Just The Same Old Thing: On Attendance And Marketing
by Loretta8 on Oct 10, 2011 12:49 PM CDT
in 2011 Northwestern Wildcats Football
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PrintAs you likely already know, Northwestern lost to Michigan at home on Saturday, getting outscored 28-0 in the second half. It's become abundantly clear that Northwestern is a bad second half team; they've now blown a double digit second half lead in four of their last eight Big Ten games, and Michigan is an undefeated top 10 team, so no one can be too surprised at this point.
Even less surprisingly, the sellout crowd at Ryan Field was largely made up of Michigan fans. On television, it was difficult to tell just how big a percentage of the crowd was rooting for Michigan, but I've seen estimates ranging from 40% to as high as 65%. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, but either way, it's rather embarrassing for the program. Adding insult to injury, MGoBlog founder and recent podcast guest Brian Cook tweeted the following after the game, as thousands of Michigan fans were filling Ryan Field with the dulcet tones of "Hail to the Victors":
So, yeah. Jim Phillips and the marketing department have put a lot of effort into promoting Northwestern football, and they have managed to increase the number of season ticket holders, but when push came to shove during a prime time home game against a marquee opponent, Ryan Field was a long way from a home field advantage, and that's unlikely to change any time soon.
In theory, the marketing department's "Chicago's Big Ten team" ad campaign made a lot of sense. The largest obstacle Northwestern faces in building a fan base is not the relatively small alumni base, it's that almost no one grows up as a Northwestern fan. From the mid 1970s to 1995, the football program was historically incompetent and completely irrelevant outside of Evanston, meaning that just about the only fans among people over 40 years old are Northwestern alumni. Meanwhile, the rest of the Big Ten attracted local fans who became die hard supporters of schools they didn't attend, and those fans got married and had children who were brought up to root for the same school as their parents. So it made all the sense in the world for Northwestern to try to begin roping in young fans looking for a college team to support.
Unfortunately, Chicago isn't exactly filled with unaligned college football fans just waiting for a bandwagon to jump onto. Most of the college football fans there already support a Big Ten team, and in the vast majority of cases, it's someone other than Northwestern. So in order to truly establish themselves as Chicago's Big Ten team, they have to beat the teams that Chicago currently supports, such as Illinois. So when Northwestern gets embarrassed by Illinois at Wrigley Field in a game that was getting national hype, and then loses to Illinois again the next year, the Illinois fans in Chicago justifiably mock Northwestern as pretenders to the Chicago throne, while the Chicago fans previously intrigued by the Northwestern hype jump off the bandwagon fast enough to injure their ankles.
Which leads us to the Dan Persa Heisman campaign. Were Persa at 100 percent to start the season, the campaign would have paid huge dividends. While a healthy Persa would have been an extreme long shot to even get a Downtown Athletic Club invite, let alone win the Heisman, it was within the realm of possibility, and more importantly the campaign would sell tickets, get national pundits talking about the program and thus make Northwestern a lot more relevant. It was a great idea, and whoever came up with it should be applauded.
However, Persa was not 100 percent to start the season; in fact he wasn't ready to play until October. While this came as a surprise to fans, it certainly wasn't a surprise to anyone at Northwestern: Teddy Greenstein reported last week that Persa re-injured his Achilles in June, a setback that pushed his recovery back a month. Rather than reevaluate his Heisman campaign, the marketing department decided to go ahead with it anyway, unveiling the PersaStrong billboard on August 1st, despite knowing for a fact that injuries would leave him with no chance to win the award. Following the season-opening win over Boston College, the Persa billboards were replaced with a general ad for NU football. The marketing department would claim this was previously planned, but that explanation made little sense: had Persa played versus Boston College and lit it up, why take down the billboards just as Persa was establishing himself as a legitimate candidate? The explanation only makes sense if Northwestern already knew that Persa wouldn't be playing early in the season.
The decision to go ahead with Heisman campaign despite Persa's injury was extremely short-sighted, because while it may have sold more tickets in the short term from people hoping to see Persa play, it also likely upset many of those same fans who felt deceived by the athletic department. The coaching staff even helped with the charade, listing Persa on the depth chart each of the first three games and waiting until the day of the game to officially announce he wouldn't be playing even though there was no way he was ever going to see the field. They even went so far as to list him as the "emergency QB" against Army, then went to untested Trevor Siemian during the emergency situation of losing to Army in the fourth quarter.
