kreed5120

I agree with much of what has been said, but I'd like to add playing Bethune-Cookman or South Carolina State doesn't prep us well for when it comes time to play a VCU, Notre Dame, or Gonzaga at tournament time. The Zips aren't accustomed to playing against opponents that have big, fast, strong, and highly skilled players. Sure a MAC team might have a few of those guys on the roster, but they don't have a roster full of them. It's easy to see why the Zips have been overwhelmed at the big stage.

We lost to a 17-15 Austin Peay team at the JAR in 2009. I'd say that's a cupcake.

But any fan knows if you play enough cupcake games year over year, you are bound to lose at some point.

I'm not disputing that there aren't some teams out there that won't play us, but I feel it's overblown. If we made enough calls, some big name program would bite on facing a recognizable program that consistently finishes in or around the top 100 every year. It's a numbers game. If I had my eye on 1 girl at the bar then went up to her to get her number and was rejected, that doesn't mean that no attractive girl in the bar would be willing to go on a date with me. It means I should try my luck with another.

Yeah, it would be no different than my face after I found out we lost to NIU in the regular season. Fans got over it. 5 years from now the only people that will remember it are the Texas-Arlington fans.

Buffalo won the MAC tournament last year and had a host of challenging OOC opponents this season. OU managed to schedule Oklahoma, Memphis, UMass, and St. Bonaventure the year after they made the sweet 16 and were returning DJ Cooper. Why are big names programs scared of Akron, but not other MAC programs? Something smells fishy.

I hear UCLA pulled down their 11 banners after losing to Monmouth *sarcasm* Kentucky losing to Robert Morris in the NIT was followed up by them being runner-up in tourney then making the final 4 the year after. It's safe to say a loss to a team like Akron wouldn't be devastating whatsoever to any top program. This season alone OSU lost at home to a Sun Belt team that has made 1 NCAA tournament appearance in program history. Nobody talked about that loss specifically. Just that OSU had a down year.

I agree with everything that you said, but I think you left out 1 key component. Gilbert is heavily invested in downtown Cleveland. If he breaks even on renting the Q, he is coming out way ahead by attracting 15k people downtown. Many of these people will hit up the Casino, Tower City, or one of his many other downtown businesses.

Akron has become a destination for players looking for a 2nd chance either because of character issues or because they can't break the starting lineup on whatever P5 school they initially signed with. It's a nice niche and I want to see it continue moving forward, but I'm not sure it will be sustainable once Bowden leaves or retires.

Those draft projections are based off of how he feels other teams view him, meanwhile, his position rankings are how he personally views the player. I view this as him saying that Brown will be a late round steal for someone. Edit: For the record I agree. He will most likely drafted. I'll say around round 4-5. Brown could provide instant impact as a special teams player and he can earn his way into a starting position.

With so many incoming bodies and so many spots to fill, I expect competition for those starting jobs. The "starting 5" now will likely be different come Fall.

The problem is the work needed to be done to the JAR isn't cheap. The proposed renovations needed to modernize the arena would cost more than what it would cost to build the Jack Stephens Center. Perhaps you could get away not doing 100% of the recommended renovations and only need to do 50%. That's still nearly $20 million dollars of work. Any new arena I wouldn't want them to break ground on until they had a sizable amount of upfront money pledged via donations, naming rights sold, ticket licensing for premium seats, sponsors, etc. When building the Stroh Center, BGSU had $10 million dollars committed before construction. If the Zips could find a buyer for the naming rights, I don't see why they couldn't raise a similar total or perhaps slightly more. Captain Kangaroo - I hear you on that. They are missing out on all kinds of revenue. They could even offer a reasonably priced beer night ($3 anything cheaper can attract the wrong kind of fans) 1-2 times per year for Tuesday games. I'm sure that would help pack the arena.

To be fair those 1-11 Akron teams didn't have much talent to look at. Some of Bowden's guys are just now coming thru the system and you definitely have seen more teams eyeing them.

Damnit! I told myself I wouldn't get tricked today.

