Alleged Swedish proverb: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just poor choices in clothing."
Northwestern game (Nov. 25th): 2:30pm CT, BTN
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I will be there with my nephew from Florida, who wanted to go to a game while home for Thanksgiving! We will see how that Florida blood is doing, lol
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
I personally have no appetite to give up a home game to see a neutral site 50+% empty stadium on an annual basis. If Northwestern wants to do that on their home game year, to experiment on attendance, then fine. However, I see no value in losing out on a conference home game every other year, even if attendance is only 25-30,000. That could in theory end up leading to years where Illini only have three true conference home games out of the nine game conference slate. This does not even take into account financial complexities. No thank you.
I would rather see an eventual schedule that moves the season up to week 0 for everyone, and then have the conference championship games to be played on neutral site over Thanksgiving weekend. I believe having the Northwestern/Illinois game played one or two weeks earlier would have a positive impact on ticket sales/attendance, especially related to students.
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Layers under a wind barrier. Those little heating pads for gloves and boots are great.
To me, the Illinois-Northwestern game is tailor-made for Wrigley Field (and I say this as a White Sox fan): it’s the right capacity for this type of neutral matchup (at least in terms of the sizes of our respective fan bases), it will play well on TV (e.g. if we’d ever want this to be featured on Black Friday on a major network instead of getting lost among Ohio State-Michigan and the Iron Bowl on Saturday, it’s an easier hook when the networks can use the Wrigley visuals even if both teams are subpar), both teams can likely sell tickets at a premium (so there’s a higher chance that it works out financially compared to a home game), and there’s a natural high floor for ticket sales because people just like attending events at Wrigley itself and the surrounding neighborhood for the atmosphere (unlike Soldier Field or a hypothetical new Arlington Heights dome).
We can get all of those Illinois alums living on the North Side and students that are back home for Thanksgiving down to the game *because* of the Wrigley Field venue specifically that I don’t think can be replicated anywhere else. It’s a wholly unique asset that’s specific to Chicago.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Having gone to the Wrigley game in 2010 (and viewing the 2023 NW vs Iowa game on tv), I sure hope not. It was great for a one game gimmick, but the views were not all that great, and the field play was sub-par. Wrigley Field is simply not designed for today's football (both teams on one sideline is rather stupid). If it becomes an annual occasion, I expect the allure to quickly fade. Wrigleyville is great for bar hopping but completely inadequate for tailgating.
not sure if Northwestern would agree to this, they are spending $800 million on a new stadium opening in a few years I don't think they'd want to give up a home game in their fancy new stadium
Rumor is that if the city of Evanston agrees to the renovation, The Illini and Wildcats may play at Wrigley next season.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
has Northwestern decided where they will play for the one or two seasons they cant play in Evanston? Soldier Field ?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
My guess is they would strongly prefer Wrigley, but that would be nearly impossible to navigate with September Cubs home games. It barely takes over 2 hours from Champaign to get to Soldier Field, and it would take over 1 hour from Evanston with traffic sometimes, haha.
Have them play at New Trier, size-wise the players should feel right at home.
I am pretty sure it’s Wrigley.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
They had such issues with the turf against Iowa. I can't see that being viable for an entire season.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
and modifying the field for football took 2-3 weeks so you can’t do it while Cubs are playing so that takes it out even thru Oct with playoffs always possible
they take out Cubs dugout & 5 rows of seats to make it work
it’s a one off gimmick site per season - SF is much more likely
Northwestern may also be considering the one-time Chicago Fire Stadium in Bridgeview.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
That's even more difficult to get there from Evanston than Wrigley or SF is. Plus it ruins their ability to pump up that silly Chicago's Big Ten Team tagline.
SF seems like the most logical option if they could work something out with the city and Bears.
Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
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