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Summarizing attendance and community/campus interest - We don't need to be, or compete with, Ohio State. We need to be like Toledo. Have 10k+ locals show up on home Saturdays. Have our students and community respect our program (rather than be embarrassed, or completely disinterested). Win our fair share of games. Have a magical 10+ win season every once in a while. That's the goal of a MAC program. The best thing that ever happened to UA Athletics was the building of Infocision, because it gave every administrator an excuse - "I wouldn't have built that stadium". If it sits 80% empty, it isn't their fault. I'm still waiting for the first AD to make any effort to fill Infocision to a respectable level. Instead we get exciting announcements on clear bag policies and body scanners. Instead of creating focus groups to increase football attendance, they create them to fabricate unimaginative logos.

Note : no red cards for St Johns ????????????????????????????????

If this is official, it seems Ali Ali does not have to sit out as a second-time transfer, which is great news for the Zips.

Anecdote concerning lack of community awareness, a couple weeks ago I had a guy at work ask, “Are they still called the Zips? Are they still D-1?” 😐

Bring back the magic - start Brookhart!

Much love for Shook. But No. Hell No! Not by a long shot. At this point in his career, I would not put Shokalook in the top 10 Zips scorers of AllTime. Now, he could get there. He has scored 4 goals in 2 matches. How many is that on the season? Shook is on a hot streak right now. I would not relish marking him.

Hardly a work of art by Zips. Not sure everyone on Akron wanted to play tonight. But it did not matter; Norsemen were overmatched and outgunned. NKU ultimately succumbed to an Akron offensive barrage in the 2nd half. We will take the two goals, the clean sheet, and all three points. Onward and upward.

🙏🙌🙏🙌

Excluding majority of our buy games (KY,MSU,Tenn), I’d be shocked if didn’t have the closet point differential in all of FBS the past two seasons.

Johnny Fitzgerald really brought great energy into the game. Real difference maker in the 2nd half

I'll take a stab here at some of the attendance comments, even if most disagree with me here: I think as a Zips fan you just have to accept youre a fan of a program and school that will never be popular. 15,000 consistently at a game would be HUGE (that's the stadium half full). The fact is Akron will just never be Ohio State. Im not proud of that either. The Zips could go undefeated 3 years in a row and win their bowl game each of those 3 years and NE Ohio will still rather watch Ohio State on Saturdays and even Akron students will skip the Zips games to watch the Buckeyes in their dorm or at a bar. Someone else mentioned on here about the Rubberducks games being fun and such. Very good comparison, however kids aren't really born and bred to be Indians (excuse me, Guardian) fans, so getting some minor league action in as opposed to going to downtown Cleveland is a perk. However, on Saturdays, children are bred to watch Ohio State football. Most kids goes to U of Akron for any given reason, however they prefer to watch the Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon. In my opinion, no matter how much Akron could win, they may get increased interest and attendance, however, Buckeyes will still always prevail in people's attention and overall popularity. Its lame, but it is what it is.

I can’t not respond to this. Be careful what you wish for. Have you ever attended a game with a big crowd at Dick Stadium? It’s like being surrounded by the weirdest teachers from your childhood who know less than zero about football. I’d rather be lonely.

You are so right. But you'll get shouted down by the old-guard that will stick up for the new regime. It's no secret that Mr. Guthrie got rid of Pritt Entertainment Group last year, thinking he and his new cohorts had the expertise to put on a quality, or even competent, DI football game experience. It is he who wants the DJ experience (not Irons, mind you), removing the traditional Marching Band in College Football stadium effect that exists at all the Big schools, and we have a helluva band to boot. Marketing???? So, they hired some wiz from Robert Morris, boy now there's a powerhouse of DI athletics! And has it made a difference? You tell me. We all made fun of Keith whatever-his-name-was when he was on the video board doing give-aways on the field, but God I miss those days now. Where's the kiss-cams, the dance-cams, the juke box games, the give-aways? How many times are we going to see some people standing on the field with Dr. Miller during a time-out and the PA guy not even mentioning what it is for? And don't even start to defend the poor choice made for PA announcers the last two games! It's not even a good high school football game experience. And yes, I'd love to take the family to a winning program, but as an alumn I feel I need to go when I'm in town, and the lack of winning would at least be tolerable if there were some pleasurable distractions. And your comparison to the Rubber Ducks is excelllent. Nice to see someone else feels like I do.

Pretty popular name in MAC circles as his dad (Miami) and brother (Penn State/Ohio State) were pretty celebrated prep players ... guessing Zips see an under-valued recruit much like Ali Ali before him. Hard to think he didn't have anything to offer Cincinnati-Xavier-Miami-Dayton-Northern Kentucky somewhere along the line in his recruiting. But Zips have done well with these types of players in the past.

I'm going to push back on this. First, we have an example in-house to show winning doesn't necessarily = attendance (MBB). Second, there are glaring weaknesses this athletic department has had for *years* that have held it back. There's no creativity, no fun, barely any marketing/promotions - these are things you have to do to draw fans even when you're winning and especially when you're not. Different sport, but we go to quite a few Rubberducks games. It's not because they win - I couldn't even tell you their record this year and quite honestly, don't care if they win or lose. It's because they are super-creative with marketing/promotions/ticketing, they engage with their supporters and make them feel valued, and their in-game entertainment is fantastic. We always have fun at those game. I was so bored Saturday I probably won't go back. We do none of this well, and it's beyond embarrassing for a D1 Athletic Department to be so bad for so long.