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

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#26      
Fighter of the Nightman
JKR said:
Not EVERYONE wins by a move to Chicago. Season ticket holders do not win, particularly those spending $60k/yr. for a suite. These season ticket holders, by the way, are being asked to up their I FUND contributions significantly starting next year. Six of the bigger weekends for local hotels and other hospitality businesses occur on football weekends. They too are asked to contribute financially every year. There are hundreds of locals who work the game each Saturday (Friday, Thursday). Not-for-profit groups staff the concession stands.

Attendance at most recent games played in Chicago area:
2022 - 25,744
2020 - 0 COVID
2018 - 37,124
2016- 30,022
2015 - 33,514 Soldier Field
2014 - 31,137
2012 - 32,415
2010 - 41,058 Wrigley

2001 game at Memorial Stadium drew 45,755 by the way.

I don't know if a move to Chicago would be a net positive. I do know that it is not true that such a move is a win-win for everyone involved.
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I very much went out of my way to acknowledge it wouldn’t be a win-win for EVERYONE involved. I simply gave my opinion that the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. I also don’t think it’s fair at all to include Evanston years in your list, and I actually think it proves my point … that the game is routinely poorly attened at both campuses. And not only is it poorly attended, the attendance is always drastically lower than any other home game … which to me says the weekend is a problem. I get your concerns and of course it’s apples to oranges with hoops, but I’m GUESSING you would oppose Braggin’ Rights if the idea were suggested tomorrow and didn’t have 4 decades under its belt.
 
#27      
Illini2010-11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I get your concerns and of course it’s apples to oranges with hoops, but I’m GUESSING you would oppose Braggin’ Rights if the idea were suggested tomorrow and didn’t have 4 decades under its belt.
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I understand where you are coming from, but an annual neutral site game in basketball does not take away much at all from the volume of home games on the docket, and neutral site games are better for tourney resume purposes. Giving up a home game in football equates to 14-17% of your season football home games. There is a reason that there are very few neutral site games in regular season college football. The OU/Texas series is the exception to the rule.
 
#28      
Fighter of the Nightman
Illini2010-11 said:
I understand where you are coming from, but an annual neutral site game in basketball does not take away much at all from the volume of home games on the docket, and neutral site games are better for tourney resume purposes. Giving up a home game in football equates to 14-17% of your season football home games. There is a reason that there are very few neutral site games in regular season college football. The OU/Texas series is the exception to the rule.
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For sure, but the same sentiment is there. I mean, you’ll get people complaining about Alabama at the United Center next year because while there are a ton of home games in Champaign, there “aren’t any premiere non-conference ones.”
 
#29      
IlliniFanTX
kyillinifan said:
Any reports from Ohio State fan talking about the environment and game day experience.
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#32      
Illini2010-11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I wish @IlliniInBuckeyeState could work his magic on estimating tickets sold for this Wrigley game!! :)
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The official ticket site for this game is through the Cub's website: https://www.mlb.com/cubs/tickets/events/football?partnerId=redirect-chc-northwestern

The site is not necessarily easy to navigate for volume of open seats, but a quick look at the game, there are a plethora of unsold seats to this point. I am not necessarily surprised, as many are likely waiting to see what the weather looks like before purchasing. However, with a lot of tickets posted on the secondary market already, and a lot of unsold tickets, I do not think we will see anywhere close to a sellout of the game.

A lot could change in the coming days, especially if Illinois wins on Saturday to get to 8-3.
 
#33      
Fighter of the Nightman
^ Yeah, unfortunately the Wrigley website doesn't have the green dots! However, it looks like only a handful of sections are truly sold out. Per my super-duper official research, these are the sections that appear to have no available tickets. It could be either because they're sold out or just not offered up for sale yet, but I kind of doubt the latter because all of the nosebleed sections are available.

Regular orange are sections with no seats, and the lighter orange are sections with "1 option available" for single tickets on that website. FYI, 514 and 515 in the right field bleachers are for the NU student section.

Wrigley Color.png


While there are probably the usual "ticket games" being played (e.g., not selling the very last rows of the balcony sections until better seats are sold), it does appear that fans are buying up the cheaper tickets faster than the "good" tickets to some extent.
 
