watchmaker49

But did you graduate from UND?

I confused you with GeauxSioux.

When did you move back from Florida? I know you were born and raised there but just a couple of months ago you were still in Florida.

So it is safe then to assume you did not graduate from UND. So if the team wins then maybe people will go to games. People do love a winning team to cheer for. In the early 90's, at least until Dean came back, hockey attendence dropped off the map. We kept going to games anyhow. What I do find funny is that people who would tease us for still going to the games are now season ticket holders. What brought back the fans? A winning team brought back the crowds. It was not bells and illusions that drew the fans it was natural. Which has been my argument here all along.

How am I lost? All I have said it needs to take on a life of it's own on it's own. Ask yourself why did the attendence drop amongst the students over the last 5 years? By the way how many degrees do you have from UND? YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE UND FOOTBALL AND ATTEND THE GAMES IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! Give them a wagon to jump on and maybe they will or maybe they will not. That is their choice to make and not yours. By the way how much has the Gopher student attendence gone up since they moved back on campus?

? OK where have I said this once. I understand the need to have the siblings per NCAA requirements for the other sports. Fine so you are happy with the other sports doing good or bad. But do not put down others who could care less about those sports or sports period. By the way how many degrees to you have from UND?

You have not even lived in GF for how many years? You have attended how many games in the last 20 years? My thoughts have nothing to do with liking one sport or another. My entire argument revolves around the fact that a lot of people could care less about football. You can't make people buy into something that they do not care about no matter how many bells and whistles you attach to the product. I have never once put down any of the other sports and if I have show me where. The point of this thread was how to increase the fan base with the students is it not? All I said was that it has to evolve on its own through winning or what have you. What I have been seeing though from the alum and non-alums here is putting down the students for their apathy towards the football team. I am not being the negative one here. That would be you and yours that are being negative towards the students. I have been in Madison and Knoxville many times on game day and you can not create that atmosphere artificially. Give the students a winning team and they might decide to follow. Even then if they don't they don't. What is the problem then? It seems that a lot of other schools based on attendence numbers provided here don't care either.

Sorry I do not live in your Pollyanna world where everything is sunshine and buttercups, I am a realist. Hockey at UND is like football everywhere else. It grew to be what it is with it's atmosphere naturally. It was not gimmicks to try and sell something to someone who does not want to buy it. It is what it is so live with it and enjoy it yourself instead of worrying about how many students don't show up. They don't care. Why is that so hard to believe?

Then you are saying the smarter ones came to UND because they do not like football as much as hockey. ;)

Then you did not get there till between 4 and 4:30. Do you remember who started that? It was one gal and her friends. Hint she works at the UND bookstore and her nephew plays for Omaha.

Nor any other big school in the country. mg2009 you seem to get the picture that you can not create something that evolves, sorry Mr. Primus, on its own. Mr. Primus you can try all the little promotions that you can think of but it will not work. You can not make something that needs to have its own life.

Dave has enough business. He does not need one.

Why not the Antique after the game?

Everybody seems to be talking about how to create an atmosphere for these games to attract people especially students. You can not create an atmosphere just because you want to. The football atmosphere at other schools has evolved on its own over a long time. It is not like Wisconsin, Ohio St., et al just one day decided hey we want a real party atmosphere on game day. It evolved on its own. UND is not and never will be one of these schools no matter how hard some people want it to be. An illusion of togetherness has been created along with an extreme social atmosphere. From the attendence numbers that have been cited here tells me that only the large schools have such a social/togetherness atmosphere. Maybe simply the whole thing is nobody really cares what happens below the bowl series level. How many fans from UND in the Phoenix were at the bars last Saturday to watch an excellent game between UND and UM? 1! I was the only one and the rest were from Montana. Real nice people by the way and I had a nice time hanging out with them. They told me if you go to Duke's in Scottsdale for the game you need to be there at opening to get a table. That means that more Montana football fans show up for games than UND hockey fans do in the Valley. I find it hard to believe that there would be that many more of them in the valley than us.

That sadly has never existed in GF. The only time would be for a Bison game and then not all that much. One thing you are overlooking here, I am sure you get it, is GF and UND are hockey people and BB and FB coming in a distant second and third. The other schools that have a great football atmosphere only tend to pay attention to that sport. Somewhat hard to get excited over something one could care less about.

Do you mean the quality of the team or the quality of the atmosphere surrounding the game? I think you mean the later which is an excellent point. As a student I would not think it would be much fun to sit inside of a building with no atmosphere watching AAA football. The campus and town's atmoshpere on gameday in Madison and at the U of TN in Knoxville is exciting where as gameday in GF is blah who cares.

Maybe they just do not like to watch football? How many students really are at hockey games vs the student population?

Why? You can drive it faster and cheaper and haul your booty home easier by car.

Thanks for the great link.

I have a book called "North Dakota Every Town on the Map and More" by Vernell and Louise Johnson. It has the stories behind the towns names and a little history on each one.

I'll echo echo the comments above.

Here we just thought it was the tv at the bar we were at.

The day the story broke they must have been high fiving each other and breaking out the Aste Spumanti.

More like it is going to be a major topic for Al and Freinds as they try and wrest control of higher education from the SBHE. This is the best ammo they have had up to date. Bresciani can not be too smart for missing the big picture here.

I don't know if any of you remember or ever even heard about the cartoon the ed page of the St. Paul Pioneer press ran 14 years ago. It was during the height of the Clem Haskin cheating scandal where people were writing papers and such for the basketball team. The cartoon depicted a couple of old white guys in the stands watching a bunch of young black men playing basketball. The caption was "Of course, we don't let them learn to read or write." They caught hell for this because people did not get it at first. They thought it was depicting the players in a bad light when in fact it was a blast at the white fans. The white fans using the young black men to play basketball for them for their bragging rghts and enjoyment and not caring if they ever learned anything. At the time only 1 in 4 players graduated and it has not gotten any better really. How close is this to the same way the Bison fans look at their players? How many would give these kids a job since they can not even handle $9 an hour job right? How many would welcome them into their homes to take out their daughters? Dang this is as long as a 82Siouxguy post. Probably not as well written as he would have though.