Dave in Green

The objective is certainly not to turn thousands of fans away by removing seating capacity from an arena that occasionally sells out. The objective should be to properly size an arena to handle the biggest expected crowds with the understanding that it will not always be filled to capacity because all games played will not be of equal interest to fans. I said earlier that Zips attendance had been steadily rising. But it actually fell last season when the team struggled after peaking in 2012-13 when the Zips were on their record winning streak and student and fan interest was at an all-time high. Just two seasons ago, the Zips averaged 3,782 for all home games and 4,553 for all conference home games. Reducing capacity to just 4,000 seats makes no sense.

This story from two days ago implies that while Robinson is still suspended he's not officially off the team. UA may be waiting for him to have his day in court.

If anyone thinks that all of LeBron's special talents are physical, read the following story and learn just how special his mental talent is: Total Recall: LeBron's Mighty Mind

Pick A (it was not a success) or B (it was not a failure). You can't have it both ways. I was around for the USFL. I attended USFL games because I got free tickets. Spring football was a gimmick, and I didn't miss it when it died. The USFL played 3 seasons in the spring/summer before giving up on that time of the year and planning a 4th season at the traditional football time in the fall. I read all about it when it actually happened, and different people gave different accounts. They still are because different people have different perspectives and everyone is pushing their version. It really doesn't matter to me why the USFL ceased to be a viable business and folded its tent. The fact that it went out of business means that it was not a success but a failure. If TV wanted to put big money behind spring football all along, they've had nearly 30 years to use that money to lure someone to come up with some form of spring football to replace the USFL. Spring football is not a hot commodity.

The USFL would have been a success if something hadn't gone wrong. History shows that something goes wrong with most new businesses, which is why most new businesses fail. Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it. The knee jerk reaction that some have to something new is that it must be better because it's new. Spring football is not guaranteed success just because it's no longer the 1980s.

Zips basketball attendance has been slowly trending up. Last season the Zips averaged 3,911 paid attendance for home conference games with 5 home games selling more than 4k tickets, including 5,488 for Can't, 4,918 for OU and 4,596 for Toledo. If the JAR had been reconfigured to seat just 4k last season, there would have been about 3k fewer fans cheering on their team in those 3 important home games. If the upward attendance trend continues the Zips could soon average more than 4k attendance at home conference games. Improving the JAR might create even more ticket demand. Reducing the JAR's seating capacity to 4k would be a good way to put an end to Zips basketball attendance growth.

It's certainly an awkward example. That's not to say that everything that fails the first time won't necessarily someday succeed. But the smart thing is to be wary of blissfully jumping into something that's failed before and has no guarantees to succeed the next time. Spring football is a big gamble with no guarantees of success. Under Coach Bowden the Zips are just starting to claw their way out of a dark era of failed football and finally starting to taste success and gain respectability. Odds are in favor of the Zips continuing to show increasing success in traditional fall football. It's highly risky to gamble on throwing that away in pursuit of an experiment that so far has only been proven to fail.

To the best of my knowledge no one here (including me) has any direct experience in funding, designing, building and operating an arena. We're pretty much relying on secondhand data posted on the internet. Most of that data has been produced by people who have a vested interest in either promoting or defeating an arena issue. That results in a lot of the data being deeply flawed in exaggerating only the pros or cons that support the position taken by the side citing the data. That's how you end up with absurd statements like the one the anti-Akron arena group made about being able to throw a grenade in the JAR during a game without hurting anyone. That's pure Jake trash talk. What's really required to make an intelligent decision is valid data about all the pros and cons, not selective, exaggerated data posted by those determined to push their own private agendas. I remain open-minded on the issues of a public arena downtown versus a dedicated UA arena on campus because I haven't seen enough good data to convince me that either is a slam dunk over the other. At this point I believe that UA's current debt load prohibits a UA campus arena for the foreseeable future. I seriously doubt that UA can raise the 10s of millions of dollars required to build one. I believe the odds of a public downtown arena are much better. If done right I think it could work like others that have been successful. If done wrong it could produce poor results like others that have failed. That's why I continue to wait for more specific and detailed information about the complete plan for the arena that's part of the proposed sales tax increase.

Easy, Balsy. "Everyone" isn't against building a new arena, and the play is far from "mediocre" from a team that for the past decade has been consistently top 100 out of 350+ D-I teams. No need to feed that kind of hyper-negativity like Jake and his buddies who said in the ABJ article that "you can throw a grenade inside the on-campus arena now and not hurt anyone during a men’s basketball game." We should try to keep the conversation here at a higher level so Jake doesn't get the idea that he has supporters here and is tempted to return to ZN.o under yet another screen name. Realistically speaking, the new downtown arena to be funded by the sales tax increase should only happen if UA is not the primary user. The downtown arena has to make sense for the city and the county with UA basketball games representing only a fraction of its use. If a sound economic case can't be made under those conditions, it shouldn't be built. Of course that means that we will be stuck with the JAR for years to come, because UA can't make an economic case for a new on-campus arena by itself. Looking at it realistically is painful because there's no easy solution. But unrealistic expectations will only make things worse for everyone in the long run.

