(02-19-2013 08:00 PM)Poliicious Wrote:  If Gompher is serious about extending NIU's profile around the state, his staff should be talking to the Chicago Wolves(2nd highest average attendance in minor league hockey over 300K attended last year) and the Peoria Chiefs (Peoria is on the fringe of northern Illinois) who are a St Louis Cardinal Class A affiliate. Not only did was the Midwest League 3rd among all minor leagues in attendance last year:

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd...ey=pr_milb

With 10% of all minor league attendance (there are 15 leagues including the Mexican league)

There is a huge St Louis Cardinal fanbase in central and southern Illinois. Building a relationship with Peoria could tap into those fans as well. Seems like a direction to take to grow the Huskie fanbase.

Peoria is not really on the fringe of Northern Illinois. Peoria is smack in the heart of Central Illinois...over 2 hours away from DeKalb. I live 10 minutes outside of Peoria's downtown. There is no way Peoria people would invest close to 5 hours on the road round trip for an NIU football game. This area absolutely reeks with orange Illness fans. It's 90 miles to Champaign...a quicker trip for them to go to see the Illness. No way is NIU going to pull from here.
My kids and I and a handful of people in the area are NIU crazy. That's about it and it's not changing anytime IMHO. I wish that were not the case but it is the reality.