Complaints about new U stadium? Get in line

Sherman Eagles and his wife were enjoying an 80-degree Saturday evening walking to Jay's Cafe near their home in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood, 2 miles from the Minnesota Gophers' new TCF Bank Stadium.

That's when they heard "FIRST DOWN FOR THE GOPHERS" booming out of the stadium's nearly 800 speakers into the late-summer sky.

"You could clearly understand all the words of the play-by-play announcer," Eagles said. "We could certainly hear it when we got home with the windows open. It was obnoxiously loud, like a car parked in front of your house with the stereo blaring for four hours."

While the Gophers' inaugural game at their new $288.5 million football palace has been generally deemed a success -- a sellout crowd of 50,805 watched the Gophers rally to beat Air Force -- the historic moment prompted an array of complaints.

In addition to the announcer's voice carrying miles away into neighborhoods, first-game problems included ridiculously long lines to get into the stadium and more long lines to get snacks once inside.

"This doesn't take from the beauty of the stadium or watching a football game there," said Neil Arnold, 67, of Mendota Heights. "But it certainly put a damper on the overall experience."

Arnold said he had to wait 30 minutes to get inside "The Bank" because only two security screeners were assigned to pat down thousands of people entering Gate E. Once inside, his wife, Naomi, headed off to fetch a hot dog, a veggie burger and a pop early in the second quarter, only to return after the second-half kickoff and a 45-minute wait.

Jim Biwer, 58, of Eden Prairie, might have been in the same line. He was stunned to find concession stands lacked computers or cash registers. Workers were using $4 handheld calculators, laminated pricing sheets and cash boxes to make their sales. Rather old school for a spanking new stadium.

"I couldn't believe a facility like this didn't have normal cash registers," said Biwer, who also waited for an hour to enter the student section through Gate C. The gates weren't opened until 4:30 p.m., 90 minutes before kickoff.

"It was a beautiful night, but standing in line for an hour isn't a good way to start the experience," Biwer said. "Maybe they'll work the bugs out, but they need to open the gates sooner."

And the long waits did not end with the game.

Afterward, the Arnolds stopped at the Gophers' new stadium store, then returned to their car on the fifth floor of the Oak Street ramp, where they waited 86 minutes to exit.

University Athletic Director Joel Maturi acknowledged some of the glitches and said additional gates will be used this Saturday when the Gophers play their second home game. He said officials are discussing whether to open gates two hours prior to kickoff to ease the crunch by 30 minutes, but no decision has yet been made.

Maturi said tickets don't tell people which gate to enter, a mistake that can't get corrected until next season. As for the announcer's voice, Maturi said the university is checking to see if repositioning speakers might help, though "we thought we had them directed the right way."

"You will hear noise," he said. "We can try to minimize the effect on neighborhoods. But at least the sound system is surprisingly clear. At the Metrodome, I couldn't understand a thing."

Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon, whose ward includes the stadium, said he actually expected more than the handful of complaints he received Monday.

"It's a learning experience, and it looks like they did a fairly good job on their first night," Gordon said.

A long-standing community advisory group on stadium issues met at the university Monday and found it had few serious issues to discuss, said Steve Banks, former president of the Prospect Park Neighborhood Association who's a member of the committee.

"Considering they moved 50,000 people in and out of there in pretty short order, it went astonishingly well," Banks said.

Some fans questioned the university policy that bans overnight parking in stadium lots, saying that the rule discourages people who had too much to drink from calling a taxi and retrieving their car in the morning.

"Fans aren't allowed to drink in the stadium," Maturi said, "so that shouldn't be a problem."

Curt Brown • 612-673-4767