scottditzen

Thanks for the link Boston Zip, forgot about that!Xu I think blue and gold padding would look great. I just think as great as the place looks, especially with the emphasis of the red brick, keeping that predominance of concrete would very much out of character with the rest of the stadium.Anyhoo, GO ZIPS!!!!

Ya know I've wanted to ask this same question, but I was kinda overwhelmed being on the tour. The concrete looks bad, and that's my only complaint about the Info.The plans show that area to be brick or at least fake brick veneer. Either way, it would be a huge improvement to appearance of the concrete. And speaking of concrete, the sheer volume of concrete up by the loges doesn't look so great either. Way too prominent.I'm not sure paint is a very good option. Perhaps there is a positive side to all that concrete real estate....it could be prime space to generate income from sponsors.

Thanks for the compliments. It was really fun putting this together... I'm lobbying for a job here That is the kind of thing we need.

Zips and the Info on youtube!!

Guarding the Shirne...Now that sounds like a very cool tradition.If we had anything like that at our school it's been lost to history I'm afraid. Only 39 days, man that doesn't make it sound so far away now, does it?39 days = 5.5 weeks. That sounds pretty short, too!Zen, Kenana looking good!You know, guys, fans of rival teams used to come in and try to mess with the Nittany Lion statue. Syracuse painted it orange one year -- it had to be sand-blasted off. Some punks even broke one of its ears -- if you look closely at the right one, I think it is, you can see the fault line.PLEASE don't go crazy, but if a Zip fan were to knit a sweater or something (obviously in Akron colors) and drape it over the statue, it would definitely raise the stakes. Do this late Friday night, so the folks walking around campus early Saturday can see it. Tie it on real well so it's hard to get off. Of course, the assault team can get pics of their dirty deed, cuz it won't be on there for long. Don't spend a lot of bucks -- again, your emblem probably won't last.Be aware that PSU students might guard the statue, so use your discretion. You don't want to spend the game in Centre County Jail -- they don't broadcast the games in there. (No personal experience -- honest!)I wouldn't let every team's fans know this tradition -- wouldn't trust them. You guys are pretty cool (except for Kid -- he's a wild 'un. J/k!!!), so I'm trusting you to do something fun but not destructive. Good luck!! Post pics here, pls.Go to Wiki and look for "Nittany Lion". Here's most of the article on the statue.The Lion Shrine The Lion ShrineDuring the 1940s, seeking a place to hold pep rallies and victory celebrations, students launched a campaign for a lion shrine. As its gift to the university, the Class of 1940 voted to give the sum of $5,430 to pay for the construction of such a shrine, which was to be constructed between the Recreation Building and Beaver Stadium, with the lion framed against a natural setting of trees, grass, and shrubs. The sculptor Heinz Warnecke was retained to carve the lion at the site from a thirteen-ton block of limestone. The sculpture was formally unveiled on October 24, 1942. The shrine has come to be one of the most visited and photographed sites, not just on campus, but also in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[edit] Guarding the ShrineThis is a Homecoming weekend tradition at Penn State, started in 1966 when Sue Paterno (wife of football coach Joe Paterno) and a friend covered the lion in orange latex-based paint as a way of stoking interest in that year's game against PSU rival Syracuse. While that paint washed off easily, a later dousing by actual Syracuse fans with oil-based paint proved much harder to remove, requiring sand blasting. The shrine is guarded for the duration of Homecoming weekend by Penn State's ROTC detachment, Blue Band, alumni, current students, faculty, and by the Lion Ambassadors. The latter group brings food, music, games, and (starting in 2004) an event called "Last Guard Standing", attracting students from all over campus. Originally, the guard was manned by freshmen

I'll never forget this call. I'd spent the weekend in Niagara Falls, CA, and had no idea what happened with the Zips game. So I'm waiting on that bridge to get back into the USA. So I turn on the radio in hopes of getting the college scores and ESPN announces "and here's the best call ever in the history of sports" and it's STEVE FRENCH courtesy of the Akron ISP network!!!! Then another ESPN guy makes a hillarious, deadpan comment about how he was amazed that French was able to make the call in such a "neutral and composed manner." So great!!!

Huh, now it's on page 2....how is that even possible??Lol, Henry Jones.

Cool. Check out page 6 on Football Soundbytes!!!!http://www.entertonement.com/collections/523/clips?page=6

Still a more coherent post than most of us on Zipsnation normally make!!!

