Yes. The extent of the apathy is higher than any season under Fitz and almost every season under Walker. So the answer to your question is yes. And I will give you a break - for being in such denial.
Adam DePietro
- Thread starter loyolacat
- Start date
I think it was Matt Rice who highlighted a stat that that shocked me but showed that to be simply not true: prior to OSU, we were 5-0 straight up against teams when we were 10 point or more dogs. That sounds like rising to the occasion to me..
Been at NU games for over 30 years now. The only times I can recall the environment being any good were 1995, 1996, and 2000.
The only time the student section wasn't an embarrassment was when Gameday was here 3 years ago IMO
Many seasons ticket holders buy tickets to support the Cats but live out of state and don't go to games. They sell tickets to recover some of their investment. This will always be a problem. The Cleveland fans were upset because Cubs fans bought up a lot of tickets and took away the "home field" advantage. The internet has made ticket exchanges very easy. We used to block ticket scalping, remember that? I don't think it does any good to use profanity when describing NU fans. Gary Barnett filled up the stadium because he took the team to the Rose Bowl. When he lost support dropped off dramatically but has held steady. I have been a season ticket holder since 1995 and have made every bowl game since then so I know a little about fan support. We will never be Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, or Nebraska. Many of their fans cannot get tickets to home games so they travel. I think we should focus on winning and the attendance of NU fans will improve.
I seriously doubt Northwestern gets more than 5,000 fans for any game the only fans Northwestern gets our students people that live locally it's a pretty exclusive environment Northwestern in a lot of the day today people can't relate to it
Northwestern average 30,000 people for the Western Michigan game in Illinois State game probably 15000 10000 fans were opposing teams 500 students couple thousand locally we might have 5000 actual true football fans for Northwestern football.
Yes. It's obvious that the administration doesn't care about the folks that supported for over 50 years. They gladly take the cash from the visiting teams fans, while sticking it to their own. To bad.
The season ticket cash isn't coming from visiting fans, at least insofar as this example. The cash is coming from said longtime season ticket holders, who then sell their tickets to visiting fans. Not much the program can do about that.
All true, but it is only a problem if we continue to whine about it. Poor Indian fans, Cubs fans bought the tickets, too bad. Just like poor Cats fans, whiskey filled out half our stadium. Too bad.
I don't what people expect, we rip the fans that go for being quiet, we rip the fans that don't show for not supporting the team, we complain about NU for not finding ways to market the team, like there is some magic pill that creates 40,000 rapid Cat fans out of the blue. Some people aren't happy unless they are complaining.
I don't know what our season ticket base is, but I'm guessing that about a third of it are either scalpers or fans of visiting Big Ten teams, both of which usually dump the non-conference games cheaply. This might explain why the east side was relatively purple for the Duke game I attended back in September, but almost completely red for Nebraska and Wisconsin. I don't think it was due to Northwestern fans selling their seats to visitors, although that probably does happen to a degree.
There isn't that big of a mark up when the game is not a sell out. You can buy tickets in the end zone and move to a great seat because of the no shows. Think it is more likely visiting teams than scalpors in your one third estimation. They unload the others in the secondary market but they are not true scalpors.
Precisely. It's a question of degree. People have eyes and see what's going on and they do not sense that anything is going to change. Why? Because Fitz gets up there and says so!
Same issue every year with the same answers — a stadium built many years ago when pro sports were not such a big thing and is now too big for the fan base, huge competition for the entertainment dollar in the Chicago area and a team that is good on occasion, but is not going to be mistaken for a football power any time soon. Even though this year's team has improved as the season progresses, two bad losses to open sucked the air out of this season.
Yes, plus 3 1/2 years of offensive futility and no changes to the staff. Don't blame the fans when Fitz sticks his head in the sand and nobody cheers for him.
If we were Texas Tech football on grass we would be filling the stands with new fans?
I don't know what Texas Tech has to do with this but yes, if people saw a chance of what Fitz had been promising for 11 years, yes, the stands would be full. They were the last time we did it. And that was when nobody believed it was possible and we were at risk of losing the coach who brought it to us.
That tends to happen when one cannot follow simple directions. Those that do follow directions get first choice.
Or those who don't openly try to game the system, then bitch when it doesn't work.
Please provide translation to English software.
No one is gaming the system. We all followed the 'priority point" system that was set for years. Others who have commented here and don't come to games, don't but season tickets or support the program in other ways, need to get sober or just shut up.
Maybe Jules but you sure couldn't tell that by NU fan attendance figures. Unless they plan on replacing long time supporters with UNL. Io-a. OSU, Michigan and Wisconsin fans.
And then the rules changed to those of a modern P5 football team. Those changes were clearly communicated, you understood both the rules as well as the possible consequences, then decided not to do what you had to do and proceeded to bitch about it unrelentingly.
People have quoted you back posts in which you openly wondered whether you could give less than $600 and still get the parking you wanted? The answer was no, then you've spent months bitching about it.
This parking fee stuff is almost as annoying as wondering how much Ifeidi weighs.....
If it's a troll, fine. I'm still going to point out how annoying it is.
Ahhh, now I understand.
Think you're nuts, but now I understand.
I wish our offensive production numbers had "changed to those of a modern P5 football team" first.
If we want to charge like a modern P5 football team, perhaps it would be wise to hire coaches like one and play like one before we concoct a plan to gouge and turn off any of the few loyal fans we have ...
The rules changed. The charges are still well behind our competitors. The minimums are still hilariously low compared to other P5 programs, as I've pointed out repeatedly.
I did not mean to post this thread to put down Cat fans but really to point out that in DePeitros opinion it made it more difficult for the players. This is where he tweeted they also had to fight the program. So I was just stating that it must have some effect on recruiting and if in turn it is part of a cycle that prevents us from getting to the top( poor recruiting= poorer teams=poor crowds). There certainly are factors that work against NU packing the stadium purple. It just feels discouraging beyond belief when the crowd is overwhelmingly the opposing teams crowd, Maybe everyone NU fan should get a purple cardboard cutout to put in the seat next to him. Also dont you think they tried to get a larger fan base with "Chicago's Big Ten Team" ? Logical idea just do not know if it worked. Also I could be wrong but during the Rose Bowl seems crowds were large and mostly purple.
I've been to some away games where there have been more than 5,000 NU fans. And that's actually part of the problem. We have fewer alums than other B1G schools to begin with and they're scattered all over the country. State school alums are more likely to stay in state. You can't go anywhere in Pa. without tripping over a Penn State alum.
Almost every recruit we sign has a gameday visit to Ryan Field. Additionally, many visit other campuses and experience the throng of 60,000 plus decked out in the home team's gear. Surely, every recruit is smart enough to see the difference. I don't know if ANY that cited raucous day name atmosphere as the deciding factor.
I am disappointed that Adam choose Twitter to slam our fans ( of which I am one of them). It serves no useful purpose except to vent. Is everyone going to bring purple Pom poms and cowbell to the last game of the year? IMO the criticism from a recent player can be more impactful to recruiting than the rest of us no nothings.
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