Fw: Re: [NU Sports] Saturdays at Dyche Stadium

[Jonathan Hodges]

This is the NUMBER ONE issue facing the NU football program right now as
putting people in the seats is still the top revenue driver for the athletic
department and NU is scraping along the bottom of the pool now and has seen
attendance nosedive this decade.

Lake The Posts (LTP), myself at Hail To Purple, the message boards, and
casual conversations have been discussing this issue for years and I think
the volume is getting turned up.

NU has made some changes - they had a Kellogg sponsored survey this summer,
have been supportive of fan-initiated tailgating in the SPAC parking lot (by
providing resources to make the environment there better), and are trying
more promotions (like a free extra ticket to a nonconference game for season
ticket holders along with more family oriented promos).  Phillips and the
athletic marketing group haven't just been sitting around and that's good to
see.

LTP is very focused on the lack of a tailgating environment - while it could
use work, it won't necessarily drive attendance.  I agree that there are
plenty of people who want to go to the game and not tailgate.

The fact is that there are other huge factors standing in the way of good
attendance:
- a pro sports town
- NU being a private school that few if any not associated in some way
affiliate with (unlike the rest of the schools in the Big Ten)
- decades of negative results on the field to overcome
- nonconference opponents that don't exactly draw crowds
- a stadium location that isn't that easy to drive up to and then walk to
the game
- mostly 11AM starts to fit the TV schedule (that NU can do virtually
nothing about)
- expensive tickets, especially for those bringing a family (promos help but
the hurdle still exists)
- an alumni base spread out across the country/world (that was already small
to begin with)
..and more that I know I'm missing.

I think we all want to see NU attendance improve and all have good ideas.
Hopefully these efforts will continue until NU can start filling the place
better on a regular basis.

Go 'Cats!!!
Jonathan

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 2:19 PM, mlinhardt at netzero.com <mlinhardt at netzero.com
> wrote:

> Darren Rovell on WNUR
> http://sports.wnur.org/?p=1415
>
> CNBC sports business writer (and former WNUR Sports Director) Darren Rovell
> joined “The Sportsvoice” to talk about NU football and that million dollar
> question…how to market the program to the public.
>
> He disagrees with your #2 issue.
>
> As a season ticket and more importantly a parking pass holder I don't want
> any changes that endanger that.  Until traffic control is fixed and they
> find some more parking/tailgating space don't do anything that will hinder
> me further to getting into parking.  I have seat neighbors with parking
> passes that get closed out of parking.  Absurd!  NU either oversells parking
> or the people can not park people efficiently to use the space properly.
>
> Lake The Posts(awesome blog) has diatribes against those who have parking,
> but don't tailgate.  Some of us are interested in the game, not imbing adult
> beverages.
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>
>
>
> Fellow Wildcat Faithful,
>
> This falls somewhere between 719 and 751 on the top 800 things that NU
> needs to improve, but it has been on my mind  a while. Our game day
> experience at Dyche Stadium just isn't good.
>
> Attendance is a huge part of that, and I'm not sure what can be done short
> of the team winning consistently. Our home crowds haven't cracked 20,000 yet
> this year in a city that has well over 3,000,000. I suspect that the Big Ten
> Network may have hurt our cause somewhat too.
>
> The other aspects of game day in Evanston need some attention too. Wildcat
> Alley doesn't seem to draw all that well. We must be one of only a handful
> of schools in America to literally give out free (good) beer and we still
> don't get big numbers.
>
> The part that really gets me is what goes on during the game.
>
> 1) We "honor" way too many people between quarters. It must be embarrassing
> for them too, because there isn't typically enough applause to even usher
> them off the field.
>
> 2) We have too many t-shirt giveaways and 'see yourself on the scoreboard'
> gimmicks. It really feels like a minor league baseball game.
>
> 3) And the PA system just doesn't get it done. I rarely understand the
> announcements.
>
> I still love NU football and I don't have any issues with going to see
> games there. But we have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the
> Big Ten.
>
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