What are the thoughts on attendance next Wednesday (student and non students), assuming NIU wins tonight and next Wednesday is essentially a game for all the marbles?

- top 15 team coming in
- game for division championship (for all intents and purposes)

Surely has to draw folks out, doesn't it?

Heck, I have a 2.5 week old baby and have missed the EMU and Buffalo games due to that, and have told the wife I plan on making the trip up from Dayton next week if NIU wins tonight.

Toss in the 8 p.m. kick off time and I'm not optomistic that it will be any better than the Buffalo game. The commercials are crazy drive killers. At one point last night the clock stopped to review a play. Of course we went to commercial, we come out of commercial and then Buffalo calls a time out, thus another commercial. Felt like we stopped play for 10 minutes.

Last Night's Attendance= 15,036.

If NIU wins tonight, I hope there is an effort to get the largest crowd of the season, alumni, student organizations, University employees, unions, high school recruits etc. Should do a big tailgate party starting about 5:30 pm.

I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

Be nice to get it close to 19,000-20,000. Hopefully the weather will help.

(11-13-2013 11:16 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

Be nice to get it close to 19,000-20,000. Hopefully the weather will help.

To actually have that number the stands will need to look like it did for EWU. Doubtful to say the least.

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

These mid week games make zero sense to me. Heck, most of our Saturday games are on some ESPN affiliates. I would rather see the November games on Friday nights. With most HS games being done, there would be no "so called controversy" of competing with local HS games. Which I find stupid in itself. The attendance would be a lot better. Maybe even better than on a Saturdays because we would not be competing with OSU and UM games. Consequently, the TV ratings would better as well. Not to mention, in November, there are a lot of mid week NCAA basketball games that ESPN could air on affiliated stations. I think that these mid week games are actually hurting the national perception of the MAC. Playing these games in empty stadiums is not something you want recruits to see. Hope we didn't have any high profile recruits at the game last night, can't imagine that was a positive experience.

We beat a 7-2 team. They don't care. People understand it is cold. If we are winning in front of 100k to 1millions viewers wherever that number lies, it is good for Toledo. When coaches vote for the top 25, I want them to watch our team, not the stands.

(11-13-2013 11:34 AM)DSV27 Wrote:  

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

These mid week games make zero sense to me. Heck, most of our Saturday games are on some ESPN affiliates. I would rather see the November games on Friday nights. With most HS games being done, there would be no "so called controversy" of competing with local HS games. Which I find stupid in itself. The attendance would be a lot better. Maybe even better than on a Saturdays because we would not be competing with OSU and UM games. Consequently, the TV ratings would better as well. Not to mention, in November, there are a lot of mid week NCAA basketball games that ESPN could air on affiliated stations. I think that these mid week games are actually hurting the national perception of the MAC. Playing these games in empty stadiums is not something you want recruits to see. Hope we didn't have any high profile recruits at the game last night, can't imagine that was a positive experience.

Just be thankful you can actually watch the game on TV. The OU-BG game was on a Tuesday night and wasn't even on TV. You had to watch it on your computer, tablet or smartphone!

(11-13-2013 10:12 AM)emanoh Wrote:  Toss in the 8 p.m. kick off time and I'm not optomistic that it will be any better than the Buffalo game. The commercials are crazy drive killers. At one point last night the clock stopped to review a play. Of course we went to commercial, we come out of commercial and then Buffalo calls a time out, thus another commercial. Felt like we stopped play for 10 minutes.

Or what about near the end when Elliott was hurt - he was down for about 5 minutes, but no TV timeout. Then UB kicked the extra point, THEN E$PN when to a commercial. Why not go to commercial when Elliott was down?!?!?!?

(11-13-2013 11:34 AM)DSV27 Wrote:  

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

These mid week games make zero sense to me. Heck, most of our Saturday games are on some ESPN affiliates. I would rather see the November games on Friday nights. With most HS games being done, there would be no "so called controversy" of competing with local HS games. Which I find stupid in itself. The attendance would be a lot better. Maybe even better than on a Saturdays because we would not be competing with OSU and UM games. Consequently, the TV ratings would better as well. Not to mention, in November, there are a lot of mid week NCAA basketball games that ESPN could air on affiliated stations. I think that these mid week games are actually hurting the national perception of the MAC. Playing these games in empty stadiums is not something you want recruits to see. Hope we didn't have any high profile recruits at the game last night, can't imagine that was a positive experience.

That all depends on who you root for :) I'll be busy Friday nights following my high school team these next 4 weeks.

