A friend of mine who works in a local DeKalb store said that someone from the Athletic Dept. came in and dropped off a stack of tickets to hand out to patrons. Hopefully we can wrangle in a good contingent of local DeKalb/Sycamore folks.
Wow..nice!
I'd be mad if i had paid for a ticket, though :)
Great!!! It's good to see the school being proactive.
I wish they started a week earlier but this is still very good!
Is any of this working? Can any students or DeKalb/Sycamore residents provide a feel for what attendance might look like? This is really wild, I have no idea what to expect tomorrow.
DiehardHuskie Wrote:Is any of this working? Can any students or DeKalb/Sycamore residents provide a feel for what attendance might look like? This is really wild, I have no idea what to expect tomorrow.
I really don't know how they could neasure if this is working until game time.
You might have 80% of people take free tickets at the store and only 5% use them.
I know that. Are students sticking around? Are people talking up the game? I can't get jack done at the office today (as you can tell).
I am hearing that many DeKalb and Sycamore businesses are letting their employees out for a half a day for the game and schoo;s are also letting kids out. Cannot quarrel with the effort.
What has NIU done to market the game beyond five mile radius?
I have seen or heard nothing other than left voice mail message yesterday at my home from JoeN.
BTW:
Last nite on CLTV Sports Page Basanez was guest & interviewed and made mention of Wolfe but I missed most of his remarks. It had something to do with alot of talented and tuff players coming from Chgo Catholic League.
NOT one word of the NIU game on CLTV sports report this morning.
Anything from Comcast & Jiggets?
Have Kaplan and Waddle made much mention on WGN?
Nothing in Daily Herald, Trib , Times or Beacon this morning.
Anything tomorrow is much too late to market the game .
Someone should call the Score and let them know about the free tickets. Would be cool if they announced the promotion to fill the place due to the poor date/time of the game...
I believe there is a somewhat dormant, but potentially strong, local support sector, but as many have commented, it might be too late to unlock that for this game.
My evidence??
I remember in my first or second year of school (79 and/or 80) there was over 15,000 for a DeKalb HS playoff game. That was more than NIU could draw - even with its student base.
I know it was 25 years ago, but let's face it - Dekalb and the surrounding 30 mile radius is much more populated now than it was then. It needs to be more heavily cultivated - hopefully Phillips isn't too unaware of the local factors that could help him grow the program. I was encouraged to hear that his efforts regarding Bowl possibilities last year nearly had us landing in a bigger Bowl (until Cal got screwed out of a BCS Bowl and the dominos fell against us). His "big-time" exposure and connections would obviously be a big help to us given where he has come from (ND). However, there's been nothing to grow, program-wise, in South Bend since before WW I. He might need some help in the cultivation area.
Over the last 5 years, the students have finally come out and done their part (student body - don't make me look foolish tomorrow). The community will always be a factor, and given the growth, the 30-60 minute travel time radius should be aggresively pursued. If it means handing out tickets, then hand them out and get the fannies in the seats. Before long, your advanced sales will take care of themselves.
Those who make it big, usually invest big. Our investment (NIU's) doesn't equal the payout we are seeking.
I an bringing three visitors from out of town and paid for 3 tickets on the West side. The best I could get were 3 together on row 53 section D. Freebees I think are for the East Side only. I asked about the ticket ssales. They said that there are a lot of tickets being taken but the concern is the weather. Marginal fans will stay home since the tickets was free.
Weather forecast for tomorrow is for a high of 41 with snow/rain showers in the morning and hopefully clearing up in the afternoon.
I just sent this email to Boers & Bernstein...
The ESPN football Gods have painted NIU into a corner, unfortunately. They scheduled, arguably the most important game for NIU football in the last 20 years, the day before Thanksgiving at 12:35 pm.
An NIU win puts them in the MAC Championship game and almost certainly a bowl bid for the 2nd year in a row - likely to be the Motor City Bowl or the GMAC.
Unfortunately, attendance will suffer due to the scheduling date and time. Who the hell is available to watch a college football game - in person or on TV - during the business week at Noon? Students will not be on campus and most alumni will either be working or taking the day off to travel to grandma's house for Thanksgiving.