All very excellent ideas lol. If this one turns out anywhere near as well as the first, I'm all for that policy. Maybe we should start going after receivers named Catch. After last year I think I'd like to find a few DE's named "Sack" and some NT's named "Stuff the Run"

I voted for Central Hower, but it looks like a longshot.I'm not averse to seeing it built downtown at all. Actually, I think the downtown proposal would be viable IF the arena were:1) incorporated into the existing fabric of downtown 2) while preserving the historic buildings on Main St. and3) it was adjacent to new dorms in a renovated Mayflower HotelNow I've really gotten to thinking about all of this... To me, the most important aspect of the new arena is overall fan experience. The opportunity for spinoff retail in the form of bars and restaurants should be a high priority. Downtown is possibly on the verge, very near that tipping point of becoming a special, thriving urban destination filled with residents (students!) and visitors around the clock. A downtown arena, done the right way could very well help anchor a growing entertainment district. And I believe there has been talk of integrating restaurants/bars and shopping right into the Main St. arena proposal, as with Quaker Steak and Lube and Gordons Sports Bar inside Quicken Loans Arena in CLE.On the other hand, if the arena is buried in the heart of campus the possibilities for spinoff development just aren't the same. This is one reason the JAR sucks so bad. The fan experience of walking past frozen and locked Olin Hall or even the open Student Center, no matter how nice it is, just isn't exciting to me. Even if built on the periphery of campus, I'm not sure how being built along a one-way Route 8 access road is beneficial. I suppose Exchange St. does have businesses that would benefit and serve Arena visitors, I just don't see anywhere near the same upside as with the potential renaissance downtown. Here's a scenario that I believe is worth looking into with our own situation....It's like the difference between the Nationwide Arena vs. the Schottenstien Center down in Columbus, just on a smaller scale. The Nationwide Arena District, home of Blue Jackets Hockey, is downtown and there are a great number of places to go before and after any event. Tons of shopping, bars, theaters, restaurants, residents and street life. The Schott, home of Buckeyes Basketball is in the heart of OSU's campus, but it's lifeless, surrounded by landscaping, grass and parking lots. Nobody tailgates there (do people ever tailgate for basketball?) or ever hangs out around there unless it's immediately before or after an event. It's sterile, just a big nondescript building on campus. If you're not familiar with them, the links can help show the difference in what an arena/entertainment district can do:Schotthttp://scottdo.files.wordpress.com/2009/06...tein_center.jpgNationwidehttp://www.arenadistrict.com/Ask BuckZip where he'd rather be. I'd be very surprised if he thinks the Schott is a more vibrant or better overall environment than the Arena District. It's the spinoff neighborhood around the Arena District, including the AAA Clippers Ballpark that make it one of the best fan experiences in the country. It's all about good planning, and what is most beneficial.aTo be honest, for the amount of space a new arena would take up on campus, I might rather prefer an area of quiet solace for students like a reflection pool, wetland area or even a grass field for intramurals. I don't see how dropping a place like the Schottenstien anywhere on campus really helps. Drawing arena visitors to check out our campus is a good point...but again, I just cannot envision how an on campus arena maximizes the fan experience at all. I guess any plan that could better integrate and spur outside development is the plan that really makes the most sense to me. And right now I think downtown has, by far, much more potential for positive cooperative growth. As long as everything is well planned out and the arena says "UNIVERSITY OF AKRON" on it, it will be a tremendous positive step for our school even if it's located downtown, just a few blocks off campus.

Another example of the UA policy of grabbing any linebacker in America named "Chase."

I'd go for MAC, Big East or some new conference. Conference USA, sorry, but no team there is of much interest to me at all. I wouldn't want to end up there barring anything cataclysmic, ie, the MAC dropping down. Even then, I'd rather we scrape together a new conference.Big East football would be intriguing...there's no reason we couldn't become the next Cincy, Rutgers or UConn. But I would hate to see what would happen to our basketball team in that conference. I just can't see us being very competitive there, way too brutal. Back to football...dream for a moment...imagine for a second if the MAC could somehow, someway became an excellent quarterback conference with high flying offenses. It would gain an identity for an exciting brand of anything goes football. It could catch fire with attention and attendance, get much better marketing and its own t.v. network and great exposure. While it would be miraculous, sadly, the idea of the MAC becoming something special looks really unlikely. I think a much more likely scenario is that the MAC stays the course for sub-mediocrity. But....if our Zips can become perennial winners in a sub par conference- just as Marshall was before, is that really such a bad thing? And what about attendance...do we draw better at the Info as 1) "the Pride of the MAC" getting Bowl games and having a fighting chance as conference champs every year, or 2) in an expanded Info vs. Big East schools where the competition at the top is much greater, and higher likelihood that we could struggle for years to make headway? What do you think??BIG EAST BASKETBALL Pct Overall Pct#$Louisville 16-2 .889 31-6 .838$Connecticut 15-3 .833 31-5 .861$Pittsburgh 15-3 .833 31-5 .861$Villanova 13-5 .722 30-8 .789^Marquette 12-6 .667 25-10 .714^Syracuse 11-7 .611 28-10 .737^West Virginia 10-8 .556 23-12 .657^Providence 10-8 .556 19-14 .576Notre Dame 8-10 .444 21-15 .583Cincinnati 8-10 .444 18-14 .562Seton Hall 7-11 .389 17-15 .531Georgetown 7-11 .389 16-15 .516St. John's 6-12 .333 16-18 .471USF 4-14 .222 9-22 .290Rutgers 2-16 .111 11-21 .344 BIG EAST FOOTBALL Pct Overall Pct#Cincinnati 6-1 .857 11-3 .786Pittsburgh 5-2 .714 9-4 .692West Virginia 5-2 .714 9-4 .692Rutgers 5-2 .714 8-5 .615Connecticut 3-4 .429 8-5 .615USF 2-5 .286 8-5 .615Louisville 1-6 .143 5-7 .417Syracuse 1-6 .143 3-9 .250

