Battle for Illinois

[Hamdonger]

Well Illinois and Missouri do the bragging rights game. They fill Scottrade to see which team is not the worst in the two states. Kinda sad concept.

Sad concept??

It's a freakin great game. Like an 80's ISU/Bradley game. GREAT concept. Now, would I like to see Illinois play a state school...us in particular? Heck. YES.

 

[Hamdonger]

What promotions can you do for students to get to games? We have some students who are very active at games, but we have a lot of open seats and a lot of students who come and aren't engaged. You can't motivate everyone, but can we get a few hundred more active and involved students? Perhaps work out some donations for Greek house philanthropies to help motivate these houses.

An extra credit question on every quiz that can only be answered by attending the game and getting the answer there

That or free stuff. Beer would be good. A buy one get one free Zone with a student game ticket and coupon received at the game

Actually not a bad idea.

Games are an EVENT for the student body. Or it least they should be. Like a freakin party without being crammed into a 200 sq ft living room and someone throwing up on you.

 

[Hamdonger]

Like a freakin party without being crammed into a 200 sq ft living room and someone throwing up on you.

Everclear 190 and koolaid in a 55 gallon drum. Fall 1989. Totally green freshman. SigmaPi. BAD idea. bscene-tolietclaw: Trust me.

Just stick with the koolaid. Oh...and stay thirsty my friends.
"...I-S-U GO!!"

 

[Phantom]

This conversation comes up 586 times per year. The answer is always simple: Win.

Winning creates buzz. Buzz creates interest. Interest creates energy. Energy creates atmosphere. Atmosphere re-creates buzz. That acid-tested buzz increases attendance. And voila!

Look back over the years at the most highly attended, raucous student-laden crowds & seasons we've had and I about guarantee you there were a lot more W's than L's in the results column. You can run gimmicks and promos all you want, but what you'll see are Greek organizations that show up late and bolt at halftime, or students who are there but sitting on their hands and not into the game. Students need to remember they are a BIG PART of the game and that point must be hammered home to them.

Oh, and winning too.

 

[crazzymark]

.....ugh.....

 

[TreRoberson4Heisman]

This conversation comes up 586 times per year. The answer is always simple: Win.

Winning creates buzz. Buzz creates interest. Interest creates energy. Energy creates atmosphere. Atmosphere re-creates buzz. That acid-tested buzz increases attendance. And voila!

Look back over the years at the most highly attended, raucous student-laden crowds & seasons we've had and I about guarantee you there were a lot more W's than L's in the results column. You can run gimmicks and promos all you want, but what you'll see are Greek organizations that show up late and bolt at halftime, or students who are there but sitting on their hands and not into the game. Students need to remember they are a BIG PART of the game and that point must be hammered home to them.

Oh, and winning too.

Agreed. Anyone can go to the Pub to drink and watch. However, when it comes to winning, there were some solid end of year attendances like how the UCF game was ROCKIN. As Al Davis said, “Just Win Baby”...and they will show.

 

[bb fan]

Yeah, it comes up very often. Our admins are not creative. they don't work hard enough coming up for reasons for fans to come to the games. Yada, yada, yada. I will ask again as I have before.... what are we missing? What would you do? I go to many sports events at many different venues throughout the years. I am not seeing anything else out there, at least not very often where I say "we need to do that type of ball toss", "or we need to give out pizzas that way". Someone, anybody tell me specifically what we need to do that you think will put more butts in the seats from a promotion / game experience standpoint. I actually think we do this stuff better than most. As other posters have said, there is one big thing we can do, and that is to WIN. Period.

 

[Bird Friend]

Like a freakin party without being crammed into a 200 sq ft living room and someone throwing up on you.

Everclear 190 and koolaid in a 55 gallon drum. Fall 1989. Totally green freshman. SigmaPi. BAD idea. bscene-tolietclaw: Trust me.

Just stick with the koolaid. Oh...and stay thirsty my friends.
"...I-S-U GO!!"

Was the Kool Aid. Should've gone with Hawaiian Punch and lots of cut up fruit. Eat the fruit, let the others drink the punch. You get just as much alcohol, but also some sustenance to keep things a little more even keel.

 

[bird]

Yeah, it comes up very often. Our admins are not creative. they don't work hard enough coming up for reasons for fans to come to the games. Yada, yada, yada. I will ask again as I have before.... what are we missing? What would you do? I go to many sports events at many different venues throughout the years. I am not seeing anything else out there, at least not very often where I say "we need to do that type of ball toss", "or we need to give out pizzas that way". Someone, anybody tell me specifically what we need to do that you think will put more butts in the seats from a promotion / game experience standpoint. I actually think we do this stuff better than most. As other posters have said, there is one big thing we can do, and that is to WIN. Period.

