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Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:53 pm
by wiu712
This photo shows the crowd at a football game in 2011. East side stands are on the top of the photo.

Things have really changed in just a few years.

Image

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:16 am
by rocki
wiu712 wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:53 pm This photo shows the crowd at a football game in 2011. East side stands are on the top of the photo.

Things have really changed in just a few years.

Image
So, what things have changed since 2011? Team performance? Student attitudes? Contests? Age of attendees? Any of these could provide clues as to what needs to be worked on.............

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:27 am
by sealhall74
rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:16 am
wiu712 wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:53 pm This photo shows the crowd at a football game in 2011. East side stands are on the top of the photo.

Things have really changed in just a few years.

Image
So, what things have changed since 2011? Team performance? Student attitudes? Contests? Age of attendees? Any of these could provide clues as to what needs to be worked on.............
Many many thngs have changed. The obvious one from the picture is that the cheerleaders have moved from the east to the west. Be a little lonely on the east right now.

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:37 am
by rocki
The dance squad is on the other side. No reason there couldn't be some back and forth cheers between the cheerleaders and dance squad.

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:00 am
by vatusay
I don’t think the attendance has gone in the toilet because the cheerleaders switched sides......

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:44 am
by Tere North
vatusay wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:00 am I don’t think the attendance has gone in the toilet because the cheerleaders switched sides......
This made my day :lol:

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:42 pm
by leatherneckcountry
sealhall74 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:27 am
rocki wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:16 am
wiu712 wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:53 pm This photo shows the crowd at a football game in 2011. East side stands are on the top of the photo.

Things have really changed in just a few years.

Image
So, what things have changed since 2011? Team performance? Student attitudes? Contests? Age of attendees? Any of these could provide clues as to what needs to be worked on.............
Many many thngs have changed. The obvious one from the picture is that the cheerleaders have moved from the east to the west. Be a little lonely on the east right now.
I get that Nielsen burned a lot of fans in his time here but even since he's left the #'s have still gone down I'm sure that i'm in the picture some where and I find it interesting they really have tried to get WIU fans out of the east side I've always sat on the east side west side is to uncomfortable. I don't think price has changed I was a student in 11 so I could be wrong as far as contest there aren't any. Being around college students I can tell you the attitude has definitely changed many just aren't really into sports at any level. Team performance well depends on what time of the season it was as we made the playoffs in 2010 but not very good in 2011.

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:42 pm
by rocki
I'll be the first to admit I'm an old fart, and "back in my day" , for students, THE place to be was at the football game. Yeah, people smuggled in wineskins filled with who knows what, but I don't remember any major problems with inebriated fans. I still enjoy going to Leatherneck games, so I have no idea how to appeal to the masses, so to speak.

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:15 pm
by sealhall74
I hate to say this but will anyway. IMHO, raising the drinking age from 19 to 21 probably has had more to do with attendance decline at Hanson than anything else. It virtually destroyed all student pre-game festivities on and near the square in Macomb as well as those two or three pubs on University Drive. What was the one place that was only a stone's throw from Bayliss/Henninger? IIRC, TCs and Harper's Bazaar were not much further away. Those were places college kids could really be college kids. Pre-game tailgating today is much more laid back and geared to a much older crowd.

Re: Hanson Field - The New West Side

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:43 pm
by rocki
sealhall74 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:15 pm I hate to say this but will anyway. IMHO, raising the drinking age from 19 to 21 probably has had more to do with attendance decline at Hanson than anything else. It virtually destroyed all student pre-game festivities on and near the square in Macomb as well as those two or three pubs on University Drive. What was the one place that was only a stone's throw from Bayliss/Henninger? IIRC, TCs and Harper's Bazaar were not much further away. Those were places college kids could really be college kids. Pre-game tailgating today is much more laid back and geared to a much older crowd.
Actually, in my day, it was still 21 - the 19 beer/wine thing hadn't gone through yet. ;)