Now, listen closely, I reached this conclusion after a long and deliberate thought process. In other words, this is coming completely off the top of my head.
The Northwestern football team doesn't need a new seven-man sled, custom made, bright purple shoulder pads or a fresh supply of monogrammed chin straps. No, The Wildcats desperately need John McDonough and his unlimited marketing genius.
You think I'm kidding. Check the box office for NU's first three home dates. The Wildcats drew a whopping 17,857 versus Towson. Twenty bucks says you don't know where Towson is. Another twenty says you don't care.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald needs to get out of Evanston
Legitimate Chicago broadcast legend and the pioneer of sports talk radio. Also teaches courses in humility.
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Northwestern's last two home games pulled 19,000 with Eastern Michigan - often referred to as the Texas A and M of Yipsilanti - and a lofty
22-and change versus Minnesota.
I know what you're asking did the box office misery at Northwestern begin three hours ago? The answer is no. In fact during the course of my long and reasonably checkered lifetime the 'Cats have almost always been a full-blown 24 karat gold ticket dud. You will never hear "scalper" and Northwestern football in the same sentence.
Yes, there were a couple of brief windows under Ara Parseghian a half century ago and Gary Barnett in the 90's when Wildcat football was somewhat sexy. But for the most part, over the years, NU football has been a Big 10 dead beat. An empty phone booth. Kiddieland shut down.
Trust me, I have sat in Ryan Field all too many times and heard drunks dressed in maize and blue, or scarlet and gray, absolutely suffocate the pristine cheers of Northwestern faithful. All 22 of them.
So what's the problem? Who's to blame? Uh, how about Northwestern? Year in year out while bragging about the Medill School of journalism and noted gun freak Charlton Heston, the NU marketing department sets new records for completely failing to sell the gridiron product.
The bottom line: Pat Fitzgerald needs to look elsewhere. I know he just signed a new deal that supposedly keeps him in Evanston through 2015. I also know this: nothing says "busted" quite like a hot young head coach armed with a new contract.
Pat, you're too competitive to remain in Evanston. You know that and your agent knows that. Look for a school that doesn't hope to play for a National Title, look for that institution that demands its grossly underpaid student athletes compete for a National Title. The numbers don't lie Patrick. Your Alumni doesn't give a damn about football.
DID YOU KNOW?
Rich King is now and has been for years the most underrated sportscaster in Chicago...I like the Bears to win Sunday versus Detroit but I like the red hot Lions riding a jazzy one game winning streak to rip the guts out of the ten point spread...The White Sox are just giddy over Johnny Danks throwing a complete game. Hey, why not, that leaves young John just 241 wire-to-wire performances behind Bert Blylevelen...You're right, it disgusts me that the BBWA hasn't voted Bert into Cooperstown.
I know what you're asking did the box office misery at Northwestern begin three hours ago? The answer is no. In fact during the course of my long and reasonably checkered lifetime the 'Cats have almost always been a full-blown 24 karat gold ticket dud. You will never hear "scalper" and Northwestern football in the same sentence.
Yes, there were a couple of brief windows under Ara Parseghian a half century ago and Gary Barnett in the 90's when Wildcat football was somewhat sexy. But for the most part, over the years, NU football has been a Big 10 dead beat. An empty phone booth. Kiddieland shut down.
Trust me, I have sat in Ryan Field all too many times and heard drunks dressed in maize and blue, or scarlet and gray, absolutely suffocate the pristine cheers of Northwestern faithful. All 22 of them.
So what's the problem? Who's to blame? Uh, how about Northwestern? Year in year out while bragging about the Medill School of journalism and noted gun freak Charlton Heston, the NU marketing department sets new records for completely failing to sell the gridiron product.
The bottom line: Pat Fitzgerald needs to look elsewhere. I know he just signed a new deal that supposedly keeps him in Evanston through 2015. I also know this: nothing says "busted" quite like a hot young head coach armed with a new contract.
Pat, you're too competitive to remain in Evanston. You know that and your agent knows that. Look for a school that doesn't hope to play for a National Title, look for that institution that demands its grossly underpaid student athletes compete for a National Title. The numbers don't lie Patrick. Your Alumni doesn't give a damn about football.
DID YOU KNOW?
Rich King is now and has been for years the most underrated sportscaster in Chicago...I like the Bears to win Sunday versus Detroit but I like the red hot Lions riding a jazzy one game winning streak to rip the guts out of the ten point spread...The White Sox are just giddy over Johnny Danks throwing a complete game. Hey, why not, that leaves young John just 241 wire-to-wire performances behind Bert Blylevelen...You're right, it disgusts me that the BBWA hasn't voted Bert into Cooperstown.
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9 Comments
backslap said:
Chet: You lose all your credibility when you say NU played Eastern Illinois-the Texas A&M of Charleston. Too bad NU played Eastern Michigan that second game, had even been paying attention. And while your at where's the article about how Illinois draws flies considering they average about 40,000 fans and they have 35,000 built in fans in the student body. Nobody cares about Illini football in this state either and they only draw when the opponets bring fans.
Chet Coppock said:
backslap....i only missed by about 300 miles... just answer one question: does the university do anything to sell its football product? thanx, cc
bmiraski said:
Northwestern's game was against Eastern Michigan, not Eastern Illinois.
Chet Coppock said:
uh, i failed geography twice at new trier.....
backslap said:
Like how you changed it to: the often reffered Texas A&M of Ypsilanti now. I do not know which is worse the 5 minutes I lost forever reading this or the 5 minutes I lost forever leaving a comment
Chet Coppock said:
no, i've got something worse......... your school has how many million people in the chicago land area who wouldn't know ryan field from lane tech stadium. illinois can draw from a metropolis like normal...... you have how many millions of people to draw from in cook and the collar counties????? ah, time for a nap.... hope the cats bust up purdue.....
backslap said:
For over 30 years the Cats sucked (Thats 30+ years of alums and local fans who couldn't care less) and no one gave a rats arse. Since '95 you know the drill Chet - 3 Big Ten titles (more than any other Big Ten school other than the Holy Trinity of Big Ten Football Factories - OSU, Mich, State Penn), 6 bowl games,etc. Not bad for a 30 year dormat in the BigTen.The school has 7,000 students half of which are brainiacs who don't care about football. So what is your suggestion? its a pro sports town and we have a decent product but no one cares but us die-hards. Absoultely no college sports teams in this area draw...DePaul, Loyola, UIC - nope. The Illini played at Soldier Field a few years ago against Washington State when Turner was the Coach and drew 30,000 coming off a bowl season. Chicago cares less about college sports so what is your suggestion???
Chet Coppock said:
just curious what does northwestern actually do to hustle its football product... what am i missing?
BColeKid said:
I grew up in Chicago and I went to Northwestern. I will try to explain the unexplainable. There are 8k undergrads at Northwestern, and a fewer percentage go to games than other Big Ten schools, due to the social make-up of the school. No marketing effort could fix that, but even if it did, the undergrads could not make up the attendance disparity with other Big Ten Schools. I also think the Chicago area does not identify with Northwestern because of its snobby reputation and private school status the way Columbus and Ann Arbor identify with their schools. The marketing department tries pretty hard to sell more tickets, but if you brand your school as exclusive in one section of the marketing department, it is harder to do otherwise in another section.
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