UM-IU almost a sellout
September 29th, 2010 at 5:11 PM ^
That's a joke of a statement from their AD, we have always traveled exceptionally well and i think the same could be said for the majority of the Big 10
September 29th, 2010 at 5:35 PM ^
I think the thing is that nobody in the B10 travels that well to IU, because, well, lolhoosiers.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^
The students barely traveled to Stadium and Main last week. Just saying.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:53 PM ^
#1 - this was pregame
#2 - shitty opponent
#3 - unpredictable weather
September 29th, 2010 at 11:04 PM ^
That was kind of my point. If people usually show up late, leave early, are literally fair weather fans or are not interested in watching Michigan play against crappy opponents, they probably won't be making the trip to Bloomington on Saturday. The only time Michigan "travels" well is when they play somewhere that has a lot of alums, e.g. Chicago (Northwestern).
September 30th, 2010 at 12:17 AM ^
This is a very poor example. The BGSU game was a noon game a week after a terrible home game in one of the worst weather days of the fall thus far. 20 minutes after that pic was taken the student section was pretty full. For BGSU.
If you really want to fix the "get there early" problem, then make the student section general admission (like it should be!!!). Otherwise, there's not a ton of reason to get to BGSU prior to the kickoff when you could be slamming another beer or chomping another brat.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:42 PM ^
I sat in the corner opposite the students last week, and it was pretty much full by kickoff. Students don't arrive early for noon games.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:22 AM ^
I got there at 11:30 and it was very sparse. By kick off it was 95% full.
Noon games.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^
Noon game + hungover from Friday means you usually just sleep a little drink it off and head to the game. I DVR the games anyways because I can't focus on the action as much as the result when I'm drunk and excited about football.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:13 PM ^
I don't want this to happen again.
DAMN YOU BILL LYNCH!!!!!!!!!!
September 29th, 2010 at 5:27 PM ^
They're playing their conference opener against a ranked team, and the reason they can't fill their 53,000 seat stadium is because MICHIGAN doesn't travel well?
Right...
September 29th, 2010 at 5:26 PM ^
There will be people from all over the country in Bloomington just to see Shoelace and his scorched earth policy.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^
"Every Defender Left Behind"
September 29th, 2010 at 7:07 PM ^
I had heard he calls it his "Slash and Burn" policy
September 29th, 2010 at 5:35 PM ^
That's actually pretty true. We don't travel as well as our numbers would suggest. OSU, Wisconsin and Iowa (to name three) generally travel in larger numbers. Blaming the visitors for your own failure to sell out is more than a little pathetic, though.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:40 PM ^
I didn't read it as him blaming Michigan fans for not selling out. I think he was more trying to point out that a lot of Indiana fans are buying tickets. If you just heard they were close to selling out you would assume that they are mostly Michigan fans. He was just trying to say that more Indiana fans were buying tickets than usual.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:36 PM ^
The reason they're selling more tickets it's because the buzz is that there can be a possible upset since they have great receivers and a good qb but no way are we getting upset plus they're undefeated which doesn't say much cuz they played a crappy schedule
September 29th, 2010 at 8:44 PM ^
A little punctuation never hurt anyone.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:56 PM ^
mentioned this before. If I have, it's been awhile. If I haven't, I've been remiss. I love, love, love your little picture there. She's just lovely.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:35 PM ^
Eh, cut him a little slack. He's trying to sell his program. And to be fair, Columbus is a lot closer to Bloomington than Ann Arbor is. It's no surprise that they travel slightly better.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:41 PM ^
OSU fans travel in greater numbers than us almost everywhere. A bowl game that gets OSU will sell a lot of tickets. Our big drawing card is not so much that we travel as that we draw great TV ratings.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:51 PM ^
As evidence, just look at last year's game in Ann Arbor and the horrible amount of those god-awful colors in the crowd. That CANNOT happen again!
September 29th, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^
Totally dude, it was UNACCEPTABLE.
And it had nothing to do with it being a drab day leaving M fans to bulk up in bland colors while OSU fans wore bright, camera pleasing red.....
September 29th, 2010 at 6:09 PM ^
truck drivers already travel for a living.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:08 PM ^
because they are truck drivers
Dang - beat me to it
September 29th, 2010 at 5:46 PM ^
The reason that we have not traditionally draveled to Indiana is that the game has historically been about as exciting as BGSU. Not many people travel to see what is usually one of the least competitive games on the schedule.
Not to be all "Michigan arrogance" here, but putting aside the past few years (and even this year) the Mich-IU game is a much bigger deal to them than it is to us.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:59 PM ^
It's not just Indiana. MSU and Northwestern are generally the only road games where we have a presence.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
I don't see a whole lot of Michigan fans making the trip to the Shoe as much as they did back in the 80s and 90s. I live here and I'm not interested very much in going anymore either. Especially if my car has anything "Michigan" oriented on it. I'm not shelling out dough for new tires again.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:05 PM ^
I think they just sell us very few tickets too
September 29th, 2010 at 6:15 PM ^
I never see michigan fans anywhere beside the big house. WHAT!!!!!
September 29th, 2010 at 6:50 PM ^
I was planning on buying in Bloomington with hopes of getting a better value for the seat, but this article scared me. On the plus side, by buying from the visitor allotment, I get to sit with all my MGoBrethren! Who else is bought from our ticket office?
