The Alerus

[gotmypopcorn]

Question for those attending the Girls State B, how is the Alerus as a basketball venue?

[InTheKnow]

Could be a lot better of they didn't have the movable seats set so far away from the floor. Also have no idea why they dont have the shot clocks up since the game clock is on them. they are just laying backwards on top of the basket support beam. Considering the game clock is about 50 yards away on the end walls WAY up high, having those clocks there would be very beneficial. They are running anyway so might as well use them.

[coachh]

The portable seating opposite the team benches is not that great. It's folding chairs. They're ok, the problem is there is not enough elevation from row to row which hampers visability. The better seating is in the permanent bleachers where the row-to-row elevation is greater. The bleachers on the team bench side appear to be the same as the permanent seating opposite the team benches.

It's unfortunate that there is no ground floor entrance into the arena. You climb up to the concourse to go back down to the seating.

The concessions appear to be adequate. There appears to be a good selection. Other than popcorn, prices appear to be reasonable.

Best surprise about tournament - FREE PARKING.

The GF Herald reported that Forks wants to host more tournaments and is wanting to use the GIrls B to send an invite to bring more to town. I think the venue could handle a State Class B Boys. The greater question is can the community handle the crowd? I'm hearing concerns over room availability. The only way Forks could handle the B boys tourney would be if it was the only show in town. That's a tall order in hockey country, with a D1 university. If Forks can dedicate the weekend to a single event, the state B, they might be able to pull it off. This weekend there are other things going on that put a clamp on rooms, state swimming and UND's basketball tournament to mention two.

The GF Herald reported Sat AM that a spectator fell off the bleachers (about a 30 ft drop) attempting to grab a t-shirt. During haltime of the final game Friday, a t-shirt overshot the crowd on the team bench side. It hit the curtain above the bleachers and fell to the floor behind the bleachers. I overheard someone talking about that as we were leaving after the game but dismissed it as just teasing.

Those guardsmen have had a difficult time controlling that cannon this tournament. Apparently, they need to spend some more time at the range. Wonder what kind of new rules we'll see about t-shirt cannons? No, I"m not trying to be funny or disrespectfull, it's just that this type of thing often causes 'commom' sense to disappear.

[basketball]

I was at the games last night and I thought the Alerus was pretty decent. 100% better then the dome. I do agree they should have the end bleachers closer to the court. And that boy did not fall, he ran up the stairs and jumped over. I saw it with my own eyes and for a second there I couldn't believe it and then I thought maybe there was a ledge or something on the back side of the stands.

[tingly]

KMAV radio said he landed on his feet, but it was pretty bad. They saw it and thought it was a shirt grab, too. If he's lucky, he only broke 1 leg.

[sportsfan10]

my friend says The Alerus is great because they have 3 different places to buy dippin dots. that's his only comment on The Alerus.
i think its a great place to watch games. but i can imagine the students being mad about being so far from the action. just from watching them at the games, you can tell that they would definetely like to be closer. and the sides are kind of far away as well, but i suppose you'll get that at fargo, minot, or bismarck, too.

[baseball]

my friend says The Alerus is great because they have 3 different places to buy dippin dots. that's his only comment on The Alerus.
i think its a great place to watch games. but i can imagine the students being mad about being so far from the action. just from watching them at the games, you can tell that they would definetely like to be closer. and the sides are kind of far away as well, but i suppose you'll get that at fargo, minot, or bismarck, too.

not sure about minot but i konw fargo and bismarck they have the crowd ALOT closer to the floor. In bismarck the students are actually on the floor on the baseline down there and in fargo they get right up to the point where the wood stops. from just on tv you can tell the GF is a prety bad set up for the tourney, although it is their first time so its a learning experience.

[larrybird33]

Well... they have hosted basketball before (the EDC tournament).

[rock83]

I was at all the games and the set up at the Alerus is great. Good setup and much much better than the fargodome. I thought the venue wasnt much worse than the Bismarck civic center.

my friend says The Alerus is great because they have 3 different places to buy dippin dots. that's his only comment on The Alerus.
i think its a great place to watch games. but i can imagine the students being mad about being so far from the action. just from watching them at the games, you can tell that they would definetely like to be closer. and the sides are kind of far away as well, but i suppose you'll get that at fargo, minot, or bismarck, too.

not sure about minot but i konw fargo and bismarck they have the crowd ALOT closer to the floor. In bismarck the students are actually on the floor on the baseline down there and in fargo they get right up to the point where the wood stops. from just on tv you can tell the GF is a prety bad set up for the tourney, although it is their first time so its a learning experience.

