[NU Sports] Philips proposes Cats to play Illinois at Wrigley

[Michael Vance]

I have to admit, I like the idea of having it at Soldier Field better.  
It makes it more likely that the Illini might actually agree to make it 
an every-year thing, like the Red River Shootout and the Cocktail Party, 
if they don't have to give up as much in ticket sales by moving a home 
game.  (Soldier Field holds 61,500 compared to Memorial's 62,872.)  You 
can also still tailgate at Soldier Field.  Hitting the bars in 
Wrigleyville before or after wouldn't be a bad substitute, but you have 
to compete with the regular Saturday sports crowd for that.  Of course, 
the Bears would probably nix the idea because of the wear and tear on 
the turf, but economically and in terms of the total game-day 
atmosphere, it would be the better choice.

That gives me the opportunity to ask a question that I've always 
wondered about: How do Texas and Oklahoma (or Florida and Georgia or 
whoever else does something similar) handle season ticket sales for the 
game?  Does whichever team is designated as "home" in a given year get 
first dibs to allocate tickets to their season ticket holders?  Or do 
they have some other system where they tickets get allocated the same 
way every year?  The Cotton Bowl (92,200) holds slightly less than 
Royal-Texas Memorial (94,113) and about 10,000 more than 
Gaylord-Oklahoma Memorial (82,112).  Jacksonville Municipal (76,867), 
while one of the largest stadiums in the NFL, holds significantly less 
than both Ben Hill Griffin (88,548) and Sanford (92,746).  Obviously, 
for those two series, not every season ticket holder can be 
accommodated.  Does anyone know how they do it?

(BTW, all stats from Wikipedia, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity)

-Michael

neonrye at aol.com wrote:
> If the Illini don't want to do it, screw 'em.? I think Phillips (who struck me as a "go-getter" when I met him at NU Alumni Club of NY Sports Night last Summer) is really on to something.? Although I love the "Red River" analogy, to make it a How about some of these other possibilities:
>
> NU-ND (Revive that old rivalry, now that we have a good chance to win--and Fitz has good karma vs. the Irish)
> NU-Stanford?or NU-Vandy or NU-Rice?(The "SAT Bowl").? We have played Duke a lot lately, so I'll leave them out of the mix..
> NU-Missouri (Develop a new rivalry after a great Alamo Bowl match-up).? And Mizzou is close enough to send plenty of fans.
> NU-Army (Best shot for a "W" vs. a service academy).? I saw us play at West Point several years back, so I know we have some history with the Black Knights.
> NU--Florida (I can dream, can't I?:-))
>
> Paul Levinson
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net>
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Sent: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:09 am
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Philips proposes Cats to play Illinois at Wrigley
>
>
>   
>> Of course we would have to schedule the game in november to avoid the > obvious risk of the Cubs being in the World Series?
>>     
> ?
> The way MLB is going, they'll still be playing the World Series in November. They darn near did this year, and the upcoming season starts a week later. ?
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