This Friday, join Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Sean T. Frazier at 10 a.m. as he answers fan questions about Northern Illinois University athletics, including the new facilities master plan that will be unveiled the day prior.

http://www.niuhuskies.com/chat/102914aaa.html

Awesome

That's a big corner.

Figured I would bump this up. You can submit questions now and the actual chat is tomorrow.

Bump...reminder it should start any min.

http://www.niuhuskies.com/chat/102914aaa.html

Greg (Naperville @gjlNIU): Are any of our future scheduled game contingent upon upgrades announced in the master plan?

Sean T. Frazier: Thanks for your question Greg. Absolutely not. We were able to secure these contests because of our past and present football body of work.

(10-31-2014 10:16 AM)NIU8484 Wrote:  Greg (Naperville @gjlNIU): Are any of our future scheduled game contingent upon upgrades announced in the master plan?

Sean T. Frazier: Thanks for your question Greg. Absolutely not. We were able to secure these contests because of our past and present football body of work.

And Akeem Daniels is day to day...lol.

Ed (Downers Grove): Congratulations on the announcement. I am wondering why the decision was made to build the Skyboxes,Suites, etc. on the East Side? Won't they be looking directly into the sun on game days? I would have thought that the West Side would have seen those improvements and the building would have been done on that side.

Sean T. Frazier: Great question Ed. Based on architectural engineering recommendations, the East Side being the newer location within Huskie Stadium, the ability for us to construct and develop premium areas supports our overall plan for construction. The West Side has significant challenges because of its age and structural integrity, like size of concessions, restrooms. In terms of the sun aspect, there are engineering solutions that we will employ to help mitigate that issue.

Whoever built the West side was a complete dumb***.

(10-31-2014 10:16 AM)NIU8484 Wrote:  Greg (Naperville @gjlNIU): Are any of our future scheduled game contingent upon upgrades announced in the master plan?

Sean T. Frazier: Thanks for your question Greg. Absolutely not. We were able to secure these contests because of our past and present football body of work.

Exactly!
I've said it for years. Opponents want to know who they are playing and what they are getting paid. Whether you have hot dogs in the third quarter, or a piss trough makes no difference to them. Hell, on the road, I would rather play in an empty stadium than a hostile filled to the rafters crowd.

Fernando (Joliet): With IMG Learfield's partnership with NIU for ticketing solutions. And their main goal to sell open inventory and increase attendence. How does this affect your vision of protecting the season ticket holders by not having "fire sales"?

Sean T. Frazier: Great question Fernando. I repeat, there will be no fire sales. My goal is to support and cultivate season ticket holders. We will not devalue the experience and the pricing for those who step up to become season ticketholders. Also, in the future, we will look at specific games and place an increased value on them to support the process of variable or dynamic pricing. This means, that as our schedule has improved, there will be a price increase for those who buy single game tickets for those contests. I highly recommend that folks invest in season tickets. The value will be significant.

This is going to hurt attendance in the short term, but assuming Frazier is here to see it through, it'll help a lot in the long run.

(10-31-2014 10:49 AM)7 Wrote:  Ed (Downers Grove): Congratulations on the announcement. I am wondering why the decision was made to build the Skyboxes,Suites, etc. on the East Side? Won't they be looking directly into the sun on game days? I would have thought that the West Side would have seen those improvements and the building would have been done on that side.

Sean T. Frazier: Great question Ed. Based on architectural engineering recommendations, the East Side being the newer location within Huskie Stadium, the ability for us to construct and develop premium areas supports our overall plan for construction. The West Side has significant challenges because of its age and structural integrity, like size of concessions, restrooms. In terms of the sun aspect, there are engineering solutions that we will employ to help mitigate that issue.

Whoever built the West side was a complete dumb***.

Don't blame those who built it. The West side was opened in 1965. It was just fine for the time. The problem is that it has not been improved/updated since then.

I love what Frazier has done and his positive attitude overall and in general.





However, he talks a lot about increasing revenue by increasing ticket prices, media rights, merchandising, etc. I would much prefer that he spoke of MAXIMIZING revenue instead. I hope he or someone he trusts on his staff knows the difference, and I hope he is not stuck on using a "big time program traditional model" as our model. We may not fit. (Maximizing revenue may involve dropping ticket prices. I am not saying it means that in this case, all I am saying is that a knee jerk reaction to "fire sales" sounds like old man Wirtz refusing to put Hawks games on TV. That has been proven to be a wrong-headed idea.) I hope Frazier is actually open to all possibilities, but I am concerned.

(10-31-2014 10:52 AM)7 Wrote:  Fernando (Joliet): With IMG Learfield's partnership with NIU for ticketing solutions. And their main goal to sell open inventory and increase attendence. How does this affect your vision of protecting the season ticket holders by not having "fire sales"?

Sean T. Frazier: Great question Fernando. I repeat, there will be no fire sales. My goal is to support and cultivate season ticket holders. We will not devalue the experience and the pricing for those who step up to become season ticketholders. Also, in the future, we will look at specific games and place an increased value on them to support the process of variable or dynamic pricing. This means, that as our schedule has improved, there will be a price increase for those who buy single game tickets for those contests. I highly recommend that folks invest in season tickets. The value will be significant.

