(10-04-2014 10:05 AM)HuskieRak Wrote:  

(10-04-2014 09:51 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  Part of the problem will always be location.. no one goes to Dekalb on purpose..

If the college was in naperville, aurora corridor, they would sell out every game. North Central College a small div III school, sells out most of their games just because they are in naperville. People with money + location = sell out... dekalb lacks both..

Unfortunately location is a big problem that can never be fixed. The fanbase has proved that they're willing to travel to see quality opponents (NU & FSU). But with the current home schedule, a trip to DeKalb just doesn't appease the casual fans who live downtown or the suburbs.

I think the fan base is willing to travel, just not to dekalb..

Though I think there is some merit to the weekday games(though i don't see how people can't take half days, which would equal 1 day per year)

I think again NIU needs to market outside of dekalb...geneva, st charles, batavia, aurora, naperville..... I have never understood marketing to the area where the stadium and college are, if those people can't figure that out then forget them...

NIU is in DeKalb. Get over it. It's a 25 minute drive from Naperville and less from Aurora, Rockford, etc.. Get over it. Sean Frazier and Doug Baker have a vision for NIU and let's give them some time to make it happen. All of the issues raised in this thread have been raised for the past 50 years. For now:
- NIU needs to attract and retain more students. College enrollment is declining throughout the state. Beautify the campus, get town cooperation to build restaurants, bars, etc. attractive to students.
- With more students, staff and faculty will grow as will townspeople. Get students to go to games. Get staff and faculty to go to games. Get residents and businesses in DeKalb and Sycamore to buy tickets, support the university.
- At the same time, hire staff on a commission basis to go to the Fox Valley corridor, from south of Aurora all the way to Wis. line and sell tickets. Do the same in the Rockford area. Do the same in expanding concentric circles moving out of DeKalb to Rochelle, LaSalle Peru, Ottawa, Dixon, etc.,etc.. Folks in these outlying cities are not as likely to be going to Chicago for pro sports. Stir up their pride in a local product and develop their loyalty.
- Yes, court the 200,000 plus alums in the Chicago area and the media there, but know that you need to have a core of support within half and hour or so of campus. These people may watch on TV or listen on the radio, but they are probably only coming on weekends. You need a closer fan base to support weeknights, particularly for basketball.
- Seek major donors and businesses who would be willing to contribute, but who also would purchase suites, skyboxes, etc.. That's a way to pay for stadium improvements.
- Marry new student amenities like a greatly expanded student recreation building to stadium expansion. Envision a big building behind the east stands with pools, gyms, etc., linked by a concourse with concessions, etc., and tied to a higher and expanded east side of the stadium.
All of this takes time. I'm probably too old to see it all to fruition, but fixing issues in the current stadium, upgrading the media box, expanding the skybox, etc., should come first. Have faith, continue to support the program, know that this is a long term project.

Naperville is not a 25 minute drive...believe me..I have done it a few times..
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Huskie+S...41.7460695

Even if I leave directly from my office(on 59/88) it 40 minutes

I don't think this is a Sean Frazier/Baker problem..they are doing what they can...only thing they could do is market better to the surrounding areas(88 corridor, geneva, aurora, batavia, naperville)

(10-04-2014 09:55 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 10:18 PM)spanky Wrote:  The single biggest reason why I do not have season tickets every year (and I'm not alone):

Weeknight games

That's a deal breaker for most people that have jobs, kids, or don't live in the Dekalb/Sycamore area....so pretty much everybody. I get it, it's a necessary evil for TV $$$, but I'm not taking off multiple days from work every year to go see a game at HS. I'll just pick/choose the Saturday games I can make it to. I'd rather take a day off to go to a road game (especially in Las Vegas or similar, but even in Kalamazoo or someplace closer) than be inconvenienced to drive to HS on a weeknight and then drive back late at night.
Add in the ridiculous Presbyterian game and no other OOC draw this year....I'm good. So is everybody else.


Talking about the weather in a thread about season ticket sales is kinda pointless.

1. That is a valid excuse...and part of my point..logistics.. If the stadium was located in a more central area(to where most fans live) then you wouldn't have to take a day off work..

2. I don't mind the first game being on thursday over labor day weekend, because most people go out of town for labor day weekend, so no one would have been there on saturday anyways.

