Start with nervous anticipation. Add some bad plays. Overlay a history of losing.
And you get some boos. It comes with the territory. I can't imagine a bigger 1 year turnaround than what Cignetti has achieved. A few boos wont detur anything.
My 40th season attending games. There have always been a mix of knowledgeable and fair weather fans. All I know is that was by far a better attended game than most home openers I've attended. And certainly not the first round of boos I've heard. Yes, I want a sell out, with very few leaving at half, and all invested in the team and its performance. But for the time being, I'm glad to see more tickets sold and revenue up. Let's keep winning and this will most likely solve itself.
Made it from southern Alabama last week and will be there again this week.
Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!!!
p.s. I was one of the knowledgeable attendees, my wife was one of the less knowledgeable ones. But she was there whistle to whistle, screaming her head off!!
Agree.
To take the positive angle: It was the best attended non-P4 home opener we’ve had except 2021 Idaho which was about the same, and that game had the tailwind of folks excited to get out after being stuck at home for over a year. Tickets this year were probably around 2x the price of that Idaho game too.
Anyone at the game — knowledgeable or not, leaving early or not, is not part of the problem. They spent their time and money on IUFB.
The problem is the folks who won’t come in from the tailgate or don’t come to Bloomington at all. And I’m not blaming them — if they’re not interested, they’re not interested, it’s a free country. IU needs to convert them to attending fans.
I wish we were further along in fan interest, but we’ve made progress.
Here is the latest on remaining tickets from Trevor:
Kennesaw State: 10,091
Indiana State: 9,411
Illinois: Sold out
MSU: 3,597
UCLA: 3,746
Wisconsin: 6,759
Another 8+ win season and ticket sales will keep increasing. Rome wasn't built in a day.
@tammany it’s really hard to accept that Purdue can get over 52k off a 1-win season and IU can’t get over 48k coming off a CFP appearance.
yes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but a least there was some effort.
@thehoosierhuddle You’re right. That’s a tough pill to swallow.
Even though I posted some positives I was disappointed. Right now the admin is all-in with the big contracts for the staff, the donors are doing their part with improved NIL (of course more to do there), the students left a little early but the sold out their 11K section and bought 1-2K more seats beyond that, so they’re doing their part, and of course they were great last year. Our alumni and non-alumni fans of IU (usually bball) are lagging.
The early games will be better attended in future years, because a football ticket to the prime games will be harder to get. But it will take a couple season for enough people to wait to find that out. Take overly long to pick their game and find out it's not the old Indiana where you can get them less than face. And accommodations and parking are still available.
At least that's my excuse. I don't have a trip scheduled down, haven't been for many years. So I thought it was a nice showing and applaud those who did go! Don't understand leaving at halftime as much, but I understand it a little.
The Purdue thing, yeah, they've historically had more fan support, they've had a little better program. Still, surprisingly good turnout by them. Maybe the new coach can build something after all.
We also have one very bad “Subway” alum.
/zing
@thehoosierhuddle Here are some takes that might not be popular here, but I think are a big part of the difference in football support at Purdue versus IU.
1. Historically they've had much more success in football than IU has. Their "bad crowds" have never come close to some of the bad crowds IU has put out.
2. Their history in all athletics, has created a "Cubs like" loyalty and following. Their athletics programs have really never spoiled them with national championship type teams. Basketball is probably dipping its toes in to this sense of entitlement... which we'll see the impact of that when they have a dip. But they truly have a "we're in this together" type of mindset, that more successful athletics programs don't "need", and many don't have. Not sure if I described that well, but its one of the mindsets, or feelings, that drives the "IU sucks" chants...I believe.
3. Weirdly, I suspect IU's incredible emergence last year, is fueling quite a lot of optimism with Odom being hired. I'm sure...actually I know, a lot of their fans think if IU can do it, they surely can too.
4. They've invested quite a lot of money in to upgrading Ross Ade the last few years. I'm sure they're as proud of that, maybe even more so, than we were of the NEZ, and other upgrades we made.
5. This is a wild guess... I guess 1-4 are too... but I think a larger percentage of their active athletics fan base, are alumni, or family members of alumni, than IU's is. I think because of our national level successes in basketball namely, but also soccer, olympic sports, etc... IU has picked up quite a lot of sports specific fans (basketball and soccer), that really had no direct ties to the university itself. Obviously I think that's more normal for all the "national names" like Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame, etc... But literally every single person I know that attends Purdue football games, either went there or had a family member that went there.
proximity to population may be a difference?? Just tossing that out there. Purdue closer to Chicago , equidistant to Indy.. not sure where their fans and alumni live but
@hoosiers94 That could also be a factor, yes. IU's alumni base in Indy is pretty large...but think about the majority of the teams they endured while at IU. And that I don't think they had nearly as much of a "binding force" to the football program outside their actual success, as Purdue had with their "IU sucks" mentality, their "Notre Dame sucks" mentality, etc... So while "their Purdue teams" were grinding out 4,5,6,7 win seasons... they enjoyed it more because they were all there together, chanting things like IU and ND suck... For IU fans, enduring 3,4,5 win seasons, the only binding force they had was the tailgate party in Dunn Meadow.
All good and valid points. It’d be nice to have a bus (or train?) from Indy down to btown. Can serve drinks, TVs. Even with 69 done (so nice), parking is an issue.
Would be nice to have an Alumni “breakfast” downtown or something then bus to the game.
I rarely park close to the stadium so I usually don't have to deal with it, but I'm always surprised at the dissatisfaction level with parking and traffic flow. We've got a fairly small stadium with a lot of space around it -- it should not be as bad as it seems to be. Perhaps IU/Bloomington should give Speedway/Indy PD a call for advice on how to handle traffic flow and one ways in and out...
My mother is 83 and she was there and stayed for the entire game on Saturday. However, she said there were many fans around her that said they were leaving because it was very hot in the stands and the game was well in hand. Not making excuses just my mom's observations. Also, on a slightly related note: the IU brand is certainly picking up steam. I live in central Florida and I can't count how many strangers here asked me if IU was going to give Ohio State a game when they played at the shoe last year. I was obviously all decked out in IU gear everywhere I went last season and people down here noticed Indiana was making some noise. Too bad that game didn't go a bit better for IU. Looking forward to flying up for the ILL game this month!!!
@tammany it’s really hard to accept that Purdue can get over 52k off a 1-win season and IU can’t get over 48k coming off a CFP appearance.
yes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but a least there was some effort.
I have experience with both IU & Purdue students/fans.
I think it comes down to Purdue having so many engineering students while IU has a large # of Music majors as well as the the occasional Mongolian Studies major. Football fans tend to lean conservative, and are more often into football, band and similar activities. Purdue overall is just a more conservative place than IU.
Exactly, extra reach out endeavours are needed. Train, bus, motorcade or riding in colorful balloons I'm convinced an effort getting Indy based fans to Bloomington FB games is doable with some niche marketing package.
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