Memorial Stadium Game Day Experience

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#101      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
champaignchris said:
I’ll confess complete ignorance here. Where are the student sections at other schools? If we accept that what we have going doesn’t work, what does work?

I know when they moved the Krush in basketball however long ago that was, DUI looked at places like Duke and where they put their student section. Who should football be emulating?
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The end zone/corner would be just fine if we had a setup like Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc. where the stands go down to the field. However, we built one of our end zones up in the sky and the other seemingly 50 yards from the end zone, lol.

The goal is to have our most rowdy fans close to the field, and until we renovate, that simply can’t be either end zone. Besides, I always thought the NEZ would be a perfect “family friendly pavilion.”
 
#102      

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost
Washington, DC
The Galloping Ghost
champaignchris said:
I’ll confess complete ignorance here. Where are the student sections at other schools? If we accept that what we have going doesn’t work, what does work?

I know when they moved the Krush in basketball however long ago that was, DUI looked at places like Duke and where they put their student section. Who should football be emulating?
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We could emulate ourselves when we had higher turnout and put the students back on the 30-yard line. While not an amazing environment, inarguably better than what we currently have. And would look a ton better on tv, too.
 
#103      

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost
Washington, DC
The Galloping Ghost
Fighter of the Nightman said:
The goal is to have our most rowdy fans close to the field, and until we renovate, that simply can’t be either end zone.
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giphy-3.gif

1000%.
 
#109      

GForce

GForce
GForce
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Which isn’t saying much … an otherwise beautiful stadium is so severely handicapped by the abomination of the horseshoe. It’d seriously look better if nothing were there.
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Turn it in to a big grassy slope. Rope it off for a cheap student section with a beer concession nearby. Or make it for families with young kids.
 
#110      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
The Galloping Ghost said:
Does anyone actually think putting all the students in the NEZ is a good idea? I was on campus when it happened and thought it absolutely sucked. In the 15 or so years since I've yet to see a convincing argument for it. It's kind of shocking this still hasn't been rectified.
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The point was to keep Guenther's beloved bluehairs safely protected from any undue youngster hijinks. Hijinks such as standing up and being noisy at a football game. Not a joke.

It was also explicitly, purposefully designed to prevent students from ever rushing the field.

It's literally a prison for the students to let the proper paying customers enjoy their afternoon in peace.

It goes without saying how wrong and dumb that is.

Anyway, a slight sidebar, the reason they don't just offer tickets for free to the public or whatever is that it's very insulting to people who paid full price for season tickets, who are your most important customer. That's why the deals are always couched as some sort of package, oh get 4 tickets and 4 hotdogs or something, never just slapping season ticket holders in the face with a direct cut-price on something they paid a higher amount for.

The NEZ presents an opportunity in that regard. No one has (non-student) season tickets up there, and everyone knows those are "lesser" seats. Plus it isn't currently connected to the rest of the stadium.

So, offer NEZ seats for any game at $10 a pop to the general public. Not only will people take you up on it, but as adults they will sit in their assigned seats and spread out rather than clump together like kids into a small, embarassing-on-TV blob. You're getting new people in the door, pleasing tightwads, and not cutting the legs out from people with "better" seats. It's a prison for the riff raff still, just a different kind of riff raff.

Then what to do with the students?

It's also understood that students will and should get a discount and no full-paying adult really wants to sit with them anyway. And technically the last section on the North end of the East stands (both main level and balcony) is reserved for student overflow. Just make that the student section, general admission, and let them in for free. Any overflow from there can start moving across the East Balcony, where there's never more than a handful of souls anyway.

E-ticketing makes it much easier to do all of that in a way that's easy for the kids and doesn't risk problems with people fighting over the same seats.

At a certain level of ticket demand some friction starts to develop with some of these ideas, but that hasn't been an issue in 15 years (even at a couple of so-called "sellouts" since then) and would be a great problem to have if it ever came back. And all of this can be done with no renovations or changes to anything. You could implement this tomorrow. And the cost of losing student season ticket revenue is less than we're going to have to pay to keep Ryan Walters next year.
 
