Jon Marthaler bakes up a batch of delicious links just for you. Other times, you can find him here and here. Jon?

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Happy Saturday! Like many other eternal optimists, I'm headed to TCF Bank Stadium this morning, to watch the Gophers kick off year two back on campus. It occurs to me that there are many people who, by virtue of young age or selective memory, will not remember what it was like to attend Gopher football games in the Metrodome. I spent a decade doing so, so allow me to record for posterity: it was awful, sheer din and cacaphony of the worst kind, featuring the sound of mic'ed-up drumbeats echoing off of empty seats, and of Iowa fans ricocheting off of concrete walls. I can't imagine it will be remembered fondly by anyone, except for possibly Lou Holtz.

Be glad for what we have, I guess, is the message of this morning's weekend links. Speaking of which: away we go!

*In news that will likely be disturbing to well-known "soccer kisser-upper" Michael Rand, the era of pro soccer in Minnesota may well be over. This is, sadly, only partially because commenter Super Rookie up and moved to Florida; mostly it's because the US Soccer Federation doesn't figure that a non-profit can keep a soccer team afloat for any length of time. At any rate, if you've got a spare $20 million lying around, the National Sports Center would like to hear from you.

*Twins links: David Wintheiser at Twinkie Town is turning to Bertrand Russell for help in understanding the AL Central race. Meanwhile, TwinsCentric's Parker Hageman wants to know where Michael Cuddyer's power has gone, and justifiably so. Strangely, four Twins hit 28 or more home runs last year; no Twin may reach that number this year, and there's a good chance only two will hit 20.

*Remember Thursday's Vikings game? Let me stress that it was a regular-season matchup on a non-traditional night for football, and then let me tell you that the TV ratings were absolutely ridiculous. The game drew more viewers than every game of the NBA Playoffs except for Game 7 of the Finals, every college football bowl game except for the national championship, every World Series game since 2004, and every hockey game pretty much ever, except for the USA-Canada gold medal game at the Olympics. All this is a preamble to this question: How righteously angry will this country be when there's no NFL next fall?

*And finally: Want to have your facility be a practice site for a World Cup team? FIFA may want your firstborn child. I'd like the World Cup to come to the USA again, but it does seem fairly obvious that the tournament is the overpriced sporting boondoggle to end all boondoggles.

That'll do it for me; if you're free next Wednesday, I suggest you go and support the history of hockey. Seriously. Get the details from Hockey Wilderness at that link, then clear your calendar. (Or just click over to see commenter Nathan talking to two guys at the bar.)