Northern Star...I know I know but one bit of info I found promising...

http://northernstar.info/city/dekalb/art...b0.twitter

Greg Herring, assistant athletic director for marketing and sales, said Re:New DeKalb hopes to form a link between the campus and DeKalb communities, and athletics is participating in the effort.

“We’re [Athletics] trying to work on having a more visible identity and spirit in the downtown area,” Herring said.

To do this, Re:New is working to put together spirit packages that businesses can purchase to show their support of the university. The packages will contain NIU flags, pompoms and other items businesses can display to support the Huskies. Herring said he hopes the spirit packages will increase business for merchants, so he expects many store owners to be interested.

Not to sound like a broke record but this should have been done years ago! NIU is so far behind in marketing! They should think outside of DeKalb becuase DeKalb community "should" already support NIU! A pathetic effort in my opinoin! NIU football should sell out every game! I dont care about the team they play or the weather this team just went to the orange bowl and won 10+ games 3 years in a row!

(04-30-2013 09:47 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  “We’re [Athletics] trying to work on having a more visible identity and spirit in the downtown area,” Herring said.

To do this, Re:New is working to put together spirit packages that businesses can purchase to show their support of the university. The packages will contain NIU flags, pompoms and other items businesses can display to support the Huskies. Herring said he hopes the spirit packages will increase business for merchants, so he expects many store owners to be interested.

This is so typical of our NIU Rocket Scientists. Really, the businesses can "buy" a Spirit Package from NIU to support NIU? I'm sure they will line right up...

(04-30-2013 11:08 AM)huskie2379 Wrote:  Not to sound like a broke record but this should have been done years ago! NIU is so far behind in marketing! They should think outside of DeKalb becuase DeKalb community "should" already support NIU! A pathetic effort in my opinoin! NIU football should sell out every game! I dont care about the team they play or the weather this team just went to the orange bowl and won 10+ games 3 years in a row!

There are 60k people in DeKalb and Sycamore and we sold less than 3700 season tickets. Most of the non-Alum locals do not support NIU.

(04-30-2013 11:19 AM)DeKalb57 Wrote:  

(04-30-2013 09:47 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  “We’re [Athletics] trying to work on having a more visible identity and spirit in the downtown area,” Herring said.

To do this, Re:New is working to put together spirit packages that businesses can purchase to show their support of the university. The packages will contain NIU flags, pompoms and other items businesses can display to support the Huskies. Herring said he hopes the spirit packages will increase business for merchants, so he expects many store owners to be interested.

This is so typical of our NIU Rocket Scientists. Really, the businesses can "buy" a Spirit Package from NIU to support NIU? I'm sure they will line right up...

OH GEEZ...I didn't see that.

(04-30-2013 11:21 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(04-30-2013 11:08 AM)huskie2379 Wrote:  Not to sound like a broke record but this should have been done years ago! NIU is so far behind in marketing! They should think outside of DeKalb becuase DeKalb community "should" already support NIU! A pathetic effort in my opinoin! NIU football should sell out every game! I dont care about the team they play or the weather this team just went to the orange bowl and won 10+ games 3 years in a row!

There are 60k people in DeKalb and Sycamore and we sold less than 3700 season tickets. Most of the non-Alum locals do not support NIU.

This should be JOB #1 for the new AD. That's a key part of how these larger programs do it.

(04-30-2013 11:24 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(04-30-2013 11:19 AM)DeKalb57 Wrote:  

(04-30-2013 09:47 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  “We’re [Athletics] trying to work on having a more visible identity and spirit in the downtown area,” Herring said.

To do this, Re:New is working to put together spirit packages that businesses can purchase to show their support of the university. The packages will contain NIU flags, pompoms and other items businesses can display to support the Huskies. Herring said he hopes the spirit packages will increase business for merchants, so he expects many store owners to be interested.

This is so typical of our NIU Rocket Scientists. Really, the businesses can "buy" a Spirit Package from NIU to support NIU? I'm sure they will line right up...

OH GEEZ...I didn't see that.

Yea, I was wondering about that. It would have to be REALLY cheap - people aren't going to go there just because they have NIU decorations up, except maybe a few people from this board.

As a DeKalb lifer and NIU Grad, there are quite a few much larger issues NIU and the city face that, to a large degree, limit the amount of Season Ticket sales.

Both NIU and DeKalb are reaping exactly what they've sewn in terms of managing a relationship that neither has valued or managed. They've both sat on their own respective sides of the fence.

The current rhetoric is a step in the right direction. I'm very interested to see what distinctive actions will be taken to support this new partnership discussion. In the past, actions have been limited to just more rhetoric.

As much as I'd like the AD to fix this, he/she doesn't have the horsepower. This direction has to come from the Trustee's/City as they are ultimately the bosses and, have respectively sat on their hands.

(04-30-2013 12:38 PM)DeKalb57 Wrote:  As a DeKalb lifer and NIU Grad, there are quite a few much larger issues NIU and the city face that, to a large degree, limit the amount of Season Ticket sales.

Both NIU and DeKalb are reaping exactly what they've sewn in terms of managing a relationship that neither has valued or managed. They've both sat on their own respective sides of the fence.

The current rhetoric is a step in the right direction. I'm very interested to see what distinctive actions will be taken to support this new partnership discussion. In the past, actions have been limited to just more rhetoric.

As much as I'd like the AD to fix this, he/she doesn't have the horsepower. This direction has to come from the Trustee's/City as they are ultimately the bosses and, have respectively sat on their hands.

The new DeKalb mayor (and his wife) being an NIU alum should also help.

http://www.johnreyfordekalb.com/Candidate_Bio.html

It's worth a shot. Any team that has had the success NIU's had in football should be drawing at least several thousand more in attendance than they have been.