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#111      

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost
Washington, DC
The Galloping Ghost
ChiefGritty said:
The point was to keep Guenther's beloved bluehairs safely protected from any undue youngster hijinks. Hijinks such as standing up and being noisy at a football game. Not a joke.
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I fundamentally don't understand going to a sporting event and not wanting to stand up and get loud. The whole point of being at a game in person is to experience the excitement, be thrilled, and cheer on your team. Oh, and, you know, have fun. If you want to sit there quietly, do quite literally anything else with your time.
 
#112      

'16caine

1
'16caine
The Galloping Ghost said:
I fundamentally don't understand going to a sporting event and not wanting to stand up and get loud. The whole point of being at a game in person is to experience the excitement, be thrilled, and cheer on your team. Oh, and, you know, have fun. If you want to sit there quietly, do quite literally anything else with your time.
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It boggles the mind. The student experience blows. Surprise surprise…. They like spending time at the bars talking to girls rather than going to the game. Go figure. Hopefully we start winning a lot and bring this issue to a head.
 
#113      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
The Galloping Ghost said:
I fundamentally don't understand going to a sporting event and not wanting to stand up and get loud. The whole point of being at a game in person is to experience the excitement, be thrilled, and cheer on your team. Oh, and, you know, have fun. If you want to sit there quietly, do quite literally anything else with your time.
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To be honest I sit there quietly a lot of the time analyzing and being extremely nervous, but I would never dream of complaining about anyone else being boisterous, that's the whole point and makes it fun!

Standing the whole game is a collective action problem though. You just can't have students in front of regular adults, those groups have different expectations.

It also can't be said enough how a bigger crowd generates its own energy just through the connectivity of human beings. That's why we've just gotta find a way to get butts into seats, and need to find ways around the business school mantras about customer development and marginal costs and whatever. Townies with nothing better to do who don't actually care? Fine. Chinese grad students who have never seen a football game before? Fantastic, get in there. "Spend" as much as you have to so last Saturday doesn't happen again.

You can find ways to make it up to your loyal season ticket holders and donors. Parking being the most obvious one.
 
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#115      

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost
Washington, DC
The Galloping Ghost
ChiefGritty said:
It also can't be said enough how a bigger crowd generates its own energy just through the connectivity of human beings. That's why we've just gotta find a way to get butts into seats, and need to find ways around the business school mantras about customer development and marginal costs and whatever. Townies with nothing better to do who don't actually care? Fine. Chinese grad students who have never seen a football game before? Fantastic, get in there. "Spend" as much as you have to so last Saturday doesn't happen again.
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Absolutely. Very few things are better than the communal experience created by a packed stadium.
 
#116      

Marshall_Lucky

M
Marshall_Lucky
ChiefGritty said:
To be honest I sit there quietly a lot of the time analyzing and being extremely nervous, but I would never dream of complaining about anyone else being boisterous, that's the whole point and makes it fun!

Standing the whole game is a collective action problem though. You just can't have students in front of regular adults, those groups have different expectations.

It also can't be said enough how a bigger crowd generates its own energy just through the connectivity of human beings. That's why we've just gotta find a way to get butts into seats, and need to find ways around the business school mantras about customer development and marginal costs and whatever. Townies with nothing better to do who don't actually care? Fine. Chinese grad students who have never seen a football game before? Fantastic, get in there. "Spend" as much as you have to so last Saturday doesn't happen again.

You can find ways to make it up to your loyal season ticket holders and donors. Parking being the most obvious one.
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In recent years it's hard for me to get up and get loud unless I am with a big group..or primed with about 2 six packs ahead of time. It is definitely a group energy thing. Nobody wants to get up when they feel they will be the only one doing it..it's awkward and weird. The fact the I'm in the second row on the east balcony and often there is basically nobody behind me leads to lots of butt in seat games
 
#117      

Navy_illini

N
Navy_illini
Block I should go back to its old spot. The seats there were good. And the students could get loud.

What I find amazing is we give the opposing team fans better tickets than our students which is crazy. Maybe move them to the North end zone

If you want to give the appearance of a packed stadium we should allow people from the upper sections to move to the lower sections. We all know the stadium won’t be filled

To reward season ticket owners we should give them upgrade to their tickets give them better seats and give them parking upgrades. This way they don’t feel as slighted

When the team consistently wins the stadium will be filled. However I am not sure we have some of our traditions that made the stadium a hostile environment for opposing teams. The university needs to figure something out
 
#118      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
ChiefGritty said:
Gotta bump this.

