Go Go Gophers

Gate E

One of the entrances to the new Gopher football stadium. I have not been inside to a game yet, being as this was the first season, tickets were a bit tough to get. Not that I tried hard to get them this year. It is on my list of places to see a football game in the future years.

Another View From The Gates

It wouldn't be right to post one side of the stadium and ignore the other. This is the south side of the new TCF Bank Stadium. There is a bit more character on this side with a few more levels, the press box is there somewhere and who knows how many of those are suites.

TCF Stadium - View From The Gates

Made a return visit to the new Gopher football stadium. There wasn't a practice this evening, but there were enough lights on inside to snap a couple of shots. If my orientation is correct, this is the north side of the stadium.

Golden Gopher Basketball

Tubby Smith is in his third season as coach of the Minnesota Gopher Basketball team. Tonight's opponent was Steven F Austin. The game was close until around three minutes left in the first half, the Gophers pulled away at that point and never looked back. The crowd started leaving with about five minutes to play, so the place looks really empty. But with a nearly 40 point lead, the game was well in hand.

New Home Of Gopher Football

I finally made it over to the University Of Minnesota to see the new TCF Bank Stadium at night. Minnesota Gopher football returns to campus after twenty plus years of playing football games in the Metrodome, several miles off campus. My visit was brief as I was there to see the Gopher Basketball game. I didn't have a tripod with me, but made do with what I could find nearby for this nighttime capture. The stadium is quite impressive and was larger than I expected it to be. The football team was having a practice, so some of the lights were on, just enough for this photo.

My Lens Is Bigger Than Yours

During the last Minnesota Gopher Basketball game with new head coach Tubby Smith, the photographer for the athletic department spent about five minutes in the empty seat in front of me. He had two cameras with him for taking photos. One with a shorter lens that he used when the play was on the near side of the court. A much larger camera and lens was used, the one shown in the photo, when the action was in play on the far end of the court. It was really interesting to watch, every time the the ball was on one side of the court or the other, he would seamlessly switch cameras. Though it's not quite visible in this photo, there was a remote trigger attached to the camera, when he snapped a photo, there was a quick flash of lights that was barely detectable to the fans in the crowd. But there it was, the guy who made the lights flash was sitting right in front of me taking photos for various UofM magazines.