Blue & Gold

Sounds good in theory, but you have the Akron Aeros breaking attendance records, with the Cleveland stations pimping the Indians. The Force sold out the Coliseum despite being ignored and laughed at by the sports media.So what do these teams have that the Zips don't? How can the Aeros average 4900 fans at 71 home games, against "big name programs" like the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the New Britain Rock Cats? With sometimes 6-7 home games in a week? Or the Force playing world power Baltimore Blast in front of 18,000?I don't think it's the Cleveland media holding us back...Excellent point about the Aeros. They do draw exceptionally well for a minor league baseball team. The Cleveland Force illustration doesn't do it as much for me though, because they were always tagged CLEVELAND Force. Idk, I used to love the old Richfield Coliseum. Richfield is an Akron suburb, not a Cleveland suburb. That's when I think Cleveland & Akron were in cooperation regionally. Then they built the Gund in downtown Cleveland, and promised to never host another entertainment event in the Coliseum. That's one of the significant moments when we in the Akron area had to start holding our own against the economic black hole to the north.And you say, "I don't think it's the Cleveland media holding us back..."To this I would concur... partially. I don't think the Cleveland media is the ONLY factor holding us back. I believe it is a multi-faceted problem, with many factors being UA's own fault (lousy teams, marketing, facilities, service, etc.). But I do believe that the pertetual ignorance of UA by the Cleveland media is a piece to the puzzle, even a significant piece.

Then they'd have to ask for more airtime from the newscast producers, and they'd be unable to cover the pro teams at all. 5-7 minutes a day is more than the nightly news sports segment.True, very true. That wasn't really the point I was trying to make though. To clarify, I was simply trying to illustrate the fact that if, in stead of Cavs, Browns, Indians & Buckeyes, the Zips received the airtime, the local perception would be quite different. I wasn't arguing for, or expecting, 5 minutes of Zips coverage in addition to the regular sports coverage, that'd probably be, what, almost 15 minutes of sports in a half-hour newscast?Unfortunately, the way things sit presently, the Zips receive less coverage than local high schools.

Couldnt be more correct B&G!! Television is justification to those cleveland lovers of OSU, CSU, etc. They want nothing to do with Akron U and dont want to see/hear about them either. Its an incredible handicap that we live with (no TV station) yet were not alone. Same goes for BG, Miami, OU, And Can't so complaining about it is futile. It was refreshing to see/ hear the interest we got last year when we made the NCAA tournement. U are correct, even the powers that be at 3,5,and 19 didnt ignore us then.Hey Scott, thanks for disagreeing "respectfully." That's great! It's fantastic to have a forum where we can toss around & entertain different ideas and viewpoints. But sometimes, recently, the dialogue on ZN has gotten disappointingly personal and combative in spirit, which is a shame. Great thoughts!

Embarrassing. Replica jerseys are a staple item for any team shop. The team shop is barely above high school level.

Yeah, I'm sure Can't paid for the advertisment. Doesn't UA throw some adds up there too? It'd be a nice, logical spot to promote upcoming games.

Bobcats lost their "glue" in soph. Stephen Coleman (broken hand) two weeks ago and haven't figured out how to replace his points and/or court sense. They don't match up well with Akron's "bigs" either. OU is a year away from being a very good team, so the obvious advantage to Akron.When watching Ohio University basketball, the obvious advantage is ALWAYS in Akron's favor.Prediction: I don't know what the score will be, but we'll b8tch slap the Bobkitties around... again... as usual.

