I'll throw my annual plug out there for this one. IF the Bears move to an indoor stadium in Arlington Heights, I think it becomes a no-brainer to move the Illini/Northwestern game there permanently for this weekend. Is it a desperate attempt to make a perennially lame and poorly attended game into some type of gimmicky tradition? Of course ... but that's honestly better than we have got now! This game literally never draws well:
2022: 25,744 in Evanston (about half of whom were Illini fans)
2021: 27,624 in Champaign
2019: 35,895 in Champaign
2018: 37,124 in Evanston
2017: 30,456 in Champaign
2016: 30,022 in Evanston
...
2001: 45,755 in Champaign for #10 Illini clinching a Big Ten championship
The attendance in Champaign for the NU game is also always lower than our average attendance going into that game for the season, sometimes by a pretty drastic margin:
2023: _______ vs. 50,929 average so far
2021: 27,624 vs. 36,635 average
2019: 35,895 vs. 36,703 average
2017: 30,456 vs. 40,910 average
...
2001: 45,755 vs. 56,788 average
Color me skeptical we will sell over 50k tickets for this one. I pretty firmly believe that you could get 30k+ Illini fans and 10k+ Northwestern fans to get over 40k every year in a warm, indoor Bears stadium that will likely be surrounded by bars and restaurants. In years where either/both teams are actually good, I think you could get really big crowds, mostly driven by us.