(09-07-2015 12:04 PM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  Still should be no reason why our attendance issues should bother you as a UB fan at all.

You misunderstand me. I don't give a fat rat's behind about your issues. I care that many of your fan base has decided that its the conferences fault.

(09-07-2015 10:49 AM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  Has EMU changed the modus operendi on reporting attendance, seems awfully low, they usually average around 16-19K...

There was more, I'd put the number around 10000 total at the game, Students and parents there before aren't counted and due to them switching to designated seating (dumb idea) they ended up giving away a lot of free tickets (which you can't count) because of the wait. I got there 10 minutes before kickoff, didn't get in till 2 minutes were left of the first quarter, got in for free though so I got to buy a few tshirts!

(09-07-2015 06:51 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 05:08 PM)RobertN Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 04:54 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 02:57 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Telling ESPN to take their TV scheduling of MAC games and shove it would help attendance greatly. can't expect fans to buy season tickets when 2 of the 5 or 6 hoome games are midweek and they aren't able to attend.

yes, that's the solution. take the MAC off of TV. I remember back when I was an undergrad me and my friends would stand in line for hours on those cold November Saturdays trying to get into another sold out MAC game. We had a good thing going until national exposure ruined it for everyone.

Can you say it has helped much for attendance? Has attendance really risen since those days? I think it helped get NIU to the Orange Bowl but that is about it.

yes, I can say it has risen for Ohio, the numbers bear it out.

Huskie Stadium holds 23,595, last season you played 5 home games with an average attendance of 13,563. That means 50,162 tickets went unsold, that is the value of your "opportunity". Now that we have a hard number for reference let me ask two questions-

1. If your goal is to get more people watching NIU play football which will give you the bigger audience, a full stadium or a half full stadium + broadcast on ESPN?
2. If your goal is more revenue then which will produce more- selling 50K additional tickets or getting a share of the TV contract ($833,333/yr)?

weeknight MACtion games are not ideal but the good outweighs the bad.

Well, 50,000 tickets X $25 = $1,250,000 so that's more. So if we filled 2/3 of those seats it would be the same revenue. But that isn't counting concessions or parking. It also pisses off people who would buy season tickets and hurts the fanbase in the long run. If we need money we could just play an extra money game.

You probably get more people watching the game with the TV contract. But NIU doesn't get any additional money based on how many are watching. And the recruiting hasn't gotten any better by any measuring stick. We got a slight bump I think from the Orange Bowl but that's about it. It might even hurt recruiting since the players are playing in front of half empty stadiums.

(09-07-2015 11:51 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 11:04 AM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 10:59 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 09:24 AM)FlyHawk98 Wrote:  Of course that's what happened. NIU always has some excuse for their attendance.

Just face it man, your attendance is pathetic for as much as you guys have been winning the last few years. Also, no one would really care if you weren't always out running your mouth about how NIU was a contender for a spot in the Big 12. Or if you would stop trying to claim the Chicago market. Start actually drawing the DeKalb market first.

At least 15,000 fans is an improvement from your average of 13k last year.

The more annoying part is the belief that if they were in the American their attendance would suddenly be 25-30k

Why does that annoy you?

1 - because it's not true, it's excuse making. when you make excuses you won't get better.

Toledo and Ohio have proven that you don't need to play UConn or ECU every other year to get asses in the seats. NIU is winning more than either program so look at your own AD for the problem.

Buffalo is not winning big but our attendance is up about 20-33% since the new Athletic Director came in. We just opened a West Club which requires a 1.2K per season donation and it's sold out (about 500K more in revenue).

2 - because its shaqing on the rest of the conference.

I think Buffalo would do better attendance wise in the AAC but not because folks would rather see Temple than EMU per se. I'm not going to blame Ohio or Akron for Buffalo's attendance problems (despite the improvement we still have problems).

We would do better because our Alumni outside of Buffalo are mainly in the Boston to DC corridor and because Temple, UConn, Cinci, Navy are closer to UB than some of the schools in the MAC West.

Navy and Cinci are as far from Buffalo as Miami. And unlike EMU/CMU/WMU you don't need to cross an international border (twice) to get there.

NIU is the opposite situation.

Agree and disagree with you. Navy yes, because they bring in Navy fans to the game. But think a natural rival would bring way more fans. Do not believe UConn has developed into a natural rival despite playing them fairly often in football. Don't know about the other teams, but you have played Temple for a number of years as well.

For us, UConn is a natural rival and we have played tons of both basketball and football games and have shared conferences. Temple is a completely other story. We have NEVER play Temple in football. Don't think their fans travel well and would be happy with attendance in the 16-19 k range. Sept 19th is our first quasi home game at Gillette. Navy would bring their fans.

You guys have done well and do believe your AD and fan experience (improvements to the stadium and beer sales to club members) have all helped.

Put in a good word for us when you are in the AAC

(09-06-2015 01:48 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  30,885 Western Michigan
20,872 Buffalo
19,717 Central Michigan

16,896 MAC Avg (118,273/7)

15,455 Northern Illinois
14,397 Miami
10,473 Ball State
6,474 Eastern Michigan

At what site are you finding attendance figures?
Do they have other conferences?

