the coaches must have something else in mind or they wouldn't have recommended that Knight stay for another year.

AZ is right. It is all about money for ESPN. If they thought that they could make more money on hockey than they do on something else they would have bid on it. The other programming (that's what it is for TV, just programming not a sport) has appeal over a wider geographic area. There are probably markets like Minneapolis where they could do better with NHL. But overall, across the US, the NBA and NASCAR and poker all draw higher ratings and sell more advertising. That makes ESPN lots of money. I don't think that Bettman had a lot of choices after the strike. The NHL needed the strike to bring salary spending under control. They needed the salary cap structure. When it was done they had no appeal to a large network like ESPN. They would have had to give the games away, or maybe even paid to have ESPN broadcast them. It would have been a bad precedent to set. They decided to go with a small partner and build it back up. Now they have great competition and a better product to sell. When the contract is done with Vs they may be able to sell part or all of it to ESPN. The other thing they have to sell now is star power. They have Crosby and Malkin and Ovechkin and Toews and Parise and so many more young players. They didn't have that in the years after the Great One and Super Mario. They didn't have players to front the organization. Now they do. So now they have a chance to inch it back up the ladder towards the NBA and some of the other sports.

I think that everyone should be able to provide input into any new nickname. You never know where something good might come from. However the decisions should be made by actual stakeholders. My thought is to set up a process where the level of decision making input is done by group. Alumni should have the highest level, followed by students, faculty and staff and North Dakota taxpayers. Possibly give alumni 40% of the vote, students get 30%, faculty and staff 20% and the rest of the citizens 10% (actual numbers can be adjusted but I think they should be ranked in this order). I ranked them in order because alumni as a group have a longer history with the school than most others and are often most invested in the school. They also donate a lot of money to the athletic department. Students are what the school is all about and are very passionate now but may not have as much history to balance their decisions. Faculty and staff will have a wide range of experience and interest in the process. And taxpayers should have some input because they help pay for the University, but not all of them have the best interests of UND in mind. The actual importance of the groups should also be balanced by total numbers since the staff and faculty number will be the smallest followed by students, alumni and finally taxpayers. A lot of people will fit into more than 1 category, but their vote would only be part of the highest ranking group. So if a person lives in North Dakota, works for UND and graduated from UND their vote would be part of the alumni group.

In floor hockey I got more bruises from getting whacked in the shins with sticks than from the puck. Of course the guys I played with didn't know much about hockey, they just liked hitting people.

I dare you to try it on the ice without pads. It only hurts for a while, like until the bruise goes away.

Don't they have someone that makes those decisions? I think I would leave it to him and make him earn his money.

I think it's way too early for those rumors. They still have a coach that won 2 National Championships in the past decade. If Lucia decides to step down, has more health problems or they have a bad year and decide to replace him then I think Blais would be a leading contender. He did play for them back in his misspent youth. I think that the Gopher faithful would accept him back in spite of his years in Grand Forks.

I think that the league was part of the issue with one of the teams. I don't remember numbers for sure, but I don't think either team did well in attendance. For some reason I think that one of them averaged around 4-500 per game. I remember sitting in the stands on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and there was hardly anyone there. I would be surprised if they had more than 300 at that game.

That's true. But the minor league teams that were in Grand Forks couldn't get anyone to the ballpark all summer.

One difference between UND and NDSU regarding baseball is that Fargo seems to be more of a baseball town than Grand Forks. Grand Forks tried 2 different minor league baseball teams in recent memory and neither worked while the Red Hawks seem to be doing very well. So there is probably a bigger audience for college baseball. Of course the stadium helps. Newman is much nicer than Kraft Field.

Very interesting article. Baseball at UND has no chance to break even. There are years, like this year, that they are lucky to play any home games. The only way they could have their own facility is if a deep pocket showed up to pay for it. I am a big baseball fan, but I have said before that dropping the sport should be on the table. Especially if there is another option that might make sense.