According to this report
https://fbschedules.com/college-football...s-in-2018/
Northern ranked pretty dismally in home attendance compared to stadium capacity last year, out of the 130 FBS teams.

"121. NORTHERN ILLINOIS (8-6) – 43.3% (Huskie Stadium holds 24,000)."

The story uses Phil Steele's preseason magazine stats, but the article author adds a graph of interest to us, singling out NIU for comment:

"Perhaps most puzzling is Northern Illinois at No. 121. The Huskies play in the ninth-smallest stadium in the FBS and still couldn’t manage to fill even half of their seats last season. Throw in the fact that NIU went 8-6 (with half of the losses coming vs. Iowa, Utah and Florida State) and won the MAC title in 2018 and the number becomes even more troubling."

IMO, hope is that this starts to change dramatically beginning this year with:
1. New ticket packages, especially the new "Saturday Special" option, that recognize what fans want given the weekday night games.
2. Excitement generated by the launch of the THammock Era (and the end of the boring, predictable RCarey Era).
3. Possible bowl game win (we hope), ending a critical post-season drought. Better MAC bowl game ties also a plus.
4. A return to a home game schedule of 4 Saturdays and 2 weekdays starting in 2020. A plus is the almost-annual scheduling of in-state FCS teams for local draw.

We'll see if it works starting Aug. 31.