Zipgrad01

Toyota did it on one model and that is just because most Americans won't buy a Japanese brand truck. Did you notice all the other models were big 3? Those financing deals also go along with huge rebate incentives. For example.....NEW YORK - General Motors Corp.’s “Employee Discount for Everyone” program sent the automaker’s sales soaring last month to the highest monthly total in two decades and allowed it to unload huge amounts of inventory.Now, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group are launching pricing schemes of their own.These are busy times for U.S. automakers, and GM’s recent success is the first bit of good news to emerge from the world’s largest automaker in a long while. Whether that can be sustained may hinge on how all the automakers play the promotional game going forward. Big discounts can often be a blessing for bolstering sales, but they can also become a curse for profits.Story continues below ↓advertisementAutomakers might want to look at the retail industry to see how discounting can help as well as hurt business. Merchants, especially department stores, have become increasingly reliant on promotions to lure consumers into their stores.But shoppers have become somewhat numb to the constant discounting. They often wait until they know it is the absolute lowest price before they buy (just think of the success of the post-Christmas sales). While that might clear out inventory, it doesn’t do much for profits.The auto industry isn’t in such a predicament yet, but it has come to rely on promotions to drive customer traffic. That push largely started after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when automakers launched zero-percent financing deals to revive sales, and they have rolled out other promotions since.But the current scheme extends beyond what has been done before — which is exactly what has some industry-watchers worried.On June 1, GM began offering its vehicles to the public for the same price that GM’s employees pay. That allowed customers to buy vehicles for an average of $400 to $500 less than they spent in May, before major cash rebates. GM spent an average of $4,458 per vehicle on incentives in June, up $449 from May.Those discounts, which took the haggling out of car buying, hit a positive note with car buyers. GM tallied a 41 percent jump in its sales in June compared with a year ago, the highest monthly total in nearly 19 years and a big gain from the single-digit growth it has seen so far this year.In addition, GM inventory declined 26 percent to 980,000 units, an important reduction before 2006 models arrive later this year.Given the robust response, GM is extending the program through Aug. 1. But now it will face competition, with Ford and Chrysler both announcing that they would offer similar deals starting this month.Automakers say that these deals are only for the short term, but whether that holds true is unclear. For one, should sales slow dramatically after the employee-discount programs end, they might be forced to consider cutting prices again.There also are particular concerns over what happens when the 2007 models are launched later this year. Consumers may balk if they perceive the prices are significantly higher than what’s in the showrooms now. Analysts say that could mean that the automakers are left with no choice but to implement another round of promotions.“Now we are at employee-level discounts. Is there a level below that, like $500 more off that price, that they will have to go to next because that is what consumers expect?” asked B. Craig Hutson, a senior bond analyst at Gimme Credit, a research company specializing in corporate bonds.Should Detroit’s Big Three automakers continue the promotions, some analysts worry that will cause the sales effect to fizzle over time. Morgan Stanley auto analyst Stephen Girsky said in a note to clients this week that “the longer these programs last, the less successful they will be” and suggests that is exactly what happened with GM’s “Keep America Rolling” zero-rate financing campaign in 2001, which was an initial success.There is also the issue of what the heavy discounting does to a brand over time. It’s possible that a brand’s value diminishes if consumers associate an automaker with its promotional programs.Even with all those concerns, GM should get credit where credit is due. It set off major car buying with this promotion, even for its SUVs that it had been struggling to move out in recent months. In addition, GM managed to win over customers who have not bought its cars before. Its market share climbed above 30 percent last month, well above the 25.7 percent realized year-to-date, Hutson said.It’s rare to see a such a successful discount program, which is why all U.S. automakers need to plan their next move carefully.Hate top say it, but how OSU does always sells papers no matter who they are playing.

I think this may be the only board in the country where people feel the MAC is on par with C-USA.

