Spin

UA has never been accused of mounting a serious marketing campaign. That's always been one of the main reasons cited for our failure in attendance. The problem isn't the athletics dept. doesn't want to do serious advertising, but they have a small marketing budget from the administration. The same administration who will be making decisions on the future of athletics. Marketing needs to be seen as an invesment, not an expense. I find it very hard to believe people would rather watch arena football than college football. Or watch indoor soccer (which Pete Franklyn referred to as "human pinball") than college basketball. But looking at just attendance numbers you would think so. I was there... I go to as many games as I can, and depending on my work schedule have bought season tickets to football. I support club hockey and the baseball program that few people stop to notice as they walk through campus. The hardcore fans are not the problem. You have tpo look past us if you want to see any growth. We're on GoZips rooting through schedules and downloaing them into our calendars, hell sometimes we have them memorized. We get on here and talk about our teams. We're at the games. We can't keep pumping money into athletics!! While you folks put blinders on I am simply stating reality and you don't want to hear it. I firmly believe if people would have shown up to support, we would have won more games at home, we would have better recruits, we wouldn't be in as bad of a financial mess and more than likely we would be further ahead on getting a new basketball arena. Instead we are being embarrassed by articles being written about having the worst attendance in college football. I am more pissed at the previous administration for building the Info and then sitting on their asses. Seriously, I think they watched "Field of Dreams" too many times….."build it and they will come seemed to be their marketing strategy. Now, SS is taking the blame when the previous administration were the ones that did not whack TW and try to stop the bleeding. The classes I took taught me about supply and demand. They taught me about running a business. They taught me about making sound/responsible business decisions. They taught me about ROI. They did teach me about marketing too but part of successful marketing begins with having a product people want. The defeatist attitude lies right in Akron…..if cuts have to be made Joe Akron will have to look no further than the mirror to find someone to blame. That is like the promoter of the Milwaukee IndyCar race holding a race, doing very little advertising, and then blaming the fans for not coming.

A few years ago myself and GP advocated for dropping back down to I-AA so that we could be competitive with our budget, which would increase popularity, which would increase attendance and possibly enrollment. But we were shot down big time. I really don't think those fans who paid to see the Canton Invaders cared that the league was inferior to the MISL. The players were making $1000 a month while the better Force players were making 6 figures. I don't think all the fans who go see the Rubberducks care it's only AA. It's a good time, and the team wins. The legacy of OSU's using athletics as a marketing tool is very evident when one walks through Akron's campus. I myself had thoughts of going to OSU Mansfield instead of UA when I went back, but my wife would have nothing of the 54 mile commutes. That's the allure of being a "Buckeye".

Again, students pay for a LOT of recreational programs that few take part in. If we're going to start hatcheting sports programs to fit your needs, and to save student fees, then lets padlock the bowling alley and the theater. Work out facility? Shut down. Clubs and organizations? Gone. Where do we stop? This whole concept that college athletics somehow suddenly needs to break even is a big part of what's wrong with college athletics. Other schools invest lots of money into their sports programs hoping it will do for them what Ohio State's investment did for tOSU. Whether you agree with that or not is irrelevant when you talk about cutting athletic programs. They were never intended to make money for the school. The fact that some universities use them as marketing tools does not change that fact.

Since you never bring it up, do you believe that an aggressive professional marketing campaign would not/could not raise attendance figures to respectable numbers? All I hear is "we don't" and "we can't". While slobbering over every word the "forward thinking" SS says. What class did you take at the University of Akron that taught you "we can't" is forward thinking? This "Lets Cut Football" defeatist attitude makes me sick. And if you dislike college athletics so much, and they're such a waste, why do you chose to discuss them with college sports fans?

I have two opinions on this subject which haven't changed since I joined this board. First we cannot calculate who much the Info actually cost the University with out knowing #1 how muc a renovation of the Rubber Bowl would have cost, and #2 how much funding came with the Infocision and Summa naming rights, and the other advertisers who came on board once we had a habitable stadium. Second we will never know how many people could become Zips fans until we have some semblance of a professional marketing program. If nobody knows Akron has a FBS football team and they're playing a game on September 12, 2015, they're probably not going to come. This region is full of potential. The AA minor league baseball team broke attendance records and ranked 5th among AAA clubs in attendance. The Cleveland Force was the only profitable indoor soccer franchise and packed 18,000 into the Richfield Coliseum despite never winning a championship. Imagine the potential of main stream sports like college football and college basketball. If done right. We need to look no further than tOSU to see what a football program can do for a school. Who here really believes it would be as big and famous if not for athletics?

That's what those semipro football guys said when they bought the Rubber Bowl instead.

How so?