The Cleveland media will never allow UA athletics to be a big ticket. The whole "regionalism" idea is a bunch of Cleveland-centric hypocritical bull sh*t. Cleveland wants all of the regional focus and continually refuses to give any credit where credit is due. When was the last feature about UA you've seen on the Cleveland evening news? Yup, gotta think awfully long and hard about that one. What was it about? The hiring of TW? The firing of JD? The hiring of RI? The addition of football staff? LeVon Moorefield as a finalist and winner of the Rudy Award? The opening of the Info? The revitalization of downtown? The $300 million landscape for learning? The evolving plans for the new soccer stadium? The need of a new basketball arena? The narrow defeat to Rhode Island? The thumping of BGSU? The undefeated soccer team? The MAC Champion soccer team? The NCAA Final Four soccer team? The NCAA finalist soccer team? The courting of Caleb Porter by Washington United? Caleb Porter re-signing with the Zips? Dr. P's State of the University address? Human-interest stories on any number of athletes or professors @ UA? Research being done @ UA? Federal grants being awarded to UA? National research and engineering awards being won by UA students, etc., etc., etc. Noooooooope. Nada.You see, we're in competition with Cleveland, not cooperation. Cleveland knows this. Joe Akron, unfortunately, does not. If Cleveland news 3, 5 & 8 would give the Zips 5-7 minutes of sports coverage Monday-through-Friday, win-or-lose, rain-or-shine (just like they do the Cavs, Browns, Indians & Buckeyes) then people would inevitably take notice of Zips athletics and then, on the VERY IMPORTANT SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL, view Zips athletics as important, meaningful & the place to be. 3, 5 & 8 sports coverage is not so much news as it is a 10-minute advertisement. You know that. So do I. Trust me, 3, 5 & 8 KNOW this. Are 3, 5 or 8 ever going to do that for the Zips? Deep down, unfortunately, you know the answer to that.Screw you, Cleveland.(On the other hand, if the Zips are a perennial Top 25 team, could they possibly continue to ignore us?)

At this point, this thread could converge with the "New Arena Rumor" thread. Some naysayers state that we don't need a new arena because we don't fill up the JAR now. IMO, that's like saying one doesn't need a car to take a road trip because you don't take road trips on your bicycle now.But in all honesty, we really need to kick the non-con up a notch in order to draw more paying customers to the JAR. Only diehard Zips fans want to watch the Zips mop up on mostly less-than-worthy opponents. Right now, there just aren't enough diehards to fill the JAR. And if some new fans did wander in off the street, what did they witness? Well, most of the games have been YAWNERS.I brought a friend to the St. Francis game. Kinda lame.The Rhode Island game, on the other hand, was great! Even though it was a loss, the arena was electric, people were into the game, at a few certain points it was so loud you could hardly hear yourself think. That was a great experience. I wish I had been able to bring a few friends to that game. THEY WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY WANTED TO RETURN! Most of our home schedule? Not a chance. Again, only attractive to us diehard Zips fans who, like myself, would pay $10 to watch an inter-squad scrimmage in the parking lot.We need to schedule more... A-10 (UNC Charlotte, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, La Salle, UMass, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joe's, St. Louis, Temple, Xavier)C-USA (Houston, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss)WAC (Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Utah State)Mountain West (Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, UNLV, Utah, Wyoming)Horizon League (Butler, Cleveland State, Detroit, UW-Green Bay, Loyola, UW-Milwaukee, UIC, Valpo, Wright State, Youngstown State)Theoretically, if what we hear about it being so difficult for mid-majors to schedule is true, shouldn't most, if not all, of the above schools be in the same boat that we are, and thus, be looking for games themselves? If mid-major scheduling is so difficult, most of the above schools should be thrilled to get a phone call from Akron looking for a few games.I just know we need more atmosphere in the JAR like we experienced @ the Rhode Island game to start attracting new fans. That environment and entire game experience (save the L) was a blast, which people would pay good money to experience.

<br /><b>zip37</b>, I see you got it. Keep the faith.<br /><br />Oh, and for you unbelievers, Dan Peters is also a friend of mine. We just had the future scheduling<br />conversation at the <b>On Tap</b> last Monday night.<br />Well, go on. Do tell. Who are we hoping to get on the schedule?

I've said this before and so I'll toss it out again. IMO we really do need to kick the OOC home schedule up a notch. But we don't need to bring Big Ten or Big East teams to the JAR. If they won't, as KD laments, do home-and-home series, then forget 'em. Fine. Whatever. But we should be able to get home-and-homes with most, if not all, of the schools in the Mountain West, Missouri Valley, A-10 and WAC. Why aren't we brining these schools into town?

It is a positive.I was a MAC football fan before I was a zips fan because of those games. Every sports bar in America is tuned in during them. Kids being recruited by those MAC schools are reminded to watch and tune in. Exposure is good. Anyone arguing against this is defending the honor of the MAC conference and Akron against common sense.I think the MAC weeknight nationally televised games are a positive too. I do, however, agree with the sentiment above that if ESPN decides not to televise a game (a la EMU-UA) that they should let the schools involved change the time to a Saturday if they desire. What does it hurt ESPN at that point and it would likely only help the schools involved and their fans.It happened to work out well for UA this year, as wasn't there a high school playoff game @ the Info that Saturday night? The more of those games we can host the better. It's a big-time stadium on a now big time campus. The more people we can have experience it the better.

