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I feel like we've had this discussion once or ten times before

I remember selling out North Dakota State.

We actually didn't sell out ANY games that year. And with the 2 teams already losing a combined 8 games to start the season, the potential Blockbuster match-up and sellout crowd simply wasn't going to happen on a Thursday night between Christmas and New Years with the students on break. However, you may want to judge it in relation to the other games that year before you consider it to be some kind of disappointment, just because it wasn't a Sellout. It still exceeded the attendance of any game up to that point of the season by a wide margin....and it surpassed the attendance of all but 4 games the entire season. And ALL of those other 4 games were on Saturday.

We are all different. Each of us have our own values and ideals, goals, dreams and frustrations. Likewise our comments and actions are as varied as the former. We are all Zips fans though and we are the sniping-est bunch of fans ever. We are the MAC version of the Bickering Bills. I am personally ok with the back and forth because I am an active participant in it and I still have respect for the rest of you guys even though our opinions differ. . . Because you are advocates for the University. You all are family to me even though I have never met face-to-face with a lot of you. A lot of you, I have. The entire shebang revolves around the social aspect of attending these games. If it weren't for that, I would be a TV Zips fan. It was not watching the game in person that brought me to Infocision Stadium on a ass-biting cold blizzard night to watch the Zips play the hapless UMass Minutemen in 2014, it was the shared experience with my buddies. I know that the key to getting people to the games is the party experience at the tailgate. You can watch at home but you have to be there to tailgate. Primetime programs have hordes of people tailgating outside the stadium that never go into the game. They are there for the party. I have tried to promote tailgating. I created a Facebook Zips tailgating page that has really sputtered. It is an easy interface to share pictures, if nothing else but no one but me was posting pictures. I stopped posting because I figured the members that we have on that page were sick of seeing me and my friends' ugly mugs on there. It's still up and active and every year when the season is about to start, I make another plea on this forum to join and use it, but it has gone nowhere fast. I have added to my tailgating setup every year to make it better and accommodate more people. Last year, I bit the bullet and purchased a tailgating trailer. ZG01 bought a 87 foot long land yacht of a RV to tailgate out of. There are people over in Lot 10 who have made a large financial investment in their tailgating gear. Every year the Phi Psis put on one helluva tailgate for homecoming. Efforts are being made by a lot of people to encourage attendance through tailgating but it's a tough go. A 25-year co-worker of mine who is a good friend has a son that is coming back this fall as a Sophomore. Last summer, I primed this kid to come over and tailgate with us. We are just a short walk from his dorm. I promised to feed him well. Do you think he bothered to come over and even just snoop around even once? Nope. There is no incoming student that had any more priming for Akron Football than this kid, trust me. This is a kid who is a football fan and who was a high school all-star player. What does his total lack of interest tell you? If the whole premise of this 9100 thread is to shine a light on the embarrassment that our attendance is and how to increase it, perhaps we should lower our sights a little bit. Maybe we should be discussing what can be done to maintain 9100 because I think we are dangerously close to having season ticket holders who NEVER miss a game pack it in and be done with it. There are is a certain contingent, myself included, who buy season tickets for the assurance of a preferred parking pass. If I was not assured a Lot 9 pass, I would not be buying season tickets any longer. I would walk up purchase on the dates I wanted to attend, which sure as Hell ain't all 6. The schedule being such a complete travesty has brought me to the point of actually deliberating if it is worth it. The two best home opponents are on Tuesday nights in November. Saturday tailgates are for a FCS, Iowa State, Ball State & Buffalo. That is not a sked that excites even the most die-hard of Akron football fans. This is a sad state of affairs. We can go on and on and on and I feel after reading what I just wrote that this post is mostly rehash, too. Skip Zip is right. What we need is an injection of 10,000 people just like the folks who already care. NOW. Wishful thinking. . .