#34      
JKR
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I very much went out of my way to acknowledge it wouldn’t be a win-win for EVERYONE involved. I simply gave my opinion that the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. I also don’t think it’s fair at all to include Evanston years in your list, and I actually think it proves my point … that the game is routinely poorly attened at both campuses. And not only is it poorly attended, the attendance is always drastically lower than any other home game … which to me says the weekend is a problem. I get your concerns and of course it’s apples to oranges with hoops, but I’m GUESSING you would oppose Braggin’ Rights if the idea were suggested tomorrow and didn’t have 4 decades under its belt.
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Part of the reason for poor attendance at this game is its placement on the schedule. That last game of the year isn't going to draw well, particularly in years when one or both teams are below average. A change in venue isn't going to magically improve that. The game in 2010 was played a week earlier in the season and at a time when both teams were very much in the chase for a bowl game. Was the higher attendance (41k) due to the venue or to these other factors? Stated differently, would two sub .500 teams draw that kind of a crowd at Wrigley if it was the last game on the schedule? We should get some insight next week. NW drew 38k vs. tOSU at Wrigley last weekend.

If I was offered the chance to switch a home game for one in St. Louis tomorrow, I'd prefer to keep it at home and drive 7 miles, as opposed to, 180. I'd feel that way tomorrow and I felt that way in 1976 when Coleman set it up. I suspect that you'd find that most local season ticket holders felt the same way at the time. If I lived in St. Louis, I might feel differently and if I lived in Chicago, I might feel differently about the NW football game.
 
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#35      
Illini2010-11
JKR said:
Part of the reason for poor attendance at this game is its placement on the schedule. That last game of the year isn't going to draw well, particularly in years when one or both teams are below average. A change in venue isn't going to magically improve that. The game in 2010 was played a week earlier in the season and at a time when both teams were very much in the chase for a bowl game. Was the higher attendance (41k) due to the venue or to these other factors? Stated differently, would two sub .500 teams draw that kind of a crowd at Wrigley if it was the last game on the schedule? We should get some insight next week. tOSU drew 38k vs. NW at Wrigley last weekend.
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FIFY
 
#36      
Fighter of the Nightman
JKR said:
Part of the reason for poor attendance at this game is its placement on the schedule. That last game of the year isn't going to draw well, particularly in years when one or both teams are below average. A change in venue isn't going to magically improve that. The game in 2010 was played a week earlier in the season and at a time when both teams were very much in the chase for a bowl game. Was the higher attendance (41k) due to the venue or to these other factors? Stated differently, would two sub .500 teams draw that kind of a crowd at Wrigley if it was the last game on the schedule? We should get some insight next week. NW drew 38k vs. tOSU at Wrigley last weekend.

If I was offered the chance to switch a home game for one in St. Louis tomorrow, I'd prefer to keep it at home and drive 7 miles, as opposed to, 180. I'd feel that way tomorrow and I felt that way in 1976 when Coleman set it up. I suspect that you'd find that most local season ticket holders felt the same way at the time. If I lived in St. Louis, I might feel differently and if I lived in Chicago, I might feel differently about the NW football game.
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But that last part is kind of my point ... from the POV of a season ticket holder who lives in Champaign, yeah - every game moved away is bad, pure and simple. End of discussion, no need to elaborate. However, I suspect the VAST majority of Illini fans appreciate that the unique setup of Braggin' Rights in St. Louis with the split crowd is a better ATMOSPHERE and EVENT than if it were a standard home-and-home. In other words, we have something special with that rivalry that took some vision, and there were no doubt people who hated the idea of giving up a home game. I am talking about this strictly from the perspective of what would make the coolest event that would be best for the perception of the Illini and the rivalry game, and personally I think that an annual event at the Bears new stadium would routinely be more fun for those attending and more interesting to those watching on TV than the status quo setup with Northwestern. I mean, you don't see me advocating moving September home games to Soldier Field or anything, but Thanksgiving Weekend played in Champaign where 2/3 of the students and several hundred thousand alumni are already in the Chicago area is, as you said, a bit doomed. I understand some are okay with that for various reasons, but I would prefer we at least try something new.

I'm not even sure I would support Wrigley every year, but the indoor, climate-controlled new Bears stadium? Yes, I think that would be a superior option, ALL things considered. It would obviously have cons and not be in everyone's best interest, however.
 
#37      
Illini2010-11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
But that last part is kind of my point ... from the POV of a season ticket holder who lives in Champaign, yeah - every game moved away is bad, pure and simple. End of discussion, no need to elaborate. However, I suspect the VAST majority of Illini fans appreciate that the unique setup of Braggin' Rights in St. Louis with the split crowd is a better ATMOSPHERE and EVENT than if it were a standard home-and-home. In other words, we have something special with that rivalry that took some vision, and there were no doubt people who hated the idea of giving up a home game.
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For basketball, long-term the neutral court rivalry has worked with Mizzou (students on break and is 1/30 of the season). The key is that for the football rivalry, the teams decided on home and homes moving forward. I think that is quite telling of what the AD's feel about neutral site games in football in this day and age.

It is just so hard to willingly give away a home game from your schedule in the new era of 9 game conference seasons. Where I get stuck is the thinking that permanently making the NW game neutral site as somehow being a way to fill the stands more than a home game.

