Willy, with all those "potential fans", how come Loyola can't sell out its small arena after an historic and hugely media covered Final Four run with 4 of its top- 7 starters returning? NU wasn't selling out every game after its miracle Rose Bowl run in '95 either. DePaul parlayed it's Final 4 run into big attendance in the early 80s,you might say, but that was before Jordan and the Bulls emerged! This is a "pro sports town." You can still carve out a niche, but you still have to keep winning and battling for notice and support. No captive audiences like in some of the smaller "college towns."
Too much red!
- Thread starter Pete Purple
- Start date
I made a similar point a few weeks back. You would think this would be worth the effort for the university.
The fact is that there is plenty of opportunity for NU fans to get tickets and there are just not enough of them. And that means that often visiting fans is the only place to put those tickets. MSU has a consistently good program and likely over 3 times the alums in the Chicago area that NU does. Wisc, IN and IA probably do as well and IL has even more. I could add in PU, OSU and Mich. And likely a greater % of their alums are sports fans. That is why these are the games that sell out and have more visitors. Don't really have to worry about teams like MD, RUT or PSU overwhelming our place (but then again, half of the seats will be empty at those games).
gee maybe it's time to join the Ivy League or even the MAC. Ducks! Just kidding, sort of
There are a lot of distractions in the Chicago area. That said, I don't think basketball fans are what they used to be, and ticket prices go up steadily. There are certainly enough alums in the area to get good crowds at a small arena such as Welsh-Ryan, and you'd think even fans that weren't particularly big Northwestern boosters would jump at the chance to see high-quality B1G teams in their back yard. That doesn't seem to be the case. Heck, when I was in college a group of buddies and I would go to see Pa. high school playoff games if we thought they'd be good. I still remember seeing future Maryland All-American Tom McMillen's Mansfield team face off against Middletown and Dave Twardzik (who had a long NBA career with Portland) at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg. Some people have the passion these days, but not as many.
All the games are now on the boob tube. The casual fan can see all they want. Only die hards "Have to" see it in person. Plus all the hassles of getting to a game. Evanston is not exactly easy to get to. Yes there is parking but it too is a hassle. So to go to a good game might cost a couple casual fans who are not ST holders at least a couple hundred to go to. Blame that on the schools push for st sales which is the only way to guarantee sales. Sorry but for most, Wrasslers comfy couch wins
The problem is the empty seats. Honestly, I don’t want Indiana fans sitting in prime seats. The suggestion is that NU has a service to get these prime seats in The hands of vetted NU faithful. The fat Cats can’t make every game and I am sure they would rather have the tickets go to a NU fan than an empty seat or worse yet a visiting fan. After all, there donation supports NU not Indiana.
Many of us who can’t swing the annual donation would gleefully pay the face value of the ticket to conference games. NU fans in the prime seats while the cost can go to the original STH or be donated to the program per the STH’s direction.
Or they can resell them over face, a price visitors are willing to pay but NU fans are not.
Big time donors aren’t doing this in mass. Sorry, but making $100 for a pair is tip money to some of these folks.
Maybe but why do we see the opposition fans at both the basketball and the football games sitting in seats that obviously belong to NU ST holders? It's either they just like extra cash or they don't really care about the teams.
But if NU faithful are not going in the first place how is just getting tickets to distribute going to help? The problem is not enough fans, not not enough tickets.
Or they just don't want to throw away the money. Each game outside of the stadium, you see ticket guys trying to buy and/or sell tickets. I used to buy them out there as often they were inexpensive or better tickets than I could get otherwise. Sucks to throw away money because you have extra tickets when somebody cancelled or you couldn't get anybody to go. Sort of adds insult to injury. In some cases people buy ST to sell them.. A ST might cost $350 but certain games the tickets could be sold for $150 each. But those are likely to be upstairs. If it is in the lower bowl, the donation would also have to be recovered so for a game like IN, a sideline seat might go for several hundred. I am all for ST holders being able to sell them and get whatever they can for them and if you don't like it , tough.
And as far as that goes, every stadium I have gone to, you can get tickets one of these ways. Somehow I don't hear the complaints about it. Only at NU and how it should be restricted. Sorry but no it should not
If you forget your lanyard it’s no different from forgetting your ticket. What’s the big damn deal? Don’t lose your lanyard. You don’t lose your tickets and expect to get in, do you?
