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There are two main non-basketball issues when it comes to attendance.

1) Marketing. Name one thing the Marketing Department has put together for basketball this season. You'll have a tough time because there isn't anything. Even the fact that Tuesday home games are Dollar Hot Dog nights has never been, to my knowledge, promoted. The Social Media Rewards site has died, there have been no promotional giveaways, there have been no special nights created by marketing...it's like there isn't even a marketing department. Seriously, as another poster said, someone from UA needs to have dinner with Ken Babby and see how to stir up some excitement about a product.

2) The AK-Rowdies. The group needs to disband. I know it won't happen because nobody has the guts to make it happen, but it really does. I'm not going to pretend like I know the current setup of the Rowdies. I do know that students view it as a group that you have to join, which is why so many of them sit up ton in the GA seats. Whether or not they still require a special shirt or membership to sit down low (I hope not - that decision started the decline of the group), the perception is that it's not an inclusive group. Rename the student section, offer tons of freebies to students WITHOUT making them register for anything, and start fresh. The Rowdies have run their course.

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There are two main non-basketball issues when it comes to attendance.

1) Marketing. Name one thing the Marketing Department has put together for basketball this season. You'll have a tough time because there isn't anything. Even the fact that Tuesday home games are Dollar Hot Dog nights has never been, to my knowledge, promoted. The Social Media Rewards site has died, there have been no promotional giveaways, there have been no special nights created by marketing...it's like there isn't even a marketing department. Seriously, as another poster said, someone from UA needs to have dinner with Ken Babby and see how to stir up some excitement about a product.

2) The AK-Rowdies. The group needs to disband. I know it won't happen because nobody has the guts to make it happen, but it really does. I'm not going to pretend like I know the current setup of the Rowdies. I do know that students view it as a group that you have to join, which is why so many of them sit up ton in the GA seats. Whether or not they still require a special shirt or membership to sit down low (I hope not - that decision started the decline of the group), the perception is that it's not an inclusive group. Rename the student section, offer tons of freebies to students WITHOUT making them register for anything, and start fresh. The Rowdies have run their course.

+1. I don't get how they could just drop the ball on Roowards. It'd been there since I was on campus, now it doesn't exist? How lame is that? Way to go Akron...

AK-Rowdies, I always liked the concept, but I totally agree. It was never a very inclusive group. $5 to join at the begining of the year (which got you a T-Shirt) but the leaders never really did anything that set them apart. After we won the National Championship, the 2011 season was basically the peak. It went down hill after that, and there was never any leadership to get everyone involved in the chants.

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+1. I don't get how they could just drop the ball on Roowards. It'd been there since I was on campus, now it doesn't exist? How lame is that? Way to go Akron...

AK-Rowdies, I always liked the concept, but I totally agree. It was never a very inclusive group. $5 to join at the begining of the year (which got you a T-Shirt) but the leaders never really did anything that set them apart. After we won the National Championship, the 2011 season was basically the peak. It went down hill after that, and there was never any leadership to get everyone involved in the chants.

Its been 20 dollars to join the last few years. 10 dollars to renew for returning members.

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There are two main non-basketball issues when it comes to attendance.

1) Marketing. Name one thing the Marketing Department has put together for basketball this season. You'll have a tough time because there isn't anything. Even the fact that Tuesday home games are Dollar Hot Dog nights has never been, to my knowledge, promoted. The Social Media Rewards site has died, there have been no promotional giveaways, there have been no special nights created by marketing...it's like there isn't even a marketing department. Seriously, as another poster said, someone from UA needs to have dinner with Ken Babby and see how to stir up some excitement about a product.

Or available..... Akron vs Can't, concessions at halftime.... I literally was the 1st person in line and asked for two hot dogs. "Ok, that'll be 10 minutes." WHAT?

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Or available..... Akron vs Can't, concessions at halftime.... I literally was the 1st person in line and asked for two hot dogs. "Ok, that'll be 10 minutes." WHAT?

It is amazing....my son wanted a hot dog at the beginning of the game...and was told they were sold out.

UA Athletics laments the fact they are so underfunded... yet people at the JAR can't figure out:

A.) That 5,000 people are coming to a Tuesday night game, they they should plan their food supply accordingly

B.) At the F-ing Akron/K.e.n.t. game, you can sell hot dogs for $3.00, and sell a TON

The idiot will look at these comments and say "Gee...it's only hot dogs...it has nothing to do with basketball." Wrong. It shows there's no attention to detail.

If you lose $1500 in hot dog sales, that's equivalent to 25 season tickets for football.

Ask anyone selling Akron season tickets how difficult it is to sell 25 of them.

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After we won the National Championship, the 2011 season was basically the peak. It went down hill after that, and there was never any leadership to get everyone involved in the chants.

So basically after Caleb Porter left, right? I just find it sad that Caleb Porter has been able to get students to come to soccer matches easier than what UA has been able to do so in general for any sport.

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It is amazing....my son wanted a hot dog at the beginning of the game...and was told they were sold out.

UA Athletics laments the fact they are so underfunded... yet people at the JAR can't figure out:

A.) That 5,000 people are coming to a Tuesday night game, they they should plan their food supply accordingly

B.) At the F-ing Akron/K.e.n.t. game, you can sell hot dogs for $3.00, and sell a TON

The idiot will look at these comments and say "Gee...it's only hot dogs...it has nothing to do with basketball." Wrong. It shows there's no attention to detail.

If you lose $1500 in hot dog sales, that's equivalent to 25 season tickets for football.

Ask anyone selling Akron season tickets how difficult it is to sell 25 of them.

That's like when they ran out of cheese pizza BEFORE the game on a Friday night in Lent. Unless you're Catholic, that means squat, but to those of us who are, that's a big deal!

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So basically after Caleb Porter left, right? I just find it sad that Caleb Porter has been able to get students to come to soccer matches easier than what UA has been able to do so in general for any sport.

I'll say from my own personal experience, that was the year I got heavily involved. Years before I was never that impressed with the AK-Rowdies But even those "peak" years I didn't think the leadership was all that great.

UA has a culture problem. And until it starts hiring people who want to be UA all the time FIRST, it's never going to change. IMO: It's absolutely unacceptable that we are tweeting #TeamOhio "Go OSU" from official accounts. It's also absolutely unacceptable that professors (even if they're contingent faculty) are wearing the clothes of other institutions (OSU)...(yes, I had a professor who wore OSU shirts every Friday...never once wore Akron anything).

Until people at UA stop treating it as a stepping stone to something "better" and start treating it as the "better" thing, I don't see it changing. This goes for those working at UA, all the way to the students.

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I was really directing that as: "If that guy is part of ZN.O please stand up". I was also hoping someone would chime in about how they used to visit them gem. Guess I overestimated ZN.O.

He's not.

No one visited his site, and that's why it is defunct.

Several years ago the creator came on our site trying to siphon our members to it. It pissed a few of us off.

If someone can do a better job with a Zips message board than those at ZN.o, that's great. People will gravitate towards it organically. But to come on our site, and tell people "Hey, come see my message board!" was pretty weak.

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A professor wearing another University's clothing takes blatant douchebaggery to the nth degree.

Obviously, that prof either forgot or had never learned about that famous case of Boot v. Ass which Boot won in a landmark decision. I would love to monitor one of his classes to remind him of this case and how the ruling may impact traitorous faculty.

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