Well wouldn't you just know it. One of the organizers of the anti-tax coalition is none other than David Culp (aka Jake), who has been on a public crusade for years to keep any new arena on campus and away from downtown. Another of the organizers is Adam Miller, a local Tea Party activist and ex-Can't State student who has zero tolerance for any form of taxation. There's also a pro-sales tax increase group with their own Facebook page: Citizens for a Safe and Successful Summit County Community

Someone is going to have to come up with a credible and convincing explanation that the proposed arena is not primarily for the benefit of UA. It must be sold as a community arena with UA accounting for only a fraction of its use. Benefits to residents of the city and county must be described in detail. Failure to do this in a timely manner will make it difficult to pass the proposed sales tax.

I keep trying to track Zeke rumors on a daily basis. Unfortunately, things have gone quiet over the past few days.

Mouthtrap ... I like it! Perfectly describes situations I've put myself in and observed from many others.

Trap game is sports slang. There's no formal definition for this term. The most widely accepted definition is that a trap game is one with a lesser opponent immediately before or after a much more important game (or games) against a much stronger opponent. The rationale is that a team will become so focused on preparing for the more important game(s) that it will not be prepared well enough to win against a lesser team that has focused all of its resources on scoring an upset. A trap is defined as a situation in which people lie in wait to make a surprise attack. It's a lot easier for a lesser sports team to make a surprise attack on a stronger sports team when the stronger team focuses its attention on other stronger opponents and underestimates the potential for a lesser team to outplay them. Anyone can look at any team's schedule and predict trap games in advance. Yet there are still surprise upsets in predicted trap games.

Zipmeister, I'm well aware of my limitations. I was interested to see if you would have a specific response to that particular numerical sequence or if you had limitations interpreting such things.

And baited breath is what you have when you've eaten bait. Bated breath, on the other hand, is an entirely different flavor. Then again, a lot of people would miss it if the media talked about someone having baited breath.

Zipmeister, you're right that satire doesn't become me. I was off key with the weak attempt about how we all trust your interpretations. From now on I'll try to stick with numbers. 10, 421, 77, 3, 19, 101.

Zipmeister, you keep monitoring those ranking services on a daily basis and let us know if there's any change. We all trust your interpretations.

All the pessimists should skip the other ranking services and exclusively use Scout.com to confirm their worst fears.

Looking a little closer at the Rivals rankings, the Zips' 12 listed recruits have an average rating of 2.33 stars. The next team ranked above the Zips that has a higher than 2.33 average recruit rating is #75 Illinois. So by average recruit rating the Zips rank #76. That would go even higher if transfers were factored in, as some were ranked with 3 and 4 stars out of HS. I don't think we need Rivals, 247Sports or any ranking service to tell us that Coach Bowden is bringing in higher level players and getting more out of them.

Captain, knowing your style it comes as no surprise that you would remember that post over this one.

ITZ, as Balsy pointed out with his link to the original thread on Chapman, the rest of us have been forming our educated opinions over the past two weeks. Apparently your research didn't include that original thread or you would have simply added your opinion there instead of starting this new thread. Have you read that thread yet to see those other opinions? I spent quite a bit of time researching Chapman's background and have a pretty fair idea of the good and bad about him that's been published. From the tone of your opinion, I'm guessing that your research didn't uncover the fact that Chapman was dumped by Pitt in late August right at the start of football season. Many of those who disapproved of Chapman's earlier transgression thought that Pitt did him wrong by stringing him on and not releasing him until it was too late to land with another major team. Have you considered that maybe Chapman ended up at a lower level because he rushed his decision due to the circumstances of Pitt releasing him so late? In retrospect, why would a 4-star HS prospect who had been recruited and offered by many high majors not end up being dissatisfied playing at a lower level without a top level scholarship? Anyone is free to disagree with my opinion just as anyone is free to disagree with yours. No one should flatter themselves that their opinion is the only one that's educated.

Buckzip, that's what I've been thinking. Coach Bowden has been going after increasingly more talented recruits. Many of these players likely believe they have a shot at making it to one of the power conference programs and aren't likely to commit early to UA. At least I hope this is what's happening, and that the Zips end up getting late commitments from some talented recruits who just missed making the cut at the bigger name schools.

I loved that moment. I was there to witness it live and it still gives me chills. Again, unfortunately, that moment stands out because it's been so rare over the decades. When your team's greatest moment comes in a 7-6 season, it simply verifies the lack of winning tradition.

Unfortunately, the A-Roo is associated with a tradition of losing Zips football. Changing to the Z logo can be symbolic of the Zips' transformation into a new winning tradition.