Moved to MN. Interesting observations

Lived in MN for the past 4 years. It is very clearly a Vikings, Twins, Wild town. Literally no one cares about the Timberwolves. You actually find most Gophers fans outside of the cities in smaller towns. Most people I worked with actually went to a MN D2 or D3 school. Not a ton of Gophers alumn. Tons of St Thomas grads and they are very very proud of the fact that they went there….and paid $50k a year.

Certainly an NFL/NHL town. Gophers are in 1st place in the Big 10 west and doing it after pretty much losing all of their running backs to injury that they thought would even play this year. That includes the Big 10's leading rusher from last year who had 160 yards against Ohio State in three quarters in the 1st game of the season before hurting his achilles. Instead of being a big story, the local columnists just talk about the Vikings and rip on Fleck when they do write Gophers. It's weird. If the Gophers hadn't lost so many guys I'd have them big favorites to win out.
 
We moved to Minnesota this year and I've noticed a few Iowa State-related things.

*I see more Iowa State apparel now than I did up here 10 years ago.

*Hawkeye apperal outnumbers Iowa State apparel 10-1+.

*I see a lot of Gopher sweatshirts but maybe 3 cars with Gopher license plates. It's not "a thing" up here like it is in Iowa.

*When we lived in Iowa for a decade, I did not meet one single Minnesota alumni who lived in Ames/Des Moines. I know they exist, but that seems on purpose :)

*Half this town went to NDSU, or at least they're the proudest fan base

*College football exists, but it's a niche activity. It's weird to not be surronded by collegeite football fans.

All true. ONLY reason Iowa has more clothes than ISU available is because it's close and another Big Ten school. I will also add Minnesota fans hate Iowa more than Cyclone fans. College sports here is very niche...blows my mind that the U of M has an enrollment of 50,000+ and is downtown and they still struggle to get fans interested/sellouts in almost all sports. I don't see as many Hawk fans up here as you I guess. I see a ton of ISU fans with apparel and cars with ISU license plate holders etc.
 
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I went to the Minnesota/Wisconsin game a while back in the metrodome. Wisconsin fans greatly outnumbered Minnesota fans.
 
Born and raised in the Twin Cities. (went to ISU obviously) The Twin Cities are 100% a pro sports town. The Gophs will always be an afterthought. Also, using MOA to judge alliances is no good. I'd be 99% of those you saw with Iowa gear are visiting.

There's a ton of Cyclones in the Twin Cities.
 
I live in Minnesota, and I can assure you the whole "Minnesota Nice" thing is a complete joke. If you compare people in Minnesota versus people in Iowa, it's not even a fair comparison....Iowans are way nicer.

It really should be called "Minnesota Passive Aggressive".
 
I live in Minnesota, and I can assure you the whole "Minnesota Nice" thing is a complete joke. If you compare people in Minnesota versus people in Iowa, it's not even a fair comparison....Iowans are way nicer.

It really should be called "Minnesota Passive Aggressive".

This couldnt be more spot on. Just spent the last 7 years in Minnesota and only recently came back to Iowa because we have a small family now and it's so nice to be close to help.

I just chalked it up to insecurity. Go across the boarder to WI and it's completely different. My experience anyway.
 
That was a huge shock to me when I lived in Co Springs too. I couldn't believe how completely off the radar college sports were. I was a CFB geek, so I went to a few AFA games and went to a CSU game when they were ranked. AFA is an interesting atmosphere, but I never went to a game vs. another service academy, so the atmosphere was pretty lame. CSU environment was terrible. They were like #16 at the time (early 2000s) and the crowd was terrible. Maybe 20k.

People had a general idea if the Buffs were good, but along the lines of people in central Iowa seeing Grandview on the local news so they have an idea of how good the team is. People didn't really follow or care.
I have been told the atmosphere at CSU has improved since they got their new stadium. I haven't been to a game yet. Next door neighbor is a CSU grad and has access to a set of family season tickets. We're eventually going to go to a game. But he generally pays no attention to his alma mater's program even though he would tell you he's a sports fan.

I'm still planning to attend some AFA games because, hey, it's Division I football and right here in town. Been too busy so far this fall though.

Been to a couple Buffs games and have contemplated getting season tickets but the atmosphere is nothing like Ames.
 
I moved to just SW of city of MPLS. Tons of Gopher apparel around me, just not a lot of outward signs like garden rocks with logos, license plates, flags, etc.

This is a very Iowa thing, but it's really more about not having a pro team. The south and other midwest states are similar in putting their college logo on anything.
 
