In 2006, former NIU athletic director Jim Phillips asked me why NIU struggled to fill Huskie Stadium.

My answer was simple – it’s TV.

I guess it’s a bit more complicated, as what I really was saying was if it’s wet or cold or I’m lazy, why would I leave my house to watch the game.

So he asked me for my solution.

Obviously, I didn’t want to blackout home games. NIU needs the exposure and it would be a step in the wrong direction. So my solution was to improve the Huskie game day experience – something that is still needed.

With the Huskies having three home games in the next three weeks, I thought I’d layout five improvements the NIU athletic department could make to better the game-day experience for fans.

1. Welcome children

I know this sounds corny, but children are the future. For NIU, this means children are the future fans and future players. So make games fun for them to come to.

My simple solution is to transform the grassy area North of the Yordon Center into the “Huskie Pack” before games.

You would have student athletes run “The Pack” for two or three hours before the game. All you would have to do is get a couple Moon Jumps, have some face painting stations, and heck, you could even have the athletes play their sport with the kids for a bit.

2. Use it if you got it

Before the start of the Western Michigan game, the Broncos aired their version of Inside Huskie Sports in their stadium.

So here’s a question, why don’t we do the same?

I’m sure there’s a large number of NIU fans who don’t even know what Inside Huskie Sports is. This would be a way to introduce the show to more fans, building the show’s following, while at the same time providing some entertainment in the stadium before the game.

3. Don’t isolate fans

Remember when NIU was beating Indiana State? Well, at the same time Ball State was beating Indiana 42-20.

However, no one mentioned this over the PA system. In fact, not one college score was shared with the crowd.

There’s no reason why at least MAC, and even top 25 teams, scores should not be shared during a game. Simply during a timeout put some scores on the Jumbotron and announce them.

This will help keep fans at the game, who are concerned with the rest of the college football universe.

4. Make games within the game

Here’s maybe my most innovative idea – make games within the game.

It’s nice to watch people throw around an oversize burrito and it’s actually pretty comical. But the chances of being selected to do something like that are small for most fans.

Instead of bringing people on the field, NIU should make games that everyone can participate in during the game itself.

Here’s just one idea I have.

When you walk into Huskie Stadium you should get a bingo card. Each square will have a statement like, “NIU picks off opponent two or more times,”; “Huskies score at least 28 points,”; or “NIU running back gets 150 yards or more.”

If one of these statements is true at the end of the game then you earn the square, with hopes of getting Bingo!

And what do you win? Well, NIU would need to work something out. But some ideas could be like a free bag of chips at Chipotle when you buy a burrito, $5 off at the VCB if you spend $20 or more, or other ideas like that.

And here’s the real key. The only way for that bingo card to be “activated” is to get a stamp on it by NIU at the conclusion of the game. This way fans can’t come to the game and leave at halftime and still win. You have to stay the entire game to be a winner in Huskie Bingo.

5. Bring back the thunder!

Finally, what ever happen to thunder sticks?

They’re fun, they’re loud and they get the crowd going. Not much more needs to be said than that NIU needs to work on bringing these thin pieces of plastic back.