Lots of room and opportunity for improvement, and maybe we’ll complement the great additions made to the “player” facilities by also making updates to the fan amenities. There are lots of areas where things can be improved when we decide to make it a priority. I do wonder if being one of the only schools in the BiG and P5 to allow pass outs has hurt the concessions and amenities. Go Hoosiers.
Pat Kraft
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Pass outs contributed to the lack of upgrades IMHO. If they were eliminated it would force some kind of adjustments for both concessions and restrooms.
Like someone said, it wouldn't be cheap to upgrade existing restrooms to ADA standards and there isn't any place to expand existing restroom/concessions spaces without making the concourses significantly smaller. It would almost have to be new facilities on the perimeter somehow.
Back in the day, those urinal troughs at Memorial Stadium were “Party Central!”
IU is one of the last venues that provides the luxury of pass outs for fans, and sadly that may come to an end perhaps even this season for financial reasons. I am sure the stated "reason" will be security, but we all know better.
MS is now among the nicer stadiums in the country, even with the average restroom and concessions offerings.
They shouldn't give a pass out. Honestly, I think that the best thing the football program could do is decide on an identity for the program and then put their NIL money, a chunk of their coaching salary, etc. toward that end. Penn State is "Linebacker U". Wisconsin is known for their O line and in particular what it does for their running game. Ohio St. is athletes and speed.
Indiana is not going to have the NIL money of a bunch of our competitors in the BIG for football. So I think the school has to be selective. For my money, I think it would be great if we became "Lineman U". Go out and get the best OL and DL you can. Get the best line coaches. The big uglies are not as flashy and should come at a little lower premium then some of the other positions but they can have a big influence on the W/L column.
We have to win. All the other stuff does not matter until we are consistently winning some games against Big Ten competition. We need to be bowl eligible most years and show an ability to be considered a regular mid tier or better BIG team. Do that and the fans will come. And if the fans come then you have room to start making those other improvements.
One last thing that might help a little is a new President. You hope she will not syphon off BTN money for pet projects...
Do you go to games? I just don't see how you can make this statement over a needed few extra urinals and concessions stand or two. The enclosed end zones added both restrooms and food so we have more than before. SEZ has two buffets and drink stations.
We have better food and drink at the tailgate than any college venue serves anywhere so this aspect just isn't the showstopper (for me) a few make it out to be. The stadium is really nice compared to the MAC-level facility we had before.
I don't disagree with your idea here but what the hell does it have to do with pass outs?
Just got into a mental flow type of post. I thought the pass outs, concessions, bathrooms, etc. were kind of window dressing and not the real issue with the program. And it sent me down the "pick something to be good at that helps you win" path.
Well, we certainly have "Tailgate U" down, but I suspect that is not what you are looking for.
I do go to all the games. I don’t have an issue with Memorial Stadium from a physical standpoint. They did an outstanding job on the physical structure and amenities. It’s the management that needs a lot of work. Game days are run like a goat rodeo. The Cincy game highlighted this. Running out of water on a sweltering day. Plan for porto- potties when your existing bathrooms cannot accommodate. The pigeon dung that required a simple power wash from 4 years ago. The stale band routines. Selling out a parking lot to the non-parking pass visitors and forcing the parking pass folks to drive around and find alternatives. That’s the oversight of the whole thing that make it feel amateurish. If your food outlets are inadequate to handle larger crowds, create alternatives. No reason to have mobs of people trying to get concessions and blocking a concourse with a ton of foot traffic. Get some other options and move them to the perimeter, particularly on the East side.
Food trucks?
Edit to add: that may cut into some of what is made on concessions but you might be able to get some food truck people to pay a certain fee to come down and park there to sell.
Need a shitload of them. Yes.
I was thinking about bringing in a grill and buying Johnsonville brats myself in bulk and making a killing. The Cincy game - people were just looking to get anything. A bottled water was like finding a rare diamond that day.
Charge 1500 to 2000 a game to "rent" a spot, have 15 to 20 spots available. If you could get 40,000 to 50,000 people there it would be a potential of a few thousand customers per truck. All they would have to do is raise normal prices by like a dollar an item (which people expect at a stadium) and they could cover that extra overhead. The university pockets $22,500 to $40,000 a game with no overhead or labor costs associated.
I don't know if that would offset the loss in concessions or not.
