Wednesday, November 4, 2009
LTP Vault Finale: Iowa Edition
It pains me to link to a Dark Ages story involving an Iowa drubbing, but an LTP regular sent me this link today recapping the almost unbelievable use of The San Diego Chicken as a Homecoming draw against Iowa in Rick Venturi's 17th game. Iowa pounded NU 58-6 and a late passing TD sent Venturi in to an irate state to the point where he refused to shake hands in the postgame. The most notable point for this crowd is the fact that a 1-14-1 Venturi tenured program (entering the game) drew 27, 000+ which would be the second best attendance mark in 2009 after a 9-3 season. Sorry for the painful memory but I wouldn't have believed the San Diego Chicken stunt if I hadn't read it here.
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11 comments:
Any game- even a loss- that hastened the end of the Rick Venturi regime gets a +1 in my book. What a freaking nightmare those years were. Enough so that Dennis Green won the Big Ten Coach of the Year award a few years later while winning only three games.
To have a competitive and exciting team play in an empty stadium is pathetic. When they are drawing crowds less than the "mildcat" era there is no excuse.
I've heard the blame is put on the economy yet 71000 saw the NU/Mich. State game. The economy here is worse than Michigan's?
They blame the kickoff times but what about the low turnout vs. PSU? How come the crowds at the rest of the conference don't have this problem?
They blame the poor crowds on the students not being on campus but what about the lousy numbers with school in session?
The only excuse is terrible and ineffective marketing and promotions.
Call the box office and the outgoing message does not tell you basketball tickets are on sale(just one example).It talks about football,soccer, and volleyball. At most schools basketball is a revenue sport.
Hopefully a.d. Phillips will achieve his goal of higher attendance but it ain't happening.
One forgets that there was no TV for NU games back in the Venturi era and there was also no TV broadcasting competing games to the degree available today. Even in the modern era Rosebowl year few people had cable and Dish was still being invented.
This nugget was interesting:
"Bobby Stoops, No. 1 free safety, suffered an ankle injury on the same play on which Harty was hurt. His playing status is in doubt."
@ kay The rest of the the conferences teams have their games televised but look at their attendance #s.The other teams draw fans from all over the state yet instead of television they drive long distances to watch their team. No other team on NU's schedule is in a sport market the size of the Chicago area where millions of people can hop on a train to go to the games.
I've had cable since the mid-eighties as did most people so your other point is also without merit.
The NU tems at that time were embarrassingly awful. To compare Fitz's 'cats to the Venturi teams is pointless(as the NU offense often was back then).This team is coming off a 9 victory bowl game year.They have a winning record this year. They do not lose games by 50 points.To blame it on tv is wrong.
@Cat -- seriously, walk the talk. Where is your earmarked donation to NU Marketing? Are you hosting tailgates and bringing/inviting your friends/clients to NU games? Where are your low cost ideas to better market and promote the Cats?
Last Saturday, NU Marketing put on Alleyween, had a nationally televised late game against at top-10 opponent, had post-game fireworks, had thousands of fans sign up online to get Darnell Autry painted purple, put out an email video for the same that fans could forward on to friends, handed out purple claws and capes to fans, had a costume contest, and coordinated with all the area local governments to let them know that trick-or-treating/fireworks were happening at Ryan Field.
You think that's not effort? Well where are your genius advertising ideas?
I'm sick of so-called fans "blaming" NU marketing for attendance...the fact of the matter is that A) they have no resources to do anything else than what they are already doing, and are stretching a dollar further than EVERY other Big Ten program; B) our local alumni chapters HAVE to do a better job of organizing local alums to go to games; and C) really, ALL of us need to bring in more casual fans and make gamedays fun. To lay this at the foot of marketing, without backing up the talk with some action or financial support to go along with it from yourself, is frankly useless scapegoating.
@chaddogg All of the marketing efforts that you praise were complete failures and a total waste of resources.
Forget Allyween, no kids were there as they went trick or treating- a waste of dollars. A lot of the empty seats at the stadium that day and I'll bet those with kids weren't there.
Forget fireworks. Fireworks are for warm weather nightgames. Plus it was very poorly promoted. No one watched them as the crowd was going home. Another waste of dollars.
People may have signed up to see Darnell get painted but they did not come to Ryan Field to watch the game.The only way you would know of him is if you already are an NU fan. This preaches to the choir. Another waste.
Take those $ and advertise in the Tribune/Sun Times sports section that tickets are available.Have clever slogans/pitches.
If those marketing programs were effective why did the PSU game have only 3000 more fans than the "mildcats" drew in the 58-6 blowout?
