spearman

Yes it will. When I asked Tonder how it would be paid for he said something like "30 yr. bonds".

I not sure your 30-50 yr. time frames are accurate. Rick Tonder sp? at UND Facilities is talking much shorter times if I hear him correctly. If the city would agree to build a practice facility at the Alerus and add seats UND would stay at the Al. If not wittin 5 yrs. Ralph #1 would be the site of a new practice facilityand within 10 yrs. the stadium addition would create a stadium with 20,000-25,000 seats. His attitude is that if you only fill it once a year for NDSU it works.

Is FLAGSHIP univ. an official term? Are Mn., Wisc., Neb. one flagship univ. states? Would Mn. allow St. Cloud and Mankato to go D-1 FBS? There are no other FBS schools in Wisc. besides Madison , that's why I ask if that makes Wisc. a one flagship univ. state?

Glad to see this discussion happening at UND. If Wyoming can do D-1A FB as isolated as it is in Laramie with only 40,000 Pop. why can't UND with a metro of 100,000. A new stadium that looks like the Ivy League with a retractable roof would be a great recruiting tool. The Bison are locked into a 19,000 seat stadium so UND is in a better position to move sooner to D-1A with the ability to leave the Alerus. In order for UND to become a national univ. and recruit students nationally D-1A FB is necessary. There is no choice if we are serious about dealing with the declining # of home grown HS grads. 25-30,000 seats would be necessary I believe to qualify for 1-A. With 70 Twin City H.S. producing players there are enough to go around. The S.Dak. schools can't jump to 1A as they are in very small towns. If UND can get the jump on NDSU it may relegate the Bison to 1AA status for a long time. There should only be one 1-A fb school in N.D. just like in Neb., Wyo., Mn. & Wisc.

If the city won't add a practice facility at the Alerus and also add seats to the dome, like 10,000 then UND will go back on campus and add an east stadium and close the south to make a 25,000 seat horseshoe. Old REA would go down and become indoor practice facility. The east end of the surface lot would become soccer and another ramp is slated for the west end of the surface lot connecting via the new skyway to the new Swanson ramp. Actually I think that Canad Inns will end up buying the Alerus dome/ConCen. for $80 mill and build the practice facility and add the necessary seats for football. Their attempt at building a new Bluebomber stadium fell through so they are in the market for a domed facility to increase their revenues in GF.

How about some variations of pro teams like Greenwings, Greenlegs, Greensox, Greenleafs etc. Another idea!! The Sault St. Marie tribe in the UP of Mich. is Chippawa. SAULT is pronounced SIOUX. The Chippawa occupy N.Dak. so they are related. I ran this by the head of gaming for the SAULT St. Maries and he said "no problem , go for it". "North Dakota Sault" has a nice ring. It covers 2 dominant tribes in our region and forces them to think about burying the old hatchet and get along. It's also a good spelling bee word to put us on the map.