redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
New Northwestern Stadium
I know this will make Fighter of the Nightman happy. I have heard from a very reliable source that it is "quite likely" that the NEZ will become a family area. Don't know what the plans are for the students and band but probably move back to East side.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Is this a next year plan, or a 5+ years from now plan, roughly?
As far as I know it will be sooner rather than later.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
I doubt it involves any modifications to the structure, so they could market it as a family section with "special pricing" next spring/summer
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Not sure what "family area" means, but if they're moving the students and selling NEZ seats to the general public at a lower price than the rest of the stadium they are on the right track.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Yeah that’s definitely good news / progress. I mean, it’s going to be a very sad blemish on the stadium to have the NEZ no more than 1/3 full every week. But getting the students down by the field is a great step in the right direction.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Iowa State/Jack Trice has a sloped lawn on either side of their entry building beneath their scoreboard. Lots of families packed the slope - looked like a great time, with views that didn't seem to be too bad either, at a family friendly price.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Still astounded that the move of the student block to THAT location was ever done.
To me NU is the Big Ten version of Wake Forest or Georgia Tech in the ACC. They can have good teams but they struggle to fill their stadiums even when they are good.
35k is not a bad capacity and it is them accepting who they are
the bar for our program should be a lot higher. When we win consistently our fans will come. The main problem we have is a lot of our alumni do not remember us been consistently good
35k is not a bad capacity and it is them accepting who they are
the bar for our program should be a lot higher. When we win consistently our fans will come. The main problem we have is a lot of our alumni do not remember us been consistently good
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
If they do it right the NEZ will be much more reliably full or at least full-ish.
Buyers of single game tickets at the entry-level price (the lower the better) are a lot more likely to show up than students who bought season tickets on a whim and have a lot of competing priorities for their time.
I'd advise the DIA not to sell season packages in the NEZ. Single game only and price them low and the weaker games even lower. Make that section having sold out a tweet you send every week. You'll attract people to that deal and you'll get some sell-through to more expensive seats from people who miss out on the NEZ discount.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Does it matter whether people remember us being good versus being good with fun tailgating and energetic atmosphere?
Consistently good? Not sure how you define that. It's rather subjective I guess. Maybe the Zuppke years (1913-1941)---(131*81*13). I'd agree that not many of our alums can remember that. FWIW, attendance never exceeded 39k during that time (typically somewhere in the 20s). Best attendance years were the 80s during the White/Mackovic years. Perhaps those years could be defined as consistently good, though White was just a tad over .500.
We were consistently good from 81-95. 2 Big 10 champs and we were highly competitive even when our record wasn't great in 86 and 87.
Once again, I'm not sure how you define "good". I'd say 6-6 or 7-5 seasons are not "good". So if 8 wins is the bar for a good season, we weren't consistently good. Obviously, you can define good as 6-6 if you want. I just wouldn't.
I was going to mention this last week about wake forest. One of their end zones is a smaller horseshoe like ours, but way closer to the field.
The other is a grassy, almost picnic looking area, that had people seated on blankets or the grass watching the game. Looked perfect for us.
Jack Trice is a great place to watch a game. Biggest problem with that experience (as at many schools) is the lack of parking. Definitely a strength at Illinois, IMO.