Northwestern game at Wrigley Field (Nov. 30th): 11:00am CT, BTN

Status
Not open for further replies.
#51      
OrangeBlue98
Mr. Tibbs said:
NW will have the nicest , most intimate venue for a college game for at least a little while

NFW is the Ryan family (nor NW admin ) ever going to allow a home game somewhere else , nor should they

I too can’t wait to see a NW vs UI game there in 2026 or 2028
Click to expand...
For a 35,000 seat stadium, the Chicago Fire should see if they could use that stadium for their MLS home games (at least in the spring and summer and until or if they can get their own smaller soccer stadium built in Chicago proper). I don't really know what the public transport is like to Northwestern, but it seems like the new Ryan Field would be a better home environment than Soldier Field is.
 
#52      
Bucktown
OrangeBlue98 said:
For a 35,000 seat stadium, the Chicago Fire should see if they could use that stadium for their MLS home games (at least in the spring and summer and until or if they can get their own smaller soccer stadium built in Chicago proper). I don't really know what the public transport is like to Northwestern, but it seems like the new Ryan Field would be a better home environment than Soldier Field is.
Click to expand...
I think the Fire's fan base skews toward the southern end of the region.
 
#53      
Illini2010-11
OrangeBlue98 said:
For a 35,000 seat stadium, the Chicago Fire should see if they could use that stadium for their MLS home games (at least in the spring and summer and until or if they can get their own smaller soccer stadium built in Chicago proper). I don't really know what the public transport is like to Northwestern, but it seems like the new Ryan Field would be a better home environment than Soldier Field is.
Click to expand...
That would get knocked down by the City of Evanston fairly fast. There is no way they want very large crowds moved in on that level of frequency. There is a reason why only a "limited number" of concerts are being floated with the city.
 
#54      
Fighter of the Nightman
Illini2010-11 said:
Thanks for looking into that. I think the tickets sold is probably about right. I am not surprised by about 10,000 seats unsold (if your guesstimate is fairly close). The tickets are rather pricey (the cheapest seats are almost the same amount as what I paid per seat for season tickets). Maybe we see a late surge in Illini fans buying tickets, but I suspect they will get purchased through secondary market.
Click to expand...
My cautiously optimistic guess is that you have QUITE a few fans (like Fighter and Mrs. Fighter) planning to attend but in no rush to buy tickets. If it doesn't sell out, you will likely have plenty of options on StubHub for very discounted seats with a good view. Hell, the other year we drove down for Braggin' Rights and made a whole event out of it, but we bought tickets on my phone an hour before the game from a bar, haha ... and we had awesome seats and got an amazing discount because of the weather. I would guess that we will see a surge of 3,000 to 4,000 if we lose at Rutgers and 5,000 to 6,000 if we win at Rutgers. Again, that is cautiously optimistic.

Back to the topic of the NU game's long-term standing, I want to be clear that I definitely accept the reality that NU will not want to move any home games away from their shiny new stadium. So, this was more a thought exercise of what would have been better in the past and what would still be better in a reality where NU would for some reason agree. However, I AM quite intrigued by the idea of having it be a bit of an Illini thing to just not play on Thanksgiving Weekend. It would solve the lame atmosphere problem, it would ensure that we have at least one more home game without awful weather most years and it sends kind of a message that we are not on board with fitting our "square" of a forced rivalry with NU into the "circle" that is the Big Ten's way overmarketed "Rivalry Weekend," haha. If we could get back to being a team that plays on Week Zero (we did in both 2021 and 2022), we would get three bye weeks and simply could use one on Thanksgiving Weekend ... HIGHLY doubt the TV execs would give a crap. :ROFLMAO: Using Florida State's cadence (they played Week Zero this year), our schedule this year could have looked something like this:

