Spin

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.

That's the beauty of amateur sports, it only takes a couple hundred tickets sold to break even. Right now there are semi-pro football teams in Akron and Cleveland that have been around a good amount of time. The USL is still there, what happened with the A Leauge was, I'll try to give an abridged version and forget half of it, the USL was sold and that didn't make a lot of people happy. The (new) NASL was formed and a bunch of A League teams left the ASL and moved to the NASL. That brought about lawsuits for breach of contract. They both applied for Division 2 status with USSF, they had enough of the fighting and formed their own league, with a USL Division and a NASL Division. We'll see what happens after this season... Anyway, as far as venues, there are still a couple of nice sized high school football stadiums that haven't been covered in plastic. Wadsworth for one. It has top notch facilities also (locker rooms, concessions, merchandise) . Don't know if that's possible, but it's an example of what could be done. If the U wasn't willing to host an amateur team. Like CSU rents their stadium to the Stars.

There are groups who want to establish a D3 team in Cleveland but were unable to get it done in time for this season. The two Cleveland D3 teams (the Whitecaps or just Caps and the City Stars) were both successful especially at the box office. Until the USL ruined them. They screwed up the Caps by not letting them play on turf, so they bounced around to different HS stadiums and attendance dropped. The City Stars were screwed by the USL "encouraging" them to move up to the A League before they were ready. Cleveland can sustain a D3 team, if the USL leaves it the heck alone. I have wondered why Akron can't have a PDL team made up mostly of UA players. As far as PDL markets go, Akron should be a separate market. The Internationals have a very big multi-tiered organization with the PDL team the top rung. The Akron team I envision would be made up of college players from UA and surrounding schools. And they would have theirown fan bases. But I doubt the league would see it that way. And even if so (putting a lot more faith in the USL management than I have) the Internationals probably have territorial rights anyway.

Great article: eBron's big move? Been there Scoop Jackson ESPN.com July 10, 2010 Now that it's all over, maybe we can return to some semblance of reality. To help us get there, and before LeBron James becomes Public Enemy No. 2 in the next SportsNation poll -- which seems to be happening in the aftermath of "The Decision" -- let's clear up a few things. It should send us on our way back to our normal existence. One: This has been done before in other sports. (And no one had a problem with it.) Two: We've seen this happen before in the NBA. (And no one had a problem with it.) Three: Michael Jordan might have done the exact same thing. (But we'll never know.) When Alex Rodriguez was playing in Texas (or, for that matter, in Seattle), he was considered the best player in baseball. He was very much the LeBron James of his game. He had lived up to and surpassed expectations. Still, he eventually realized he couldn't do solo all the things he wanted to get done, so he went to a team that wasn't his. He went to a place where he wouldn't be "The Man," at least not at first. He "took his talents" to New York. He became a Yankee, on Derek Jeter's team. So the question is this: What's the difference with LeBron? Where is the profound difference between what A-Rod did in 2004 and what LeBron did Thursday night? Here's the answer: Other than LeBron's personal connection to the city he left, nothing. Again, this has been done before. In 1982, Moses Malone was considered by many to be the best player in basketball, certainly one of the best of his generation, and he was still in his prime. But just after he collected the second of his three MVP awards and only one year removed from playing in the NBA Finals with the Houston Rockets, he became a restricted free agent. With his team apparently regressing (the Rockets went from their Finals appearance in '81 to out in the first round the next season), Moses decided to leave Houston and go play for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team that already had one of the other best players in the game and of his generation. A guy named Julius Erving. See where this is going? Dwyane Wade is Dr. J, LeBron is Moses and Chris Bosh is Andrew Toney in this analogy. The Sixers went on to win the chip the season Moses joined them, going down in history as one of the greatest teams of all time. And no one said anything about damage to Malone's legacy. Again, we've seen this happen before. Too many times since Thursday night, I've heard people express some form of the following sentiment about LeBron: Real ballers don't join the best; they try to beat the best. More than that, I've heard people (including on "SportsCenter") use MJ as an analogy, suggesting that LeBron just did what MJ would have never done: leave the Bulls back in the day to play for the Pistons because, at least before 1990, he couldn't beat Detroit. They're calling LeBron's decision a "punk" move. That notion needs to be squashed right here. Fact is, Jordan never had the opportunity to test the free-agent market the way LeBron did. Jordan signed his rookie contract, then, three years into it, the Bulls put an eight-year, $25 million deal on the table that he signed and rode out until well after he'd been stacking rings on his fingers. Bottom line: Jordan was never in the same position LeBron was. Never. And if MJ's long career in Chicago is going to be used to make a point about LeBron's decision to leave Cleveland, that not-so-little factor can't be ignored. We'll never really know. So before anybody else goes all Dan Gilbert on LeBron, take all that into consideration. And we can carry on with our lives. Scoop Jackson is a columnist for ESPN.com.

