Most Popular Sports Team in US

[JohnboyND7]

Spin away but SU Football will never be as big of a fan following as UND Hockey. Are you saying that that Sports Illustrated article was not published? You conveniently forgot to mention that in your spin.

A good example is when people here ask me where I am from and I say North Dakota, almost all of them mention "Oh yeah don't you guys have a good hockey program up there" or something along those lines. I have yet to hear anybody mention something about SU Football. I only tell them UND when they ask where I went to school so don't even try that argument. Once again spin away buddy.

Funny, when people ask me where I am from and I say North Dakota they don't ask about NDSU or UND. Neither of them are relevant outside of the area except in their opponents fanbases. Might be hard for you to face the music but up here on the prairie we are irrelevant.

[Blackheart]

Blog views are not accurate way to measure Bison popularity...I mean, how many of their fans have a pc, much less access to the Internet?

[JohnboyND7]

Blog views are not accurate way to measure Bison popularity...I mean, how many of their fans have a pc, much less access to the Internet?

My dad is a season ticket holder, so are several of his friends. For him the internet is e-mail, work-related stuff, and banking. I doubt he knows what a blog is.

[VMeister]

OK, once again, using Blog views is a ridiculous way of determining 'fandom.

I would imagine most people went to Brad's blog when they meant to go to Kolpack's. These things happen.

[jdub27]

OK, once again, using Blog views is a ridiculous way of determining 'fandom.' If NDSU was in the B1G, which will never happen, they'd be so much more popular than UND it would be beyond ridiculous. North Dakota is a football/basketball state. Don't try saying it is a hockey state because beyond Grafton and Hazen-Beulah, no class B schools, and some class A schools don't play it. If there was a B1G option in the state, the other school would not matter to anyone.

The how in the world does a USHL junior hockey team outdraw a supposed mid-major D1 program?

[GFG]

Better than that 30% empty Mariucci Arena year in and year out where there is not even a market for Gopher hockey tickets. Don't even try and say it sells out when you can see plainly on TV all the empty seats. They should count the gate and not tickets sold and at best there are between 6-7K there only.

The big problem at Mariucci, from what I've heard, is that there's tons of seats reserved every game for sponsors and stuff that never actually use the tickets. All arenas count attendance now on tickets sold, not actual attendance. Yes this does include UND, although UND has a VERY high ticket use rate. IIRC it's somewhere around 96%, but that's what happens when there's nothing else to compete for ticket sales in the city. Minnesota has to compete with the Gophers football team for almost 2 months, the Gophers basketball team (Higher attendance than UND hockey, over 13,000 a game: http://www.mndaily.com/2011/11/08/minnesota-men%E2%80%99s-basketball-ranks-16th-revenue), the Wild, the T-Wolves and the Vikings for the first couple months of the season. Every one of those teams is more "popular" and a bigger ticket in the Twin Cities than Gopher hockey is.

[GeauxSioux]

And the population bases are nearly identical. I see your point.

Wait, no, there is something wrong with that.

MSP... 3.3 million

GFK .... 100k

Never mind.

[GFG]

From what I have read, they've sold out their games for many years but the corporate seats are not being used. Sort of like the Olympics has been this year in London. These corporations buy up some of the best seats and then don't always have people using them.

Beat me to it, oh well haha

[IrishSiouxFan]

And the population bases are nearly identical. I see your point.

Wait, no, there is something wrong with that.

MSP... 3.3 million

GFK .... 100k

Never mind.

I believe the county of Grand Forks is estimated at a little over 65,500.

[82SiouxGuy]

I believe the county of Grand Forks is estimated at a little over 65,500.

The Grand Forks metro area (MSA) includes Grand Forks and Polk counties, and comes in a little under 100,000 people.

[GeauxSioux]

Grand Forks MSA... 98,054

Greater Grand Forks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[IrishSiouxFan]

Grand Forks MSA... 98,054

Greater Grand Forks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I stand corrected.

[JohnboyND7]

The how in the world does a USHL junior hockey team outdraw a supposed mid-major D1 program?

Beer. Nice facility.

[SiouxFanatic]

OK, once again, using Blog views is a ridiculous way of determining 'fandom.'

Maybe it has been explained but from this so-called reporter what is the definition of the pageview stat? Cause if it is just a pageview then it literally doesn't mean sh*t. If they aren't going by unique visits then it doesn't mean anything. If it was just pageviewing that can easily be inflated simply by a person refreshing a page they are viewing or visiting the site/blog multiple times a day. Either way, I do agree it is ridiculous.

I'd actually be more interested in the unique visit stats of SiouxSports and Bisonville. The webmasters would have to be willing to share that sort of info though.

[UNDColorado]

Funny, when people ask me where I am from and I say North Dakota they don't ask about NDSU or UND. Neither of them are relevant outside of the area except in their opponents fanbases. Might be hard for you to face the music but up here on the prairie we are irrelevant.

You don't comprehend very well do you? If you did you would have read that I said when people ask where I am from; not where I went to school.

[mg2009]

There are Bison football fans that are UND hockey fans. Are there UND fans that are bison fans?

I know a UND athletics employee who posts here who field rushed in frisco.

[Siouxperfan7]

I know a UND athletics employee who posts here who field rushed in frisco.

Whoever they are...they should be fired for lack of loyalty

[mg2009]

This might be true, with NDSU football possibly finding their place in FCS now, might finally be back to where things are back to where they should, right about even with UND hockey. Either way, much as I dislike UND, they bring good attention from the hockey world. NDSU football, as much as you folks don't like it, bring good attention from the FCS world.