But yes, weekday games suck. We all know this. The crowd last night is just something a college football atmosphere should never be. Our players work hard and they deserve a better turnout than last night. Not to mention, they closed 3 of the parking lots for 'tailgating' the entire day and parking was a b*tch all day for classes. There was not a single soul tailgating in any of the 3 closed lots during the day.

I was disappointed in the student turnout for the Buffalo game...maybe it's not fair to focus on them more than the "paying customers", especially given the temperature, but you would think that, particularly for a "big" game, there would be more interest on campus. I do still hear anecdotal stories from some on campus (students and staff) who don't feel that athletes in general make connections with the campus community...even the "Igniters" for Lady Rockets basketball (a tremendous resource for that program) are largely non-student/non-campus affiliated. I don't know what the answer is--kinda hard to have athletes & coaches fit in personal appeals at frats, sororities, student organizations, dorms, etc... while also practicing, attending class and studying. But for whatever combination of reasons, student attendance has visibly declined each home game since Homecoming.

(11-13-2013 11:02 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Last Night's Attendance= 15,036.

If NIU wins tonight, I hope there is an effort to get the largest crowd of the season, alumni, student organizations, University employees, unions, high school recruits etc. Should do a big tailgate party starting about 5:30 pm.

The crowd of 15K+ must have, for the most part, been hiding in plain sight.

The contractual deal the MAC has is making money and giving exposure to the league. It helps with both revenues and exposure. The quality of Rocket play deserves a full Glass Bowl irrespective of the day or night of the game, IMHO. I'm happy to give a pass on attendance for games similar to November 21, 1964 when Tulsa and Jerry Rhome with Howard Twilly came to the Glass Bowl. It was brutally cold and windy. The crowd dwindled in size as the temps dropped and the wind and snow picked up. I was there to the end of the game. Burrrrrrrrr

Id say there were over 10k there last night.home side and upper deck were decent. press tower looked packed as well so that adds probably near 1000

(11-13-2013 01:16 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  

(11-13-2013 11:34 AM)DSV27 Wrote:  

(11-13-2013 11:03 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I think it will resemble the EMU crowd more. A better student turnout by double of the Buffalo game. About the same normal fan turnout. NIU may have a few more than Buffalo. Announced attendance shouldn't change much.

These mid week games make zero sense to me. Heck, most of our Saturday games are on some ESPN affiliates. I would rather see the November games on Friday nights. With most HS games being done, there would be no "so called controversy" of competing with local HS games. Which I find stupid in itself. The attendance would be a lot better. Maybe even better than on a Saturdays because we would not be competing with OSU and UM games. Consequently, the TV ratings would better as well. Not to mention, in November, there are a lot of mid week NCAA basketball games that ESPN could air on affiliated stations. I think that these mid week games are actually hurting the national perception of the MAC. Playing these games in empty stadiums is not something you want recruits to see. Hope we didn't have any high profile recruits at the game last night, can't imagine that was a positive experience.

That all depends on who you root for :) I'll be busy Friday nights following my high school team these next 4 weeks.

But yes, weekday games suck. We all know this. The crowd last night is just something a college football atmosphere should never be. Our players work hard and they deserve a better turnout than last night. Not to mention, they closed 3 of the parking lots for 'tailgating' the entire day and parking was a b*tch all day for classes. There was not a single soul tailgating in any of the 3 closed lots during the day.

THAT's presumptuous, though I hope you are right.

The siren was a b*t*h to crank last night, the grease in the gears just doesn't like that kind of cold. Lots of opportunities to crank it last night however. The sound didn't carry well last night, including the Glass Bowl sound system.

(11-13-2013 02:13 PM)NewMex RocketFan Wrote:  The contractual deal the MAC has is making money and giving exposure to the league. It helps with both revenues and exposure. The quality of Rocket play deserves a full Glass Bowl irrespective of the day or night of the game, IMHO. I'm happy to give a pass on attendance for games similar to November 21, 1964 when Tulsa and Jerry Rhome with Howard Twilly came to the Glass Bowl. It was brutally cold and windy. The crowd dwindled in size as the temps dropped and the wind and snow picked up. I was there to the end of the game. Burrrrrrrrr

Me too! I have never been colder.

I'm thinking we could get around 20,000 next week.

Week night games at 730 or later against MAC teams no matter how good or ranking will not get a good turnout in November, unless its very nice weather. We must be satisfied with the positives which I assume includes money and recruiting. I am sure they [coaches] mention over and over to recruits how many times we are on ESPN. It does matter to recruits and families.