kreed5120

Yeah, I know there wouldn't be 3k butts in the seats. Those numbers factor in STH like me who decided this game wasn't worth showing up for.

Listening on the radio namely to see if Dambrot provides any interesting tidbits in the post game interview. French said 3k were in attendance. I can't imagine many people bought single game tickets for this. To anyone at the game did you notice an uptick in student attendance? If so, perhaps that Lebron jersey giveaway is working.

If you count ticket sales and contributions (according to those numbers), it equals $3.36M or roughly only 10% of the total athletic budget. Most of that 30% is made up from sponsorship, naming rights, media contracts, NCAA Tourney credits, apparel, CFP pool, and other non booster/STH revenue streams.

I'm a STH and donor (granted I probably give a lot less than most of you, but I'm still young and working my way up the ladder). I'm not saying we don't matter. However, it irks me when I see someone post that we should intentionally neglect the people (students) who both provide the bulk of the current funding and will be tomorrows donors. Seems like a fantastic way to run our athletics into the ground.

I agree 100%. I don't drive 30 minutes each way, sit on rock hard bleachers, pay $6 for nachos, $4 for hot dogs, spend $5-$20 on beer at Euro, Score, or wherever just to see a game. If all I wanted to do was just to watch the game I'd sit at home on my nice comfy couch and watch it on my large screen TV which provides a better view than my seat at the JAR. The food and beer is much cheaper at home as well. I could also start the game late and DVR through the commercials and half-time and only spend 1 hour watching it instead of committing the 3-5 hours I do getting ready, driving up, watching the game, and getting home. I spend this extra time and money for the in person game experience. Us millennials expect 2 hours of entertainment at a game, not just the 40 minutes in which the ball is in play.

The students are the ones who fund the bulk of the athletics through student fees that are forced upon them. If you neglect today's students whose going to be the one paying for those premium seats 30 years from now? If you want to honor the 1986 team have a half-time ceremony for that. That would be perfectly alright by me. Don't force some jersey with some players name the student never heard of because it pleases some STH that will never be wearing it anyways.

It's like that every year at this point in the season. The crowds will return again at the start of next season like they do every year.

Quit beating a dead horse. We have the arena that we have. The University clearly can't afford a new one and the city & state have made it clear they aren't willing to pay for it. Any opponent that would make a real impact on attendance (OSU, MSU, UNC, Kansas, or Duke, etc.) would never agree to come here for a regular season game. We had VCU (bracket busters which no longer exists) come in fresh off a final 4 appearance and we still couldn't sell out the JAR. The average student doesn't know the difference between a Cleveland State or Valpo. Atmosphere certainly does matter even if you want to pretend it doesn't. Hundreds of thousands of people turn out each year to watch the god awful Browns. The reason being is that even though they expect to lose, they still enjoy the gameday experience.

Thankfully age + his connection to Akron has helped prevent more aggressive offers from coming Dambrot's way. Lack of postseason success probably plays some part too. It's too be seen if he has built Akron into a brand that will be sustainable after he decides to leave (hopefully many years from now). I wouldn't be surprised if he has some say in whoever his replacement is and can see him staying connected to the basketball program in some way even in retirement.

Are you really trying to compare a 2x Heisman winner to an Akron player? Nobody cares about an OVC championship. If we had a Gordon Hayward type player who led us to national prominance I could see where you are getting at, but we have never had that player.

I said before when talking about football attendance time is the deterrent, not cost. Sitting on hard bleachers for 2 hours to watch a good, but not great team isn't perceived to be a good use of peoples time (Perhaps offering seat cushions would be a useful promotion). They provide the same timeout and half-time entertainment game after game and year after year. It feels like I'm at a high school game when they announce lineups. If you've been to 1 game, you've been to them all. For starters I feel they need to buy that lighting and sound equipment they rented for the Kent game last year. It helped create a great atmosphere before even opening tip and provided the JAR with a legitimate big time college basketball feel. They should also seriously consider mixing up those sponsor contests. The Pizza Fire promotion is nice because the fans have a stake in it, but I'm sick and tired of seeing the dot race and dress like a Zip. How about trying something new and more original. Also, there are dozens of groups around campus. Can not 1 come in from time to time to provide a change of pace entertainment wise during half-time? Overall the only way to pack the JAR on a nightly basis will be consistently having postseason success, but creating an atmosphere where fans are enjoying themselves instead of just doing something to pass time will provide an uptick.

