Pregame: Illinois vs Iowa, Saturday, October 8th, 6:30pm CT, BTN

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#376      
ILLINIShox24
FloridaMan said:
Yet another problem with our program/"city". I would think it would be in the U's best interest to reach out to the hotel chains in the area and come to some sort of deal to entice them to drop the ridiculous 2 night stay requirement. How many people decide that the additional cost of an extra night just is not worth buying a ticket? Makes no sense. Pure greed on the part of the hotels.

Edit: would be interesting to estimate how much this has cost the program in ticket/concession revenue. The number has to be very high.
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Sorry to record scratch back to this comment, but you are saying that Champaign hotels have a 2 night minimum stay requirement? In what world is that acceptable in 2022?

Also, can confirm that the Residence Inn and Homewood Suites in Forsyth are nice hotels. I've had a mixed experience at the Hampton.
 
#377      
ChiefGritty
lstewart53x3 said:
Our schedule hasn’t been particularly strong so far, but even in our close loss to Indiana, we’ve outplayed every team we’ve played so far this year.

From Robert’s latest article. Our post game win expectancy in each game this year:

Wyoming: 100%
Indiana: 72%
Virginia: 99.4%
Chattanooga: 99.9%
Wisconsin: 99.8%

Comparing that to 2021:

Nebraska: 59.2%
UTSA: 12.7%
Virginia: 0%
Maryland: 3.3%
Purdue: 17.4%

illiniboard.com

More Numbers

It's been so long since I had to make this adjustment. You know the one (or maybe you don't). The whole
illiniboard.com illiniboard.com
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That's a very good use of that particular statistic.

Though I will say I'm surprised to see the numbers so close for UTSA, who felt like they were just clubbing us to death on every series, and Purdue where it always felt like we were right in it and the game could go either way.
 
#380      
ILLINIShox24
ChiefGritty said:
Someone mentioned that's how it works in State College, PA too. I think that's relatively common in major college football.
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Hmmm. Googling around does seem to show that it is pretty common. Seems you are guaranteed a few hundred bookings from each road team coming in, plus some schools have their own home team stay in hotels the day before. I suppose you take advantage of it as long as its considered relatively common.
 
#381      
Konnie
EyeoftheIllini said:
This reduction is in addition to the news coming from Credit Union later today? I know it won’t be enough of a change to please the “just give the tickets away” crowd, but good to see them making an adjustment.

If nothing else, looks like stadium will have 50k+ in it on Saturday.
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My disappointment is that the ticket office is not doing anything positive to reduce the ticket prices and helping to sell out the stadium. It is local businesses and donors that are doing the heavy lifting.
 
#382      
ChiefGritty
ILLINIShox24 said:
Hmmm. Googling around does seem to show that it is pretty common. Seems you are guaranteed a few hundred bookings from each road team coming in, plus some schools have their own home team stay in hotels the day before. I suppose you take advantage of it as long as its considered relatively common.
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The question for the hotels is whether charging an even higher rate for single night bookings would bring in enough extra revenue to justify the cost and hassle of turning over an unusually massive number of rooms during the day. Seems like they've pretty consistently chosen a "no" answer.

But someone brought up young alumni in Chicago. What we want to do is go down for the game, go out to the bars afterward, stay overnight and then drive home in the morning. Two night requirements mean that is not a product being offered, full stop. That's tough.

(It does seem there are some single night bookings available for the Purdue weekend, public service announcement)
 
#384      
redwingillini11
EyeoftheIllini said:
This reduction is in addition to the news coming from Credit Union later today? I know it won’t be enough of a change to please the “just give the tickets away” crowd, but good to see them making an adjustment.

If nothing else, looks like stadium will have 50k+ in it on Saturday.
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The Illinois ticket website still shows horseshoe and balcony at $75. I'm not sure that tweet really means what it seems to imply.
 
#387      
Chukwuwumba
EyeoftheIllini said:
When you win, the next game against a quality opponent becomes “the most important game of the year.” Illini win Saturday, Minn becomes game of year. Lose and we start moving back to just counting down wins to get to bowl eligible. I’ll take more of the hyperbole please.
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Agree. The next game is the most important game. Hopefully will continue to be a good, entertaining season. Enjoy each game, only 12 a year to watch (plus one).
 
#388      
ChiefGritty
RML said:
I think we thought it felt different every time. But I'm not sure that the stats backed it up like they do now.
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Not sure what time scale we're talking about, but we've obviously had a number of breakout years in the past. This has to get to the level of a '99 or an '07 for there to be a crushing disappointment like '00 or '08. One step at a time.
 
#389      
altgeld88
Pikeillinifan said:
This is a huge one IMO. In the years we played well and filled the stadium, the community and local businesses always played a huge part promoting the Illini.
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^^^^^. Yes. Just as everyone in the business community loves a winner and wants to bask in its glow to stimulate sales, everyone wants to love a team with a credible prospect of becoming a winner and opening wallets further.

We're approaching that latter stage. Back in August who would have believed that we'd be here in October? Not me, for sure.
 
#392      
B-ILL
F+ rankings from Football Outsiders was just updated based on last week's results. And as much as we love Illinois' defense, the Iowa defense is actually graded #2 in the country compared to #8 for Illinois by their metrics. Their offense is #92 compared to Illinois #83.

