Blue & Gold

Terry Pluto leaving the ABJ could help us solidify our own identity as a bonafide college town. We need a featue sports writer who's primary passion is for Akron and The UA. Not the Cleveland Browns. Not the Cleveland Indians. Not the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hopefully this move will help solidify more coverage of OUR team!

As a person I love Terry Pluto. As a sportswriter I think he is very insightful and most definitely respect his work. But he seems to care so little about Akron that I don't think this will hurt Zips coverage at all. On the contrary, we now have the opportunity to replace Terry with a home-grown Akron writer who's passion is for Akron, not Cleveland. Terry adored the Browns, Cavs and Indians; he wrote about the Zips when either he had to, or merely had nothing else to write about. He also was generally quite condescending in his tone towards UA athletics. I actually view this as a positive development. Here's to the Beacon hiring Rasor, or some other Akron writer with blue & gold in his veins!

Do the Rockets plan to play any of their games at the downtown arena?

Absolutely, UA Fan! We need as many high school football games in that new stadium as possible! We've got to take advantage of any opportuntiy to show off our beautiful new campus and revitalizing downtown! Maybe the Stark Countians will come early, hit up one of our many downtown restaurants (even more are surely on the way now that the stadium has been announced), stroll through our breathtaking new campus, be awestruck by our gorgeous new football "palace," and then decide to come back for some exciting D-1 college football!P.s. IMO, in one of the concourses, we should have life size cardboard cut outs of some of the players along with their 40 times and bench press max. I think the vast majority of the public is utterly ignorant as to how HUGE D-1 college football players are. I think the typical Stark Countian has the idea that to play at Akron you just have to walk on, or something; like any kid who plays at McKinley could play at Akron. They are, through no fault of their own, just uneducated as to how amazing & elite an athlete one must be to play at the D-1 level. If you grow accustomed to watching Zips football, when you go see a high school game (even when it's Massillon/McKinley) it is laughable how small, awkward and slow the high school athletes are in comparison. D-1 college ball relegates high school ball to the level of "cute." I just don't think most folks get it. I was a good high school player, but I know that if I got hit squarely by one of Akron's linebackers I'd be in a wheelchair the rest of my life!!!

Urbanpreppie05 is exactly correct. For some sad reason some in Canton like to think that Akron stole "their" team. When in reality everyone knows that the Canton-Akron Indians were surely gone to the greener pastures of the east coast if it wasn't for Akron stepping up and building our downtown Canal Park. Thurman Munson Stadium is an embarassment. Even most Canton hillbillies realize this. We stepped up and kept the team in the area. This poor old man, as well as anyone else with misinformed bitterness, needs to get over it. IMO, ever since the AA team moved downtown, the Canton Suppository has been spitting serious sour grapes over anything Akron. Of course, this could have been going on earlier than the move to Akron, but that is when I started noticing the Suppository anti-Akron bias. Jealously is an ugly and tragic state. Speaking of the Supp's sour grapes attitude, does anyone know if the Rep even ran an article covering UA's new stadium announcement?

Romeo is more of a power forward than a small forward. He can hit the three, but he has to have time to measure it up before he lets it go. Romeo is athletic and a good rebounder. Not a real pretty shot though.

I did notice that. Why the change?

Zwick was the best high school QB I've ever seen. I think the college game just moved too fast for him; he seemed to overthrow his target. In high school he was a man among children.

I must admit that the low recruit retention rate over the past few years has really started to negatively influence me. I find myself less interested in recruiting now than since I became a bigtime Zips fan about 13 years ago.

This is great news, but did we need another PG? We've now landed the state of Ohio's top PG the last 3 years in a row! 2 years ago it was Darryl Roberts (I'm assuming he's still with the team), last year it was Ronnie Steward and now Humpty?! Well, anyway, this is quite amazing and if it turns out to be a problem, it is definitely a great problem to have!

I was able to be at the press conference this morning. I am relieved that we have such visionary leaders at the U. These men are professionals and didn't let us down one bit. The stadium renderings are top notch, and I think they may not be exaggerating much when they said that their goal was to construct the nicest football stadium in the nation! Go Zips!

Does anyone know whether the Athletics administration has info about the stadium plan ready to launch on GoZips.com following Wednesday's press conference? Will the U possibly post info on UA's website? Or are we going to have to do all the digging for ourselves again? Lord knows the BJ won't cover much.Also, is the press conference open to the public? My job is pretty flexibe; I might try to attend.

This is going to be one of the greatest weeks in my life! The stadium that we've been awaiting for YEARS and YEARS is finally becoming a reality, and the Bourne Ultimatum is hitting theaters! Life is good.

this is off topic, but I'm hoping the food concessions at our new stadium are on par with those of Canal Park.

Senior Jabari Arthur (6-4, 255)255?! Gotta be a typo, eh?

Thank you Zipsrifle! Great site! I'm surprised no one has referenced that site before!

I would not say anyone "hated" Mack, but he just appeared to ba an absentee AD.Also, where would a new basketball arena fit in? I think we should build the new arena in conjunction with the city of Akron just east of the John Knight Center. With a bridge connecting the two facilities and across the street from UA-owned Quaker Square, it seems like an ideal spot to me.

Amen to everything you said! Except for the JAR upgrade. We need an entirely new arena. But let's enjoy the buzz off this new football stadium for a few years first!

We're not even thinking about outdoing YSU. We don't care about YSU. We're looking to outdo the entire MAC Conference and most of the Big East!

Maybe we can gather in some of the restaurants that will open up downtown and along Exchange due to the BEAUTIFUL new stadium!!! I had a blast in Detroit for the Motor City Bowl a few years back, what was the sportsbar where everyone gathered called, Hockeytown?

I mentioned this about 2 years ago and still think it's a good idea. I think we should construct a grand, landmark clocktower next to the new stadium. A shout out to the beautiful clocktowers around town. Also, maybe it could ring whenever the Zips score!

Huh? Please explain. I haven't heard any of this.

It was mentioned in the Beacon today that a Damon's is scheduled to open downtown later this year sometime. That's a big step forward for the downtown/U district - getting a major-name restaurant to open downtown. I wonder if this is tied to the stadium development at all?

How'd you hear this "buzz?" The U hasn't announced anything have they? And will the public be welcome? The U has done their finest to keep us out of the loop thus far!

Ultimately, winning is what matters most. But it's impossible to overstate how desperately we need a new stadium to assist our recruiting efforts. Unless one has been to the Rubberbowl lately, it's really difficult to imagine how down-right-awful a facility it is. The new stadium will be a draw for both players and fans; the Rubberbowl is literally repulsive.