(09-12-2021 09:13 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 09:02 AM)JB04 Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 08:55 AM)Big Red Wrote:  It's a pretty strong indictment of the program when the team loses its home opener to stupid Wyoming (and gives up 50 points in the process) and the number 1 complaint fans have is hot dogs and stadium experience.

In a lot of ways, NIU sporting events (the supposedly "revenue" sports) are a shockingly accurate reflection of the state we live in.

Crumbling infrastructure, increasing restrictions, diminishing return on investment, and leadership with priorities directed in all the wrong places.

There is truth in this. Ultimately if more Illinois kids stayed in-state for college, there would be more revenue and a healthier college and town. A healthy state = a healthy university = a healthy college town = an awesome game day.

Problem is that there is always “the state” to blame, so it seems like we lean on that crutch not to do better

It’s been said here before about entertainment options in today’s market. You need to keep up with the Jones’s to keep younger fans engaged. Look at The Cubs. They have a massive fan attendance but are still creating more entertainment reasons to get to wrigley. Obviously money is no concern for them but it’s about that mind set. Create reasons for fans to come out and have fun. And some of it takes little money. They took all the tables out of the yard? You can’t afford to put out tables you already have?

The cubs are probably the wrong team to use as an example here as they clearly DO care about money or else they wouldn't have sold off their 3 most popular players and their best starting pitcher (before the season).

Actually, the lesson learned from the cubs is don't overspend and assume it'll all pay for itself. That team is swimming in debt and it's affecting the team's payroll. They also over shot themselves and created their own tv network about 5 years too late to fully take advantage of doing such an endeavor.

So, yeah, they created a bunch of new revenue streams for the organization making the gameday experience better (to what degree depends on the individual) and now are making sweeping changes to the product on the field (and not good ones) because of it to go along with poor contractual organization (having the 3 best players on the team all reach free agency at the exact same time).

(09-12-2021 09:18 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 08:25 AM)dc1 Wrote:  I don’t care what 7 or anyone else says the 12:30 start time is a killer for attendance! People that come to NIU games that aren’t diehards which is most of the crowd are coming for tailgating. They will go to the game buts it’s about a social gathering for them. You take out the tailgating when the game starts at 12:30 in the afternoon. That game should’ve started at 6pm and the crowd would’ve been 17-20k.

That's certainly part of it too. I don't think it would have been 17-20K but it would have been more. Frankly at this point we couldn't handle crowds of that size. We already ran out of stuff before game time even with the paltry crowd we had.

Agreed. NIU wasn't the only school hosting a game at 12:30 local time. Actually, there' were dozens of games being played at 11 AM or 12 PM local time. I was flipping around and about the only game I saw that had a full stadium was the Army/Western Kentucky game (but half the stadium is cadets) and surprisingly, the Auburn/Alabama State game had a huge crowd. Other than that, I was underwhelmed by most crowds but they were all bigger than what NIU had AND....to the best of my knowledge, none of those stadiums ran out of food before the game.

Announcer blew too. What happened to the person who used to do it?

Also...and why I'm just thinking of this now is beyond me.

But over half of the NFL starts their games at noon local time and most of those games have 50K+ and most of them tailgate for hours before a game.

I don't think a 12:30 start is terrible. Obviously not ideal, but it's the least of the problem with attendance.

(09-12-2021 10:56 AM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Announcer blew too. What happened to the person who used to do it?

He's not good at the "and that's another Huskie....first down" or the "red/black" chant.

Did they blow out the speakers pumping in fan noise to the stadium last year? PA was incredibly quiet and they barely even played any music through it. Overall the experience was terrible. There was a family of casual fans sitting in front of me and it looked like they had a terrible time. Dad gave his kids money for the concessions and the kids ended up missing the last 10 minutes of the 1st quarter and came back with about 8 minutes left in the second. Throughout that time dad asked me all sorts of questions about NIU football and such, but I could see the panic in his eyes with every minute his kids were gone questioning what's taking them so long. When I went to the concessions stand I waited probably 20 minutes too, but I was more pissed the TVs at the stand were playing the Miami - Minnesota game instead of the actual game I was missing.

(09-12-2021 10:59 AM)Big Red Wrote:  Also...and why I'm just thinking of this now is beyond me.

But over half of the NFL starts their games at noon local time and most of those games have 50K+ and most of them tailgate for hours before a game.

I don't think a 12:30 start is terrible. Obviously not ideal, but it's the least of the problem with attendance.

NFL games are in big cities and metro areas. DeKalb is out in the middle of nowhere. I really thought when I started at NIU nearly 20 years ago that DeKalb and Sycamore would grow but Sycamore didn't even gain 1,000 residents in the last 10 years and DeKalb lost 1,000.

(09-12-2021 11:11 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 10:59 AM)Big Red Wrote:  Also...and why I'm just thinking of this now is beyond me.

But over half of the NFL starts their games at noon local time and most of those games have 50K+ and most of them tailgate for hours before a game.

I don't think a 12:30 start is terrible. Obviously not ideal, but it's the least of the problem with attendance.