If you want to sit in the prime seats then you can’t give them to friends. Only give back to NU ticket office if you aren’t coming and know in advance.
This is the only foolproof way of preventing the opposition from sitting in the prime NU seating.
The thing is that this is the kind of thing that only matters to hardcore fans, who won’t be deterred from going or watching, anyway.
It’s kind of pointless to argue about, because I doubt NU cares. And I’d kind of argue they shouldn’t care. Do other schools do this? Pro teams?
In football they are trying to do something about it this upcoming season. My seats are in 107 so I’ll be able to give your first hand experience on whether it is effective or not.
I’ve been to about 5 b-ball games this season, I can’t remember the Wilson seats having many opposition fans in them. I do remember a lot of empty Wilson seats. There are quite a few lower bowl non-Wilson seats that are clearly purchased by professional brokers or by individual buyers that sell the bigger games for profit. Personally, I think it is the later for the most part. NU “fans” that purchase and if the team is average or below they hawk the ticket to recoup some of their costs. The top rows of the stadium are not STH’s and they aren’t difficult to get except the very few top games.
This would be great, but the question would be are there enough hard core NU fans that are not STH’s that would scoop up this individual game prime seats if they became available?
I wasn’t at the Indiana game, but several posters complained about obnoxious crude Indiana fans sitting right next to them. This happens to me frequently in football ( and I have prime seats). Sorry, this just isn’t an enjoyable experience for NU fans. If the opposition is so cozy in NU’s home that they have no problem being an A-hole, it actually deters NU fans from going and having to put up with that $h&t.
If your math is accurate and there are certain games getting $150 in the upper bowl and the STH price for a season is $350, then sign me up for 50 season tickets next year. I might as well broker through sites and profit from being totally annoyed by opposition douche bags. If the consensus from NU fans is that it is your STH do as you please, then cool, but I know plenty of STH’s don’t feel this way at all, so maybe many of the people promoting the free market are watching the game from their comfy couch.
And I feel that is just plain wrong. Once NU sells the ticket it belongs to the buyer to do whatever they want with. I would oppose any restriction on that use. The only exception is if the user broke some law or reasonable restriction on behavior.
Thus far, I missed the OK game because we had tickets to a play and my better half would not allow me to change the play date so I gave them to a friend. Did not go to another preseason game (CLMB) because I was sick and in bed. I have been to the rest.
I have only been a ST holder for about 4 years. (too long a trip for 18 games per year with my schedule at the time) But prior to that I would go to several games per year often buying them outside.
You complain about empty seats in the high donor area and you complain if those people give them away or sell them. Sorry but I feel that the people that bought them have the right to use them however they wish. Just like they do at other stadiums. As far as someone buying 50 tickets, while once possible, with new rules, not sure it still is. That said, I would guess that some ST in lower bowl are purchased by ticket brokers (they had to give donation as well) to sell tickets to top games. But that is generally true of sports venues in general.
Last edited:
Seats should not be frequently empty. My thoughts is to have a process to get those seats in NU fans hands that can pay for the ticket but can’t justify the annual donation. Have you encountered the obnoxious visiting fans that have ruined more than one game for me? Seems like they are in abundance way more at NU games than any other sporting event.
Ever been to a Cubs road game pretty much anywhere? Talk about obnoxious visiting fans.
Ah, just because Cubs fans sometime outnumber and out cheer the home teams fans doesn't make them obnoxious
Guess we will have to disagree on this. Maybe it's a bit more noticeable because of the smallness of W-R but I would rather burn seats I can't use instead of making them available to visiting fans and have actually done so.
Then fine, sit on your seats. But that is a personal decision. And don't try to impose your decision on others
Last edited:
I am in 108 and there are generally a lot of tickets sold to visiting fans in that section and ones on either side. Guess what, most sold not by st holders but by NU.
If the STHs give the seats back by notifying NU athletics that they can't make it in advance, give them out to local non-profit organizations if they promise to wear purple. If the STHs don't show by halftime, move students or other STHs in purple down to those seats.
