On weekends when football games would be played the Lakefront Campus is close to a ghost town. Not sure where everyone goes but there is lots of room for visitors.
Temporary stands at the practice field?
- Thread starter PURPLE Book Cat
- Start date
Agreed. We aren't going to draw flies at any of these proposed offsite stadiums. Especially for Puke or Miami Hydroxide. Also whoever the Directional Illinois team we have for the 3rd non con. Play those 3 there and the other 4 remotely.
I think that while logistics challenges exist and while capacity would be limited (revenue issues), the reality is that there isn't a current known solution and the alternatives of turning every home game into a travel game for the fans and students; home game for the visitors; or ghost town for all aren't ideal solutions either. So why not not be creative, market the hell out of NU and turn game day into a game day for all. Plus with limited capacity, you could end up taking advantage of the situation to help forward sell season tickets for the new stadium. It would be a great atmosphere for recruits and also garner national TV mention as well as highlight our fantastic campus. Just an opinion.
Hawaii has erected additional stands for fans at their on campus practice field since Aloha Stadium has been closed. Wnen their team is playing away games on the Mainland that facility should be available for our Home games. We could probably pack the stands with Wildcat fans willing to combine a home game with a weekend in Honolulu courtesy of Northwestern's tour group arrangers.
I like the Hawaii idea, but maybe NU should play all their home games in Ireland. They ARE undefeated there, after all.
PBC for AD. That is the post.
Seriously, how many people do we expect for EIU and Miami?
dOSU fans will suck up all the season tix to get the Wrigley game, then dump the rest. We will be lucky to get 8k for these games if they are remote. If it's possible to have 10k seats on the lakefill just do that. And to it for Mich just to pi$$ them off
dOSU fans will suck up all the season tix to get the Wrigley game, then dump the rest. We will be lucky to get 8k for these games if they are remote. If it's possible to have 10k seats on the lakefill just do that. And to it for Mich just to pi$$ them off
Look up actual reported attendance during “normal seasons.” While maybe not directly “butts in seats,” the numbers are probably higher than you’d think. And the Athletic Department has to use those figures as they account for tickets sold, banking on no-shows would be another recipe for disaster.
Define "normal season". 2020. Abnormal. 2023 Abnormal. 2024 and 2025: Abby Normal. We are going to have 2 years of shite attendance for these remote games, unless you count a) the behemoth schools buying season tix to get their game only and dumping the other games and / or b) AD arm twisting for 2024/5 to get 2026 preference. Neither of these will result in butts in seats. Imagine the lesser games, at a remote field with like 5k fans and no students. Humiliating.
Note that we wouldn't be having this conversation if the AD didn't have his head up his ass.
Silly. We will sell out the White Sox stadium if we play there because while we have had games at Wrigley I don't believe football has ever been played there. People will go just for the novelty of it.
For any games on the South Side we should do something with our brother Big Ten school the University of Chicago and give their students the same policy we give our students (whatever that is, do we do free tickets? cheap tickets? it's been so long since I graduated I don't even know) we should give the same policy to their students and that alone might get 1000 in there.
OMG. There's ten minutes I'll never get back.
Louie or Cappy, can't we have a warning header on certain threads, something like "WARNING: This Thread Appears Interesting, But In Fact Because Of Purple Book Cat, GoCatsGo and EuroCat, It Is In Fact A Complete Waste of Your Valuable Time" ?? Goodness gracious.
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Hey buddy, if you're browsing WildcatReport to preserve the value of your time, you might reevaluate your priorities
Silly? The only game that can be played at Sox park is Illinois, the others are too early or OSU Wrigley. Might get some novelty fans for ILL but, unless they are good, their support is pretty weak.
Indiana is at SeatGeek? Care to forecast the "novelty" attendance there?
Wisconsin may/may not be at Lambeau, anyway too early for baseball stadium.
EIU Puke and Miami Hydroxide are before students arrive. Wherever that is, I predict attendance of less than 20k...COMBINED.
Gagg already announced that Soldier isn't an option because NU can't/won't wait until May to decide (when NFL schedules come out)
Agree with you. I never know why wanting to play at Northwestern is terrible or more impractical than other alternatives. It would be nice to compare and contrast all the current terrible and impractical ideas to see which is the least terrible and most practical on a rational basis.
