altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
It's a classic, gorgeous stadium, which we're blessed to call home.
Gies Memorial Stadium
- Status
Those are all good points, but despite the many reasons why, the point remains simple.
There are more tickets available than people willing to buy them when the season ticket price is $200+
When the price is less than $200 there are more people than tickets.
They won’t be able to meaningfully raise ticket prices until they consistently have sellouts.
Season ticket holders for even the best teams in the world don’t go to every game. They buy season tickets because they want to go to multiple games and generally feel comfortable selling the extra tickets on the resale market for profit or to break even.
Since, the Illini very rarely sell out the only people buying season tickets are those who plan to go to every game, or are comfortable eating the cost of the games they don’t want to go to.
Until they consistently sell out every game they are going to have these same challenges every year.
They’re struggling to capture the 3-hour drive crowd because the season tickets have no resale value. They won’t have resale value until they consistently sellout. They won’t consistently sellout until they lower prices.
It’s a shame they didn’t lower prices mid-season 2022 and figure out how to make the fans who paid a higher price for early purchased tickets.
Good points, but the bolded portion isn’t quite so black and white, to me anyway. When I buy season tickets, I don’t plan to “break even” on any I resell and I’ve never had to “eat the cost”. They can be readily sold for an amount below the single game price, or at worst slightly below my prorated cost. Resale value, whether the game is sold out or not, is somewhere between the underlined extremes, so it’s a bad deal really.
Sorry. This just looks stupid.
Think what we could have done with a whole new stadium. Every concern here would be addressed by a new stadium. Yes, I have a lot of affection for he old girl, but how many people keep a car for over 100,000 miles? This stadium has over 100 years on it.
We need a smaller stadium, not bigger. Follow the Notthwestern. You can sell a bigger percentage of seats if you have fewer seats. We’ll be able to watch what we could do by seeing how Northwestern goes.
But consider this. A football stadium could be built further south, down in Ssvoy. Students who actually go to games would continue to do so, and others could go drinking on Saturday afternoon to keep up the Party School ranking.
Alumni would mostly be coming by car so it wouldn’t matter where the new stadium would be. I understand that there’s space for a football stadium in Arlington Heights. A brand new stadium in a major metropolitan area, where more alumni live than anywhere else! Parking wouldn’t be necessary either. The governor says the state needs to get away from a car centric model.
Some would bemoan the loss of heritage. Take a column of two from the old stadium and be done with it. People have short memories.
The old stadium could be torn down and replaced by luxury apartments owned by the university. $$$$$ Or think about a new modern basketball arena!
(Sarcasm is free, by the way. I’m sure I missed some things here. Ideas?)
We need a smaller stadium, not bigger. Follow the Notthwestern. You can sell a bigger percentage of seats if you have fewer seats. We’ll be able to watch what we could do by seeing how Northwestern goes.
But consider this. A football stadium could be built further south, down in Ssvoy. Students who actually go to games would continue to do so, and others could go drinking on Saturday afternoon to keep up the Party School ranking.
Alumni would mostly be coming by car so it wouldn’t matter where the new stadium would be. I understand that there’s space for a football stadium in Arlington Heights. A brand new stadium in a major metropolitan area, where more alumni live than anywhere else! Parking wouldn’t be necessary either. The governor says the state needs to get away from a car centric model.
Some would bemoan the loss of heritage. Take a column of two from the old stadium and be done with it. People have short memories.
The old stadium could be torn down and replaced by luxury apartments owned by the university. $$$$$ Or think about a new modern basketball arena!
(Sarcasm is free, by the way. I’m sure I missed some things here. Ideas?)