The Illini are having an excellent season, and yet there are still a lot of tickets available for the Wrigley game. The truth of the matter is the timing of the game is the issue, not the location. If we are looking for proof of concept, the underwhelming demand for the game next weekend is quite damaging. The game should be a near sellout by now.

It is a moot point anyway, as NW would not ever consider this (with such a new stadium on the horizon).
 
#38      
IlliniInBuckeyeState
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I wish @IlliniInBuckeyeState could work his magic on estimating tickets sold for this Wrigley game!! :)
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I'm already unfamiliar with scraping the MLB.com tickets site, but add in the fact that you can't view actual seats available and it's going to be a challenge. I'll take a look later.

As for the discussion on an annual neutral site rivalry game in Chicago - I'm all for it. FOTN's vision for it at a new Bears stadium would be awesome. One more pro that wasn't mentioned: it frees up Memorial Stadium every year to host the IHSA State Championship games. That's not a good enough reason to do this of course, but it is a positive byproduct of moving the game away from Champaign.

One question I had...couldn't we still ensure we had 7 true home games if we always played 3 home non-conference games? Even in years where we had 5 B1G home games on paper (but one being held in Chicago), we could get to 7 games in Champaign if we played all 3 non-con games at home. That obviously means we wouldn't be doing home-and-homes with P4 teams...but I'm sort of okay with that. Many people want us to buy out of the upcoming Mizzou series anyways.
 
#39      
Illini2010-11
As much discussion as we have had on pro's and con's of scheduling NW to be neutral site game. This is why that will never happen (or even get in any serious conversation):

nusports.com

A Bold New Vision for College Football Unveiled at Northwestern - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern University and the Ryan Family officially unveiled the first public look at the new Ryan Field, a state-of-the-art $850 million sports and enter...
nusports.com nusports.com

Way too much money invested to give up a home game for NW. Heck, I am even excited to attend an Illini/NW game at the new Ryan Field biennially.

So then the question would be, would we give up a home game every two years to host at a neutral site? Just not happening.
 
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#40      
fuddrules
Illini2010-11 said:
As much discussion as we have had on pro's and con's of scheduling NW to be neutral site game. This is why that will never happen (or even get in any serious conversation):

nusports.com

A Bold New Vision for College Football Unveiled at Northwestern - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern University and the Ryan Family officially unveiled the first public look at the new Ryan Field, a state-of-the-art $850 million sports and enter...
nusports.com nusports.com

Way too much money invested to give up a home game for NW. Heck, I want to attend an Illini/NW game there.

So then the question would be, why would we give up a home game every two years to host at a neutral site? Just not happening.
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Exactly. Illinois and Northwestern have a better chance of playing each other in THE National Championship game than NU taking a game away from their stadium. But carry on.......
 
#41      
IlliniInBuckeyeState
Illini2010-11 said:
As much discussion as we have had on pro's and con's of scheduling NW to be neutral site game. This is why that will never happen (or even get in any serious conversation):

nusports.com

A Bold New Vision for College Football Unveiled at Northwestern - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern University and the Ryan Family officially unveiled the first public look at the new Ryan Field, a state-of-the-art $850 million sports and enter...
nusports.com nusports.com

Way too much money invested to give up a home game for NW. Heck, I am even excited to attend an Illini/NW game at the new Ryan Field biennially.

So then the question would be, would we give up a home game every two years to host at a neutral site? Just not happening.
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Correct. I honestly meant to include a comment in my post that, highlighted by their press release yesterday, this will never ever happen. All a thought exercise.
 
#42      
JKR
IlliniInBuckeyeState said:
I'm already unfamiliar with scraping the MLB.com tickets site, but add in the fact that you can't view actual seats available and it's going to be a challenge. I'll take a look later.

As for the discussion on an annual neutral site rivalry game in Chicago - I'm all for it. FOTN's vision for it at a new Bears stadium would be awesome. One more pro that wasn't mentioned: it frees up Memorial Stadium every year to host the IHSA State Championship games. That's not a good enough reason to do this of course, but it is a positive byproduct of moving the game away from Champaign.
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Excellent point - and one that I hadn't considered.
 
