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$$ for new building plans at NIU
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pvk75 Offline
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Post: #41
RE: $$ for new building plans at NIU
(02-17-2020 02:55 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  
(02-17-2020 02:26 PM)HOF 08 Wrote:  
(02-17-2020 02:16 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  In the the '70s and '80s, there were some movers-and-shakers at NIU including some who did some great things in sports, and they convinced the administration that they knew what was best. They squeezed out the alumni-fans and p'o'd the alumni association with the attitude that they and not alumni should call all the shots about fund-raising, promotions, etc. It got so bad at one point that the alumni association refused to share graduate contact information with the a.dept, leaving athletics to develop its own contact database.

So the old Huskie Club was forcibly morphed into the Huskie Athletic Association, which became the Huskie Athletic Foundation. Today the HAF is modeled after the NIU Foundation, a fund-raising and asset collection/holding entity. Even the Fan Advisory Board is marginalized (no offense intended to current members). The FAB can suggest, but really has no direct membership of its own to back it up. Alumni-fans are left to beg for attention from the athletic department. Even the Red Riot faded away, discouraged by "internalists" who could not control it. There is no "fan" association to speak of.

And there probably won't be. The a.dept. answers only to the internal influencers and anything -- such as the BYU game move -- can be done and just announced and that's it. The problem with internalizing an operation that depends on fan support and attendance is that the fans are told to "just trust us." That's what makes this whole BYU "engagement" with those 160,000 alumni a farce. There is no engagement. There is only a new target to say "give us your money."

And that, Huskies fans, is where we're at.

Well put and I guess unfortunately pretty right on for us common fans.

Correct. As season ticketholders and donors, the only time we matter is in April. It may be time to use our dollars to do our talking.

The difficulty is balancing the solution you mention so it doesn't become part of the problem, which then gets worse. Pull your donations and season tickets ... attendance and financial support go down. The a.dept. is then forced to look for more alternatives.
On the other hand, help to pack SeatGeek and the athletic admin. thinks it has found another whoopee to work with. Then expect to see Maryland, Vanderbilt, etc., get moved there in the future.

I suggested a hybrid solution: move the two weekday night games to SeatGeek in November, starting in 2021. It has partial rooftops, better weather shielding, skybox suites, better concessions and restrooms, etc. Make it a huge regular annual promotion to those 160,000 alumni. And it doesn't compete with high school football or the Bears. Because you're not expecting a big draw from out in DeKalb, you can even move kickoff to 5:30 p.m. for people just getting off work. Improve concessions for "supper" and you make both the fans and the vendors happy.

The two weekday night games are an attendance failure at Huskie Stadium anyway, and that ESPN-MAC contract runs through 2027. How long do you want to wait?

And that leaves four Saturday games in (hopefully) better weather to push at Huskie Stadium, with the home opener at one end and Homecoming at the other.

But ... naaah. This just makes too much sense.
(This post was last modified: 02-17-2020 03:55 PM by pvk75.)
02-17-2020 03:55 PM
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pvk75 Offline
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Post: #42
RE: $$ for new building plans at NIU
Did anyone else notice that this thread about planning for two academic facilities morphed into a crossover with the big announcement/BYU-to-SeatGeek thread. I admit to being a contributor to that, but the post I wanted to reply to is here.
02-17-2020 03:58 PM
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Dog Fan Offline
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Post: #43
RE: $$ for new building plans at NIU
(02-17-2020 03:55 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  
(02-17-2020 02:55 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  
(02-17-2020 02:26 PM)HOF 08 Wrote:  
(02-17-2020 02:16 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  In the the '70s and '80s, there were some movers-and-shakers at NIU including some who did some great things in sports, and they convinced the administration that they knew what was best. They squeezed out the alumni-fans and p'o'd the alumni association with the attitude that they and not alumni should call all the shots about fund-raising, promotions, etc. It got so bad at one point that the alumni association refused to share graduate contact information with the a.dept, leaving athletics to develop its own contact database.

So the old Huskie Club was forcibly morphed into the Huskie Athletic Association, which became the Huskie Athletic Foundation. Today the HAF is modeled after the NIU Foundation, a fund-raising and asset collection/holding entity. Even the Fan Advisory Board is marginalized (no offense intended to current members). The FAB can suggest, but really has no direct membership of its own to back it up. Alumni-fans are left to beg for attention from the athletic department. Even the Red Riot faded away, discouraged by "internalists" who could not control it. There is no "fan" association to speak of.

And there probably won't be. The a.dept. answers only to the internal influencers and anything -- such as the BYU game move -- can be done and just announced and that's it. The problem with internalizing an operation that depends on fan support and attendance is that the fans are told to "just trust us." That's what makes this whole BYU "engagement" with those 160,000 alumni a farce. There is no engagement. There is only a new target to say "give us your money."

And that, Huskies fans, is where we're at.

Well put and I guess unfortunately pretty right on for us common fans.

Correct. As season ticketholders and donors, the only time we matter is in April. It may be time to use our dollars to do our talking.

The difficulty is balancing the solution you mention so it doesn't become part of the problem, which then gets worse. Pull your donations and season tickets ... attendance and financial support go down. The a.dept. is then forced to look for more alternatives.
On the other hand, help to pack SeatGeek and the athletic admin. thinks it has found another whoopee to work with. Then expect to see Maryland, Vanderbilt, etc., get moved there in the future.

I suggested a hybrid solution: move the two weekday night games to SeatGeek in November, starting in 2021. It has partial rooftops, better weather shielding, skybox suites, better concessions and restrooms, etc. Make it a huge regular annual promotion to those 160,000 alumni. And it doesn't compete with high school football or the Bears. Because you're not expecting a big draw from out in DeKalb, you can even move kickoff to 5:30 p.m. for people just getting off work. Improve concessions for "supper" and you make both the fans and the vendors happy.

The two weekday night games are an attendance failure at Huskie Stadium anyway, and that ESPN-MAC contract runs through 2027. How long do you want to wait?

And that leaves four Saturday games in (hopefully) better weather to push at Huskie Stadium, with the home opener at one end and Homecoming at the other.

But ... naaah. This just makes too much sense.

They probably won't move the weeknight winter games to SeatGeek if they have to pay to rent the stadium. The games are already ignored by most season ticket holders, and moving it to Bridgeview on a bad-weather night will almost ensure even lower attendance. Adding the cost of stadium rental will further increase the deficit. And if there is some rental "deal" where the rent is reduced while the stadium keeps the $20 parking fee, I'm sure the stadium won't be happy with the anemic attendance and an almost empty parking lot.
02-17-2020 04:05 PM
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