Goodbye, Metrodome. You Won't Be Missed.

The college football season begins in just under two months.  The Minnesota Golden Gophers are opening the season in Syracuse.  What a cruel twist of fate.  The Gophers escape the cavernous cesspool that was/is the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome this season when they move to a spanking-new, outdoor stadium on campus.

Try as they might, they can't escape terrible dome stadiums, as they have to travel to Syracuse's Carrier Dome, which might even be a worse venue than the Metrodome.  Ugh.

I'm too young to remember Memorial Stadium, so the Metrodome is all I've known for Gopher football.  I can't say I'll miss the Metrodome.  Sure, there are some decent memories to take out of the place, but most of those were provided by the Twins, and to be perfectly honest, those Twins teams in 1987 and 1991 were extremely lucky to win the World Series.  They weren't the best team in either of those seasons, but they were playing the best at the end of the season.

If you're looking for positive Gopher Football memories, they are few and far between.  It started off well enough in 1982, with a 57-3 crushing of Ohio, followed up by a 41-11 defeat of Washington State, but the Gophers didn't win any Big Ten games in the Metrodome during the first two seasons there. That should have tipped everyone off that moving the team off campus was a major, major mistake.  The Gophers didn't win a Big Ten game in the Metrodome until they beat Indiana in October 1984. 

On the other hand, there are tons of terrible memories associated with the Metrodome for the Gopher faithful.  Where to start?  A crushing 55-0 loss to Iowa would be a nice start.  Never beating Ohio State or Michigan in the dome. 

I guess nothing stings more than that Friday night (a Twins playoff game forced the Gophers to play on Friday) in 2003 when the Gophers blew a 21-point fourth quarter lead against Michigan and ruined what was probably their best chance to get back to the Rose Bowl.  Those memories make me sick.

There isn't one single thing I'm going to miss about the Metrodome.  Goodbye to blue plastic seats.  Goodbye to sitting in a bubble on a beautiful fall afternoon.  Goodbye to a student section that has to be bussed to the game. 

Hello sunshine.  Hello wind.  Hello tailgating.  Hello on-campus, outdoor football, where it belongs.  M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A.  Goooooooooo Gophers.  Rah!