a-zip

That is absolutely amazing to me (pathetic). Maybe we should tell their parents ;-) ........I am quite sure a lot of them would be pissed if they knew their son or daughter could get a scholarship for attending a game and they didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

It's a great idea but why don't they do it. Is it because our administration hasn't figured out and promoted this? Or have they tried to do it and the students aren't biting?

The STUDENTS!!! I couldn't agree with you more. They remain an absolute mystery to me, thus my thoughts on using high profile people to help promote or attract students and fans. I JUST DON'T GET IT. I never said my suggestions were the answer......I am just at a loss trying to understand the continued apathy around our teams. I played in the Rubber Bowl. Outside of Acme/Zip our attendance wasn't good either but I did understand that having an old stadium off campus had something to do with it. That is not the case anymore.

Funny, comments are made about stopping the bitching and finding solutions. I posted some ideas (LBJ being one) and I get slammed. Did I say it was the answer NO. It was a thought/idea around using high profile names to help attendance....you guys get all sensitive about him promoting OSU, you resent him for it and forget what he could do for us. Unreal. Probably feel the same way about Tressel now to because he was former OSU coach and now YSU president. Listening to the thin skinned responses from Akron 'Fans" on ZNO does give me insight to things. IMHO - if Lebron was all about money and selfish, he would have never come back to the Cavs. He is a good dude and loves where he came from. C'mon he left this https://www.google.com/search?q=lebron+james+south+beach+house&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_h7moh-LUAhVGcz4KHaXeBT4Q_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=638

Agreed. If I come off as bitching, that is not my intent. I have heard every excuse in the world for our poor attendance - everything from no wifi, poor records, poor opponents and bad weather. I posted the YSU attendance because they had better attendance while playing in a lower division, worse opponents, worse stadium and in the same geographic area as we do (in fact they may be more challenged because they have a smaller population and they are closer to Pittsburgh). I guess you could say they have a better winning tradition than we do but looking at the last 5 years, they are 32-19. I wouldn't call that eye popping. We came off a 5 game win streak in 2015 and a bowl win - then opened the season against VMI in front of 11,061 - didn't move the needle a bit. YSU came off a 5-6 season and opened the season against mighty Duquesne in front of 12,219, they followed that with 19,033 against the powerhouse Robert Morris. I scratch my head at the administration that spent all the money to build all of the shiny buildings and stadiums. This ain't a movie...."build it and they will come". What was the rationale and justification? AND once the investment was made.....what is the plan to make it a worthwhile investment? A lot of good points have been made here recently around all the competitive schools surrounding us and other factors. What was the previous administration looking at? Are we smarter than they were? So yes this is bitching and it is water under the bridge but the fact is our University is in financial distress. What are the solutions? We have one of the most recognizable people in the world LBJ in Akron. USE HIM!!!! We have our first NFL HOFer Jason Taylor being inducted this year. USE HIM!!! We have the Bowdens, we had one of the most beloved people in this state, Jim Tressel. DON'T LET HIM GO (big mistake)!! These are influential people with great networks. We have some impressive and charismatic players on the team - Tommy Woodson, Warren Ball.....get them out to the schools and the community. Finally, Joe Akron just needs to get off his lazy ass and spend a couple hours in a beautiful stadium. I have said this 100 times out here.....we are not going to get top recruits when they see and read how lame the game day environment is at UA. How can we expect to be more competitive with out top players. Hopefully some of you get to read this before it is deleted ;-)

K92 – I think you and I are on the same side. I started this post after convincing some Howard alum to drive 7 hrs to Akron for our home opener (they actually thought they might win). I told them about our new stadium, strong finish to the previous season, Bowdenball, etc. The weather was great, we kicked their asses but for 7 hours on the drive home they could not believe how empty this beautiful stadium was. I had no answer and was embarrassed. Since I originally posted this I have read about excuses from weather to wifi. I say BS. I just posted attendance for teams in lower conferences to support my original post. They have crappy stadiums that also don’t have wifi…….nothing close to the Info. We have been recognized year after year for having the worst attendance and the worst game day atmosphere. Joe Akron/UA fans are pathetic for ANY sport. It doesn’t matter if you have a winning program (evidenced by our Bball) or who you bring in to play. It is just pathetic and anyone trying to justify a new arena for Bball is insane. THAT is why KD left – I promise you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0oprAf6xE

You are the one sugar coating. Talking about wifi and other things as being a reason for our low attendance. I listed FCS and Division II schools with higher attendance than us.