Long term season ticket holders, die hard fans in other parts of the country, and much of the student body are going to show up and pay attention to the team unless they become completely incompetent, but the new fans Northwestern is trying so hard to attract aren't nearly as committed. Anyone who purchased season tickets expecting to be wowed by Dan Persa was probably pretty ticked off when they showed up against Eastern Illinois only to find Persa limping around the sidelines. And after seeing Northwestern lose to lowly Army and collapse against Illinois, many of those new season ticket holders probably decided there were better ways to spend a beautiful fall Saturday than watching Northwestern get spanked by Denard Robinson and Michigan. So they sold their tickets to Michigan fans, possibly turned their season ticket investment into profit, and went back to not caring about Northwestern football.
Under the leadership of Jim Phillips and Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern has at least made an effort to aggressively promote the football team, but they're fighting an uphill battle. Since NU hasn't come close to contending for a Big Ten title in recent years, their only choice is to promote the program through focusing on consecutive bowl appearances and running a clean program with no NCAA violations and high graduation rates. That's nice and all, but it's not going to put new fans in the seats. Just ask Boston College. Before this season's unforeseen collapse into the ACC basement, Boston College posted a record of 103-50 from 1999 to 2010 and went to a bowl game all twelve years, winning eight of them. And they did all that while being among the national leaders with Northwestern in graduation rate.
Yet Boston College generally failed to bring in new fans in huge numbers, and only sold out Alumni Stadium when big name opponents were in town. That's because they only won one conference co-championship in those 12 years (they lost the tiebreaker and played in the Continental Tire Bowl) and never once played in a New Year's Day bowl game. The only time they were nationally relevant in that stretch was in 2007 when they briefly climbed into the top 5 in the country before losing three times and ending up in the Champs Sports Bowl.
New fans aren't going to jump on the bandwagon of a program that's good but not great, no matter how many consecutive irrelevant bowl games they go to or how many players they graduate. The casual fans want to see conference championships, appearances in major bowl games, and Heisman Trophy candidates (legitimate ones). Boston fans came out in droves for Doug Flutie's early 1980s BC teams, just like Northwestern fans sold out Dyche Stadium to see the 1995 and 1996 Wildcats. But neither school could maintain that level, and the casual fans lost interest.
The only way that Ryan Field will ever be regularly sold out and mostly purple for games against Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. is for Northwestern to be a Big Ten title contender. Even the most ingenious and innovative marketing ideas will only make a marginal difference if Northwestern continues to cruise along at .500 in conference play. By the historical standards of the program, Pat Fitzgerald has done an excellent job so far, but he needs to do a hell of a lot more to make Northwestern relevant in Chicago. And now, as his most hyped team ever sees a Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl win as a best-case scenario for the season, it's unclear if he ever will.
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Cue NUC02002....
T-minus 2 minutes until he writes “I wish we’d focus less on marketing and more on winning football games.”
by Chadnudj on Oct 10, 2011 12:51 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Also...
…I disagree with any estimate that puts that crowd as anything above, say, 35% Michigan fans. Which, as strange as it sounds, is a vast improvement for the Cats….
/still shuddering over OSU fans doing O-H-I-O around our stadium….
Agreed
Of course opposing fans are going to have inflated estimates as to how many of their fans they were. It just pumps up their notion that their fans travel the best in the conference, etc… I’m sure there were some UM Twitter updates along the lines of:
“omg we are teh BESTZ, we have 80% of the fans at Ryan Field!”
Well, for the ones that actually had cell service at least…
Yes, the East side had quite a bit of yellow, but there is no way it was above 35% throughout the whole stadium. And for NU, who has one of the smallest alumni bases in the Chicago area, this is not a complete surprise. There are thousands of alums of these other teams that sometimes literally wait years to see their team in person. Unfortunately a lot of the time it happens in Evanston. That is never going to change.
Sure, better NU teams are going to help decrease the amount of enemy colors, especially in season ticket holder sections. But you’re NEVER going to see it be something like 90% purple for a conference game against one of the “big boys.” Never.
100% true.
Everything you said.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 10, 2011 1:43 PM CDT up reply actions
A little surprised by the estimates
I thought we had a good showing (for us) on Saturday. I doubt it was over 40% UM fans there. Michigan fans are way more organized and involved when it comes to cheering, though.
Looked about 40% at worst from where I was in the West Stands
I agree. I don’t think it was over 40%. There were large pockets (the corner of the East stands and the endzone, particularly), but overall it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
I thought the fans in my season section (128) were lively and loud. They stood on 3rd downs. There were some Michigan fans (which kills me as these seats are inside the 40 and should be ALL purple), but it wasn’t too bad. I think you’re absolutely right, they are far more organized with cheering.
