Let us face facts. The best 4 years of NIU football and we cannot sell 5000 season tickets. I hope SF can id the problems and fix them. Maybe we are what we are and nothing can change it. Having weekday games is a major problem for us folks with family that need to travel 2 plus hours each way. I hope I am wrong.

They weekday games are gold for the football team. It's really the only way we can get televised and that has obviously paid off on the recruiting trail with kids like D.J. Brown who stated that he knew about NIU because of their Thursday night games in November. Sure it's hard for people that live further away. I know because I'm one off them, but the students do show up to those games and they create a better atmosphere than the season ticket holders.

(06-25-2014 02:21 PM)BobL Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 02:09 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 02:00 PM)huskiebob Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 12:04 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  -Season Tickets at 64% of 2013 puts us at about 2600. Doesnt sound good to me. Goal was 8K. Looks like we'll be lucky to get to 5K.

Sean Frazier has a great vision and great plans, but the inability to attract new season ticket holders jeopardizes everything. I'll never understand why the great teams of the last four years aren't putting more butts in the seats at Huskie Stadium.

+1

Really need to turn around the "local" support into part of the BASE of Season Tickets. I know SF with the help of Baker is trying. Still don't understand why DeKalb/Sycamore doesn't support as it should.....

I truly believe SF was the perfect fit for this position and to accomplish these goals. My fear is that if SF can't get it done...no one can.

Personally I think that many of the "local" folks are used to being able to walk up on gameday and get seats(in the past, many times discounted)..they wait and see if its gonna be a nice day then go. Once season ticket sales pick up I think that many will hop on and there will be a bit of a snowball effect. The key of course is to start that snowball rolling...

Kinda like the "move to the Big 12" snowball?

IMHO, the key is realizing our success does not have to be like everyone else's. Season tickets are a measure of success, I guess. They are for other programs. But are they the only measure of success for Huskie football? I say no. Absolutely not. It should be a goal, but nothing to get too upset about if the base grows only very slowly. The goal should be to get some growth in season tickets, but more importantly, continue to grow home attendance, period. Whether it is season tickets or game day sales, just get fans in the seats.

(06-25-2014 02:00 PM)huskiebob Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 12:04 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  -Season Tickets at 64% of 2013 puts us at about 2600. Doesnt sound good to me. Goal was 8K. Looks like we'll be lucky to get to 5K.

Sean Frazier has a great vision and great plans, but the inability to attract new season ticket holders jeopardizes everything. I'll never understand why the great teams of the last four years aren't putting more butts in the seats at Huskie Stadium.

Poor home schedule keeps most casual fans away - could be resolved as soon as 2016 with a P5 in Huskie stadium AND the game being marketed.
Us diehards don't care about the schedule as much but as the survey numbers show there are not many of us.

Limited premium options keep wealthy social alums away - seems to being resolved.

Crappy consessions for those who do come as a casual fan and dont or can't afford to tailgate - have not heard of any change for this year.

I expect the gameday atmosphere will improve with the marketing of the yard which should help sales next year.

(06-25-2014 02:21 PM)BobL Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 02:09 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 02:00 PM)huskiebob Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 12:04 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  -Season Tickets at 64% of 2013 puts us at about 2600. Doesnt sound good to me. Goal was 8K. Looks like we'll be lucky to get to 5K.

Sean Frazier has a great vision and great plans, but the inability to attract new season ticket holders jeopardizes everything. I'll never understand why the great teams of the last four years aren't putting more butts in the seats at Huskie Stadium.

+1

Really need to turn around the "local" support into part of the BASE of Season Tickets. I know SF with the help of Baker is trying. Still don't understand why DeKalb/Sycamore doesn't support as it should.....

I truly believe SF was the perfect fit for this position and to accomplish these goals. My fear is that if SF can't get it done...no one can.

Personally I think that many of the "local" folks are used to being able to walk up on gameday and get seats(in the past, many times discounted)..they wait and see if its gonna be a nice day then go. Once season ticket sales pick up I think that many will hop on and there will be a bit of a snowball effect. The key of course is to start that snowball rolling...

YES!

Locals and alums.

Frazier's promics of no more fire sales will remove the reason to wait until the last min. It may take a year or two for it to sink in though.

(06-25-2014 03:50 PM)YoungPup Wrote:  They weekday games are gold for the football team. It's really the only way we can get televised and that has obviously paid off on the recruiting trail with kids like D.J. Brown who stated that he knew about NIU because of their Thursday night games in November. Sure it's hard for people that live further away. I know because I'm one off them, but the students do show up to those games and they create a better atmosphere than the season ticket holders.

the weekday game are a two edged sword. For the fans its less then ideal as most believe football was meant to be played on sayurday. Fro a football recruiting side its highly effective. I would like to see the weekday games for us limited to one at home and one away in November. I don't see the weekdays games going away, lets just try to get them a little less intrusive and still get the recruiting edge

What sections/rows have chairbacks?

