Definitely a work in progress - Thankfully a small crowd tonight kept the problems small...

Positives:
Cool TV screen
Various tests to browse
Stage for bands

Improvements:
No band on stage
No real signage for the tents to know what they were. What was in the COOP tent?
The food tents will be absolutely overwhelmed with a normal Saturday crowd.
The Lodge only serving baked potatoes and corn? Seriously?
The winery didn't have any menu on display.
The beer trailer may be a tad too small for a Sat crowd.
Lines got long for Lukolos
Need plenty more of the pub tables for people to eat at
Beer choices

Overall, I'd give it a C

Is it me or did the TV Screen at the yard appear to be close enough dimensions to be the old screen on the scoreboard at huskie stadium?

(08-28-2014 10:53 PM)DoubleHuskie84 Wrote:  Definitely a work in progress - Thankfully a small crowd tonight kept the problems small...

Positives:
Cool TV screen
Various tests to browse
Stage for bands

Improvements:
No band on stage
No real signage for the tents to know what they were. What was in the COOP tent?
The food tents will be absolutely overwhelmed with a normal Saturday crowd.
The Lodge only serving baked potatoes and corn? Seriously?
The winery didn't have any menu on display.
The beer trailer may be a tad too small for a Sat crowd.
Lines got long for Lukolos
Need plenty more of the pub tables for people to eat at
Beer choices

Overall, I'd give it a C

was the yard in the west end corner showing the NFL game? If so, that screen was amazing.

Need more food options.
They had a schedule of events but I think they moved quicker than planned. They had 15 minutes allocated for Bob H. And he took 1 minute. The MC went to the gymnastics team and that only took a minute.
Should allocate more time to bands.
Loved the concept and with a little time it will be great.

"The Lodge only serving baked potatoes and corn? Seriously?
The winery didn't have any menu on display."

Both The Lodge and The Winery had problems with getting electricity in their tents initially...so they didn't have their "meat" until about 5:15 or 5:20. I'm guessing it was just an issue with the first time being there and will be corrected next time.

once they got it up, I had the Italian Sausage sandwich from the winery and my friend and the bbq chicken from the lodge, and both were pretty darn great. So I wouldn't worry about it going forward.

And assuming they have their food, the Lukolos line wouldn't be so bad.

I'd give it a B+, thought it was a very cool area, will be a hot spot with the huge screen on Saturdays.

I though the yard was great.. Large screen for other college football games going on on Saturdays. And more tvs in the donor tent that were big enough to see from everywhere. I like the idea of higher end light fare this year as opposed to a bad meal from past years.

It was the first friggin night. It will only get better. This was a great idea to get NIU fans in one area. Much of the tailgating is clicks (although I tailgate with the cool people)

I agree, great addition to the game day experience. The place will be hoping on Saturdays!!

We only had 12k at the game (easily over half of which were students who did not go to the yard) and it was 1/3 full. This place is going to be packed for the Saturday games when we have 18K+.

Yes there were some easy opportunities for improvement.

#1 Many more bar tables will be needed for the saturday games.

#2 Get the other food tents up and running for the open instead of 1hr in.

#3 The kidz zone was a little tight with space but its an easy fix with moving the inflatable another 10ft.

#4 I went to buy food at Lukalo's, took my kids to the kids zone then walked to the stadium thru the yard...I did not see 1 porta johns anywhere in the yard. I know they like to keep them hidden but I would really like to see at least 2 of the family/handicap porta johns on the South side of the yard.

We walked in and the tent had the sign champions club on it so we presumed that was for only champions club members...it was raining so we didn't bother asking jus left, maybe I was the fool.....and why were they not playing the bears game or the NIU game?! Maybe they didn't want people watching the NIU game and forcing them into the stadium instead....either way that screen was amaze balls


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They knew attendance would be so so. Why drag and set up a lot of tables and chairs if no one is there. Did anyone not have a seat? They will adjust to the potential crowd.

(08-29-2014 08:46 AM)klake87 Wrote:  They knew attendance would be so so. Why drag and set up a lot of tables and chairs if no one is there. Did anyone not have a seat? They will adjust to the potential crowd.

There were no seats...not outside of the donor tent that I saw anyways.

They definitely could have used more bar tables (high tops) yesterday but I am saying specifically for the next 3 Saturday games they MUST have more bar tables.

(08-28-2014 10:53 PM)DoubleHuskie84 Wrote:  Definitely a work in progress - Thankfully a small crowd tonight kept the problems small...

Positives:
Cool TV screen
Various tests to browse
Stage for bands

Improvements:
No band on stage
No real signage for the tents to know what they were. What was in the COOP tent?
The food tents will be absolutely overwhelmed with a normal Saturday crowd.
The Lodge only serving baked potatoes and corn? Seriously?
The winery didn't have any menu on display.
The beer trailer may be a tad too small for a Sat crowd.
Lines got long for Lukolos
Need plenty more of the pub tables for people to eat at
Beer choices

Overall, I'd give it a C

I agree with everything you noted. I thought it was good with potential to be great . Our only complaint was the only beverage you could buy was beer. No one sold water or pop so my kids and parents ate with nothing to drink.

I also had the Italian Sausage from the Aquaviva winery, and it was excellent. My buddies had the Chicken Parm sandwich and they said it was also good. Put up a sign to let people know you have food and they'll do just fine.

(08-29-2014 09:21 AM)Huskie359 Wrote:  I also had the Italian Sausage from the Aquaviva winery, and it was excellent. My buddies had the Chicken Parm sandwich and they said it was also good. Put up a sign to let people know you have food and they'll do just fine.

Aquaviva is a nice place. On Friday and/or Saturday, my buddy Mario plays there. Very good entertainer. Trying to get him to learn the Huskie fight song on the Accordian.

(08-29-2014 08:20 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  We only had 12k at the game (easily over half of which were students who did not go to the yard) and it was 1/3 full. This place is going to be packed for the Saturday games when we have 18K+.

Yes there were some easy opportunities for improvement.

#1 Many more bar tables will be needed for the saturday games.

#2 Get the other food tents up and running for the open instead of 1hr in.

#3 The kidz zone was a little tight with space but its an easy fix with moving the inflatable another 10ft.

#4 I went to buy food at Lukalo's, took my kids to the kids zone then walked to the stadium thru the yard...I did not see 1 porta johns anywhere in the yard. I know they like to keep them hidden but I would really like to see at least 2 of the family/handicap porta johns on the South side of the yard.

******** were all located right outside THE YARD, which I prefer...

(08-29-2014 10:12 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  ******** were all located right outside THE YARD, which I prefer...

But where? I didnt see any.

So they only had very limited food in the Champions Club. They used to have pretty much a full complimentary lunch there when all they had was some veggies and stuff. What happened?

The band was very good. A three piece hillbilly outfit from Madison, WI. Just wish they would have let them play a little longer.

(08-29-2014 10:36 AM)NIUFAN Wrote:  The band was very good. A three piece hillbilly outfit from Madison, WI. Just wish they would have let them play a little longer.

+1

HMB showed up way to early IMO.

Then after HMB played the stage was empty and they still have 30+ min before it closed (another 30min before kickoff).