The WSJ published an article regarding a study that was completed that valued 175 college basketball teams value. Akron came in 104th at a $14.3 million valuation narrowing edging out OU, who finished 105th, for best in that MAC. The 2015 valuation was a 36.7% boost over the 2014 valuation. That was the 11th highest % invoice. http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-much-is-your-college-basketball-team-worth-1459459516

Those all look horrible. I'd suggest going with option 3s design with option 2s color scheme. The 30 yard wide middle of the field logo looks excessive.

It was because 1 side of the arena has luxury boxes, which is the side you saw initially, with a small 2nd level while the other has just pure seating. The picture I posted shows the side that has seating. Edit: I probably should have posted pictures of the different angles to begin with.

Please any team but the Steelers. I'd hate to have to root against him at the next level.

I don't see the connection whatsoever. One actually has full wrap around seating while the other has a section that looks like it was carted in before the game. One has a 2nd level of seating and the other doesn't. Does Stroh Center even have luxury boxes? The only thing I see similar about them is they both aren't 10k+ monstrosities. Even then JSC seats 27% more people. That percent jumps to nearly 37% if capacity was expanded to 6k. At 6500, which may or may not be workable, it would be nearly 1.5x the size. If you add up Akron's and Kent's combined season attendance average this year, it adds up to around 7200. That's not a large market of college basketball fans in the area. I just can't see us being able to consistently fill something much larger unless we went on some sort of Gonzaga level of success. Even then we would be overshadowed by the Cavs season and like it or not there will always be OSU fans.

We are definitely getting ahead of ourselves. Gonzaga is also probably the #1 basketball team in their state (college and pro) and despite having 1/3 the enrollment of Akron, they slaughter us in student attendance numbers. If for whatever reason Akron basketball became relevant enough on campus that it could pack the arena on a nightly basis, I'd support tearing out some sections of the student seating and adding standing platforms(if the students were in favor of it). That would add additional capacity.

One of my good friends from college dad was actually the former dean of the Akron law program. I've only ever heard good things about it. It's supposedly one of the best bang for your buck law programs in the country. The campus in general has experienced something in the neighborhood of 1/2 a billion dollars worth of work in the last 15 years. This included stuff like a new student union, rec center, football stadium, and a multitude of dorms and other buildings. The dog situation will depend entirely where you live and who your landlord is. There is definitely places available that allow pets, but it will limit your options. PS: I suggest trying Swensons on your visit. It's a 5-10 minute drive from campus, but well worth it. Get the Galley Boy and Potato teasers. You can thank me later.

It probably wouldn't cost that much more to expand seating by 400 to make it an even 6k, which is what Gonzaga's arena is. I just feel smaller more intimate arenas help drive season ticket sales which in turn helps drive attendance numbers. Having a 13k arena and attracting only 3k fans, which is a generous estimation for CSU, looks tacky. I'm counting 4 MAC arenas over 8k. I wonder when's the last time any of them sold out? Edit: answered my own question. OU in 2012 is the answer. Convocation Center has sold out 4x in its near 50 year history.

Has anyone looked at the Jack Stephens Center? It's a 5,600 seat facility that includes a full practice court, 12 luxury boxes, weight room, offices, and many other amenities. The cost to build it 2004 was ~25 million which translates to ~$30 million in today's dollars. I actually think it looks really nice and it is about the right size that I feel the Zips could sellout a decent enough games to create a good atmosphere (I'm assuming leather chair back seating and the smell of something new will attract more people than hard bleachers). Bigger than all this it is something that the Zips could actually potentially afford 5-10 years from now if they could get a decent capital campaign going and could find a buyer for naming rights and are able to sell personal seat licenses for premium seating. Spending 2x-3x as much for a 9k-10k facility that may sellout once every 5-10 years just seems like a guarantee for the athletic department to bleed money. http://lrtrojans.com/news/2005/11/2/Jack_Stephens_Center.aspx

Those apparel prices look great. I'd go and stock up if I wasn't in Vegas that weekend.

Yeah, that's strange. They could have potentially been really good next year as they weren't losing anyone and the team was comprised predominantly of freshman and sophomores. Perhaps there was some fallout with the team. I'm hesitant to think a coaching change is happening as the pool of candidates shrinks by the day. I'd have to imagine Thad will be on the hot seat next year and losing 4 players from a top 5 recruiting class certainly won't help his ability to keep his job.