Ohh Johnboy I do enjoy your posts from time to time but the Sports Illustrated article IS true, and the recent challenge between UND Hockey and NDSU Football really tells the tale:

UND Hockey blog 2,000,000+ pageviews

NDSU Football Blog 600,000 pageviews

They are not on the same level now and I would venture to say ever. Once again NDSU has a great football program, no doubt about it. But until SU football is playing in a conference like the Big Ten they will never be on the same level as UND Hockey.

Come to a UND Hockey in Denver or Colorado College and you will see what I mean when you see that half of the arenas attendance are UND fans. I also tend to agree with Catters post in that soon the normal thing will be UND Football about as even as SU Football.

If all we are going on is the vews of blogs, no one really has a case here. Some things that are relevant: ticket prices (UND), game attendance (NDSU), total attendance (UND), prestige (tossup).

Ndsu is a Major power at a minor level (nfl>fbs>fcs) of a major sport. UND is a major power in an intermediate level (nhl>d1>etc) of a minor sport. Neither school at this point can point to their sports being a particularly big deal, so stop trying.

[siouxkid12]

If all we are going on is the vews of blogs, no one really has a case here. Some things that are relevant: ticket prices (UND), game attendance (NDSU), total attendance (UND), prestige (tossup).

Ndsu is a Major power at a minor level (nfl>fbs>fcs) of a major sport. UND is a major power in an intermediate level (nhl>d1>etc) of a minor sport. Neither school at this point can point to their sports being a particularly big deal, so stop trying.

I don't know but this article says that UND hockey is a pretty big deal....

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The Fighting Sioux men's hockey team punctuated another highly successful season by leading NCAA Division I men's hockey in three attendance categories in 2011-12.

North Dakota led the nation in total attendance (419,981) and average attendance (9,999.5) for all games - which includes home, away and neutral - and also led the country in total home attendance (249,501).

UND's average home attendance of 11,341 fans per game ranked second nationally behind only Wisconsin's 11,772.9.

"Our fans show up in large numbers and give our team an added boost in every building that we visit across the nation," said UND head coach Dave Hakstol. "Here at Ralph Engelstad Arena, they have been a huge part of developing a dominant home-ice advantage over the past 10 years. Their passion is truly amazing."

UND averaged just under capacity in the 11,634-seat Engelstad Arena in 2011-12, selling out 11 of 22 home games and eight of the last 10. The Sioux played in front of two of the five largest crowds in program history when 12,065 turned out to watch a 1-1 overtime tie with Michigan Tech on Feb. 18, and 12,029 witnessed a 3-0 win over Minnesota State in the regular season finale on March 3. Those two crowds ranked as the fourth and fifth-largest in program history.

The Sioux went 15-4-3 at home in 2011-12, including a 10-3-1 mark in WCHA play. UND was 26-13-3 overall, set a league record by winning its third straight Broadmoor Trophy as WCHA Final Five champions, and advanced to the NCAA West Region championship as the tournament's No. 1 seed.

Average Attendance Leaders (All Games)

1. North Dakota, 9,999.5

2. Minnesota, 9,272.4

3. Wisconsin, 9,174.3

4. Boston College, 8,268.6

5. Michigan, 7,055.7

Total Attendance Leaders (All Games)

1. North Dakota, 419,981

2. Minnesota, 398,715

3. Boston College, 363,820

4. Wisconsin, 339,448

5. Michigan, 289,284

Total Attendance Leaders (Home Games)

1. North Dakota, 249,501

2. Wisconsin, 235,458

3. Minnesota, 219, 401

4. Nebraska Omaha, 141,544

5. Colorado College, 135,078

[sioux rube]

[fightingsioux4life]

I think they meant to show an NDSU Bison flag instead; they just got the schools mixed up.

[Goon]

That must be from Afghanistan? That is an awesome picture, thanks for sharing Shacker...

[bincitysioux]

Well, here's a chance to let it play out....................

http://undnews.areavoices.com/2012/08/13/vote-for-your-favorite-college-team-at-espn-website/

[Slap Shot]

If anything the Twins have a broader fan base than the Vikings. A lot of older people like to listen to baseball on the radio. One difference bewtween UND hockey and NDSU football is support during down tmes. There I believe UND wins hands down.

I won't compare the Twins to UND but I've long felt the Twins are easily as popular as the Vikings locally here but the NFL as a hole trumps MLB. I swear I see far more Twins gear worn than the Vikings. That's obviously just an observation, but I did stay at a Crowne Plaza last week.

Regardless UND doesn't have to take a backseat to anyone you have a great fanbase.

[Sodbuster]

I won't compare the Twins to UND but I've long felt the Twins are easily as popular as the Vikings locally here but the NFL as a hole trumps MLB. I swear I see far more Twins gear worn than the Vikings. That's obviously just an observation, but I did stay at a Crowne Plaza last week.

Regardless UND doesn't have to take a backseat to anyone you have a great fanbase.

I've been a rabid Viking fan and Twins fan (ND born and raised) for 40+ years. With the Vikings noted failures and the Twins 2 championships I've become much more of a Twins fan. But I have to say since moving back to ND after teaching for 7 years in northern MN in 1981, I've become much more of a UND hockey fan than anything. I'd much rather see the Sioux win an NCAA hockey championship than the Vikings or Twins win the whole thing, although I would be very thrilled if either of them did.