In fact, besides telling STHs in the primo seats that they can't give tix to friends, tell them to give advance notice when they can't show up or they lose the seats to that game at halftime.
But what is NU’s incentive to do any of this except to make a very, very small and loyal subset of its fans happy?
Please help me understand how NU sells these tickets to visiting fans? I was led to believe that entire section was sold to STH’s that ponied up for both the ticket price and donation.
You made the comment that your seats in 107 were in FB and that NU was going to attempt something next year. My comment was about FB tickets. Those do not take a donation and not all are season tickets in those sections. So NU sells them, often to visiting fans as this was once the visitors section. Doesn't take a donation for those tickets and plenty of those are sold to opposing fans by NU. Add to that certain fan bases will buy ST in order to get seats to one game and then sell the rest to offset costs. This is possible because NU does not have enough alums and other hard core fans to take up all of the tickets.
BB, yes those tickets in the lower bowl are all supposedly ST but some of them might have been purchased by brokers. Then again some ST holders might take advantage of the high prices for a game to offset their costs so they can afford the rest of the games. Two years ago, I sat next to some people that had been sitting in the same seats for decades. They had I think 4 seats. No donation required. This year to get similar seats donation required would have been several thousand dollars putting the cost of those season tickets at $1200-1500or more each. Quite a jump from the $300 each they were paying. Almost getting to CUB or Bear ticket costs. I don't think they bought back into the area and I am not sure they are even still ST holders as I have not seen them but if they could sell a game or two and offset a big portion of the expense so they could remain, why shouldn't they be able to make that choice?
Some people stretch to buy those STs, especially with the donations required. And not being able to even give them to friends? Those are very unreasonable restrictions. If you want to put those restrictions on then NU needs to refund money to ST holders for games that they cannot go to
And yet you feel differently about visiting fans when they come to NU? Talk about a hypocrite
Ok, I misunderstood, I thought you were talking about section 107 at WR.
I would be curious as to ask the opinion of those that sat in those high donation seats. I have no idea what it would be. Would the majority participate in the resale market to recoup a small part of their investment? Would the majority be peeved to pay a high donation and have some A-holes from Indiana sitting right behind them? I would be in the later camp, but I am not s BBall STH. Can you even resell Wilson Club seats with the major brokers? When I looked a few weeks ago, I don’t recall seeing any seats available at any cost.
Wilson club requires a donation of $6K for two seats. If the people can afford that, unlikely to be resold and little can be recouped. And likely more trouble than it is worth. On the other side, the donation is $1500 for two seats or $2500 for center court. These are the ones more likely to be a stretch to get into and where enough can be recouped to make a difference. Or in the corners where a $600 donation for two seats. So it really is a question of what you consider high donation seats. I am in a corner and while I consider the donation high (relative to what was available before) I don't have a problem. If someone is in the $1500 area and wants to get rid of extra tickets, OK. Might feel different if it was Wilson Club but not much. And if the opposing fans were that disruptive outside of normal fandom (more than just being loud), could always go to authorities to have it addressed as there are ushers and police. Again, it would require them to be a lot more than just annoying. Think how the screamer was handled and that was an NU fan. If someone was drunk, rules against.
There would likely never be a majority involved in the resale market. Too much of a hassle. But there are always those that have extra tickets or cannot go to a particular game and for whom getting something back is better than nothing. Could be sold outside (I have done so on occasion for FB and would do so for BB if appropriate but that requires being there and with two tickets would mean I only have one to sell which is tougher) Selling online is a possibility but I am not well versed in it plus you have to be thinking enough ahead of time.
I have been told that getting ST for FB for the purpose of reselling is not a winning hand. Generally only have a couple games that could be resold for anything significant and hard to more than break even. Last year might have been an exception. BB on the other hand has been fairly profitable in the past. A ST was around $300 and there could be several (5-10) $100-200 /ticket games throughout the year depending on who was coming to town. This year might have included IA$, MI$, IN$$, IL$ already. Other $ draws include WI, MSU and OSU with PU at a slightly lower level. If you knew what you were doing, it could be fairly profitable. Harder in the lower deck with the donations required but if those seats sell for enough of a premium...
Last edited:
Actually I was just explaining the truth to you. Lack of fans for some teams,(i.e.) white sox and Rays for example just about equal NU.