September 29th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^
When I went down there a few years ago (2004 I think) for the Michigan-Indiana game, the stadium was half empty and it was almost embarrassing how quiet it was. I was sitting toward the top of the stadium and IU fans at the bottom kept looking up at me annoyed that i was cheering so loudly for Michigan.
The fact that they could hear me from where I was sitting pretty much told you all you needed to know about IU's crowd noise.
September 29th, 2010 at 7:07 PM ^
I have gone to Bloomington for the game every time Michigan has played there since 1995, and I am surprised that more U of M fans don't travel for that game. But I do see some valid points brought up: IU is further away than say Northwestern (generally an equivalent in competition and ticket availability), and the competitiveness of the game is generally not there. But what I do enjoy about going to Bloomington (aside from winning), is that IU football fans do generally get up in your face like at other schools. I agree with big_house_500th, I will not go Columbus for football anymore because of the nature of the average Buckeye fan, especially to those of us who wear maize and blue.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^
Since the IU AD is concerned about a sell out and he thinks Michigan fans don't travel well why don't we help him with the first part and prove him wrong with the second part. I hear Bloomington is very nice this time of year.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^
The students at IU don't even go to the game...they pregame then go take a nap during the game.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:17 PM ^
Indiana sucks and we won't have to listen to their AD anymore when shoelace racks up some more records.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:41 PM ^
I was at the Indiana game 4 years ago at Indiana and there were easily more Michigan fans then Indiana fans. It wasnt really close to a sell-out however the side of the stadium I was on was about 85% Michigan and the other had a large portion as well. The thing with Michigan playing in places like Indiana (close Indianapolis, St. Louis, others), NW, Illinois, and a few others it allows Michigan fans that do not want to drive all of the way up to Michigan to see a game and do so for a cheap ticket price.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:54 PM ^
With both teams being undefeated, the interest in the game will be very high for IU and all of it's neighboring alum. UM will travel well to Bloomington, but not as well as the other Big 10 schools. Go Blue - UM 37, IU 21
September 29th, 2010 at 9:58 PM ^
I just moved to the south and live a couple hours outside of Clemson. I am sure we have all heard about Death Valley and how crazy it is there. They are playing a noon game against Miami so I am sure it will be a great game. HOWEVER, Michigan is playing Indiana and I do not like to miss the games but can DVR them - either way I will be wearing the Maize and Blue. Same way I did two weeks ago when I went to the Arkansas vs. Georgia game.. FYI the south knows how to do it - all of the girls wear skirts/dresses to the games.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:25 PM ^
Hmm, good question!
September 29th, 2010 at 10:06 PM ^
Road tripping from MI/Chicago area is an easy abeit long boring drive to Indy and then somewhat slow and fairly scenic the last hour plus into Bloomington.
I am taking the family to the game because we're within a few hours gaurding the Big TEN border on the Ohio River. In Indiana, I have a 0-5 mph rule unless I'm late for work and then I go 5 over and chant to myself fuck those bitches.
We were planning on camping out Saturday night but it has been too dry to have fires and kinda chilly at night. Still, Campus, Brown County and much of the area around Bloomington are nice this time of year--foliage and otherwise. Nearby Columbus IN on I-65 is a neat town with some good food, bars, golf if you want to take a different path back north.
THis local venue
http://www.thebluebird.ws/ has Yeasayer this TH night and a Jacko Tribute on Sat night. I've always been tempted to go to a show there but haven't yet. That may change in late October when King Shit and the Golden Boy Reunion Band from dayton OH come calling.
Go Meechigan!
September 29th, 2010 at 10:23 PM ^
at the Bluebird and it was a great show. It's not a tall venue, but it is pretty big nontheless. You should definitly go see some live music there sometime. It's pretty easy to make your way towards the front and get in the action...
September 29th, 2010 at 10:08 PM ^
Indiana's Memorial Stadium hasn't been sold out for a Michigan game since 1992.
2006: 42,320
2004: 35,001
1999: 41,516
1997: 42,240
1995: 44,623
1992: 51,735
I guess Indiana's athletic director is used to Michigan fans not helping sell the place out. They could always fix that problem by, you know, having their own fans fill the place. It's the second smallest stadium in the Big Ten. It shouldn't be THAT hard to sell out.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:05 PM ^
The catch to that is, that other than Ohio State and Purdue, Indiana's last sell out was 1992 hosting Michigan.
Yes that is correct. Take away Ohio State and Purdue, and Indiana has not sold out a game since 1992 hosting Michigan.
Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State haven't packed in the fans either...let alone for the massive Indiana-Michigan State rivalry that has been protected.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
is the angle of the stands at Memorial Stadium. It is so severe that the worst seat is 10x worse than the highest seat in the Big House. It doesn't take many rows to get really far away, and it's a horrible design. I wish I was headed to that crappy place this weekend, but I've been to three games already, and I need to log some more weekend family time before a couple more games up at the Big House.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
seasons where we were undefeated deep into the season (2006 and 1997) went through B-town. Coincidence? I think not. Michigan 45-28.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:23 PM ^
Indiana is so hard up that they scheduled aerial photos after the renovation to coincide with an OSU visit. You can't tell from high up that 2/3 of the red shirts say OSU.
September 30th, 2010 at 10:31 AM ^
Just ordered 7 student section tickets to the game via phone. They have plenty of student section tickets available even though the rest of the stadium is becoming close to a sellout. Student section tickets are only $5 and require any college id. Form a Michigan student section within the IU section? It's general admission. If they try to tell you that you have to buy in person, tell them that you are from out of state, and they'll sell to you via phone.