Bill Chaves UND Update

Dangerous Dave talks with UND Athletic Director Bill Chaves on what is going on this summer at UND. Including the basketball game Vs Alabama and the new softball complex.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, good morning, BillChaves. How are you? I couldn't
be better? Da how about you? Fantastic? So tell me what's going
on at und You know what,summertime always ramp up time, so we're
always looking ahead to what, uh, you know, what's going to happen
this upcoming year. But feels likein Division one athletics there's something every single
day at this point in big news. With Alabama coming to Grand Forks,

(00:21):
we couldn't be any more excited aboutthat. I'll tell you what. I
imagine having a Final four team couldbe number one in the country coming here
in December. Our coaches did agreat job reaching out seeing if they wanted
to bring Grant Nelson back to thestate, and sure enough they thought it
was a great idea. And herewe go. They're coming to the Betty
Why the Betty good question? Youknow we've had that conversation. I would

(00:42):
say three specific reasons. The endof the day, we look through the
prism of a student athlete. Whywould I move them out of their own
locker room and to the court thatthey shoot and play in every single day.
I mean, I feel like thisAlabama's going to have a lot of
advantages on us, why give thema neutral site advantage? Well, and
so at the end that was probablythe number one reason, but number two

(01:03):
in three was our season ticket holderswho've been with us for a long long
time in the Betty. They wantto be in their seats to go watch
a top five team. And thenprobably the third thing, and it's more
infrastructural, is we just don't havea court. We actually would have to
rent the court. And then whatare the markings on that court? I
mean, we're probably going to getsome probably some national media out of this.

(01:23):
You want to make sure you're aspristine as possible, to make sure
you put your right foot forward forthe University of North Dakota, and wants
your logo to be seen as wellwell. And like I said, I
don't know what that court would havelooked like. I would assume money cures
a lot, and it could havebeen anything we wanted it to be,
but I'm sure there would have beena hefty price tag with that. Before

(01:44):
we know what football is going tobe upon us. That's not that far
off. Seven home games this year, seven seven rate, it's unbelievable.
So we start off August thirty firstgoing down to Ames, Iowa and playing
our FBS game, which I thinkhas been a big hit for a lot
of our alums. They love togo that play that I'll call it in
stadiums that see, you know,greater than fifty thousand people. So that'll

(02:07):
be awesome. But then we comehome, and we're home the whole month
of September, and we've got abig one. The second second weekend of
the season. We're playing a sixo'clock game against the University of Montana.
They were down in Frisco last year, lost to South Dakota State in the
championship game. But they're going tobe here in Grand Forks on game number
two, which I'm just telling youis going to be a huge, huge

(02:28):
FCS game. With transfer portal,in your opinion, it seems like our
coaches do a pretty good job ofwhen talent leaves to turn around and recruit
and bring talent back in. That'sright, and I would say we get
caught up in a lot of theoutgoing, but you're right, we have
incomings. But out of the threehundred and sixty some odd student athletes we

(02:50):
had, we had less than tenpercent transfer. Wow. And so that's
number one and number two. Iwould say this before the transfer portal era,
I can guarantee you we didn't havehave zero percent transferring. So the
delta is probably somewhere, maybe betweenthree and five percent more at this point
in time, because it seems likemore of a common occurrence. But at
the end of the day, many, if not most, are still staying

(03:13):
at the University of North Dakota.If somebody wants to become a season ticket
holder, is there still availability onehundred percent? Go to Fighting Hawks dot
com or reach out to Heather rearedIn at the ralph Our ticket office.
She can help you. All ofour season tickets for all of our sports
are on sale right now and infact, right back to the Alabama game.
Best way to get the Alabama ticketsright now is to buy season tickets

(03:34):
for both basketball teams, so it'sone season ticket for both men and women.
The single game tickets have not goneon sale yet, but we are
mentioning to folks that is going tobe your best financial opportunity for you and
then you get the whole season.We got a new softball stadium on the
way. When is that going tobe done? Yeah, so we are
excited about it. If you're goingby Columbia and Second at this point in
time, it's just amazing what's transpiringthere. So all Brickfield will be opening

(03:58):
this fall, this fall, thisfall, this fall. In most sports,
you have a non traditional season,so you have the championship season,
which softball plays in the spring,but they do play games in the fall.
We're going to break the ribbon cutit. We're going to do whatever
we're doing here sometime in September.Stay tuned on it, and we're going
to have a game in that stadiumthis September. Fantastic. Learn more about

(04:19):
everything going on at und at FightingHawks dot com. Thanks Bill, Thanks
to you.