Big 10 Football Tour

A rainy Sunday in Milwaukee has us reflecting on our 4th stadium, Ryan Field in Evanston, IL (Northwestern).  It was amazingly therapeutic to have a weekend where we didn't have to travel too far from home and to get to sleep in our own beds for a weekend night.

Our blog on Minneapolis is NOW POSTED!  We hope you'll find this to be one of our more entertaing recaps.  We hope to have our Northwestern recap posted later this week and then we are on to visit another Illinois school, this time the fighting Illini.  Once again, we'll have NINE members coming to the game with us.

This weekend we learned more than ever how challenging it is to simulataneously please 4-10 people on any given weekend.  Some members want to stay out while some want to turn in.  Some want to see the sights while others want to stay at the game or the tailgate.  It is very very challenging to keep all members content at the same time.

When we started this tour, we intended to seeing all of the sights at each school/city.  4 weeks in, we're beginning to realize what a challenge that is.  First of all, after working 60 hours a week, planning for the tour, and spending at least one LONG day a weekend tailgating/going to football games/etc, we all generally want to get home as fast as possible on Sundays to rest, update the blog, and plan the subsequent visits.  Oh yeah, we still have to pay bills, do laundry, fix our cars, and other simple tasks that everyone NOT touring the Big Ten has to do.

Anyways, we'll keep pushing on and hope you'll enjoy following us on this blog and on Twitter!  Please contact us with any feedback you may have.  Thanks for following us!

We're back from one heck of a weekend in Minneapolis!  We received a private tour of TCF Bank stadium and competed in some Man Vs Food challenges.  Check back Sunday for a recap of our visit!

In the meantime, the post on Michigan State is live!  Check out our review of the game in East Lansing!

Next up is Northwestern, which thank god is less than 2 hours away from Milwaukee.  We'll be arriving in Evanston, IL early on Saturday morning, and we'd like to meet some Wildcat fans!  Get in touch with us to stop by the tailgate & potentially be featured on our site!

If you know anyone with access to tickets at Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, or Wisconsin, please please please let us know because that is proving to be our largest expense and our biggest challenge to overcome on a weekly basis.

A couple of reminders:

1) Big 10 Tour shirts are still available!  Please help us offset some costs by purchasing one via our Merchandise link.

2) TailgateToss.com is offering followers of the Big Ten tour 25% off all licensed bean bag/ladder golf/tailgate pong games.  Learn how to redeem your discount HERE or just enter coupon code "bigten" at checkout.

3)  Don't forget to follow our interesting weekly tweets at BIG10Drew on Twitter!

While I'm gearing up for football season, I can't help but think of baseball a bit.  After all, that's where I got my start in touring.  The MLB parks are great, but there is definitely something to be said about minor league baseball.  It definitely has better promotions, cheaper prices, and more intimacy with the fans.  I came across Matt Nelson's blog and I was instantly hooked.  I'm usually not a fan of reporter's blogs, but this guy has a genuine, down-to-earth perspective of these parks.  If you've got a minor league park within a reasonable distance, check his site for a review along with must-sees of each park.  Even if you're planning on visiting these parks, it's an entertaining read.
Drew

So Wes & Drew decided that we should have a short blog to detail some of the events leading up to the "tour."  This page could be completely uninteresting  or it might have some favor...who knows. 

At some point this week we'll update this section with some bullet points on what's been happening inside THE BIG 10 TOUR!