I thought the amplification of NUMB was helpful. It’s the first time in years that I’ve been able to hear them. I wish we had some sort of loud, easily identifiable cheer other than GO U, NU which I don’t remember hearing too often.
Persa is God.
I loved being able to actually hear the band
But it still sucks that I didn’t hear a single thing the referee said all night.
The ref...
…was largely his fault (putting his transmitter on wrong), and a transmission problem — no open frequencies for him. Trust me, we in the sound booth did everything we could to get him loud (it improved a bit in the 2nd half, I think)
Speaking of hearing the band...
…I was watching on TV and thought that the band sounded good there too (something Minnesota has not mastered). Good enough where I caught the band playing the main theme from Monty Python and the Holy Grail…including the “horse riding” moves from someone (the drum major?). Simply awesome.
Doesn’t take away from the pain of a 2nd half collapse or having too many Michigan fans in your midst, but I thought I should toss a shout out to NUMB for the awesome use of Monty Python.
One problem with the West stands...
…is you’re looking AT the visitors section. There’s ALWAYS more purple in West Stands versus East stands. So if the East stands looked 40% maize, the MUCH LARGER West stands were no more than 20% Michigan fan.
Re: cheering
Yeah, I hate this about NU cheers. It’s like, there’s just no tradition, especially of the call-and-response variety, that we can use to cheer. I’m not bashing Go ’Cats or GO U, N-U or anything, but having loud, consistent, organized cheers like “Go Green! Go White!” or “O-H, I-O!” or “I-L-L, I-N-I” or anything does hurt a lot.
The Notre Dame factor
I haven’t lived in Chicago in years, but when I was at NU in the early 90s I always felt like Notre Dame was “Chicago’s Team.” Granted, ND was a lot better back then, but even reading Chicago media online, it seems that there is still a lot more interest in ND football than in NU. It will be interesting to see what happens when we start playing ND again.
Great assay.
Right now, NU is at least 8th in terms of alums in Chicago area
Illinois, Mich, OSU, ND, Wisc are all ahead of us, b/c our students/alumni are all across the country. That is why I thought this campaign was so silly.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 10, 2011 1:21 PM CDT up reply actions
Sigh.
Great article. And by great, I mean brutal and heartbreaking.
It's also self-perpetuating in the media
And this isn’t a blame the media rant – Chicago papers and other outlets cover what their audience demands, but when we see more space dedicated to ND or Illinois, it serves to foster that notion that those teams are “Chicago’s team” moreso than us.
I agree, the only way out is to become a contender, and the only way to prevent falloffs is to have that sustained success. So much good will was eradicated by the Rashidi Wheeler death and the subsequent lawsuit, following that by the collapse on the field of our teams. If and when we ever climb back up to that level, our “down” years have to be much better, too.
Agreed with Aimz – great essay. Sad and true.
Hahaha.
Love the shoutout Chad. So, look we know my feelings on Jim P, but for him to sellout the stadium if it is NU fans or Mich fans doesn’t make a difference in terms of revenue to him. As we all know, the best way to get more fans there is to win, and clearly, that is not the case right now.
I also think this is silly at times to be mad at NU fans for not going, if you want to go, great, if not, then don’t.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 10, 2011 1:20 PM CDT reply actions
I'm one of those few bandwagon, transplant local fans who roots for NU based on geography
And as much as I wanted to get in the stadium Saturday, I couldn’t compete for tickets with the Michigan fans who hadn’t seen their team play for several years. Those tickets are worth more to them, so they buy them up at ridiculous prices (scalpers were asking over $100 for a single end zone seat after kickoff) and so I shrug, grab a Mustard’s hot dog, and head home.
To tie in with your other point, I held off on buying tickets until I knew whether Dan Persa was going to be healthy enough to play; naturally, Michigan fans don’t care about that and the game sold out long before I had that information.
Anyway, you can see the obvious financial incentive issues for less-than-die-hard fans like me who can pick and choose any home game(s) to attend, versus the various Michigan grads/fans who have this one game circled on their calendar.
Michigan =/= other big ten teams
I couldn’t be there this year (holiday) but I’ve done the Ryan Field thing on several occastions and the Northwestern fans I met were just as varied and passionate as many other Big Ten stadiums I’ve visited.
Michigan has a lot of graduates in Chicago. There might be as many Wolverines in Chicagoland as there are in the State of Michigan. Certainly among the people I knew in school those who didn’t end up in New York ended up in Chicago. Those Michigan fans are very excited about this year’s team and it’s easier to get to Ryan Field than Michigan Stadium on an October Saturday.
