I need someone to help me understand something. When i was a student, albeit 30 years ago, student attendance and overall attendance was strong. Both have fallen but student attendance has really dropped off. I think I big reason for that is not the 10,000 students from China, but a total loss of the greek system.
When I was a student the fraternities would each have a block with a sorority for the season. The girls would come to the house and we would have a cookout prior to the game a basically have a mixer or social. Then we would walk to game and sit through the game together.
At some point this changed. I read a blurb in the Daily Illini, and now fraternities still have a block with a sorority for the year, but instead of heading to the house and then the game, they rent out a bar for the entire season and hang out there for like 4-6 hours basically during game time and they do not go to the game.
How did this happen, and when did this happen? You are not just losing these fans as students but they never get to appreciate the game day experience and games, so they will never buy tickets as alums. However, this happened, and I really would like someone to explain how and when it happened, the school needs to stop this is they want a future fan base. I assume that Illinois still has a huge greek system, it was the largest in the country back in the day, and you cannot lose this large of a fan base forever. By stop it I do not mean ban the practice, the school can't, but they need to directly market and work with the greek houses to rebuild the stunt attendance at football games.
More than anything it is really sad to see the limited student attendance and what was a great Block I section become non-existent.
When I was a student the fraternities would each have a block with a sorority for the season. The girls would come to the house and we would have a cookout prior to the game a basically have a mixer or social. Then we would walk to game and sit through the game together.
At some point this changed. I read a blurb in the Daily Illini, and now fraternities still have a block with a sorority for the year, but instead of heading to the house and then the game, they rent out a bar for the entire season and hang out there for like 4-6 hours basically during game time and they do not go to the game.
How did this happen, and when did this happen? You are not just losing these fans as students but they never get to appreciate the game day experience and games, so they will never buy tickets as alums. However, this happened, and I really would like someone to explain how and when it happened, the school needs to stop this is they want a future fan base. I assume that Illinois still has a huge greek system, it was the largest in the country back in the day, and you cannot lose this large of a fan base forever. By stop it I do not mean ban the practice, the school can't, but they need to directly market and work with the greek houses to rebuild the stunt attendance at football games.
More than anything it is really sad to see the limited student attendance and what was a great Block I section become non-existent.
