Sponsorship, Sailgate & Tidbit Tuesday

The time has come.  For the first time in the four year history of LTP, sponsorships of the site are now officially available.  I’ve held off as long as possible clinging to the fact this is a passionate hobby (it is), but the daily off-season audience is growing to a point where it is silly not to capitalize on some revenue streams. Specifically, I have designs on upgrading the site with new features, more writing support and better all around coverage. However, it will take some support to do so.  I’d really like to make this sponsorship “within the family” of Northwestern diehards so we can support one another, however I’m open to any potential sponsor as long as it makes mutual business sense (no gambling, no porn etc..). 

The real tipping point for this leads in to my next point – Sailgate.  The overwhelming support for the floating tailgate up the Hudson River to the September 17 Army road game has been tremendous. Unfortunately, the price point for the charter options – including roundtrip time, idle time, food costs and the like is in teh $25K-$30K range.  I’m counting on about 150 slots being taken and the pricepoint, considering we still need to add tickets to the mix, is a non-starter for me to offer to you.  I’ve been in constant communication with the university, who, while very helpful, has had variations of several different plans, but an open-to-the-masses floating tailgate option is not one of them.  I was hopeful the NY Alumni Club or the NU development office would want to invest in supporting an event that offered 150 captive audience members for three hours each way.  However, the official university tailgate is already on the map and is part of a weekend-long series of events that includes campus tours of West Point and the like. 

So, after putting out the plea for a Sailgate sponsor in hopes a financial services firm would want the same audience, I’ve come up empty.  Now, I’m willing to offer a year-round sponsorship on LTP along WITH underwriting the cost of the Sailgate as part of an exclusive founding sponsor package.  My man Scott in NY/NJ who is helping with the logistics on the sailgate is working on an alternative option which would be a one-way sailgate with a bus option on the way up.  The university brass will be doing a private charter and we unsuccessfully tried to work out splitting the costs and taking the other leg of the journey.  So, the bottom line is it is on us to come up with a financial sponsorship package that makes this make sense for the Sailgate, or unfortunately I will have to pull the plug.  Email me at laketheposts@gmail.com for more information on sponsorship. 

Northwestern Night At Wrigley

Fitz, the diehard White Sox fan, will once again be biting his lip as he dons the Cubs jersey in honor of NU marketing tonight at Wrigley Field. It is Northwestern night at the Friendly Confines and Fitz will be singing the 7th inning stretch.  More germaine to you, you can meet up with NU fans and meet Fitz at Mullen’s Bar before the game. The Wildcat event tips off at 5pm and Fitz will be in the house from 5:30 pm – 6:15 pm (send pix!).  Tickets are available for the Cubs game and also the Mullen’s event – go here to the NU Club of Chicago for all of the info!

Recruiting News!

CSCat teed up a tip on an offer to Maryville, TN QB Patton Robinette several weeks ago.  Now, the 6-5 state champion QB has narrowed his list and Northwestern is on the short list according to WildcatReport.com.  Louie V. is quick to point out that while  Robinette is listed technically as a pro style QB in the data base, he is clearly a dual threat.  Patton  led his team in rushing (971 yards and 11 TDs) and put up sick passing numbers  (1,804 yards and 21 TDs, with just 1 INT) for the Tennessee Class 6A championship team.  Robinette wouldn’t list the other schools on the short list but acknowledged NU is on it.  Robinette has several FBS offers (like Purdue, Vanderbilt, several others) and the list continues to grow. On paper he seems like the perfect NU fit as he is looking for a program that is excelling at both academics and athletics and he snared a perfect ACT score to go along with his dream football season. 

Programming Alert

We’ve got one themed week under our belt (Boston College).  Next week we’ll be doing a “non AQ week” and knocking out three teams in one week – Eastern Illinois, Army and Rice.  As you can imagine, it is tough to find much info on Eastern and Rice is pretty thin as well. Army deserves its own week, but the theme just seems to fit too well to pass up lumping all three in to one week.  That will leave eight additional themed weeks and we’ll be diving in to Nebraska after “non AQ week”.  If you know of any Eastern experts, send them my way!

Perplexed By Penn State

This is incredible. Penn State head coach Ed Dechellis has left the Big Ten school to become head coach at Navy, shocking most of the college hoops world.  Northwestern fans are likely the happiest as Talor Battle just went through his entire Penn State career without losing to Northwestern.  The news, shockwaves and fallout are all here.

Purple Ticket Pledge

Ring it up. We’ve had our best 24 hours of the quest for 500 new season ticket holders as part of our LTP Purple Pledge. Vaudvillain scooped up four tickets yesterday and today I learned Brian G. and Steve M. net an additional four tickets to add to the board. We’re closing in on 10% of our goal, but have a long way to go….

LTP Mailbag

Several of you have inquired about the whereabouts of RB Alex Daniel.  I contacted Northwestern sports info and Daniel has been suspended for a violation of team rules. There is no timeline on his return at this point.

Stat Historians – Research Project?

I recently inquired about Rich Falk’s scoring record at Welsh-Ryan/McGaw Hall (49 points vs Iowa in 1964) which, while listed as the NU single game scoring record is not listed as the Welsh-Ryan Arena record.  After the renovation was done in 1982-83 there is speculation that the then SID may not have had all of the old box scores and thus used the renovation point as a way to draw a new starting point.  I’d love someone to step up and help dive in to the history banks to ensure that we have the home arena records and box scores as far back as we can go so that we don’t miss any historical stats.  The arena hasn’t moved since it was built and while there have been renovations, a key part of history for basketball is missing.  If anyone wants to step-up and help piece together missing box score files let me know and I’ll direct you to NU sports historian and NU historian extraordinaire, Kevin Leonard.