Keep up with JT with these links http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=jt-brubaker http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=brubak000jt-

So, if we cut athletics, which only a relatively few students take part in, do we also close the bowling alley? The work out facility? Intramurals? The theater? These are ll for paid by all students through fees that a small percentage actually use. Personally I had a lot more fun relaxing at the "ballpark" between classes than I would have shooting pool or sipping coffee on a patio. To each his own.

It's a sad pathetic time when we look at collegiate sports only as a way to draw attention to the college. This is the kind of bs that is slowly turning me off college sports. We can pretend the Big Three sports hemorrhage money by the truck load in order to bring notoriety to the school, while complaining that (in reality) they're ridiculously under-marketed and do get few eyes on the school. It works for tOSU, not so much here. So let's hatchet the crap out of intercollegiate sports that the students pay for that we don't think serve our vision of what the programs are suppose to do. What other student activities should we take away from them without asking? Who are we (or the AD) to tell those hundreds of student athletes they can't play here anymore? Because we have delusions of grandeur of other student athletes?

So he sees the value of the big three sports as a marketing tool, but you can bet the cuts will include marketing for those programs. So he's happy with status quo, a football program barely meeting NCAA BCS requirements and struggling to contend in the MAC, the basketball program that seems satisfied to contend in the MAC tourney, and the highly successful and popular soccer program that no doubt brings some attention among higher demographics. Not what I wanted to hear. You know my thoughts, "go hard or go home". If you're not going to put a serious effort into BCS football, back out. I'd rather contend at a lower level than strive to be a mediocre MAC team. This past week it was announced Wadsworth was dropping from Division I to Division II in football, and the response has been almost completely positive. We can't compete against the heavy recruiter$. We barely met the requirements for D1 and it was impossible to build with our size and budget. We're going to have a L O T of fun in D2!!! So what does get cut? Sadly, following CSU's lead, baseball is the first to go. It's TItle IX friendly, and our facilities are shitty anyway. It has a heavy travel budget in March. And there's little hope for growth with zero marketing and pulling all but one game out of Canal Park. And it's not a sport a cold weather program has any hope of sniffing a long tournament run. What else? Men's golf, cross country, rifle, track. Women's cross country, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track, volleyball. On a side note, Cleveland State defunded wrestling to add lacrosse, but then changed their mind by funding it though higher student fees. Anyway it's all moot here as the only sports taken seriously by the majority of posters are the big three. They won't get funding cut, but don't look for funding increases (growth) or any type of serious marketing under Scarborough Fair.

Downsized???

SP JT Brubaker was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 6th round of the MLB Draft and OF Joey Havrilak was drafted in the 18th round by Detroit. JT will be playing for Pitt's short A team in Morgantown WV and Joey will probably see time with Connecticut of the NYPenn League (home of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers).

A simple look at attendance, or noting the size of the student section would work.

They've been messing with the helmets, uniforms, colors, phasing in the new Zoro logo, all in hopes of attracting the younger sports fan/student. Wake me up if/when any of this crap moves the needle.

Hell of a run. We'll be back

Ohio Polytech 8 Ball St 5 in the bottom of the 7th. The game is on ESPN3 for anyone who wants to join the party.

Tied in the bottom of the 9th, the Zips Rembielak scorea on a wild throw by the Toledo pitcher to send the Rockets home. The 1, 2, and 4 seeds are now gone. I may have to take vacation next year and go watch this tournament!!!

Another back-and-forth game, but this time the Zips lose 9-6 to David Letterman U. Now we play Toledo in the loser's bracket for a chance to play Ball St. again Saturday.

POLL: Do you like the University of Akron's rebranding strategy? http://www.ohio.com/blogs/digital-desk/the-digital-desk-1.481514/poll-do-you-like-the-university-of-akron-s-rebranding-strategy-1.592193 More news http://www.ohio.com/news/local/university-of-akron-refuses-to-release-marketing-studies-on-rebranding-1.593568

It only took 16 innings, but the second seeded Golden Flushes finally got on the scoreboard. It wasn't enough as Bowling Green eliminated them from the tournament 6-3 in the "losers bracket".

This forum and social media are perfect examples that most people (general public, prospective students, prospective benefactors, prospective sponsors, not to mention $$ALUMNI$$) do not understand the complete definition of "polytechnic". That is why the rebranding is a very bad idea. And a PR nightmare. Not to mention the constantly backpedalling Scarborough, or his son making an ass out of both of them.

I thought they would be insulted. I was right. On your next message, all just more backpedaling. I'm almost done. I owe the U nothing. I'm an active alum because I liked being a part of it. I had pride in it. That can change.

Ohio Polytechnic 5 Eastern Michigan 4 That was exciting, back and forth all evening. Next up Toledo or Ball St. tomorrow night at 8:00.