Don’t be so hard on your program. The 2000 Wildcats were a great team and I don’t remember feeling like an away fan then.
Michigan Stadium was infiltrated by (at least) 35% Buckeyes in 2009, and they made it feel like more. This has less to do with the fanbase (on the whole NW fans would fall near the top of Big Ten fan respectability) and more to do with losing to Air Force and 30,000 Michigan grads who live within a 40-minute drive and haven’t been able to see their team for awhile.
www.mgoblog.com
Agree with premise but ...
I don’t disagree with your direction, Loretta, but I still think this goes beyond marketing, alumni base and the college football appetite of the Chicago area.
Add history to that list, and all these things play into the equation. However, one thing that nobody ever discusses is “hustle.” That may be a bit too simplistic, but I really believe it. The NU administration just doesn’t want to fill the stands badly enough.
Before Phillips, efforts to fill the stands were laughable. Under Phillips, at least things are respectable, but I still don’t think they want it badly enough.
Okay, I know I’m starting to sound like a cliche, so let me give you my example – the Blackhawks. Now, I will admit they had a fanbase that was more in storage than non-existent. However, once old man Wirtz died, Rocky took over and McDonough was hired, they were practically begging fans to come back to the UC. They did appearances EVERYWHERE, and still do to this day. they acknowledged the issues, were very upfront about it and reaped the rewards. Rocky was very accessible at the games and openly thankful. He gave the organization a personal touch and you wanted to help. Even after winning the Stanley Cup, for me, there’s still a ton of good hustle in that organization. I’ve heard two in-studio interviews in the last five days alone.
NU never even came close to that level of urgency. If the tickets sell, YEA!! And if they don’t, oh well. I don’t know why you wouldn’t give away 10,000 seats to the Eastern Illinois game and other similar games like it year after year. Every one of us knows they are not going to sellout. And until they start actually filling up for those games, it doesn’t cost NU a dime.
Why wouldn’t you hand out seats to every house in a one mile radius of the stadium or every kids organization in Evanston?
Getting fans from the Chicago area? NU doesn’t even lift a finger to get fans from Evanston and Wilmette.
And I only speak from a basketball perspective (that’s an ENTIRELY different topic), but if the season ticketholder experience for football is the same as basketball, I haven’t experienced a whole lot of advantages except seat location.
I think if NU showed a bit more hustle and a little more appreciation, that would be something new to improve things at NU. Either way, I’m not sure we can judge the results of these efforts for 10 years (as long as they remain in some form).
Hustle and Appreciation
I’m getting it, at least, from the NU Ticket office…..My group of season ticket holders and guests were given free hats by our ticket rep at our tailgate (I’ve gotten similar free swag from my ticket agent before). I get an annual highlight DVD. I get calls/reminders to order tickets, I have my ticket rep calling to make sure extra tickets that I ordered arrived. I see NU football at events all over Chicago all summer long.
As for giving away tickets, the one sure fire way to ruin your attendance is to give the product away for free — as illogical as it sounds, people value a product’s attractiveness based on the price in the market, and thus (I realize I’m greatly oversimplifying here, but there must be an MBA out there who can help) you’re better off having low sales numbers for games than giving away tickets in terms of building up demand for your product.
Wow!!
Either you’re giving a hell of a lot more money than I am, or there is a complete difference how football and basketball STHs are treated. But I understand that football is the cash cow.
As for the events all over the city, is that new this summer? If so, I’ll go with it. However if we’re talking the same two or three events as the last couple summers, I’d dispute the term “all over Chicago.”
My last issue: I don’t agree that you can ruin attendance/demand if the attendance or demand is not there. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying give away tickets for B10 games. But when you and I know that there will only be 25-30,000 people for the EIU and Rice games, why not make an investment?
I’d doubt that STHs would care if the south end zone was filled with freebies. If so, then like I’ve said, the issue is a systemic problem for how badly you want it.
I do agree w/Chad here.
Giving away products for free would diminish the intrinsic value of the tickets. However, I’m TOTALLY with Sec 112, why not spend more marketing time on Evanston, Wilmette, and the North Shore of Chicago? It is such an easier market, but we continue to compete for fans in a pro-sports city where we rank 11th in fan base. Brilliant.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 10, 2011 7:54 PM CDT up reply actions
It's true that we rank way down in terms of alumni base in Chicago.
I think we’re actually 10th in the conference, not 11th—pretty sure we’re ahead of Nebraska, at least in terms of numbers—but that’s neither here nor there.