NFL games are in big cities and metro areas. DeKalb is out in the middle of nowhere. I really thought when I started at NIU nearly 20 years ago that DeKalb and Sycamore would grow but Sycamore didn't even gain 1,000 residents in the last 10 years and DeKalb lost 1,000.

Thats an "Illinois" thing I think more than anything. Hope that trend reverses, maybe Facebook, Amazon etc. will help some.

Stop comparing NIU starting at 12:30 to the NFL or other college games. I am saying that 12:30 stops us from having many people come out to tailgate and thus a small attendance. Early games may work other places but they’ve never worked for NIU games

(09-12-2021 09:45 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  Also, what's with that pathetic attempt at a Red Black chant? It never works. Have the cheerleaders hold up the card like they used to, so people know when to yell Red or Black. They didn't do Sweet Caroline either. Did they do ANYTHING to get the crowd into the game?

Please no Sweet Caroline ..ever. Sorry, song makes me cringe.

(09-12-2021 03:24 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 09:45 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  Also, what's with that pathetic attempt at a Red Black chant? It never works. Have the cheerleaders hold up the card like they used to, so people know when to yell Red or Black. They didn't do Sweet Caroline either. Did they do ANYTHING to get the crowd into the game?

Please no Sweet Caroline ..ever. Sorry, song makes me cringe.

Okay, then, how about the Macarena with the Spanish words flashed on the Jumbotron? Then, they can show us more than ample fans dancing in the stands.

(09-12-2021 03:24 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 09:45 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  Also, what's with that pathetic attempt at a Red Black chant? It never works. Have the cheerleaders hold up the card like they used to, so people know when to yell Red or Black. They didn't do Sweet Caroline either. Did they do ANYTHING to get the crowd into the game?

Please no Sweet Caroline ..ever. Sorry, song makes me cringe.

What I can't stand is all the stupid Rap I have to listen to the entire game.

(09-12-2021 03:42 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 03:24 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 09:45 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  Also, what's with that pathetic attempt at a Red Black chant? It never works. Have the cheerleaders hold up the card like they used to, so people know when to yell Red or Black. They didn't do Sweet Caroline either. Did they do ANYTHING to get the crowd into the game?

Please no Sweet Caroline ..ever. Sorry, song makes me cringe.

What I can't stand is all the stupid Rap I have to listen to the entire game.

+1


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

(09-12-2021 03:10 PM)dc1 Wrote:  Stop comparing NIU starting at 12:30 to the NFL or other college games. I am saying that 12:30 stops us from having many people come out to tailgate and thus a small attendance. Early games may work other places but they’ve never worked for NIU games

12:30 doesn't stop us from having larger crowds. Other schools in the state do just fine or better with similar start times.

With that said, we could start at 3 or 2:30 or whatever magical time you think would be right in the sweet spot and we still have terrible turnouts.

NIU hasn't had a capacity crowd, or anywhere close, for a long ass time and attendance (even in the Saturday afternoon games) has been declining.

A 12:30 start time doesn't stop anyone from coming that would rather come to a 3 PM start. If anything, 12:30 starts are more advantageous to families. The later the game starts, the later the day lasts.

Now, I might admit that some families with Saturday obligations (ie, soccer, softball etc) may have a harder time getting to the game if it starts at 12:30, but I'm betting there aren't a whole bunch of families who are spending all morning at soccer games and then packing up the car to get to the stadium for a 3 PM start anyway. So, it probably doesn't exclude many of them.

Anyway, I think pointing to one game being a 12:30 kickoff and blaming it for low attendance when all over the country there were games starting at 11AM or noon is missing the point.

People don't want to go to a game at NIU and the early afternoon start time is hardly the reason.

Did someone say STF sent out an email to apologize for the concessions? I didn't get one and I have season tickets. What did it say?

(09-12-2021 08:43 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Did someone say STF sent out an email to apologize for the concessions? I didn't get one and I have season tickets. What did it say?

I received it today. Primarily apologizing and promising to communicate the fixes prior to the next game. It seemed like an attempt at damage control. Nothing specific at all.

(09-12-2021 08:43 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Did someone say STF sent out an email to apologize for the concessions? I didn't get one and I have season tickets. What did it say?

https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...3999505418

(09-12-2021 09:34 PM)NILAW Wrote:  

(09-12-2021 08:43 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Did someone say STF sent out an email to apologize for the concessions? I didn't get one and I have season tickets. What did it say?

https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...3999505418

Thanks. Wonder if they're going to do anything about it by the EMU game.

(09-12-2021 11:06 AM)dogdangit Wrote:  Did they blow out the speakers pumping in fan noise to the stadium last year? PA was incredibly quiet and they barely even played any music through it. Overall the experience was terrible. There was a family of casual fans sitting in front of me and it looked like they had a terrible time. Dad gave his kids money for the concessions and the kids ended up missing the last 10 minutes of the 1st quarter and came back with about 8 minutes left in the second. Throughout that time dad asked me all sorts of questions about NIU football and such, but I could see the panic in his eyes with every minute his kids were gone questioning what's taking them so long. When I went to the concessions stand I waited probably 20 minutes too, but I was more pissed the TVs at the stand were playing the Miami - Minnesota game instead of the actual game I was missing.

Are you frigging kidding me? Unbelievable.