Blue & Gold

Yeah, I have a Rivals.com all-access membership.

Lord have mercy! Read this selection from the Rivals.com article referenced in the Varsity Letters blog and tell me KD doesn't already have our program at a level it's never been and isn't taking our program to a level of which we only had pipe dreams!While he didn't mention a school list, places such as Akron, Cincinnati, Dayton, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Memphis, Miami, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Xavier, and many others have all at least been in contact with the big man.When asked which schools he plans to visit soon, Payne said, "I'm not quite sure yet because I haven't narrowed it down yet. I will probably narrow it down to 15 and then go from there after I take my visits."He then later added that he has a specific visit on tap soon. "I am going to go visit Akron in a couple of weeks."Outside of the visit to Akron, nothing else seems set in stone. Already Payne visited Xavier and Dayton during the basketball season, and return trips to those schools isn't out of the question.I'm hoping Adreian has the opportunity to meet Zeke. They both seem much more mature, humble and intelligent than your average high-level basketball player. I think they'd really click. Adreian would fit right in with our group of players - genuinely nice, humble guys who just so happen to be able to flat-out ball!

Sweet. Everyone should check that blog out, I guarantee you'll like it. I just posted a link to this blog about an hour ago when starting another thread.

Here is a link to an ABJ blog that I check out along with Rasor's blog. It's very interesting and will probably be right up the alleys of everyone who's a member of ZipsNation. It's called Varsity Letters. I don't know who authors it, but it talks about local athletes who are receiving collegiate interest. The blog addresses any news from players receiving attention from Malone to players receiving attention from the Florida Gators and everything in between. Recent topics have been Garfield RB Tyson Gulley and Canton McKinley LB Jewone Snow.Varsity LettersI post this because I don't think many people have discovered it yet. I'm the only person who has left any comments at all over the past couple of weeks, even though recruiting is one of the main topics of interest here on ZipsNation.

Lee, I don't understand the tone of your post. Why the "rolled eyes" before mentioning the Ursuline player? And why can't you mention his name? I hope I can. For everyone else, the player's name is Allen Jones. He is listed by Rivals as 5-10, 197 with a 4.49 40. He was the starting tailback on Ursuline's state championship team last fall.Allen Jones

Boston Zip, thanks for the SI article.And XU, I also find the thick railing on top of the glass wall between the lower reserved sections and the track to be highly annoying. If you sit near the bottom of the upper reserved or GA sections, you've got a thick bar right in the way running from hoop-to-hoop. I always try to make sure to move high enough in those sections in order to avoid the railing.

I voted Nadir Brown because he has been such a pleasant surprise so far this spring.

I'm surprised there are not more architectural renderings available than what they have on GoZips.com. Such as what the 3 (or 4?) main entrances are going to look like; the finished locker rooms; the west side and east side concourses; inside a loge; the interior of the team shop; views from the box seats and different sections of the stadium, etc. There have to be more drawings than what are currently available, wouldn't you think?

I'm with Zen. Yeah, I wish KD was at least mentioned in the piece, but I don't think it's a big deal.Btw, does anyone know whether KD was able to make it down to Columbus this weekend to see the St.V/M game? LeBron was down there, and I'm pretty certain Coach Joice and KD are pretty good friends.

I made my own factor. Based on Stroh Arena (BGSU proposed facility) and some comparisons with Value City and Wolstein Center.Stroh will be built in the near future at a cost of $57.6 million. It's an 8000 seat arena. Hence $7200.It seemed accurate since Value City arena was built in 1998(give or take) at a cost of $115 Million. It is a 19000 seat arena ($6060/seat). Wolstein was built in the mid to late 80's for a cost of 55 million holds 13000 ($4230/seat).I figured my $7200 would be a pretty good estimate based on modern construction costs and inflation. (and item costing $4230 in 1987 would cost $7625 as of 2007.)Brilliant! Doing that simple and seemingly obvious formulation never crossed my mind! I did find one mistake in your numbers though. According to BGSU's website, the Stroh Center is a 5,000 seat arena, not an 8,000 seat facility. Thus, that would push the Stroh Center figure to $11,520 per seat. I must say that the suits at BGSU do clearly understand the exponential values of having a first class arena. Here is a quote from the BGSU website:"First impressions mean a lot - and the Stroh Center will be a great first impression of BGSU for many people," Christopher said. "From campus tours, concerts or games, nearly 500,000 people will use the arena each year. The Stroh Center will provide a terrific front porch for Bowling Green." Fortunately, this truth is not lost on our leaders. The Info is proof positive of that!

