Football Attendance 2005

[The Sicatoka]

I think you're right.

Didn't I say that when I said:

We're in "notion tossed out by someone" stage right now (both Buning and you)!.

[star2city]

NDSU has raised nearly all the money needed for the BSA project.

Heard that back in 2002, but its still the same story. Has an architect been hired, yet? A decent basketball facility should have been the top priority in attracting conference interest, not the football meeting/locker rooms in the FargoDome. At least UND is getting the facilities upgraded before the move. Still don't understand what NDSU is going to do when their BSA is all torn up during a refurbishment: play and practice in the Fargo Civic or Bentsen Bunker fieldhouse? That would be embarrassing to showcase what will probably be NDSU's best ever men's team in two years.

[IowaBison]

NDSU will be hiring an architect in the next few months.

Football is NDSUs bread and butter and most Bison fans are (or at least were before the success of our basketball team) football fans.

We are covering our bases by giving our football program every advantage possible to be a regular playoff contender which hopefully will raise enough funds to pay for the rest of our DI department.

[NDSU grad]

Heard that back in 2002, but its still the same story. Has an architect been hired, yet? A decent basketball facility should have been the top priority in attracting conference interest, not the football meeting/locker rooms in the FargoDome. At least UND is getting the facilities upgraded before the move. Still don't understand what NDSU is going to do when their BSA is all torn up during a refurbishment: play and practice in the Fargo Civic or Bentsen Bunker fieldhouse? That would be embarrassing to showcase what will probably be NDSU's best ever men's team in two years.

Well, the expansion project did just get approved by the Board of Higher Education. I don't think that would have happened if the expansion plans weren't imminent. Also, I'm sure many bball games will be played in the Fargodome.

[Bison Dan]

At least UND is getting the facilities upgraded before the move.

What move? Has it been decided and nobody knows? What upgrades? I thought UND had the best facilities in the world. If UND decides to move to DI this year will the 35 million be in the bank? - I don't think so. Pretty hard to get your facilities upgraded before your so called committee decides (whats already been decided) to make the move to DI.

[The Sicatoka]

What move? Has it been decided and nobody knows? What upgrades?

Now you're gettin' it.

I thought UND [sic] had the best facilities in the world.

For hockey, heck yes, and thus they work just fine for hoop in a pinch too.

But what does any of this have to do with how many UND Football drew in 2005?

[SiouxMD]

But what does any of this have to do with how many UND Football drew in 2005?

I was thinking the same thing...

[#1 Sioux Fan]

Typical bison fans chasing a carrot on a string

[dakotadan]

Typical bison fans chasing a carrot on a string

Don't you mean buffalo chip?

[#1 Sioux Fan]

Don't you mean buffalo chip?

Yeah it's something crunchy and cold

[JESUS,family,rutgers]

Not that we have ever set any records at Rutgers, but I was wondering why all of North Dakota's games are in the early afternoon. Why aren't any of the games played at night? Many people have part-time jobs for at least part of Saturdays. Also, does the University advertise games in newspapers in other cities? Do bus companies in other cities run trips to the games?

[fighting sue]

Not that we have ever set any records at Rutgers, but I was wondering why all of North Dakota's games are in the early afternoon. Why aren't any of the games played at night? Many people have part-time jobs for at least part of Saturdays. Also, does the University advertise games in newspapers in other cities? Do bus companies in other cities run trips to the games?

I guess I don't really know why games ARE played in the afternoon, but I think I could guess why none are played at night: 1) lack of significant television opportunity and 2) playing indoors. With a D2 team there's not much a of a chance to capture anything but a relatively small regional audience when games are broadcast on television. Oftentimes D1 games are played in the evenings to capitalize on having the maximum viewing audience. Secondly, I think part of the attraction of an evening game is to play under the lights, outside. UND holds no such attraction. When was the last time you saw a D1 football game, played indoors, in the evening, that was on TV? Really, this could only possibly apply to the Gophers and Syracuse. I think the Gophers did play Michigan in the evening two years ago, but indoor games never feel like evening games. They always, no matter the time of day, feel like indoor games, outside of any time of day. It's like they're played in a time vacuum.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

The above reasons for not playing at night are exactly why the Sioux should play outside, sometimes at night. The atmosphere for an indoor game is just not as good as that of an outdoors game. The least the Sioux could do is play a few early season games outside at the old place.

[bincitysioux]

The atmosphere in the Alerus is excellent. IMO, much better than Memorial Stadium.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Well, I realy don't know what the atmospere is like at a Sioux football game , I have never been to one (I sure would like to go to one sometime though but not living in Grand Forks presents a problem) I still think football should be played outside, but I will admit the weather up here in the North Land makes that a bit hard.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

I know this dosn't really fit the thread but I did not know where else to ask it. Does anyone know how many people Memorial could hold for a game?? What kind of attendance did they have there? Just wondering. Thanks.

[fighting sue]

Memorial Stadium capacity was 10,000. According to this super-cool website:

http://www.worldstadiums.com/north_america...th_dakota.shtml

However, I know for the Bison games portable bleachers were brought in and many were simply standing on the track in the end zones.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Thanks a lot fighting sue! Also thanks for posting the link, I love to look at that kind of thing.

[vlarson]

There is a better aerial view of Memorial Stadium at: http://siouxsports.com/football/history/memorialstadium.htm

The bleachers on the east side away from the main stadium were added in the early seventies from a defunct race track in Brainerd, MN. Additional portable bleachers were added in each end zone. I recall attendances in the 15,000 range after the new bleachers were added--of course only with NDSU.

Someone asked earlier about night games. The lights were removed from the stadium in the mid-sixties because college football was considered a Saturday afternoon affair. The few night games prior to that were no better attended than the afternoon games and certainly took away from the college football atmosphere.

[82SiouxGuy]

And I have been told that the reason we don't play night games now is because Coach Lennon doesn't like them. He likes having the same schedule every weekend for his players. I am sure that college football atmosphere in the afternoon is part of his reasoning.

[bincitysioux]

I really think they should look into playing non-conference night games. Other than the Potato-Bowl, I think it could help attendance out for the games against more unfamilar opponents.