3. Still though if you are going to attend 3 games @$35/each...why not just kick in the extra $5 so you can say you are a season ticket holder...Better seat selection, same seats every game, pride...

Some of us travel to DeKalb from out of state for one or two games per year. We are already spending money on travel and hotels so it does not feel too good to be asked to pay a large premium for single game tickets. A small premium is OK.

(10-04-2014 09:51 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  Part of the problem will always be location.. no one goes to Dekalb on purpose..

If the college was in naperville, aurora corridor, they would sell out every game. North Central College a small div III school, sells out most of their games just because they are in naperville. People with money + location = sell out... dekalb lacks both..

Comparing a dIII school known for cross-country and track to a FBS school is stupid. A 5 second google searched shows their average attendance is just over 3,000 from 2012. Their stadium seats 5,500. NIU being in Naperville might help some, but won't add 10,000 people in seats for every game. Plus all of the Freshman would have to go home to mommy and daddy after 11 since they will be so close to home. Having better competition and less weeknight games will help more with season tickets.

(10-04-2014 03:33 PM)Big_Man Wrote:  

(10-04-2014 09:51 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  Part of the problem will always be location.. no one goes to Dekalb on purpose..

If the college was in naperville, aurora corridor, they would sell out every game. North Central College a small div III school, sells out most of their games just because they are in naperville. People with money + location = sell out... dekalb lacks both..

Comparing a dIII school known for cross-country and track to a FBS school is stupid. A 5 second google searched shows their average attendance is just over 3,000 from 2012. Their stadium seats 5,500. NIU being in Naperville might help some, but won't add 10,000 people in seats for every game. Plus all of the Freshman would have to go home to mommy and daddy after 11 since they will be so close to home. Having better competition and less weeknight games will help more with season tickets.

This can't be a real thought.

IF NIU just happened to be located in downtown Naperville and had a big enough stadium - They would average WAY more than 10k additional people per game.



Also - there are D-III schools "known" for cross country??


And WTF is the rest of this post?

(10-04-2014 10:31 AM)bigredmachine Wrote:  NIU is in DeKalb. Get over it. It's a 25 minute drive from Naperville and less from Aurora, Rockford, etc.. Get over it. Sean Frazier and Doug Baker have a vision for NIU and let's give them some time to make it happen. All of the issues raised in this thread have been raised for the past 50 years. For now:
- NIU needs to attract and retain more students. College enrollment is declining throughout the state. Beautify the campus, get town cooperation to build restaurants, bars, etc. attractive to students.
- With more students, staff and faculty will grow as will townspeople. Get students to go to games. Get staff and faculty to go to games. Get residents and businesses in DeKalb and Sycamore to buy tickets, support the university.
- At the same time, hire staff on a commission basis to go to the Fox Valley corridor, from south of Aurora all the way to Wis. line and sell tickets. Do the same in the Rockford area. Do the same in expanding concentric circles moving out of DeKalb to Rochelle, LaSalle Peru, Ottawa, Dixon, etc.,etc.. Folks in these outlying cities are not as likely to be going to Chicago for pro sports. Stir up their pride in a local product and develop their loyalty.
- Yes, court the 200,000 plus alums in the Chicago area and the media there, but know that you need to have a core of support within half and hour or so of campus. These people may watch on TV or listen on the radio, but they are probably only coming on weekends. You need a closer fan base to support weeknights, particularly for basketball.
- Seek major donors and businesses who would be willing to contribute, but who also would purchase suites, skyboxes, etc.. That's a way to pay for stadium improvements.
- Marry new student amenities like a greatly expanded student recreation building to stadium expansion. Envision a big building behind the east stands with pools, gyms, etc., linked by a concourse with concessions, etc., and tied to a higher and expanded east side of the stadium.
All of this takes time. I'm probably too old to see it all to fruition, but fixing issues in the current stadium, upgrading the media box, expanding the skybox, etc., should come first. Have faith, continue to support the program, know that this is a long term project.

(10-04-2014 09:39 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  I think people are just bad at math.. If you are going to 4 games it is just cheaper to buy a season ticket..

NIU should continue to raise game day prices until people get the clue they need to buy season tickets.

