(05-27-2022 06:49 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote: NIU opened on Thursday night 7 seasons in a row from 1997-2003. They were all good matchups too.
Most were good games, but no on all-Thurs. Openers in 1997, 1998 and 2000 were on Saturdays. In any case your "range" ends in 2003, 19 years ago.
In the 19 years after 2003 openers NOT on Saturday were in 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2017 (excluding 2020/Covid). Only 2014/Presbyterian was on Thurs.; the others were Fridays.
I have attendance records going back to 1995, and honestly, attendance is all over the place depending on opponent, weather, nearness to holiday, etc. I can't draw a conclusion from that, so I guess the Thurs-vs-Sat debate seems to hinge on personal preference.
I agree with any/all posters who said making it more difficult for actual fans is stupid.
(05-27-2022 06:49 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote: I meant it as opened the season. Not home opener. I Should have been clear on that.
The only thing you can do is compare season openers with season average. And even that is bad because of weather. The best example is probably that 2017 Friday home opener vs BC and then the following Saturday at home vs EIU. BC helped boost attendance for the Friday game. But it still wasn’t as high as EIU on saturday
My bad I guess. I assumed the thread was about the impact of moving NIU's home opener to Thursday from Saturday was going to have on attendance at the first home game.
IMO, we'll just have to wait and see how EIU fans choose their options in terms of going to game/home for the holiday, and how NIU fans take losing a tailgate Saturday, an evening weekday game and juggling end-of-week work skeds before said holiday.