Shief
- Champaign Area
@Fighter of the Nightman, I also support the idea of having banners on the side of the new scoreboard. While the scoreboard was still in the NEZ, it had historical images and sponsorship logos; I suspect that the SEZ banners might be similar.Thanks for posting, Dan, it looks awesome! And on the note of my "anything is better than nothing" attitude when it comes to the Horseshoe, look at this screenshot from that video:
View attachment 50839
The new scoreboard is literally twice or even three times as tall as the Horseshoe stands when standing at field level, and this other photo below makes the difference seem even more extreme:
If there is no appetite for an actual SEZ renovation, let's just find S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G to put on either side of the new scoreboard to provide similar height on either side! It will help to trap noise and make that end of the stadium look a lot less incomplete. This goes back to my totally over-emphasized point that something is better than nothing, but if there is no plan for the SEZ any time in the foreseeable future, why would we not take this...
Last Year (i.e., Before the new scoreboard)
... and turn it into this?
New Version (i.e., New scoreboard and banners on either side to add height)
View attachment 50842
While acknowledging we would definitely be too cheap to make the wall brick (that was just Chat GPT's preference!), this would be SO easy, would cost almost nothing, would go a LONG way toward trapping more crowd noise / improving our homefield advantage and would give the stadium a finished look it's been begging for on the south end for a century now.
This would cement the current SEZ "skeleton" as permanent, which saves the DIA a lot of money down the line. Then you roughly do these "mini" renovations in order as the (now WAY lower amount of) money becomes available, with each step being both less of an immediate priority, more expensive and more reliant on future demand.
1) Touch up the existing seats as necessary and, in the process, reconfigure the seats to come down to field level and remove the ugly gap in front of the first row.
2) Renovate the concourse area to at least get up to Twenty-First Century standards, lol.
3) Renovate the exterior to be less of an eyesore.
4) If the appetite develops, build some sort of impressive concourse into the exterior (e.g., an "Illini Hall of Fame").
5) If and when the demand is there, take down the inexpensive walls / banners and build some luxury, revenue-generating suites.
6) Finally, if we are bursting at the seems as far as capacity, build a second deck on top of the luxury suites to finally tie together the SEZ look with the west and east sides, creating a true "Horseshoe" ala Ohio State.
EDIT: I noticed that Chat GPT changed the color of the photo I uploaded, but I just noticed that it also changed the clouds ... lol, it is so weird sometimes.
Ranking the Big 10 stadiums
www.instagram.com
www.instagram.com
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1"
4,949 likes, 64 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1".
www.instagram.com
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10"
5,621 likes, 162 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10".
www.instagram.com
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Ranking the Big 10 stadiums
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1"
4,949 likes, 64 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1".
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10"
5,621 likes, 162 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10".
Thanks for that. Last weekend @kmunt09 posted a YouTube video from this guy ranking all 18 stadiums:Ranking the Big 10 stadiums
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1"
4,949 likes, 64 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. This Is My Rank 18-1".
GFed on Instagram: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10"
5,621 likes, 162 comments - gfedgocrazy on July 11, 2026: "Ive Been To Every B1G Stadium. These Are The Top 10".
Gies Memorial Stadium
Ironic he just posted this video yesterday…Memorial Stadium talk at 15:10, with a funny little bit on the wasted space at 16:00 😆
www.illinoisloyalty.com
I'm really into stadium history. IMO he's too harsh on Rutgers. The stadium was originally a horseshoe built into a hillside:
It's a great place to see a game today, a small stadium that's mostly a bowl having great sightlines (the upper decks are fairly small), although the modernization over the decades has rendered it kinda generic apart from that cool red-roofed arcade in the NEZ. Also, I've always liked Ross-Ade, which he ranks near the bottom, even when it was a nearly-open horseshoe. Also a great place to see a game.
He's dead right about Maryland, though: rock bottom. The monster north upper deck they grafted onto the stadium in the '90s is disproportionate and hideous, and fans rarely fill even the lower horseshoe these days.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This conversation got me really curious ... I am not AT ALL commenting on ticket prices here, merely looking at this from the perspective of how many fans a Big Ten program could theoretically get to attend games based on its "population footprint." I won't torture folks with my thoughts upfront, and I will cut straight to the chase and give the lists that Chat GPT came up with (so take it for what it is worth!). All the population numbers are in thousands.