(09-07-2015 09:24 AM)FlyHawk98 Wrote:  Of course that's what happened. NIU always has some excuse for their attendance.

Just face it man, your attendance is pathetic for as much as you guys have been winning the last few years. Also, no one would really care if you weren't always out running your mouth about how NIU was a contender for a spot in the Big 12. Or if you would stop trying to claim the Chicago market. Start actually drawing the DeKalb market first.

At least 15,000 fans is an improvement from your average of 13k last year.

Thanks for coming by

(09-07-2015 10:59 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 09:24 AM)FlyHawk98 Wrote:  Of course that's what happened. NIU always has some excuse for their attendance.

Just face it man, your attendance is pathetic for as much as you guys have been winning the last few years. Also, no one would really care if you weren't always out running your mouth about how NIU was a contender for a spot in the Big 12. Or if you would stop trying to claim the Chicago market. Start actually drawing the DeKalb market first.

At least 15,000 fans is an improvement from your average of 13k last year.

The more annoying part is the belief that if they were in the American their attendance would suddenly be 25-30k

Nice hideous track around your football field. Concentrate on that.

Are we still arguing about who the tallest midget is?

(09-07-2015 08:17 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 12:04 PM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  Still should be no reason why our attendance issues should bother you as a UB fan at all.

You misunderstand me. I don't give a fat rat's behind about your issues. I care that many of your fan base has decided that its the conferences fault.

NIU fans are not the only fans that gripe about conference schedules and mid week games affecting attendance, homie. Maybe you should care more about wether or not your football team is good enough to beat NIU this year, or the rest of your competition to get bowl eligibility, rather that concerning yourself with NIU's attendance what our fans attribute it to.

(09-07-2015 09:58 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  

(09-06-2015 01:48 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  30,885 Western Michigan
20,872 Buffalo
19,717 Central Michigan

16,896 MAC Avg (118,273/7)

15,455 Northern Illinois
14,397 Miami
10,473 Ball State
6,474 Eastern Michigan

At what site are you finding attendance figures?
Do they have other conferences?

I'm pulling off of the game summary page on espn.com

(09-07-2015 10:27 PM)CMichFan Wrote:  Are we still arguing about who the tallest midget is?

Just the Ohio and NIU fans.

I think any MAC program's attendance would go up quite a bit being in the AAC (not that anyone is going there...sorry, NIU fans!). As recently as a couple years back, NIU led the MAC in attendance and it's kind of hilarious seeing various posters deride each other's attendance when clearly most all MAC programs have attendance issues (and have forever...believe me, I know as I've been following the conference since the 70's!).

To me it's pretty simple..start and keep winning on a consistent basis, and try to get at leaset one interesting OOC game at home each year...I know that's a difficult challenge for our AD's because the P5 programs for the most part won't come to a MAC stadium.

Even though our attendence stinks due to years of lousy teams, we (Miami) are fortunate we have UC on the home schedule every other year which provides at least one game of very good attendance, no matter how lousy we are. (and I do think we're improving under Coach Martin not to mention all the new facilities going in). Still students at MU have seen very few wins the last few years and there is not a lot of enthusiasm for attending football games going on in Oxford right now. When Big Ben was playing his last year at Miami, we averaged 25K per game...we're not going to get back there but it'd be nice to start averaging over 20K again if we start winning again.

(09-08-2015 06:35 AM)DexterDevil Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 10:27 PM)CMichFan Wrote:  Are we still arguing about who the tallest midget is?

Just the Ohio and NIU fans.

We seem to be arguing about who the shortest midget is.

(09-08-2015 03:57 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 09:58 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  

(09-06-2015 01:48 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  30,885 Western Michigan
20,872 Buffalo
19,717 Central Michigan

16,896 MAC Avg (118,273/7)

15,455 Northern Illinois
14,397 Miami
10,473 Ball State
6,474 Eastern Michigan

At what site are you finding attendance figures?
Do they have other conferences?

I'm pulling off of the game summary page on espn.com

Thanks!

(09-08-2015 11:17 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(09-08-2015 06:35 AM)DexterDevil Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 10:27 PM)CMichFan Wrote:  Are we still arguing about who the tallest midget is?

Just the Ohio and NIU fans.

We seem to be arguing about who the shortest midget is.

Well as of now that would be EMU, not going to lie, until we can consistently have average or better seasons and put more than 10k in the stands weekly then we are the shortest midget.

(09-07-2015 09:45 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  For us, UConn is a natural rival and we have played tons of both basketball and football games and have shared conferences. Temple is a completely other story. We have NEVER play Temple in football. Don't think their fans travel well and would be happy with attendance in the 16-19 k range. Sept 19th is our first quasi home game at Gillette. Navy would bring their fans.

We have around 4k-5k alums in the Boston/Hartford area and the Boston alumni association is hosting a tailgate for the game. I'm sure it won't be significant in an NFL stadium, but there will be a decent number of Temple people there.