I will not give a penny to market NU as the idiots there will blow the money and waste it.
They need real marketing professionals
In the Daily Northwestern of 10/15/09-"I'm happy with the way things are going" Hitz said. "We're where we need to be. For the future, we will look to keep up our success."
22000/game is success? The worst attendance in the largest sport market in the conference is success? A winning team coming off a 9 victory bowl game season should draw like this?
This grassroots marketing is a bust.
Your loyalty is commendable. Please look at the numbers. They tell the real story.
@Cat -- ahh, I see, the old advertise in the paper and they will come trick.
Just curious, but how many people that you know read the Sun-Times or Tribune on a daily basis?
I probably know 10 people, maybe, out of the hundreds of people I know in Chicago that read the sports pages of those papers, and thus would ever see your claimed "miracle" ad campaign. Plus, I imagine the cost of an ad like that in the paper probably was MORE than all the other efforts NU took for the PSU game -- efforts that did work in getting a larger crowd than normal this season (pretty remarkable, too, given that PSU is the only Big Ten school with a smaller Chicago-based alumni base than NU).
Newspapers are dead. TV ads are cost prohibitive. Radio ads are pretty worthless too.
The best advertising is word-of-mouth, friends telling friends, etc. So improving the gameday atmosphere -- the Goose Island, the Alleyween, the fireworks, the painting of an ex-Northwestern legend, the face-painting of children, the tailgates at SPAC (NU Marketing also set up Jumbotrons at SPAC showing the early games to entice young alumst to tailgate) -- ALL of that makes NU games more memorable for fans, and makes them more likely to come back and bring friends.
But hey, if you want newspaper ads, pony up -- write on your check that you want to pay for a newspaper ad that you approve of for NU Football, and I'm sure they'll call you and get it done exactly to your specifications (they have to use donations specified for a specific purpose that way, or not use it all, and I doubt they'd turn down someone who wants to put a "witty slogan" ad in the paper if they can pay for it).
You can defend the marketing(sic) all you want.22000/game sucks! Numbers do not lie.
I guess the Bulls, Blackhawks, etc. are all wrong and Nu is right. Silly me.
How much money is NU paying in salary and benefits to a staff that sells no tickets?
Dismiss them and you have 6 figures to hire a professional sports marketing firm to sell football and basketball.
@Cat -- the fact that you compare the Hawks/Bulls/Bears/Cubs to NU shows how absurd your argument is.
Those are "PROFESSIONAL" teams with multiple revenue streams -- television, radio, in-game advertising, concessions (particulary beer, which NU cannot sell), league revenue sharing, luxury boxes, ticket sales, merchandise, etc. Throw in the incredible tax breaks they get from local citizens/government ponying up for their stadiums, and it's a pretty sweet deal.
More importantly, all the revenues they generate can be poured DIRECTLY back into the product....unlike NU, where football revenues help pay for field hockey, soccer, swimming, cross-country, softball, volleyball, wrestling, golf, tennis, lacrosse, etc. etc.
As for your "fire the staff, hire a marketing firm" plan, that's brilliant -- you hire a marketing firm for 6-figures (which, frankly, is low-balling by at least 1 digit what a top notch media marketing firm would charge for a sports team account), and then have no money to actually PAY for them to market the brilliant ads they come up with.
Look, I'm not saying 22k a game is success -- it's clearly not -- but that cannot be laid at the feet of marketing. NU's Chicago alumni board (particularly Young Alumni) need to work harder to get local NU alums heading to games. You and I and other fans need to bring our friends, host tailgates, and build a word-of-mouth buzz about NU games. The Chicago media need to actually cover Northwestern football (seriously -- despite being a college football team that has been pretty successful, in Cook County, and reachable by El or Metra, we get almost NO local sports media coverage in a sports CRAZY city....which baffles me given the general popularity of college football in this country and in Chicago). The Big Ten and Evanston need to allow more afternoon/night start times, and the tailgate scene HAS to improve. We need to schedule better non-conference opponents. We need to win more. Wealthy alumni (or just all alumni) need to donate to the Athletic Department with an eye towards increasing funds for marketing and improving the gameday experience (targeted gifts for new NUMB uniforms and NUMB scholarships to increase the band's size, gifts to improve Ryan Field's stadium sound/video system, funds to improve Ryan Field, funds to buy billboard/TV/radio advertising, etc.). And, sure, marketing also needs to explore more innovative marketing ideas (like viral video commercials, social networking, etc., which, in fact, they are already doing).
We need improvements in a lot of places....so to lay blame at marketing is just wrong.
@ chaddogg I suppose the the best thing to do is just agree to disagree.
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