Why is TCF Bank Stadium such a failure?

[Ronco]

They killed Minnesota football when they took it off-campus 30 years ago. It won't be back any time soon.

And Minnesota sports fans are among the most fickle I've ever seen.

I would tend to agree, but MN FB was lacking 30+ years ago too when their stadium was more or less on campus. There was a time when MN FB was up there with best in the B10, but that was 50+ years ago.

I do think part/most of the issue with Gopher FB is their campus environment and that's difficult to fix.

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

Roll Call: Which one of you tried to take the goal post out of Metrodome?

I was there... watching. Remember there being just a ton of iowa fans that were still inside the dome. Watching whomever carry one upright to the top of the steps figuring how to get it out the door. Crazy. It was a raucous crowd to begin with, also was my wife's first Hawkeye game.

 

[newtonavenue]

Just curious, what states did Cleveland and Cincinnati move to?

Ohio (USA): State, Major Cities, Villages & Places - Statistics & Maps on City Population

 

[Scorpio79]

Row55 just got PWN3D.

 

[Row55]

Ohio (USA): State, Major Cities, Villages & Places - Statistics & Maps on City Population

Only counting the city cores? Guess the folks in the burbs aren't sports fans.

 

[alexzelada]

You know being a history buff -- I recall reading what the media was saying about UI when they built the Iowa Stadium. They called it ... 'Iowa's Idiocy'.

Maybe we should wait for more than a couple of years before declaring TCF a failure.

I'm pretty sure most of us in this thread will be dead in 70 years.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Just curious, what states did Cleveland and Cincinnati move to?

Cincy & Cleveland both have a smaller population than Columbus Sparky! I was surprised when I found that out as well.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Only counting the city cores? Guess the folks in the burbs aren't sports fans.

Yea. They are only counting the fans in the Columbus "burbs" & not in Cleveland or Cincy!? What's your next lame excuse?

Well, it only took both your city examples to add up to Columbus.

 

[gohawkz]

when will colleges/franchises realize that people don't come to games based on the stadium? they come because of the team. team sucks - no one comes. happens all over.

Amen.

People don't pay money to see stadiums, they pay money to see teams. If you won't go off campus to watch your team you were never a fan anyway. Although I love Kinnick, I'm a Hawkeye fan, not a Kinnick fan. I'd watch them play in a muddy corn field in Carroll County if I had to.

 

[Cory]

Roll Call:

Which one of you tried to take the goal post out of Metrodome?

If you ever watch that game replayed on ESPN feed, the last person you see on the field before they sign off is me. I was standing near where the players were leaving the field. It was one of the coolest sights I have ever seen.

I had to give a 70 year old security guard a spin move to get on the field. Thank god he couldn't move real well.

 

[Thawki]

Thought this was pretty funny considering they were sure this stadium was going to make more people come to Gopher games. Not even a few years later they are talking of failure and making excuses:

StarTribune.com Mobile | News, weather, sports

What was suppose to bring us pride has brought us embarrassment. Gopher football just can't compete against a campus and its robust surroundings that give students options not available at a lot of other universities. Gopher football is indirectly competing against a robust urban area that offers many entertainment options.

Just because some guy gets to write from a fan perspective on some Star-Tribune site, that doen't mean his opinion fact.

The team sucking has no bearing on whether that stadium was a failure or not or whether it was a good decision to build and a good investment. It is one component to having a successful program. They had the opportunity to get an on-campus stadium and they took it. That opportunity doesn't come around every day. Quite frankly, students at a Big Ten school deserve an on-campus stadium.

What if they had gotten every other piece of the puzzle but then couldn't get a new stadium on-campus because their window had passed and the timing wasn't right any longer. They had the chance and they took it. It was a good move and it seems to me they outmaneuvered the Vikings in getting one before the Vikes did. The Wilfs made their fortune in real estate. Outmaneuvering them was quite a feat, I would say.

I don't like the Gophers and I am not around the program every day, but I wouldn't call that stadium a failure. I might call that guest "column" a failure, though, or that writer.