Perception or not, we’re still missing out on a shit ton of money now and moving forward by staying stuck in our stubborn ways and not adjusting something that is not very difficult, for no apparent reason, other than stubbornness and / or stupidity
OT'ish: NW's "New" Ryan Field Update Student "focus"
- Thread starter AreYouNUTS
- Start date
I’m missing your point. What can we do now to get more donations? What is it that we need to adjust to?
I think RU is already doing everything necessary except winning a lot more often. Do that, and the rest will take care of itself, although it will take time as students becomes grads and then some of those grads inherit money, or become entrepreneurs, or CEOs, etc.
But without winning more regularly, and generating the excitement that comes with that, all the other stuff (branding, student outreach, whatever) won't amount to much of anything.
I don't know if that formula is true elsewhere, but it sure seems very likely to be the case at RU.
Waiting around for some fan of RUFB or BB to strike it rich and donate hundreds of millions is waiting for luck. RU needs to find a way to make it's own luck instead of waiting around for it.
It's the logical question in this day and age of NIL. I would've tried to convince the donor to endow an NIL fund in their name instead.
But if they refused to do that for some reason, and insisted on funding a building, then I'd obviously still take it.
But it's very dumb.
Every school has a spring fling or winterfest that mixes students that are of legal drinking age with underaged students with wrist bands to mingle and drink...the reason why the Alley was stopped after 2 games was because no oversight of underaged drinking. the location is perfect for a small gathering, not sure why its not used for "upscale parking" ...also didnt help that Hobbs catching a 12 oz can from 30 ft made the headlines/. If RU wanted to they could fence of a location for bands and beers on Busch campus near the stadium and not worry about the county and johnson park...frankly im surprised more of johnson park is not used for parking....
They could be if they spent that kind of money funding an NIL trust. Do it right and the trust would be funding itself in perpetuity.
People are so dumb with their money sometimes.
Not alienating students, to the point where they won’t bother going to games, and thus won’t get the college football experience, and in turn, won’t feel the need in the future to get season tickets, donate to Boosters, or fund NIL as they won’t have that emotional attachment to the school or the program in general
Students don’t care about free tickets
Great, have a chance to win a free tv in between cops breaking balls and giving underage drinking tickets - awesome!!
Maybe we should just provide blow to enhance the game day experience
Maybe we should stop breaking their balls and realize they’re the future fans (a.k.a. backbone and money) of the football program, and become like every other school in the country, working with them to provide a valuable and fulfilling game day experience
No school works with the students to figure how they can drink underage. Students showed up for Washington. They were a no show for Minny. Lets see what happens with this Saturday.
No school provides alcohol for them, but no other school besides us that I know of enforces underage drinking to the point where it turns students away via overzealous police officers writing underage drinking tickets like they’re giving out Halloween candy
It’s not warranted, completely uncalled for, a blatant money grab, and turn his kids off to the point where they don’t wanna come back
That would have the added benefit of getting them cheer even louder.
This will work because it will be objectively a great place for non-football fans to hang out on a Saturday, if they can handle crowds. And the low capacity is the key, because if it is high (or even normal Big Ten capacity), you’d be too full of visiting fans every week.
As for the price tag, NU’s sugar daddy, Mr. Ryan, is willing to pay to know he made a unique legacy that even the biggest college football programs can’t match.
I find it so lame they built a much smaller capacity stadium.
I’m sure it’ll be state of the and look amazing , etc. and possibly even quite loud given the design.
But man , spending That kind of money to significantly down size is nuts for a big ten school
I’m sure it’ll be state of the and look amazing , etc. and possibly even quite loud given the design.
But man , spending That kind of money to significantly down size is nuts for a big ten school
I completely disagree that its lame. If you’re Northwestern, there is a very clear ceiling to your fanbase (elite private school located next to a major city), so why not preserve home field advantage by guaranteeing the hottest ticket possible?
I wonder if they have a master plan to price a visiting luxury suite around six figures per game? That might be a move when you consider how many Big Ten alumni are working chicago corporate jobs.
Purdue recently downsized its stadium (with the premise being they would hold on to the ability to expand if demand is there). Purdue had to do this because what was once the world’s largest scoreboard and end zone bleachers sections was always overtaken by fans of visiting OSU/Michigan/Penn State fans, to name a few
Last edited:
I'm surprised they went this small (35K), instead of 40K, since their average attendance has been higher than 35K for 5 of the last 10 seasons (stats below), but the trend has been to reduce capacity and add more amenities and upgrade the experience. We should do the same by converting most seats to individual (oversized) chairbacks, except for the student section, adding new club seats and suites on the west side to get capacity to 50K, party deck, upgrade concessions to have real cooking equipment, add a large videoboard over North end zone and other large screens/videoboards throughout the concourse, and upgrade the sound system.
Baylor (55K to 45K), ASU (75K to 65K to 54K), and Stanford (85K to 50K) all reduced attendance as well. The new Bills stadium reduces capacity from 72K to 62K seats (plus 5K standing)
Northwestern attendance:
2023: 23,257
2022: 28,697
2021: 30,679
2019: 37,736
2018: 43,873
2017: 35,853
2016: 34,798
2015: 33,366
2014: 38,613
2013: 39,307
You’re really not listening. The stadium was falling apart. They needed a new one. The Ryan family specifically earmarked their money for this and, I’m pretty sure, they know what they’re doing with their money.
Doesn’t mean that they don’t donate to NIL or won’t in the future. My guess is they do and will.
Moreover, when someone with that kind of coin calls you and says they want to donate nearly a billion dollars towards a new stadium (and, it just so happens you desperately need one), it's probably not a good idea to try and sway them in another financial direction
They can vote, get drafted, smoke, but don't dare allow them to drink.. even though those that want to, do already.
gonna guess they will make a lot of money with other events.. place is gonna be booked solid
