tnt

Can you imagine the outrage if they lost that game when the results came back favorable to them. Gotta say, that losing 3 in a row this time of year when there are playoff possibilities would have been too much to handle. As it is, splitting with the 2 teams that aren't that special is not something you are looking at with playoffs in sight. Thank goodness for Lenny Nelson.

Never quite understood why when Ralph was initially willing to build a 15,000 seat arena with the extra material costs involved, why they didn't shift those savings to better parking. If they would have dug down a level around the whole arena, they could have had a second level right on site without losing the aesthetic appeal of the building. That certainly would have made it an even more World Class facility. I don't know how many times I found a parking spot, only to have it become off limits. I think the hassle with that, especially in the cold winter has made it more inviting for some people to just stay home, rather than having to get there an hour or so before the game lest you have to walk a country mile to find a parking spot. I know we are spoiled with parking being cheap, but I think you could make a lot more money by charging for a yearly spot right on site, rather than still having to walk a ways while paying what for Grand Forks is a bit for parking. I think the Ralph people need to look into a lot of reasons why attendance is not quite up to par, but parking is certainly one of them.

Yeah, we went the cheap route when we transferred to the new Ralph, picking one of four sections that didn't require a Fighting Sioux club membership. It frustrates me that a year after the transfer, everybody was required to be a FSC member. Thanks a lot, if we would have known that, we would have picked better seats to begin with, as we had a relatively early appointment to pick out seats at the new Ralph. Wish there were more opportunities to move now.

My guess would be no. You would have to be a superstar for UND to enter into a scenario like that.

Pinto signed his NLI, so should be here next year.

My point was that food and gas, two of the big expenditures for coming from out of town would essentially be the same whether you are going to a football game or a hockey game, and if you are eating out in town, is it a must to have concessions at the game as well. You have made it clear that it isn't an every week thing coming for football either, so point understood.

As I said, the majority of the seats that are empty are in those student sections. Also, I have friends that want to get season tickets but told they have to still pay the Champions Club membership just to be on a waiting list for season tickets.

You sure have a knack for being disingenuous when confronted. I get that there are reasons why people can't attend, but the fact that you talk about using cruise control as a contributing factor is just subterfuge. Last I heard hockey games and football games overlap. Everybody has the friend that says they can't afford this or can't afford that, yet when you are out buy the most expensive drink. It kind of reminds me of all the people that say the Ralph is too expensive, yet are complaining that they don't have access to $100 tickets to the Vegas game. There are ways around a lot of things, and the fact that not being able to afford a soda is a deal breaker for attending a sporting event, or that extra $1 for soda compared to the Alerus, says a lot. Like I said, people have different priorities and interests, and I have no problem with that, but the pendulum swings both ways.

For someone who talks about the "hockey only" crowd, you sure come up with a lot of lame reasons for not attending hockey. No big deal if that isn't your thing, but don't get up in arms at other people who have different interests as well.

You just beat me to it. Now I have heard everything!

Season tickets haven't gone up much over the years, and if you truly cared about going, I don't think concessions are a must. By the way, does gas cost the same for going to football games?

I believe they are on Thursday, but when you have a chance to sell them as season tickets and assure the seats will be paid for and used, why not go that direction. I don't know if they sell them for the same price as they do at the door, but perhaps they might want to lower those prices a bit, as they seem kind of high for last second people to change their mind on what they want to do on the weekend.

Not so sure that would be the case if Minnesota, Boston College, or other rivals were in the regional.

The place I see the most sparse at the hockey games is the student section. I would think the Ralph would be interested in selling some of those seats. By the way, I would pay more money to get seats in the lower bowl, as would others, so maybe take away a section from students in the lower bowl and give them more seats up top where the empty seats are, and sell them to those who are willing to be at another Champions Club level.

Yeah, quite the contrast from some of the negativism about him here when he initially committed.

Stratton has to sit out over a year, and I would guess Randklev and some of the others are contingent upon who they think is ready for the next level. Also, unless things have changed, which they very well may have, Pinto was not initially supposed to come in next year.

So then, if injuries at WR are the big problem, then why are they not using the healthier positions of running back and tight ends in the passing game more. Wouldn't that make sense?

If UND doesn't make it, you can buy mine.

Bubba will not be let go. I’m not certain there will even be an ultimatum forthcoming for a couple members of the staff.

But we did get Ethan Bowen, who had a hat trick today and has put up decent numbers as a 2002.

Probably because to that point they had a long run of not missing the tournament. Have a feeling a lot of people that took a hit on the Sioux Falls regional tickets are taking a wait and see attitude.

Looks like he committed to Penn State.

When I saw the poor clock management yesterday, following the debacle at Idaho, I was beside myself with frustration. How do you leave 18 seconds on the play clock while driving the ball instead of only a couple?

I do think the coaches need to be putting the full court press on guys like Marcus Kallionkieli, just like Hakstol did with Boeser. Of course, like I said, no guarantees they score even half as much as Boeser did his freshman year and beyond. Not saying they aren’t chasing the elusive impact freshman, because it seems like in the age of social media we know even less than we did when word of mouth would make the rounds of big time recruits we were after.

Hopefully someone will grow into that like Frattin did. It’s funny, because guys you think will come in and be goal scorers from the start, like Wahlstrom, doesn’t always work out that way. I think they have some guys coming in next year that could fit the bill, but you never know. Get a few of those guys going, and add some upperclass guys, hopefully a Kawaguchi or Adams to match the Caggiula and Frattin path, and we might be an offensive force again, provided we don’ t keep losing guys consistently.