Pay Snoop Dog to sit courtside and claim he is a lifelong ISU fan.

 

[chuckie1980]

So if this is really some type of promo push to get some momentum behind the Mo Valley magic...

WHERE's THE BEEF?

This SHOULD and COULD be the prime example of pushing the right buttons to up the ante in the excitement category. FOUR TEAMS ON TOP of the VALLEY are from ILLINOIS??

 

[Redbirdwarrior]

Honestly, I think it's a great idea. Via RPI, right now. The top 4 teams in Illinois are all in the Valley

Loyola: 53
Bradley: 72
Illinois St: 84
SIU: 94

Others:

Northwestern: 95
Illinois: 158
DePaul: 180


The team that wins the Valley will be the best team in this state... again.

On a sidenote: Boy, U of I really has been terrible for awhile, hasn't it? How can a team that ALWAYS gets AT LEAST three 4-star players and has a bench full of 3 star players always end up being so terrible. Horrible athletic culture down there at the moment.

 

[Redbird28]

Honestly, I think it's a great idea. Via RPI, right now. The top 4 teams in Illinois are all in the Valley

Loyola: 53
Bradley: 72
Illinois St: 84
SIU: 94

Others:

Northwestern: 95
Illinois: 158
DePaul: 180


The team that wins the Valley will be the best team in this state... again.

On a sidenote: Boy, U of I really has been terrible for awhile, hasn't it? How can a team that ALWAYS gets AT LEAST three 4-star players and has a bench full of 3 star players always end up being so terrible. Horrible athletic culture down there at the moment.

I think that worm is going to turn sooner rather than later. Underwood knows what he is doing. It's just a matter of time until it's his guys on the roster and not Groce's guys. When that happens I think they will win more than their fair share of games.

For this season, though, after the stunt they pulled on THT/Simeon during the signing period I hope they keep getting bit in the tail end by all the instant karma they've been experiencing.

 

[Trey_Guidry4three]

If anyone actually thinks illinois will play in something like this needs to be smacked upside the head with a crow bar

 

[Redbirdalum_15]

If anyone actually thinks illinois will play in something like this needs to be smacked upside the head with a crow bar

I agree. It’s embarrassing that people think that. Go eat some more cheese curds from the pub 2, geesh

 

[bombay]

One of the Schmidts tweeted tha Mark Smith will transfer, per Illini board. There will be more to follow.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

One of the Schmidts tweeted tha Mark Smith will transfer, per Illini board. There will be more to follow.

I noticed his minutes really tanked as the season progressed. In fact, as I watched a little of the Illini/Iowa game last week, I started wondering what the heck happened to him. But they finally put him in. I would certainly welcome the reigning Illinois Mr. Basketball and 6'5 point guard. I thought he looked pretty good in some early season games I watched.

 

[Bird Friend]

One of the Schmidts tweeted tha Mark Smith will transfer, per Illini board. There will be more to follow.

I noticed his minutes really tanked as the season progressed. In fact, as I watched a little of the Illini/Iowa game last week, I started wondering what the heck happened to him. But they finally put him in. I would certainly welcome the reigning Illinois Mr. Basketball and 6'5 point guard. I thought he looked pretty good in some early season games I watched.

Just remember, you haven’t seen him in a Redbird uni, so it’s all just hype at this point.

 

[Hrtnfldhse]

Illinois, Illinois State, Bradley, depaul, northwestern, bradley, Southern Illinois, loyola. 8 team 4 game showcase cannot face a team from your conference.

play this at the United Center on a Saturday in December Me and a friend were just talking about this over the weekend

 

[Racine Bird 3813]

Why wouldn't Illinois play this? Northwestern for that matter too. Wisconsin plays the other in-state D1 schools (Marquette, Green Bay, and Milwaukee each year). I believe Iowa, UNI, Drake, and Iowa St have a rotation and I think Indiana and Purdue rotate playing Butler and another in-state school but I am drawing a blank. Indiana also plays Indiana St quite frequently.

 

[CB2K]

This generates no interest at all. Playing other Illinois teams besides the one's already in your conference has been mentioned but the ones you really want to play will never agree to it -- U of I and Northwestern. It still amazes me that Iowa has their nice state competition going each year with Iowa, Iowa State, Drake and UNI. The only thing that really would draw fresh interest as it relates to men's basketball is adding a couple of more really good teams to the Valley. We have all debated this quite a bit on this forum but it would be nice to add some new quality teams and continue to rebuild the Valley brand.