From Sid Hartman's column in the Star Tribune on Friday:
 
Gopher's men's associate athletic director Mark Dienhart said that there is
some hope the October 15th hockey game with Michigan Tech will be played at
Mariucci Arena instead of in the Eveleth Arena as a part of the Hockey Hall of
Fame festivities.  The Hall of Fame could make a lot more money playing the
game in Mariucci Arena....
 
...One reason that St. Cloud State doesn't plan to play one of its home hockey
 games with the Gophers at Target Center this season is that it is upset it had
 to pay the Gophers athletic department $30,000 to move a game there last
season.
<end quoted material>
 
Okay, now MY comments.  It would be GREAT if the *First* collegiate game in new
 Mariucci Arena would be the Hall of Fame exhibition game. Erik, Paula and I
were discussing this last night and thought of a great idea....what if there
were *TWO* exhibition games, one on Friday night in Mariucci and a second game
on Saturday night in the Eveleth Arena????  It is so simple I am surprised that
 this hasn't been proposed yet!!  Maybe this is not allowable, but I am going
to suggest it anyway!  Our big problem would be HOW to be at Mariucci Friday
night and still be able to get up to Eveleth early enough on Saturday morning
so that we could march in the parade at 10:00am!! ;-) :-) ;-)
 
The comments on the St. Cloud State situation don't tell the whole story (as
usual). St Cloud State made SEVERAL mistakes when trying to copy what the
Gophers did at the Met Center against the Badgers. Mistake number one: they
DID NOT include the game at the Target Center on their season ticket package
for THEIR fans. Mistake number two: The event was not promoted well at the
beginning of the season.  Mistake number three: after not doing well at selling
 the tickets they *ENLISTED* the help of the Gopher athletic department for
help in *promoting* the game in return for a 1/3 cut of the receipts! This
included TV ads, Newspaper ads, and handing out flyers at the Gopher games!
Mistake number four: they successfully alienated the Gopher/North Stars fans by
trying to squeeze $$$ out of Twin Cities instead of their own fans in St Cloud.
And NOW they are complaining about having to fork over the $$$!!!
Unbelievable!!!
 
-Carol (who is anxiously awaiting the summer hockey leagues to start and hoping
 the Islanders can win one tonight!! Way to go L.A. Kings, but put Stauber in!)