Bielema was visibly frustrated/upset yesterday when he was told may not even get over 50k in there on Saturday.
Pregame: Illinois vs Iowa, Saturday, October 8th, 6:30pm CT, BTN
- Status
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
We could be Alabama and that logic applies in exactly the same way, though.
And lest you think that's an absurd hypothetical:
Alabama coach Nick Saban rips student attendance, fan apathy after Louisiana-Lafayette game
There were a lot of empty seats Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa
www.cbssports.com
There are long-term structural forces working against college football attendance (with high prices being prominent among them). But there is also an ingrained culture of not going to the game at Illinois specifically. We're fighting against both.
I said in one of those other threads that Whitman is hoping the winning fairy comes along and fixes the problem for him. Here's hoping that wish has come true, but there are still steps we can take to goose things even further.
Regardless, with this having been the pick of the litter on our home schedule before the season anyway, I expect we will have a nice turnout by our standards on Saturday. Possibly including me, still trying to figure it out.
Until the early ‘80s, the NCAA was able to monopolize television broadcasts, so you could watch one college football game per week. Sometimes ABC, who had the contract, would air two games to different parts of the country, but you could go years without the Illini on TV.
Right. Agreed. That's why I mentioned in the second part of my post that it's about gameday experience. I'd be curious if Bama revisited ticket prices after that game.We could be Alabama and that logic applies in exactly the same way, though.
And lest you think that's an absurd hypothetical:
Alabama coach Nick Saban rips student attendance, fan apathy after Louisiana-Lafayette game
There were a lot of empty seats Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa
There are long-term structural forces working against college football attendance (with high prices being prominent among them). But there is also an ingrained culture of not going to the game at Illinois specifically. We're fighting against both.
I said in one of those other threads that Whitman is hoping the winning fairy comes along and fixes the problem for him. Here's hoping that wish has come true, but there are still steps we can take to goose things even further.
Regardless, with this having been the pick of the litter on our home schedule before the season anyway, I expect we will have a nice turnout by our standards on Saturday. Possibly including me, still trying to figure it out.
I certainly don't claim to have the answers. But my hunch is that there are several variables responsible for our low attendance and price probably isn't the strongest influencer. JMO.
MustangWally
- Mayfield
I've heard we have many more out-of-state and international students on campus than in decades past. Maybe not interested in Illinois football.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Nonsense. Iowa is literally like 30-40% from the state of Illinois, haha. Illinois still relies more on instate students than many schools!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Yeah just bargain basement pricing the whole stadium doesn't seem like the most sensible option to me either.
But SOME people, probably a lot of them locals, would respond to $5 tickets. And we saw against Chattanooga a sense of what's possible when you let the students in free.
And I think some of the peculiar nooks and crannies allow you to take advantage of those possibilities while not devaluing what you're offering in other parts of the stadium.
The moral of the story, though, is that maximizing revenue and maximizing butts in seats for Illinois Football at Memorial Stadium in 2022 and beyond probably don't point to the exact same playbook for a variety of reasons, some are specific to us and some aren't. And while you don't want to light money on fire or alienate important donors and longtime season ticket holders, maximizing butts in seats is a very very important goal.
"Illinois has more out of state students than it used to" and "Illinois has the highest percentage of in-state students from the original Big Ten" are both true statements.
(I say original because I believe Rutgers is higher)
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I was more responding to the idea that this was a possible explanation for more than a very tiny portion of our attendance problems.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
In re: the empty student section at Camp Randall at kickoff last week
For first time, less than half of UW-Madison's freshman class hails from Wisconsin
In response, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says growing out-of-state enrollment helps Wisconsin.
By comparison, the new freshmen at UI are 70% in-state.
(I agree that this stuff makes next to no difference at the margin on football attendance)
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
No idea. I haven't been to a UI volleyball game since the 80's.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It gets pretty nuts at Huff in a way that's very good for the program, but maybe a bit much for like a 5 year old.
Huff is great and unique in terms of its integration into campus and proximity to where the students live. We should try to get Women's BB in there.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I remember those days well. I recall my freshman year in '84 in the dorm... first time I'd had cable TV. Was astounded at the number of games televised.
I can recall in the mid-'70s seeing the Illini once on the late afternoon ABC regional telecast. My memory is eating dinner with my brother and watching them.
They tried that in the ‘90s for those reasons, but stopped because of the gender equity problems created by the difference between Huff and then-Assembly Hall.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I mean the program should play wherever its coaches and players want, and in a place that meets their needs from a gameday operations perspective.
But put it this way, volleyball would never want to leave Huff for SFC under any circumstances. It's a better venue for a program at that scale.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
This Iowa board is quiet, but pretty rational about our game.
iowa.forums.rivals.com
Iowa will win in Champaign.
This team, like many other Iowa teams, will perform better on the road than at Kinnick. Given the offensive struggles, the pressure is amped up at Kinnick. The boos at home make it all the worse. They will be more focused. Hawks 22 IIlini 13
iowa.forums.rivals.com
For gender equity reasons, we'd rather have them play in an empty and tomb-like Hall vs a loud and sold out Huff
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
I think you surely have a point. The reason attendance has been down for years is not because tickets have been too expensive, obviously. But I think this Iowa game is a special circumstance where from the moment the game ended in Madison, everyone, even the coach on national tv, has been pushing the fans to pack the stadium for a signature game of the year atmosphere, combined with the DIA's preseason gamble to prevent Iowa fans from flooding our stadium. There are many reasons we want this atmosphere to be incredible, including to put on a fantastic show for our major recruits that will be in the building. I think that is important enough to eat this potential losses to keep the momentum this program has chugging along. Moving forward, there's nothing really wrong with the pricing for the remaining games. Winning will cause the attendance to tick up a little bit at a time and next year maybe we are back to where we want to be.
Maybe it was a bad, impulsive move to push the "no reason not to show up for the Iowa game," but we are here now. What path do you want to take? Do we risk messing with the value of a ticket to a football game for one game in hopes we have a great atmosphere and game that catapults us to a new level of relevance in the B1G? Or do we leave it as is and expect winning to bring in a few more fans each game? I am very comfortable with the former. For everyone that prefers the latter, that's fine, but don't expect 50k people there on Saturday. That is just reality.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
I hope Iowa jams up the box (trying to stop the run). Lunney, DeVito and our WRs will feast. Can't wait.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
My Best Man is a Wisconsin fan. Apparently their student section (at least showing up SUPER late) has been an issue for years.In re: the empty student section at Camp Randall at kickoff last week
For first time, less than half of UW-Madison's freshman class hails from Wisconsin
In response, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says growing out-of-state enrollment helps Wisconsin.madison.com
By comparison, the new freshmen at UI are 70% in-state.
(I agree that this stuff makes next to no difference at the margin on football attendance)
To be honest, I won’t be all that surprised and I don’t think it has that much to do with ticket prices. It’s difficult to just turn on the attendance spigot — especially given where program was. If they get to 47k, that’s 10,000 more than Chattanooga game with the free tickets and 14k more than the VA game. If Illini win Saturday, given that last year’s homecoming crowd was 40k, I think they’ll break 50k for Minny — possibly even if they play well but can’t quite pull it out. Though if they play well, I think we’re looking at a win.
And I like your prediction even more knowing that Bryant is OK.
217sports
- Springfield
If we can't then I would blame him if some of these open jobs started to be more interesting to him.
texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
- Status