But that doesn’t mean that advertising in Chicago instead of Evanston/Wilmette is a bad idea. Evanston and Wilmette have a combined population of 102,137; you’d have to get a little over than 46% of the two towns through the gates in order to fill Ryan Field. By contrast, if just 2% of Chicago’s 2,695,598 people decided to show up on Central Street one Saturday, Ryan Field would be well beyond capacity. Advertising in Chicago allows you to sell out, even if your success rate in motivating action is low.
When you have a long-standing attendance problem, and you are literally within eyesight of the country’s 3rd-largest city, you’d be an absolute fool not to try to leverage it.
Dennis Green won Big Ten Coach of the Year. Pat Fitzgerald hasn't. Therefore, D-Green > Fitz. QED, motherf***ers.
by Foxhole Atheist on Oct 11, 2011 10:20 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Add in the fact that...
….advertising/marketing in Chicago = advertising/marketing in Northshore (because Northshore gets Chicago TV, radio, print, and shops/works/travels/eats/visits Chicago on a daily/weekly basis) and the fact that we’re ALSO still reaching out to Evanston/Northshore communities, and you see this discussion is just another manufactured outrage.
Outrage might be a little strong
But one man’s manufactured outrage is another’s unrealistic contentment.
if I had to say...
I’d say it’s a good idea that works out most of the time, but also occasionatlly leaves us open to everybody making fun of us.
by Rodger Sherman on Oct 11, 2011 11:08 AM CDT up reply actions
We're aware.
There’s little dispute that NU has more alums in Chicago than Penn State. If it’s just them, we’re 11th. If we’re ahead of Nebraska as well, we’re 10th.
Dennis Green won Big Ten Coach of the Year. Pat Fitzgerald hasn't. Therefore, D-Green > Fitz. QED, motherf***ers.
by Foxhole Atheist on Oct 12, 2011 1:08 AM CDT up reply actions
I would assume the reason they don't give away seats...
…is that it would PO the real STH’s. I know your admin’s effort might not meet your expectations but trust me, it could be much worse. I’m holding out hope beyond hope that Minnesota hires an AD as interested in marketing the Gophers program as Phillips is with the Wildcats.
EIU tickets were actually half price for Evanston residents
But I didn’t find that out until I went on the athletics website and looked at the promotion list. And I live and work in Evanston. In other words, they could probably do a lot better job of marketing those kinds of things, if it was a priority.
On the other hand, tickets for an FCS opponent should be half price for everyone. But that’s another story.
In my opinion the marketing angle is a bit different…instead of trying to get like 80% NU there vs Michigan in a sold out crowd I think the marketing strategy can help raise the attendance for the lesser big ten teams when seats are readily available. Like if the attendance for all of our home games against Minnesota, Indiana, and Purdue all remain the same then I would call the marketing a failure. But until those games happen I am reserving judgement.
What's really the solution here?
You say: just win. But, that alone won’t work in a major metropolitan area with professional football (ask Miami (FL)). In any case, basing everything on NU competing for the Big Ten title year in and year out is unreasonable. Like any fan, I surely want that to happen but understand that with severe recruiting restrictions in the form of academic requirements, NU will never have the same level of talent as its conference brethren. Therefore, the most reasonable level of success that is to be expected is making a bowl game every year and every 5-10 years putting together enough talent and experience to make a run at a title (while also being fortunate to have other teams with down years).
So, to get people in the doors, I am glad that Phillips and Polisky have made these recent moves to get the name out there and draw as much interest as possible. Like others have said, the goal is not to instantly win over the town and turn NU into the mirror image of other Big Ten schools, but to draw some interest and drive some sales. And after the huge attendance jump in 2010 and a nice start to 2011, it’s hard to argue against that.
I agree that a down season won’t help matters, but hyping the team to its local area and hyping its best player (who has indeed returned and played very well) are good ideas and don’t have to be mutually exclusive of winning.
--
JHodges
HailToPurple
by jhodges on Oct 11, 2011 8:42 AM CDT reply actions 3 recs
youre missing the point
i’m not saying that the chicago’s big ten team was a bad idea or that they shouldn’t promote the team. i’m merely saying that all the marketing in the world isn’t going to stop ryan field from being nearly half michigan fans if northwestern is a mediocre team. no matter what northwestern does, they’re not going to fill ryan field with purple unless the team is a big ten title contender. that doesn’t mean they shouldnt try to promote the team, these promotions sold a couple thousand more tickets at least, but if the team isnt that good those new ticket holders are going to not show up or sell to michigan/ohio state/nebraska/iowa fans.
as for the persa for heisman thing, i think its ridiculous that they bought billboards for a guy they knew wouldnt be playing until october and took them down before he ever saw the field. as i say in the article, the promotion was a great idea assuming he was healthy. but the way they actively deceived the fanbase (we all assumed theyd never promote the guy like that if he wasnt ready to play) and continued the charade by making it look like he might play during the first three games was absurd, and probably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
I agree w/Loretta8.