Sugar coat it all you want, still pathetic 2016 NCAA HOME ATTENDANCE James Madison 19,844 Delaware 16,478 N.C. A&T 14,472 Grand Valley St. 12,549 Prairie View 12,194 Youngstown St. 12,439 Akron 10,337

Breaks rim at 19 second mark. I like!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFBKaINO1Ck

I did a little research based on the state of UA right now. · We have just lost our coveted BBall coach (who I don’t think any of us thought would leave) · We are losing BBall players left and right – headed from the penthouse to the outhouse · We can’t recruit because we don’t have a BBall coach · What will LBJ support be? (he is key for us) · We have the lowest football attendance in FBS · The school is in financial distress I played football at UA, I love the school and the football program. I don’t want it to go away but when I add up all the issues facing the school, I have to question the decision making that has gone on. I do agree, ICoach was a disaster….certainly when opening a brand new stadium. There is a side of me the believes we would be in a much better place had JD Brookhart remained coach or we had announced Terry Bowden as coach for the opening season of Infocision. None of that matters now. I have been asking questions for some time; Why are we in the MAC – the MAC is rudderless? What is/was the direction of UA athletics? Who do we aspire to be? Was anybody looking at the landscape of college sports? Conferences that were relevant in the past have been gutted by their flagship programs leaving for super-conferences. If we thought we were a flagship program and that was our goal, somebody needs to have their heads checked. What were the decision making criteria for where tens of millions of dollars were invested in UA athletic programs. Did someone believe heavy investment UA athletics was going to help us academically? Men’s basketball is the second most important sport at any school. We lost our coach because he went to a league that got multiple NCAA bids. It is hard to blame him for that, he isn’t getting any younger. There has been a lot of hoping and discussion around UA becoming the “Gonzaga of the Midwest”. When you look at the top Mid-Major basketball programs, they are all in leagues that have multiple NCAA bids, only 4 of the 20 play FBS. There are NO MAC teams on the list. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2639716-ranking-the-best-mid-major-programs-in-college-basketball That begs the question around decision making at UA. I pulled some stats of UA football from 2002-present (that is as far back as Wiki would go). When I strictly look at data, I don’t get it. UA Average football attendance (no money games) 14,509 MAC ONLY GAMES (home & away) 13,938 ALL UA Home Games 13,723 UA Home games vs MAC 13,143 Home games over 25K 3 Home games over 20K 8 Home games under 10K 23 Average attendance before INFO 14,024 Average attendance after INFO 13,504 Here are some facts from the conferences we should have gone after. If we had, I think we would still have KD, likely have much more success in football (possibly a FCS Championship), and better attendance all around. Atlantic 10 Conference – 14 Full-time members Playing FBS – 1 (UMASS) Playing FCS - 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_10_Conference#Full_members West Coast Conference – 10 Full-time members Playing FBS – 1 (BYU) Playing FCS - 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Conference Missouri Valley Conference – 10 Full-time members Playing FBS – 0 Playing FCS - 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Valley_Conference#Current_members We can't do anything about the past and where we are now but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Is it too late? Shouldn't KD leaving be ANOTHER wake up call? The MAC is a sinking ship, we need to get off!!! Attached is UA's football attendance since 2002. Year.pdf

You are comparing FOOTBALL seating in a conference that most of us don't want to be in. Regardless of what their stadiums can hold, how many actually show up to these games? If that was the rationale used to build drop $60M on the Info, that is foolish.

Skip - I was there. I am well aware of what the Acme-Zip game was. Yes, it was well attended but rarely went over 30K. Even if it did, it was the only game to do so. Every other game was less than 10K......some 5K. I would hardly call that justification. No, we did not have to drive to the rubber bowl.....we had team buses. Thanks for clarifying the 1-AA to 1-A, I figured most people understood the point. OK skip, the check wasn't blank but it was big check relative to the amount of money UA had at the time. Faust brought in an impressive coaching staff, they didn't come cheap. Moving to D1A ain't a cheap move. Basketball was the direction the school was headed but when Faust became available some genius (Muse/Adams) decided to snap him up. I can tell you Huggins was not happy. The A10 schools made a conscious and financially responsible decision to focus on basketball - that is why they are more competitive at it than the MAC and why they get multiple bids and why they can attract our b-ball coaches.