Nobody thinks everybody hates LeBron. But if you're trying to boost the program's image, build the program, do you reallt want to be attached to someone so polarizing? The program is hurting for attendance and media attention, do you want to put it on an island? Alienate some of the fans it has now? Showing pride in the local boy and giving Cleveland the finger is great, but does it make good business sense?

A good salesman always has an angle. I hate salesmen...

Those banners are only there for his skills camp held there earlier this week. I don't think he's anymore or any less an attention grab than 80% of the NBA. That includes players AND teams. However, his business decisions (and the way his posse went about announcing it) has left a bad taste in most of NE Ohio. Whether he's any more or less a playa than the majority of the NBA players, doesn't matter. We don't need that publicity. If you're trying to build something positive, stay away from LeBron James. It's a bad business move. It's a horrible PR move. Use the book store profits (like all the other programs), the medical books I have to buy this year should cover it, and buy the stuff tyourself. No Nike slash. No #23 or #6. No recollection of KD ever knowing the kid. Nothing personal. Just a good business decision.

I listened to the Indians game last night at work, and Andy Sonnanstein got in the game. Andy's from Wadsworth. I've been a Tribe fan since 1976, started watching them when the GM was kicking in money out of his pocket to make payroll sometimes. Been through the bad, the worse, the worst, and the downright ugly. And the good. Anyway, while he was pitching, I was really hoping he would strike out the side with nine pitches. Yes the Tribe is my team, but Andy, he's from here. Maybe within 3 miles of my house. I hoped the Tribe would win, but I hoped even more than Andy would torch the Tribe hitters, for those innings he was in. It didn't happen and he got lit up. Which made me upset. But I started thinking, I don't know anything about him. His personality might clash with mine worse than LeBron's does. Long story short, by the time the season starts, I'll have my LeBron Heat jersey on unless they're playing the Cavs. Then I'll be in that twisted mode of hoping they both do well. Yeah, I know. I'm not right. Never claimed to be.

Here's what he did for Akron. He stayed true to his word, held his skills camp on campus, and didn't let anyone leak a word about his decision until it was over. He was a professional during the camp, by all accounts, and spared Akron and the U a tremendous amount of C-town hatred if he announced it before or during the camp. It couldn't have continued. There would have been a riot. C-town can rip him apart for taking so long to decide, for doing it in ESPN's back yard, if you look at it, he spared us. Can you imagine the riot if word had leaked during the camp? Can you imagine the riot if he announced it in Cleveland? (Come to think of it, a good riot in most parts of Cleveland would actually be considered "urban renewal"). He had Akron's back. He's not the first high profile free agent to go somewhere else, heck look at the Yankee's roster. He's not the first person to leave "home" (cough cough) for greener pastures. He's just the first to bruise Gilbert's ego. Like Goldhammer said, guys in their 20's LEAVE CLEVELAND. It happens every day. Sorry Dan. Love what you're trying to do with the Cavs. Love the casino. But you made yourself look like an

I don't think he quit. I think he lost his faith in this team, the coach, and his teammates. Brownie was destroying the match-ups, Mo was here today gone tomorrow, Jamison was suppose to be "Robin" but couldn't hit the side of a barn, Delonte was his usual psychotic self. It all seemed to turn around when his good friend Z got in the game, made a monster block, the crowd went wild, and Brownie got mad and benched him. Bron was spitting nails. After that, series over. He figured right then he couldn't even carry the team himself with Brown making the adjustments. And that probably sealed the Cav's last chance to resign him. Think about it. Pat Riley's protege? Or Mike Brown sitting Shaq with 3 fouls all night, and Z getting benched for "showing up" the coach? Wade and Bosh? or Mo and Delonte? 80' winters, or 80 inches of snow?