You have to be kidding me. Honda, Toyota and Nissan built their reputation for having vehicles that last. They do not do marketing ploys on this. This is proven in yearly quality reports, auto magazines and word of mouth from the public. All you hear on tv is Mercury, Ford and whomever trying to say that "their cars beat Honda and Toyota in a closed coarse driving competition." Show me one time IN HISTORY where a Honda or Toyota dealer is marking 8k off on the sticker with 0% financing. It doesn't happen because they don't have to. But it is has become the norm for the Big 3. It has killed the Big 3 in a lot of ways because it ruins the value of their vehicles. Nobody will buy a Chevy, Ford, etc.. until the dealer advertises HUGE rebates and 0% financing. They found this was the only way to get customers in the door and now customers are smart enough to not buy their vehicles until they run those rebate and financing options. It has killed their new car market because they can now not get normal sticker prices for their vehicles. Not only that, people don't want their products to begin with because of quality differences, resale differences, etc..Oh yeah,and the "better, made, longer lasting" thing is Chevy's slogan for their truck. You know..."Most dependable, longest last trucks on the road." Plus, lets not forget "built Ford tough."Really? You think the PS3 is the best system? I guarantee you get 100 people in on this and they are all split about 33% each way.Our MAC east title team wasn't very good. The community isn't going to rally around a team that backs into a title with a 7-6 record. Then we turn around the next year and tank. We need teams that go 10-2 or 9-3 every year. As for Chris Wells and the LeBron thing...all the paper did was to write what sells. 10x the number of people care about Lebron and OSU than they do about Akron Zips football. It is just the reality of the thing. They run stories to interest the people enough to buy papers. More people care if Chris Wells goes to OSU than they do about the Zips.

Generations ago the Cubs were a winner. You are right, but the Cubs is a different story than Akron Zips football. The Cubs are one of the most storied franchises in all of sports.YSU is still a winner without Tressel. How many losing seasons have they had since he has left?The Browns have been a winner since the 60's, they just haven't won titles. The Browns were awesome in the 80's and 1st half of the 90's. Again...one of the most storied franchises in sports. However, attendance at Browns games has started to dwindle during the season recently. Why? Because they stink. People couldn't give tickets away last year unless guess what?.....the Steelers came to town. Why? Because everyone wanted to watch the Browns play the Steelers.What is Akron's excuse for the Army games bad attendance? The Cleveland metro area is over 2 million and they can't sell 20k seats? You honestly think it is because of marketing? It is because nobody wants to watch the game.Do you work in marketing? I don't. I am a plant manager, so I look at things differently and disagree with our sales and marketing team quite a bit. They try every sales and marketing scheme they can think of in order to increase sales, but it doesn't work. Why? Because our customers don't think our product is better than the other guys. They focus on marketing and gimmicks rather than focusing on the true issue and that is providing a quality product that the customer wants. If you provide the product it will sell itself. Right now our product is not good enough to cause people to support it. I will use the auto industry as an example. Look at all the commercials the Ford, Chrysler and GM dealers run. Look at all the incentives they advertise ($8,000 off sticker and 0% financing, etc) just to get people interested in stepping their foot into the dealership. Why do they do this? Because nobody wants their product! Do you see Honda, Nissan or Toyota doing those sort of incentives? No. Why? They don't need to use gimmicks to get people to buy their products because the quality of it speaks for itself. Same is true of sports and building a program. It is quality of product, not marketing.

You can promote it all you want, but if the public isn't interested they won't spend the time or the money to support it.YSU has their fans because they have produced national titles. Same thing as Mount Union. Akron has won nothing and has never been a winner. People don't want to support a loser. YSU has won throughout the years and it has caused a lot of the fan support. They grow up raising little YSU fans and the trend continues. The Cubs haven't always been terrible, they just haven't won titles. That is a huge difference. As for the white sox....it is in the ghetto and people fear for their lives to go to the games. Not only that, most people in Chicago are Cubs fans. You can deny it all you want, but just look at NIU and Iowa this weekend. NIU never sells out their 30k seat stadium. Why are they selling out Soldier Field? 1. Because they have been a winner. 2. Because they are bringing in an opponent people are excited to watch. Until Akron is a consistent winner and plays teams fans want to see they will never get that community support that you want.

Times were different then. There wasn't a lot you could do besides go to some games, etc...Now people stay home and watch their 400 channels on tv every night. The kids would rather play video games, and both parents now work, so they are tired when they get home. You need something that will really DRAW them out of the house and MAC football just doesn't do it. The only way MAC football will get it done is if we have a winner and we are bringing BCS type schools to Akron that will spark a fans interest. Army, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, Temple, Eastern Michigan, Buffalo, Cal Poly, etc...will cause people to watch re-runs of the Soprano's.We need to get teams in here like Pittsburgh, WVU, Michigan State, etc in Akron to draw fan interest. Also, until the students care enough to go to the game, this program will go nowhere. More students go to Mount Union games that UA games and they only have about 3,000 kids in the entire university.

