Feb/070
College Recruits Head South
You have to be happy with Tim Brewster and his last minute efforts to recruit a top 50 class. If the coach can correct that 113th ranked Defense the Gophers have a shot at winning 7-8 games next year.
But one thing really caught my eye with the 2007 recruiting class nation wide. Everyone is heading south. Notre Dame, Michigan and the Illinois upset class are the only 3 cold weather schools in the top 18 ranked by ESPN. Notre Dame and Michigan are rated #8 and #10. Sure Butch Davis at North Carolina helped, but South Carolina and North Carolina in the top #11? Has to be the weather.
Imagine back a few years and you are a top High School football recruit. You have scheduled visits to Michigan and North Carolina. You visit Michigan and it's 10* degrees outside, the football field is covered in snow, and all the girls are bundled up in parkas. Then you head to North Carolina the next week. It's 60* degrees outside, the football stadium looks beautiful in the sun light, and all the girls are wearing that sweet baby blue. What school do you choose?
Cold weather schools know that can't win the Jan/Feb recruiting trail so they try to bring in players during the football season in the fall. But playing that game can be risky. Think of all those Notre Dame recruits watching Notre Dame get crushed at home and thinking maybe this place isn't all it's cracked up to be. A great example of this risk game happened last fall. The University of Minnesota brought in one of the top MN recruits to watch the Gophers take on D-1AA North Dakota State University. By the end of the game the gopher recruit decided to go to NDSU because they absolutely manhandled the gophers.
Bottom line, when recruits visit southern schools in Jan/Feb right before they decide who to sign with...sunny weather and unbundled girls on campus' help.
Feb/070
Twins Ballpark in 2010?
2010 here we come.... or mabye not.
In a move that was somewhat unexpected, Hennepin county announced it's concerns over whether they would be able to work with the owners of the proposed Rapid Park location. Last year when the Legislature passed a bill that will fund the ballpark it was dependant on two things:
1. The ballpark would be in it's current location - The Rapid Park lot behind the Target Center.
2. The bill also stated that the county could not spend more than $90 million for accruing the land and to pay for public infrastructures (roads, sidewalks, etc).
Currently the limited liability corporate group that owns that parcel of land wants several million dollars more than Hennepin County is allowed to pay. Earlier this year a judge ruled that the land was work around $13.5 million dollars. The owners of the land think that is well below market value.
The Twins and Hennepin County are now put in a tight situation. They can either condemn the land ( which would jeopardize their 2010 opening due to the assumed length and complexity of the proceedings) or they can find another peice of land - which also has it's stumbling blocks.
If the Twins in conjunction with Hennepin County decide to move the ballpark somewhere else in Hennepin County that wll require that the bill go BACK to the State Legislature. A move like that would likely be very opposed by the stadium opponents.
Some stadium opponents believe that this news is nothing more than a negotiating tool. Personally I believe that this is a little more serious than they might be letting on.
Only time will tell and I am one that sure as hell hopes that Hennepin County and the Twins can figure this out.
This just in.... Establish your 2010 Priority Seating today!!! Ugghh....