You’re still demanding the team win before you’re willing to get loud. That’s the problem.
Crowds all over the Pacific Northwest region go to football games expecting they can affect the outcome. 12th Man Penalties. Seahawks and UW, but also Oregon, WSU, ORST, Seattle Sounders soccer (!) all show up at games ready and willing to make as much noise as possible. I’ve been in these crowds. We are cheering ourselves and want our teams to give their all.
Maybe if Illini football fans were screaming from the opening kickoff, the opponent might false start. We do this stuff here. It’s a point of silly pride. Let’s mess with the visiting team.
The last Illini game I went to with my dad in person was around 2021; a non conference game. Moribund crowd, half empty stadium. Made me a bit annoyed. But of course I behaved myself and didn’t rock the boat.
I’m sorry but y’all have to deliver your energy every game win or lose. Or you aren’t worth performing 100% for. Bielema would love to have it. Might mean the difference between a win and a loss.
I said absolutely no such thing. Those that are still diehards are willing to get loud from kickoff and cheer, myself included. That's not the problem. The problem is that the general public and people new to Illinois football (and by new I mean under the age of 35 at this point) have seen 1 winning regular season in the past 16 years and 2 in the past 22! They haven't witnessed back to back winning regular seasons since 1988-1990! What I'm saying is that it's an extremely tall ask for your normal John Q public fans to fill a stadium up and get rowdy game in and game out when a team has a winning season only once every 10 years. Now let's talk about your examples:
Seattle Seahawks:
-1 non-winning regular seasons since 2012 (Illinois has had 11 in that same time period)
-The last time the Seahawks had 3 consecutive sub .500 seasons was '92-'94
--In that '94 season, the Seahawks attendance figures the final 4 homegames (66.0k capacity) were: 37.5k, 54.1k, 39.6k, 53.3k:
avg. 69.9% capacity
--Interestingly, Seattle for how vaunted you say their fans are had difficulty showing up and being loud when their team was mired in mediocrity
Washington Huskies:
-2 non-winning regular seasons since 2010 (Illinois has had 13 in that same time period)
-Washington had 6 sub .500 seasons from '04 to '09. During that time though, their attendance was still extremely good (70.1k capacity): last 4 were 59.7k, 57.0k, 70.4k, 64.0k:
avg. 89.5% capacity
Oregon Ducks:
-1 non-winning regular seasons since 2005
-No consecutive sub .500 seasons since 1986
- No point in comparing, they're not us
Washington State and Oregon State both are at least a little more comparable record wise to us although they both have had far more recent success (WSU with 3 non-winning regular seasons since 2015, though OSU with 7 consecutive losing seasons from 2014-2020 is our most comparable team). The problem is that their stadiums are basically half the size of ours so any comparison attendance wise is somewhat apples and oranges. WSU did have significant issues filling their stadium during their lean years despite it only having a capacity of 33,000. OSU was better, mainly in the 80% capacity area but they only hold 35.5k.
So overall, I know this may be surprising, but there does seem to be a fairly strong correlation between winning and attendance. You win, more people come and get loud. You lose for 30 years, it's a much harder ask. Washington is an interesting case that does suggest they have an extremely loyal fanbase, but when you consider that the Seahawks, Huskies, and Ducks had a combined total of 4 non-winning regular seasons in the same time period that we alone had 11 non-winning regular seasons, it's just a tough comparison.