Estimated Population Within a 1-Hour Drive of Campus
1. Rutgers: 26,500
2. USC: 16,000
2. UCLA: 16,000
4. Maryland: 13,000
5. Northwestern: 10,500
6. Michigan: 7,000
7. Indiana: 6,000
8. Washington: 5,200
9. Purdue: 5,000
10. Minnesota: 4,700
11. Michigan State: 4,500
12. Ohio State: 4,200
13. Illinois: 3,000
14. Wisconsin: 2,700
15. Penn State: 2,500
16. Iowa: 2,100
17. Nebraska: 1,200
18. Oregon: 1,100
Estimated Population Within a 3-Hour Drive of Campus
1. Rutgers: 47,500
2. Maryland: 34,000
3. Northwestern: 20,500
4. USC: 19,000
4. UCLA: 19,000
6. Michigan: 16,000
7. Purdue: 15,000
8. Indiana: 14,000
9. Ohio State: 13,000
10. Penn State: 12,000
11. Illinois: 11,000
12. Washington: 6,500
12. Michigan State: 6,500
14. Wisconsin: 6,000
14. Minnesota: 6,000
16. Iowa: 5,500
17. Oregon: 3,500
18. Nebraska: 2,500
So the TL;DR is that you are definitely on to something, as Illinois had the fifth biggest increase from the 1-hour list to the 3-hour list (8 million), and we had the second biggest percent increase (nearly 267%, behind only Penn State at 380%). So, to fill the stadium, we either need "exceptional" local loyalty like Nebraska and Iowa or we need our 3-hour drive fans to show up. However, I would point out the following with these lists.
1. While I think the 1-hour radius is really useful, I would question the cutoffs for fans beyond that. Personally, I am not sure a 2-hour vs. 3-hour drive makes a difference to me, and I would definitely question whether a 3-hour vs. 4-hour drive is a deal breaker. I will admit that we definitely would always stay overnight so we can enjoy however many drinks we want, not have to worry about a drive, etc., but my point is that maybe some school on that list would have a huge increase if you extended it to a 4-hour drive, and all of a sudden it's apparent that they have a huge population to draw from.
2. Population only says so much. Who cares that Northwestern has 10.5 million folks within a 1-hour drive? Not only would a significant chunk of those fans be in either Wisconsin or Indiana (with zero reason to adopt NU as a home team if they weren't alumni), but poll after poll indicates that NU's proximity to Chicago MSA people means INCREDIBLY little in regard to the ability to draw fans, as there are for more people here whose favorite teams are Illinois, Notre Dame and other Big Ten schools like Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. They would need legions of people who don't currently care about college football to not only start caring all of a sudden but to also select an elite private university as their adopted home team rather than Illinois or Notre Dame.
3. On that note, it's super important to consider how close a school's radius is to overlapping with a radius where a different team dominates. What percent of Maryland's radius includes Northern Virginians technically within an hour of College Park? Minneapolis is under an hour from the Wisconsin border, and every stat I have seen indicates the Badgers protect their borders VERY well when it comes to fan support. How far can Purdue realistically extend within its radius before it encounters Illini opposition in the west, Notre Dame opposition in the north, Indiana opposition to its south, etc.?
All in all, I think Illinois sits in a far less advantageous position than we would think, with our only two "systemic" roadblocks to big crowds being a history of futility (which is being remedied!) and reliance on fans 2-3+ hours away to truly ever have constant sellouts of a bigger stadium (and that will follow as we continue to be good!). When you consider the 3 million people we DO have within a 1-hour radius, they thankfully all lie within what would be very solid Illini territory when it comes to college sports. I see no reason other than learned fan behavior (which comes with winning) that we couldn't outdraw Iowa every single Saturday if current trends continue. We have a bigger student body, a bigger local MSA population, a bigger population within a 1-hour radius, a bigger population within a 3-hour radius, etc. The ONLY thing holding us back is generations of Illini fans (and potential Illini fans) grew up learning that "we suck" and determining it wasn't worth having your entire fall and precious free time revolve around Illini football, whereas Iowa fans have been learning the opposite lesson for years and years. That takes time to fix, but just look at the progress in a few short years! We were literally lucky to sell 40k tickets Bret's first year, and now we are averaging like 56k per game and selling out multiple games per season.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Yeah, those numbers don't seem accurate. This population calculator puts the population within a one hour drive of Champaign at 850,000:
Madison, Wisconsin at 2 million:
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Lol, I guess that’s what I get for trusting AI without verifying! I’ll use that tool and do a follow-up.