Forget the Heisman campaign, that is an obvious misstep.
But, why try to crack the toughest market when you could market more to Evanston and the surrounding suburbs? Chicago has so many major pro sports plus cemented Big Ten + Notre Dame fan bases in Chicago, why keep doing that?
I think Phillips created this slogan and that is his signature, so he won’t change it ever no matter how poor the results are.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 11, 2011 9:15 AM CDT up reply actions
Huh?
Results were poor? We had a freaking sellout! Tickets were going for $100+ on the scalper market.
I’m all in favor of filling Ryan Field with purple, but how does marketing to Evanston/Northshore suburbs — which (a) has been done to death for years, (b) is still being done, and actually succeeding (see: increased/better relations between Evanston and Northwestern Athletics like painting Evanston purple, proclamations supporting our bowl teams, more night games, etc.), and (c ) have a population that is just as devoted to non-Northwestern Big Ten schools as Chicago (see: Northwestern grads are still 11th out of 12 in terms of B1G Ten alumni population in Winnetka/Schaumberg) — make Ryan Field any more purple?
Then again, don’t answer….we’re already marketing to those places, the marketing has been an unparallelled success (attendance increase in 2010, increased season ticket sales in 2011 according to reports, and a forecast that our attendance will be higher this season than in 2010), so there’s really nothing for you to say.
by Chadnudj on Oct 11, 2011 9:47 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Well then.
Loretta8 and everyone, our marketing is 2nd to none. Case closed. Everything is moving forward as smoothly as possible.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 11, 2011 9:51 AM CDT up reply actions
What exactly do you want from our marketing dept?
I don’t get it. Maybe we could market harder to the North Shore, though we do already have Evanston Day, which Phillips launched last year, and I’m not entirely convinced there’s that much untapped potential in that market.
But beyond that, what do you want? How can you claim that “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” is a failure? Is it somehow hurting our brand or our attendance? Our ticketing department is way more aggressive and attentive than it used to be, attendance is up, our visibility is way up, people (including the media) are at least talking about Northwestern – what do you want?
by bangnblame on Oct 11, 2011 10:28 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
See above.
Heiman campaign, silly slogans.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Oct 11, 2011 10:30 AM CDT up reply actions
I want them to bring back Goose Island
and the free vouchers for nonconference games that used to come with season tickets.
by subwayalum90 on Oct 11, 2011 1:22 PM CDT up reply actions
Quick question
Granted, i did a quick scan of the last few messages, but where did anyone say it was a failure? As far as I can tell, the worst comment was from me, calling it “respectable.”
The tag line is a nice start, but it’s not the entire answer. And general awareness/activity was so low that I don’t think you can reasonably judge success for another five years.
But there are just some obvious things that went ignored for – dare I say – decades. You need to add these incredibly obvious pieces to the puzzle, so Lorretta’s prophecy becomes something of the past.
Never explicitly
I was deriving this from I think Phillips created this slogan and that is his signature, so he won’t change it ever no matter how poor the results are. and the sarcastic our marketing is 2nd to none. Case closed. Everything is moving forward as smoothly as possible. I was a little riled up this morning, so apologies if I got testy.
But anyway, I agree that we need time to really tell the impact of the current marketing strategy. All I know is there at least is some movement and effort from the athletic department, finally. I think it’s working, because people I talk to in Chicago who are not affiliated with Northwestern seem a lot more plugged into what’s happening with NU than they used to.
Basketball is a totally different beast, I’d say. While the program is tiptoeing toward respectability, there doesn’t seem to be the same sense of urgency from athletics pushing things forward. It’s a very different battle, what with the longer season, the lack of a figurehead coach (I think Carmody is a decent coach, but he’s not exactly a Fitz-like figure to rally behind), and currently the lack of a strong marketing push. But maybe we have to take things one step at a time…
Testiness
I respect anybody on one of these boards who gets a little pissy, admits it and moves on. It’s such a rare quality. Thanks. No problem.
Of course, I’ve always been the essence of class and decorum.
