Lakefront experience

[Purple Pile Driver]

Apologies for any redundancies.

Positives
The campus and surrounding area are beautiful.
The view of the lake and downtown is amazing.
The planning for pedestrian flow is well thought out.
The air conditioned Johns were clean and plentiful.
Food trucks were outstanding from what I could tell. Couldn’t try all.
Concession area behind the South Stands was well manned and there was plenty of available seating.
Getting a cocktail was easy. Concessions definitely had their together compared to Ryan Field.
Tailgating was easy from our location in the Lakeshore garage.
The whole campus layout for a game was well done.

Negatives
There wasn’t much signage directing you to the correct parking lots. Resulting in people turning around a slowing up entry.
Once again, we walked into both the tailgate and game without getting our tickets scanned.
The lines for food and drink in the tailgate area were long.
Personally, I see no reason to pay an admission fee for entry to the tailgate section for the right to purchase food and beverage. The food is more diverse, slightly cheaper and fewer lines in the large concession area.
The number of steps for the North End Seats is going to cause some of the Blue hairs problems. I drain a vein before heading up, steps are steep and plentiful.
Down and distance was the major missing component missing from the scoreboard.
The acoustics suck, our PA friend tried to keep us informed about the down and distance but was muffled half the time.

 

[zeek55]

It did look amazing on BTN.

Thanks for the review.

 

[Sheffielder]

Apologies for any redundancies.

Positives
The campus and surrounding area are beautiful.
The view of the lake and downtown is amazing.
The planning for pedestrian flow is well thought out.
The air conditioned Johns were clean and plentiful.
Food trucks were outstanding from what I could tell. Couldn’t try all.
Concession area behind the South Stands was well manned and there was plenty of available seating.
Getting a cocktail was easy. Concessions definitely had their together compared to Ryan Field.
Tailgating was easy from our location in the Lakeshore garage.
The whole campus layout for a game was well done.

Negatives
There wasn’t much signage directing you to the correct parking lots. Resulting in people turning around a slowing up entry.
Once again, we walked into both the tailgate and game without getting our tickets scanned.
The lines for food and drink in the tailgate area were long.
Personally, I see no reason to pay an admission fee for entry to the tailgate section for the right to purchase food and beverage. The food is more diverse, slightly cheaper and fewer lines in the large concession area.
The number of steps for the North End Seats is going to cause some of the Blue hairs problems. I drain a vein before heading up, steps are steep and plentiful.
Down and distance was the major missing component missing from the scoreboard.
The acoustics suck, our PA friend tried to keep us informed about the down and distance but was muffled half the time.

Made many of the same observations in another thread before seeing this one. I think there's consensus on a lot of it. Overall a good experience and not a bad place to land when we consider how this all could have wound up.

 

[its_the_sauce]

They were a little too over the top checking your tickets. Every time you went to the can or to get something to drink it was a hassle getting back to your sear (west stands)

 

[FanatiCat]

It looked like the lakefront path was still open for use, although was that just for ticketed patrons to walk from both to south?

Also wondering all those aerial shots, were they drone footage? They must have been but I can imagine how they had a drone there for hours since they seemingly had a shot every few minutes.

 

[NUCat320]

Kudos to the NU athletic department. (And with no time to plan because of their doof former leader.)

It sure feels like they handled the “no way there’s enough parking” or “the campus can’t squeeze that many people” or “this is a logistics disaster” issues without a problem.

Did anybody use shuttles?

Improve parking lot signage is pretty easy. I suspect they recognized the down/distance issue pretty quickly — probably when the PA guy had to look for it — so I expect that’ll pop up a few more places next week.

PA gonna suck but hopefully it sucks not that much more than is usually sucked at Central and Asbury.

(Hehehe Google Maps says “Ryan Field Temporarily Closed”)


On TV, on the game’s first punt, there was this tiny two-person sailboat off in the distance, moving the same direction as the punt. Bright — red or orange — and I just giggled. Incredibly beautiful.

Also, the drone guy was 🔥🔥🔥. Final shot of the main broadcast was almost definitely live, panning further and further over the water to get a great view of campus.

Next week on FS1 will be a pretty good ad for the “I didn’t know they had beaches in the Midwest crowd”, though also in the dark. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

 

[Baz=Heisman]

Overall, the logistics were really impressive and especially given it was the first game at a brand new stadium.

The only real issues (from the north end zone) I saw were:

-Need the down/distance on the primary video boards. It was tough to gauge what the down and distance were. Thankfully, the PA guy was on it over the speakers for the most part, however.

-Need a better crowd flow out of the stadium after. Got a little tight/dangerous after the game as the teams were leaving. Perhaps let some people go out across the field hockey stadium? I can’t imagine the turf would get damaged.

-Better inventory for the north end zone food stands. The concession workers were super helpful at letting people know what they didn’t have so you didn’t waste time in line but would be good to have plenty of supply (waters!).

