Northwestern/Illinois Football game at Wrigley?

[Jon]

But I will say that while I think this was/is a great idea, it's not something that should be repeated. At least anytime soon for Northwestern. The seats, including great ones for baseball, are awful for football. With the minimal incline on the lower level, the number of people constantly getting up and walking around, the vendors, and the people on both sides who got wasted prior to the game, it made it very hard to see the game from my 1st row seat in 123. 400 seats were probably great and bleacher seats, especially RF, seemed pretty decent, too. And for a baseball game, people doing those things isn't a big deal. But it's quite problematic for a football game. For a game at Wrigley, you have to charge a lot more money for worse seats. My ticket cost $150 when I have a 1st row seat at the 25 yard line in Evanston that costs me less than $40 for a Big Ten game, I believe. It's a sacrifice you make for a game like this for marketing purposes, but especially since the marketing impact for doing this again would be far less, it's not something you want to do again.

 

The compromised football sightlines at Wrigley didn't keep the Bears from selling tickets, and similar setups in Milwaukee, San Francisco and San Diego thrived. Ryan Field wins on sightlines, but Wrigley wins on accessibility from the city and desirability - Wrigleyville is a far better pre/post hangout than the NU campus. Football fans like the neighborhood just as much as baseball fans.

 

I think the Cubs were inspired to go forward with football despite the rules setback dealt by the Big Ten. NU could happen again, and they might get ND to come once in a while. A Big Ten title game is a pipe dream so long as Soldier Field is a candidate. Long-term, it is conceivable that the family would look to a full-time college football partnership to help finance improvements to the park. Schools with far less revenue potential than DePaul and UIC have started D1 college football programs in recent years.

Season ticket sales is their priority, though, not single game tickets. Season tickets went up 40% this year, in large part thanks to this game, but next time around people would know that they'd be able to get tickets on the secondary market for less or even through tickets.com after some are released. There was the feeling when NU was selling season tickets that you'd be left out if you didn't buy season tickets. Hell, some Illinois fans got season tickets for what turned out to be for no reason. When you're charging more than 3x the amount for a game at Wrigley to season ticket holders than a game in Evanston, I don't see it working more than once. It was fine for the Bears because that was their home They also had temporary bleachers which made a big difference, though I heard the LF bleachers turned out to be pretty good. But when you have a high % of season ticket holders who have good seats and also skew towards the older side, a repeat isn't going to make them happy at all.

 

Besides, they're going to be investing in the athletics facilities pretty shortly. They're spending a $1 million on a survey/evaluation of their current facilities to get plans for the future. There's going to be a different Ryan Field in 5-10 years and the timing of moving another game to Wrigley wouldn't be ideal on that alone.

 

I don't see any other school moving a game to Wrigley based on limited attendance alone. The last time Illinois played in Evanston (2008), the official attendance was 32k. Not many schools will benefit from a 41k seat capacity.

 

I'd imagine the Cubs will try to go for a bowl in the next bowl cycle starting in 2014, similar to what the Yankees have done. They'll be in a tough position in the midwest, though. I'm not sure how high up in the bowl selection order process they could get themselves. And they may have to go for it without having another football game take place there between now and then.