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!)