Week 6 News & Games

#26      
Fighter of the Nightman
Mr. Tibbs said:
I was there too . 50/50 is about right . we were more vocal as we had more to be excited about that game .

that was the first game there . perhaps the novelty for them has diminished & it will be more like 55/45 or 60/40 in our favor
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I met friends in Wrigleyville for the game they played against Iowa last year (even though I did not go into the game), and it was at LEAST 85% Iowa. Not that easy to tell initially from the picture since a lot of Iowa fans wore black, but I literally saw hardly any Northwestern fans on Clark Street.

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Their game vs. Purdue in 2021 only drew 31,500 fans, and clearly fewer than that showed up:

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Even if we think it will be a more even split this year for a variety of reasons (e.g., NU fans wanting to "hold ground" vs. Illinois more than an out-of-state team, worse weather in late November, Iowa fans treating it as a vacation rather than a "trip downtown" for many Illini fans in the suburbs, etc.) ... I think many of those reasons will be offset by (A) the Illini having a better year than expected *knock on wood* and (B) Northwestern being a lot worse this year than last year.

IMO, we should not overestimate the Wildcats' enthusiasm for another Wrigley game, haha. I'm guessing an absolute minimum of 60% Illini fans, and my actual bet would be around 70%. In addition, I am quite confident that it will be Illini fans driving attendance. It will either be an embarrassing 31k like the Purdue game with 22k of them being Illini fans, or we will bring 30k+ fans in a sellout scenario. Let's hope it's the latter!
 
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#27      
Illini2010-11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I met friends in Wrigleyville for the game they played against Iowa last year (even though I did not go into the game), and it was at LEAST 85% Iowa. Not that easy to tell initially from the picture since a lot of Iowa fans wore black, but I literally saw hardly any Northwestern fans on Clark Street.


I'm guessing an absolute minimum of 60% Illini fans, and my actual bet would be around 70%.
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And the 11/16 game at Wrigley will easily be 85-90% Scarlet and grey. As it comes to colors for Illini/NW game, I think a lot will be determined how the season plays out. If the Illini are 9-2 or 8-3 entering game, probably close to 75-80% orange and blue; 7-4 around 65-70%; 6-5 around 60%; 5-6 expect many vacant seats in the game and who knows the breakdown. So my optimistic view of life is that there will be at least 70% orange and blue at the game.
 
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