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Unbelievable. If any of you are members at www.ncaabbs.com, go check out the NIU page. They are already making excuses as to why they won't sell out the game. Anything from "It's on T.V.," to "It's the first day of Yom Kippur," to "It's high school football night" to "The university didn't market it enough" is a viable excuse in Dekalb. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If they can't sell this game out, then there is something seriously wrong with their fan base.

And how much do you really have to market this game after it was featured NATIONALLY on Gameday last year? I'm blown away...

I personally hope no one shows up.

I don't even if it will be easier for us to win, ESPN will never give the MAC a regular season game again if we ever show signs of poor attendance at a telivised game. I love the falcons, but the conference needs our support just as much.

The better question is, would BG sell this game out on a Friday night?

Hard task the way that NWO loves its highschool football!

I'd really be surprised if this thing doesn't sell out.

And since when does DeKalb has a big Jewish community?

As far as their "fan base", have you been to Dekalb lately? It is not exactly a metropolis. It is even more in the cornfields than Bowling Green. The easy response is yeah, but they are close to Chicagoland, surely they have alums and plenty of people in the suburbs to go support the Huskies. Well, football to people in Chicagoland is played on Sundays, they don't give a rats tail to most college football , let alone MAC football. Not defending them in saying the game shouldn't sell out, just stating some reasons as to why this may not happen.

I give them a TON of credit for how well they have drawn the past two seasons.

If this game doesn't sell out, I am guessing it will be very close. There may be some empty seats, but I am guessing just some here and there. Remember, we played a MAC Championship Game on national TV last year against a Top-25 team and had thousands of empty seats at our place. That did not look good on TV, nor did the final score for that matter.

I feel prettty sure there will be a nice crowd on hand at NIU on Friday night.

BGSUfanatUT wrote:I don't even if it will be easier for us to win, ESPN will never give the MAC a regular season game again if we ever show signs of poor attendance at a telivised game. I love the falcons, but the conference needs our support just as much.

TV networks could really care less if the game is "sold out" or not. They really only care about the TV ratings. If the game sells out, bonus. But a sellout does not ensure good TV ratings, so they don't really care. The interesting thing will be how the ratings are on a Friday night. As "redskins" pointed out, it's on a Friday night which is high school football night in the football belt, so the BG/NIU game may have some competition.

BGSU33 wrote:If this game doesn't sell out, I am guessing it will be very close. There may be some empty seats, but I am guessing just some here and there. Remember, we played a MAC Championship Game on national TV last year against a Top-25 team and had thousands of empty seats at our place.

I was there, and I disagree with this interpretation.

We broke the 30,000 mark that day. As you know, that's over capacity.

The place was as full as I've ever seen it.

Keep in mind that:

1. The stands aren't typically full at kickoff. People are still filing in at that point -- and on that day, the line to get into the east stands was massive.
2. The eastside, which faces the cameras is always less crowded than the other side (although, on that day, any difference was subtle indeed).
3. Falcon Club members always have the option of heading for the tent for the game.
4. Many (and my group is notorious for this) head for their cars at halftime for refreshments. Often (and my group is also notorious for this) they don't return precisely for the third-quarter kickoff.

We had 24,813 there (several thousand below capacity) and the East side stands had lots of empty seats in the top corners before and during the game. Yes, this is the side TV shoots a game from W-E (I wish they shot from the other side, E-W). It was a nice crowd, I'm just saying the stadium wasn't full.

BGSU33 wrote:We had 24,813 there (several thousand below capacity) and the East side stands had lots of empty seats in the top corners before and during the game. Yes, this is the side TV shoots a game from W-E (I wish they shot from the other side, E-W). It was a nice crowd, I'm just saying the stadium wasn't full.

My bad. For some reason, I thought you were talking about last year's NIU game.

Yeah, the crowd for the MAC title game could have been better.

The problem was, BGSU had five days to sell tickets. That's terribly short notice. And with so many of our fans needing to travel long distances to games... it wasn't enough notice.

Bleeding Orange wrote:Unbelievable. If any of you are members at www.ncaabbs.com, go check out the NIU page. They are already making excuses as to why they won't sell out the game. Anything from "It's on T.V.," to "It's the first day of Yom Kippur," to "It's high school football night" to "The university didn't market it enough" is a viable excuse in Dekalb. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If they can't sell this game out, then there is something seriously wrong with their fan base.

And how much do you really have to market this game after it was featured NATIONALLY on Gameday last year? I'm blown away...

I think a lot of us have been guilty of making the same excuses. Whether it is a 1-aa team, its over thanksgiving, tv, osu, the bgnews etc. They had a nice crowd two years ago. I would say from the growing importance of this series there is no way there will be less people there this year.

The Falcon Club Bus is SOLD OUT!!! Hopefully there are a lot of people driving there too!!! Wish I could go, but with it being on Friday night....(our son plays in the high school band and since BGFan is taking the bus to Dekalb.....) 8)

Schadenfreude wrote: The problem was, BGSU had five days to sell tickets. That's terribly short notice. And with so many of our fans needing to travel long distances to games... it wasn't enough notice.

Not to mention the weather forecast for that day. I believe it turned out all right, but the days leading up to that game, they were calling for the mother of all ice and snow storms. That kept me away, though I had already bought 4 tickets that went unused.

kdog,
You bring up a valid point. And SF is correct as far as the MACC. BG had less than a week to sell tickets to a game on a Thur night. I thought it was a solid crowd. Comparable to what Marshall and UT drew for their title games.

There will be very few empty seats Friday night...

GO BG!