Illini @ Duke Sat Sept. 6 - Road Trip Thread

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#51      
MDchicago
IllinInTheLou said:
I’ve been to their stadium. With a noon start, I’m afraid shade will be scarce regardless of where you sit. Would rather sit in the sections behind our bench (sections 3-7) and make some noise amongst Illini fans than be surrounded by obnoxious Dookies in their sections.
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FYI, for those attending the game in Durham, sounds like there will be a UIAA-sponsored Illini tailgate going in the Blue Zone tailgate lot.

The Charlotte Illini Club sold ~85 tickets to the game seated in Section 6 rows EE through II. My wife and I will be in Section 7, Row I (of course!).

Email text from Charlotte Illini Club email received in early July:

If you would like to join Charlotte Illini Club in Durham on September 6, but missed the purchase window for our ticket block, you still have two ways to join us!
  1. Join our pregame tailgate. Plans are still taking shape, but we will be hosting a large (and growing) tailgate event. The University of Illinois Alumni Association has offered to sponsor our event, so stay tuned!
  2. Buy tickets near our ticket block. We sold about 85 tickets during our special block sale, all in Section 6, rows EE through II. There are still plenty of tickets all around us.
    BUY TICKETS HERE
You can also buy a ticket to park in the tailgate lot. We will be parking together in the Blue Zone.
BUY PARKING PASS HERE
 
#54      
illinoistradition
How can a team just outside of the top 25, with a 35,000 seat stadium, have THAT many seats still available? I mean, it looks like only half the stadium is sold right now.
 
#55      
SampsonRelpenk
illinoistradition said:
How can a team just outside of the top 25, with a 35,000 seat stadium, have THAT many seats still available? I mean, it looks like only half the stadium is sold right now.
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Google says Duke's undergrad population isn't even 7k. The football team doesn't have the vast non-student/alumni fanbase the basketball team has.
 
#56      
Centennial Illini
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Yeah, RG's scheduling was a mystery. As stated previously, I was a huge apologist for the Mizzou series in St. Louis ... as a young fan, I felt cool around my Iowa friends when they would play some patsy on Labor Day Weekend while we would play a rivalry game vs. Mizzou on national TV with a cool neutral site setup. However, looking back, there were three huge issues about that series for me:

1. We just were not ready as a program to take on that type of non-conference game every single year. As others have said ... we needed cupcake schedules to stack wins.
2. On a related note, the timing of it being the VERY first game every year was a disaster. That game should have been a shoe-in for Week 2 or Week 3, allowing both teams to get a warmup home opener vs. a smaller school.
3. The setting of the dome was just less than ideal. Football on Labor Day Weekend should 110% be played outside. I understand fans rolling their eyes at football games being played in baseball stadiums, but if that game ever returned to St. Louis ... it should definitely be at Busch Stadium.

The quintessential RG schedule screwup for me will always be playing Western Michigan in Detroit in November, though. :ROFLMAO:
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I was a classmate of Ron Guenther. He was an over achiever as a player, offensive tackle at about 215 but he played at a time when there was a certain purity to athletics that hasn't existed for about 50 plus years. I think that long lost purity became part of his DNA and his decision making process.

Great ADs, and we have one, must be visionaries while RG was more of a steward and bean counter.

His handling of Lou's last year was clumsy.

His nonconference football scheduling was in comprehensible. Let's schedule 3 out of our league teams so we can go 0-3. This was really bad during the Tepper years

His handling of the Jimmy Collins situation was a complete disaster. We weren't really welcome in Chicago for years after that.

Bill Self was the cherry on top. The buy out was $150,000, KU couldn't believe their good fortune. He never fought to keep Self, he just let him walk. JW would have offered Self 6mil, which would have put KU in a horrible position much like UK with Antiqua.

As a 7 year old in 1952, I listened to JC Caroline run wild on my dad's car radio. Doug Mills was our AD and a great one but Josh Whitman has the skill set to be the best in a lifetime AD
 
#60      
Chukwuwumba
IllinInTheLou said:
I’ve been to their stadium. With a noon start, I’m afraid shade will be scarce regardless of where you sit. Would rather sit in the sections behind our bench (sections 3-7) and make some noise amongst Illini fans than be surrounded by obnoxious Dookies in their sections.
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I’m hoping for some shade! The possibility is definitely priced into the ticket cost!
 
#62      
Greensboro
SampsonRelpenk said:
Google says Duke's undergrad population isn't even 7k. The football team doesn't have the vast non-student/alumni fanbase the basketball team has.
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Also as a private school with national student base the Alumni population that is local is relatively small...so how many of the California/New York/Florida/Texas crowd are you going to get to buy season tickets. Let alone for a program without a football brand.

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#65      
IllinInTheLou
Does anyone know of a pregame Illini party? Heard a while back the Charlotte Illini Club was trying to organize something but haven’t heard anything since. I have a BlueZone parking pass but will be flying in and in a rental so won’t have any tailgating gear. Am looking for a tailgate that does who’s willing to host a couple Illini die hards!
 
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#66      
Illiniwek66
IllinInTheLou said:
Does anyone know of a pregame Illini party? Heard a while back the Charlotte Illini Club was trying to organize something but haven’t heard anything since. I have a BlueZone parking pass but will be flying in and in a rental so won’t have any tailgating gear. Am looking for a tailgate that does who’s willing to host a couple Illini die hards!
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Check out the Charlotte Illini club website. I emailed them and they seem to be welcoming one and all. (BYOB)
 
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