As for basketball, I tried not go there (and trust me, I want to). It’s a bit of a different beast with bigger issues
I'm not sure the place isn't half Michigan the year after our next Rose Bowl
This was the first time UM has been in since my 12 year old got interested and we bought season tickets. Usually I take him and three of his friends. This week I had to settle for the friends of his I won’t take to Wisconsin games (they actually borrowed purple t shirts from my kid) because everyone else had a parent or grandparent from Michigan. A couple of them went with their parents and snuck over and sat with us for a while. They blended in and we didn’t. Damn there’s a lot of those people.
by subwayalum90 on Oct 11, 2011 1:12 PM CDT up reply actions
Maybe a LITTLE off topic
But one thing I know for sure that annoys me about going to some games is the public transportation aspect. Yes, I know what you’re thinking (“but we have CTA AND Metra!”), but hear me out.
I live in off the Northwest part of the brown line and do not own a car. Therefore I am taking public transit to the game. Sometimes the times work out well to take the Metra, sometimes they do not. Here is what happened this past week, for example:
1. Took the Metra to the game. Took the 4:48 train from Ravenswood. The train was completely PACKED. Literally every seat on my car (toward the middle) was full, including every seat in the upper deck. I stood. The majority of the people were going to the game and getting off at Central.
2. What time did the game end? Before 10? I can’t totally remember. But I left the game SLIGHTLY before the final whistle (yeah, sorry). The next inbound Metra wasn’t until 11:27pm. Seriously? CTA is the only option at that point.
3. Queued up a half block down central just to GET IN to the purple line, where there are 3 or 4 functioning turnstyles. It is cramped and sweaty, although everyone is cordial at least.
4. After about 30 minutes (missing 3-4 trains), finally get through the turnstyles, then miss the next train that comes because it fills to capacity.
5. Get on the second train and am cramped against the door.
6. Get to Howard and try to transfer to the Red, but somehow that train is already packed (maybe they were trying to cram two full purple lines onto one red line??), have to wait 5-8 minutes for another red line.
7. Take the red line all the way to Belmont (tracked the 81 and 78 buses to their respective red line stops just in case, but each wait was over 10 minutes so I continued to Belmont)
8. Transfer at Belmont to the brown line and eventually get home. Finally get home over 2 hours after the game.
Now, I am not asking for any pity here, it’s my own fault I don’t have a car. But man, I feel like there has to be a better way to go about this, right? It took about 2 hours to get home and Google maps says I live about 9 miles from Evanston. I guess next time I could try getting a cab. Why can’t Metra run any special trains for sold-out games (low demand I guess)? Or at LEAST if the CTA could run the purple express to Belmont for the sold out games, that would help a little (probably not logistically possible though).
Sometimes it works out where there IS a Metra after the game (if it’s an early start time), but for this game, it was grueling, and especially annoying after a loss. It would be nice if there was a better option than queueing up for 30+ minutes at the Central Street purple (or leaving crazy early).
/end rant
well
problem is Central Street is also a dead standstill for a good hour after the games too. (Not that I’ve ever been there for an hour after the game, but it’s packed with people walking for a good half-hour and that’s before the parking lots can even empty considering everybody is walking in the middle of the street.) Evanston isn’t really built to acommodate 47,000 people, which is a problem.
by Rodger Sherman on Oct 11, 2011 12:04 PM CDT up reply actions
Which is why it's smart to post-game tailgate in the parking lot...
…if you have passes/know people with parking passes. Even an hour greatly thins out the herd.
@Nirvana91 — yeah, the public transportation problem is INDEED a problem (although it’s a nice problem to have….lots of other fans wish they could just train to games, I imagine). I wish CTA/Metra would work better/closer with Northwestern to help alleviate the problems on gameday — maybe having some spare buses on Gamedays parked by the El station at Central to take passengers directly to Howard (as an alternative to the El)? Running purple expresses on gamedays? Getting extra Metra service for Gamedays?
That bus idea is a good one...
There may still be a bottleneck at Howard with people getting on the red line, but I still think it would be much better than the current setup.
Unfortunately with the CTA budget as-is, I suppose this wouldn’t be done without some sort of NU money to pay for the extra drivers, etc. But I still love the idea!
Probably shouldn’t give away my super-secret plan (lol) but for the PSU game I’m definitely just going to walk over to Linden after the game instead of Central. It is not much further to walk, you’re guaranteed a seat, and you sure as heck won’t be stuck in a line while 3-4 trains pass by overhead.
The Metra idea is a good one
When I ran the Chicago Half Marathon, there were extra trains running between downtown and Jackson Park. They were free so I’m guessing the event was paying the bills.
Extra trains run to and from Ravinia, too, although riders pay for those, which means I’m assuming it’s Metra footing the bill (and collecting all the extra fares).
