(10-12-2015 08:20 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: Does anybody think that the stadium upgrades will get us 30,000+ in attendance on a consistent basis?
I guess then the next question is, where are these additional 17,000 fans going to come from?
Frankly, I am at a loss. The university has done seemingly everything possible to increase attendance. I won't bore you with the list we all know all too well.....
I am still interested in getting a better understanding of how we engage the larger community of DeKalb and Sycamore. I do think you could find 5,000 new permanent fans a decade just from locals who may not even have an interest in the university otherwise; perhaps there is some sort of organic attendance growth through literally starting with locals kids in kindergarten. This isn't the solution, but it could be a catalyst.
I also think there is a need to simply give away tickets. There are 30,000 seats and the stadium isn't even half full. I know the financial ir-reality that contains, but I just wonder how many fans you could hook by giving, say, 1000 free tickets out to Nestle and Target for their warehouse staff, season tickets to every small business owner in town from the CEO of Castle Bank down to the dude who owns the lawn care and snowplow business. The visuals, the optics, of a full stadium certainly show well on TV, and definitely lend to a positive fan experience that may encourage repeat ticket purchases.
Lastly, I wonder what could be done to make sure that every department head, professor, adjunct and graduate student are Huskie fans. That would be a hard nut to crack. Do all NIU employees get free or reduced cost tickets? Might be something there.
How about food trucks and beer gardens lining Stadium Drive S, between Stadium Drive W and Stadium Drive E that are open 5 hours pre-game and 5 hours post game, with the university encouraging people to stick around? Or party buses, or just buses, that grab fans from Aurora and Naperville and get priority loading and unloading on the front steps of Huskie Stadium?
Like I said, these aren't the solution, but they could be avenues of approach.
I have been a Huskie since 1995. I am at a loss now (20 years later!) how even after seeing the strides the university has taken, the success of the student athletes, and the attention that the football program in particular has seen, that a strong FBS program 60 miles from the heart of one the world's great cities can only find 13,000 fans on a warm fall afternoon to watch America's current past time.