I think this is going to come down to some key plays and made field goals and home field advantage.

1664982056172.png
 
#393      
21ChampaignSt
EyeoftheIllini said:
This reduction is in addition to the news coming from Credit Union later today? I know it won’t be enough of a change to please the “just give the tickets away” crowd, but good to see them making an adjustment.

If nothing else, looks like stadium will have 50k+ in it on Saturday.
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Yeah for me it shows we got to 50k+ without making any price adjustments. This is actually really impressive and portends big things should we keep winning. I'll tell you why.

Did some quick desktop research this morning on Google Trends to get a gut check of what the interest level is for the football team. (Google trends measures the search volume for specific terms or topics). Interest in Illinois football isnt as high as many of us probably think. The IU game did lots of damage in that regard.

For example, before IU, Illinois indexed higher than Minnesota, 53 to 47 (out of 100). Then we lost and this happened.

Week 2
UI: 31
MN: 48

Week 3
UI: 16
MN: 64

Week 4
UI: 18
MN: 86

Week 5
UI: 45
MN: 100

People are still hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. If we can just keep winning and crack the top 25, we'll start to see more people climb aboard which will equate to near sell outs.

Again, the fact that we're 13k tickets away from a sellout for a team with relatively low interest from casual fans shows just how much support our fanbase has for this team and this staff.
 
#394      
ChiefGritty
B-ILL said:
F+ rankings from Football Outsiders was just updated based on last week's results. And as much as we love Illinois' defense, the Iowa defense is actually graded #2 in the country compared to #8 for Illinois by their metrics. Their offense is #92 compared to Illinois #83.

I think this is going to come down to some key plays and made field goals and home field advantage.

View attachment 20333
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Interesting that Wisconsin is still ahead of both Illinois and Washington State having lost to both of them at home.

Minnesota still 7th but Michigan State has slipped behind us.

A lot of competitive games on the horizon for us. Invest in Pepto Bismol.
 
#395      
BretMyBeachHouse
illini80 said:
All of us at with any age feel this. It does feel different this time, but it always does. Whether we win or lose I think we will get there. In Bret we trust.
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Part of the reason, quite frankly, that it feels different is because it is different. It seems like hump games in the past featured better opponents than the two coming up. so the task looks much more doable.
 
#396      
EyeoftheIllini
Konnie said:
My disappointment is that the ticket office is not doing anything positive to reduce the ticket prices and helping to sell out the stadium. It is local businesses and donors that are doing the heavy lifting.
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It’s not uncommon for donors and businesses to do the heavy lifting. And who do you think it is getting them involved? DIA and the ticket office that’s who.

As a fan, I get it, we all would like to see a sold out stadium. I’m sure the ticket office would too, but they have to look at it from a business perspective too. Revenue from ticket sales is a line item in the budget. If they give away revenue by reducing ticket prices for this game, unless it is made up by number of tickets sold it has to be made up elsewhere. Some would say that getting people in seats for this game will mean more ticket sales down the line. Will it? I really doubt it. Winning is what will do that. If Illini lose Saturday (I know, I shouldn’t even write that), do you think those who got in with a reduced ticket price are gonna say, well that was still fun I’ll buy a ticket for a future game at a higher price?

Ticket office is trying to do a balancing act between hitting revenue goal — not just for this game, but for the season and really future seasons. I’m sure they’re crunching numbers to see how best to hit goal and have as many butts in seats as possible for this game. One way to do that is getting donors and businesses involved. That’s not a bad thing. Their willingness to get involved means interest all around is heightened.

I’ll one other thing. As someone who was in fundraising, it is always better to approach donors and businesses on the front end when you have a good story to tell like help us get a sold out stadium, then on the back end to help bail you out of a deficit because you reduced prices on your own.
 
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#398      
CharliedonSurf
EyeoftheIllini said:
It’s not uncommon for donors and businesses to do the heavy lifting. And who do you think it is getting them involved? DIA and the ticket office that’s who.

As a fan, I get it, we all would like to see a sold out stadium. I’m sure the ticket office would too, but they have to look at it from a business perspective too. Revenue from ticket sales is a line item in the budget. If they give away revenue by reducing ticket prices for this game, unless it is made up by number of tickets sold it has to be made up elsewhere. Some would say that getting people in seats for this game will mean more ticket sales down the line. Will it? I really doubt it. Winning is what will do that. If Illini lose Saturday (I know, I shouldn’t even write that), do you think those who got in with a reduced ticket price are gonna say, well that was still fun I’ll buy a ticket for a future game at a higher price?

Ticket office is trying to do a balancing act between hitting revenue goal — not just for this game, but for the season and really future seasons. I’m sure they’re crunching numbers to see how best to hit goal and have as many butts in seats as possible for this game. One way to do that is getting donors and businesses involved. That’s not a bad thing. Their willingness to get involved means interest all around is heightened.
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I'm ok with this. I am all for U of I setting up a fund where donors can contribute to give free tickets to the student body who are likely in a worse financial situation than the vast Illini alum and friends network. I'd pay for some kid to take my place at a game since I can't make it.
 
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