Torpedo

Pretty awesome that Lutheran Church service is on instead of Belgium v. Russia right now. Man I hate local programming b.s.

In Watertown here. About to form a beer search party.

5 improvement areas to increase student interest: 1. Winning. This is stating the obvious and I believe we are close to being a contender. 2. Elevating the status of the program. I believe the easiest step to doing this is putting names on the backs of the uniforms. Students here love there local heroes and celebrities, like the hockey players, but the average student usually has no clue who is on the football team outside of the few biggest stars. The program seems to be marketed more towards the community at large than the students. Now I understand that they don't make admission off students, but at the same time, its part of the 4reason they don't come. 3. Advertising. Like I just said the marketing of this team is that of an established program that's selling out every home game. The push isn't there to fill the seats like it needs to be. This is more of an overall attendance issue than just students, but it is still part of the overarching topic. 4. The "gameday experience"on just simply isn't there for students like it needs to be for football. An all day schedule of activities, either organized or unofficial, lends itself to students getting involved and engaged. This gets students there and keeps them from leaving early. 5. In-game production. Football games can be, for lack of a better term, boring. It is lots of excitement followed by lots of standing around repeatedly. The band helps, and I love the band, but over the years they have become utterly predictable and sort of stale. And I mean that apart from the traditional practices, fight songs, etc. Also the crowd involvement and student section culture is almost non-existent. Whereas the hockey student section has a plethora of traditional cheers, chants, taunts, etc. the football crowd is lacking. The feeling of involvement isn't there, and for students with a very limited attention span, this is important.

I completely agree with the concept of an outlet mall succeeding in GF. The market is definitely there to support it. However, has anyone given any thought as to who is going to work there? I don't know if anyone has noticed, but pretty much every retail store in town is always hiring right now because there simply are not enough part-time workers to support all of the new businesses opening. Wages in GF simply are not high enough encourage most of the college students to get a part-time job, or to stay in town during the summer instead of going home. There is a real serious shortage in workers for these jobs and unless the pay increases, there will never be enough staffing for all these new businesses.

Personally I think the best master plan for a new basketball court would be at the Hyslop. I know it would be a difficult construction project, but if the multi-purpose gym was combined with the main court area that could make plenty of room for a 10K plus seating basketball court. Again I don't know if the logistics of reconstructing the interior of Hyslop is even possible, but it would be absolutely the best option. Another thing with the potential of a new football stadium on the Memorial site is that I don't see any problem at all with tailgating, even if there is a second parking ramp addition. There is a lot of parking lot space directly to the west of memorial and it extends beneath the overpass onto the other side. If the pool is removed from the Hyslop complex, and a new pool built near the Wellness center, that makes even more room for tailgating to the west of the stadium. I think everyone is overestimating the amount of space needed for tailgating. Only a small fraction of the Alerus parking lot is used for tailgating, correct? I would contend that the amount of flat lot parking at the Memorial site would equal or be greater than what is currently utilized at the Alerus Center.

Hi, Devil's Advocate here.... Something to consider... UND has the premier energy and environmental research facility in the world. This research facility brings in contracts from everywhere, and makes a lot of money for the university. This facility would like to expand to the currently unoccupied area of campus adjacent to the facility. Expansion has been limited and held up over debate on who is going to get control of the area currently inhabited by the old Ralph. Something in the future here is not going to make sense...people want the practice facility and a new football stadium on that location, and that's understandable. It would be a great location for a new stadium/indoor facility. If that happens, where is the EERC going to expand to? A satellite facility in another location? Not an great option...The EERC could be completely relocated, in theory, to another location, but that's not going to happen. Especially not with the new carbon research facility just having been completed. While I agree that Gerry and the EERC should not have 'veto power' over what happens on that land, they should have some serious input. The impact of the EERC cannot be understated here, and any personal feelings or judgements toward Gerry should not have any bearing on the matter either. Personally I would be in favor of giving the land to the EERC, but I see a very sticky situation that is going to require some serious logistical maneuvering by President Kelly to keep everyone happy.

