(02-18-2020 06:15 PM)Illini60940 Wrote:  

(02-18-2020 05:44 PM)uiniu57 Wrote:  

(02-18-2020 02:03 PM)Illini60940 Wrote:  The problem for NIU is the town of Dekalb, which needs to grow and show signs of life. Kids don't care about how a schools basketball team is doing, they want to be able to walk to Starbucks, Chipolte, BWW, microbrews and whatever else the current trend is.

When talking to the people at EIU, they tell me the same thing, but its difficult to get these companies to locate to these smaller town.

For Rabid Squirrel's benefit, title: A RESPONSE
Just to set the record straight, Starbucks and Chipotle have locations that literally are connected to campus, both BWW and microbrews exist in DeKalb and what Illini60940 doesn't seem to know or understand is that NIU's enrollment was once around 21,000 and attendance was far better. A number of poor decisions, the diminishing effect of MACtion, and to some degree, success, has spoiled our game atmosphere and fan base. The current trend nationally is a decrease in football attendance. All in all, it's about rebuilding and regaining what we had, not being patient.
Forward: Lack of logic
Moving a home game with the single best name recognition foe and a former national champion -- BYU is far greater than Utah, San Diego State, or Boston College -- off campus, especially when its a Saturday with potentially good weather is simply a stupid move.
Every game moved off campus has seen decreases in attendance and there's no transparency as to what the true financial cost has been. Once again, the whole premise of Schedulepalooza was to enhance home game opponents but that has been proven to be an STF lie.
So what if the game at Bridgeview breaks even or produces a small profit, is the goal to have a commuter football program?
Hate the ILL-ini but the novelty of moving select games to Soldier Field didn't work out, neither did the occasional basketball game at the United Center. DePaul had a record run in Rosemont but came to realize they needed to be closer to campus hence Wintrust Arena. Perhaps Northwestern may play another game as a novelty, but Phillips and Co. know its more important to build attendance at Ryan Field. The Wildcats finally made the NCAA in hoops and being forced into a temporary home for one season clearly had an adverse affect on that program.
Everybody on here wanting a football game at Soldier Field, Guarnateed Rate, or Bridgeview talks about reaching the supposed 160,000 alums in Chicago. For what purpose? So they attend one game a year IF it's played closer to them? How does that sustain FBS status? Show any proof or evidence that those other games moved to Chicago produced any kind of increase in donations.
That's as irrelevant as Rabid Squirrel bringing up SunBelt teams with smaller enrollments; the enrollment number has nothing to do with FBS status. It's money, and yes some SunBelt schools may have smaller budgets but they don't exist in the shadow of the Big Ten and especially a pro market.....it's apples and oranges.
Bottom line, the ultimate goal has to be getting fans, students, and the nearby communities to once again show their support in Huskie Stadium. And Maddawgz and others are correct in emphasizing the cumulative affect of administrations taking too much for granted when it comes to loyalty, parking, ticket prices, etc.
Appendix
Once again, a theoretical once-a-season bump from a game played off campus is no more going to sustain the program than not making every effort to build attendance at Huskie Stadium. Continue ignoring or turning you back on the few loyal fans showing up in DeKalb and you'll see more decline in financial support.

I was not aware there is a Starbuck and Chipolte, was just referencing some layouts I saw awhile ago.

Point being is that NIU, EIU and WIU lack a campus feel that we have seen in Champaign and Normal, downtown areas next to campus with hotels, dining, bars, shopping and entertainment. That is what we feel the 2020 college student wants.

The question is, how do we as a state get to the point that our current high school seniors want to attend our directional schools? What can they do to emulate UICU and ISU? Or can they? What does Dekalb as a city need to do? To me, that is the point that's important, get the enrollment up and the athletic budget will be in a far better spot.

You know, you talk an awful lot like someone we've banned around here quite a lot...

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