[NU Sports] Attendance Woes

[Jeff Beamsley]

I think that Sanford is onto something with regard to the non-con games.

Every school should have a built in new audience every year with 
incoming freshmen.  Students (and their parents) are a major source for 
ongoing season ticket sales. 

The slow NU starts the past several years is going to depress that 
market.  By the time they get to school and we would hope to begin 
encouraging them to become loyal NU fans, the team is 0-2.

Also the student section doesn't seem nearly so rowdy and hardcore as it 
has been in previous seasons.  Any season ticket holders see the same 
thing?  Two years ago at the Michigan game it was embarrassing to see 
the student section empty by the fourth quarter and Michigan fans 
(presumably students) running around the empty seats celebrating.  I was 
tempted to go out a tackle a few of them but my wife talked me out of 
it.  <g>

Jeff




Sanford_Stein at rush.edu wrote:

>
>
>Why is attendance so bad?
>
>1.  Ticket prices?  They've doubled since the peak attendance years of the
>late 1990's.
>      I know that they're not out of line with the Big Ten (and the %
>increase not out of line with pro
>      teams), but how do they compare to the "peer institutions" mentioned
>below?  I know a ticket
>      at Duke three years ago was only $22.
>
>2.  Two non-conference home games a year before the students are in school?
>This probably
>      drags down the average compared with those schools that start in
>August.
>      (Do we have the Big Ten game numbers?)
>
>
>
>
>
>For reasons that have never been quite clear to me, the NU Football Media
>Guide publishes a page called (something like) 'Ryan Field Attendance
>Figures', and then fails to give any figures, mentioning only that fans in
>Chicago have a lot of choices.
>
>Fortunately the NCAA publishes attendance figures.  Unfortunately, our
>attendance continues to be pretty weak.
>
>Many have alluded to the 'exciting games' for this year's team, but it
>hasn't seemed to carry over to the box office.
>
>92   32,989
>93   30,965
>94   34,382
>95   38,230
>96   42,310
>97   41,868
>98   40,907
>99   30,845
>00   33,498
>01   33,763
>02   28,611
>03   28,771
>04   28,408
>
>Some of our peer institutions are way ahead of us - Stanford, 45,000 per
>game, BC 43,000 per game, Army  36,000 per game, Navy 30,000 per
>game...Even Baylor is averaging almost 30,000 per game.
>
>We became the first school in the modern era to see their attendance erode
>by 25% in one year when it plummeted from 40,907 in 98 to 30,845 in 99.
>
>All of this after a pretty major upgrade to facilities.
>
>The team is turning in .500 seasons and generally exciting games - why is
>attendance so bad ?  Can RW draw crowds in Chicago ?
>
>Chuck Herron   Tech '85
>
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