We Should Count Our Blessings

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Sadly thats probably true. Gopher hockey as well.

it's a very fair weather fan state though. in 06 when the Twins went hot, the stadium was half empty mostly. then they made the playoffs and it was full as hell. I wouldnt of expected it to be like it is for an ALDS playoff game, but there were sections that were completely empty.

Wolves have fallen off the radar for your casual MN fan. Losing KG probably sealed it, but they knew they werent goin to win anyways so they stopped caring.

[Calinks]

Yea you're right. Probably one of the best ways I gauge peoples loyalties is through what I see on the streets. I hardly EVER see wolves gear. It's pretty rare. I always see people sporting Twins/Wild/Vikings stuff. It's a little depressing but I'm always glad to see the rare wolves fan.

[deeney0]

Yeah, MN sports has lately seemed to me to be Vikings, Twins, Wild, Gopher Hockey/Gopher Basketball, then the Wolves. But Gopher football? That's somewhere between bass fishing and Tom Lehmann.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Which is still above the Wolves.

I like college football a lot, Gopher football will be back on the B10 map soon. Brewsters got some nice recruits coming in, much better then Mason could do..rankings wise.

Plus the new stadium will be the hot commodity in the region, which everyone would want to see outdoor football again, right when these new recruits are seasoned a lil bit more and all of Masons trash is out of the picture.

We just dont know if Brewster can coach a game yet

[B Calrissian]

AGREED! It'd be a far greater blow to Minnesota to lose the Vikings than to lose the Timberwolves actually.

[Basti]

the vikings are the football team right? I always mix them up

anyway, I'd be really sad if the Wolves would leave Minnesota/Minneapolis. though I've never been there so far I'd be really sad because from what I've seen in books and TV Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota is really appealing to me. it is one of the first places in North America I'd love to visit. by the time I have enough money and time to afford a trip to Minny I really hope the Wolves are still in Minneapolis.

[TMo519]

Which is still above the Wolves.

I like college football a lot, Gopher football will be back on the B10 map soon. Brewsters got some nice recruits coming in, much better then Mason could do..rankings wise.

Plus the new stadium will be the hot commodity in the region, which everyone would want to see outdoor football again, right when these new recruits are seasoned a lil bit more and all of Masons trash is out of the picture.

We just dont know if Brewster can coach a game yet

It's amazing how many people have already basically counted Brewster as dead and worthless cause of one bad season. I take the wait and see approach.

If I were ranking teams right now, I'd probably go: Vikings, Wild, Twins, Gopher hockey, Gopher basketball (only cause of Tubby), Wolves, Gopher football, etc.. We'll see how the dynamic change as we have some rebuilding teams at the bottom there who with a good year could rekindle interest.

[Devilzsidewalk]

AGREED! It'd be a far greater blow to Minnesota to lose the Vikings than to lose the Timberwolves actually.

there was a time when I would've agreed with you.

other than the Twins, MN teams have pretty decent ownership. Taylor pisses me off sometimes, but true, it could be worse. He's at least loyal which is not to be underappreciated.

[shrink]

For the people out of state, I'd mention that the Vikings popularity is on a whole different stratosphere here. Of all the sports interest in a 4-sport pro/big ten sports town, I'd imagine the Vikings are bigger than all the rest combined. If I was going to split up interest, I'd say it went something like:

55% Vikings
18% Twins
12% Wild
8% All Gopher sports
5% Wolves
2% Other sports

Do those ratios seem about right to other locals? Am I over-valueing the Vikings to say they are over ten times as popular as the Wolves?

