Sailgate Sales Strong Yet Spots Still Open, Practice Day 3, NCAA Tide Turn & More…

SAILGATE UPDATE!

Day one of sales was a strong one for our Sailgate, Army road trip package, but there is daylight for those of you that were late to the waitlist or not yet on it.  Please note, if you are on the waitlist and have not ordered – ORDER NOW – because if you don’t your ticket will be sold to someone else. I highly encourage those of you thinking about purchasing but haven’t because you’re not on the waitlist – to order – NOW. Many have purchased less than they thought on the waitlist.

There are 120 tickets for the FULL SAILGATE PACKAGE and according to our waitlist we have more buyers than tickets. So here is how this will work. If you are on the waitlist you must still click on the link below and purchase the tickets you wanted. Just because your order went through DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE ON BOAT #4! It depends on where you were in the waitlist line. If you are say, #139 but not all 120 have purchased then you are a maybe. How will you know? READ THIS. If you are in for certain you will get an email tonight from our fearless leader Scott Sloane that will confirm you are on it. If you are beyond #120 on the waitlist you will get a message asking for your patience. Waitlisters have until Friday at 3pm et to place their orders. If they don’t you move up. You will be notified if you make it by Friday night. IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT YOU WILL GET A FULL REFUND WITH NO PENALTIES. Again, there is no limit to tailgate and/or game ticket packages. Here are the revised pricing options which have added a few dollars as our expanded tailgate requires us renting big wedding-style outdoor tents to accommodate the masses. BELOW ARE THE PRICING OPTIONS:

Boat + Tailgate + Game Ticket (adult) $138.00

Boat + Tailgate + Game Ticket (child 4-10) $128.00

Tailgate + Game Ticket $75.00

Tailgate Only $52.00

Game Ticket Only $23.00

Boat Only $63.00

Ready, Set…PURCHASE TICKETS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, you purchase tickets by clicking on THIS LINK which will take you to a subpage and you select your option and total tickets you want to purchase. THERE IS NO PHONE NUMBER TO CALL. This is 2011, so you know the drill. If you have ANY issues, post a comment. LTP will be out of pocket for much of the day, however we’ve got folks monitoring the site for any issues. TICKETS FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE END FRIDAY AT 3pm ET!  Tailgate and game tickets are strong but there are still 40 tickets to be had to fill boat #4.  Several folks have bought less than they thought, so I encourage those of you that are not on the waitlist to give it a shot and purchase tickets if you’ve been thinking about it!

Now back to football..

Practice Day Three News & Notes

The ‘Cats strapped on the pads for the first time in fall camp and the level of intensity reportedly picked up a few notches on Wednesday.  Not a ton of ink on the specifics of day three from the Northwestern beat teams out there.  However, yesterday appeared to be more of a feature driven day. Kain Colter got the Tribune love by Teddy Greenstein and you can just truly get a sense of Kain’s confidence and charisma by his quotes of wanting to ruin Persa’s Heisman campaign by earning the starting job. What sounds like pipe dream talk is something you’ve got to love and respect about the game-changing QB who carried us in the TicketCity Bowl. Fitz gushes about Colter as does McCall and they continue to insist not only that they need to find ways to get him on the field, but that he for certain WILL be on the field this fall. Fitz ALWAYS caveats the follow-up by saying he won’t say how which leads you to speculate.  Will he be a WR? A RB? Or, is he going to platoon him at QB in down/distance QB run situations?  Check out the Trib piece here.

WildcatReport.com dug in on the second biggest developing story of fall camp, that being Ben Burkett’s now shift from C to RG.  Burkett seems to be all in on the “best five” lineman on the field concept even if he’s been replaced by a RS frosh, Brandon Vitabile.  Fitz’s comments about not experimenting were softened by OL Adam Cushing who acknowledged you try different things until it works as Louie Vaccher also noted that Paul Jorgensen will be definitively a tackle so no more experimenting there.  The much maligned OL definitely has a new look to it and it will be interesting to see how Brandon and Ben stack-up against BC as all Wildcat eyes will be really paying extra attention here.

Finally, a nice piece here on SB Drake Dunsmore and his ability to shake the injury bug so far as well as his morphing in to more of a leadership role. Skip Myslenski had the honors on NUSports.com. 

Persa Strong(er)

Take the next five minutes and click here to read this great Thayer Evans story on Fox Sports.com about the Dan Persa/Randy Walker connection. Frankly, it merits its own post as it goes to the heart of the integrity of Walk AND Fitz that reflect well on NU. It’s an emotional roller coaster and makes you realize what could’ve been had Fitz not responded exactly how he did to the Persa family when Coach Walk passed in 2006.   Thanks to Omar for the tip. 

Separately, several of you have forwarded the podcast by Stewart Mandel and his interview on Fitz. Well, the NU alum praised NU for its marketing efforts with Persa Strong despite the fact he cites that no Heisman winner in the past 20 years had a preseason campaign. He’s right when he says it is about getting the coverage in the media circles throughout the season (the one major downside to our night games on BTN) but wisely claims that’s not the bigger picture purpose. It really is a tool to spread the name of NU and Stewart and I share the same sentiments that Joey Harrington’s groundbreaking Heisman campaign in 2001 did just that for the Ducks who are now known everywhere, albeit lately for scandal, but you get the point.  The Harrington Times Square billboard stunt was the tipping point for buzz around the program. 

Innocent Until Proven Purple Court

An interesting marketing development yesterday. JHodges was tweeting about an imminent announcement of the NU hoops court selection, which has received national attention for including an all-purple option. Then, NU postponed the announcement until further notice. COMPLETE speculation on my part, but it makes you think that the national media attention tilted the scales to the purple court and that insiders at NU are saying “really, do we REALLY want this?”  I personally think it cheapens the brand a bit as it feels gimmicky.  From a marketing perspective this is a case study in social media and online community doing what NU would have hoped, if it is indeed a purple court. The buzz was created.  However, the demographic of the social media users skews much younger and again, making a leap, current students and recent grads are more likely to vote for an all purple court than the non social media types who I’d stereotype as more traditional, conservative and brand guardian types. It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out.

Illini Get New AD: From Cincy

I just love seeing Northwestern getting positive print in the articles surrounding the announcement of Illinois’ hiring of the new AD, Mike Thomas from Cincinnati. Here is one of many examples of the article pointing out that Jim Phillips was the top choice, yet NU was able to ink him through 2020.  Note the go-to emphasis on facilities as Thomas claimed an Assembly Hall renovation was a top priority.  Ron Zook, your hot seat begins now. It’s off to an unfortunate start as the bellcow basketball program took a PR hit as former Illini Jerome Richmond is making police blotter and negative sports news for threatening to shoot a man with a gun. Not good.

Coming Up…the NCAA Pivot

Some soundbites with teeth at the NCAA summit and it favors the ‘Cats AND the Michigan Man.  Stay tuned.