Of coarse the PD and ABJ will tell you we are in the midst of a poverty area. That fits their agenda. It is a bunch of bs. Yeah, inner city Cleveland and Akron are poor, but what inner city isn't? The surrounding Cleveland and Akron areas (ala suburbs...the people that buy tickets to sporting events) are not poverty stricken. It seems like everyone is buying new houses and new cars. New shopping developments are exploding everywhere. Almost everyone I know is richer than they have ever been. I will give you the Indians game and the air show, but money is not the issue, it is the product that nobody wants to see. You think the Browns-Steelers game would sell out if the Tribe was playing? Um...yeah.People here aren't that baseball crazy. They were years ago when we won the division every year, but we have flopped lately and people won't go until closer to playoff time. The Cavs didn't have a problem selling tickets.

I would love to see him grow up and earn a spot on the team again if JD would allow it. Put him on a very short leash.

Well, Army went back to the wishbone this year. When they aren't running the wishbone they will run a lot of formations with 2 and 3 tight ends and use them as blockers. So, winning this game is the team that.....1. Runs the ball effectively2. Stops the runSimple, but the truest evaluation of this game.

Actually you need all of the above. Show me a major program that doesn't have great facilities, good attendance or a decent recruiting location. Winning is just assumed. You can't build a program without winning. If you win 75% of your games and nobody cares enough to show up does your program grow? Nope.

I don't know anyone planning on going to the game me and a few immediate family members. My uncle was going to go and take his 2 teenage grandsons, until he saw the ticket prices. He said "I am not paying that much to watch Army play." I think a lot of people feel that way and that is why this little experiment may be a 2 year and done thing. It is hard enough to get people to MAC game period and they expect people to pay major college ticket prices to watch Army.I think the bowl game is a great idea, however, it should be like I posted before and call it something like the "MAC vs BCS" bowl or something similar. They can put an Ohio MAC school against a team from the Big Ten, SEC, Big East, etc... I am sure the fan interest would be much higher if Akron was playing Michigan State or South Carolina.

I agree. Other conferences only want to add money generating programs, which means you need to have good home attendance and travel fairly well. Traveling is the one area where we get hurt the most because geographically we don't fit in that well with any conference except the Big Ten and MAC. Granted, we need to start winning consistently, so our home attendance is respectable. We can't get too far ahead of ourselves yet.

I bet it was a happy day for you. I am envious as a I am up high in the end zone. Oh well, it is better than no seat.

How in the hell did you come up with those? Lucky!!

No kidding. Most people will be hitting up friends that have directv or local bars. Luckily, I will be at the game.

Had to laugh this morning when I was reading this article right before checking my email. Kind of funny how it applies to college football games just like I suggested throughout this thread. This is the part that made me laugh......"Perhaps you've been here: You snag a flight cross country -- and back -- for just $320, board the plane and notice a bunch of empty seats. You think: How can an airline afford this?A few months later, you repeat the trip on shorter notice. This time, you pay $1,200 for basically the same seat. You think: This airline is making a fortune off me.But here's the thing: Airlines are not crazy. They know exactly what they're doing. They just don't always tell customers."

Did Pluto write anything sooner in the Plain Dealer or hasn't he left the ABJ yet?

We will just have to agree to disagree I guess. I feel playing OSU does mean more to the program because they are center stage in OHIO for that day. Ohio should be our target market if we are ever going to improve our fan base and grow as a program. Yes, we have players from PA and Florida, but PA and Florida is never going to be a solid fan base for Zips athletics.As for it being no different than playing any other BCS school.......Nobody in Ohio (except some people from Toledo) care about Michigan. It means more to play OSU. Being a UA grad, I have gotten a lot of comments from family and friends like "That is cool Akron is playing OSU this year. How do you think they will do? I heard about the stadium and it sounds like they are making progress as a program. I can't wait to watch them and see what they have." Those are the typical comments I get. Nobody cared at all when we played Penn State, Illinois or Purdue. That was just like playing anyone else. Why? Not many people in Ohio root for Penn State, Illinois or Purdue. Akron is now going against "their" team (OSU), so now their is an interest from the state of Ohio.