Obviously our goal should be to start growing our footprint. If we can get to the point where we are getting our pick of the 2* & 3* players from Cleveland to Stark County and from Stark County to Youngstown, meanwhile, be able to add a couple Florida boys per year we will be sitting pretty in the MAC.

Does anyone have numbers on how many typical Summit County players get recruited to FBS schools in typical years? I stumbled upon the below numbers for Stark County and it made me wonder how Summit County compared. 2012 - 10 2013 - 8 2014 - 7 2015 - 5 2016 - 1 http://www.fridaynightohio.com/news/2015-was-down-year-stark-county’s-football-recruiting-trend-or-aberration

Creighton 41 - Buffalo 39 at the half Justin Patton, their 7' C, is an amazing athletic specimen. He can run the court and has some ups. He needs to bulk up, but there is no doubt he will find his way into the NBA. You just don't see 7 footers do the things he does.

Watching the Creighton-Buffalo game. They like to get into the open court and run. We'll need to limit turnovers and get back on D. The one weakness that I see is they don't look like a good rebounding team.

Navy is rated about right, but WMU seems to not be getting much love by being at #17. I can't see a 2 loss Navy leaping them by beating a 3 loss Temple.

The MAC is pretty consistently regarded as the 10-15 best conference out of the 32. That is not below average. The MAC consistently beating up on the bottom 175 teams while losing to the top 175 is what makes it average. The MAC isn't the only mid-major that schedules these. EMU is kind of an outlier with their 4, but the other schools schedule 1-2 of them which is pretty consistent to what other mid-majors are scheduling. Edit: If the MAC wants to become above average, they need to start beating above average teams. Akron could play an OOC schedule that features Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, MSU, and UCLA. If they lose to all of them that doesn't somehow make them better than if they beat the cupcakes they face now.

It gets 1 bid because there is never a team worthy of an at-large. The few instances that they might have had a team worthy that team went onto win the tournament anyways. Last year Akron went 13-5 in conference play (not good enough for a conference as average as the MAC) and they lost the only OOC game that they had a chance to pick up a statement win.

I suppose the better phrasing is that it is more likely than not that they scheduled a non-D1 intentionally. The teams budget only allows for so many dollars to be spent annually on buy games. It's significantly cheaper to buy Adrian than what it is to buy even another Radford or American.

EMU probably will actually have a better SOS than Akron. Non-D1 schools aren't factored into your SOS, meanwhile schools like American and Radford are. Akron will end up playing a tougher schedule, but a flaw in how SOS is calculated won't show it.

We definitely intended to target a lower division school. We have one on the schedule every year. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Even a school like North Carolina had a non-D1 program on their schedule this season. I'd start to have a problem if there is more than just 1.

Wasn't sure if any of you guys might have missed this. We, at Akron Athletics, would like to wish all of our Akron Basketball season ticket holders a Happy Thanksgiving! We would also like to thank all season ticket holders for their support of Akron Basketball and Akron Athletics. To show our gratitude, we would like to give each season ticket holder a special gift. Starting at the December 17th game against Marshall, season ticket holders can pick up a FREE Akron Basketball glass. More details will be released soon! Thank you again for your support and Go Zips!

Their backup C went down with an injury and should be out for quite some time, possibly the entire season. Not that that will be enough, but it should help the bleeding some.

We have Creighton and Gonzaga who are ranked higher than any of those 3 teams you mentioned. Our schedule is much better than EMU, not that that says too much... Edit: I can live with the one non-D1 team on the schedule. I just wish it was played to start the season, not 3 weeks into it.

Yeah, I'd have to be paid to actually attend this game.