Its cheaper to buy a season ticket ($110) than 3 individual games ($36+) other than the upper rows in sections A and G. But then people use the excuse that they only want to go to the Sat games and then they will wait to see if they can make the 3 Saturday games anyways.

It is not cheaper to buy a season ticket for the East side.

I have a couple people sitting near us in the stadium (LONG time season ticket holders & alums) who happen to work for NIU. They were talking about there being a lot of extremely unhappy NIU employees who did not renew their season tickets because of the way NIU has handled the pup club situation.
They feel like NIU football is no longer an affordable family friendly thing. Those who did not renew all said they could no longer afford it because it made no sense to pay for a full price extra ticket(s) for their young children.

They said they had heard there were over 200 families who did not renew because of this. They also told us that the rumblings within are not all that pleased with that change along with bringing in an outside vendor to handle food within the stadium - basically snubbing local restaurants.

This is not my opinion - just passing along what I heard yesterday at the game.

From the amount of drinking and swearing going on, why would a responsible parent want to bring a kid to a game? It is not a family atmosphere!

(10-05-2014 12:09 PM)HappyHuskie Wrote:  From the amount of drinking and swearing going on, why would a responsible parent want to bring a kid to a game? It is not a family atmosphere!

I have noticed 0 excessive drinking or swearing this season. Typically I only notice it when we have over 20k when the sort of fans come out of the wood work. I would imagine its much more common on the East side to the North of the band but that is expected.

If the families didn't bring their kids to games we would be lucky to have had 9k in attendance yesterday...I guess then no one would complain about the bathroom lines or concession stands running out of food.

(10-04-2014 11:59 PM)spanky Wrote:  

(10-04-2014 03:33 PM)Big_Man Wrote:  

(10-04-2014 09:51 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  Part of the problem will always be location.. no one goes to Dekalb on purpose..

If the college was in naperville, aurora corridor, they would sell out every game. North Central College a small div III school, sells out most of their games just because they are in naperville. People with money + location = sell out... dekalb lacks both..

Comparing a dIII school known for cross-country and track to a FBS school is stupid. A 5 second google searched shows their average attendance is just over 3,000 from 2012. Their stadium seats 5,500. NIU being in Naperville might help some, but won't add 10,000 people in seats for every game. Plus all of the Freshman would have to go home to mommy and daddy after 11 since they will be so close to home. Having better competition and less weeknight games will help more with season tickets.

This can't be a real thought.

IF NIU just happened to be located in downtown Naperville and had a big enough stadium - They would average WAY more than 10k additional people per game.



Also - there are D-III schools "known" for cross country??


And WTF is the rest of this post?

Per Wikipedia which is known as a great source:

The college is best known for its men's track and field and cross country teams, which have won 25 national championships. For the 2009-2010 school year, the men's cross country and indoor/outdoor track teams swept the NCAA Division III Championships. North Central is only the second school in Division III history to accomplish this feat.[13] During the 2011-2012 school year, the men's indoor track team repeated again as national champions, and the cross country team repeated as national champions. The campus has also hosted past NCAA Division III national events.

(10-05-2014 12:09 PM)HappyHuskie Wrote:  From the amount of drinking and swearing going on, why would a responsible parent want to bring a kid to a game? It is not a family atmosphere!

Even worse on Homecoming. It draws the One-Game-a-Year amateurs who are drunk, pay no attention to the game and talk about their recent drunken escapades. Real fun atmosphere with kids.

(10-05-2014 12:09 PM)HappyHuskie Wrote:  From the amount of drinking and swearing going on, why would a responsible parent want to bring a kid to a game? It is not a family atmosphere!

My kids have grown up going to Huskie football games. My daughter was 4 and my son was 7 when they started attending. Unless you're walking through the middle of the fraternities, it is a great family environment. Even the student lot on the east side rarely has anything objectionable other than absurdly loud music.

You can find a few jackasses anywhere where big crowds congregate.

Now, the being upset about the Pup Club thing? Reasonable. That was a great deal (probably too good a deal). It wasn't a gigantic thing for me personally because my son has already aged out and my daughter would have in another year anyway. But, I can see how people would be really bummed about that. Nobody gives a crap about the t shirt. It was the dirt cheap tickets that were the appeal.