W0 - vs. Eastern Illinois
W1 - vs. Central Michigan (moved up, as I doubt KU agrees to play us Week 1)
W2 - vs. Kansas
W3 - BYE WEEK
W4 - at Nebraska
W5 - at Penn State
W6 - vs. Purdue (moved up a week)
W7 - vs. Michigan (moved up a week)
W8 - BYE WEEK
W9 - at Oregon
W10 - vs. Minnesota
W11 - vs. Michigan State
W12 - at Rutgers
W13 - vs. Northwestern (Wrigley) [this would be this coming Saturday]
W14 - BYE WEEK ... Illini relax and rest up for the B1G Championship Game ;)

Again, ALL "outside-of-the-box" ideas are going to have pros and cons, and I can already hear the objections. I'm just saying, this is one way to address the SPECIFIC problem of the NU game always having an awful atmosphere.
 
#55      
Mr. Tibbs
OrangeBlue98 said:
For a 35,000 seat stadium, the Chicago Fire should see if they could use that stadium for their MLS home games (at least in the spring and summer and until or if they can get their own smaller soccer stadium built in Chicago proper). I don't really know what the public transport is like to Northwestern, but it seems like the new Ryan Field would be a better home environment than Soldier Field is.
Click to expand...
I don’t think the agreement NW entered into with the Vilage of Evanston will allow that .
it was part of the negotiating . some finite number of summer concerts , but not much more than that
 
#56      
Bucktown
This may be the wrong thread, but I have 4 tickets to the game and can't make it due to the 11 am start. I purchased them directly from the Cubs, and they show up on the MLB's Ballpark app. I can't figure out how to sell them, because the option does not seem to be available when I click the 'Sell Tickets' button. Anyone figured this out?
 
#57      
Fighter of the Nightman
While my method is obviously infinitely less sophisticated than our pal BuckeyeState, I am more of a visual learner. :ROFLMAO: As with last time, the dark orange sections show no tickets available for purchase, and the light orange sections show only one option. The blue sections have multiple options for purchase.

There seems to have been some positive movement on the ticket front:

TUESDAY MAP
wrigley-color-png.37414


TODAY'S MAP
Wrigley Map Color.png


While the 202-213 stretch remains completely blue, we did see the following movement:

Blue --> Light Orange
105
126

Light Orange --> Dark Orange
005
021
106
110
308
405
406
407
408
413
415
422
423
429

However, seeing so many "nosebleed" sections go from limited availability to no availability might indicate ticket games being played where they are trying to fill up the lower bowl first. :(
 
#59      
Curbelo Fanboy
One factor on the 2001 game is that it was not originally scheduled to be on Thanksgiving Day & was only moved to that day due to 9/11. I imagine if we were playing for a BIG title on the Saturday after Thanksgiving crowd would have been north of 60k. Instead it was on Thanksgiving Day as a relatively late schedule change with no annual tradition for such a thing.
 
#60      
Mr. Tibbs
WeWillWhen said:
I will enjoy turning the crowd in there ORANGE every other year.
Click to expand...
fyi, this is the last time we will ever play NW at Wrigley.
As far as turning the new stadium orange when we play them, sure , but I have to think it will be more difficult once they are in the new place
 
#61      
Fighter of the Nightman
Curbelo Fanboy said:
One factor on the 2001 game is that it was not originally scheduled to be on Thanksgiving Day & was only moved to that day due to 9/11. I imagine if we were playing for a BIG title on the Saturday after Thanksgiving crowd would have been north of 60k. Instead it was on Thanksgiving Day as a relatively late schedule change with no annual tradition for such a thing.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing, I actually did not know that. My first vivid Illini football memory was watching us ALMOST knock off #2 Ohio State in OT in 2002 as a fifth grader with my dad. We were lonely Illini fans in Iowa City by this point, and our Iowa friends were rooting for the Illini HARD in that game (they ended up making the Orange Bowl that year and would have won the league and gone higher if we knocked off OSU).

