In a special announcement Monday, athletics director Matt Larson confirmed that the North Dakota State Bison football team will open the 2019 season at Target Field in Minneapolis. It does not come as a surprise, but the big question is why?

This is technically a neutral game site, but the Bison will be the home team. Let’s just stem the fears here; this does not take a home game out of Fargo. The 2019 schedule has 12 dates on it, compared to 11 this year. The Bison will maintain six games in the Fargodome, along with five road contests.

But why play a game in the Twin Cities anyway. First off, publicity. To say this game isn’t for show is a straight-up lie. A good amount of the Bison recruitment base is down around that area. Hopefully this will give the Bison more attention, and become more prominent option for players coming out of high school.

Second, there is the fan base. There are approximately 12,000 NDSU alumni in the metro. This provides easier access to a game. Think of this almost as a thank you to all of those alumni who can’t make it back to Fargo.

But the real issue is going to come from the Fargo fan base. While three and a half hours isn’t too bad of a trip, it is still a trip. It is safe to assume this game will draw more Bison fans than the Iowa game back in September, around 8,000 fans, give or take. If BisoNation goes for an eight-hour trip, Minneapolis is easy.

The students are the key here. The thing about an away and neutral game site (i.e. Frisco) is it is tough for students to get to these games. Down in Iowa, it is safe to say there were less than 1,000 current NDSU students there. That number may be very high as well.

Thankfully, Minneapolis is a relatively close game that does not require flying or long car trips. A good chunk of the NDSU student population is from the Twin Cities. So essentially, they can go home for the weekend and catch the game. It will be interesting to see how many student tickets will be available.

Tickets and their prices will be set at a later date. Some indication can come from looking at the other football game scheduled at Target Field, Tommie-Johnnie, next year. For those who don’t know what Tommie-Johnnie is, it is the matchup between St. Thomas and St. John’s. It is the biggest rivalry in Division III, pulling in 17,327 spectators in 2015.

Ticket prices have been announced for that game, with student tickets costing $10. Two thousand student tickets will be available for both schools. General admission will cost between $15-$35 depending on the seats.

It is a safe bet the prices, at least for general admission, will be higher for the Bison game.

As always, there is money involved. The Twins will pay $185,000 to Butler, covering the cost the Bison would have had. The Twins will also pay up to $600,000 to the Bison based on attendance, as reported by The Forum.

Another issue will be the stadium itself. The location of the student section is unknown, but it will likely be behind the end zone down the first base line. The field itself will not be fully grass. The infield dirt will remain in place.

There will be no extra seating in the outfield, and there has been no decision if any of the seats will be covered up.

Tailgating is another issue facing this game. There are really no good tailgate spots around the downtown stadium. There is still time to finalize the small details, so hang tight BisoNation.