The Minnesota away game experience

Minneapolis is always fun for Michigan fans.

16 in a row.
Won the last two at Memorial Stadium.
12-0 at the Metrodome
2-0 at TCF

Crazy to think at one time they were our #1 rival and people LOL'd at the notion of OSU being  top rival.

I thought the same thing until I realized that he was giving the number and last name.  "20 Johnson," "82, Darboh," "15 Rudock," etc.

EDIT: Didn't see someone else posted this already.

I made so many people unhappy in my Michigan sweatshirt at cowboy Jack's after the game

Minnesota fans are in the top tier of fans in the B1G as far as niceness goes. I still don't think any fan base tops Nebraska in that regard

Gopher fans were reasonable, for the most part. Agree about the PA. Anytime the Michigan offense had a third down, the RAWK went stupid there.

The "20 Johnson" makes sense now, but did anybody else in attendance think it was bush league the first time Michigan punted and the PA guy said "We've been told it's Blake O'Neill in to punt"? It's like he was inviting heckling over the MSU fumble. 

Getting to the stadium was easy (doubly easy for me since I stayed at the hotel across the street).  Minnesota fans are very polite and friendly.  Most expected Michigan to run them out of the building before the game (I am starting to get very wary of hearing that!) and were very complimentary of Harbaugh.

The stadium is very aesthetically pleasing from the outside -- love the brick and arches.  The concourse was a complete trainwreck, though.  I was in the section 201 next to the jumbotron (that I never got to see) and in order to get to the men's bathroom you had to fight through lines for two different concession stands, leaving around three feet of room between the end of the lines and the edge of concourse.  Needless to say, I didn't get to take a piss at halftime because I was unwilling to miss the start of the third quarter.

The fireworks show after the game was really impressive.  Considering the outcome and how that outcome came to be, I noticed a lot of Michigan fans watching and not many Gophers.  Poor Goldy.

The PA announcer was pretty annoying.  It always amuses me when opposing announcers go bananas over each first down.  The "WOO!!" sound they kept playing after a big play could not have been more infuriating.  The guy who turns off the piped-in music fell asleep at the wheel one time and let the music play probably two seconds after the snap.  Yet another Big Ten stadium that would rather blare music like a minor league hockey team than use their band.  I know Michigan plays their share of PIM but they still use the band quite a bit.  Minnesota's band pretty much sat on their instruments.

I had a good time in section 203, which was all Michigan fans. Except for a few Gopher fans who kept walking back and forth to the concources, and were okay except when they were saying some things about Rudock's hit, which an older fan behind me told them to politely "shut the fuck up."

It was fun, and we were super loud the last 5 minutes of the game. The stop happened right in the endzone we were at and it was the best finish I'd seen in any game in person since GRIII's game winner at Purdue.

Piped in music was a bit much and they let it play way too long, letting it overlap the snap a few times. I couldn't see the big jumbo tron because it was to my right, and the small jumbotron I had a view of looked like I was watching a 20 inch tv from 50 yards away. I couldn't tell what happened on any plays that were close (I.E Pepper's mishap in the endzone, overruled TD, catch on 4th and 5). Minnesota fans were cool though. 

Overall, the game was super fun and it was awesome to see the team in person for the first time this year.

for the update. I came very close to going and really regret not doing it now. Had a couple big invites from MN friends (including one who played hockey there for Herb Brooks). What a game you saw--sounds like the away experience is great too. I'll go next time for sure.

What percentage of fans at the game were cheering for Michigan?  20%?  Our support was noticeable on TV.

This was my second trip to the Bank, both trips for Michigan games with offspring. I took my two older daughters this time. It was nice. We had the misfortune of getting stuck near a group of obnoxious drunk guys dressed as Waldo in section 202. My girls were actively unhappy until we moved to some empty seats a section over; after that things were pleasant. Minnesota fans are mostly friendly, partly because Minnesota has been so bad for so long and they don't know what it's like to get seriously emotionally invested in huge games the way some other canvases do; also just Minnesota nice. The Stadium is good. Sight lines are fine throughout and nothing us particularly far from the field. The bowls are pretty shallow, so the stairs aren't daunting, and you don't feel like you're hanging over the field. The crowd was, understandably, much livelier than it was in 2012 (11am kick, lousy team). I don't think it felt menacing or deafening, but it was noisy a fair amount. Yes, the music was frequent and obnoxious, and the announcer was a homer. It's not as good as Michigan Stadium; it's also extremely common in other stadiums. We as Michigan fans are incredibly lucky to have the type of "stuff" we are accustomed to. The pregame atmosphere is growing on me. They suffer from lousy tailgating options, of course, but Dinkytown is a good place to eat before kickoff and I actually had a decent time parking and getting out again; good thing, since I had to drive to Duluth after the game. The band plays outside of the stadium before the game, a nice enough tradition that perhaps 1000 people wait around to watch. The Michigan fans were good late in the game. I think we were all shocked we were leading. I didn't think we had an unusually high turnout (visiting fans filling 201-206 except for the low rows is typical here) but I saw a lot of friendly fans all day and we had a good time cheering together. There were some "de-dense" and "let's go blue" chants, and a couple decent "Go! Blue!" Exchanges. I appreciate the guy who led "The Victors" after touchdowns in 201. Getting to sing along with my girls was a highlight. Really, I'm just thrilled to get to watch the team in person. Third time since I left A2 after the 2004 season. I would sit in a pool teeming with live piranhas if I got to watch Michigan football locally in person. Locals, be grateful for what you have.

I expect their announcer to be a homer. He's employed by the university of minnesota so I don't expect him to get all excited when we stuff them on the 1 yardline.

