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Clowns could ruin our soccer pitch and more…


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I know some folks are just going to pay no attention to this assuming it could never happen. Unfortunately, that is not the case. And, to say that a bunch of Clowns masquerading as a professional football team practicing on our pitch would not damage it is crazy. You don't see circuses held and Association Football played on the same grass field on any kind of regular basis for a reason. Successful D1 NCAA soccer programs don't even practice on their competition field. Proenza is gone, and Clowns masquerading as university officials have made questionable decisions in the past: a glorified high school gymnasium for a basketball arena, money thrown at a move to D1-A football when UA D1 basketball could have more easily taken off, hiring a head football coach who didn’t even know to “defer” and had to kick off in both halves, not working with the city/county to properly market a new downtown arena as an entertainment venue for Akron rather than UA’s basketball arena and thus having it removed from the ballot are just a few examples. Then there’s harlequins disguised as intelligent UA students, alumni, and sports fans who say things without really knowing of what they are speaking. Cleveland sucks when it’s sports fans are bashing LeBron for going to Miami, but it would be awesome to have their so-called professional football team come to our campus for 2 weeks each year because it will do great things for UA. Have we seen a cost-benefit analysis? Has one been done? I’d like to see it. In my opinion, working with the City of Akron and Summit County on a downtown arena would be a much better pursuit than trying to bring a “circus” to campus for 2 weeks a year. I don’t have an economic impact analysis to back me up, but Akron seems like a great place to build a moderate-sized arena for concerts and other events as well as UA Basketball. The Akron metro area (Summit & Portage Counties) population is 700k+, Canton city is 72k+, and the Dover-New Philadelphia area is 92k+. Add to this $173k+ in Medina County, and you have 1M+ people within 50 miles of Akron without counting Cleveland. Many of the people in these areas don’t like going into Cleveland, but would come to Akron for events. I live in Medina County now and grew up in Tuscarawas County. I much preferred and still prefer coming to Akron, and I know there are many folks south of Akron who’d prefer to not drive all the way to Cleveland. But, hey, why seriously look at something when you can pursue gimmicks? UA has a history of sinking a lot of money into football at the expense of other sports and pursuits that seem to make more sense. History could easily repeat itself. UA students, fans, and alumni who really care, please don't ignore this.

EDIT: Canton-Massillon Metro Area (Stark & Carroll Counties) has a population of 400k+. Thus, about 1.3M+ people within about 50 miles of Akron without counting Cleveland.

The contents herein are my opinion formed over about 30 years.

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This should be included in the discussion happening in the other thread here.

I know. I put it here for effect.

I created this thread in response to a totally irrelevant thread created to do nothing but criticize me. However, in writing the above, and really thinking about this more, UA has financial issues and should concentrate on education and overcoming those issues. The budget won't be fixed by a gimmick of bringing a 2-week NFL training camp to our campus, as has been pointed out, with evidence cited, by several posters in my original thread (link provided by Balsy above).

If UA is really interested in rising from a mid-major to a major sports program, I think they have already done what we needed by hiring our current football coaches and supporting them as they work to improve our talent and on-field execution. Start consistently winning games, and once the Zips can do that, then I think UA needs an Acme-Zip type promotion to put butts in the seats. If Zips Football can show these people a great product, I believe many will return to watch games at our relatively inexpensive normal ticket prices.

There’s been a lot of debate about a new arena. Will it really help? Should it be on campus or downtown? Whether or not the JAR is sold out, I still agree with those who believe that it keeps our basketball program from reaching its full potential. The JAR is an uncomfortable, glorified high school gymnasium. If UA is going to put any more funding into facility modifications, it is time to take care of basketball. To me, the downtown arena is the way to go not just because of the funding issues, but think of the possibilities if Akron had a nice downtown arena. Some that I can think of include:

  1. Now that LeBron has returned to Northeast Ohio, the CAVS could play some of their pre-season games as well as the Wine and Gold Scrimmage in Akron, thus bringing LeBron home to Akron yearly and expanding the CAVS fan base.
  2. The JAR could remain intact and be used for UA practices and other UA events and purposes.
  3. The combination of the JAR and downtown arena could lure the Nike LeBron James Skills Academy to Akron.
  4. The Charge could move to a nicer venue in Akron, tying the CAVS D-league team to Akron.
  5. A nice arena and the attention that LeBron and the Cavaliers/NBA could bring might help UA lure upper D1 teams such as West Virginia, Pitt, Michigan, etc. to play the Zips at home.
  6. Akron would have a venue for concerts year round.

I’m sure this list could grow with some of the great ideas from other UA students, alumni, and fans.

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Multiple threads demeaning and insulting a favorite sport and a favorite team of other posters does not do anything for your cause.

Unless your cause is to piss people off and divide the alumni.

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Multiple threads demeaning and insulting a favorite sport and a favorite team of other posters does not do anything for your cause.

Unless your cause is to piss people off and divide the alumni.

As I said, "I created this thread in response to a totally irrelevant thread..." (which has actually become relevant since posting this thread). Please point out where I demeaned and insulted a "favorite sport". As far as a favorite team, the Browns happen to be my favorite NFL team. However, you can't deny they've been clowning around ever since they returned to the NFL. If they ever get serious about the draft and getting to and winning the Super Bowl, then I'll take them seriously again. I wish I could change the facts because I'd love to see an NFL championship for the Browns and their deserving, die-hard fans, but the facts are what they are.

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i might have taken the time to read the novel if we were mature enough to use the proper name of the team.

One person's sarcasm is another's immaturity. The use of "clowns" in the title of this thread was referring to multiple groups, not just the precious NFL team of a city that many posters on this board were bashing as LeBron jerseys went up in flames.

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