a-zip

Great point. Evidence of this is supported by the packed house at UA basketball games

Dr Z - I appreciate your photography and enjoy it, you are amazing. I can't begin to discuss exposure and all the things you brought up. I know what I saw on TV and it was sad to me, which is why I posted the video. Personally, I don't find standing in the tunnel with your teammate outside the tunnel by himself as supporting him. I didn't watch any more NFL from there. Also, sorry for posting this on the 9100 attendance chain, and sorry for the long winded post BUT all of this is really pissing me off. I can't even chill out and watch the game I love without a f***ing protest. Honestly, I respect the right to protest but I don't think these guys even know what they are protesting. Racial inequality? Anti-United States, Anti-Trump, Anti-Police, Pro-F Castro or did this just start from a guy who lost his starting job as QB for the 49ers and tried to revive his career. Very ill-conceived in my opinion. Hey - now I know why this belongs on the 9100 attendance thread......because if people protest the NFL, maybe Zips attendance will go up ;-)

Funny - the Ravens and Jaguars knelt for the U.S. National Anthem BUT they stood for God Save the Queen. I wonder if the players are aware of the American Revolution? Something does not make sense to me about not standing up for the national anthem. People say they have a right to protest the song celebrating America because America has injustice, unfairness and issues that have caused pain. There is no question that injustice has existed throughout time in this country. There is no question that prejudice exists and that "all" people are treated unfairly to differing degrees. These social ills should never be tolerated, accepted or allowed to continue. However, there is danger in not standing for the anthem and seeing the American Flag as the cause of these problems. Is America perfect. No. Is America to be judged as a final product and anything less than perfect then interpreted as sure signs that it represents oppression, hatred and inequality. America like all things in life is a breathing, changing, evolving state. It has come far in its history to achieve great goals of freedom, tolerance, equality and justice for its citizens. It has done so much to help other nations survive tyranny, oppression and cruelty. Yet it still has much left to do if it is ever going to become a perfect nation. Love for one's country is not something that should be viewed from the perspective of perfection. Love for one's country should be unconditional and when something is less than perfect, its citizens should work as hard as they can to correct it. When someone sees something less than perfect in our country, they should passionately protest and explain why the injustice needs correcting. One can and should push our country to even greater accomplishments through introspection and pressure to improve. However, one's love for the country should always exist. When citizens attack the flag or the national anthem, it is an attack on the country itself. When the intensity of the attacks become full of rage and hatred, it festers into feelings of hating our country. American's should always dislike/hate prejudice, inequality, unfairness. They are social and political cancers that attack and attempt to suffocate our nation. America is the greatest nation on earth. It can sustain attacks about its history, injustice and inequalities. However, when people begin to hate the nation itself there is danger that America's ability to sustain itself will be jeopardized. Hate the cause, hate the unfairness but do not hate the country. I will never hate this country. I will never hate what it stands for or its symbols. I will accept it is less than perfect and dedicate myself to fixing its weaknesses. I will have the courage to acknowledge its flaws and to push to find answers so all Americans may be free, equal and happy. For America to achieve the harmony, peace and destiny it was created for, requires love, caring and commitment from its citizens. I will always stand for the national anthem and put my hand on my heart for the pledge of allegiance. I will do this to offer love for my country so it may continue its journey of fulfilling its basic commitments to its citizens. Millions have died honoring this commitment to the nation. Love is the only force on earth that allows people to grow, succeed and be happy. Love for one's country is essential if it is to do the same. I want clowns to juggle, actors to act, musicians to sing, basketball players to dribble and shoot, football players to run and catch and news reporters to report the news. That is what I pay for. I don't need Madonna, Rosie Odonnell, Anderson Cooper, Lebron, Martavis Bryant, Ashley Judd, Kathy Griffin, Sean Penn to try and shove their opinions at me from their ivory mansions because they have a big microphone. If they want to help causes, do what Jim Brown has been doing all of his life.....roll up your sleeves and get out there. Kneeling isn't doing ANYTHING.

Did CNN photoshop that for Sergio? My s**t is straight and I know what I saw. I would not call hiding in the shadows backing their teammate. See video Villanueva left hanging

BS!!! They talk about supporting each other what about supporting this guy, too????!!! Classless!! Martavis Bryant was probably hiding, smoking a bowl. Villanueva left hanging

Nice crowd Troy....even after lightning delay.

I don't like overreacting to one game but TW does not look the same....I'll give him a break because I personally think PSU is THAT GOOD. I will say this.....our best offensive player is Warren Ball by far....even though his stats were not good, he is impressive. On the play where he fumbled, he was about to break a tackle where the guy had him dead and he showed amazing balance and strength to get out of it....there were others. Here's my 2 cents. A read option is not effective if only 1 guy can run. If TW is not a threat to run, our best player WB, will get stuffed. Last year when TW stared the season, he was a threat to run AND our receiving corp had NFL talent......this year we don't have that. This year we have a NFL caliber RB - the personnel and scheme need to put him in a position to make things happen. I absolutely believe he will CRUSH MAC defenses. KN impressed me. With him in, teams have to worry about two guys that can take it to the house on any play. I also thought KN made a couple really nice throws.

LOL

We are playing against the best offense in the country - Heisman RB, All-American QB......stop the doom and gloom. PSU will throw up more points against Big10 teams this year.

That is a problem. If they are football fans I am sure they will hear about him getting inducted in to the NFL HOF down the road - if they don't know he played at their alma mater, that is criminal. If the UA is too stupid to not try and capitalize on it, maybe 9,900 is what we deserve.

Mixing two threads with one response (9100 attendance) I sure hope we are milking Jason's NFL HOF induction while he is 30 minutes away. I wonder if students even know he is UA alum. Great player, good looking, well spoken.........USE IT!!! Build a f*&%ing statue of him at the stadium.

All this discussion around basketball does beg the question of building "that stadium". Maybe it should have been "that arena". Just sayin'.

I hope you are wrong.

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.