From the Gopher Notes in today's Star Tribune:
 
The Gophers ticket office said it has closed public and staff season ticket
sales.  Sales of student season tickets will continue until the season
opener Oct. 23 against visiting North Dakota, or until the supply runs out.
Approximately 1650 tickets are being held for students.  Single-game orders
will be filled with general-admission seats.  No reserved seats are available,
except for the Nov. 14 game against Wisconsin at Met Center.
 
(end quoted stuff)
 
I don't know if they close the sales every year or not.  This may be because
people want to get priority for seating in the new arena next season.  New
Mariucci is supposed to have good sight-lines, unlike the old arena.
(The current Mariucci Arena is NOT a good place to SEE a game, so many of
us go for the atmosphere and tape the broadcasts!  Most likely this does
hurt attendance, especially when most of the home games are on free TV, as
they were last year, but only 6 or so will be this year, as the lion's share
of the games will be on Midwest Sports Channel; perhaps this is another factor
to increase ticket sales this year.)
 
If you're wondering why so late with the student tix, it's the first day
of classes today, so the students are just getting back to campus.  I haven't
even seen the application form in the student paper yet.
 
Another article in today's sports section was about top high school players
skipping their senior year (of hockey, that is) to play juniors in the USHL.
I've mentioned my concern about this before.  In the article the coach of
the St. Paul Vulcans, who will have 5 high-schoolers, said he didn't
recruit the kids, they came to him.  Gopher coach Doug Woog, former Vulcan
coach whose sons both played for the Vulcans (after finishing high school),
said he doesn't encourage it, although one of his early signees from last year,
 and two players who've already committed for next year are among those playing
junior instead of high school.)   Even Gopher assistant Bill Butters, whose
son is one of the five  skipping his senior year of eligibility to play
for St. Paul, said he recommended that his son stay with the high school
team.  (In his case, his HS coach had retired and a new coach wasn't
hired until late this summer, after he'd made his decision, so that may have
contributed to it.)
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!