[LittleWillie]

The front row seating was terrible. Padded fold up chairs packed in. The rows did not have enough elevation. We moved up to the regular seating and had a much better view. Cost for hospitality rooms at the alerus were terrible. It cost $250 to have a security gaurd stand by the door plus the price of the room. Also if you wanted tables they cost extra too. Everyone stood or sat around the outside of the room. People we spread all around town due to lack of pre-planning for the fans. No blocks of rooms were set aside for the towns.
Also going out after the games were done, we didn't feel as welcome. No welcome signs, glad to see ya, etc., hospitality I thought was low. We were in one of the 'pubs' at the CanadAd during the night games friday night and all but 1 of the TV's switched to the hockey game and they plugged the sound into the speakers. I know GF is all about hockey but there wasn't too many people watching hockey in there.
Lets get back to Minot and Bismarck.

[siouxfan2]

Best surprise about tournament - FREE PARKING.

The GF Herald reported that Forks wants to host more tournaments and is wanting to use the GIrls B to send an invite to bring more to town. I think the venue could handle a State Class B Boys. The greater question is can the community handle the crowd? I'm hearing concerns over room availability. The only way Forks could handle the B boys tourney would be if it was the only show in town. That's a tall order in hockey country, with a D1 university. If Forks can dedicate the weekend to a single event, the state B, they might be able to pull it off. This weekend there are other things going on that put a clamp on rooms, state swimming and UND's basketball tournament to mention two.

The Alerus has hosted the EDC regionals and the Class A boys/girls. But those tournaments require two courts (end to end in the Alerus' case), so the setup is different for those tournaments. The Timberwolves have had exibition games a number of times in the Alerus with the same setup as the Class B girls, and the Timberwolves were sufficiently motivated to come back a few more times.

As far as motel rooms, Grand Forks has added nearly 1000 hotels rooms in the past few years, so it easily has more hotel rooms than Minot. IF there's a problem, part of it lies with the NDSHAA, which gave Grand Forks both the state HS swimming championships and the Girls B tournament the same weekend. There are no major hockey events ongoing, but UND basketball is sponsoring an independent tournament at the Betty that brought in six other college M/W teams. On weekends without UND hockey - like this one - Canadians are often the ones who book the rooms. In planning for this weekend like this, Grand Forks had to have worked with UND to ensure the hockey team would be out of town: many of the nearly 11,000 who go to games are from out-of-town.

The weekend of the boys Class B tournament there would not be any overlap with other events in Grand Forks. The Class B boys tournament weekend coincides with the hockey Final Five in St Paul and the first round of the NCAA playoffs in both men's and women's basketball. There wouldn't be other events that weekend. The only question would be: would Engelstad Arena host the tournament or the Alerus? Engelstad can host 13,000 for basketball.

[ballaholic#3]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves talking about Class "B" Boys in Grand Forks. It will be a cold day in you know where before it comes to Grand Forks. By the way, Minot allows the student section to be at the end of the court. I also like the fact that there is NO jumbotron which means there are no distractions apart from basketball. Bismarck and Minot definitely know how to host a tournament as every fan there feels welcome. I can't say the same about the Alerus. Also in light of the unfortunate accident at the Alerus, no one has to worry about falling onto cement from 35 feet just to chase a T-shirt. In Minot or Bismarck that would never have happened. So the point is here is that the class B boys need's to stay in Minot or Bismarck.

[3girlsbbmom]

The alerus was horrible, very dissappointed at the way they did things!!! And the young man that fell 30 ft off the bleachers has 2 broken wrists, a broken pelvis, a fractured skull, and broken ribs.

[coachh]

The alerus was horrible, very dissappointed at the way they did things!!!

You feel that strongly yet provide no reasoning?

[BearDogs0911]

I heard that GF wants to host a Boys "B" state tourney, but the first year that they would be able to would be 2012.

[07ndgolfer]

I heard that GF wants to host a Boys "B" state tourney, but the first year that they would be able to would be 2012.

Well if Grand Forks ever wants to do that they have a lil bit of work ahead of them... First off its a pain sitting on the side with the portable bleachers because all the concessions and restrooms are on the other side of the building. When they split up the tickets for the teams on the portable side, they split them up so the team sections ran horizontal instead of vertical... absolutely retarded. Then after the whole incident with the boy falling off the back, im sure they will have to upgrade the railing on the back, the railing maybe 3 feet tall, not nearly enough when u have lil kids attending the games. Then for the introductions for the championship game, they didn't shut the lights off or anything like that.

But i do have to give them credit over the fargo dome for hosting a basketball event, i thought they had a better set up, but it's nothing to brag about. If Grand Forks wants to ever hold a state class b girls basketball event again, i think the betty would be a much better set up for it, then for boys it would be nice if they could get into the ralph, but i doubt that will ever happen with hockey goin on in the same season. Personally i think the class b tournaments should only be held in Minot or Bismarck, and since class A does their super A deal, the bigger venues like the alerus and fargo dome can host those.