This is going to hurt attendance in the short term, but assuming Frazier is here to see it through, it'll help a lot in the long run.

In the long run we are all dead.

just sayin

(10-31-2014 11:05 AM)chihuskie Wrote:  I love what Frazier has done and his positive attitude overall and in general.





However, he talks a lot about increasing revenue by increasing ticket prices, media rights, merchandising, etc. I would much prefer that he spoke of MAXIMIZING revenue instead. I hope he or someone he trusts on his staff knows the difference, and I hope he is not stuck on using a "big time program traditional model" as our model. We may not fit. (Maximizing revenue may involve dropping ticket process. I am not saying it means that in this case, all I am saying is a knee jerk reaction to "fire sales: sounds like old man Wirtz refusing to put Hawks games on TV. That has been proven to be a wrong headed idea.) I hope Frazier is actually open to all possibilities, but I am concerned.

Good point. No way will we be able to get what the bigger schools charge for premium seating and parking.

I'm sure they tossed any questions about conference realignment so as not to answer them publicly....which kind of sucks. But hey, that's what this board is for anyway, to debate that very question constantly.

(10-31-2014 11:07 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 11:05 AM)chihuskie Wrote:  I love what Frazier has done and his positive attitude overall and in general.





However, he talks a lot about increasing revenue by increasing ticket prices, media rights, merchandising, etc. I would much prefer that he spoke of MAXIMIZING revenue instead. I hope he or someone he trusts on his staff knows the difference, and I hope he is not stuck on using a "big time program traditional model" as our model. We may not fit. (Maximizing revenue may involve dropping ticket process. I am not saying it means that in this case, all I am saying is a knee jerk reaction to "fire sales: sounds like old man Wirtz refusing to put Hawks games on TV. That has been proven to be a wrong headed idea.) I hope Frazier is actually open to all possibilities, but I am concerned.

Good point. No way will we be able to get what the bigger schools charge for premium seating and parking.

Season tickets will become an even better value.

(10-31-2014 11:07 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 11:05 AM)chihuskie Wrote:  I love what Frazier has done and his positive attitude overall and in general.





However, he talks a lot about increasing revenue by increasing ticket prices, media rights, merchandising, etc. I would much prefer that he spoke of MAXIMIZING revenue instead. I hope he or someone he trusts on his staff knows the difference, and I hope he is not stuck on using a "big time program traditional model" as our model. We may not fit. (Maximizing revenue may involve dropping ticket process. I am not saying it means that in this case, all I am saying is a knee jerk reaction to "fire sales: sounds like old man Wirtz refusing to put Hawks games on TV. That has been proven to be a wrong headed idea.) I hope Frazier is actually open to all possibilities, but I am concerned.

Good point. No way will we be able to get what the bigger schools charge for premium seating and parking.

where does it say we will charge what bigger schools charge for "premium Games". He just said more for the higher profile games. Everyone wants better Non Con games. How much of a premium would you pay to see Boston Coll at home?? Don't you thonk he has thought this through and has experienced this while at OW. You can use the model just size it to our prigram.

(10-31-2014 11:11 AM)DogPoundNorth Wrote:  I'm sure they tossed any questions about conference realignment so as not to answer them publicly....which kind of sucks. But hey, that's what this board is for anyway, to debate that very question constantly.

I asked a question about the stadium renovations making NIU better prepared to move to a P5 conference. That question was not posted.

(10-31-2014 11:49 AM)GCD70 Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 11:07 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 11:05 AM)chihuskie Wrote:  I love what Frazier has done and his positive attitude overall and in general.





However, he talks a lot about increasing revenue by increasing ticket prices, media rights, merchandising, etc. I would much prefer that he spoke of MAXIMIZING revenue instead. I hope he or someone he trusts on his staff knows the difference, and I hope he is not stuck on using a "big time program traditional model" as our model. We may not fit. (Maximizing revenue may involve dropping ticket process. I am not saying it means that in this case, all I am saying is a knee jerk reaction to "fire sales: sounds like old man Wirtz refusing to put Hawks games on TV. That has been proven to be a wrong headed idea.) I hope Frazier is actually open to all possibilities, but I am concerned.

Good point. No way will we be able to get what the bigger schools charge for premium seating and parking.

where does it say we will charge what bigger schools charge for "premium Games". He just said more for the higher profile games. Everyone wants better Non Con games. How much of a premium would you pay to see Boston Coll at home?? Don't you thonk he has thought this through and has experienced this while at OW. You can use the model just size it to our prigram.

And where did I say we were going to charge what the bigger programs do? I said we CAN'T, agreeing with chihuskie. On top of this, I was referring to premium seating and parking. Please re-read what I posted.

Of course, season ticket prices will be increased. I'm all for it even if they double the price. Same with single game tickets.

(10-31-2014 11:54 AM)pgreen822 Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 11:11 AM)DogPoundNorth Wrote:  I'm sure they tossed any questions about conference realignment so as not to answer them publicly....which kind of sucks. But hey, that's what this board is for anyway, to debate that very question constantly.

I asked a question about the stadium renovations making NIU better prepared to move to a P5 conference. That question was not posted.

I asked a question about why he wont allow Diesel to run the endzone anymore. Also not posted.