In my mind, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan are the true "Great Lakes States" and they have all the nice land and water.  You can't beat those ones for sheer prettyness.  The more southern states in the Midwest are more boring landscape-wise, but they do have more notable big cities.

Really nice trip.

 The RAWK music was over the top but whatever.

The PA guy was a homer but that was fine. It was funny to hear him so dejected when Michigan did something good.

 I was in 201 behind the big scoreboard. All I had was a tiny one off center and you could not see any replays.  

Had no trouble with the people

I am BA Michigan and MBA Minnesota. Was in Minneapolis in the early 90s. I didnt even attend a football in the two years I was there because that was when the Gophers were atrocious under Jim Wacker, but did go to the Metrodome for a Twins Game, which was a horrible place to watch a game. Went to the basketball arena, The Barn (Williams) to see Chris Webber, and many hockey games at the old Mariucci Arena. Even during that time, people were longing for the Old Memorial Stadium, which the Gophers last played in in 1982. Not having a stadium on or near campus sucks. Glad they built TCF, which is part of the reason for their resurgence.

The campus itself is OK, but doesn't come close to being as nice as Michigan. The Twin Cities are a great place to live...from May-October.

Minnesota fans, and especially the students, are super nice. Sorry to say this, but much nicer than Michigan students. Minnesota nice is not an urban legend.

That being said, I can't root against Michigan. Ever.

Also to ad on to the PA guy, there was a statement made about the Jug being "home where it beongs."

Our section booed that, but I laughed because we have won it, what, 3x as often as them?

Gopher fans throughout were a class act both outside tailgating and in the stadium. Somehow I my luck had me sitting next to a gaggle of random Spartan grads... They were insufferable.

The decades of sharing a stadium with the Vikings really showed itself.  The stadium was beautiful but the experience was one i'd expect to see in an NFL stadium, ie kiss cam, player graphics after a big play, relentless piped in music, sponsors for everything (case ih redzone for example).

Stadium - awesome! I don't watch NFL so none of the cam stuff bothered me but I loved the stadium. It felt so open and big and even when crammed with people - I didn't feel as claustrophobic as I do in UGA's stadium, where the hallways are tiny and the ceiling is bearing down on you. The bathrooms blew my mind and I think I proclaimed about it every time I went in them. First of all - lines for men and not ladies?!?!! W.H.A.T. Also the women's room had like 50 stalls and was immaculately clean. The music was also awesome! I loved the rap and swagger! I am a double-Dawg and I just felt like everything at this stadium was way more exciting than it is at Sanford. 

Services - Everything was accomodating and felt so unrestricted. I mean, yeah they checked my purse but they were all nice. They let anyone use the elevator and had nice bathroom attendants to keep things clean. Food lines were still short from my experiences and they had lots of choices. White popcorn - yessss! (I'm a white popcorn purist as opposed to yellow.) Beer - expensive but available. Need I say more? Well, I will in a minute...

Fans - Most all were super nice. Of course they are still rooting for their team and trash talking but they weren't rude or mean or threatening like they can be in SEC. They were a little bit delusional when it came to some of the bad calls but I suppose we all are in our own place. It was fun to see the students really into it and the costumes were awesome. The people sitting around us (210, almost at the top) were awesome.

Our new friend, Minnesota Tim, bought us more then several beers - totally unasked, just kept coming back to the seats with an extra and handing it to one of us. He talked a lot of football wth my husband was super good-natured, even after the loss. Truly a class act - took a pic with us and everything. We attribute our hungover flight back to Atlanta at 6:30 AM to good ole' Minnesota Tim - who took us from "We'll have a responsible 2-3 beers only due to early AM flight" to "We don't know what he fuck is going on in this game - MUST DRINK MORE."

Transportation - Train to the game was fine - just as I expected. Train back to Minny was a little crazy but at least you got to wait in line in the open air so it wasn't nearly as claustrophobic as waiting at Northwestern. Talked to some cool people in line while waiting. Once they loaded the train, however, that's a different story. The cops kept telling us there was more room and to get on but I can't believe the number of people on there was safe. Yikes.

Overall Minny experience - Great except this time I'm pretty sure either someone got shot or shots were fired right in front of our hotel on Friday night and that was pretty scary. Woke up to a gunshot around 1 AM and tons of people sceaming. Looked out the window to see what I guess was a big brawl and about 8 minutes later, one cop shows up. Then nine more show up in about 30 seconds and they are drawing guns and etc. Husband made me get away from the window then so I didn't see any more but we couldn't find anything in news about it the next day so....maybe routine? It was pretty horible for me though and definitely not the nicest thing to try to go back to sleep after. Ate at a great restaurant in Uptown called French Meadow/Bluestem and liked it so much we went two mornings in a row.  Rode the bus there and that was a nice Minny experience. Also went to the Mineapolis Institute of the Arts museum and that was huge and amazing.

"Also, the piped-in music was oppressively loud and relentless at least in the corner where one of the Michigan sections was."

 

I wonder if we could get the Engine school to work on noise cancelling speakers. Have all the opposing fans sit mainly in one section as much as you can; then set up mics and noise cancelling speakers. When the game is close, try to cancel their cheers. 

It may not be possible. I certainly don't have the expertise, and that's alot of people. But I've read they do similar things at some factories. And it would be funny to see an opposing cheering section go nuts and have it just come out as a muffled 'yay'. 

Do they still spell MINNESOTA after every first down etc...?  I was there for John Navarre's worlds slowest run for an amazing comeback game in the early 2000's.  God the spelling got annoying very quickly.