82SiouxGuy

The alcohol issue was just for TCF Bank Stadium, and was because the stadium was built on campus at the U of M. It has nothing to do with the X. Alcohol has always been available at the X, unless the renter doesn't want alcohol sold.

As CMSioux said, this is a personnel issue. That involves a lot of legal privacy issues. There is probably not much more that can be said. The simple truth is that it is never wise to publicly insult your employer. Using the words "choke job" could be considered an insult. Not a good choice of words. One of the hazards of live broadcasts.

Your buddy is the one that said it. And your pals on Bville repeat it all of the time. Football is much more important at NDSU than all of the other sports put together.

= #buttfootball Nothing else really matters at NDSU besides football.

Jason Aldean was Number 9 on the Billboard Top 40 Money Maker list for 2012. It looks like a lot of people are willing to pay money to go see him. http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/touring/1098519/taylor-swift-leads-billboards-2012-top-40-money-makers-see-the?page=0%2C3

The kid is a Penn State student and interned last summer. Not Harvard, but not Bill's School of Law either.

Story from the Grand Forks Herald, http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/256538/. Not much new information. Soderstrom allowed his intern to make the case. They tried to stress the 1969 ceremony and even tried to sell the court that it constituted a contract because UND created a bunch of Native American programs. No decision has been announced.

I'm pretty sure that the men still have a good chance to finish in the top half this season with a .500 record or better in conference play in spite of a lot of injuries.

Isn't a large part of college athletics supposed to be about providing opportunities for students? How does that work when you cut sports? Maybe all athletic departments should cut all sports except the 1 or 2 that they are best at. Is that what you're advocating? NDSU could just keep football, that's the only sport that means anything in Fargo anyway. Right, Dan? Then you wouldn't even need the remodeled BSA. More money you could spend on the football program.

My guess is that Midco would be allowed to do that. It might get questionable if Midco was able to sell to a bunch of other regional providers all over the country. But I doubt that it would be a problem if they sold to a limited number of providers (although I don't see that happening anyway).

It is very doubtful that Midco would allow FSN to broadcast UND games. That would defeat the purpose of trying to sell the Midco Sports Channel to other cable companies. Midco wants to use UND sports to help them increase the area where the sports channel is available. They aren't broadcasting UND sports just so fans can see them. Midco is a competitor of FSN. That would be like CBS allowing NBC to broadcast part of March Madness, it isn't going to happen.

Midco has to have access to the parts of the contract that would affect how they do business. They have to know what their limitations are, and what their potential is. Otherwise they could go out and sign contracts with other companies, like DirecTV, and then find out that something in that contract conflicts with the CBS Sports contract with the NCHC. So Midco understands who they can contract with, and for what services. But Midco probably doesn't have access to the financial portions of the contract.

ESPN started with similar content. So did Fox Sports North. Midco is going to build their network on college sports in the region, and appeal to fans of those schools around the country. UND was their choice for the lead, they are going to build on that. You have to start somewhere.

Midco has a copy of the contract. They need to have that copy so that they don't overstep the restrictions within that contract. They know what their limitations are and what they aren't. As a matter of fact, they understand the contract much better than most of us could even if we read it.

The difference between the UND-NCHC example versus the Timberwolves-NBA example is the fact that there are contracts with the NBA for ALL national broadcasts. It has been reported that the CBS Sports-NCHC contract gives CBS rights to a specific number of games and gives regional networks the rights to the other games. The fact that Midco is actively working to get their channel on DirecTV and Dish on a national basis is proof to me that they believe they will not be restricted. My guess is that the NCHC does not have to reveal the specifics of the contract because not all members are public schools. Colorado College is a private school. They are a party to the contract with CBS Sports. Their privacy rights are probably protected. That has been the case with other conferences. If all of the schools are public there is a better chance of the conference opening their books. Conferences with private school members usually don't have to reveal as much.

The idea could work. You would have to research the trademark issues, which ones that UND still controls and what they don't.

Would you? Hard to know. Probably depends on the number distributed and the publicity you get. Could you? Probably yes if that is part of the reason that you make money. If the logo was only seen in one or 2 pictures they may not care. If they are a significant part of every picture it would increase the odds that UND would be interested. They more than likely still have trademark rights on most of the old logos. It could depend on which one or ones that you use. The name alone would be enough to cause an issue. UND probably wouldn't want to license something like this, but you would have to ask to know for sure. The sexist part might be a partial reason. A bigger reason might be because UND is phasing out the name and logo, so they may not be signing any more licensing agreements for them.

The trivia games may or may not be working on the same computer, and may or may not be working on the same internet service. Either or both could affect the service. Or as you mentioned above, the computer may have too much other junk on it. Or their internet service could be slow. But those would be good places to start looking.

