Southeast fans are like Pacific Northwest fans. Loyal, dedicated and loud.
Nebraska 20, Illinois 7 Postgame
But hey, at least the basketball team has that one random I Fund member who thinks they're one of the coaches and is always standing up at the games (I've mentioned this person before on here; seats are on the baseline lower left hand corner when you're watching the games)
blackdog
- Champaign
Make fun of her all you want but at least she cares and is making noise. I honestly wish there were more people that had that kind of passion.
True but there's a big difference between supporting the team and making yourself a distraction when people are trying to watch the game.
We should still be able to field kickoffs and not have personal foul penalties every other play. We all expected to be less talented/experienced this year; but a lot of what is going on includes a Lovie Smith tenure type of incompetence.
I don't really follow football that closely anymore. I was there at all the games during my stint in Champaign, cheering loud and obnoxious. My roommates drove to Miami for the MicronPC.com bowl. I drove to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. I'm a huge sports fan. But when we went through 18 years where we won 4 games a year on average, kinda made me say it's not worth it. Also you do know we have a basketball team too right, discussion is one board over. I have way more interest in our basketball program that our football program.
Being a sports fan is a strange thing. We choose a team for whatever reason, and then we just stick with them forever (well most fans). If they stink, you just keep liking them. If they bring in a terrible coach, you just keep liking them. If you win 4 games a year for 18 years, you just keep liking them. You are basically inviting pain into your life voluntarily if you root for a bad program. And Illini football is a very bad program by all objective measures.
I certainly haven't changed my allegiance to anyone else. But I also don't enjoy watching losses, and certainly don't feel obligated to watch bad football because I got my degree from Illinois. If they can't create a product that draws interest, aside from blind loyalty, then they haven't earned that attention from anyone but the diehards. And hell, I was a diehard, but decades, not years, decades, or ineptitude eroded that. That's just reality.
My dad was a dedicated Cubs fan his entire adult life and went to his grave never having seen them play in the World Series.
I deeply appreciate “my university” but feel no such allegiance to a long term failed football program. However, if they can play with reasonable competence, win or lose, I’ll support them with more season tickets. Might need to sit out 2024 though, watching and waiting for flickers of fundamental competence.
Penalties and turnovers are a big turnoff, as are things like that botched kickoff return. Was that a turnover or just a foolish giveaway? It felt like watching three players collide in the outfield as a fly ball goes uncaught. Why not just signal a fair catch and catch the freakin’ ball? How tough is that to figure out? High school teams do it all the time. Sorry, but I just can’t watch or support that level of incompetence.
I deeply appreciate “my university” but feel no such allegiance to a long term failed football program. However, if they can play with reasonable competence, win or lose, I’ll support them with more season tickets. Might need to sit out 2024 though, watching and waiting for flickers of fundamental competence.
Penalties and turnovers are a big turnoff, as are things like that botched kickoff return. Was that a turnover or just a foolish giveaway? It felt like watching three players collide in the outfield as a fly ball goes uncaught. Why not just signal a fair catch and catch the freakin’ ball? How tough is that to figure out? High school teams do it all the time. Sorry, but I just can’t watch or support that level of incompetence.
If you add in the years from 1959 until M. White arrived, you'll see added misery... Many a lonely Saturdays spent in memorial stadium instead of the 'stacks' where I should have been...
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Well thought out response; but it is, unfortunately, not that simple.
1) Student tickets. I honestly don't think much would change even giving out free tickets. Most students have hundreds of dollars to drink at the local bars, so they could surely afford football tickets if they wanted. They were around $100 for football season tickets when I graduated in 2010 and 2011. I think walk up free tickets is not fair to students who did pay for tickets. There may be ways to bundle tickets to students in other ways for negligible costs, but outright free walk up does not sit right with me. Imagine the news story if students still do not show up even if they could walk in for free...I ultimately don't think it is a cost issue for lack of student attendance in football. They simply prioritize other things. Also doing what Oregon does for bundling both football and basketball together would not work here. We have no problem selling student tickets at basketball currently. Watching Pac 12 network, Oregon can't get students to attend basketball games, so I see why the bundling works there.
2) I have had season tickets since my freshman year in 2006. Currently my ticket prices are at the price I paid for student tickets. I pay about $30 per game for two tickets front row upper balcony. The long standing issue was that prices were way too expensive for product on field. The last year or two, it looks like the administration is trying to remedy that and prices are justifiably falling. I think the gimmicky flash sales of not best seats included was a fear of ticking off season ticket holders. Dropping season ticket prices have helped in that regard.
3) 100% agree with you on kid engagement. They should be free up to a certain age (even infants have a negligible fee to sit on parent's lap, which is stupid).
4) Parking. Best/closest parking is always and will always be for largest I Fund donors. This will never change, as you can't tick off these donors to get family pack people closer to the stadium.
5) A consistent winning product will cure almost all these issues. I believe the administration is trying here, but building a consistent winning culture is hard. Win and they will come.
100% agree. We need more speed and skill on the field.
This is kinda where I am at and I suspect a lot of fans are too. I have been a fan since the mid 70's and the 1980's was the brightest stretch since I've been alive. I, like many of us, are willing to pay for and devote the time to support the program if they can actually compete in most games. Most reasonable Illini fans would be content, and very supportive, if they could get to a point of playing like Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, MSU, etc. every year. We've all been lured down this scenic road too many times just to see the skies turn grey and dark while the leaves suddenly drop realizing this was only a mirage. I still have some faith in Bielema, but recruiting and/or coaching has to get better quickly as "winters coming" (UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon).
PS - sorry your dad, like so many other Cub fans, did not get to see them in the WS. I wonder if it will be another 100 years?