[Basti]

For the people out of state, I'd mention that the Vikings popularity is on a whole different stratosphere here. Of all the sports interest in a 4-sport pro/big ten sports town, I'd imagine the Vikings are bigger than all the rest combined. If I was going to split up interest, I'd say it went something like:

55% Vikings
18% Twins
12% Wild
8% All Gopher sports
5% Wolves
2% Other sports

Do those ratios seem about right to other locals? Am I over-valueing the Vikings to say they are over ten times as popular as the Wolves?

being a rebuilding team playing a sport which is not on the upside in america (basketball) always makes you look really bad vs a team which is playing a sport which is america's most famous. I can't say anything about the value of both teams but I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were right.

and admittedly, I don't know why Football is so high in america other than being a once-a-week-meeting with friends to have a bbq while watching it or sort of. the actual sport is interesting to watch but those god damn breaks every 30 seconds or sort of are really annoyiing. plus IMO basketball is way better and way more interesting to watch but that's just me and I guess I'll won't make many friends with that comment but if it were up to me my preferences of major american sports would be
#1 basketball
#2 hockey
#3 football
(and with a wide margin) #4 baseball

[Devilzsidewalk]

For the people out of state, I'd mention that the Vikings popularity is on a whole different stratosphere here. Of all the sports interest in a 4-sport pro/big ten sports town, I'd imagine the Vikings are bigger than all the rest combined. If I was going to split up interest, I'd say it went something like:

55% Vikings
18% Twins
12% Wild
8% All Gopher sports
5% Wolves
2% Other sports

Do those ratios seem about right to other locals? Am I over-valueing the Vikings to say they are over ten times as popular as the Wolves?

I think you're forgetting that every old person in Minnesota is a die-hard Twins fan. Plus the Twins are 2 time world champions and have been good for the past few seasons too. And baseball is easier to like amongst the calmer population who can be turned off by the violence and showboaty atmosphere of football. Twins aren't far behind the Vikings based on people I've known. Also I rarely meet any Gopher fans. I can't even think of any off the top of my head. Unless you're an alumni or student, you're probably not much of a Gophers fan, so thats a pretty select population. And the Wolves fans are around, they're just embarrassed and in hiding, but they've won a lot of fans over. Proof for me is fan appreciation day, you'd think a horrible team wouldn't be able to draw in many fans for the last game of the season, but it seems to me they always get a pretty decent turnout.

[TMo519]

The thing about the Twin Cities and Minnesota overall, is that a ton of Gopher alumni do live here. I can't remember the numbers, but I was alarmed at how many of our alumni and donors live in this state still. Yeah it's only a part of the population, but they definitely have a decent sized following.

The Twins do have a great following, but most of that is due to recent sucess. They were pretty rough in the late 90s as far as people caring, I mean they were almost contracted. The Vikings, even when they suck, garner a major following. Ever since that ridiculous '98 season, they've sold out virtually every game, preseason even draws high. And there have been a few rough seasons mixed in there too. The Wolves just don't have that hardcore group that is as large.

[Calinks]

I think the Twins are more popular than some think. There is Twins gear everywhere. People may not be as overtly die hard about the Twins but they would much rather have them around than the wolves. People don't give a damn about the wolves.

[GopherIt!]

Shrink, Intersting story on Carl Pohlad.

The fact though that Carl was willing to contract the club a few years ago
and even threatened to move to North Carolina and elsewhere - those
actions speak louder than any words stated by that old man. THere were
other suitors who wanted to buy the Twins at both times and Carl shrugged
them off. He was always in it first and foremost for himself and the money
even if it meant killing or moving the team away. I really hope Jim and co.
sell the team to a local ownership group.


I love Glen Taylor as an owner and have never understood the hate some people
direct towards him. True, he's made some personnel mistakes but unlike
Pohlad, we know he's truly loyal to the community and that the Wolves are
here to stay. After living through all the crap Red McCombs and Carl put us
through that is someting I can really appreciate. It's hard to gauge their loyalty,
but I have to give props to the Wilfs as well. They have been a Godsend to the
Vikings franchise and fanbase.

[shrink]

THere were other suitors who wanted to buy the Twins at both times and Carl shrugged them off.

I can't reveal how I know this, so you're welcome to just ignore it, but there were no other suitors in Minnesota that offered to buy the Twins. The organization had been on the market, behind the scenes, to other local concerns for several years, and nobody stepped up. This wasn't even about Carl making money on the sale of the organization, either -- he has been desperate to get the Twins out of his estate before he dies. I know there was at least one person who publicly said he wanted to buy the Twins, but he could not/did not provide an offer.