You are right. For one, UCF is in a great recruiting area. Secondly, C-USA is perceived as being a better conference than the MAC, so that is 2 huge pluses UCF had in recruiting. Thirdly is their new facilites.I think Akron can follow that trend just like UCF has done. 1. New Stadium (check), 2. Good recruiting base of Ohio and Western PA (check), the 3rd is the conference. However, we won't change that unless we dominate the MAC for a solid 8-10 years in a row bare minimum. I think the new field house and stadium is a great start. If we produce consistently on the field it should all come together.

What basis do you have to say that we could pick up a game in 5 minutes if we drop OSU? Do you think it would be against a national program such as OSU? A lot of you fail to realize how big a of a deal it is to play at the shoe. I know...call me a fanboy, whatever. But just look at the facts. 1. The university is getting their $375,000. 2. We will probably travel almost as many people to Columbus as we do for a normal home game (for the game or people just to party, tailgate, etc..). 3. We get to play in front of 105,000 people that normally wouldn't watch us. 4. We get to play in front of a tv audience of several million people, which we never get and we sure as hell wouldn't get if we drop them and pick up another team in 5 minutes.5. It is a convenient trip for our players and fans only being 2 hours away. 6. Playing against the one national program in the state that "most people follow" makes Akron seem more big time.7. Huge for many of the players that have always wanted to play in Ohio Stadium and it is their chance to stick it to the Buckeyes for not recruiting them.8. More UA students and Alumni are going to watch this game on tv than almost any other game. Why? Because they are excited to see how we stack up to OSU.Like it or not, scheduling OSU is the biggest possible game we can ever schedule because it can do more good for our program than anyone else. Well, as long as we are normally competitive with them. I went to the 2001 game and a lot of Buckeye fans had a ton of positive things to say about the Zips after that game. You start winning over some of the local fans and all the sudden you start getting a following. That is how you start building a fan base in Ohio. Our base now is roughly a 4 or 5 county area. It would be nice to get at least a secondary following in other parts of Ohio. Doing so could help get that 2nd level player that gets passed up by OSU come recruiting time. OSU is and should be our benchmark whether people like to admit it or not because in Ohio we will always be measured against them by 90% of the football watching community.

I think some of you underestimate how solid some of those C-USA teams are. For example...Tulsa - has been to a bowl 3 out of the last 4 years, which saw a win against Fresno State. They were good enough through that stretch that their coach just got hired this off season to replace Bobby Petrino at Louisville. Tulsa was also ranked #25 in the BCS standings this past season.Houston - Has had over a .500 record during the last 4 seasons including last seasons 10-4 record that included a 44-36 loss to South Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. They only lost to Miama (Fl) 14-13 and they beat Oklahoma State.Marshall we all know dominated the conference and they have yet to make any noise in C-USA. They finished 3rd in the division last season with a .500 conference record.East Carolina is usually solid. They ended up second in their division behind Southern Miss last year. Southern Miss is always tough. They are the Fresno State of the southeast.UCF has built new basketball and football facilities and the jump to C-USA has really helped their recruiting.Saying all this, jumping to C-USA would be a great jump for us to make. I would rather be in the Big East, but I feel a jump to C-USA would be a huge improvement over the MAC.

What a fantastic post. You better watch that though, or you will get lumped in with other objective zips fans like myself.

C-USA is better than the MAC. Tulsa, Houston, East Carolina, Marshall, UCF and Southern Miss would all be a top 2 or 3 team at the worst in the MAC. UCF has stepped it up A LOT since they left the MAC and I am sure Marshall's recruiting hasn't gone down by the switch.We have no shot at the Big Ten. If they add another team it will be in an unserviced market to get more tv exposure, etc... That is why they have talked about adding schools such as Missouri and even Rutgers. Rutgers has the largest market in the country in NY, and being a member of the Big Ten would surely help their recruiting.I think the Big East is our only real shot at moving out of the MAC unless a team or 2 such as UCF moves out of C-USA to join the Big East. I could see us moving up to C-USA.

It's partially our fault the MAC gets no respect, because besides NC State we have never given anyone a reason to respect us. A few of the teams that have some national respect (Toledo, Miami and NIU) have that respect because they have stepped out of conference on multiple occasions and have beaten worthy opponents. We, along with the remaining vast majority of the MAC have not consistently competed well outside our conference.

Considering he hasn't played, I would say it is a long shot for him to make the team in any capacity.