Whether it takes Northwestern getting financially involved or not, you’d think they could figure out how to run a few extra “Wildcat Express” trains on game day. That would just be cool.
Do a decent amount of people take the Metra from further Northern suburbs to Ryan Field??
I am always coming from Ravenswood and I can vouch that those Metra trains are always packed for conference games. That’s probably because there is usually only one or two applicable trains since the Metra weekend schedule is so spaced out. But I’m wondering if the trains coming from the North are as packed?
Central Street also
… doesn’t really accommodate post-game activity very well. Er, at least it didn’t when I lived in Chicago. Most college towns have plenty of post-game hangout places – an hour to kill before the next train comes in? No biggie, just go to one of the many local establishments, watch the Pac 10 games along with the post-game highlights while you enjoy a beverage or two. This seems to be lacking as part of the game experience in Evanston around the stadium.
I’ll plead ignorance – is this a zoning issue? A matter of choice, because of the surrounding neighborhood?
I bet you anything
the City of Evanston has put in place some legal hurdle or other to prevent precisely this. Just getting the city to grudgingly allow the ’Cats to host a night game is often a monumental task.
Dennis Green won Big Ten Coach of the Year. Pat Fitzgerald hasn't. Therefore, D-Green > Fitz. QED, motherf***ers.
by Foxhole Atheist on Oct 12, 2011 1:10 AM CDT up reply actions
The stretch of Central between the Stadium and the train...
…is essentially housing, hospital, fire station, and part of a golf course. And the Baha’i offices, I think. Not exactly room for a bar there. Super quiet except on game days.
Central Street west of Green Bay road (just past the Metra) has a few restaurants and at least one bar. But that’s pretty far out of the way if you’re waiting for the L.
The best spot would be Central Street between the stadium and the Metra. That whole strip is storefronts or offices that are dead quiet all the time. And some undeveloped land, actually. Problem is, the only time that stretch is busy enough to support a bar or two (I’m guessing) is when there’s a home game. And I don’t think anybody wants to run a bar that only makes good money five or six days a year. The stadium is too far from campus to be a legit hang-out spot, and there are probably zoning issues, as F.A. notes above, since this is the yuppie part of Evanston and mainly a residential neighborhood.
Still, Mustard’s makes it work, so maybe this is one of those “if you build it they will come” deals. Or maybe it would make more sense if/when — as crazy as this sounds — the basketball team starts drawing good crowds. Obviously they have a lot more home games.
Central St. rumor
I heard from a reasonable source that Central St will soon have another watering hole. It will be a Mexican place owned by the same guys who own the Bluestone.
The interesting part about the new place. I’ve been told Fitz will be a limited partner.
Yeah, I knew east of the stadium was a non-starter.
Just adjacent to the stadium and towards the Metra tracks seemed like it had some potential. Is the movie theater still there?
This is for Nirvana91 only - everyone else close your browsers
If you go to the Penn St. game, try walking through the practice field and a few blocks north to the Linden el stop instead of two blocks east to the Central. Then you get on at the end of the line and may not have to wait out so much of a crowd on the platform, although you’ll stiil have to sit and wait a while when the train gets to Central.
Everyone else may resume reading now.
by subwayalum90 on Oct 11, 2011 12:50 PM CDT up reply actions
While we're tossing out transit suggestions...
I used to live near the Kimball (Brown) station and commute to Davis (Purple) on the L for work. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the #93 CTA bus connects those two locations.
Looks like it doesn’t run all the time, and might not get you home after a night game, but otherwise it would cut out the Red Line leg and might even get you within range of some of the campus shuttles, depending on where you get off (or you just transfer to the Purple for the last few stops). Or you could just hop out at Emerson/Ridge and walk the mile and half, if you’re up for it.
Yeah, I have ridden that route from start to finish before
It’s not the worst route in the world, it’s less than an hour from Davis to Kimball. The last southbound bus leaves Davis at 8:15pm on Saturdays, so that definitely wouldn’t work for a late night game, but it could possibly work alright for an earlier game.
HA!
I’m thinking even if a few new souls find this, there will still be thousands getting in a giant line at Central, so hopefully it will still be fine!
Alternately, you could walk to Skokie
And catch the Yellow line spur. You’d also be able to work off all those hotdogs from Mustard’s Last Stand.
Don't worry, I was about to say the same thing, anyway
Depending on which end of the stadium you’re leaving from, the Linden stop is about the same distance.
And given the crowd differences on the street AND in the train, it’s a no-brainer to go there, instead, once you know the secret.
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