I don't see razing the JAR as a solution. The building is still viable and we have smaller indoor sports (rifle, volleyball, etc.) that could use it, as well as the fact that it holds the athletics offices.Here is what you really have to look at. It will cost 15-20 million to structurally upgrade the JAR. Max expansion would be 8000. This would only be seating area. No improvements that would bring in major ticket prices (i.e. Info Loges/club seating)A brand new 8000 seat Arena with athletics offices, concession areas, state of the art equipment, proper sightlines, concessions and luxury seating is going to cost about 57.6 million (assuming a $7200 per seat cost estimate). Plus an additional cost in tearing down the JAR and leasing space to play while construction occurs. (And this is where the bad PR will come from, "University tears down 26 year old multi-million dollar facility for something bigger" people will see that as wastefull). All to be footed by the University. In comparison using the same math, a 12000 seat arena would cost 86.4 million. It could be split between the city, county and university. 28.8 million per entity. You have the ability to sell season tickets for multiple sports as well as licensing loge for the University and non University events seperately (or jointly for far more than just University events). You also get to keep the JAR so the University isn't footing the operation bill for the new facility when Volleyball plays or when Women's basketball is in the MAC portion of the schedule. This would help both sides in recruiting (men's and women's BB) because now it's "look at our arena, this is solely for women's basketball we don't have to split time with the men at all".Those are rough cost estimates for the options we have. A downtown arena is 13 million more (for the University) and would probably be able to be paid off much faster than a brand new University only arena. The expansion creates a crisis of which sports get bumped while construction is underway.Thanks for the post! I found it very interesting. Where did you get the $7200 per seat cost estimate? Is that an industry standard?Two things: 1. No, I don't see us razing the JAR. It could still be used for so many things. Women's basketball & volleyball. Band skull session before the football games - then perhaps a march to the Info. When OSU built the Value City Arena they didn't raze the old St. John Arena. There may be some wisdom there.2. I really think the location of a new arena is going to be across the street from Canal Park. I know it's not with our other athletic facilities, but it's still on campus and it would help downtown businesses a lot more than if it were placed where the JAR currently sits. Nothing, of course, is written in stone, but I think that's the unspoken agreement/assumption between the U and the city. It's likely going to be a joint effort. Besides, the central downtown area needs the benefits of an arena more than our central campus area does.

do you have any idea how many properties you are talking about?I agreed that the trying to aquire the chapel is not the way to expand. CentralHower would be the way to go but there might be some serious politics involved in that. But the sheer number of individual properties going south to 77 is ridiculous. Okay, let's say for arguments sake that you don't want all that land tucked in next to SR.8 south to I.77 all the way over to the ledges. Let's just say that you want to take enough to put an arena in. The question is why? Downtown and in lieu of the JAR both make more sense. Hell, even talking the chapel out of their plot is cheaper and more strategic. All those 110yo houses south of campus may be bordering on blight, but you would need a team of eminent domain lawyers and used car salesmen on the street (soliciting undercover to buy properties) and a couple of decades to get that done.Yeah, I was kind of joking with that suggestion. I think we should go south, but all the way to 77? That was hyperbolic.

I think if we want to expand the campus footprint we'll want to move to the south. If we could acquire everything down to 77 that would be fantastic. RAZE EVERYTHING!!! That whole neighborhood is a ghetto. The Chapel is a great neighbor and adds to the quality of campus life.

I did notice that. That made me wonder whether Columbus State doctors their figures because from all the reports I've heard their crowd was lame when we beat them in Columbus. In fact, the story was that our Rowdies outnumbered their students... in Columbus!When did we ever play Columbus State in Soccer? I am confused. Columbus State is a community college. I didn't even know they had a soccer team..Sorry, it wasn't Columbus State. It was The Columbus State University.

Hey fellas, thanks for the update. Can't State sucks, what center are you talking about?

I'm stuck in a high school musical. Does anyone know if St. V won this evening?

The end zone facility is so sturdy it looks like a bomb shelter. It obviously must be designed that way in order to accommodate future expansion? Sturdy enough to easily support a north end grandstand?

You guys are arguing about what to me seem to be two separate issues. My assumption is that everything football related will be done before our home opener with Morgan St. However, the project in it's entirety may not be completed until much later than that. In fact, if you consider the new dorms a part of the project, then who knows, it may not be done for another year?

I couldn't agree more. I've got a lot of fond memories associated with the JAR, but we desperately need a real D-1 facility. I try to take friends and kids that I work with to Zips games in attempts to make new fans. However, the JAR is an embarrassment. When I take kids up to Zips games they're always excited to go. However, they ask me, "Where do the Zips play?" and I try to prepare them before hand that the arena isn't very nice and that the university really wants to build a new facility. Even with the 'curb-your-expectations' speech, when we walk into the JAR they're always underwhelmed. When I tell the kids we're going to a big time college basketball game they have these visions of a really nice arena and then we walk into the JAR and it's a completely underwhelming dump.For we die hard fans the Zips could be playing at a S. Hawkins playground and we'd bring folding chairs to watch them play and scream ourselves hoarse. However, for the fans that we're trying to reach, the arena is a BIG part of the whole game day experience and, sadly, the JAR both communicates and leaves the distinct impression of SMALL TIME.

