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Home > Bison Media Zone > Local family giving back to Bison with free admission to WNIT game
Podcast: Bison Media Zone
Episode:

Local family giving back to Bison with free admission to WNIT game
Category: Sports & Recreation
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2024-03-22 17:50:22
Description: FARGO The impact the North Dakota State women’s basketball team has had on Derrick and Kristen Dinger and their family will probably last a lifetime. For instance, one photo on social media has one daughter standing next to NDSU sophomores Elle Evans and Abby Graham at a junior high game in West Fargo.

What goes around is coming around on Monday. The Dingers, along with Derrick’s company Northwestern Mutual, are giving back in the form of a gift to the athletic department that will give fans free admission to Monday night’s Women's NIT second round game between the Bison and University of Montana.



No tickets will be distributed per se for the 7 p.m. tipoff; fans can just show up at Scheels Center at Sanford Health Athletic Complex and grab a general admission seat.



“We’ve fallen in love with this women’s team,” Derrick said.



It will be NDSU’s first postseason game at home since hosting the Division II North Central Regional in 2000. The Bison were selected to the WNIT last season, but lost in the first round at the University of Oregon. Dinger is hoping free admission will give fans another reason to see what he’s seen all season: a team on the rise.



“With the craziness of all the high school sports going on, all the kids travel sports, I just think the women’s program is often overlooked,” Dinger said. “I think there is such an incredible product out there that if we can just invite people to come to a game and pack the place, hopefully they’ll fall in love with the program the way we have.”


Scheels Arena carries a capacity of 5,460, with NDSU’s high attendance mark this season being 2,502 vs. the University of North Dakota.



Which, incidentally, was another motivating factor for the Dingers. Derrick saw over 5,000 attend the men’s game that was held earlier in the day. So he reached out to the NDSU administration and asked if there was something he could do.



The guarantee to host a first-round game is $5,000 and a second-round game is $10,000. The tournament is operated by Triple Crown Sports out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Dinger did not want to get into the specifics of the contribution.



He is a managing partner at Northwestern Mutual in Fargo who has become good friends with Bison head coach Jory Collins. NDSU’s program has made marked improvement since Collins took the job in 2019.



“Derrick and Northwestern Mutual helping secure a postseason home game means a ton to our team and players,” Collins said.



The Dingers moved to Fargo a few years ago after spending time in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where they would frequently see thousands of fans attend Northern State women’s basketball games.



“Just seeing the success that Jory has brought and the energy that he’s brought, I still don’t think we’ve touched the tip of the iceberg yet on what it will look like,” Dinger said. “Hearing stories of what it used to look like in the past with the powerhouse programs, I think that’s the direction that it’s going. It gives me goosebumps seeing the progress they’ve made thus far.”

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