I think later starts are far worse for the economic considerations of Grand Forks... With the 4:00 starts, out of town fans don't usually come to GF until around game time and after the game they will maybe have dinner and by that time it's after 8 and there's no time for anything else. With the afternoon games people will come to town for the game, then when the game is over at 4ish, there is opportunity to do other things in town: shop, eat, etc. Retail stores in town are noticeably busier with Sioux fans after the afternoon games than the evening games. I have to add that I am also very disappointed by this home schedule...this will likely be my 4th year in a row not going to any games, which includes a couple years as a student...

Just assuming you meant to put NAU instead of SUU twice... I think that would work well, but I would be more in favor of a direct East/West divisional split. This would be mostly the same with EWU and Weber St. switched... Looking at the geographical layout, a true East/West split would put Montana in the West with the 3 Cali schools, Portland, EWU, and probably SUU and NAU. This probably wouldn't work since then the strongest (Mont., Davis, Poly...just an opinoin) football schools would all be in the same division...so Montana would have to be in the East. Now obviously something resembling an East/West split is likely what will happen, but I would expect the BigSky brass to do some shuffling to preserve rivalries and history that we, being new to the BigSky, are not too familiar with at this point...Still, this is all very exciting!

If/when this facility is built it will be a huge draw for the UND track & field teams. 300 meter tracks are very rare in the country...as in, there is only one other one at Iowa State. Big time programs from across the country will be coming to meets at UND nearly every weekend for the indoor track season. I hope this gets built and is done well!!!

I graduated from UND this past December and am a proud Fighting Sioux alum. While I plan to remain a fan of UND athletics, I am heartbroken to see my school's leadership so excited to be retiring the nickname. I do not plan on donating to the University for the foreseeable future, and I will refuse to purchase any merchandise with a new nickname and logo. I love the Fighting Sioux nickname and I also am a huge fan of the inter-locking ND logo and will likely have merchandise that sports those two logos. I can't speak for any other alumni, but I am not as upset at the loss of the nickname as I am at our leaders and how they dismissed the nickname so eagerly...and all for a conference that we don't really want to be in anyways!!! The Summit is a crap conference and the AD considers it a backup plan for the real goal of getting straight into the Missouri Valley Conference. All things considered, this is just proof that democracy does not work, the loudest contingencies are the ones who get their way, no matter how small they are....

Yet another Corban Knight article in anticipation of tomorrow's draft... This one provides a little more insight on what he need to work on before he gets here in '10...

Found this floating around on NHL.com and didn't see it anywhere else here...if it is somewhere, I couldn't find it. A nice article on Knight's rise in the rankings here...

Question: What do you think is the bigger number...the Dollar amount from a Minnesota/other DI team in 2012, or the lost merchandise sales and royalties after the nickname is retired?

Chorney gets called up! Hope he makes his debut right away! Also saw that Bochenski got recalled as well yesterday...

I too would say that i am excited for next years team, but with some reservations as well...In my opinion next season is the start of a new era of sioux hockey, with all the seniors we had this year, the past 6 or 7 years will stand linked together by the stars from parise to the DOT line...Next year the team needs to establish an identity as quickly as possible. I am concerned with the defense mostly, but optimistic. I think Blood is going to develop quickly into a steady shutdown guy, and I see him playing babysitter to Genoway next year. Marto will be better again next year, and will likely play with LaPoint if he is healthy, otherwise probably one of the freshies....likely MacWilliam, that would leave Gleason and Fienaghe. LaPoint is going to be a big factor in the defensive stability depending on if he can play next year or not...might need to bring in a walk-on defenseman for depth. The scoring is going to be there, I don't see that being a problem with guys like Gregoire, Hextall, Malone, Frattin, Trupp, and Toews leading the offense with help from the freshman firepower (that's assuming Vandy is gone). The goaltending should only get better with Dell coming in and hopefully picking up the slack from any slump Eidsness suffers.... Should be a good team next year, could contend for another league title if the defense matures quickly and leaders and a team identity can be established early on.