NIU has decided that some attendance is better than no attendance so the alumni association is giving away free tickets at the alumni tent.
I know you guys are not big NIU advocates, but a little free press would be appreciated under the circumstances. We have big time DI football right here in our backyard. Let's support the Huskies!
Kedzman Wrote:I just sent this email to Boers & Bernstein...
The ESPN football Gods have painted NIU into a corner, unfortunately. They scheduled, arguably the most important game for NIU football in the last 20 years, the day before Thanksgiving at 12:35 pm.
An NIU win puts them in the MAC Championship game and almost certainly a bowl bid for the 2nd year in a row - likely to be the Motor City Bowl or the GMAC.
Unfortunately, attendance will suffer due to the scheduling date and time. Who the hell is available to watch a college football game - in person or on TV - during the business week at Noon? Students will not be on campus and most alumni will either be working or taking the day off to travel to grandma's house for Thanksgiving.
NIU has decided that some attendance is better than no attendance so the alumni association is giving away free tickets at the alumni tent.
I know you guys are not big NIU advocates, but a little free press would be appreciated under the circumstances. We have big time DI football right here in our backyard. Let's support the Huskies!
BOOYAH
Let's hope we get some press out of this. Good job Kedz.
Kedzman Wrote:Someone should call the Score and let them know about the free tickets. Would be cool if they announced the promotion to fill the place due to the poor date/time of the game...
Disagree with you 100%
This is something you do quietly. You do NOT go on a 50,000 watt sports radio station and de-value your product by stating that on what should be the program's biggest game, you are giving away tickets! The athletic department is handling this absolutely correctly. You get the fans you can to come and you sell tickets to them, but you also cultivate a local surge in attendance by supplying complimentary tickets. Those complimentary tickets can be used to introduce a new source of fans to Huskie sports. You do NOT want to cannobalize existing fans (if you can avoid it) by taking a paying fan and turning him/her into a fan that looks for free tickets as a rule.
Bartindekalb Wrote:Kedzman Wrote:I just sent this email to Boers & Bernstein...
The ESPN football Gods have painted NIU into a corner, unfortunately. They scheduled, arguably the most important game for NIU football in the last 20 years, the day before Thanksgiving at 12:35 pm.
An NIU win puts them in the MAC Championship game and almost certainly a bowl bid for the 2nd year in a row - likely to be the Motor City Bowl or the GMAC.
Unfortunately, attendance will suffer due to the scheduling date and time. Who the hell is available to watch a college football game - in person or on TV - during the business week at Noon? Students will not be on campus and most alumni will either be working or taking the day off to travel to grandma's house for Thanksgiving.
NIU has decided that some attendance is better than no attendance so the alumni association is giving away free tickets at the alumni tent.
I know you guys are not big NIU advocates, but a little free press would be appreciated under the circumstances. We have big time DI football right here in our backyard. Let's support the Huskies!
BOOYAH
Let's hope we get some press out of this. Good job Kedz.
Wow! This could be my biggest fear come true! Were you high when you thought to send this e-mail to those two????? This is just fodder for their NIU bashing, for all the reasons I stated above!!!
Any way you can recall that e-mail before they open it!!!!!!
I agree with you to a degree. That is why I made sure to play the victim card by letting them know that ESPN scheduled the time slot.
If this game were a week earlier or a week later at Noon on a Saturday, it would be a sell out.
This time slot blows - I emphasized that in my email. Who knows if they will even mention it or not... Any press is good press IMO.
Hmmmm....
This is one of those situations that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Probably would have erred on the side of being quiet. 5 years from now the only thing those two will remember is that we were giving tickets away to the game that determined if we were going to the championship game and we were begging people to come. They will conveniently forget to mention the students going home, the 12:35 start time, the travel day before Thanksgiving, the bad weather and everything else that would hold down attendance.
That is the problem with giving ammunition to the enemy who constantly ridicule NIU. They are not friends of NIU, only the station that broadcasts some of the games.