Zips Baseball disagrres. He sold out the team to build an "entrance" that nobody would use, then lied about it.
Don't think for a minute he or the current directors are going to increase the sports marketing budget, to get the attendance and ratings, that the school needs if it has a hope and prayer of getting a sniff by another conference. If you want to sell NEO as a "major market" you have to distinguish yourself from tOSU, and show that they are going to get ratings here. And when a big name school travels to Akron, the game won't be televised from a half-empty gymnasium.
We can't blame local sports fans for not supporting a team they barely knows exists, and has no reason to go to a game. You have to break the perception that you're a junior league school, and losing to Buffalo (a minor league baseball and basketball city) isn't the route. Hell CSU and KSU made tournament runs and was in the news every night, but in the end it didn't move the needle one bit.
Marketing and real success could get ratings and attendance to a point where other conferences would take a sniff. And this administration is NOT going to fork over that kind of cash. I feel lucky they haven't dropped us into a lower division. Yet.