[NU Sports] Attendance Woes

[sjtruog at jorsm.com]

> I think that Sanford is onto something with regard to the non-con games.
>
Yup - they scheduled their home opener against San Jose State ... a
regional "rival" that no doubt brought a good chunk of fans as well.

I remember our opener NIU in 2000 ... even for a weeknight, the Huskies
brought more fans than I remember any non-Big Ten foe to Ryan Field.

Also remember that Stanford gets Notre Dame at home every other year or so
... that has to help attendance as well.

But I think we've explored many of the factors before. The drop from '98
to '99 is clearly because Barnett left. He was the golden boy of college
coaches in 1995 and probably better known than Wannstead around town. He
was the image of the program and that sold to the bandwagon Chicago fans.

As solid of a job as I believe Walker has done on the field, he's just not
the personality that Barnett was around town. That falls on Walker and the
NU athletic department (again, Rick Taylor did a fine job in the office -
but he wasn't exactly reaching out during his term to the Chicago
bandwagon fans). We need to get it out there that NU games are exciting,
fun and in your backyard.

The folks have done some good things with Wildcat Alley, the reduction of
end zone seats, etc. but you don't see those publicized much to folks
outside the university. We get a higher percentage of students than most
-- if not all -- Big Ten schools and we have a good chunk of season ticket
holders as well (far more than when I first visited Dyche in 1992). But
our alumni are smaller in numbers and spread nationwide. We've gone about
as far as we can go with alumni and students. We need to embrace the
Chicagoland football fan looking for a fun family event or a thrilling
college game or a bargain.

> 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.

Good point. With Barnett's departure, a lot of the air left the balloon
for the casual fan. We've certainly seen exciting football in Evanston
lately - but it doesn't get teh notice and those 0-2 starts hurt.

> 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?

It definitely fell off this year. Dunno why - I believe that the tickets
are free again with a WildCard ... but they were subdued and in smaller
numbers than the past.

It's tough to explain -- we play exciting football. You'd think that would
attract some fans. But we do depend on visiting fans and catching the eye
of the casual Chicago bandwagon fan. ASU's golden shirt bloc was sure
vocal (and given the distance, I was surprised how many folks they
brought), but that may have been our second largest out-of-town fan base
of the season after all the red from Ohio State.

Purdue, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas would probably bring more fans for a
basketball game at Welsh-Ryan than they did to Ryan Field. And I'm certain
that those four programs would catch the eye of the casual Chicago sports
fan much, much more on the hardwood court than on the football field.

As for weather, aside from the Purdue windstorm, we had a pretty good year
again ... so I'm not sure how to answer this one. A lot on who we
schedule, a lot on how the coach and athletic department get their
name/face out in Chicagoland, a lot on prices and probably some on the
lack of tradition and pro sports mentality of Chicago.

The only thing we can rule out for sure is the product on the field ... a
5-1 home mark, three overtime wins, two more decided by 3 points and the
one loss a 9-point heartbreaker where we fumbled away a chance to take the
lead in the closing minutes. NU ticket holders certainly got more than
their money's worth. Surely we have some marketing whiz somewhere who can
make sure that the folks in Chicagoland know about it!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT