Sold Out

Deeringfish

All-Conference
Jun 23, 2008
21,891
1,802
63
I would think that there is some extra inspiration for PSU fans to go to the game partly to see the new stadium but also Chicago area football fans with only moderate NU affiliation who have been caught up in the hype. The sell out shouldn't be surprising but the amount of Purple in the stands may be telling.
 

phatcat_rivals223240

All-Conference
Nov 5, 2001
19,145
1,241
113
For this game in particular, with the arm twisting done by the athletic dept, I expect it to ne 80-90% Cats fans.

If you go to the Ticketmaster app, pretend you want to buy a ticket and click the map option, you can see there are a few hundred available for resale. Then go to the Ball State tickets map for laughs.

Edit: on TOS someone says that apparently they dumped several thousand to corporate sponsors yesterday so those could be in anyone's hands. Or empty. The fact remains that we have a very small fanbase
 

NJCat

All-Conference
Mar 7, 2016
21,875
1,998
113
Edit: on TOS someone says that apparently they dumped several thousand to corporate sponsors yesterday so those could be in anyone's hands. Or empty. The fact remains that we have a very small fanbase
That guy GTom on TOS is a complete butt wipe. He claimed that a couple of days ago there were 10,000 unsold seats, which is complete nonsense if you believe the Ticketmaster site. I'd be very careful with info gleaned from TOS.....
 

Sheffielder

Senior
Sep 1, 2004
10,028
834
113
That guy GTom on TOS is a complete butt wipe. He claimed that a couple of days ago there were 10,000 unsold seats, which is complete nonsense if you believe the Ticketmaster site. I'd be very careful with info gleaned from TOS.....
I have 100% no doubt there was some funny business with the "sale" of the remaining ticket inventory - there were way, WAY too many left at >$250 for us to suddenly experience a surge. I figured we just made it high school band night but then remembered most of them already have plans on Friday nights.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Purple Pete

phatcat_rivals223240

All-Conference
Nov 5, 2001
19,145
1,241
113
That guy GTom on TOS is a complete butt wipe. He claimed that a couple of days ago there were 10,000 unsold seats, which is complete nonsense if you believe the Ticketmaster site. I'd be very careful with info gleaned from TOS.....
BSU will be interesting. And RU
 

JustGary

Junior
Oct 7, 2025
269
370
63
I have 100% no doubt there was some funny business with the "sale" of the remaining ticket inventory - there were way, WAY too many left at >$250 for us to suddenly experience a surge. I figured we just made it high school band night but then remembered most of them already have plans on Friday nights.
Reasons to sake out:
1. Ryan Jr has been going on every show possible to hype the new stadium.
2. It’s brand new.
3. Penn State fans
4. The fact that NU is doing better than expected and this is a great matchup.
5. The first time in a long time that we have bc an offense and won’t be playing Fitz ball.
6. Some rich alum probably bought the rest of the tickets and then donated them to the school (who will give them away to local organizations).
7. The University wants this to be a sellout so did everything to make it that way.
 

RiseNorthwestern

Redshirt
Mar 6, 2009
67
2
7
Amazing night for the new stadium. But really concerned on the number of open seats at the game. It looked pretty empty the whole night as every return from commercial break had aerial shots of the stadium. (Shout out to the students for packing the wall though!)

Seems like the ticket dump shenanigans were true and ball state is going to be worse. I was in the camp of wanting a bigger stadium thinking more people would come, but I guess we could have gone smaller…. Really worried that this “loud” stadium is going to be loud for the opposing fans of Ohio state, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc.
 

Fcmchi1

Redshirt
Nov 6, 2017
454
20
12
We are in section 117, two rows from the concourse, and I saw a number of empty seats.

But a lot of people seemed to watch the game from the concourse, especially by a spot at the railing where there is a small bar that allowed them to easily eat their food, drink their beers and watch the game.
 

olsh

Junior
Oct 6, 2001
3,577
216
63
Interesting. There were reports of some long lines etc at concessions and I can imagine given the setup of the stadium, that many were milling about, checking out everything, and still able to see the game from pretty much wherever they were. No idea how attendance will play out - and ticket prices are high - but it is a very entertaining team to watch.
 

Catmandoo78

Junior
Nov 12, 2025
401
228
43
I’ll be honest, seeing many sections half full was really disappointing. I was so excited to go online and see the reactions to the stadium and Reddit was universally made of comments saying “what a cool stadium that’s awesome but why is it half full? If you can’t fill it for Penn State on opening night, when can you?” It’s embarrassing
 

zeek55

Junior
Nov 21, 2010
3,658
286
83
I'm not worried about attendance.

This is the start of rebuilding the regularly attending fanbase. The loss of season ticket holders after the 2023 debacle as well as the shrunk attendance the past 2 years has thinned out the numbers.

Winning is the most important thing and having stability with Braun here. If Braun sticks around and rips off some seasons with strong teams/top 25 finishes, then we'll see the stadium filled for a lot of games.
 

jne381

Freshman
Sep 2, 2013
563
88
23
I’ll be honest, seeing many sections half full was really disappointing. I was so excited to go online and see the reactions to the stadium and Reddit was universally made of comments saying “what a cool stadium that’s awesome but why is it half full? If you can’t fill it for Penn State on opening night, when can you?” It’s embarrassing

I was unable to go because it was a Friday night. Night games in general make it more difficult to go, and Friday night is really hard for me to travel several hours after work to make it. We do not have the leverage that U of M has, but they are able to dictate to some extent not playing those games because it makes it hard for fans to travel to games.
 

989bjm989

Freshman
Aug 30, 2025
148
62
28
We travelled in for the game with family and all our teenage kids could do was ask to come back as soon as possible. It is an incredible venue. I didn’t get a chance to explore the stadium and really want to do so when time allows, especially after seeing the televised footage around the stadium on the rewatch this morning.

I heard a lot of other fans talking about getting more tickets so they could host more people. If we can field competitive teams that can win games, there is no better place to enjoy a football game.

if there is a downside, maybe it’s that we won’t want to tailgate outside the stadium as long because there’s so much to do and see inside the stadium.

What a cool place and perfect strategy for NUs smaller student / alumni base. Differentiate with unique, world class stadium. With the team playing like they are and the word of mouth about the stadium experience, I’d be surprised that demand won’t grow after this amazing opener.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CoralSpringsCat

CoralSpringsCat

All-American
Dec 10, 2018
5,843
6,850
113
I’ll be honest, seeing many sections half full was really disappointing. I was so excited to go online and see the reactions to the stadium and Reddit was universally made of comments saying “what a cool stadium that’s awesome but why is it half full? If you can’t fill it for Penn State on opening night, when can you?” It’s embarrassing

There was nothing to be embarrassed about last night. Nothing.
 
Wildcat Report

Latest

  1. 01 Wildcat Report Takeaways: Northwestern couldn't dream of a better win over Penn State
  2. 02 On3 Football Northwestern's new era: Inside the first game at New Ryan Field
  3. 03 Wildcat Report Northwestern opens Ryan Field by running over Penn State, 34-13
  4. 04 Wildcat Report What the new Ryan Field means to Northwestern
  5. 05 Wildcat Report Fearless Forecast: Penn State vs. Northwestern