Spin

I'm a soccer fan too, from the days of the Cleveland Cobras of the old ASL, to the Cleveland Force, Canton Invaders, and Cleveland Crunch from indoor pinball, the Cleveland Caps (I know the team owner), the Columbus Crew and CLE SC. I'm not abdicating shutting down the soccer program. I have no idea where you got that idea. This isn't us vs. them.

Ticket sales count when you're bean counting. This is a financial crisis, not a head count of visitors to campus.

One week everyone wants football to play 2 or 3 "payday" slaughters to bankroll the athletic department. This week we should cut football altogether because of attendance (even though more people STILL go to football games than any other sport). I'm glad the forum doesn't make the decisions in the Athletic Dept. (or anywhere else).

A couple years ago, I argued the other side. But since then the bottom has fallen out. Performance wise and money wise. Yes it's possible for the Zips to rebuild, but with the budget cuts we know are coming? Accelereated by the Cononavirus? When you have these Zips fans calling for its end? I want football to win as much as anybody here. And a hell of a lot more than the "fans" who want football gone to protect the budget of their favorite programs. If it's a realist MAC with programs playing within their means, that's great. If it means playing Division 1 FCS with other regional rivals, I'm in. TBH, I went to a lot more Canton Charge games this season than Cleveland Cavaliers. I had equal access to be paid the same to go to both, it wasn't because of cheap tickets. I get to a point where watching a team lose 3/4 of their games just isn't fun anymore.

If Akron cuts football over soccer I’m done with the university. And I’m not the only one. Even last year going 0-fer, I’d put football’s attendance average up against any other program in the school. I’ll go a step further. I would put attendance of the Acme Zip games (43,171 in 1971) against any home games in the FBS era. Winning football sells here in football country. It doesn’t matter what level it is. Cathedral Latin hosted Massillon at Municiple Stadium and drew 51,000 fans. Two High school teams drew more fans than the Bengals averaged. Put the program on a level they can compete, and watch attendance climb. We have high schools with more butts in the seats than many Zips games. And it’ll be a lot more fun. More fun than watching this crap, and listening to fans with delusions of grandeur complaining.

That depends on how recent you want to go. Last year men’s soccer won 39% of their games. Maybe Track should stay instead of soccer.?

Is that when we finally do something about Wuhan, China? The worlds bat eating disease factory?

So if/when the university decides to drop X number of programs, what happens next? The programs have awarded scholarships, are those rescinded? What about the contracts to play non-conference games against other programs, do they need to fulfill those? How many years out are there games scheduled? Is there a requirement to play X number of seasons in the MAC after announcing closure? Is there a substantial penalty for early withdrawal? Or is it all over effective immediately? What are the costs of the broken contracts with the conference and other competitors? I assume with the contributions recently made, and the upcoming construction at the ballpark, that non-scholarship (from the university itself) baseball would continue. This is all new to me.

reboot

Tonight I'm watching the old TV show "Coach" on "Antenna TV" network, and coach Hayden tries to get rid of a pain in the butt assistant by referring him to an opening at, you guessed it. University of Akron.

Because Akron and Youngstown are too far a way to drive a tractor to class.

Got a tweet the U is taking bids on work at the baseball stadium. I know that will pee some off, but to me it Sounds like it might not be complete Armageddon. They might be looking at renting it out.

Mike Devine just took $110,000,000.00 from higher education (state colleges) to help balance the state budget. I think we’re screwed. 10 different ways.

The article shows this is not just an Akron problem. And it shows some of the responses from different people. Different perspective.

There is some expansion damage to the wall surrounding the field, especially at the base of the “grassy knoll”. It’s to be expected in this climate. The U thought the construction company was suppose to come back and cover that as it happens. The construction company disagreed. Time for a flop-out in court.

...or had a little fun with it. Have the kid come in for a visit, print him a jersey, throw the ball around. Hook him up with eSports for a little Madden. Get some positive pub...

We have never had a functional advertising plan. Garbage in, garbage out. Smart advertising made indoor soccer a hit in Northeast Ohio for years. We had two franchises for a long time. The most profitable never won a championship. Poor visibility makes a championship level traditional soccer program invisible to soccer fans. Including their OWN STUDENTS. I’ve seen 18,000 fans at “human pinball” Force games, in the “Richfield Mausoleum” and maybe 180 at some Zips games...

That may or may not be two different things. If there were a realignment like GP is discussing, part or all of the MAC would (should) be part of it. In a previous post I talked about growing up with ( and playing for) a D5 football high school. Nobody had delusions of grandeur, nobody wanted to get driven into the ground by Moeller, the goal was to win the WCAL and brag about it for a year (or a lifetime). A lot of us didn’t even know there were state playoffs, the competition was close and everyone had losses so nobody we knew went. These are “meat and potatoes” sports fans. What sport has the biggest potential for common fans to show up for a competitive product in NEOhio? Acme Zip ring a bell? Only what, five college teams win national championships out of 730+ programs? That sounds like magical thinking, living so close to a powerhouse (and the jealousy that goes with that). People see Ohio State football’s success in not only breaking even, but making the entire athletic Dept breaking even. What they don’t see is that is a result of winning. Winning national championships. Building a legacy over the decades. Smart advertising. That’s why the networks outbid each other to get the games, and why ticket prices are so high. That’s not going to work with probably the worst mismanaged program in major college football.

One thing was brought up when Baseball was announced to be coming back. In a couple places they talked about the goal being baseball being a "self sustaining model" within the next five years. I've been interested in hearing more about this concept, but haven't heard anything in awhile. They could be onto something in this new reality of mid-major athletics.

This thread shows me that this is a complex problem because of the number of sports and programs involved. Everybody has their favorite program in Zips athletics, and do not want changes to adversely affect their favorite. Fans whose favorite program(s) is basketball and/or soccer are worried changes in the football program will affect those programs' Division 1 status and membership in the MAC. Fans whose favorite is football see the fallacy of non-Five schools ever catching up with the P5 programs, no matter how much money they can scrape together to throw at it. They/we prefer to play at a level can where a program can progress to competing for a national championship someday at the proper level for their program. Just like basketball and soccer and every other Zips program. And they're (we're) not as excited about taking several beat downs a season, possibly sustaining key injuries and affecting bowl eligibility, to bankroll the rest of the athletic dept. Why should football be the sacrificial lamb? How is that fair? Everyone's opinions seem to be based on protecting their favorite Zips program. Myself included. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you're looking for a compromise among fans of the different programs, forget about it...

^ I'm out of likes for today. Very interesting...

Basketball and soccer and anyone else can remain in Division 1. The "other five" conferences can drop football down into a more sustainable level. They can still send the players to FBS slaughterhouses to bankroll the athletic dept. since that's the answer. And there's no reason to think the TV telecasts would go away (I watch high school and small college football on TV, why would they drop Akron in a more competitive environment?). But, it's the MAC. I am confident they will manage to tick off every college sports fan/supporter.

Ohio has SEVEN divisions for high school football, determined by enrollment. And the football division you are in has no bearing on what basketball, soccer, or any other sport's division you are in. Teams can play teams from other divisions, in fact a conference can have teams from different divisions playing against each other. Different sports have different numbers of divisions. There are 4 in basketball, three in soccer and wrestling, one in hockey, etc. It can be done.

If that's your debating skills, no big loss.

College taught us to think for ourselves and discuss situations