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And the AK Rowdies go because they have to, blah blah blah... The simple fact everyone is ignoring, if you look at the fans who go, you can tell they are a lot of SOCCER fans. You can see it in the clothes they wear, the teams they talk about, the strategies they discuss. If you want to debate that somehow, I'll continue this dead horse beating.

The heck with the merchandise, how much is one of them girls? For about 3 minutes?

That explains a lot

What's 1350's "range"? 1 mile? 106.9 was finally a chance to really pick up a Zips game that actually somewhat came in anywhere outside of downtown/campus in Akron. I can get 1350 in Cleveland, almost all the way to Lorain, out past Ravenna, But I can't get it at all in Wadsworth...

Soccer is very VERY polarizing, as we have seen here. A big precentage of sports fans are NOT going to go watch soccer even if it's a national contender. As many have said, they would rather watch paint dry. The bandwagon jumpers may go to see the MAC Tourney, and the NCAA tourney. They may go to see us play Ohio State. But they're not going to be buying season tickets to sit and watch soccer for hours and hours in all kinds of weather. You have to like or love soccer to do that. The jump in season ticket sales, as much as anything else, answers this whole thread.

Either

The "savior" monicker came from him coming/going to the Cavs, and saving NBA basketball in Cleveland. Attendance was very bad (the worst in 15 years), the team was worse, and there were other cities calling on the Gunds to sell or move. In his first year attendance went from 11,000 to 18,000 and the Cavs stayed in town. I'll give him that much, he kept Cleveland from being a minor league hockey town in the winter.

Yeah soccer. There are some new soccer fans from the WC on another forum and I was hoping to keep the momentum going with them, and get UA some new fans. Nothing on the sched yet (unless I'm missing it) but I swore they already announced at least two games on the tube.

Yes. What phone? I have a BB at the moment, but getting a new one next month. I hope to find something better. I know I can get I heart radio, if my BB was working right, just didn't know if the Zips were on a station that is on that service.

I'm not going to lie, I'm on the fence on this one. I'm all for supporting the home boys, like hoping Sonnanstine does well, even against the Indians. And I understand these kids are this way, and they're immature. But Bron really pushed the envelope on being likable or watchable.

Does anyone know when the first Zips game will be televised? I've been waiting for the schedule to be updated.

Any way to get Zips games on phones? Something like I heart radio?

Awesome!!!! Working on the road in C-town, it's not always easy to get 1350. And these young kids, don't get AM radio. The first hint of static and they're throwing a holy fit. Very nice...

The thread is "Is Akron a soccer city?". Marketing studies found hot spots around the country, St Louis, Seattle, NE Ohio, Milwaukee, LA, parts of the south, Baltimore (not as much)... And lo and behold, that's where the most successful franchises have been located. Minor league, indoor, and in Seattle's case, MLS as well. If we built a stadium (like Columbus did) we'd be right there. Akron is a soccer city. If you don't like soccer, you don't like soccer. That doesn't mean it's a bad market. I can't stand golf, Watching men walk around in yutzie clothes, wacking a ball that's not moving, and everyone acting like they're doing brain surgery and the slightest fart will ruin the entire tournament, I played it once, tried to watch it, I don't get it. Pro miniature golf would be more entertaining to me. So by your logic, that means because some people don't get it, they shouldn't have the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron. That would be a pretty self-centered myopic view, doncha think?... Now, just because the area is a hotbed, doesn't mean you can put 22 players out there and throw them a ball and everyone will come watch. First they have to know about it. That takes MARKETING, a recurrent theme here. Last year was the first time many people realized there was a soccer program, and that it was doing so well. (And that we played tOSU). They found out by stories on the front page of the sports section, being on all the local TV news. Once they found out, it was on. Even students were shut out of going to the games. So I guess you can say you don't NEED an aggressive marketing program, you just need the #1 ranked team in the nation. There you go Keith and Rob, you know what to do now. Can they outdraw bad football? I've been to Zips games in some pretty bad years... I'd put a brew on that bet. Hopefully the football team will be much improved and we'll never find out. If so I'll still buy you a beer.

To be honest, many hardcore soccer fans HATED indoor soccer as a gimick, as a bastardation of the sport, on and on. And there were a lot of bandwagon jumper at those games. But you have to look at the fan base. Did we see fans wearing Euro jerseys and National Team jerseys> Did we see several youth teams? Were they talking about the latest gossip on Maradonna? Well, we sustained indoor soccer for decades. Bert Wolstein was trying very hard to get an MLS team for the region. Problem there I'm sure you know, is you need a stadium with natural turf with decent seating. He had to build that himself as well as build the team. Unfortunately he didn't live long enough to see it through. You'd think we'd see a lot of people at high school baseball games. And college baseball games. We have six different levels of pro teams in Ohio, there are obviously baseball fans (and people looking for entertainment). But they don't go to high school games. Where's your proof it didn't happen? With the team talked about on the news and in the papers, on the radio, why wouldn't they draw half as many as the "gimick" team did years ago? Especially considering the growth of the sport at the lower levels since then. Good discussion. I already said a good portion would be bandwagon jumpers. A good portion would love soccer.