This is a great point. Everyone on here doesn't seem to understand what is going on.....go ahead and give me the repetitive mark or kick me off. It's supply and demand....it's not build it and they will come. The previous administration went for that and built a beautiful campus......exponentially better than when I was there. Apparently they convinced people (banks) that was the solution. Now there are vacant buildings, dorms, stadiums, declining enrollment and now financial distress. I seriously don't understand. If someone could explain it to me I will drop it. I don't see a logical marketing study or trend to justify "that stadium" as much as I love it. All you have to do is look at the statistics around UA sports attendance, MAC attendance from the last 30 years. When has there ever been over 30K come to a UA football game? EVER!! So why would you build a luxurious stadium that big? For those of you that want out of the MAC and aspire to the A10....why don't you look at those schools.....how many of them have football programs.....let alone money pit football programs. Is that too hard to see? I'll help ya http://www.atlantic10.com There are two schools in Ohio that can maintain competitive football and basketball programs - Ohio State and Cincinnati. After that.......you gotta deal with Xavier, Dayton and then the rest of the MAC. We had an advantage because of KD and Lebron. Now that is gone. Do you really have to ask why KD left? All you have to do is look at UA history. The same decision was made back in 1986 to invest in football at the expense of basketball. UA fired my coach D, dissed Huggins and gave Gerry Faust a blank check to go D1. Huggins was gone a year later ....yes he ultimately would have left but I can tell you he left for the same reason KD now left. To get to the next level KD needed players. In order to get players you need facilities. In order to get facilities you need money. You get money from attendance and support. Akron has NEVER had that. Same holds true for football..........you ain't getting top recruits with high school (5K) attendance. We are now just another MAC program. A couple years ago we had Keith Dambrot, Caleb Porter, Terry Bowden and Jim Tressel.....wow! It ain't getting better folks. Revolving door of an up a coming coach if we are that lucky.

Biggest issue - scorers. I said before he came in the gym at UA, Ivey is going to be the best player ever....If he stays, whoever is the coach needs to make him the focus let him be disruptive. My biggest observation watching the Zips this year........no assassins (and I am not talking about chucking up 3s from 5 feet behind the ark). Sometimes it seemed like the ball was a hot potato. Big Dog was a one trick pony and amazing but we didn't have slashers.

I guess we went to different business schools. You must have gone to the "Field of Dreams" school of business - "build it and they will come". You think filling the Info to a 20K average should be easy huh. Tell me, in the last 20 years, how many times have the Zips had over 20K at a single game (let alone average 20K)? And you wonder why the Info gets grief? I love the stadium, its beautiful, I wish we had it when I played there. What I question is that generally when you make a large capital investment ($60M+) quite a bit of justification...facts and figures goes along with it - I would love to see that report......they must have brought Kevin Costner in to sell it. Funny you make a point about people blaming previous people/administrations for their own problems. The same guy who I recall blaming "I-coach" and TW for all UA's ills.

Scar has the "olive jar" Proenza has the "Info" just sayin'

Let's go Zips!

And the Lebron James affiliation doesn't suck. It's OK to be upset but even thinking about getting rid of the reigning Coach of the Year is unbelievable to me.

http://giphy.com/gifs/Qe5oD5aXjEbKw

Bottom of NCAA attendance rankings pretty much guaranteed.

Just look at our soccer team. We are to soccer what OSU/Bama are to football. It absolutely helps!!!

I have always wondered the same. It is almost as if he has distanced himself.....I dunno. Really stupid for the school to not have close ties with our only professional HOFer.

I just did a google, YouTube, etc search for Jason Taylor UA highlights. I couldn't find any. It would be really smart to get some out there real quick.

The deafening crowds

http://www.hudl.com/video/3/2122944/5721c090dfe23b2d68a2283b