Talk:Memorial Stadium (University of Minnesota)

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National Championships[edit]

The existing page refernced six "mythical" championships for the Gophers during the period of time the stadium was in existance. Considering all six are recognized by the NCAA (I added the link) I don't see how they are mythical. To indicate otherwise either invalidates all national championships prior to 1950 or 1997 depending on which change in how championships were decided/recorded you define to be non-mythical. It may be redundant or off topic to mention them at all let alone in the detail I added them in which case the entire reference perhaps should be deleted or moved to the University page. I didn't want to just erase the word mythical without explanation or justification either since whoever put it in in the first place would just replace it etc... 128.104.4.30 18:14, 30 September 2005 (UTC)gvarsity[reply]

Attendance[edit]

It was my understanding that attendance actually increased upon moving to the Metrodome. I added the citation note. A cursory look at the University of Minnesota media guide for 2006 [1] seems to validate that attendance was running higher.

Last five years at Memorial Stadium[edit]

1977
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/10 W 10 Western Michigan 7 29,619
9/24 W 27 UCLA 13 41,076
10/1 W 19 Washington 17 31,895
10/15 W 13 Northwestern 7 39,021
10/22 W 16 Michigan (1) 0 44,165
11/5 L 10 Michigan State 29 30,600
11/19 W 13 Wisconsin 7 30,742

1978
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/16 W 38 Toledo 12 31,223
9/23 L 10 Ohio State (16) 27 55,200
10/7 L 14 Oregon State 17 35,083
10/14 W 22 Iowa 20 51,381
11/4 W 32 Indiana 31 39,797
11/18 W 24 Illinois 6 25,388

1979
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/8 W 24 Ohio 10 33,435
9/15 L 17 Ohio State (15) 21 ESPN 43,515
9/29 W 38 Northwestern 8 33,998
10/6 W 31 Purdue 14 47,281
10/27 T 17 Illinois 17 46,449
11/17 L 37 Wisconsin 42 37,274

1980
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/13 W 38 Ohio 14 35,114
9/27 L 7 USC (5) 24 55,115
10/18 L 14 Michigan 37 56,297
10/25 W 24 Iowa 6 58,158
11/8 W 31 Indiana 7 NCAA* 30,092
11/15 L 12 Michigan State 30 30,329

1981
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/12 W 19 Ohio 17 40,086
9/19 W 16 Purdue 13 WLFI-TV 41,530
9/26 W 42 Oregon State 12 NCAA* 30,890
10/10 W 35 Northwestern 23 45,949
10/31 L 13 Michigan (15) 34 ON-TV 52,875
11/7 W 35 Ohio State (18) 31 WOSU-TV 42,793
11/21 L 21 Wisconsin 26 SNI 47,125

Move to Metrodome 1982-1986[edit]

1982
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/11 W 57 Ohio 3 56,168
9/25 W 41 Washington State 11 50,653
10/2 L 24 (19) Illinois 42 CBS 63,684
10/16 L 21 Indiana 40 61,865
10/23 L 16 Iowa 21 KSTP-TV 63,872
11/13 L 7 Michigan State 26 57,146

1983
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/17 L 13 Nebraska (1) 84 KETV-TV 62,687
9/24 L 20 Purdue 32 41,839
10/15 L 17 Wisconsin 56 WKOW-TV 62,689
11/5 L 23 Illinois (6) 50 WCIA-TV 35,514
11/12 L 10 Michigan (9) 58 WSTN-TV 40,945

1984
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/8 W 31 Rice 24 50,576
9/29 L 22 Ohio State (3) 35 WOSU-TV 47,543
10/6 W 33 Indiana 24 44,786
10/20 L 28 Northwestern 31 56,934
10/27 L 13 Michigan State 20 47,427
11/17 W 23 Iowa 17 CS-TV 63,479

1985
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/14 W 28 Wichita State 14 KMSP-TV 56,094
9/21 W 62 Montana 17 KMSP-TV 55,700
9/28 L 7 Oklahoma (3) 13 TBS 62,446
10/5 W 45 Purdue 15 TBS 59,503
10/26 L 19 (20) Ohio State (9) 23 64,455
11/9 W 27 Wisconsin 18 64,571
11/16 L 7 Michigan (8) 48 TBS 64,129

1986
Date UM Opp. TV Att.
9/13 W 31 Bowling Green 7 51,317
9/27 L 20 Pacific 24 50,270
10/11 W 44 Northwestern 23 58,177
10/18 W 19 Indiana 17 52,960
11/1 L 23 Michigan State 52 TBS 57,408
11/22 L 27 Iowa 30 TBS 65,018

A common tendancy in sports is to blame the stadium (or uniforms, or band and cheerleaders) on the woeful performance of the team. When the team is good, attendance is good. And it does not matter what the venue is.

That's fine. My point was that as the article says a selling point of the Metrodome was going to be increased attendance, but I do believe that "in the long run" (as I also added in the artcile) that it did not. You are correct that after the move to the Metrodome the attendance increased. But after the first few years in the Metrodome attendance returned to the depths of where it was in Memorial stadium. The first 6 years of the Metrodome (1982-1987) were the 6 highest attendance years, until in finally 2005 broke throuht that. Then in 1988 attendance dropped, and starting in 1989 it was once again very low and remained there for the next several years. In fact, the years of 1989 - 1993 (years 7 - 11 of the metrodome) were the lowest 5 years in the Metrodome. It's pretty clear to me anyway that 1989 - 1993 proved that the stadium alone was not the long term answer to increase attendance at the games (as the proponents said it would). These particular years were about as bad as they had been in the final years of Memorial Stadium.

Attendance Rank by year

1. 1985 60,985
2. 1982 58,898
3. 1986 55,848
4. 1987 53,131
5. 2006 52,206
6. 1984 51,791
7. 2005 49,024
8. 1983 48,735
9. 1995 48,574
10. 2004 47,573
11. 2000 47,352
12. 1999 45,441
13. 1997 44,898
14. 1988 44,665
15. 2003 44,148
16. 1996 43,519
17. 2001 43,485
18. 1994 42,309
19. 2002 41,785
20. 1998 41,642
21. 1990 40,585
22. 1993 39,996
23. 1989 39,607
24. 1992 37,908
25. 1991 36,369

Gopher backer 19:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

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