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Bump, since the event is this evening. I'll be there. Worth $20 to hear Joe, and see what the new AD is all about.

You have no clue what you are talking about. Have you ever even met any of the trustees? Your envy of anyone who is more accomplished than you clouds your judgement. Most of the trustees serve due to a sense of responsibility to their Alma Mater and community. The ones I know are way past needing a trustee position as some kind of stepping stone to some other position. They usually are well entrenched in the community through years of charitable and foundation work. The current trustees are in a difficult position trying to keep UA from bankruptcy and dissolution. It's a fine balancing act to try to keep all the shareholders(students, faculty, administrators and taxpayers) happy and still balance the budget.

The Zips are hosting the Akron Men's Basketball Alumni Camp this Thursday, July 24th at the JAR. The schedule is: 4:30pm - Cocktail Hour with cash bar and light hors d'oeuvres. 5:00pm - Watch former Zips basketball student athletes take the floor at the JAR for the Alumni Game. Parking is available in the Lot 1 parking garage on the corner of Spicer and Carroll St. and must be paid for via the scannable signs in the lot.

I wouldn't buy season tickets because I wouldn't go to the weeknight games or any game that starts after 3:30. There is no reason for a family of four with the oldest child being 11 to go to a game starting later or on a weeknight, which isn't me, I'm just saying. By itself, Akron can't solve this problem. It's a problem throughout the G5 world. The causes are many. The solutions will be simple but hard to achieve because of the enemy within, athletic directors.

Even before MACtion Akron football was an afterthought. It would be even worse today as live attendance at sporting events is down a crossed the board at all levels compared to the 80s or 90s. I can't speak for everyone, but my undergrad was during the Ianello years. Having a new stadium should have been an exciting time for the program. Instead it was a pathetic excuse for football. People can forgive you for losing by 3 touchdowns to a ranked P4 program. Consistently losing by 20, 30, 40 points to teams in your own conference week after week destroys fan enthusiasm. Often times the games were decided before half-time. More so than just losing, nobody wants to watch bad football. At least when the Browns lose it's often times still a game entering the 4th QTR. The same friends who I used to go to games with as an undergrad quit going and now even if I tried giving them free tickets, they'd rather just stay home and do yardwork or whatever else. The Northwestern win was the most excited I have been as a Zips football fan (wasn't a Zips fan until 2007). The issue is they failed to build off of it. I think they finished 4-8 that season. Followed by Arth's 3-24 tenure. Why would Joe Akron care if after a big win they just go back to being the same old Akron? The last game I went to was in 2016 when App State came to town. If you're wanting 15k-20k people at games I'm the low hanging fruit you should be looking to attract. I obviously have an interest in Akron sports since I post here and since that time I have even attended dozens of other Akron sporting events. Heck, I've even went to several alumni homecoming tailgates, but skipped the game. Deciding on either going to Eurogyro to hang out with friends or just going home instead. I'm telling you the reason I don't attend is because watching bad football, which Akron has played for the better part of the decades I've been a fan, isn't worth spending 4 hours of my Saturday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. You're a former football player if I recall correctly and it seems if you were local you would probably already have season tickets. You're not the Joe Akron that needs to be convinced to attend. Simply playing games on Saturdays isn't going to make 10k more fans show up in the frigid cold. Much more needs to be changed.

Its not just college sports. The MAC schools have to compete with pro and minor league sports as well. Using northeast Ohio as an example, we have the Browns, Guardians, and Cavs, multiple minor league baseball teams, the Lake Erie Monsters, and Cleveland Charge. Not to mention whatever other entertainment options. People only have so much available time and only so much disposable income. I believe Cleveland is the smallest metro to have 3 major pro sports teams. Many of the SunBelt schools are in the middle of nowhere. Those schools have less to compete with for live entertainment.

I naturally agree, but not sports ... not when the University is in debt, and a lot of it has to do with the debt burden from supporting athletics with that white Elephant of a stadium.