Sports Illustrated Rates Mariucci Arena
The Daily says Gopher football should be learning a lesson from Gopher hockey fans.
Perhaps officials and fans can turn to our men’s hockey program for advice on garnering enthusiasm. The program is respected and consistently gets the top recruits. It has one of the largest fan bases in college hockey. Not to mention the student section is replete with cheers for every team, situation and circumstance.
SI says, “Not so fast.” Mariucci scored a disappointing 5 points out of 10 in three fan presence categories—volume, number, and appropriateness of attire. The U kinda made up for it in quality of venue (8/10) and chant quality (8.5/10).
I’ve been to my fair share of college hockey games, but never a Gopher game at Mariucci. I hear it’s pretty damn fun. The SI guy said he expected there to be more excitement at a late-season game vs a highly ranked team, but I’m sure the fact that the Gophers were getting their asses kicked for the second night in a row had a pretty big impact on level of fan noise.
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(via 10,000 Takes)
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I’ve been to quite a few games at Mariucci, and while it doesn’t even come close to comparing to hockey games in Madison, it does get pretty damn exciting. The fans know hockey more then at any other college arena, and will clap after the Gophers make a play that others might dismiss. And when the team needs a push, the crowd can get them going and put pressure on the opposing team.
There are a lot of older fans that just go to watch hockey. They don’t get into the games vocally and don’t add much to the atmosphere of Mariucci. But these older fans have seen some great Gopher hockey games over the decades, and you can’t dismiss their passion.
Also, Mariucci has it’s share of “corpies”, where the seats are owned by companies, and could go empty for games in a row. It’s a shame, but again, a team has to sell tickets.
Unfortunately, because of the high demand of season tickets, these people will never release their seats. I think the current waiting list for season tickets is close to 1500 people, and only a few each year get to buy tickets.
That said, there is no greater feeling as a Gopher hockey fan, to walk up the stairs and see the best college hockey arena open up before you. You see the murals of the All Americans, and the championship banners in the rafters. And walking around the concourse, you can see team pictures dating back 80 years.
And playing for the Gophers is still a dream for so many in Minnesota. You just can’t say that about any other sport in town. On the team this year, we have Erik Johnson, the #1 pick in last year’s NHL draft. He could have gone pro after High School, but it was a lifelong dream to play for the Gophers, so he decided to put off pro hockey for a year, maybe even two!
I’d say an argument in favor of the Gopher’s getting their own football stadium as that the Metrodome exhibits no sense of the history of the team (which all the other on-campus venues clearly do).
Granted, the team has been historically sucky, but who doesn’t love to see their school colors and the names of some great players around?
first off, i’d like to say that i’d live at mariucci if i could. but that’s more about the team than the arena.
i completely agree with the SI article as regards volume. gopher fans are ridiculously quick to cold-shoulder the boys when they’re not playing well. the volume only turns up when the game is either super-intense, or if we’re really frustrated. or in the case of bad calls by the refs.
attire? that confuses me. it’s ALL maroon and gold, except for the brave folks in rival colors.
mariucci needs to be bigger, just so i can have a hope of getting season tickets before i’m 95.
p.s. i was at the first game in the series mentioned in the article. the reason we were so quiet is we couldn’t figure out WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.
brutal.
“mariucci needs to be bigger”
I remember Doug Woog talk about how when the new Mariucci was built, people kept saying that it was too big, and that we would never fill it. And that was even after the North Stars left. But now with Wisconsin putting 15k in the arena each game, it would be nice if we could do the same.
“no sense of the history of the [football] team”
Good point Erica. I would love to see the new Gopher Football stadium highlight some of the great teams and players of the past. I think it would do a lot for building the fans appreciation of the past and also a sense of pride for the overall program.
I’ve got to agree with Moe, the majority of fans at Mariucci are older fans, albeit less vocal, but no less emotionally invested in the game. I got on the waiting list for season tickets last year. The ticket office actually told me, not to bother putting my name on the waiting list because i probably wouldn’t get them in my lifetime!