Minnesota Gophers like new campus digs

CHICAGO -- Minnesota Coach Tim Brewster glows with excitement when he talks about his team's new football stadium.

The Gophers moved from the larger Metrodome to brand-new TCF Bank Stadium last fall. The open-air stadium was built on campus, and Gopher fans responded by selling out the stadium all seven times last year. Minnesota (6-7 overall) won four home games.

"In my mind - no slight to any other stadium in the conference - we've got the best stadium in the country," Brewster said at Big Ten Media Days. "There's some that are bigger; I don't think there's any that's nicer.  We want a great home-field advantage Saturday."

TCF Bank Stadium was the first new Big Ten stadium built since 1960 and just the second built in college football since 1998. It cost $288.5 million and contains 94 luxury suites and 1,500 club seats.

It's also the Big Ten's second-smallest stadium with a capacity of 50,805. Only Northwestern (47,130) has a smaller home.

But stadium size isn't all that matters to Minnesota quarterback Adam Weber, a Shoreview, Minn. native. Weber said the game-day atmosphere last year was much better at TCF Bank Stadium than it was at the Metrodome.

"If you haven't been in the Metrodome before it was very, I guess, stagnant," Weber said. "There's not a lot going on in the Metrodome. It has its own characteristics, it got loud, it had some other things. But I guess the Big Ten really hangs it hat on outdoors stadiums and cold weather, beautiful venues. Finally we have something that we can take pride in. It feels like a home game."

The sellouts help, too. Minnesota's average attendance in 2008 was 48,958 with more than 15,000 seats in the Metrodome going empty.

The Gophers played on campus from 1924 through 1981 at Memorial Stadium. The team then moved to downtown Minneapolis along with the NFL Vikings and American League Twins in 1982. Neither the Gophers, which won six national titles from 1934 through 1960, nor the Vikings, which won four NFC or NFL titles from 1969 through 1976, have replicated the same success in the Metrodome as they enjoyed in previous outdoor venues. The Vikings still play in the Metrodome but seek a new stadium.

"You go to places like the 'Shoe, or Iowa or anywhere, Purdue, Michigan State, there's that kind of home-campus feel to it," Weber said. "We never really had that before. So now we have something we take pride in, it's almost like a 12

The Gophers will get a chance to see if TCF Bank Stadium provides an advantage with a challenging home schedule this year. The Gophers face six teams that played in 2009 bowls, including all four Big Ten opponents. Minnesota hosts Iowa on Nov. 27 in the Hawkeyes' first visit to TCF Bank Stadium.

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man for us. So it's an advantage, whereas maybe the Metrodome wasn't."