There were 13,000 empty seats at Lovie's legendary "sellout" against UNC, and haven't gotten within another 13,000 empty seats of that game since. That's the reality. Use all that breathing room as an opportunity.
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That’s sobering … there’s no statistically sound argument that the group of people reasonably described as “Illini fans” isn’t huge. Unfortunately, we’ve turned so many of those people into the most casual of fans, and you need to do a lot to bring casual fans back in … and we have done NOTHING.
 
#120      

Illini in Italy

Illini in Italy
Illini in Italy
ChiefGritty said:
The point was to keep Guenther's beloved bluehairs safely protected from any undue youngster hijinks. Hijinks such as standing up and being noisy at a football game. Not a joke.

It was also explicitly, purposefully designed to prevent students from ever rushing the field.

It's literally a prison for the students to let the proper paying customers enjoy their afternoon in peace.

It goes without saying how wrong and dumb that is.

Anyway, a slight sidebar, the reason they don't just offer tickets for free to the public or whatever is that it's very insulting to people who paid full price for season tickets, who are your most important customer. That's why the deals are always couched as some sort of package, oh get 4 tickets and 4 hotdogs or something, never just slapping season ticket holders in the face with a direct cut-price on something they paid a higher amount for.

The NEZ presents an opportunity in that regard. No one has (non-student) season tickets up there, and everyone knows those are "lesser" seats. Plus it isn't currently connected to the rest of the stadium.

So, offer NEZ seats for any game at $10 a pop to the general public. Not only will people take you up on it, but as adults they will sit in their assigned seats and spread out rather than clump together like kids into a small, embarassing-on-TV blob. You're getting new people in the door, pleasing tightwads, and not cutting the legs out from people with "better" seats. It's a prison for the riff raff still, just a different kind of riff raff.

Then what to do with the students?

It's also understood that students will and should get a discount and no full-paying adult really wants to sit with them anyway. And technically the last section on the North end of the East stands (both main level and balcony) is reserved for student overflow. Just make that the student section, general admission, and let them in for free. Any overflow from there can start moving across the East Balcony, where there's never more than a handful of souls anyway.

E-ticketing makes it much easier to do all of that in a way that's easy for the kids and doesn't risk problems with people fighting over the same seats.

At a certain level of ticket demand some friction starts to develop with some of these ideas, but that hasn't been an issue in 15 years (even at a couple of so-called "sellouts" since then) and would be a great problem to have if it ever came back. And all of this can be done with no renovations or changes to anything. You could implement this tomorrow. And the cost of losing student season ticket revenue is less than we're going to have to pay to keep Ryan Walters next year.
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From your keyboard to Josh Whitman’s ear!
 
#121      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Fighter of the Nightman said:
That’s sobering … there’s no statistically sound argument that the group of people reasonably described as “Illini fans” isn’t huge. Unfortunately, we’ve turned so many of those people into the most casual of fans, and you need to do a lot to bring casual fans back in … and we have done NOTHING.
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Not to disagree with any of this, but I think there's a sense in which it expresses a conventional wisdom about the sports industry that's failing us. The business school best practices counsel you to think about developing long term customers and not devaluing your product and managing things on a fanbase-wide level and all sorts of things that are well thought out and statistically valid and have been used to great money-making effect elsewhere.

The playbook isn't working for Illinois Football. It's not working for a lot of sports businesses really (think the Oakland A's or something), but at Memorial Stadium there are a couple of relatively cheap and simple fixes that are totally within our power, and I think it's time to pull the ripcord.

You don't totally throw your spreadsheets out the window and stop thinking in terms of revenue growth and season ticket customer management (there's stuff we can and should do for them too), but a frank admission of where we are says those corporate practices need to take a back seat to just getting human beings through the turnstiles by any means necessary.

I *think* cheapo NEZ tickets and free admission for students have long term benefits for fanbase growth. But I *know* they will mean fewer empty seats, and that's gotta take priority now. You're killing yourself with sub 50% capacity crowds which are now the norm even for "good" games.
 
