[NU Sports] Saturdays at Dyche Stadium

[Jonathan Hodges]

Some good ideas, especially the seat auctions - I don't know why that
haven't tried that already.  I agree completely that the price to take a
family to the game (ticket & concessions) is just too much.  A picnic area
or something like that where families can at least bring in food may be a
good idea.  I think families are a key part of the equation long term since
it breeds potential lifelong NU fans.

I don't think decreasing the number of seats would do much good, as NU
really benefits from that revenue when the games do sell out.  And I don't
think empty seats on TV really do that much (and, they rarely show that part
of the stadium anyways).  For comparison, Stanford's old stadium had an
80,000+ capacity and their new stadium is 50,000 or so.  Unless NU is going
to drop the number down to the 30,000s it wouldn't really be worth it, and I
don't think it would do a whole lot of good (people are going to show up
just because there are less seats?).

Regarding NUMB (another issue frequently discussed on LTP), I believe a
location just beyond the north end zone (the area in front of the locker
room) would be optimal.  It would allow them to be heard in more areas of
the stadium (i.e. the west stands), free up seats, and allow the band to
actually see the student section they're supposedly interacting with.  (I
thought this when I was in NUMB as well).

Finally, about the start times.  I believe the Big Ten contract with
ESPN/ABC prevents them from placing games on the BTN during certain
restricted time periods (ABC 2:30PM CT afternoon games), which means it's
either 11AM or 6PM.  And the 6PM games on BTN are exclusive time windows
that must be announced before the season starts, and Big Ten policy doesn't
allow conference night games in November/December.  There's also the
Evanston opposition to too many night games.  So, NU is basically stuck with
11AM starts.  That's the price of having every home game available
nationally on TV, which arguably brings a lot more attention than starting
the games in the afternoon with no TV coverage.

Jonathan

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 5:04 PM, Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> A new stadium is too much to hope for in the next 15-20 years, but it sure
> would be nice. A lakefront stadium would be a beautiful setting for game
> days, but I don't think it makes the traffic/commuting issues any easier.
>
> Here are a few things that I think we could potentially do in the short
> term:
>
> 1) Cut a deal where the Metra is free if you're holding a game ticket.
> Metra's incremental cost is zero, so there has to be some opportunity.
>
> 2) Have a family section where families can bring in there own food and
> beverages. Given that a movie is $10, you might get a family to pay $15 for
> a child's ticket (though Julie's point is well taken), but then when you hit
> them up for $3.50 for bottled water, that's where the budget for the day is
> blown.
>
> 3) I've wondered about the NCAA policy on alcohol so I'm not 100% sure you
> could do this one. The NCAA doesn't allow you to sell beer, but (at least in
> the high dollar suites) it can be provided. I wonder if they could take
> those really bad seats by the scoreboard in the north end zone and designate
> it 'The Big Ten's Beer Garden'. You'd have to wall it off so that the
> drinkers don't mingle with the crowd, but perhaps you could give away
> (included with the ticket price) 3 pints of purple beer to fans sitting in
> that section.
>
> 4) Changing the game times should be investigated. In the age of the Big
> Ten Network there doesn't seem to be a reason that we hold ourselves to the
> ESPN mandate of 11 AM kickoffs.
>
> 5) I believe in the general principles of free market economics, so if the
> seats don't sell at $25-$35 then the price needs to come down. The faithful
> out there will pay, so you don't need to cut the price across the board.
> But, you could leave a designated section (hell, the whole south endzone)
> and do an online auction that starts 30 hours before each kickoff. Start
> with $20 per seat and drop the price $.50 per hour until 9 AM on game day.
> If that brings potential new fans in at $4 a ticket, it's better than an
> empty seat.
>
> 6) Another idea would be to actually reduce the number of seats. The seats
> in the south endzone are horrible anyway. You could tear them down and bring
> the available seats from say 49,000 to 40,000. I realize that you'd leave
> some money on the table when a gauranteed sellout (like a 9-0 tOSU team)
> comes to town, but it would save all those embarrassing TV shots of field
> goals into empty seats. Colorado and Oregon have smaller stadiums than Dyche
> and they have managed to develop a better atmosphere.
>
> 6a) If you did remove the south end zone seats, as a NUMBAlum I can at
> least dream of a bandshell constructed in the south endzone. Put NUMB down
> there and let the entire stadium hear the fight songs. That would have a
> tremendous impact on the game day experience.
>
>
> Go Cats!
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
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