How much are NU sports "the local team" for N. Shore & N. Suburbs? (Chicago: houses, buy)

[edsg25]

How much of a sense do you get that Northwestern's football and basketball program is seen as the local college team (when it comes for fan support) for both the North Shore and the North suburban areas?

NU seems to have its far share of support. purple t shirts are very common.

but what exactly is the sports relationship between school and its portion of suburbia?

Public universities are easier to tag. Illinois gets support from Illinois. If you are 170 or so miles from Champaign, that can be difficult. But the team is clearly identified. NU claims to be "Chicago's Big Ten team" and despite being private going up against the old State U, it more than holds its own in Chicagoland....the alumni base is a fraction, but proximity works in droves for NU over U of I.

So, as noted: where do you think NU stands with the community? And how does this compare with the typical private university in major sports (Duke, Stanford, Vandy, Tulane, Rice, Syracuse, Miami, TCU, SMU,etc.). I realize that both ND and USC have an edge up on the competition....but where does Northwestern fall compared to the rest of the field?

[chet everett]

NU has a weird history as mostly inhabiting the lowest tier of competition within the Big 10 with occaisional brushes of respectable performance. There are certainly many more Big10 alums in the regionthat went to schools that routinely spank NU than anyone that "roots" for the Wildcats in a feverd manner. That said it is pleasnt enough to stroll through Evanston and catch a game. Honestly in any "sports bar" in the region the odds of finding fans rabidly entranced by an NU game as you'd find when Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue,Penn State, Indiana, or Wisconsin playing is remote.

I"d say it might have sumthin' to do with being a private school in a league of Stste school powerhouses but that school in Indiana with the Golden Dome and more national fans than any other would seem to shatter any such myth.

Other private schools that manage to have legacy of dominance in one sport or another include Duke, USC, Stanford, Georgetown and others.

Chicago sports fans are largely pro sports fans -- Bears, Bulls, Hawks, Sox and oh yeah that other baseball club are all "big city" fan favorites...

[ks-man]

I'm sure any North Shore women's lacrosse fans are 100% purple...

7 Titles in 8 years

[chet everett]

I here the numbers that pulls are one of the leaders on "the Ocho"

But seriously women's lacrosse is not exactly a "watch out for traffic jams / let's all tailgate" kind of sport even at the east coast prep schools where it has a much longer tradition. Then again the division leading White Sox aren't exactly swamped with scalpers reselling tickets to throngs of crazed fans either.

Maybe if Northwestern moved the games from Evanston to some kind of an athletic facility in Lakeview where many "entertaining and dining establishments" are located...

[lakecountylifer]

I have lived in the suburbs all my life and myself, friends, family, co-workers rarely if ever mention NU sports. Most could care less.

[nikitakolata]

I don't think NU is "Chicago's Big 10 Team" despite the ads. My husband is an NU alum. We have season football tickets and go to just about every home game but the stadium is almost never full and the games that it is full it is full of the other team's fans. I think the fact that NU is an expensive, private school is part of that. Another part, IMO, is that the tickets are just plain over priced. I went to U of I and so we have season tickets there as well. The U of I season tickets cost half as much as the NU tickets and, I can easily sell tickets that I'm unable to use. It is much more difficult to sell NU tickets in the event that we cannot make it to a game, and we usually don't get even face value for the tickets.

Also, as Chet said, NU doesn't usually play all that well in comparison to the other big 10 teams that have a bigger alumni base in Chicago.

Personally, I enjoy the NU games almost as much as the U of I games. I'm a person that is likely to be sporting a purple shirt in Evanston during football season. Of course, when they're playing the Illini, I'm 100% orange and blue.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

I don't think NU is "Chicago's Big 10 Team" despite the ads. My husband is an NU alum. We have season football tickets and go to just about every home game but the stadium is almost never full and the games that it is full it is full of the other team's fans. I think the fact that NU is an expensive, private school is part of that. Another part, IMO, is that the tickets are just plain over priced. I went to U of I and so we have season tickets there as well. The U of I season tickets cost half as much as the NU tickets and, I can easily sell tickets that I'm unable to use. It is much more difficult to sell NU tickets in the event that we cannot make it to a game, and we usually don't get even face value for the tickets.

Also, as Chet said, NU doesn't usually play all that well in comparison to the other big 10 teams that have a bigger alumni base in Chicago.

Personally, I enjoy the NU games almost as much as the U of I games. I'm a person that is likely to be sporting a purple shirt in Evanston during football season. Of course, when they're playing the Illini, I'm 100% orange and blue.