I like the idea of building able to have the temporary seaa
The rest of the schedule feels like the larger attendance games that would suit a permanent stadium:
I guess they have to hold Wrigley Field in October and early November in case the Cubs make an extended playoff run. Still, SOMETHING has to be open by those later October and November dates. SeatGeek seems to be open on Oct. 19 with the Chicago Fire in Soldier Field. and there is no soccer game at SeakGeek between October 13 and November 2, so it feels like there should not be logistical issues switching the stadium field back from soccer to football to back to soccer. Wrigley is already set for Ohio State on Nov. 16. Wrigley, Soldier Field, and SeakGeek all seem to be available on November 30.
Is this really this difficult?
I agree with idea the of installing temporary capacity on-campus for the early season games:
- Aug. 31, 2024: vs. Miami (Ohio)
- Sept. 7, 2024: vs. Duke.
- Sept. 14, 2024: vs. Eastern Illinois
- Oct. 5, 2024: vs. Indiana
The rest of the schedule feels like the larger attendance games that would suit a permanent stadium:
- Oct. 19, 2024: vs. Wisconsin.
- Nov. 16, 2024: vs. Ohio State.
- Nov. 30, 2024: vs. Illinois.
I guess they have to hold Wrigley Field in October and early November in case the Cubs make an extended playoff run. Still, SOMETHING has to be open by those later October and November dates. SeatGeek seems to be open on Oct. 19 with the Chicago Fire in Soldier Field. and there is no soccer game at SeakGeek between October 13 and November 2, so it feels like there should not be logistical issues switching the stadium field back from soccer to football to back to soccer. Wrigley is already set for Ohio State on Nov. 16. Wrigley, Soldier Field, and SeakGeek all seem to be available on November 30.
Is this really this difficult?
It has a seating capacity under 2000. Even if they would allow additional temporary seating, which I doubt, I can't think of any reason to choose it over SeatGeek.
Not really, most high schools have bigger stands and capacities than they do.
Amos Alonzo Stagg Field (football, soccer, lacrosse, softball, outdoor track)
The Stagg Field complex is named for UChicago football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, who led the Maroons from 1892 to 1932. The football playing surface is comprised of FieldTurf, with end zones oriented north and south. The playing field is encircled by Ted Haydon Track and official seating capacity is 1,650.
I'm surprised they left out the most distinguishing factor relating to Stagg Field. It was under Stagg Field that the nuclear bomb was developed.
Reportedly Indiana is already set (insofar as anything in this situation can really be considered “set”) for SeatGeek.
This topic is the textbook definition of message board fodder...people applying the most sincere, highly theoretical logic possible to a situation that is in no way actually based in reality.
I tend to believe the rumors about the Athletic Dept. not liking the lakeside field idea are for tangible, well-researched reasons. I see talk about traffic and people movement...for all we know, the ground that the temporary bleachers would sit on isn't strong enough to hold the weight of X thousand fans (I recently listened to a podcast related to structural things like this that us non architect/engineer types never think about), or it would cost eleventy million dollars to set it all up and it's not worth the return on investment...or maybe it would require City of Evanston approval and we used up all our favors with the mayor.
Honestly, if this were feasible, what reason in god's name would Derrick Gragg not want to go for it when he appears to be very short on Plan B options?
I tend to believe the rumors about the Athletic Dept. not liking the lakeside field idea are for tangible, well-researched reasons. I see talk about traffic and people movement...for all we know, the ground that the temporary bleachers would sit on isn't strong enough to hold the weight of X thousand fans (I recently listened to a podcast related to structural things like this that us non architect/engineer types never think about), or it would cost eleventy million dollars to set it all up and it's not worth the return on investment...or maybe it would require City of Evanston approval and we used up all our favors with the mayor.
Honestly, if this were feasible, what reason in god's name would Derrick Gragg not want to go for it when he appears to be very short on Plan B options?
Because he's a doof. Now, it is probably not feasible, but let's not use Gagg's sagacity as proof.
The Fitz Mahal is a lot heavier than a few thousand fans, is that ground more stable?
No and there’s nowhere to park or have locker rooms. They’d have good medical facilities next door though! At least at the lakefill field they would have locker room and injury care facilities at the practice facility.
I bet there’s lots of space at Northwestern University-Qatar. Could that work?