I just went for a walk around the complex this afternoon. It's looking great! They've also gotten a lot of work done on the new dorms. It just really struck me once again how much this stadium is going to affect the resident student population. It really seems to be the anchor of the campus now and I know all the resident students will be proud to go to such a beautiful facility.Unfortunately, they've now fenced off the walkway between the Field House and the Info, so the web cams offer the very best views of the stadium construction now. And btw, Steve Sweich is one cool dude. I walked by the baseball game today and he was in attendance, cheering on the baseball team. It didn't even look like he was sitting with anyone; I believe he was just @ the game by himself cheering the team on. The baseball team often plays in near anonymity, so, cool showing of you, Steve!

Same here... I might have been in there right about now and further.Sadly, we didn't lose the bid because of price or product, but mostly because large institutions like Universities tend to stick with what they have had, regardless of what's out there.I highly doubt that they are behind in some critical way. As I said before, you can host a football game even if you don't have the finishing touches on furnishings or tweaks on equipment. If the core power services, communications and infrastructure is in place, and you have a finished field and seats to be sat in, you got a football game.As is, The Info looks better than the Rubber Bowl already!!!

Conference USA doesn't excite me much. Is it a better football conference than the MAC? Yes. But I think we'd be better off being the Boise State of the MAC than jumping conferences. Here is the list of C-USA schools: East Carolina Houston Marshall Memphis Rice SMU Southern Miss Tulane Tulsa UAB UCF UTEPSorry, but doesn't that just strike you as a pretty lame conference? And it's SOOO spread out!!! On a purely practical note, our traveling expenses would skyrocket. But on a more fan-friendly note, who would our rival(s) be? Who would you love to hate? Marshall is the only natural rival on that list. (As an aside, Marshall was on the way down just as they were leaving the MAC, so I wouldn't read too much into their lack of success in C-USA. Those Chad Pennington, Randy Moss, Byron Leftwich Marshall teams would have rolled C-USA just like they rolled the MAC.)In the MAC we have many natural rivals: Can't Miami Ohio Toledo BuffaloWouldn't you rather love to hate those guys than UAB, UTEP or Rice?Again, IMHO if we rule the MAC the Info would be packed - every game. People love to be associated with a winner - see our 15 minutes of glory when we won the MACC. We need sustained success. People need to be secure and confident that if they invest emotionally in the Zips then they are going to get a return on their emotional investment - not a discouraged, broken heart (which diehards like us don't understand - that's why we're diehards! That's why I love you guys!!!)If we could become the big dog MAC daddy that everyone feared - ala, the Boise State of the MAC - people would be proud as a peacock (jeez, that's what my grandpa used to say) to associate themselves with the Zips and folks would flock to the Info and the JAR.

Man, you hit on a couple things I was thinking myself. Next year I think we may miss Nate's presence a little more than we're anticipating - defensively. Hopefully Zeke will make our D even stronger though.I wasn't too surprised about Brett being listed as a starting forward in lieu of Nik Cvetinovic, because Elton had B-Mac listed at starting small forward while Nik is a power forward. And, not surpisingly, Elton had Chris McKnight listed as the starting power forward. I'm extremely excited about Nik's game and he'll surely be one of the first players coming off the bench.Could you give us more insight into Alex Sullivan's game? Is he a point guard or shooting guard. Lead guard? What does he like to do? Drive to the hole, shoot from the outside, etc.? Is he strong defensively? Thanks!

Unfortunately, I think Dr. Z was joking about Dru and Rome being in the interview. In one of the highlight clips of LeBron you can see Dru bringing the ball up the court and throwing an alley-oop to LBJ. Thus, I took Dr. Z's comment about Dru & possibly Romeo as tongue-in-cheek.You're right about us needing to reap every last grain of publicity from our unbelievably fortunate association with LeBron. I really hope that Dru, Rome, KD and UA are all mentioned in th 60 Minutes feature!

I also remember Channel 3's report explaining that the new stadium was part of a central-campus sports complex. However, when UA gave the stadium announcement I remember the Don being outspoken about how unhappy he was that the Info wasn't located closer to downtown (even though it's only about a quarter-mile away ) Afterward, apparently, Proenza & the Don got together and decided that if the U was ever to build an arena, then the city could have input into where it is located. I don't think the agreement by Don & Proenza was really a big surprise to anyone because, at least on ZipsNation, the general understanding was that, if there was an arena to be built, then the city and the university would work together on the project and that it would be located on Main Street across from Canal Park. That design would give us Canal Park and the LBJ Arena together on Main Street and the Info about half-a-mile away on Exchange. Also, the arena would be on the block adjacent-to-the-south of the Polsy Building and adjacent-to-the-west of a UA parking deck. So the location is definitely in the campus footprint.