#122      

Illini in Italy

Illini in Italy
Illini in Italy
A little googling shows little in different philosophies in terms of visiting team and student seating. At the Big House in Michigan (I feel nauseous even saying that) students are seated from about the north 20 yard line upto the same end zone, and around the corner into the north end zone. Opposing team fans sit in the upper tier of the South Endzone between sections 9-15. The Horseshoe in Columbus puts students in the south end zone, and visitors in the north end zone.

Outside the B1G, Bryant-Denny stadium in Tuscaloosa puts visitors in
  • Section NN (North end zone)
  • Front of Sections MM and LL (N end 20 yard line to N end zone)
  • Back half of sections on the North and South side of the stadium (end zones)
student sections run from about the S 30 yard line around the S end zone (pretty significant portion of the available seating)

like Alabama, Notre Dame seats students from about the N 40 yard line down to and into the end zone. They put the visitors in the opposite corner with three lower sections (14-16) and the three upper sections directly above (114-116)

We put our students in the N end zone, and visitors in Section 109 at the S end of the field, on the E side of the end zone. With E side seats so empty, I’d love to see the student section back in the N end of the visitors side per Gritty’s suggestion. While I understand the desire to keep the “animals” away from the paying public, it would provide a better student experience, and in fact there are very few to no “paying customers” on that side of the stadium anyway, at least according the cameras from last week’s game.

It appears most teams care little about opposing fans, relegating them to the least desirable locations.
Oh yeah, and put some seat backs in all the seats!
 
#123      

Battle89

Battle89
Battle89
Illini in Italy said:
A little googling shows little in different philosophies in terms of visiting team and student seating. At the Big House in Michigan (I feel nauseous even saying that) students are seated from about the north 20 yard line upto the same end zone, and around the corner into the north end zone. Opposing team fans sit in the upper tier of the South Endzone between sections 9-15. The Horseshoe in Columbus puts students in the south end zone, and visitors in the north end zone.

Outside the B1G, Bryant-Denny stadium in Tuscaloosa puts visitors in
  • Section NN (North end zone)
  • Front of Sections MM and LL (N end 20 yard line to N end zone)
  • Back half of sections on the North and South side of the stadium (end zones)
student sections run from about the S 30 yard line around the S end zone (pretty significant portion of the available seating)

like Alabama, Notre Dame seats students from about the N 40 yard line down to and into the end zone. They put the visitors in the opposite corner with three lower sections (14-16) and the three upper sections directly above (114-116)

We put our students in the N end zone, and visitors in Section 109 at the S end of the field, on the E side of the end zone. With E side seats so empty, I’d love to see the student section back in the N end of the visitors side per Gritty’s suggestion. While I understand the desire to keep the “animals” away from the paying public, it would provide a better student experience, and in fact there are very few to no “paying customers” on that side of the stadium anyway, at least according the cameras from last week’s game.

It appears most teams care little about opposing fans, relegating them to the least desirable locations.
Oh yeah, and put some seat backs in all the seats!
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Don't mind the relocation of students back into the main seating (as I said yesterday, my student tickets were in 108), nor making the NEZ cheap seats for anyone. I wonder though about making them visitor seating. Any concerns with noise levels if our offense is at the 1-yard line and there are thousands of Nebraska fans screaming at them pre-snap?
 
#124      

TheDrinkinLincoln

TheDrinkinLincoln
TheDrinkinLincoln
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Also as far as quick fixes … we used to have temporary bleachers in the horseshoe that made it look less dinky on TV. Bring those back but put them in FRONT. Temporary bleachers that just bring the horseshoe seats down to field level would make it look so much more imposing, and you could even put the students there.
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I would love if we hosted high schools in those temp bleachers. Have a featured High School of Illinois and slowly rotate through all the ones in the state.
 
#125      

redwingillini11

redwingillini11
White and Sixth
North Aurora
redwingillini11
What's it going to take to have a sitdown come-to-Jesus talk with Illinois Loyalty and Josh about these ideas? If there are any plans to fix these issues, other than "hope winning brings the fans", they are not evident. Grange Grove has been quite a success, but I can't think of one single thing that has changed about the in-stadium experience since my freshman year 11 years ago. (Ok, one thing has changed: beer.) I just hope all options are being considered and no one is shooting down these ideas because change makes them uncomfortable. The reality is what it is and we need to find ways to get more people in the stadium.
 
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