[NU Sports] attendance

[Brad Wilson]

Bill Veeck once said that nothing you can do about attendance matters as much as winning. I am not sure that's still 100 percent true -- the Cubs seem to put the lie to it - but, still, losing to Syracuse and Minnesota did not, I am sure, do wonders for ticket sales the rest of the year.
 
I think three factors make the difference:
 
1) $50 tickets for Big Ten games. Yes, I know those really interested can find them for less. But many people are suspicious of buying from anybody but the university, and $50 is a lot of money these days.
 
2) Rotten non-league opponents. Towson? Eastern Michigan? Who cares? I know why we play those games, and I don't disagree with that, but if you play games like that you hasve to know attendance will suffer.
 
3) Awful NU marketing. But that's an old story.
 
As for parking, yes, it's awful, but short of building a new stadium nothing will change. I remember the halcyon days (parking-wise) of driving up, paying $5 and parking in the East lot for games. Since those days are not coming back, and a new stadium is not happening, no sense in fussing about what we cannot change.
 
Ditto 11 a.m. starts but, again, we cannot change that.
 
We can change the above three things.
 
bw
 
 


"Happy are those who see beauty in the modest spots where others see nothing." -- Camille Pissaro

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