Spin

Very much so. And there's a reason the sport is not big in these parts. The season is almost half over, we haven't had a home game, and there's several inches of snow on the ground. But yes, winning cures anything.

The first step would be a cost analysis of the cost of a building with a 4700 square foot floor compared to the cost of a 17000 square foot floor. Next would be to poll the student population to determine the usage of a fitness/recreational facility of that size for those activities. Then study the income from various arena shows. They pay well in Wheeling, they would work here. Then you look at the stage events you could bring in an additional 1500 +/- people. Which could be the difference between a dart tournament (LOL!!!) and Kid Rock. Then you can do your market study on minor league sports teams, if you want the extra revenue. The Canton Invaders and Ohio Vortex were/are sustainable in Canton and Medina, why wouldn't it be in Akron? Same with the Wooster Oilers. And Marion, Ohio has had arena football forever. Really, Marion?? Anyway I'm just thinking out loud, hoping someone important is listening. I know the usual naysayers and narcissists are going to poo poo anything not related directly to them. And I also expect the University to act like a university, and build only for what it perceives it needs today, and not at potential revenue producing events that could help pay for the facility.

That's alright, as you're behind dasher boards anyhow.

Think a step lower. Wooster, Erie, Youngstown, Toledo, Wheeling, Dayton, and Columbus (LOL!!! sorry) have minor league hockey. Marion (for crying out loud), Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Dayton ahve arena football (Canton had one but the arena is not interested about anything but the Charge now) Cincinnati, Dayton, and Oberlin have indoor soccer Check out all the other events those arenas have. Don't think about events you want to see, think about events that would bring revenue to the University. Picture students with access to intramural and pickup arena soccer, football, lacrosse year round. Picture 10 years from now an AD who wants full floor sports. Think outside the JAR.

Think beyond hockey. That's just one of many uses for a full sized arena. Not looking at the bigger picture, and not planning for the future is how we we got stuck with the JAR.

You're not building it for the club sport. You're adding capabilities to use that building a LOT more often. The hockey team is just one example of what can be done with a REAL arena. Just think of the entertainment events you can add with a REAL arena. It would allow for a bigger stage and a couple thousand more seats on the floor (for end stage events). Look at all of the events that are at places like the Covelli Center right now. The circus, Sesame Street on Ice, monster trucks, rodeos. Those all bring in money to the arena owners. Then look at the minor league sports that you could bring in. Those all pay rent. Whether you want to watch arena football or minor league hockey or basketball, those are revenue streams. And there are arenas in NE Ohio right now making money off of those people who do go. Now let's look at what a real arena can do for the students (and more important, prospective students) (again, more money). Skate night and intramural indoor soccer (a very popular sport in that demographic, when there is a suitable facility) are two examples. A real arena could be used several nights a week nine months out of the year. It is a building that helps pay for itself. It brings people to campus who otherwise would not come. It would help revitalize the area much like Canal Park did. Which would make the area around campus safer. All that ties back into the prospective student. Money. Growth. Everyone is wondering how to get a new arena paid for. How to justify it to the people with the money. How to bring money people onto campus that aren't basketball fans. You have to think outside the narcissistic box of "I don't like full floor xyz, so nobody should be allowed to watch it".

Akron's "club" hockey outdraws almost all of the varsity sports. I get it. You want us to build you a building that's only used for what YOU are interested in, and nothing else. Let's blow millions of dollars on a building that will only be used 20 times a year.

The Cavs built one for LeBron. Worked for them...

Call it what you want, it's how some of us feel. And that's one of the reasons the forum is here. I've been through 47 years of disappointments with the local college and pro teams, besides soccer. Some of us longer than that. We don't need you to tell us how we should feel right now. Maybe tomorrow or next week things will look different, but right now, I feel like I feel. Get over it.

Yeah, no negativity allowed here. It's been a great experience.

Maybe embarrassed (again) is a better description.

On his TV show Coach D said that they are supporting AA and are not turning their back on him. He said if anybody knows about making a mistake and getting a second chance it is him. So if there were any way the U allows him to stay there, and eligibility to play, KD will welcome him back.

I was just saying I remember it. And the Tuesday thing was just a dig at the extremes the Junior I-A conferences go to to get some pub. The Tuesdays don't work, nor does putting the best teams against the worst during the conference season (the coaches quit, and you get smoked in the BCS bowl anyhow). I am the one saying we should drop to I-AA so we can contend with our budget, and have a snowball's chance in hell of making the playoffs if the program makes something of itself. A tweener division might be better. And your idea of putting football in the spring is worth thinking about for sustainability.

I remember it. The MAC and the other non-BCS D1 conferences should play in the spring, where it can have a wider audience. But I thought that's what Tuesdays are for...

Depends on the site. If it's near the Info on the ballfield site, there should be plenty of depth available, reference the Info's depth.

That makes sense in theory, but first, how are you going to get invited to a bigger conference with a football team in shambles, a basketball team with no "big wins", and a market infatuated with OSU. And second, record numbers of fans pour into Canal Park to watch the local ball team play Binghamton, New Brittain, and Altoona. Not exactly New York, Chicago, and Boston...

We just spent a month talking about how this program hasn't won anything yet.

OK, benefit of the doubt. Still, our season is wrecked. Not to mention the University's reputation. If he is innocent, and I hope he is, we will find out with one short sentence on the last page of the Beacon Journal sport section on a Wednesday.

SO, let's take the "innocent until proven guilty" route. How long until he is acquitted? Long after the season is over? Either way, we're screwed.

Making the building suitable for more sports would multiply the number of suites you can sell. Nobody will ever convince me a basketball arena that can house hockey is a bad idea, or that it would in any way effect the college basketball experience in any way. I have seen the college hockey experience in a recreational rink with horrible spectator seating for three years. It would work.

Aren't the suites sold out at the Dialer?

The city doesn't have the money to help, and I don't want them involved anyhow. I do agree with the hockey-sized floor, stating up front that it does NOT have to compromise basketball seating (as I showed in the old thread). Anybody who was at the Zips game Saturday night understands there clearly is a need for a better facility. Anyone who wasn't needs not reply. Unless they outprice themselves like they did the Dialer, the U can lease out the arena for high school and minor league sports, concerts, shows. And not have to share the profit...

I know there are no franchises established for the league yet, but you have one group affiliated with the league already hiring staff and purchasing a stadium. Put two and two together, and you shouldn't be all that surprised that when the franchises are named, this group IS that team in Ohio. Still having trouble connecting the dots??? ANd does that fact mean I can't rip apart the league's business plan?

There's another aspect of minor league sports that I have yet to see a minor league football league implement. Regionalism. If you look at minor league baseball, the leagues are all regional in nature. Look at the Aeros' AA level, you have the Eastern League, the Southern League, and the Texas League. You can stay within your minor league budget, with bus trips, in football no overnight stays. You can have the regional champions play in a championship. But you don't have them playing each other during the season. The USFL has named two cities, Akron and Portland, which are 2,000 miles apart. It does seem to be working for the D-League, but they're directly funded by the NBA. And you're really putting yourself behind the 8 ball (as a start-up especially) when you're moving 3x as many players around.

Let's just hope we don't draw Buffalo at the Q...