[BearDogs0911]

I heard that GF wants to host a Boys "B" state tourney, but the first year that they would be able to would be 2012.

Well if Grand Forks ever wants to do that they have a lil bit of work ahead of them... First off its a pain sitting on the side with the portable bleachers because all the concessions and restrooms are on the other side of the building. When they split up the tickets for the teams on the portable side, they split them up so the team sections ran horizontal instead of vertical... absolutely retarded. Then after the whole incident with the boy falling off the back, im sure they will have to upgrade the railing on the back, the railing maybe 3 feet tall, not nearly enough when u have lil kids attending the games. Then for the introductions for the championship game, they didn't shut the lights off or anything like that.

But i do have to give them credit over the fargo dome for hosting a basketball event, i thought they had a better set up, but it's nothing to brag about. If Grand Forks wants to ever hold a state class b girls basketball event again, i think the betty would be a much better set up for it, then for boys it would be nice if they could get into the ralph, but i doubt that will ever happen with hockey goin on in the same season. Personally i think the class b tournaments should only be held in Minot or Bismarck, and since class A does their super A deal, the bigger venues like the alerus and fargo dome can host those.

I totally agree. The crowd seemed way to far from the court. I think there should've definately been a light show too. So I hope the tournaments stay in Minot and Bismarck.

[baseball]

I'm not sure how they do it in Fargo but dont the lights in Football arenas usually take a while to warm back up? turn them off for the lineups then you wait 8-10 minutes for them to come back on for tipoff....

[toddjames]

my friend says The Alerus is great because they have 3 different places to buy dippin dots. that's his only comment on The Alerus.
i think its a great place to watch games. but i can imagine the students being mad about being so far from the action. just from watching them at the games, you can tell that they would definetely like to be closer. and the sides are kind of far away as well, but i suppose you'll get that at fargo, minot, or bismarck, too.

not sure about minot but i konw fargo and bismarck they have the crowd ALOT closer to the floor. In bismarck the students are actually on the floor on the baseline down there and in fargo they get right up to the point where the wood stops. from just on tv you can tell the GF is a prety bad set up for the tourney, although it is their first time so its a learning experience.

Oh yeah it's close in Minot too... The action is pretty up close and personal at the dome, even when your in the seats. It's elevated well and the ends get pretty close too...

[Hinsa]

The Alerus setup for basketball is terrible in my opinion. There isn't a fan within 30 feet of the court. Absolutely no atmosphere. Seriously, if you watched on TV, did you ever see a fan within view of the main camera angle? It looked like the games were played in an empty auditorium from that main camera angle.

Entrance to the seating from only one side of the court caused a lot of extra people traffic back and forth. And the dippin dots location in the corner of the court caused lines to extend out into the seating area, blocking the view of some fans in the end seating.

Plus, the whole travel thing to the eastern part of the state. Why in the world do we force western teams to travel all the way to the eastern border?

Put all the tournaments except hockey and football in Bismarck and Minot and leave them there. Hockey needs to be at the Ralph. Football needs to be in a dome. Baseball in Jamestown is fine too - they have a great ballpark.

[Bob Holiday]

As a poor football stadium adapted to basketball it wasn't that bad. The only complaint I have is that there are magnificent basketball venues in Minot and Bismarck and one of them isn't hosting a tournament this year so they could hold one in a poor football stadium. Doesn't make much sense.

[pushthrough13]

As a poor football stadium adapted to basketball it wasn't that bad. The only complaint I have is that there are magnificent basketball venues in Minot and Bismarck and one of them isn't hosting a tournament this year so they could hold one in a poor football stadium. Doesn't make much sense.

Exactly right. Having it at the Alerus is on the same level as having state track anywhere but the Bowl.

[gfhockey]

the herald said there was 15,000 tickets sold for the class b girls


is that average? below? more?


anyone know?

[3girlsbbmom]

I dont have to give reasons everyone else has said everything that was wrong with the Alerus!

The alerus was horrible, very dissappointed at the way they did things!!!

You feel that strongly yet provide no reasoning?

[Milkman]

I dont have to give reasons everyone else has said everything that was wrong with the Alerus!

The alerus was horrible, very dissappointed at the way they did things!!!

You feel that strongly yet provide no reasoning?

In that case, what would have been beneficial would have been to say "the alerus was horrible for the previously mentioned reasons. I completely agree with them"

Your comment was very open ended. We didnt know if you had different reasons for being unhappy with the venue or the same. You have every right to an opinion but well explained ones are much more benificial to everyone on the site.