Ha ha, we're saving up the "garbage" for Can't State University and their dozens of fans!!! Great having you on this forum 84. Feel free to stick around for the season. Kid, you either have great sources or brown eyes (the latter b/c you are full of crap). Checked a few on-line sources -- nada on this story. Of course, I live in North Carolina, which is not a hotbed of Big10(11) football.Do you guys run a gameday thread? If you don't mind (assuming I can't get to Happy Valley for this game) I'd like to discuss the game in realtime when it FINALLY gets to 5 Sep.I read that one on the Scout boards. http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=157&f=1395&t=4524450Thanks, Kid! Interesting that they've been discussing for two days but it hasn't shown up anywhere else. But, hey!, every story -- true or false -- starts somewhere.Also, we have a live chat feature on gamedays for discussion in realtime.Thanks again! Like I said before, you guys remind me of the Oregon State fans: Very knowledgeable, enthusiastic, loyal. I am privileged to interact with you -- I hate getting into pee'ing contests over trivial stuff -- you guys avoid that garbage.

Lol, Pitt's not that bad, they only lost to Bowling Green by 10.

Those are some very sobering numbers...For me, getting more people to attend is a personal crusade. I'm making sure to invite everyone I know down to campus for game days. It's the place to be. Even if they're not exactly Akron fans, how could anyone not appreciate a day of tailgating and D-1 football in a great, brand new stadium.

You're reminding me of the OSU game where we trailed 3-2 at the half. I don't think the coaches had a strategy to win that game, the offense was just so conservative it was too safe. But now I think our coaches and our team has come a long way since that game. I think our offense will do what it takes to put up points and surprise PSU and their fans. The Zippers can certainly win this game.

For sure, the hood sure looked to have hit rock bottom. A few months ago I was on Campus just to check out the Info. Typical line out the door for the Plasma Center....why this place needs such a visible locale is beyond me. At the Speedway and there was a girl going from car to car at the pumps asking for money. She had one of those Home arrest ankle bracelets on!!! So many houses look in disrepair I am wondering if there are big big plans on the horizon for the entire area. I really like the expansion of Don Drumm, there is a real, much needed artistic feel to that area that could very well be expanded on. But mostly, the entire area is in dire need of reinvestment. I sincerely hope the stadium and the dorms are the tipping point for real change in the near future. I have to agree with you there. When I went a few weeks ago to pick out my tix and drove around, it just sticks out like a sore thumb.Let's remember, it is not just 6 games a year. Stadium should be used at least 3-4 times for HS football, perhaps football camps and the new dorms will be there as well. PC needs to be the first thing to go, but another 3-4 new restaurants, retail, living quarters would really bring life to that area and pride to all that care about Akron.

Marcell Weems off the pass n pitch keeper.

Wouldn't it be so great to stage a mock funeral for the 3-3-5!!!!! We can get a celebrity like Gerry Faust to dress like a priest and everything.

Here's one:For each home game, sponsor an "at the Info" photo contest. Post all of the honorable mention shots online and give a decent and noteworthy prize to the winners. Shots can be judged in different categories like Action, Originality, Artistic, Zippy related, SuperFans, TAILGATING, etc. Practically everyone has a camera or camera phone. Make the prizes cool and word will spread.

Behold the 3-3-5!!!

Stop it...You're thinking outside the box!!!!!!Seriously though, best idea I've heard in a long time. The campus needs it's own identity, but to ignore it's proximity to a possibly resurgent downtown would be a mistake.

Well, I figured since I posted something there would be a negative comment below. I see I am correct.I never said the entire school was anti-american. I said Can't fans at the basketball game booed. THOSE fans showed anti-americanism. They didn't all boo, but a LARGE portion of their fan base did. I am sure I wasnt the only person there that night. Can you think of any other incident where a schools fans booed service kids? I sure as hell can't.How about the UofA black students who sat in the bleachers under the flag at bball games back in the 70s and refused to stand for the national anthem? Not booing, but might as well have been.Yeah, those things happen. I just suppose not everyone relates to the national anthem, flag or government in the same way. Me, I always take my hat off and stop talking during the anthem, (unless the singer is just murdering it). But it's entirely plausible for different people to assign different meaning for what our national symbols represent.

Great points. Getting the local media on board, especially WKNR, will be a huge benefit for us. We have to make sure and make known that the INFO will absolutely be the cool place to be on Saturdays.