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Kent/NIU Attendance
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NIU17 Offline
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Post: #21
RE: Kent/NIU Attendance
(11-21-2015 02:48 AM)pono Wrote:  Have you been to Dekalb? Not gonna dis the place, but it is a basically a big dull town just far enough outside of Chicago to have no real connection for city and inner ring suburban folks and not quite far enough to escape the glow of the city's big name teams (mostly pro). No one other than die hard alumni types are going from Chicago and the suburbs to Dekalb for games unless it is a big Saturday game. I'd think student turnout would be better considering that NIU has been good for years and there isn't a lot happening around campus, but honestly, most schools (not just MAC) draw poorly mid-week even among students (who are, well, students, and have to go to class and study and stuff during the week).

I think the Soldier Field big game home games for NIU actually make sense. The Iowa game there was huge. If I was an NIU fan - and I'm not - I'd rather have a big "home" game at Soldier Field against a name regional team with their share of resident Chitown alumni, than an FCS or no name FBS team at Husky Stadium. I could be wrong, but I believe NIU had a chance to do that with Wisconsin but took a buyout. Plus, the games in the city make NIU more relevant with the local sports media. If NIU could schedule some home-n-"homes" with their game at Soldier field against teams like Iowa, Indiana, Notre Dame, Purdue, Illinois, etc... it would strengthen the fan base and some of those type of schools have AD's who would do it if their "away" game is on a neutral field in an NFL stadium in a big city with a lot of alumni and fans.
The home games at Soldier Field should be done. The Iowa game was sold out because it was Labor Day weekend, iowa fans came in droves (chicago has a lot of Iowa and Wisc alums) and it was 3 days on a beautiful weekend in Chicago, and it was still a new and cool idea. Wisconsin game drew 40k. Their fans didnt turn out as much because they played at Northwestern earlier that season and the novelty was over for NIU fans. Season ticket holders don't want to pay for season tickets if 1 home game isn't included. I think this hurt our season ticket base in subsequent years. We need good name teams to come to Huskie Stadium.
11-21-2015 10:00 AM
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Boca Rocket Offline
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Post: #22
RE: Kent/NIU Attendance
Packing the GB does have a lot to do wins and losses. A lot of people are
band wagon fans until it becomes ingrained. 4-5 years of great Top 25 Rocket teams would find a packed GB. Several years of mediocre OSU
FB would dampen Buckeye fever somewhat. The MACTION games hurts a school like NIU more than schools like Toledo which a have sizable fan base within 30 minutes of campus.
11-21-2015 10:02 AM
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NIU17 Offline
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Post: #23
RE: Kent/NIU Attendance
(11-21-2015 09:38 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  There's more than one direction out of Dekalb.

Isn't "just win baby!" the response obtained on how to get crowds into GB when someone (with an outsider's perspective) proposes it's not about the wins and losses?

Someone would have to convince me that NIU connects with their community before I'd believe the problem is anything other than that. It's a "normal" school. They produce teachers. It's like here, where most of the teachers are from UT/BG but the schools run OSU-Michigan contests and promotions. If their own graduates don't have enough self-pride in their education to buck the zombie trends, there's a problem with the education.

OUR best shot at filling the GB isn't the wins. It's that new person in U-Hall. Anyone ever remember a UT Pres spent as much time addressing the community as the new leader in Chief? SHE is the one that is going to instill the desire into top high school graduates to attend UT and SHE is the one that is going to instill the desire in the UT graduates and the community to come to campus events, if SHE can get the UT staff on board with the idea that it's in their own best interests to be part of the community and to wear the colors proudly amongst the community.

NIU is failing at the community connection, not the next to Chicago connection. Bet on it.

Theres a lot of truth to that. Our AD is the best and is working on getting the community involved with NIU. I just hope he stays long enough to keep improving this.
11-21-2015 10:04 AM
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epasnoopy Online
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Post: #24
RE: Kent/NIU Attendance
The students were showing up until this last game. But even if 75% of our students who live on or near campus showed up you're only talking about 6,000. The community and the alumni are not filling up the West side and that is the biggest issue.
11-22-2015 02:02 PM
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