Not sure why this was rejected, but the posting address for football-related posts is:
Football: discourse2+northwestern-football-post@lists.tssi.com
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2024 10:18:39 -0400
From: Sportsbiz sportsbiz@gmail.com
To: NU Sports List discourse2+736144a2e8a700943e92373a3ce38784@lists.tssi.com
Subject: Northwestern’s Tiny Football Stadium Is Making Big Money
Maybe Ryan Field really doesn’t need to be rebuilt…
?
As I recall, the Big Ten has a minimum average attendance policy that the temporary stadium doesn’t meet. Maybe the lakefill isn’t solid enough (even after 60 years) to hold a 25K capacity facility, but it might have given NU an edge that few schools have. Too bad it was apparently never even given serious consideration.
I don’t think there is physically any way to fit many more seats into that space. Not without either destroying the field hockey field or extending the lakefill farther into the lake. Just no room. Nonetheless, I think it’s the best of the options they had, although it was a shame to see people leave the EIU game so early—the south stands looked empty well before the end of the game.
Tom
Well, they certainly didn’t hesitate knocking down the old stadium, but Field Hockey has actually won national championships.
The could fill in the northwest and southwest corners which especially the northwest would give a lot more seating.
Our season ticket base is OLD. At 52 we’re still pretty young relative to the rest of the crowd. Especially with night games it is super hard to stay up that late as I’m pre-10pm bed time. I used to be worse when I was getting up at 4:30am.
For those who have not been to the new facility:
Behind the south stands there is an expansive tailgate area. In that area you can find food, merchandise and, best, big screens to watch the game.
In planning this experience, and it is an experience, the thought was some significant number of people would opt to hang in the tailgate zone.
This is one of the big reasons — if not reason No. 1 — the south stands in particular can/do look empty.
Go Cats
I think that’s true at a number of schools, I’ve heard the same said about Nebraska fans, many of whom have had tickets for 30, 40 or even 50 years. And the younger generation isn’t always interested in taking over those tickets. (When my father-in-law died, we were offered the opportunity to take over his pressbox tickets, if my computations were correct, the total cost per year would have been over $20K for 4 tickets.)
We bought Blackhawk tickets with assistant coaches at a basketball booster auction. I think it was Maureen and I with Mitch Henderson and Ivan Vukic. The 4 tickets at a season level we were the equivalent to the cost of 2 Honda Accords per year at the time. Ouch!
I remember when the Chicago Fire first started up back in the 70’s before we moved to Nebraska.
Season tickets were just about as expensive as Bears tickets.
Let’s face it, TV and high net worth donors effectively run college sports.