(06-26-2014 08:43 AM)IHateDuke32 Wrote:  What sections/rows have chairbacks?

Chairbacks are...
C rows 1-19
D rows 1-24
E rows 1-19

Benchbacks are...
C rows 20-35
D rows 25-35
E rows 20-35

(06-25-2014 12:08 PM)HuskieTom51 Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 12:03 PM)goniu1523 Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 11:56 AM)HuskieFootball Addict Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 11:05 AM)BobL Wrote:  I called the athletic department to ask why I had not received a call regarding parking assignments. I was told that the calls will begin today and the hope to have contacted everyone be end of day Friday. We chatted a bit about changes to the gameday atmosphere, engaging local residents and business, etc.

A few other tidbits to note:

Only 10 chairbacks are left and most are singles.

The Premium seating survey was sent to 121,000 people only 1800 completed the survey. The will resend to everyone again in the next couple of days. Now we have an AD that is trying to engage season ticket holders and alumni about future improvements to HS and less than 10% respond...dont get it at all.

Season ticket sales are at 64% of last years total. They had hoped the deadline would get more early renewals. But based on years past they expect that August will be a big month for sales.

Maddawgz has in fact been blackballed by the athletic department.

I think the reason for this is because 90% of us can't afford premium seating so we don't feel this is relevant to us. I didn't get the survey, but based on the questions that were posted by HuskieJohn, none of the survey questions regarding premium seating & skyboxes apply to those of us who can only afford regular season tix.

Thats a valid point. I feel they should include adding chairbacks questions in or reverse the order of the questions. They started with the most expensive option and scared off a lot of people. Their questions need to build up to the most expensive option.

If you don't respond to the survey at all, it tells the athletic department that you don't care. Don't complain when there are no enhancements to the stadium.

Tom, I did not receive the survey. But I did go to the link & fill it out. you have to admit, the premier seat options are probably not for us little guys. It's for the big spenders.
There are other things that could be done to Huskie Stadium that would improve things for everyone not just the folks with fatter wallets. :-)

I think that the season ticket sales have not improved because there are only 3 Sat. home games this fall. All in a row - in October. Once Sean Frazier gets the schedule improved I would expect to see season ticket sales improve too.
I have faith he will make the home schedule better.

(06-26-2014 03:05 PM)HuskieFootball Addict Wrote:  Tom, I did not receive the survey. But I do go to the link & fill it out. But you have to admit. the premier seat options are not for us little guys. It's for the big spenders.
There are other things that could be done to Huskie Stadium that would improve things for everyone not just the folks with fat wallets. :-)

I think that the season ticket sales have not improved because there are only 3 Sat. home games this fall. All in a row - in October. Once Sean Frazier gets the schedule improved I would expect to see season ticket sales improve too.
I have faith he will make the home schedule better.

Yes there are a ton of areas for improvement for the little guy...unfortunately we need to cater more towards the bigger spending portion of our fanbase who needs more niceties so they attend more games and spend more money on the program...which will help fund the things like better OOC opponents and West side improvements for the little guy.

Totally agree that the 3 Sat games in a row are hurting season ticket sales. However we have little if any input on the MAC schedule so I don't know if it will improve at all.

(06-26-2014 03:30 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(06-26-2014 03:05 PM)HuskieFootball Addict Wrote:  Tom, I did not receive the survey. But I do go to the link & fill it out. But you have to admit. the premier seat options are not for us little guys. It's for the big spenders.
There are other things that could be done to Huskie Stadium that would improve things for everyone not just the folks with fat wallets. :-)

I think that the season ticket sales have not improved because there are only 3 Sat. home games this fall. All in a row - in October. Once Sean Frazier gets the schedule improved I would expect to see season ticket sales improve too.
I have faith he will make the home schedule better.

Yes there are a ton of areas for improvement for the little guy...unfortunately we need to cater more towards the bigger spending portion of our fanbase who needs more niceties so they attend more games and spend more money on the program...which will help fund the things like better OOC opponents and West side improvements for the little guy.

Totally agree that the 3 Sat games in a row are hurting season ticket sales. However we have little if any input on the MAC schedule so I don't know if it will improve at all.