I don't think contraction or the sale of the Twins out of the state is an issue now. With a new ballpark, and a tighter connection to the city, I think that if the sons don't want to run the Twins after Carl is gone, that local interests will step in.

As for Glen Taylor, I'm with you. The casual fan scapegoats McHale for everything bad that's ever happened to the organization in the last 12 years, and credits everything good to KG. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Casual fans that demonize McHale simply hate Taylor by association, for not firing McHale. I think the fact that they remain so close-mouthed about what goes on in the front office lets critics point more fingers at their favorite targets without knowing the situation. They are certainly welcome to blame whoever they want. Personally, I think many of these criticisms are based more on emotion than on fact.

[kandiking]

i'm always shocked at how much more popular gopher sports are in outstate than in the twin cities. in the cities the picture is pretty seriously skewed by the wild (the popularity of which is inexplicable). most people just don't give a f*ck about the timberwolves, and if they know anything it's "we should have drafted noah" or "mchale is a dumbass" or "there's too many thugs".

i put them moving to another market in about 10 years. too many people have been brainwashed by hockey.

[TheFranchise21]

The honeymoon period with the Wild needs to be over soon. Risebrough is slowly turning into Kevin McHale 2.0.

[shrink]

i'm always shocked at how much more popular gopher sports are in outstate than in the twin cities. in the cities the picture is pretty seriously skewed by the wild (the popularity of which is inexplicable).

I'm starting to drift off-topic, but I should mention that I was shocked by the lack of support the Gophers got when I moved up here after graduating from the University of Iowa. Iowa has no major professional sports franchises, and though Iowa City is a town of about 30,000, every football game is sold out in Kinnick Stadium, which seats about 66,000-71,000 fans. People come from all over the state. Everyone in Iowa grows up wearing either Iowa or Iowa State apparel.

I assumed that with so many more people in the Metro area living so close to campus, that they'd have plenty of fans. I was completely wrong. When I attended the Iowa-Gopher game at the Metrodome, it was a home game for the Hawkeyes. Iowa had 2-to-4 times as many fans at the game. The crowd was so lop-sided that fan noise almost stopped the Gophers from getting a play off on third-and-short. I checked on the rule later, and if the noise becomes too loud for a play to be run, the "home team" is charged with a time out. Pretty bad to be the home team when the outstate fans are the ones making all the noise.

I had assumed every big ten school was like Iowa, but clearly the presence of professional sports like the Vikings saps the Gopher fanbase. Maybe I'm under-estimating the influence of U of M sports, but even so, it would be far below what I expected when I first arrived.

[the_bruce]

For the people out of state, I'd mention that the Vikings popularity is on a whole different stratosphere here. Of all the sports interest in a 4-sport pro/big ten sports town, I'd imagine the Vikings are bigger than all the rest combined. If I was going to split up interest, I'd say it went something like:

55% Vikings
18% Twins
12% Wild
8% All Gopher sports
5% Wolves
2% Other sports

Do those ratios seem about right to other locals? Am I over-valueing the Vikings to say they are over ten times as popular as the Wolves?

I'd guess vikings would be even higher.
65+ for vikings, its not even remotely close. I'd guess vikings is closer to 2/3's than 1/2.

[deeney0]

I had assumed every big ten school was like Iowa, but clearly the presence of professional sports like the Vikings saps the Gopher fanbase. Maybe I'm under-estimating the influence of U of M sports, but even so, it would be far below what I expected when I first arrived.

As far as I know, all the Big 10 stadiums are like that except the Dome. Camp Randall holds 80,000. People come in from all over the state hours early to tailgate/pregame. Everyone stands pretty much the whole game. It's deafening. I was a Gopher fan growing up, and I've been to games at the dome both before and after I became a Badger fan. It's not comparable. The Dome just sucks the life out of college football. Hopefully TCF Bank Stadium will change that.