Attendance

[NURoseBowl]

Another thing to consider is we reject something like 80 (if not more) percent of people who want to come to school here. Why would you root for a school that basically told you "you are not good enough for us"? Not elite enough and smart enough, go elsewhere. It would be like rooting for a girl that rejected you to win a beauty contest.

Your point is well taken, Euro, and no doubt has a lot of truth to it. Just to illustrate the flip side of that coin, though (and I realize I'm probably very much the exception here), I'm sort of just the opposite. I couldn't have been admitted to Northwestern if my father had been the president of the university. However, rather than be resentful of that, I recognize and applaud those who were/are bright enough and accomplished enough that they could. The old saying is that you should surround yourself with people smarter than yourself, or something to that effect. Fortunately, that's easy for me around here. But generally speaking, I admire the hell out of NU people and wish I could technically count myself among them. So if being a Wildcat in spirit is all I can do, I'm okay with that.

 

[ChappyCat]

We are NEVER going to win the attendance race. Seems a good time to move on

 

[Windy City Cat Fan]

We are NEVER going to win the attendance race. Seems a good time to move on

Depends what your definition of win is. I would think not being 14th and clearing some of these other programs with recent and sustained lack of on the field success would be a win for NU - i.e. Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers

 

[clarificationcat]

Depends what your definition of win is. I would think not being 14th and clearing some of these other programs with recent and sustained lack of on the field success would be a win for NU - i.e. Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers

I think winning the attendance race simply means having a true home field advantage against every team we face. Non-conference games are often too quiet because the stadium is only 65% filled and conference games against the better programs often have the feeling of a neutral site game. I have to believe that it is a significant recruiting issue for some recruits and is something that our players have to work to overcome (they have to bring the energy because it generally ain't coming from the home crowd).

In basketball, Chris Collins already has a home court advantage. The atmosphere at basketball games last year was fantastic. We can definitely generate 6,000 plus vocal Northwestern fans to fill the basketball stadium. Can we consistently generate 35,000 Northwestern fans for football? I feel like at this point the only way that will happen is for the team to win their division a couple of times in a 5 year period and then avoid the awful seasons. We have to attract 5,000 plus Chicago area sports fans who want to see a very good football team compete for B1G conference championships. I am a big fan of Fitz. I think he has done a great job of overcoming some significant obstacles to build a really solid college football program (a better one than the fan base deserves). But we have rarely, if ever, been in a position to seriously compete for a championship (division or conference) since he has been coach. The non-NU sports fan in Chicago will only pay to see Northwestern play in games that are meaningful at a national level (not to see if we go 9 and 3 rather than 8 and 4). Let's hope that this is the season where we start to draw those fans.

 

[ChappyCat]

I would love for things to consistently be the way they were against OSU in '13 when we SHOD have had that one and been ranked top ten... oh what a year that could have been. One of the bigger heartbreakers in my day as a Cat fan

Crowd was GREAT though!

 

[Sheffielder]

Without comparing ourselves to other B1G teams or even academic peers...do we think 36K+ is a solid average number for a middling college football team just outside Chicago? I'll honestly say yes...yes it is. Especially when this is a team that was coming off of a humiliating bowl loss and we're not really in the conversation for a Division title. To me, anything north of 35K in years when we're not coming off of a Division or Conference title is solid for the modern era.

In terms of growth, I think the Athletic Department needs to do a better job selling 3-packs to casual city dwellers. Bundle in one Big Ten game, one OOC night game, and one 11 a.m. kickoff against OOC or a lower tier opponent like IU or Purdue. Get people in the stadium, hope they see a "Cardiac Cats" nailbiter, make it an easy annual purchase for people who want access to some football in the fall.

 

[NJCat]

Without comparing ourselves to other B1G teams or even academic peers...do we think 36K+ is a solid average number for a middling college football team just outside Chicago? I'll honestly say yes...yes it is. Especially when this is a team that was coming off of a humiliating bowl loss and we're not really in the conversation for a Division title. To me, anything north of 35K in years when we're not coming off of a Division or Conference title is solid for the modern era.

In terms of growth, I think the Athletic Department needs to do a better job selling 3-packs to casual city dwellers. Bundle in one Big Ten game, one OOC night game, and one 11 a.m. kickoff against OOC or a lower tier opponent like IU or Purdue. Get people in the stadium, hope they see a "Cardiac Cats" nailbiter, make it an easy annual purchase for people who want access to some football in the fall.

I'm with you. NU is doing just fine. Build a more than average program and the Cats will draw 40,000. Given the size of the school and the market there isn't much more upside.

 

[Overly_Invested_Cat]

A smaller stadium would help offset the visiting team invasion. It would also increase demand by shrinking the supply, as they did with ballparks like Camden Yards.

 

[Eurocat]

A smaller stadium would help offset the visiting team invasion. It would also increase demand by shrinking the supply, as they did with ballparks like Camden Yards.

I've said before and now again, get the designers of the TCU stadium to build a new one for us. It looks huge, NFL size. It is actually smaller than what we currently have. Seating is 45,000.

http://www.gofrogs.com/facilities/tcu-facilities-football.html

 

[Deeringfish]

I've said before and now again, get the designers of the TCU stadium to build a new one for us. It looks huge, NFL size. It is actually smaller than what we currently have. Seating is 45,000.

http://www.gofrogs.com/facilities/tcu-facilities-football.html

And look at all the purple.