I was checking out this article on Cardinal's WCHA blog and I was wondering if anyone else has seen the humor in this article? Maybe it is just me? Ryan Cardinal is a gopher fan from Minneapolis and ranked his home town 4th. Actually for the Twin Cities I think that a grade of "B" is too low. I don't see any reason to act objective in this situation. Most of us would agree Minneapolis is a great city even with the Gophers and there are a lot of amenities that the small towns do not offer.
But I digress; I guess that 4th place is better than the 9th place ranking that my home town of Grand Forks, ND received, I guess I am not blaming him because there are times that I wonder why I decided to stay here after I graduated from college. There was a reason people let Grand Forks after they graduated. Don't get me wrong; Grand Forks is a nice college town with a great hockey progam to follow but there isn't much to do up here unless your a hunter, like to watch hockey and or are a dirt track racing fan, I happen to be a fan of all three. By the way did I say that I was also a big race fan as well. That can be solved by moving somewhere else and buying a satellite dish. Personally I would have just skipped reviewing my own town.
City Experience (Grand Forks, ND)
Grand Forks really suffers in this area in my opinion, since there isn’t a whole heck of a lot to do aside from watch hockey games. The one staple that I try to incorporate into the trip is a visit to the Columbia Mall, which makes for a good time-killer.
Summary on the Grand Forks Road Trip
I personally rank Grand Forks as one of my favorite roadtrips, but it’s not because of the city. It gives you everything you need to make the trip solid, but it really suffers in terms of other things to do aside from watching hockey and it’s long distance from most other WCHA cities.
Overall Grade: C+
Here is Ryan's review on the Twin Cities Road Trip and the UofMN.
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This week, its city No. 4: Minneapolis, Minn., which is home to the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Access
This review as a whole is a bit different for me since I’ve lived in the Twin Cities area my whole life and therefore have never had a chance to ‘visit’ the area. However, as I’ve stated before, I’ve been to all the other WCHA towns, so I feel that I can compare the Minneapolis area to these towns.
Minneapolis is probably the easiest city to get to in the WCHA. It’s about an hour away from St. Cloud and Mankato, two hours from Duluth, and a little over four hours from Madison and Grand Forks. The drive from most of these areas is pretty painless, although the Twin Cities area can certainly generate its share of traffic as you get closer to either downtown.
With the 35W bridge disaster, it’s a little tougher to navigate the area around the Minnesota campus, but it’s still manageable, especially at night (when hockey games generally are) as opposed to rush hour.
The Twin Cities also features an international airport with several flights a day to the Denver / Colorado Springs area, among others.
Bars
As is the case with most big schools in major cities, there are plenty of options for having some fun before and after the games. There are obviously many bars in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, but I think you’ll find that you won’t need to leave the U of M campus to find a good time.
Before the games, there are three places that most fans venture to that are all in the same general area. Sally’s Saloon and Eatery is the biggest hangout of the three. Like the others, it’s just a few blocks from Mariucci Arena and is a typical sports bar. It gets very busy before the games but is big enough to accommodate the hockey crowd. However, it can get very packed if the campus has another event going on that day. The menu is limited on gamedays but is still very solid. It’s a tad spendy, but the atmosphere is what keeps people coming back over the years.
Down the street a bit you’ll find Big Ten Restaurant & Bar. This place gets packed as well, but mainly because it’s very small compared to Sally’s. Big 10 is known for their subs, which are excellent. They have a much better selection of beet on tap, if that’s your thing.
Stub and Herbs is the other of the mainstays for pregaming. Featuring both an upper and lower level, there’s nothing overly special about it, but they have a lot of room and your traditional bar food.
If you’re looking to have some fun at night, The Library is the most popular bar on campus after dark. It gets very packed with the ‘hip and trendy’ crowd, but they have good specials on the weekend and the “scenery” is nice. And yes, it’s about two blocks away from the infamous Blarney Pub and Grill.
Finally, if you’re looking for a late-night snack after your do some bar-hopping, Burrito Loco, which is adjacent to The Library, is where you’ll want to go. They are open well past bar close and it is the place to go for after hours food.
City Experience
There are quite a few things to do in the Twin Cities area. In the fall, Viking and Gopher football games could kill some time on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The Wild start up in early October, which would make for a good time in St. Paul on a Thursday or Sunday. Out-of-towners like to frequent the Mall of America as well if they’ve never been to the Twin Cities area.
Hotels
There are not too many options near Mariucci Arena. The best bet for visitors is the Radisson that is right by the three bars / restaurants I mentioned earlier. It’s well over $100 a night though, which could be problematic.
There is a Days Inn down the street a bit that could be a more viable option for the money-conscience.
If readers have other suggestions here, please feel free to chime in via the comments section, since this is one area that I don’t deal with too often in Minneapolis.
Ticket Cost / Availability
As anyone who has visited the Twin Cities to watch a Gopher game, you know that this is a potential issue. Gopher games are all essentially sold out before tickets go on sale to the public. Scattered single seats and standing-room tickets can be had when tickets go on sale in mid-September each year.
However, buying tickets from scalpers out front has always been a popular route of attack, and now that scalping tickets is legal in Minnesota, this is likely to be an increased course of action for folks looking for seats. The standard ticket is $30, but unless the Gophers are playing someone like North Dakota or Wisconsin, you can likely pay under face-value from scalpers to get in if you play your cards right.
As with any roadtrip though, it’s nice to have tickets in-hand before leaving.
Summary
As I said before, I’ve never “visited” Minneapolis since I live here, but I think it has all the ingredients to be a great roadtrip town: the hockey will almost always be good because of the quality of Minnesota’s teams each year, it’s easy to get to the area and it’s centrally located, and there are plenty of places to hangout around Mariucci. Lodging could be a slight issue if you don’t want to have to drive at all, but finding a decent place isn’t an issue at all. And finally, tickets to Gopher games aren’t going to fall into your lap, but with some many resources online to find tickets, it really shouldn’t be too tough to have them with you before you depart.
Overall Grade: B
Again the first time that I read this article I thought it was hilarious. Ranking ones city that they live in, hence, making the title of Road trip even more funny to me. That's not to say that this isn't a good article because it was. I enjoyed the article. This is what I put for a response in the comments: -- am not sure how it can be a road trip if all your doing is getting in your car and drivin to the rink? :)--
Looking at the ranking I believe that 4th is a little low for the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis, MN. Just my HMO; when looking at Minneapolis one thing there is not a shortage of is bars; there are an enormous amount of great bars and eating facilities in the Minneapolis and St Paul area. In fact I would rank it as one of the best in the country.
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