The "AKRON" pennant hanging on the wall at Arnold's in the TV show Happy Days.

There were three games, one was against the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. IIRC that's the one that drew 10,000. I was comparing it to the "bad football game" last year that drew less. If these guys aren't soccer fans, we don't want them there anyhow. It's hard enough getting tickets the way it is. The Cobras!!! My first exposure to the world's sport. Who was that???? Benny Dargle? Conrad Earnest? It wasn't Schlothauer, he went to CSU. That one has me thinking!!!

Keep in mind the Caps were a minor league soccer team (semipro) with a minor league marketing budget. It did make the sports page, and a spot on WKNR when it was first announced. It never got the publicity the City Stars did later. But soccer fans found it. In record numbers. It's like when the Aeros broke attendance records. We're not talking New York Yankee attendance numbers, nor a NY Yankee marketing budget. But comparing apples to apples, the Aeros are/were one of the top five minor league draws, even though they are third tier. The games sold out five days before the game. You can't just look at who was there and say "Man, this is all we can draw" when a majority of the fans were unable to get tickets. Let alone the big walk-up crowd. When the news says the game is sold out, you're not going to show up and stand in line to get tickets. Well, I hope you don't You can ignore the Force if you want, or make excuses why they were popular, doesn't change the fact they existed, or that there are a L O T of soccer fans in Northeast Ohio. Something that nobody has shown one bit of a reason to prove there isn't. Just a bunch of myopic opinions.

I'm not showing up anywhere there are other ZN posters who have firearms...

Did club baseball do better than 3-24?

To reply to your "real" question, I say yes. There are a lot of sports fans in the area, and they're looking for something worth supporting. There are fans who want to see a quality team, there are a zillion football fans, there are basketball fans, soccer fans, baseball fans. With football and basketball and baseball there are a lot of other teams out there and you gotta GOTTA have a good entertaining program. Going 3-9 or 3-24 isn't going to sell many tickets... For soccer, the market is wide open. But for any of these sports, if it's a good team and marketed well, they will beat a path to the U.

I expected as much.

There were a lot of bandwagon jumpers there, for sure. Just looking for a winner. But judging by what a lot of fans were wearing to the games, what they were talking about there, their demographic, I have to disagree. I was there (a common theme when we talk about soccer here, if you haven't figured out yet). The Caps (short for Whitecaps) were owned by retired pro player Mike Sweeney. They played in 1997 and 98 in what was then "D3", now the USL's Second Division. In 1997 they played at Byers Field. The led D3 in attendance, breaking single game and season attendance records. They played an exhibition against the Columbus Crew and packed the place. I had season tickets. (See, there it is again). In 1998 the league threw down a rule that teams could not play on artificial turf. Mike tried to find a natural turf stadium to play in, the team bounced around the county, and attendance plummeted. Unable to secure a suitable venue for 1999, Mike decided not to field a team. This was the first D3 team in Cleveland the league screwed up. So if the soccer program wasn't limited in the number of tickets it sold last year, you don't think they could have gotten 10,000 people for the NCAA Tournament and outdrew the E Mich game? The Force use to draw 20,000 for INDOOR soccer. They drew that many to the RB for an EXHIBITION game. Been there, saw that, still got the T-shirt. I've been watching soccer for 30 years, at the local level and world wide. You better bring more than chest pounding to get something like that past me...

Akron is in a hotbed of football, from the high school level all the way to the Browns (and that other team to the southeast). There's no denying if there were a perfect place to build a popular college football program, it would be right here. 150 miles away from the nearest BCS school, in football heaven. That said. There is also a strong soccer contigent in this area. I said before we had the only profitable indoor soccer team, probably in history, in Richfield. Canton's indoor soccer team wasn't exactly destitute before they lost their good players to the new Buffalo franchise. The Cleveland Caps broke attendance records, the City Stars also drew well. The Force played outdoor games at the Rubber Bowl and drew well. And we saw last year, several Zips Saturday night games sold out on Tuesday morning. There are a LOT of soccer fans in the immediate area, waiting for a team to get behind.

Like I said, Here's the whole story of the USL A League and NASL.