People, you are all making this more complex than it really is. There are 2 kinds of sports networks in play, national and regional. National networks are channels like ESPN, Fox, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, etc. Their focus is on national sports or events. They broadcast events from all over the country. They are carried on cable systems all over the country along with DirecTV and Dish. They do not focus on any geographic region. They normally sign deals with conferences and professional sports leagues, not individual teams and schools. Regional networks focus mainly on teams (schools, etc.) within their normal viewing region. They are mainly carried on cable systems within that region where those teams are popular. They can sometimes be available on special tiers on other cable systems along with DirecTV and Dish. They normally sign deals with individual teams and schools. Most rights contracts have regional rights and national rights. For the NCHC, CBS Sports has purchased the national rights. On the nights that they are going to broadcast NCHC teams, none of the NCHC teams can allow their regional sports networks to broadcast games. On all other nights, the regional networks can broadcast. And they can broadcast wherever those regional networks are available. That includes DirecTV, Dish and any cable systems where those regional networks are carried. Their viewership areas are not impacted by the national contract. The regional contracts do not have specific geographic limits. Midco is working to expand the number of cable systems that purchase the sports network. I know that they have been talking with cable systems in the Twin Cities (so people in the Twin Cities may want to contact their cable systems and encourage them to purchase the Midco Sports Network). They are working with systems throughout both Dakotas, Minnesota, Western Wisconsin and probably in some other fringe areas. Midco could contract with a Canadian company to broadcast games if they found a willing partner. Midco could sell the network to cable systems in LA, or Miami or Boston if anyone wanted to buy it. That is why Jayson and others keep saying to be patient because the landscape will change before the first game next season, and may change more after that. Just because Midco is showing their sports channel in specific markets right now doesn't mean that they won't be showing in other markets next year. The FCS deal ending may convince some cable systems to add Midco if those cable systems think they can increase viewership. CBS Sports is also hoping that the contract with the NCHC helps expand their viewership. They hope that this content will help them expand the number of cable systems that will carry the network, and hope that the cable systems will either move them to a better tier or in some way help them increase the number of homes that get the network. So again, the places where the CBS Sports network is available right now may not be the same as the where the network will be available next fall. As far as the FCS deal goes, that deal was reported to be only through this season. There was nothing in writing for the future. Fox decided that they didn't want most of the other UND sports this year, so there is no guarantee that they would even want to broadcast the games in future years. And as far as we know, UND did not get paid for that deal. UND also made little or nothing on the WDAZ deal. The intention was to increase exposure because no one was willing to pay for the rights at that time. This has changed. CBS Sports is paying something for the NCHC rights (I haven't heard any numbers) and Midco is paying $200,000 per year for 5 years for the regional rights. In the upcoming years both UND and the NCHC will profit from the television rights whereas in past years neither UND nor the WCHA made any kind of significant money from the rights. I am sure that these dollars are an important part of why the NCHC signed with CBS Sports and I know that Midco offered more than WDAZ.

The same thing can be said about many stories and many issues. It is rare that any news outlet explains all of the details and history for a story, or takes the time to give the store context. They give the facts, or the facts as they know them. It would take too much time or space, and most viewers or readers don't want to take the time. Or they don't care.

Ticketmaster staff are not normally working at a ticket booth anywhere. They do have a call center (or maybe more than 1). They also run the computer network that coordinates all of the ticket purchasing for their customer venues. That computer system and its back up systems are expensive and a big part of what Ticketmaster provides to its customers. That computer system is part of what you're paying for any time you go through them. The people working in ticket booths at the venues work for the venue. But I believe that part of those ticket fees go back to the selling venues (if it isn't the host venue). For instance, if you go to the Chester Fritz Auditorium to buy a ticket for an event at the Alerus Center I believe that a piece of the Ticketmaster fee goes back to the Chester Fritz. As jodcon stated, there are different ways that ticket brokers get their hands on multiple tickets. In years past ticket brokers would hire people to buy as many tickets as they could. They might have 10 people each buy 50 tickets. And they made sure that those people were in line at the very beginning. That is part of the reason that so many events now limit the number of tickets that 1 person can purchase. That is also part of the reason that they now release blocks of seats later, after the initial sale. It helps the normal ticket buyer get a chance at good seats. There may be deals made with ticket brokers at times. But normally, they just know the system better than the average ticket buyer so they know how to work every angle. It's still a free market system. And we're happy for you, for not having to pay for tickets.

Definition of a free market: A monopoly is different. And although Ticketmaster is monopolistic, which is why I used the quotation marks around Free Market, it isn't a real monopoly. There are quite a few companies out there in the same business. There are even a couple that are preparing to take a run at them. Redbox is testing a rival ticket service in Philadelphia. Major League Baseball supposedly owns Tickets.com and plans to have baseball teams switch to use it rather than Ticketmaster as the contracts end. Ticketmaster doesn't control all venues and isn't the only way to buy tickets, so it isn't a real monopoly. You don't have to like how Ticketmaster does business, and most people don't, but it doesn't mean that they are doing anything illegal.

They provide a service. They allow you to purchase by telephone or by computer. They allow you to sit by your pool in Arizona and purchase a ticket for an event in Grand Forks. They have staff to pay for, computers to pay for, advertising, etc. They have a lot more costs than a postage stamp. And people are willing to spend good money to gain convenience. There is no price control for this type service, just like there aren't price controls for most goods or services. It's called "Free Market". They charge as much as they do because they don't have major competition. And they help their venues make good money on the ticket sales, which is why the venues sign contracts with them. If you don't like their fees you have 2 choices. Buy direct and avoid the charges. Or create a competitor that will take away a bunch of their business.

I don't think that missionary years or military service count as part of the 4 years of eligibility over 5 years rule. I've read that before but don't have time to find it in the regulations right now.

For people in Grand Forks, or who do business in Grand Forks on a regular basis, it might be a mile or 2 out of their way when they go shopping or to the doctor. The majority of the people that are going to the concert will have been within a mile of the Alerus Center at some time while the tickets have been on sale. But most people don't realize that they can avoid those fees by purchasing at the box office of the presenting organization.