#43      
Battle89
Fighter of the Nightman said:
But that last part is kind of my point ... from the POV of a season ticket holder who lives in Champaign, yeah - every game moved away is bad, pure and simple. End of discussion, no need to elaborate. However, I suspect the VAST majority of Illini fans appreciate that the unique setup of Braggin' Rights in St. Louis with the split crowd is a better ATMOSPHERE and EVENT than if it were a standard home-and-home. In other words, we have something special with that rivalry that took some vision, and there were no doubt people who hated the idea of giving up a home game. I am talking about this strictly from the perspective of what would make the coolest event that would be best for the perception of the Illini and the rivalry game, and personally I think that an annual event at the Bears new stadium would routinely be more fun for those attending and more interesting to those watching on TV than the status quo setup with Northwestern. I mean, you don't see me advocating moving September home games to Soldier Field or anything, but Thanksgiving Weekend played in Champaign where 2/3 of the students and several hundred thousand alumni are already in the Chicago area is, as you said, a bit doomed. I understand some are okay with that for various reasons, but I would prefer we at least try something new.

I'm not even sure I would support Wrigley every year, but the indoor, climate-controlled new Bears stadium? Yes, I think that would be a superior option, ALL things considered. It would obviously have cons and not be in everyone's best interest, however.
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I don't have a strong feeling either way, gun to my head I'm probably in the 'leave home games in Champaign' group except for rare / special occasions.

However I am getting a kick out of the enthusiastic arguments above to move the game to Wrigley, followed by posts about how poorly the ticket sales are going this year. Sounds like many are not excited already (whether weather-related or other reasons) and making it a permanent series in Chicago would not work the way some think.
 
#44      
ptgrd23
Wrigley was cool the first time. Its been done enough times its not that special.

JMO I would not give up home game for Wrigley. I also don't think we should schedule games for Thanksgiving Weekend.

One problem with these neutral site games is the ticket prices are much higher since you have to share revenue with the venue.

The only neutral site game I like the annual Missouri Illini bragging rights game because you get 50/50 split crowd in St. Louis as students are home for holidays. The revenue loss is too big for home/home series. Works better for basketball than football.

We used to play Loyola during Christmas break every year at Rosemount Horizon. That worked because students were home for holidays. Talk about crappy stadium.
 
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#45      
Battle89
ptgrd23 said:
Wrigley was cool the first time. Its been done enough times its not that special.

JMO I would not give up home game for Wrigley. I also don't think we should schedule games for Thanksgiving Weekend.

One problem with these neutral site games is the ticket prices are much higher since you have to share revenue with the venue.

The only neutral site game I like the annual Missouri Illini bragging rights game because you get 50/50 split crowd in St. Louis as students are home for holidays. The revenue loss is too big for home/home series. Works better for basketball than football.

We used to play Loyola during Christmas break every year at Rosemount Horizon. That worked because students were home for holidays. Talk about crappy stadium.
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1 like overall plus an additional like for the dig at Horizon / Allstate. Terrible arena.
 
#47      
Mr. Tibbs
Illini2010-11 said:
As much discussion as we have had on pro's and con's of scheduling NW to be neutral site game. This is why that will never happen (or even get in any serious conversation):

nusports.com

A Bold New Vision for College Football Unveiled at Northwestern - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern University and the Ryan Family officially unveiled the first public look at the new Ryan Field, a state-of-the-art $850 million sports and enter...
nusports.com nusports.com

Way too much money invested to give up a home game for NW. Heck, I am even excited to attend an Illini/NW game at the new Ryan Field biennially.

So then the question would be, would we give up a home game every two years to host at a neutral site? Just not happening.
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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
 
#49      
IlliniInBuckeyeState
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I wish @IlliniInBuckeyeState could work his magic on estimating tickets sold for this Wrigley game!! :)
Click to expand...
Alright, here's what I've got. I inspected the webpage and found the relevant section to scrape. Within the text there are text strings that look like this:

<section available="164"capacity="168"id="18339"max_contiguous="21"

There is another section that has a text string that looks like this:

<section_code="304L"desc="304L"display_order="100"hover_coords="665,425,765,426,754,580,656,579"id="18339"public_desc="304L"public_synopsis=""section_public_code=""short_public_desc=""/

Combining those two text strings together, I conclude that id=18339 is section 304L, it has a capacity of 168 seats and there are currently 164 available.

I pasted all the data into excel and removed text strings that included <section available="0". So basically if it was a sold out section, I excluded it from my count. There were still 101 sections (Wrigley has a lot of sections compared to MS, my goodness) where there are tickets available. These 101 sections had a total of 9,741 tickets available and a total capacity of 16,274. That feels like a large amount of capacity either sold out or not for sale to the public, but perhaps that is correct.

Disclaimer: I am unfamiliar with this ticketing site, so this could all be way off base. But based on what I'm seeing, I'd expect tickets sold to be in the high 20s or low 30k range for this game.
 
#50      
Illini2010-11
IlliniInBuckeyeState said:
Disclaimer: I am unfamiliar with this ticketing site, so this could all be way off base. But based on what I'm seeing, I'd expect tickets sold to be in the high 20s or low 30k range for this game.
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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.
 
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