I have no disagreement with you and Chet on the traditional nature of NU football. But it would be hard to argue that that didn't change pretty dramatically back in (I believe) 1995 with Gary Barnett and the Rose Bowl...and all that would follow. During those 15 of so years, it would be hard to argue that NU was a bottom feeder in the Big Ten, nor that the program hasn't been at least at the level of the Illini, and arguably better; in many ways, NU has been into a different league from the likes of IU and Minnesota.

and another argument could be made that both from a facilities and PR perspective, NU is far more doing its job than it had through much of its history. It is taking sports seriously and doing so in a non-Penn State sort of way that can only work to its advantage.

my point: the past may not be prologue. NU doesn't just have potential with the fan base. I do think there is a degree of connection taking place. Issues need to be addressed; surely the ones you mention about ticket prices.

Notre Dame is not a model because of special conditions: historic, legendary, connection with Catholic America, independence status. But USC is a model. USC is private, smack dab in the middle of the nation's second largest metro; NU is private, smack dab in the middle of the third. Both are elite schools and if one has traditionally struggled against the state universities that dominate its conference,the other has dominated those state universities in its own conference; the other private university in that conference up there in Palo Alto has more than held its own vs. the Pac 12, too. Both schools have a winning record against their cross town public rivals in both the Bay Area (Stanford-Cal) and LA (USC-UCLA).

TCU packs in the fans in Fort Worth despite being in a two college football market with SMU and the Cowboys being on the scene. Baylor plans a large new stadium.

Look around...there are a lot of purple t-shirts out there. I don't think things are where they could be, but I think they have improved and I think there is greater potential.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Look around...there are a lot of purple t-shirts out there. I don't think things are where they could be, but I think they have improved and I think there is greater potential.

I definitely agree with you there. I also think Pat Fitzgerald has been an excellent coach and that NU can really make strides with him as head coach. The unfortunate fact remains that NU has never won a bowl game... I hope that changes soon.

I think that NU could gain more fans if they were to build a better stadium and lower their ticket prices to a more reasonable level. I know that NU is in a more expensive area than U of I, but that doesn't mean the tickets are worth twice as much to the fans. I buy them because my husband really loves going to the games, but they don't have a huge alumni base of support that they need to justify the prices. The case in point would be my husband's many friends that went to NU and still live in Evanston. None of them ever go to the games. In the 5 years we've had season tickets none of his friends have ever expressed any interest in coming to a game with us. My friends (almost exclusively Illini fans) have come to several with us though, even though they didn't really even care about NU. They come to the NU vs. Illini game every year when it is at NU.

It makes me a little sad how empty Ryan Field is when we go to the games. Especially when you consider that the stadium is so much smaller than the stadiums at the other Big 10 schools I've visited.

[chet everett]

Most of the folks are probably too young remember anything earlier than Dennis Green's ignominous reign at NU, where their 34 game losing streak was (is?) a NCAA record. That era was one during which the schools that went "counter culture" really separated themselves from those that saw the total value in having a balanced academic and atheletic powerhouse.

Prior to his legendary run Notre Dame the success of Ara Pareseghian at NU would have made a bigger impact on NU's perception if there was less friction from the AD (Stu Holcomb, who also had history with the White Sox ...) and more of a committment to attract the kinds of student-atheletes that were attractted to USC, Stanford, Notre Dame and other such schools.

NU has had a fair amount of controversy even around its renaming of Dyche Stadium and its incredibly bad luck such as Randy Walker's sudden death and the bizarre murder of basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong. Coupled with the sort of quirky / high academic performing mix of kids that often are the bulk of it undergrad student body, and the very disjointed nature of the professional schools (which are all quite strong in their own right, but due to history and physical limitations a lot less synergistic than they could be..) it is no surprise that atheltics are kind of a shadow / afterthought. It could worse - head to Hyde Park...

[ChacoGirl]

My husband has degrees from both NU and Purdue and the difference in fans completely different. Everything at NU games is so laid back and the expectation of winning so low compared to other schools. I saw nothing that resembles the tailgating I knew from my days at WVU, even taking the lack of burning furniture into account. I think my husband is part of a very low percentage of NU grads that actually care enthusiastically about the schools teams. If the library had a team, thats who the student body would cheer for.

Until we had our child last year we had season football tickets to NU and I was blown away at how cheap they were compared to my families WVU season tickets.