CHICAGO — They party. They graduate. Then they move to Chicago.
Chicago bars bearing college flags from Iowa to Ohio have long tried to herd in Big Ten alumni looking to relive the glory days.
With four Big Ten schools making it to March Madness’ Elite Eight this year, and two playing in the Final Four Saturday, the tournament has been a bright spot for some local bars — especially those that went all in on bright orange.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the lowest remaining seed in the men’s tournament at No. 3, plays No. 2 seed University of Connecticut 5:09 p.m. Saturday. It’s the first trip to the Final Four for the Fighting Illini since 2005.
Joe’s on Weed St. — an Illini bar even through the bitter stretches of the last 29 years — sold out of table reservations just hours after the Fighting Illini punched their ticket to the Final Four last Saturday, said Tommy DiSanto, co-owner of the venue and an alum.
The waitlist for a table at Joe’s during the game is now 1,000 people-plus, DiSanto said.
He remembers plenty of game days at the bar at 940 W. Weed St. where “maybe five to 10” Illini fans showed up during losing seasons.
“Sports-wise, this is probably the best year we’ve ever had,” said DiSanto, who is fresh off the bar hosting watch parties for the Indiana Hoosiers’ college football championship. “When the [alumni] clubs do well, it’s good for our business.”
Pat Doerr, director of the Hospitality Business Association of Chicago, estimates there are about 100 college bars in Chicago. But far fewer pay for “official” designations through alumni associations, which could cost “several thousand to well over 10 grand,” Doerr said.
University of Iowa leads the Big Ten for most watch bars in Chicago listed by its alumni association with seven. Michigan State University, Ohio State University and University of Illinois each have six. University of Michigan, which will play in the later Final Four game Saturday, has four.
Over 10 percent of alumni from University of Illinois, Northwestern University, University of Iowa, Purdue University and Indiana University are in Chicago, according to a study by LinkedIn.
“College bars are more of a thing here because we’re in the middle of the Big Ten,” Doerr said. “I don’t think bars would be copying each other and chasing alumni groups unless it was a good business model.”
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has over 90,000 alumni in Cook County, and two out of every five graduates are working in Chicago, according to university data and the LinkedIn study.
That massive alumni base will surely pack bars on Saturday like Joe’s, which filled 25,000 square feet with Illini fans for the team’s Elite Eight win. DiSanto is staffing up in preparation for another full house.
“We’re having a lot of fun with the run the Illini have been on,” DiSanto said.
Dave Wischnowsky, an Illini alum and former sportswriter, is one of many faithful headed to Indianapolis to try his luck at snagging last-minute resell tickets. The Final Four will be played in front of 70,000 people at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster was listed at over $440 as of Thursday afternoon.
“If I don’t have a ticket, I’ll watch it at a bar in Indy,” Wischnowsky said. “The excitement level is really high. People have waited a long time or their entire lives for this.”
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