Back OT, I think it's clear there is no great option. This might be a nice compromise going forward:

1. Play the game as is (i.e., on Thanksgiving Weekend Saturday) on years that it is in Evanston. This allows NU to keep games at their new stadium, and frankly I think Illini fans in the Chicago Area will pack that place more often than not if we stay this competitive!

2. In years where the game is in Champaign, have Illinois play in Week Zero and have its third bye week on Thanksgiving Weekend. This would move up the NU home game to earlier in the year, eliminate the horrifically lame gameday atmospheres in Champaign for this "rivalry" and it would allow the IHSA football state tournament to always be in Champaign!

Regarding #2, I am not sure if we could negotiate it with the NCAA/Big Ten/whomever else to be a Week Zero team EVERY year, but I would think that being one every other year might be doable ... I mean, we were one in both 2021 and 2022, and we were ORIGINALLY scheduled to be one in 2023, IIRC.
 
#62      
doho19
Curbelo Fanboy said:
One factor on the 2001 game is that it was not originally scheduled to be on Thanksgiving Day & was only moved to that day due to 9/11. I imagine if we were playing for a BIG title on the Saturday after Thanksgiving crowd would have been north of 60k. Instead it was on Thanksgiving Day as a relatively late schedule change with no annual tradition for such a thing.
Click to expand...
It also wasn't just 9/11, it was the IHSA state title games. So you are right 9/11 pushed back the last week of college football by one week to that weekend after Thanksgiving (only played 11 games then) but the IHSA football games were there on the Friday and Saturday so had to play NU on Thanksgiving. That was a real bummer and we still had fun and were lucky to be able to personally pivot plans, but probably would have been a much better crowd if they could have played that Saturday.
 
#63      
KenR
We attended the Thanksgiving Day game vs. NU back in 2001. I know it's not a popular opinion but we had a great time and would faithfully look forward to attend each and every time a game was scheduled for Thanksgiving. Our family activities are held over the following weekend for a host of reasons. We had a great time back in '01. That said, the weather conditions on Thanksgiving Day 2001 were extraordinary and probably the exception rather than the rule and The Beloved won and were all but locked into a Sugar Bowl bid.
 
#64      
RabidDawgClassic
If Illinois played a home game every thanksgiving, I think that could become an annual tradition. The problem with playing Northwestern only during that week is that it becomes, at best, an every-other-year tradition — and that’s not how traditions work. If it’s every year, Illini families could adjust their dinner traditions accordingly.
 
#65      
Fighter of the Nightman
RabidDawgClassic said:
If Illinois played a home game every thanksgiving, I think that could become an annual tradition. The problem with playing Northwestern only during that week is that it becomes, at best, an every-other-year tradition — and that’s not how traditions work. If it’s every year, Illini families could adjust their dinner traditions accordingly.
Click to expand...
So we'd effectively host NU every other Thanksgiving in Champaign, and in the years in between we would play them a week earlier and host another opponent at home? I would honestly be at least willing to consider almost any creative idea to shake up how lame our "Rivalry Weekend" experience is compared to almost every other fan base, haha.
 
#66      
Mr. Tibbs
its a lame rivalry because NW is a lame fanbase and doesnt participate much in away games - even when only 120 miles south
it takes two to tango ( or in this case , tangle)
 
#67      
Ander1345
Fighter of the Nightman said:
So we'd effectively host NU every other Thanksgiving in Champaign, and in the years in between we would play them a week earlier and host another opponent at home? I would honestly be at least willing to consider almost any creative idea to shake up how lame our "Rivalry Weekend" experience is compared to almost every other fan base, haha.
Click to expand...
Blame Northwestern for that, honestly. We show up everywhere except for Memorial Stadium it seems like...(it's getting better though).
 
#69      
Ander1345
Illini2010-11 said:
When more then half of your games are at Memorial Stadium.

David Beckham Hot Ones GIF by First We Feast
Click to expand...
I was being a tad dramatic. Fans will show up if we buils it. I will say thougg if you have home games on a week night the only people who are going to show up are people who are already in the area...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back