-The north side needs WiFi. The south side WiFi was solid but bandwidth was lowwwwww on the north side. First world problems, no doubt, but should be an easy fix.

 

[Williesfan]

It looked like the lakefront path was still open for use, although was that just for ticketed patrons to walk from both to south?

Also wondering all those aerial shots, were they drone footage? They must have been but I can imagine how they had a drone there for hours since they seemingly had a shot every few minutes.

There was a drone flying all game

 

[NU Houston]

Kudos to the Kellogg marketing team for the giant KELLOGG MBA banner on their building (between the south and west stands). Free advertising, and impossible to miss.

 

[Williesfan]

I thought the tailgate area was nice. Many options dependent on your pocketbook.

The field was awesome even with the congested space.

I didn’t think the sound could get worse…

The north end zone play clock kept freezing.

I hope the offense gets better. So far I haven’t seen much change. What was with the two fades in the corner that had the receiver looking into the sun?

 

[boonman1]

Overall, the logistics were really impressive and especially given it was the first game at a brand new stadium.

The only real issues (from the north end zone) I saw were:

-Need the down/distance on the primary video boards. It was tough to gauge what the down and distance were. Thankfully, the PA guy was on it over the speakers for the most part, however.

-Need a better crowd flow out of the stadium after. Got a little tight/dangerous after the game as the teams were leaving. Perhaps let some people go out across the field hockey stadium? I can’t imagine the turf would get damaged.

-Better inventory for the north end zone food stands. The concession workers were super helpful at letting people know what they didn’t have so you didn’t waste time in line but would be good to have plenty of supply (waters!).

-The north side needs WiFi. The south side WiFi was solid but bandwidth was lowwwwww on the north side. First world problems, no doubt, but should be an easy fix.

Wifi on that part of campus is hit or miss , sometimes it fine , sometimes it real bad !

 

[Figrating]

Was really hoping to see a slomo of campus starting from the north. NU should make sure that gets some air time every game. Ryan Fieldhouse is a spectacle and should also get a minimum of 15 seconds itself every game.

As little as could be seen of the lake, it is a spectacular background.

No doubt will attract a lot of students too lazy to get to Dyche-Ryan. Not to mention the team looks like it will be fun to get behind.

 

[KramerCat91]

Signage for seating in the north end zone was missing.

 

[jne381]

I thought everything was pretty good overall. The lack of a down and distance displayed anywhere was annoying and should be fixed, but it is not going to ruin anything.

Anyone paying for the tailgate thing would be ridiculous. However, I was offended to pay $10 for a "Chicago Style" hotdog. They put a dry dog on a poppyseed bun with a pickle spear and sport peppers on the side. No tomato slices, no onions, no celery salt, and you could get a relish packet at a nearby table. Get it right! This is Chicago.

The actual dog itself was good. Not a Vienna. I am curious as to where they got it.

 

[bjm989]

This is a historic opportunity to watch the Cats play right on campus and Lake Michigan. I liked the experience more than Ryan Field but perhaps because it was just so wonderful to walk our campus, relive old memories, go the bookstore, walk through the quads, etc. All things I don’t do when travelling in for a game on Central. It was incredible to be in the stands and see the lake and all of these boats going by. Such a beautiful day. The athletic department absolutely knocked it out of the park. Yes, they will fix the down and distance - I missed having that as well.

All in all, an incredible experience. And importantly, 1-0. Go Cats!

 

[ParisCat]

I thought everything was pretty good overall. The lack of a down and distance displayed anywhere was annoying and should be fixed, but it is not going to ruin anything.

Anyone paying for the tailgate thing would be ridiculous. However, I was offended to pay $10 for a "Chicago Style" hotdog. They put a dry dog on a poppyseed bun with a pickle spear and sport peppers on the side. No tomato slices, no onions, no celery salt, and you could get a relish packet at a nearby table. Get it right! This is Chicago.

The actual dog itself was good. Not a Vienna. I am curious as to where they got it.

The “tailgate village” thing on the south part of the lakefill is nice to look at — with the tents and chalets and the stage for the band and cheerleaders — but unless you can crash one of the big donor’s tailgates and drink their booze for free, it isn’t worth paying to get in, let alone at $30 a pop. Very long lines for concessions vs. no lines at all in the south end zone and at the standalone kiosks in the stadium. I’d suggest making a friend in one of the other parking lots, and then just eating and drinking at the game, assuming you have tickets.

 

[JoeWildcat]

They were a little too over the top checking your tickets. Every time you went to the can or to get something to drink it was a hassle getting back to your sear (west stands)

Agree. They were still checking tickets in fourth quarter.

 

[phatcat]

It just occurred to me that, had we played the first 3 games at SeatGeek, attendance would have been about like the non-con attendance at Allstate Arena. 12k doesn't look so bad, does it

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Agree. They were still checking tickets in fourth quarter.

They didn’t check my ticket so for entry at either the tailgate or the game.