jdub27

Given how many Grand Forks kids have been on UND's basketball team in the couple decades, scholarship or not, it seems like the offer is pretty far from a token gesture. Nothing was stopping him from taking a scholarship or PWO elsewhere either. Plenty of reasons to take the PWO, including betting on yourself to earn a scholarship. Seems like you're insulting a whole bunch of different people with this take though.

I agree with you in wishing the game could be played mid-afternoon. I also understand that logistically, it cannot be. And it has nothing to do with anyone living in Las Vegas. Or maybe the football staff actually prefers the early kickoff and our opinions don't matter? Maybe they will find a way to push the kickoff to 1 or 1:30 and move the hockey game back to 7pm given the magnitude of games that weekend. Officially I believe it was to make it a bit more family friendly as games were getting over fairly late. Unofficial side benefit, probably boosts concession sales a fair amount

Answers to for what in particular? There's a limited amount of staff for the venues, the athletic department and the TV partner. Seems like the TV partner (along with any conference input) is likely going to get the final say. They are the ones writing the big checks.

UND and Midco don't have the staff to do the games that close together (possibly some overlap with temporary/part-time gameday staff for the Alerus Center/REA as well). They need time to finish up all their post-game things at the Alerus Center and then get over to the REA for their pre-game duties over there. And probably grab a bite to eat and have a few minutes of downtime. I specifically asked about this last year when there were some noon football games. My push was to move those Saturday hockey games back an hour to 7pm and start the football game at 1pm as a sort of compromise. For a variety of reasons, some I agree with and some I don't, I would expect them to stay at 12pm for football and 6:07pm for hockey on doubleheader weekends. Crazy what you can find out if you just ask a question.

Given the amount of kids activities that take place in the morning during the fall, there's a lot of people who would disagree with that sentiment. Especially if they want to tailgate for even a little bit before the game, let alone make it on time.

Not worth blowing up this thread even further since it has been beaten to death, but for starters, pretty serious accusations you're leveling regarding the NODAK trademark. According to your version, BB must have some crazy pull in the North Dakota Attorney General's office to get away with what you're accusing him of. Don't you have some made-up things to rant about? Or are you still working on the arguments no one is making?

Quite the mix of assumptions, opinions and even what appears to be a false accusations or two mixed in with the commentary there. Congrats on having opinions though! Typing alot or often doesn't make them more valid or accurate though. Nor does trying to rain what others see as positive developments after what were disappointing results this year.

Hopefully one or two more pieces of good news coming soon...

So your preference is UND should have a few guys being strung along each season, not knowing the plan on when they may or may not be coming in? Because the three options with this particular situation are 1)Bring in a portal guy (or an older kid who somehow hasn't signed with anyone) 2)Bring in someone who isn't ready 3)Happen to have a guy who's actually ready but unknown if he was going to have a spot. And hope he's willing to play another year of juniors if you don't have that spot. Not at all saying you don't need to have a pipeline, but you can only string so many guys along. And before someone goes off on a tangent, I'm specifically talking about someone replacing Caulfield. Yes UND should have a strong pipeline. Yes, they might have to bring some guys in early or delay others, but those situations can work out poorly because they really aren't ready or aren't willing to wait. I think we've seen both happen within the last year or two.

This made me chuckle a little bit. Won't argue that a passionate fan base is (mostly) a positive for a program but if you think that that program will go stale if people don't complain on a message board and social media, well, I just disagree. I can assure you the people in, behind and running the program live and die more with the wins and losses than pretty much everyone else.

I was wondering how you'd take that loss..... .....and boy you're going to have a long off-season.

Here's a general alternative to your (incorrect) assumption: Some people actually take the time to have conversations with the people who are making decisions, try to understand what is going on and figure out what they can do to make a difference. They also use that time to give input to give them additional information to consider while they are making their decisions. They don't have issues disagreeing with decisions made and directly voice that to those people when they feel necessary. They also take the time to understand why they made the decision they did, which is a lot more productive than blindly disagreeing and complaining about it. To me, that seems lot more effective than making assumptions and taking random internet commentary as truths.

Did you read the second line of my comment? I literally said that there is more money out there. Holy overreaction. An overall disaster? Wow..... My point was that a lot of what people are asking, for local business to just "give more", is just going to end up redirecting existing dollars. Not a single person has said "we can't do anything about it" and then just given up. (Again you, arguing against points no one is making). Others pointing out the reality is much more than wave a magic wand and tell businesses to just give more isn't a defeatist attitude. It's trying to help people realize its going to be a team effort and probably require some grassroots support.