I have been told the atmosphere at CSU has improved since they got their new stadium. I haven't been to a game yet. Next door neighbor is a CSU grad and has access to a set of family season tickets. We're eventually going to go to a game. But he generally pays no attention to his alma mater's program even though he would tell you he's a sports fan.

I'm still planning to attend some AFA games because, hey, it's Division I football and right here in town. Been too busy so far this fall though.

Been to a couple Buffs games and have contemplated getting season tickets but the atmosphere is nothing like Ames.
Moved to Fort Collins 2 1/2 years ago and have been to 3 CSU games this year. Game atmosphere isn’t great. Went to the Boise State game Saturday and stadium was maybe half full. Bought tickets Saturday morning for $25 on the 30 yard line row 9 lower level.
Is there ever a Cyclone game day watch here in Fort Collins?
 
I am from Minnesota, and as an adult, if you don't have childhood friends around, good luck trying to make new ones. People in Iowa are way more open to random chit-chatting and being friendly.

^ QFT. I've only been here 40 some years so my "experiment" is not complete but your really right on that IMHO. I didn't go to high school with the peeps in the neighborhood so can never really be their friends. I've only been in the neighborhood since 1986 so can't yet expect peeps to invite me over or anything. :rolleyes:

Also, double ostracized since the x moved out. If you aren't a couple you might as well be a suspected terrorist or something. A dog helps a little bit, when I was walking nieces little monster mutt people seemed to engage more.
 
This couldnt be more spot on. Just spent the last 7 years in Minnesota and only recently came back to Iowa because we have a small family now and it's so nice to be close to help.

I just chalked it up to insecurity. Go across the boarder to WI and it's completely different. My experience anyway.

Wisconsin is a very different culture than Minnesota, and one I strongly prefer.

Minnesota is insular and stand offish. They think the world revolves around them, and that they are vastly superior to the outside world- particularly neighboring states.
 
I was at the Mall of America on Saturday and it was more like 25-1 in favor of the Hawkeyes apparel.



I go to every MNUFC home game, it's really fun in the stadium. I think the Vikings and Twins are "default" apparel for people who wants something but aren't huge sports fans.
Minnesotans don’t go to the Mall of America. Small town Iowans and Wisconsinites do. I lived in Minneapolis for three years and didn’t go to the Mall of America once.
 
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Moved to Fort Collins 2 1/2 years ago and have been to 3 CSU games this year. Game atmosphere isn’t great. Went to the Boise State game Saturday and stadium was maybe half full. Bought tickets Saturday morning for $25 on the 30 yard line row 9 lower level.
Is there ever a Cyclone game day watch here in Fort Collins?
Have you checked with Alumni Association to see if there's a chapter up there? I know there is one in Denver and their fearless leader posts here sometimes. We have one in Springs but that'd be a long drive for you. If you want to come down for a game watch though we'll roll out the red carpet!
 
When we lived in northern Iowa, Minneapolis was always our default city for a long weekend. Once we moved to Des Moines, we pick KC probably 4 times for every 1 time we go to Minneapolis. After the last time we were there we kind of decided that there was zero reason to every choose Minneapolis over KC or really any city in the Midwest. I doubt if they miss me.
 
I went to the Minnesota/Wisconsin game a while back in the metrodome. Wisconsin fans greatly outnumbered Minnesota fans.

WI has some big sports fans OR they just need a reason to day drink in a parking lot.

Actually pretty big hockey culture which makes no sense to not have a pro team.
 
Wisconsin is a very different culture than Minnesota, and one I strongly prefer.

Minnesota is insular and stand offish. They think the world revolves around them, and that they are vastly superior to the outside world- particularly neighboring states.

I considered moving to Minneapolis a long while ago because I thought I needed 'more' and glad I didn't for several reasons but being told all weekend how amazing the Twin Cities were didn't help.

It's a cool place for sure but folks acted like it was the only place with live music or stuff to do outdoors.
 
Wisconsin is a very different culture than Minnesota, and one I strongly prefer.

Minnesota is insular and stand offish. They think the world revolves around them, and that they are vastly superior to the outside world- particularly neighboring states.
They are very region centric. They think everything Minnesota/Twin cities is the center of the universe. I travel to California with a buddy who lives in Burnsville, suburb of the twin cities. We were in Los Angeles and we was telling people he was from Burnsville. I tried to coach him that when you are away from home, you don't say the suburb you are from you say the city. When I'm out of town I don't say Urbandale, I say Des Moines. But Minnesotans are region centric enough they think everyone knows what and where Burnsville is, they are not aware enough to know that people from other areas know Minneapolis or the Twin Cities, they don't know Burnsville.
 

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