I like the idea of permanently moving this game to Chicago. Win-win for everyone involved.
Everyone? Hardly.
Obviously, any situation is going to have pros and cons ... surely we have seen decades' worth of evidence that hosting NU in Champaign on Thanksgiving weekend has serious drawbacks, including embarrassingly small crowds and Illini fans rarely looking forward to a weekend that is an event for most fan bases), but I am sure there were fans upset about moving the Mizzou basketball rivalry to St. Louis at one time. It's only now that it has become a true event with decades of tradition behind it and an atmosphere that is unrivaled that it is "entrenched" and people don't complain about it.
I respect that the 20k people who always show up for that last home game (especially those who spend Thanksgiving in the CU area) would not like this ... and they have every right to oppose it. However, IF you look at this through the vacuum of trying to do anything possible to give this rather lame and emotionless rivalry some sort of badly needed spice, the answer seems to certainly be to move it to Chicago. JMO, of course, but Champaign and Evanston have proven over and over again that they won't show up to this specific game on this specific Saturday. Hell, we were playing to clinch a Big Ten title and BCS Bowl berth in 2001, and the game drew poorly. It just is what it is, IMO. There are too many factors going against it:
1. Illinois has a disproportionate share of its students multiple hours away for this weekend. A Michigan student home for Thanksgiving in the Detroit suburbs can EASILY get back on the Saturday for the OSU game, and there are way more Iowa students that simply live in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the Quad Cities or some other area where they can easily get back for the Nebraska game. Illinois has far too many students who will always be 2.5+ hours away in Chicagoland or somewhere else.
2. To a lesser extent, I bet a lot more people in Champaign travel up to Chicagoland for Thanksgiving than one might expect. Just anecdotal here.
3. Northwestern's total lack of a fan base outside of alumni and/or Evanston residents prohibits them from ever pulling their weight here.
4. The literal matchup itself just does not get either fan base's emotions too high. There just is not the instate hate that you need. Thus, SOME sort of "event" component (call it a gimmick if you take a more cynical outlook) might be needed to make it more appealing.
With that said, there are only two ways you can ever get it to work in Chicago:
1. Simply make it a Wrigley thing. While the weather will still be a roadblock, there are WAY more people who'd suck it up for some pre- and postgame bar hopping in Wrigleyville and the iconic setting of that venue than there ever would be going to Soldier Field (while it is still outdoors).
2. Playing it at a new domed Bears stadium. If the Bears build the new domed stadium on the Lakefront, I think we jump all over that. Even if we only draw about 35k or so on our end and NU brings 10k, it would be a far superior atmosphere to either team's stadium. I think given a warm weather setting like this right downtown could genuinely become a bit of a family tradition that Illini/NU families in Chicago make more of a habit out of attending. Combine it with some Christmas shopping the day before and a weekend in the city, no one is worried about the bad weather and you have a new state-of-the-art facility.
Doing either of those two at least allows this game to take on more of a meaningful "vibe" than simply Northwestern vs. Illinois in a home-and-home football series. It becomes a very clear "Chicago EVENT" that has the chance to be something truly unique and special if/when both teams are good. Again, I think the argument against moving this game would have more legs if anyone in Champaign ever showed up ... it's just an awful weekend for this.