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
This sums up my feelings very well. Illini sports were can’t miss events for me up until around 2010. As I got older, there were other things to do if the Illini product wasn’t compelling. Now, I hope to hell they do well but I rarely watch.
The 2nd hand embarrassment I experience watching her during games is a solid 9/10. It’s a 10/10 for the people sitting next to her
('Entertainment') Sports is a society-sanctioned place to release emotions. Sports arenas are not classrooms or inside a house of worship or such places. It is an agreed-upon place for humans with specialized skills to demonstrate some of those talents in front of crowds that pay to watch them while they themselves forge identities with those athletes and the organizations whose colors they bear.
Sports is also a society-sanctioned place to join a cult. Fandom of each team forms a cult of loyalty and belief and shared goal (a kind of 'Heaven'). And like other cults, fans of other teams or fans who are bit critical of the home team are not exactly welcomed with open arms.
As paying customers we want/expect certain things like your team trying their best and producing victories. But – truth be told – what fans are really (hoping to) buy are WINS. And feeling 'Good' with that.
Would you pay real money to see Your Team play if a loss was guaranteed? Only those with a wish to punish themselves (or just show support to a loved one) would do that. You follow a team and go to a game because you are (expecting to) Purchase a Victory. But of course, you can’t do that – and such an idea was an unrealistic notion in the first place.
Stripped down to harsh reality... going to a game is simply an agreement/contract in which fans pay money to watch athletes ‘do something’ for a given amount of time... and that’s it. Fans have already paid their money to attend the game so the only other responsibility they have left is to act in a civil manner at the game. And athletes do NOT guarantee a victory nor do they even promise to ‘give it their best’ (as many often do not).
Our HEARTS tell is that there is great importance to what is going on on the field or court because our egos and part of our personal identity is now at stake. But all this is stuff that we as fans added on in our own thoughts and it’s not an essential part of the stripped down business transaction contract at play.
At the Game... Fans only owe 'to act responsibly in a public place' – and nothing more. Anything else beyond that is a extra-contractual bonus. Athletes only owe to show up for given number of hours and go through certain motions and movements. Without guarantee or warranty of results.
Yes, as fans we want much more than just this stipped-down version. But these are hopes and wishes and desires and they are not part of the sports-watching-contract. And they never will be.
You get to yell and scream a bit... have some food and drink that's not real healthy... be with some like-minded folks for a while... and then go home to a whole other set of responsibilies and expectations.
That's the thing. This was the year that we should have taken the West by storm. Most of the teams are dealing with turmoil from scandals, coaching changes or ineptitude. We just failed to take advantage. It gets much harder going forward.
This should be #1 on everyone's list... This is also the MOST DIFFICULT thing to achieve... And you can't achieve it if you continually fire, hire, change systems every couple/few years... Consistency, Consistency, Consistency - That is the only way to achieve results... If the only thing you do consistently is fire, hire and repeat, then that's what you're going to achieve... And that's been Illinois football since 1959...
I think this isn’t getting enough attention. The fact that we are indeed worse than Northwestern, amidst a generational !!!!-storm going down in Evanston, screams how bad the current state of affairs are in Champaign
Just FYI, an Illinois student season ticket this year is $90.I know what you mean, but I blame it on the administration not the fans. Just as @BashCtIllini said - the administration owes the fans not the other way around. As much as everyone loves Whitman, he’s totally failed at fan engagement. For those ready to chime in defending him - don’t compare him to Thomas and Guenther because they failed too - compare him to other schools. Total failure.
How we aren’t granting free entry to every and any student these last two years blows my mind. When you have 20-30k empty seats every week it makes no sense to not give students free walk-up entry. We could fit the entire population of Douglas county in the weekly empty seats, but no, they need to play games with how they release tickets for sale to force the super fans to over pay.
How we aren’t better coordinating parking and family/kids attractions is another issue. People with kids aren’t going to arrive hours early to get good parking and they aren’t going to deal with a parking headache. Reserve close parking for Family Four Pack people. Why not just let all kids in for free? Introduce a happy meal style kids meal that includes a different Illini toy every week. There are so many things to engage the local youth in a way that would build the tradition your criticizing a lack of.
This is how you build that lifelong fandom. They need to establish traditions with the locals, and engage the student body. It’s clear that Whitman’s administration simply cares about how much money did we make TODAY. It was painfully obvious last year when they‘d do the discount ticket rush sales but withhold good seats until the sale ended. There are posters here making a game of deciphering the ticket sales due to these games the administration is playing. You think other schools are doing that?
The last 5 years Duke and Kansas were the only P5 teams to have a worse attendance rate than us. This isn’t an inherent fault in the Illinois fans - it’s an administration failure.
Edit: Since the PNW and Oregon were mentioned for contrast by @PNWIllini and @BashCtIllini - Oregon students get tickets to all football and basketball games for a total of $125. For students that don’t buy the pass basketball games are $5 and football games range $10-$30 per game.
Student Tickets - University of Oregon Athletics
University of Oregon student ticket informationgoducks.com
If you have any kids you love and support them. Good or bad. That is and has been my feelings for the Illini for 65 years. I now live I. Florida UT I will always be an Illini fan win or lose.
Which of the prior coaches do you think we fired too soon? Not trying to be argumentative, I've only followed since Zook and I know for sure you aren't talking about Lovie or Beckman
My fandom goes back to the 60's. No coach was fired too soon. The entire problem is hiring the wrong coaches.
Can't have been Turner either. I still remember the 2002 game against San Jose St. when I and the other students in the student section knew something was up when San Jose St. came onto the field and all of their linemen looked bigger than our linemen. That loss was not a fluke. Follow that with 2.5 years of driving the program into the gutter on grounds of second chances, consistency, god knows what else. If Guenther did what needed to be done in the first place, Zook (or whoever the next coach would have been) wouldn't have had a massive rebuild on their hands.