So, what was the crowd composition?
- Thread starter FeralFelidae
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I read we were supposed to have 3K fans and Nebraska was supposed to have 11K.
Which makes this 8,000 times sweeter…
Which makes this 8,000 times sweeter…
My seats were such that I couldn’t tell the makeup of the crowd. What was really fun was the number of Irish who attended the game. One and all told me they really enjoyed it. My wife helped a gentleman understand the rules. Lots of Irishmen had jerseys of their favorite NFL teams. I even talked to some poor soul who is a Detroit Lions fan.
There were a lot more NU fans than 3,000. My guess is 7,000 for NU, 12,000 for Nebby….But they were pretty quiet in the second half. The Irish attending were interesting, some who had lived in the states at various points, some who follow pro football and college football, and some just there out of curiousity. Nice group, very friendly crowd including the Nebraska fans. Some of the best BIG10 fans around
I got the sense many of the locals were rooting for NU. Fitz went out of his way to recruit the locals. The Irish colors on the N logo and our running out the Irish flag was a nice touch. I had a row of Irish ladies decked out in Purple wigs rooting for NU. They were a hoot.
Maybe it was the way the crowd was mic’ed, but in the second half it sounded like the crowd was loudly pro-NU. Maybe the local crowd was pulling for us?
On the few crowd shots they showed in the first half, there was a lot of red in the seats.
Maybe the UNL fans were cheering for Nebraska to lose? Especially to get rid of Frost after that horrendous onside kick call to give us momentum right back?
My guess, having done some thinking about it:
~50k fans in the stands
17-20k in red
7-9k in purple
Others neutral/local/football fans
Our crowd was loud…really impressive turnout and enthusiasm. The free beer may have helped. Locals may have tilted NU a bit. The Irish father and son behind us were learning the game & rooting hard for the Cats. This felt like one of the most epic bowl game experiences/wins I’ve ever experienced as a fan. Absolutely awesome time.
When the wifi/internet went down, the credit card scanners didn't work so they made beer free.
And ran out of beer lol.
Free beer, from ESPN report: Concession stands gave out free beer at one point during the game when they lost the internet connection at the stadium. Aviva Stadium is cashless, so they opted to not turn away thirsty fans. Ronan McGowan said he waited 40 minutes in long lines and missed portions of the game, though added: "They did the right thing."
Yeah, I've been thinking about what makes a game big/meaningful, and typically it's always some combination of the TV audience/TV spot, atmosphere, what the game means to the teams, records, etc.
Outside of records (since it's week 0 of course), this game had everything to be a big and meaningful game. I'll be interested to see what the TV audience is (probably one of the biggest for a win in the Fitz era).
These are those rare chances where you get to show the nation what Northwestern football is all about...
And a note on records, due to both teams wanting to bounce back from last year's 3-9 records and Nebraska missing bowls the past 5 years, it took on a huge amount of meaning in that respect despite being a matchup of 0-0 teams. A lot of people were focused on this game to see whether Nebraska was going to turn it around, but that also applied to us too.
This is one of those games that probably will be more meaningful as time goes on if it leads to a bowling season (or a division title), so it's the perfect way to start off a season as well.
The Fox announcers were so busy telling the Neb story they barely mentioned our bizarre rags to riches to rags cycle, which is a story in itself. This game could be the start of a beautiful season.
Yes, the broadcast narrative was largely about whether Frost and Nebraska could finally meet expectations. But most of my Big Ten family and friends watched on TV and texted throughout the game. And after the failed onside kick, they all thought NU would win. They've watched enough of our games to know the close ones will usually go our way.
I think pretty much *all* of the neutral fans were rooting for Northwestern in this one for sure. Was talking in group chats with a bunch of my friends who are fans of other Big Ten/SEC/ACC teams and pretty much all of them were pulling for Northwestern.
I think a lot of neutral observers like Pat Fitzgerald and can appreciate that NU has a very good reputation academically, that the program tends to run clean and that the players seem like decent intelligent people.
Fans of the top teams tend to view us as their little brother and want us to do well, in part because they dont see us as a threat.
Yep. Which is why if Northwestern football ever became like Duke basketball and just started rolling other teams, the program would become instantly hated.
Let's keep playing in Ireland. We do better there than at Wrigley Field!!
Does this mean we are… “Ireland’s Big Ten Team”?? 😂
Is a billboard campaign in Dublin in the works? We can contribute to that huge Big Ten TV contract in ways we didn’t imagine… NU brings in the Euro market!
I hope this means we’re Ireland’s Big Ten team. Would be nice to be invited back in 10 years.
Plus it looks more like a football field and has better seating from what I saw on t.v.
Where I watched the game in the Chicago North Suburbs (not Evanston), the place is heavily ND, Illinois, Wisconsin and even NU. Also a SEC fan nest.
Majority were pulling for NU, only one Nebraska fan dressed in red and very little cheering when they scored.
Majority were pulling for NU, only one Nebraska fan dressed in red and very little cheering when they scored.
Yes, I believe that to be the case. I think the locals were sick of seeing so much RED. Easy to root for the underdogs. It was so cool seeing so many attending their first American football games. Lots of NFL team jerseys. We had a row of women with Purple wigs behind us…assumed they were long time NU fans. Turns out it was their first game and decided to root for the Purple team!
That’s awesome. Wish I was there. Very cool if the local crowd really did start to favor the Cats - the players may have noticed!
btw watch this clip. Look at that turnout.
You may be onto something. The Nebraska fans I dealt with seemed only interested in the football game. I never heard them talk about Ireland. They loved going around town chanting “Go Big Red!” at every opportunity. It was the first time I found myself annoyed with Nebraska fans. I know they love talking about taking over stadiums, but acting like your taking over a country is garbage, pure and simple.
We Cats fans soaked up Ireland. We acted interested and appreciative because we were.
Now it may seem like I’m making up the next story, but I assure you I’m not. I saw two Nebraska fans talking football (of all things). Then I heard one of them mention the Irish. Good, I thought. Finally. Then I listened more closely and it turned out that they were talking about Notre Dame.
This could not have sat well with the Dubliners. It didn’t set well with me either..
Yep I think this is a good assessment. The locals seemed to cheer for NU more as the game went on. And our crowd, while smaller in number, kind of seemed more lively in the second half. It was sort of like Nebby had seen this movie too many times recently and started believing a loss was coming. Probably helped that our OL was dominating the LoS, that can be de-motivating for a fan (I know far too well after watching our poor DL play last year).
The only place I saw more Purple than Red was at the Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells. 🤣
So awesome that our team got to have that fan support experience on game 1 following last year. Everyone needed this.
Goose Island used to give out free beer before the game.
Sounds like Rocky IV when the Russians began to cheer for Balboa
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