Illinois vs Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland (Aug. 28th, 2021)

#76      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
If I were the czar of college football, I would forbid all neutral site games in the regular season, including conference championships, with three exceptions:

Red River Shootout in Dallas
World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville
SEC Championship Game in Atlanta

If Bama and Auburn ever wanted to start playing the Iron Bowl at Legion Field again I would let them do that too, but I doubt they want to.

Get off my lawn!
 
#78      

Ander1345

A
Ander1345
I've come around a bit on this game. I still think it's weird, but can you imagine if we somehow win? I know it'll be a long shot but it would be amazing.
 
#81      

Greensboro

Greensboro
Greensboro
dbeaverfg said:
Here is what I have heard from DIA sources.
1) This is a big recruiting tool. Every other sport has the chance to do international trips and football is beginning to do this. 2) The payday for this game will be more than we get from ticket sales at a home game. 3) We have a five-game B1G schedule that year. The Week 0 game allows us two bye weeks that year, when everyone else gets one.
Click to expand...
Whitman was on second half of Werner show yesterday and made mostly these same points, however he stressed 2) as a stay whole objective, not as a Plus. Also had the Mayor-King/Grand Puba of Dublin on the interview...

Maybe a foreshadowing that our new coach will be Irish? @Gritty is Monken Irish?
 
#83      

illini0440

illini0440
illini0440
dbeaverfg said:
Here is what I have heard from DIA sources.
1) This is a big recruiting tool. Every other sport has the chance to do international trips and football is beginning to do this. 2) The payday for this game will be more than we get from ticket sales at a home game. 3) We have a five-game B1G schedule that year. The Week 0 game allows us two bye weeks that year, when everyone else gets one.
Click to expand...
Buy the spiel. Recruits dont give 2 you know whats about going to Ireland.
 
#84      

IdahoIllini

I
IdahoIllini
Robert68 said:
I'm thinking this go over like a lead balloon on the Nebraska side also... unless there is a large Irish heritage there that I am otherwise unaware of. This is just odd. Now we can play in front of a 1/2 full stadium & get wrecked on another continent.
Click to expand...

I think they’ll be fine with it. They aren’t giving up a home game and their fans travel like mad. Probably fill that place with red.
 
#85      

IdahoIllini

I
IdahoIllini
illini0440 said:
Free trip to Ireland for the “important” people in the DIA. (n) Dumb if you ask me.
Click to expand...

By “important people” I assume you mean the donors loyal to Guenther who JW brought back into the fold. The ones who held the DIA hostage by withdrawing their money when Guenther was “retired”.
 
#86      

illini0440

illini0440
illini0440
IdahoIllini said:
By “important people” I assume you mean the donors loyal to Guenther who JW brought back into the fold. The ones who held the DIA hostage by withdrawing their money when Guenther was “retired”.
Click to expand...
:shakehands::shakehands::congrats:
 
#88      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
RedRocksIllini said:
I realize this isn't the coaching carousel thread, but this makes me wonder if changing the head coach might be the least of our worries.
Click to expand...

The donor community at every school is a nightmare hive of egos and personal issues. The trouble at Illinois is revenue sport wins mean unusually little to many of these people. It's about a level of access and perks and status above others. Which I've never really understood. Isn't the point to win?
 
Last edited:
#90      

Deleted member 569417

D
Guest
Deleted member 569417
ChiefGritty said:
The donor community at every school is a nightmare hive of egos and personal issues. The trouble at Illinois is revenue sport wins mean unusually little to many of these people. It's about a level of access and perks and status above others. Which I've never really understood. Isn't the point to win?
Click to expand...
Every other single group of boosters it's 1) win 2) get access.
At Illinois it's 1) Access 2) Stay completely under the radar so we protect at all costs #1

It's literally the most confusing thing in all of my sports fandom and is the single biggest reason why Illinois is Illinois and why Guenther is King.
 
#91      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
IdahoIllini said:
I think they’ll be fine with it. They aren’t giving up a home game and their fans travel like mad. Probably fill that place with red.
Click to expand...
They have thousands of fans who can't get tickets to a game in Lincoln. Those folks are happy to travel to see their team play.
 
#92      

FiveStar

F
FiveStar
ChiefGritty said:
If I were the czar of college football, I would forbid all neutral site games in the regular season, including conference championships, with three exceptions:

Red River Shootout in Dallas
World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville
SEC Championship Game in Atlanta

If Bama and Auburn ever wanted to start playing the Iron Bowl at Legion Field again I would let them do that too, but I doubt they want to.

Get off my lawn!
Click to expand...

I think it would be cool to give the top seeds home field advantage in the playoffs. Could you imagine #3 LSU at #2 Wisconsin in January?

it would be worth it just for the sideline shots of LSU players turning into icicles
 
#94      

jrichisamazing

J
jrichisamazing
ChiefGritty said:
If I were the czar of college football, I would forbid all neutral site games in the regular season, including conference championships, with three exceptions:

Red River Shootout in Dallas
World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville
SEC Championship Game in Atlanta

If Bama and Auburn ever wanted to start playing the Iron Bowl at Legion Field again I would let them do that too, but I doubt they want to.

Get off my lawn!
Click to expand...

Illinois Mizzou in STL?
 
#96      

IdahoIllini

I
IdahoIllini
It sounds like we also committed to sell 1.5 million in tickets, and if we fall short we eat that cost. Not exactly a great financial move given we can hardly get people to come to local games.
 
#98      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
IdahoIllini said:
It sounds like we also committed to sell 1.5 million in tickets, and if we fall short we eat that cost. Not exactly a great financial move given we can hardly get people to come to local games.
Click to expand...
I wonder what they will charge for tickets. At $100 per we would need to sell 15,000 tickets. How will tickets be sold? The only thing that I've seen so far are tour packages at ~$5k/person.
 
#99      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
I mean, if we were just looking to play a game in the country that drinks the most liters of alcohol per capita....that would be Moldova at 17.5.

Ireland comes in at a respectable 12.5. So honestly, no one will actually notice how bad we are. Except the Nebby fans. They already know.
 
#100      

RedRocksIllini

RedRocksIllini
Morrison, CO
RedRocksIllini
IdahoIllini said:
It sounds like we also committed to sell 1.5 million in tickets, and if we fall short we eat that cost. Not exactly a great financial move given we can hardly get people to come to local games.
Click to expand...
I'm betting the person that agreed to that deal is the same person that said it would be "no problemo" to the question about getting visas in Italy.