Gopher Fans Come Out of the Hole

Minnesota is a year from moving into the new TCF Bank Stadium, but season ticket holders are in an uproar over a new points plan for the 50,000-seat venue that was announced Friday.

The plan, Gopher Points, "rewards" season-ticket holders with points based upon their financial support, loyalty and affinity. Many fans, however, are finding that they will have to spend even more money just to keep the same seats.

Considering the awful product Minnesota has fielded for 40 years — the Golden Gophers last won a share of the Big Ten title in 1967 and are coming off a 1-11 season — many long-time fans are lining up in punt formation.
Here are a sampling of comments posted on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's website:

C Behling: Let's see, with gas at $3.90 a gallon, maybe it would be cheaper to drive up to North Dakota State . . . Oh, that's right. The Gophs couldn't get on the Bison's schedule this year.

Aipacjewspy: How else are they going to pay for all the lesbian sports teams that no one cares to watch?

S.P. Mike: When they are 1-11 next year and blowhard [Tim] Brewester is giving lame excuses again Joe "I don't have a clue" Maruri will be begging you to buy tickets. . . . With gas at four bucks a gallon I will not be driving to a Gopher game that I will have to pay 500 bucks over the cost of the ticket to keep it.

Pete 1949: 1-11 and pay more to watch us play Central Florida, Marist etc.

Abc123def456: Why do the Goofers think they can charge filet and champagne prices for hot dogs and Kool-Aid?

Charlie IQ: Reward loyalty? My ass. It's another way to raise more money by taking advantage of a scarce commodity by creating arbitrary "classes" of patrons. It has all the elegance of K-Mart's blue light specials or a downlink at your favorite multi-level scam.

Lex Luger: A place that recruited Mitch Lee and Dominick Jones. A place that has had a lousy football team for 47 tears. A place that allowed Clem Haskins to operate with impunity. A place that brought that no good fraud Lou Holtz into our cities. What a deal.....

Mekaster: It's a joke. What's really great is the Big Ten Network. They want me to pay to watch a losing team(s) that I already pay for. I wish them the worst.