Dr Z

Is there any concern with a bball program when four kids in one year ask to leave, or is this normal? I'll hang up and listen to your answer.

I was hoping to start a list. I don't know of any football players, do you? GoZipsUpdates = Official Akron Athletics AkronCoachKest = Jodi Kest TimCarroll15 = Tim Carroll Hump24Hitch = Humpty Hitchens thedarknight30 = Chris McKnight CG005= Chauncy Gilliam

Ken+ & GW are gimmies, the team should be able to win two more home games, and one more road game giving them 5. I'm basing all of this on the progress of PN7 (seeing him in all of 7 games last year). If Alex Allen stays healthy throughout the year, give us another win somewhere, he is that good, but hasn't proven to be reliable (probably my favorite player on the team). If we turn our defense around, pressure the QB, stop the run and get the ball back to the offense, maybe one more, that's very optimistic, but it's May I'm allowed to be. If our special teams play like last year, take a win away, but I'm expecting iCoach to improve this area. Corn, I like your link, it made me smile.

I went to Buc night the year after they played in the NLCS. They have been doing it successfully for years.

Getting kids to an Akron football game is a great idea. Benefits for the U include, selling concessions. Kids love to eat..."Dad I need...(fill in the blank)" Kids love to do what Dad does. If Dad loves the Zips and takes his son or daughter (even niece or nephew), chances are, they will love it too. Kids love Zippy, just a proven fact. Great chance to sell apparel (of course you should have it there). Chance to create a Zips fan for life (gawd help them). How many of you remember going to a (fill in the blank) game with your Dad and still do it because of that? Parents are looking to get the kids out of the house and do something. I can't see any drawback to this idea. Any chance you have to get a "family" to the game, you should take it.

Great idea.

Good thread topic. I'm pretty easy since I'm a right brain thinker. Don't use all caps. Start a sentence with a capital letter. End a sentence with a period. Learn to use the insert link, and insert image buttons (I hate when somebody pastes a link in the thread, especially since I made a how to.). The rest I can deal with. Oh yeah, I forgot my biggest complaint, junking up threads by hitting the wrong reply button. I made a how to on that also. Nothing worse for me than navigating through a thread that four people replied to a five paragraph post and have the post repeated over and over. I used to "clean" threads up, but it became a part time job.

There are plenty of good people with marketing degrees, you just need to hire the right one. If there are two people in that department making 6 figures, fire them both, I can get you 1 to do a better job. PM me if your interested TW. Nice job CK.

A link to three sentences that has the original link that was posted in the top of this thread a month ago?!? You guys are really on top the situation.

Win + Marketing = Fans (always has) Our marketing is still below average. Youtube messages are nice, but they are not going to cut it as an only source. It seems that we have tried all the budget marketing attempts, but are afraid to put both feet in and go all out. I'm not going to get into football vs basketball because IMO, they are two totally different animals. Football has more marketing potential for many reasons. Like I have mentioned umpteen times here, we need to get students to the game to create lifetime fans. Your not going to have a lot of success getting current alumni to the games if they aren't already there. They are already set into their lifestyles that don't include Zips football. We need to start current students off as being Zips football fans so they adjust their fall schedules to Zips football when they are alumni. You need to show them a good time and create a "fun" atmosphere for them. Start to market your "stars" in print. PN7, AA10, BW34, AS56 schedules, posters, fatheads, magnets, billboards, building banners, print & web ads. Get on the morning local news by running some kind of charity event. Get on the evening local news by giving them some personal interest story. Work with the local paper, use your own photographer to take photos and make them available to all the media sources. Make it easy for them to do a story. Start an Akron Football Twitter account (include photos). I've seen all this successfully work in this local area for a new sports league. They have actually figured out how to get billboard time (digital) donated to them. They got STO to show their event on tape delay for free. It's really not that hard. You just need to hire the right person (hard working with experience) and give them a budget (which really doesn't even need to be that much).

If it's true, I wish Humpty the best. I'll continue to follow his Twitter page. I can remember in the championship game this year in the second half when Humpty was on the bench. He went down the bench trying to motivate his team. He looked as though he was ready to become a team leader. Point being, if he is transferring, he never quit on his team or teammates up until the very end. Good luck HH. PS If he is transferring, I would LOVE for Mike Rasor or Tom Gaffney to an exit interview. PSS HH hasn't tweeted since May 8th (not usual).

They both might get a BBM.

Solution

This is a dead serious question. Why do you spend money going to Zips games? The NCAA is designed for the BCS teams to win. I support them because I am a fan and I like college football. One, I'm an alumni and enjoy supporting the team. Two, football is a an exciting sport even if you are losing (check with Browns fans), baseball is not (check with Indians fans). The bottom line is, I'll drive to Buffalo to watch the Zips lose a football game, I won't drive to Cleveland to see an Indians game (2010). Doesn't really matter the reason, that's how I feel. I haven't even watched a full baseball game this year. The MLB has alienated me. This is not coming from a casual baseball fan who just roots for the local team. I have been to 11 different MLB parks to watch games and was a big fan of baseball.

Pittsburgh baseball fans are known for showing up for their giveaways. Yinzers love their giveaways. Too bad they don't show up in between. There are only three teams worse than them for home attendance this year. Guess who is dead last in the league? 19 of the 30 teams attendance is down this year. Selig says attendance is flat with last year Last year at all star break attendance was down 5.5% over a year Attendance Down overall in 2009 PD Poll: What would it take to get you back to a Tribe game PS This is the first (Tribe) opening day I have missed in 19 years. I'm actually thinking of going to the new Cincy park to watch a game this year. I will attend one Pirates game this year. The Pirates have cold called me twice. Send me weekly emails. Send me tons of mail. Their marketing is 10x better than the Indians. Speaking of which, I got a cold call from Akron's ticket office this week asking me questions about the upcoming football season. Joe Sieaforeth (sp?) was his name. He said they just hired him. I told him if he was bored one night to get on ZN and do a search on "ticket office". Bruce is going to be pretty popular, his link is on SI's Extra Mustard.

A fan can only be pushed so far. The Cliff Lee trade pushed me over the edge. I haven't been to a game or watched a game since. Wake me up after a good strike that enables small market teams to field a team that can compete with large market teams. The NHL fixed their league, now it's time for the MLB to do the same. PS Funny video, but that isn't my definition of "insane." I think that is a sane man's reaction to having to cover that "team"

A modern day warrior Mean, mean stride Congressman Tom Sawyer Mean, akron pride

This appeared on the back of my alumni magazine. Experience The Energy Ad I like how the ad starts with the most important thing.

I post this photo in this thread to show some recent happiness in Humpty's life. If you follow Humpty on his Twitter account like I do, he shows a photo of his new puppy.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm voting on here. No real question was asked. I voted as if the question was "who has had the best recruiting class in the last three years" To me those bs ratings mean nothing. I have never seen a trophy case with a best recruiting class plaque or trophy in it. I voted OU because they made it to the second round in the big dance. They got results and rewarded their fans with an upset win in the big dance. If I could vote for second place I would have voted Akron.

Well done.

Most amazing thing from the article: The team lead for sacks last year was THREE. Somebody better double that this year! Nice photoshop Bull.

Don't forget Bill's advanced video taping and advanced radio frequency skills, which played 98.2 percent more than any statistical study in his formula for "winning"

If the numbers work out to prove my point, then they are true because numbers don't lie, if data proves to differ from my view, then there is an error in the collection of the data. It's very scientific, and better than trying to form my own opinion.

"LBJ was stunningly lethargic"