NU Hosting Football Season Ticket Holder Event Before N.C. A&T Game

Northwestern is hosting an event for football season ticket holders before the game Sunday against North Carolina A&T. I think this is a great idea and I’m hopefully it will generate some return customers from football fans who don’t traditionally show up for basketball games. I know people aren’t impressed with NU’s 22,000 fans for football, but when you consider that getting 4,000 people to a non-conference basketball game is a victory, 22,000 looks pretty good. While I realize there are reasons some football season ticket holders don’t come to basketball (i.e. a 2 hour drive is easier to make on a Saturday or Friday night than a random Tuesday) the fact is I’d be confident in betting there are at least 2,000 NU football season ticket holders in Chicago who aren’t basketball season ticket holders. This is a group NU needs to target. If you add those 2,000 fans to the 3,500-4,000 that show up regularly at Welsh-Ryan it would mean that NU could have close ¾ of the Welsh-Ryan full every game. That would be an impressive total for Northwestern. Therefore, I encourage anyone who reads this to encourage any football season ticket holders they know who aren’t regulars at Welsh-Ryan to attend the event Sunday and stick around for the game. Hopefully, they’ll find reason to return.

Also, remember the game on December 16th versus North Florida will be on ESPNU. Without the students Welsh-Ryan make look pretty dead on national TV (and it’s a lot more national now with ESPNU’s increased distribution) therefore let’s try to get as many as possible out to that contest as well.If NU is smart they'll fill the seats behind the baskets with people who they move for the lower level or make the night a group night and have the groups sit in the student section.