My group last year was 10 tickets. Out of those seats, only one is occupied by a person who went to NU. The rest are locals. We attend every game, usually occupying every seat. We donate to the Wildcat Fund every year.
This year, we could get 4 tickets, but we only bought two. We did buy a good number of seats for the Wrigley games. I was the one who could have bought the extra two seats, but let me explain why I didn’t— it is a sh—show stadium set up. I was at the Duke game in the north stands. They did not have down and distance for a good part of the game. I had been to scrimmages in the west stands. The pitch and angle sucks. High school stadiums are better. Why would I want to spend a dime on a ticket? To look at the lake? I did the high rise apartment overlooking the lake. Been there done that. The band? Most junior highs have bigger bands. The concessions and beer garden? I don’t go to games for food and drink. Sorry, but all NU did was try to put lipstick on a pig.
Another reason why folks are not in the stands is that NU treats its fans like crap. When I call the ticket office, it is like I am bothering them. This is if they answer the phone. Everything is always late. I will not hear from my ticket rep until March. They never reach out. My fan appreciation for my Wildcat Fund donation was free admission for one game to the lakefront version of Wildcat Alley. Wow. There is no follow up. You hear nothing about the team. It is utter crap.
I live in a northwest suburb of Chicago. My daughter goes to Baylor. She is a sophomore. We are on year two of season tickets. Last year, I went to three games. This year will be at three games. Last week, we went and saw my daughter for two hours. She has a life and there are things we want to do while in Dallas/Waco.
When we first put in for season tix, we were in the 3rd deck 25 yard line, the Bears Foundation contacted me and told me I contributed $400 or $100 per seat, I could get benefits. Sure. What are the benefits? I get a parking pass, a tailgate with food and non-alcoholic drinks right outside the stadium, access to a coach’s weekly show, a weekly newsletter about the team, and current up to date information. Heck, last week was a 11am game and the food was chorizo and egg tacos, pork tacos, breakfast croissant sandwiches, all sorts of fruits and veggies, all the water or soda you could drink, and you could enjoy that sitting in a tent watching ESPN gameday. Further, the band puts on a twenty minute show before the game, had 20 tubas or sousaphones, plays all game, can be heard, and does a 5th quarter after the game. The team is iffy. After the game, I get an e-mail thanking me for attending the game. We missed one game last year and we did not get an email. They track attendance. We also get surveys and follow up calls from the ticket office. Frankly, Baylor puts much more effort and is more appreciative and considerate of its fans. I dropped more for tix this year to go to the 2nd deck at the 25 and doubled my Foundation contribution. Now, you might say I am spending this money because my daughter goes there or for religious reasons. I am Catholic and they are Baptist and we ignore the theology pitches. After my oldest son graduated, we purchased season tickets for his Alma mater for three years. The experience with that school was pretty similar to our Baylor experience.
I have had Cats season tix since 1996. You can call me a band wagon jumper. Last year was the first time we had a NU grad in our group. Over the years, we were as high as 18 tix and now down to 10. Of those, I had for my family and guests between 8 to 4 tix. The games are 35 to 40 mins from home. We can tailgate with our friends and bring our food and drink. For Baylor, I have to go to O’Hare, hop on a plane, get a rental car, book hotels, and spend money on eating. Some day in the near future I will have to decide which one to keep. Based upon the crap treatment by NU, (I hate to say this, but NU makes the Sox seem like a well run organization) and the comparison to how Baylor treats its fans, I would give NU the heave ho, even though going to Baylor games is 3 times as expensive.
I know this was a long post, but my loyalty can go away quickly. Now maybe some folks will understand why there were more opposing fans than NU.
