"Nobody comes to games."
Those words don't just come out of the mouths of Northwestern students in reference to football. The criticism also pertains to basketball. But just as with football, the students who utter those words might not realize that it used to be much, much worse.
Last week, we took a look at Northwestern football attendance over the past nine years, and there was one obvious conclusion: Jim Phillips' marketing campaign has had a significant effect. Prior to 2010, NU's average Ryan Field attendance languished below 30,000 per game, and in 2007 and 2009, dipped below 25,000 per game.