I'd like to see us schedule more games against the A-10, C-USA & Mountain West. Those teams have national name recognition and most would probably do home-home series. I've heard of Valpo - I remember What's-his-name-Drew's miracle NCAA shot against, who, Ole Miss? (Yeah, you can tell I remember it well.) But I don't think your average basketball fan has heard of most of the teams we're bringing into the JAR. Yesterday someone asked me where the visiting team was from. I said, "Somewhere in Indiana, I think."We really do need to step up the OOC schedule. Even though I love a good blowout, I thought the Valpo game yesterday actually got to be a little boring.

I like the uniforms we've got now. But these would make sweet retro/alternate uniform. These were worn @ the blizzard bowl - the nastiest weather I've ever been out in. Btw, I prefer no stripe, but if we go with a striped helmet, I prefer the white-blue-white stripe (as pictured) as opposed to a blue-white-blue stripe. I think the striped helmet without a stripe on the pants looks sweet. The striped shoulders look nice as well. Very traditional / old-school. Plus they do make your shoulders look broader.

What time is the team supposed to get back in town tonight? Where will the bus pull up? In front of the JAR?

After suffering through JDB-ball for the past 4 seasons, I really had my heart set on a successful lower division head coach. But I voted "wait and see." How can we do anything but? I've got to put my trust in TW & LP. TW knows alot more about the inner workings of a successful football program than I do, that's for sure. I'm optimistic about the hire and more excited about Zips football than I have been since September. I like the fact he has recruited successfully at the highest possible level. Though I think we might want to be prepared for an underwhelming recruiting class this first season - late start and all - I am anxious to see what kind of athlete he can eventually bring to Akron.

I know the ZNO opinion is split on recruiting Ohio. But I'm all for it. I was glad to hear him say that he wanted to make Ohio & western PA our recruiting base. If anyone can do it, it's probably Rob. If we can split with Cincy over the recruits passed over by OSU, we'll be on our way to dominating the MAC.

It's because the media tries their damnedest to ignore us. Gaffney was there from the BJ. Good job. MAC Report Online had a rep. And Frenchy asked a Q. Anyone from the Plain Dealer? Who knows. Anyone from the Canton Repository? Probably not. And this is what gets me riled up - anyone from Channel 5? Channel 3? Channel 8? Of course not. Rat bastards. Screw Cleveland. Cleveland can burn to the ground, for all I care.

The entire north end of the JS Knight Convo Center looks as if it is pre-designed for future expansion. The north end of the structure is rather "bare" looking; basically just a bunch of large garage doors and a huge surface parking lot sandwiched in between the Akron Art Museum.It looks plenty big enough for an 8,000-10,000 seat arena.I, like most others, don't see how a simple "renovation" of the JSK Center would work. It must be an addition. If this is the case, like with the basketball team, I put my trust in KD. If KD doesn't think the concept will be enough to "wow" recruits, then I'd be really surprised if the university goes along with the plans.If the arena is good enough for KD's expectations, it'll be good enough for mine.I do remember a few years ago we played @ Creighton (in the NIT, I believe?). Creighton's basketball arena is also part of a convention center. KD was very impressed by it. I remember after the Creighton game (a loss) KD told Frenchy something to the effect, "Look at this place. This is what we have to recruit against..."

Duo to be rivalsThanks Hilltopper. But I'm still not impressed. To do a major D-1 university justice, they ought to be running a Zips' human interest story on a weekly basis. You rarely find much more than game write-ups from the Beacon. They do next-to-nothing to give us more personal knowledge of UA athletes.

Great article. Why in the hell won't the BJ do more like that?! WTF.

Honestly, how pathetic is it that we're excited over a single, long-overdue story on channel 5. If CSU was going for a national championship, you could bet the ranch that we'd be positively drunk with CSU coverage. This story is an exception which proves the rule - we are intentionally ignored by the Cleveland media.

+1Though I might add, I don't care what they do... as long as we stick with the gold helmets.

What radio station is the game on? I thought it was going to be broadcast on 1350, but no such luck.

9,962? I had other responibilities and was unable to attend today's game. What would you say the actual, butts-in-the-seats number was?

Whoever our new coach may be, he's got to make an in-home visit with Hoobler before he even unpacks his bags.Is it kosher for an AD to keep in touch with current potential recruits while a head coach search is ongoing?