All things they can and will get better at, although the poopapalooza was nearly unavoidable as it happened in the wee hours of the morning and wasn't noticed until about 11:00 as the ushers arrived. There had been a late basketball game the night before and the custodial staff was stretched. Just a freak event that gave the few pu fans that travel something to talk about.
More people will tend to jump in a line if it is shorter rather than longer so sure pop three or four on each lower concourse and see how it works.
I don't know the local fire codes around having a third party truck cooking under the stands though. I could imagine a tragic event.
A food truck can't serve a couple thousand customers in 4 hours. Not enough capacity.
don't charge them a cent.
if the concessions stands are currently unable to supply demand, then the food trucks would have virtually no meaningful impact on IU's bottom line, would greatly help the food truck guys who no doubt need all they can get, and the trucks would be doing IU and it's fans a service.
that said, while i first brought up the food truck thing, and setting up bottled water/pop/juice selling in the concourses, i'm guessing short term that might meet with contractual concerns with whomever is currently doing concessions.
that said, getting more liquid refreshment options on hot days would be an incredibly easy fix.
as for the restroom thing, again, no stadium has enough bathrooms to accommodate everyone at once.
fans have to have some smarts on when to dart to the restrooms, and they all know that going in.
you don't put them "under" the stands, or need to.
that said, if the demand were really there, (which i question) , hot dog carts could easily be set up in the concourses.
all this said, allowing alcohol free 6 pack sized coolers and small food bags to be brought in seems like a simple fix, if food and drink are really that big a problem.
i never had much problem with it myself, but like i said, i carried in a McD's diet cola with me, and often some nuts or candy in my pocket as well, for decades..
if the "closed" market is the problem, then that's a really simple fix if IU wants a simple fix.
if really a problem, IU shouldn't over think it, and be penny wise pound foolish..
They probably max out at about 45 customers every 30 minutes... You'd have to add the correct number of trucks accordingly...
Personally, Id like to see them contract with a large and varied mix of both local restaurants And food trucks to provide a mix of options (with All of them being required to sell bottled water along with other bottled/packaged drinks)... Have a "Taste of Bloomington" Festival every Gameday... Good advertising for them...; Good food for the fans...
The restroom situation is solved by more portalets placed strategically until they decide to address it with a major $$$ outlay...
As far as "Pigeon Gate" goes I'll always contend that those pigeons deserve an honorary Block I along with the guy who made the decision to say "screw em, let the p u faithful sit in it..., it might make me feel more at home"...
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several former IU ADs told me MS would have a retractable roof, 20 more restrooms with bidets on each side of the stadium, and 20 extra 5 star concession stands on both the east and west sides, if only they didn't have passouts.
or not.
quit just making stuff up, and trying to control everybody else's game day behavior.
if fans want passouts, give them passouts.
you're not the boss of everyone else.
doesn't hurt anyone, and the idea is to make it fan friendly.
i personally have more than once gone to the car for a sweater or jacket, even shades, and would have been royally pissed if that wasn't allowed.
and if passouts weren't allowed, it wouldn't stop many from leaving.. only from coming back in.
If pass outs were not allowed, you probably would be more attentive to what you bring into the stadium and what you leave in the car! 😁
If they are so fan friendly, why are we one of the only stadiums that allow pass outs? There must be a good reason that everyone else doesn't allow them.
I really don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on pass outs. My general philosophy is to know the policy at the stadium I'm going to, and I generally don't go to a game with the intention of leaving the stadium until I'm done watching the event anyway, so pass out policies have never affected me personally. That being said my opinion is that it should differ between stadiums, and that programs with more fan support do not need to allow pass outs.
However, I wouldn't consider Indiana football to be a program with a high amount of fan support. IMO we are much closer to Kansas who literally said **** it, we don't care if you even have a ticket, we're opening the gates to everyone because we want as many fans as possible for the OU game this past year, than we are to the OSU's and Michigan's of the world. We need all the fans we can get, alienating people who choose to leave the stadium and come back is not a good philosophy for a program with the fan support of Indiana.
