Spruced-Up Ryan Field, Sponsorship & Season Tix Spikes

By Lake The Posts on

This post was supposed to be a recap of Saturday’s Camp Kenosha scrimmage. Well, I’m calling an audible.  Great things came out of today’s practice at Great Lakes Naval Station, but we’ll get to that first thing in the morning. Northwestern’s marketing team once again stepped up to steal the spotlight. Many of you pointed out the Sun-Times tidbit today announcing a 44-foot Pat Fitzgerald banner that is being placed on the south tower of Ryan Field facing the Central Street/Ashland intersection.  It’s presented by Discover and is surely a revenue generator as part of the new marketing/sponsorship outsourced team at Northwestern. You can see the article and the rendering, including the consistent “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” slogan here.

Additionally, the main photo you saw was sent to me by a friend which  also under the “this marketing team kicks butt” file. As you can see, the exterior less than desirable portions of the stadium exterior are being transformed in to branding opportunities for Northwestern football. Again, the “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” exteriors are reinforcing the marketing campaign, this time on site. You’ve got to be excited about all of the little things that add up to one big thing – gaining mind share of area college football fans.

Sponsorship of LTP & Sailgate

LTP has never offered a sponsorship before. Well, today is the day that it changes. We are looking for one generous sponsor to pledge $2500 to become the official sponsor for the LTP Army Sailgate. In addition to the following “day of” perks, I will give said business or individual, site on the site for the month of September (estimated 75,000-100,000 visits).  Plus, you get association with a very cool event that includes:

  • Sponsor logo on 600+ LTP Sailgate T-shirts to be worn by the diehard Wildcat fan base at the September 17, 2011 game at Army.
  • Ability to mingle with the same said fan base which is comprised of a ton of movers and shakers passionately tied together by NU football.
  • Two tickets for the full sailgate package.
  • Name/logo association with all correspondence in relation to Sailgate within posts on this site and emails to the recipients.

Interested? Contact me at laketheposts@gmail.com and let’s get a deal done!

Season Ticket Sales

Well, the day isn’t over yet and we’re on pace to break the single day spike in LTP Purple Pledge tickets. We’re at 15 and counting today as folks have really stepped it up. We’ll be publishing a new leaderboard tomorrow as soon as we tally all the sales. It seems like the +1 push AND the opening of single game ticket sales really moved the needle. Let’s keep it going. We can get to 200 this week at this pace, no problem.

Hoop Scoop

Got a newspaper link/tip today from Nick pointing out that two future ‘Cats hoops commits are now on the same team. It turns out Milos Kostic, a junior to be, has transferred from Bishop Knoll HS in Indiana to Traders Point Christian Academy near Indianapolis where he’ll join 2012 C recruit Alex Olah.  According to this article, Kostic is moving as his legal guardian got a new job in the Indy area.

  • DT

    @LTP-
    Maybe if you have a sail on one of your boats large enough to accomodate the 44 foot Fitz ad, Discover might kick in the 2.5K you seek… What the heck, spiff em four seats on board the three hour tour so to speak, comp food and bar, and game tickets and you should see 5k! Maybe, a limo ride from White Plains as well?

  • Mark

    OK, consistent with the fanaticism shown daily herein I defend the 2010 offensive line and implicitly the 2011 O line. I went to the 2010 play-by-play at ESPN. The only games still not up were Illinois State and Central Michigan. Here’s what I found re penalties:
    Vanderbilt – 1 10 yard holding penalty on Mulroe
    Rice – No penalties on the O line
    Minnesota – one false start for 5 yard penalty, one false start for 5 by J. Schmidt, and two offside penalties (I don’t remember being at the game if these were lineups off sides or not as these and the other false start are unattributed.)
    Purdue – 2 10 yard holding penalties on Ben Burkett and another holding penalty declined.
    MSU – 2 penalties on Netter, a 5 yard false start and a 15 yard personal foul. (An illegal block by J. Schmidt for 15 yards and a personal foul on Demetrious Fields for half the distance of 14 yards.)
    IU – an unattributed 10 yard holding penalty, another holding penalty declined on a Persa sack, and a 15 yard interference call against Dunsmore.
    PSU – No penalties.
    Iowa – Netter 5 yard false start and a holding call against Keegan Grant.
    Illinois – A 10 yard holding penalty on NU’s last possession with 35 seconds left.
    Wisconsin – False start on Rooks, 5 yards.
    Texas Tech – One five yard false start.
    Given the above I’d say the O line had very few penalties. Rooks and Dunsmore are Superbacks, Schmidt was the tailback and Fields is a wide receiver. I can’t do the analysis of ISU and CM but the Cats won both games so the penalties didn’t cost any victories.

    Oh, and I was encouraged reading the play-by-play because Jacob Schmidt made many, many important plays for the Cats. I had really forgotten that in my enthusiasm for Trumpy and Smith.

    Bottom line: for this team to contend for divisional and conference titles every unit will have to step up and play better than last year. But this team was in contention for good parts or all of every game last year. This team is more experienced and deep. I also agree with LTP that Fitzgerald now is more interesting to listen to – he’s dropped a lot of the coach speak and platitudes.

    Go Cats!

  • Flo

    Wow, Ryan Field is starting to look less and less like a prison

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  • matt mcclure

    Certainly it seems Ryan Field could improve the fan experience in a number of straightforward paths:
    1. Replace all season ticket seating with individual chairback seats. This is a no-brainer.
    2. Keep the west side towers and arched upper deck, but gut the concourses to improve flow and reduce the ridiculous wait times for food and for the restrooms. Wider, brighter with more Northwestern flavor and history.
    3. Put an elevated restaurant/beer garden at the south end of the field–maybe above the ticket offices and have it as an elevated deck. This could also act as event space in good whether if done correctly.
    4. On the east side add chairbacks between the 30-yard lines and add a group gathering space that allows one to look east toward the lake and westward back into the stadium.short,
    5. Build one multi-tier lounge/restaurant/gathering space on the west side–maybe in a tower? This space should be where Wildcat Fund donors, season ticket holders, etc could gather together.

    In short, improve the fan experience for both the hard-core fans and alumni who attend games all the time and offer some more upscale spaces for just those folks and a couple of other spaces for more casual fans. I suggest examining not Baylor’s stadium, but Colorado State’s new facility and perhaps Cal’s improvements. It does not need to be as over-the-top as the new practice facility, but a reasonable number of significant improvements for dedicated fans to improve their experience while honing NU’s history is in order.