Local businesses also only have a finite amount of money within their budget for "advertising". Not saying there isn't more money out there, because there is, but I'm also saying what you're suggesting will come at the expense of funds that are already directed towards Champions Club/REA/Alerus Center that support the program in different ways.

Another argument no one is making?

I assume because you need to build out the infrastructure into those towns as well and you run into the economy of scales issue the as well. The is a lot of oversight and overhead that go into a full scale operation. And the competion there is no different anywhere else in the state. Now, if they can pick up some e-tab spots in various spots to get things rolling, that's a no-brainer to get things at least started. I get where you're coming because I've questioned it a fair amount and again, directly asked the question. I've also worked with some of the nonprofits that do it and there's a big chunk of overhead that comes with it and the competition is absolutely cutthroat, most of which comes from how the state regulates it.

Interesting list of schools. At least we made the list where we reached out to him though. Best of luck to him, hope he succeeds and has a fun fifth year.

The charitable gaming thing is something I've asked directly about as it relates UND Athletics. The comments that it is locked down around down is pretty spot on. To get a "new" spot, you basically have to take it from someone else. As the State sets the gaming rules, you can't offer anything different than what anyone else can. It is basically at the whim of the owner of the establishment (which is why there was an article about non-profits buying bars a few months ago). The "optics" of taking an existing spot from a charity aren't real great. So the other option is to basically hope that you can get into a new spot that didn't previously have gaming (recent examples: Hugo's downtown, BWW's, Rhombus). They all went with just e-tabs, so the overhead of running them is actually pretty low. The other issues is that if you are looking at doing full gaming, with blackjack, pigwheel, pulltabs plus the e-tabs, the overhead starts to add up a lot quicker. You basically need a couple different sights to make it worthwhile (for example Team Makers has something like 6-8 different sights). You can't really dip your toes into the water with one or two unless they are big spots. That's likely why UND never had Playmakers (plus the place is hardly open anyway). That being said, if there was a chance to add a spot at Memorial Village and Ray Richards (assuming both have some sort of option to do so) and you could add Playmakers to the mix, I think its a no-brainer to explore it. Also gives you the ability to be in the mix for any new spots that might open up.

You must be a blast at parties.

You must be one of those too many people!!!!!! That don't actually exist, but it is an easy strawman argument to make.....

I'm sure that's an option but guessing he'll see what other offers come his way before making a decision.

The amount of complaining I've heard about coaches not being specific enough the last 12 months or so might have just pushed my button enough that's what stood out. People don't seem like they would be happy unless players are getting publicly lashed. We won't completely agree on the AD thing, and that's fine. I do think some of those items could easily be improved on. That being said, there is a lot more info out there available for consumption if people bothered. I know you have listened to his podcast, where he puts quite a bit of stuff out there. Moreso than what I would see from any of our regional peer schools. And at least he takes the time to announce our coaches extensions (to the chagrin of some). I know that you probably have some pretty good examples but I would truly be curious what other schools are doing different from the AD department and communication to fans that could be emulated. Because I think the AD would legitimately try to do some of that if it was truly worthwhile.

I've heard plenty of very direct and pointed commentary from Bubba, Berry, Sather and Bernhard on areas that need improvement and what they need to do to get there at various times. But they aren't going to constantly criticize their players in public if that's what you're looking for. That would be terrible coaching. But to your general comment, that's literally a complaint that could be put on almost every coach, everywhere at every level.

Season tickets aren't sold out anymore nor is there a waiting list, so probably safe to say they found the top. Bigger question would be what happens if/when the team performance slips. I think a bigger issue, that maybe they can resolve with demand down a little, is getting the younger crowd back. They priced them out for a while as they had plenty of people willing to pay higher prices, but likely have a chance to bring some back with where things have been the last couple years.

I think you're underestimating the amount bandwagon fans that wanted to part of the "it" thing and were willing to shell out money to do so. Even if it was on the secondary market. Know more than a few people who made some good change during peak ticket demand. Would be interesting to see how much required donations for the Fargodome have changed over the last 15 years. Guessing that's going to be a real big part of your difference. Edit: Team Makers raised $1.75 million in 2007/08 and $2.1 million in 2008/09. That number was $6 million in 2021/22. When you have a winning product, you can keep raising the price. Until you can't anymore. Ties out to DB comments about the market being pretty closed to being tapped out.