We rank 14th and Nebraska and Penn State rank below us. UCLA ranks #2 and USC #3 So there is no correlation between Alumni distance from football venue and attendance.
They sold out season tickets last year. For the last 2 years the few extra tickets I sometimes have for games have sold above face value for all Big Ten games. Historically you are correct and I just used the extra room instead of selling an extra ticket for nothing.
I also think the vast majority of the season ticket holders plan on going to most games. At least I do and so do the other season ticket holders I know, other than a few who no longer live in Illinois.
I was just perusing this thread and some of the links in order to find a picture of the new scoreboard to send to a friend (and fellow alumnus) and ran across this. I am just posting it fyi. I am not advocating this, nor not advocating this. I am fairly neutral to the whole Memorial Stadium rename.
Alumni continue to push back against Gies Memorial Stadium renaming
Alumni continue to push back against Gies Memorial Stadium renaming
I don't feel that strongly about it, but IMHO a permanent renaming for a mere $100 million was a mistake. Yeah, it's a lot, but unless it's shown that this is what got the (yet to publicly materialize) mega-donor snowball rolling, it was an awfully big chip to remove from the table.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
I agree. To me, the biggest problem is the permanency of it. Had it been $100 million for 10 or 20 years, that’s one thing. But $100 million for forever is just too small of an amount.
$100 million doesn’t get you very far today, much less 20 years from now. By then, there will be what, $200 million rosters?
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Here’s the thing… unless there’s a contract with some form of the words “in perpetuity” written in there, the school could simply remove the Gies name at any time since this was, technically speaking, a gift.
People will find anything to complain about, JFC. You think this will be Larry's last gift? Maybe keeping the very few Uber wealthy alumni we have happy and feeling important is bigger deal than 4 letters literally no one will ever force you to say? I still say Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium and I've yet to be arrested or have my fan card forcibly removed from me.
Would you rather have Monster Energy logos on all our uniforms? Because without big time donors that's where we're headed (I think we're headed there anyway, especially with private equity primed to make every AD's decisions for them, but I digress)
Would you rather have Monster Energy logos on all our uniforms? Because without big time donors that's where we're headed (I think we're headed there anyway, especially with private equity primed to make every AD's decisions for them, but I digress)
I wonder what the venn diagram of people complaining about the Gies naming rights and people who are livid that Shad Khan's honorary Doctorate got poo pooed by a bunch of professors looks like?
Yes I agree. We need big time donor money if we want to compete today. A bigger question is why don’t we have more big time donors giving 100 million dollars? Don’t you think the university not giving Shahad Kahn an honorary degree has hurt our chances of him giving bigger amounts of money like Gies has? Who are our very wealthy alumni and why haven’t they given more? I am sure Josh is currently mining those relationships in hopes of more funding for the types of projects he wants. We are lucky to have an AD who is thinking outside the box than a few donors who are upset with the naming rights. Maybe they are jealous they don’t think of it first. We should never look a gift horse in the mouth.
I agree with your comment "I still say Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium" with onw exception. It is "The Assembly Hall", not "Assembly Hall". The Assembly Hall is on the campus of the beloved. Assembly Hall is in Bloomington Indiana. I'll die on this hill, alone if necessary.
I came here to say the same - there is no way he is done giving.
To be honest, the naming of the stadium might incentive him to give even more in the future than he otherwise would.
- Status