I would think that since NIU is currently one of the top schools (if not THE top school) in terms of "attention" and is getting plenty of press for the MAC, that would give us a little more clout with the big cheeses at MAC headquarters to fix our home schedule a bit next year.

the November midweek games, as others have stated are a huge boost for recruiting. It certainly could be argued that without those games NIU would not be where they are today. I would not be so fast to get rid of them...personally I like them though i understand that it makes attendance difficult for many

(06-26-2014 04:13 PM)HuskieFootball Addict Wrote:  

(06-26-2014 03:30 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(06-26-2014 03:05 PM)HuskieFootball Addict Wrote:  Tom, I did not receive the survey. But I do go to the link & fill it out. But you have to admit. the premier seat options are not for us little guys. It's for the big spenders.
There are other things that could be done to Huskie Stadium that would improve things for everyone not just the folks with fat wallets. :-)

I think that the season ticket sales have not improved because there are only 3 Sat. home games this fall. All in a row - in October. Once Sean Frazier gets the schedule improved I would expect to see season ticket sales improve too.
I have faith he will make the home schedule better.

Yes there are a ton of areas for improvement for the little guy...unfortunately we need to cater more towards the bigger spending portion of our fanbase who needs more niceties so they attend more games and spend more money on the program...which will help fund the things like better OOC opponents and West side improvements for the little guy.

Totally agree that the 3 Sat games in a row are hurting season ticket sales. However we have little if any input on the MAC schedule so I don't know if it will improve at all.

I would think that since NIU is currently one of the top schools (if not THE top school) in terms of "attention" and is getting plenty of press for the MAC, that would give us a little more clout with the big cheeses at MAC headquarters to fix our home schedule a bit next year.

The #1 priority to the MAC is to make ESPN happy.

The Nov ESPN games are great for us but they cherry pick the best games and the rest of the schedule is tossed together just to make it work.

I think it is all this interrelated.

In order to get big name teams, NIU needs to provide larger payouts. In order to provide the larger payouts NIU needs the more revenue. Certainly sky boxes and other premium seating will help with revenue.

Credit NIU they want everyone's opinion...they could have just gone
to the biggest donors and say...hey what would you like to see done and what would you be willing to pay.

(06-27-2014 07:46 AM)BobL Wrote:  I think it is all this interrelated.

In order to get big name teams, NIU needs to provide larger payouts. In order to provide the larger payouts NIU needs the more revenue. Certainly sky boxes and other premium seating will help with revenue.

Credit NIU they want everyone's opinion...they could have just gone
to the biggest donors and say...hey what would you like to see done and what would you be willing to pay.

Exactly. It was a Survey.

It did not address everyone or everything. With almost 2K responses I'm fairly confident they've received some valuble feedback. Which is why you do a survey.

(06-25-2014 11:05 AM)BobL Wrote:  The Premium seating survey was sent to 121,000 people only 1800 completed the survey.

As i've personally been harping on for years and years...this is why you capture the hearts & minds of the students and put most focus on that. that is the golden window. once they are alumni, and you have not captured hearts & minds at that point, for the most part its too late. obviously there are exceptions for some alumni to come back even if they weren't enamored w/ football as students. just my thought on the reasoning why there is little feedback and interest on alumni.

(06-27-2014 08:52 AM)huskiealum03 Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 11:05 AM)BobL Wrote:  The Premium seating survey was sent to 121,000 people only 1800 completed the survey.

As i've personally been harping on for years and years...this is why you capture the hearts & minds of the students and put most focus on that. that is the golden window. once they are alumni, and you have not captured hearts & minds at that point, for the most part its too late. obviously there are exceptions for some alumni to come back even if they weren't enamored w/ football as students. just my thought on the reasoning why there is little feedback and interest on alumni.

+1 Alums that didn't connect with something are likely not going to return.

We need a Young Alum season ticket!

That sticker shock going from free to paying $20 per game per person turns them off real quick.


I am also very interested to see what Athletics has planned for the students. I see they have a "student membership" link on the Commit2NIU.com site but really hope they don't milk the student fans!

(06-27-2014 07:46 AM)BobL Wrote:  I think it is all this interrelated.

In order to get big name teams, NIU needs to provide larger payouts. In order to provide the larger payouts NIU needs the more revenue. Certainly sky boxes and other premium seating will help with revenue.

Credit NIU they want everyone's opinion...they could have just gone
to the biggest donors and say...hey what would you like to see done and what would you be willing to pay.

+1 which is why I think Toledo is able to get the bigger name teams at home more often than we do.

Getting back to the original topic, has anyone received a phone call confirming your parking arrangements? Originally, we were told that the calls would be made on June 24,25, and 26.