However, I wouldn't consider Indiana football to be a program with a high amount of fan support. IMO we are much closer to Kansas who literally said **** it, we don't care if you even have a ticket, we're opening the gates to everyone because we want as many fans as possible for the OU game this past year, than we are to the OSU's and Michigan's of the world. We need all the fans we can get, alienating people who choose to leave the stadium and come back is not a good philosophy for a program with the fan support of Indiana.
really dude, do you have some kind of personal issues that affect your judgement on this?
what possible difference is it to you or anyone else, whether someone gets a pass out or not.
beyond ridiculous complete and total lack of respect by you towards others.
try and reign in your dictator complex.
WTF are you blabbering about?
I don't give a damn whether they have pass outs or not and didn't state an opinion either way.
I asked a simple question which you didn't even attempt to answer. I will try to rephrase it.
What is the reason why IU is one of the only stadiums to allow "fan friendly" pass outs?
Other schools and stadiums are just too "fan unfriendly"?
Since you’ve seen so many, what are some of your favorites? Which ones should we try to emulate to make our fan experience better? Thanks.
IU allows them because they are not (yet) in a position to say no to generally high-stroke fans that want the luxury of running out to the car/RV for a pop and food before returning. We are in the White lot (apparently next to Ordy LOL) and can get to our spot within two minutes.
Honestly, I expected the change last year, but glad it didn't happen. They will pull the trigger as soon as they feel the captured audience is worth more than the bitching from us.
Most don't understand the restroom upgrade nightmares. It is a problem, but a small problem.
Thanks for the reply.
Do other schools/stadiums not allow them because of security issues, they believe their revenues will decrease or are there other issues?
Other schools don’t even face the issue. Fans go to those venues to actually watch games and largely because their teams play successful football. Those fan bases can appropriately separate the three distinct phase of game day: the pre party tailgate, the party itself (aka the game) and then the after-party tailgate.
IU fans have been so beaten down by its dismal football history that game days are treated pretty much like a drive-by. People aren’t there for the game. It’s basically an excuse to get out of the house and stand in a parking lot and grill some brats and drink. If you want to see how a real game day is done, go to the SEC. They have tailgates in the SEC that make IU tailgates look like a puppet show. And, then the game is packed and a huge event. It’s all related to success. Wisconsin was absolutely terrible for decades and that archaic relic of a stadium was half-empty most Saturdays. They started winning and the whole state ralllied behind that program (that’s one huge advantage) and now it’s largely considered as the best game day experience in the conference.
They all use "security" as a reason because it is tougher to argue about and I suspect that if 20K fans left and came back in it would add cost and risk but the real reason is $$$ sales inside to a captured audience $$$.
Purdue did it a couple years ago citing some injuries to visiting O$U fans from unruly home fans and I can't say what the blowback level was but the logistics are very different there as it is spread out.
Setting the student issue aside; IU has maybe 3K leave at half because their target tailgate is within reach, some don't come back. If and when Scott pulls the trigger on pass outs he will state "security" but mean $$$ and I would say the same thing. But make no mistake, the people that will be pissed about it are people that ma$$er.
The new president is much more into football than past presidents so I hope she pushes for improvements and pushes our AD to get donors to donate money for the improvements. IU has a much better stadium now but there is more to do for fans to enjoy the games.
why not????????????
and why would you or anyone else even care?
or are you just trolling. (most likely scenario imo).
tell me one thing or one person passouts hurt in the slightest.
the only reason any school doesn't give them, is because they don't want someone given a passout giving it to someone else to enter.
that said, any 0.0001% fraction of a pittance stopping passouts would cost in 2nd half ticket sales, would be more than offset on the negative side in devaluing prime parking spots close to the stadium, and just pissing off fans/donors that are on the fence every yr or game about attending in person.
or giving more or less next yr in donations.
as for not giving passouts, that doesn't stop people from leaving to get something from their car they need.
it only stops them from coming back in.
or coming back next game.. or next yr.
"F" the customer, shouldn't be business's new motto.
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Lower what you charge down by quite a bit then. I am thinking some fee to help cover insurance increases.
Not trolling at all. The majority of sporting events I have been to do not give pass outs. You lose fans and paying customers when you let them leave the stadium.
If I was going to allow pass outs, I would charge a fee for them like amusement parks do.
The "blame the fans" crowd will always be here.
You are spot on about the parking spots, our White Lot spot is more valuable because of the ability to run out at half.
And for the record, no reentry is already a stated policy in Btown, they just have not chosen to enforce it (yet).
