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The Browns, Indians, and Cavs love us.

CSU fans are mad we got a better RPI opponent than they did (Derxel). So is Can't left out?

Drex@CSU

Oral Roberts???

Not a football conference but on our level is the Horizon League. Could have some great territorial rivalries, as could the rest of the MAC. Imagine an Akron-Can't-Ohio, CSU-YSU-X tournament every year. Or an Akron-Can't-CSU-YSU tourney with 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th place games.

I will be there Friday. Any chance on getting some of the Rowdies there? If we get the atmosphere we've had at several games this season, it would certainly leave an impression. I also don't understand why people don't think this is a hockey area. Youngstown, Wheeling, and Erie hav teams. Wooster has a successful team. Cleveland's hockey failures have been well documented, and IMO well explained in another thread. And the club team draws well, as we have seen. A hell of a lot better than most of the sanctioned sports I have attended... I think a full-on hockey program could break even or even produce revenue. Bring in more sponsors. And like the soccer team, draw in people from the whole region.

I actually thought about this thread while at the hockey game Friday night. Is that sad or what? A W E S O M E short-handed goal to win in the final minutes of the game, BTW, one of my favorite Zips moments of the school year!!! I hope that video makes YouTube. Best case scenario would be separate basketball arena and smaller rink on campus. Hoops fans get all that they want, and the students get a facility that will actually be open to them for fitness/recreation. A multi-purpose facility, on campus or downtown, would not be open for public skates, rec and intramural indoor soccer, football, and lacrosse (to name four examples). The hockey crowds, while drawfing most other sports, would fit in better with a facility bigger than Center Ice, but 6,000 seats may be a bit much. Think "atmosphere", as several basketball fans have brought up. 600-1000 would work better in that regard IMO. Could the JAR be reconfigured to a full-floor rec facility, sacrificing some or all lower level seats? How to pay for it all. We've seen several facilties paid for by alumni. The last two athletic projects we're done had multiple naming rights sponsors, and an increase in sponsorship because of the better facilities. The rec facilities are paid for in part by facilities fees on main campus students. I wonder what the cost savings of a multi-purpose facility compared to separate basketball arena/large rink combo would be... Oh well, I can dream. That's how big things get done. Second best scenario is an on-campus basketball arena and city owned downtown multipurpose arena. This would help revitalize downtown Akron, benefitting the community and the university. Not necessarily all of the alumni. Would the downtown public arena be open for rec purposes? Maybe, but for everybody, not just students. That would be very crowded, and cost money students might not have. Third best, an on-campus multi-purpose facility. Probably not open for student use. But better than nothing. Or, we could just concentrate on basketball, ignore the recreational facilities (and a very nice student recruitment tool) we could have, and the potential revenue-producing sport that draws multiple numbers of paying fans compared to sports like softball (which has great facilities and less than 1/4 the spectators). All just my opinion...

Does the club baseball have a website? Do they have a "trainer"?

Good deal. Looks like he's back on his way. Not the way he would have preferred, but things are working out for him.

Been a baseball fan most of my life (started watching the Tribe in 76), and have been to several Zips ballgames a year since starting college. It will be a lot more fun when we have a competitive team again (in 08 we were above .500, hard to believe now). Having the games on campus was convenient, I went to games between classes. But not many others did. I wouldn't be against playing at Canal Park, the U's games usually start at 3:00 and the Aeros games usually start at 7:00. Maybe they could do a couple double headers. I'm excited to see how the "new" team plays. I will likely be at more games this year than I have the past couple. A bit of baseball news to help get ball talk going, I see catcher Scott Saylor's brother Drew has hung up the cleats and is coaching with the Lake Erie Crushers, where he finished his playing career. All the best to him, they're a great couple of guys. And a question. Does the club baseball team still exist?

Student for 22 more weeks. In June, alumni with BS Nursing (and RN) and a Minor in Emergency Managment. I'm thinking positively and voting "Alum"

Not that at all. I don't want to face him. Just like I don't like it when Andy Sonnanstine pitches against the Tribe.

I'll be alumni in June. Technically that makes me a tweener.

Well I hope Terry catches on, I don't want to have to face him!!!

He ran a 4.57 at an OSU camp last summer. And the Suburban League does not put you up against the holy rollers and the big recruiting public schools. The injury in his junior year doesn't help either. Reference Tressel cooling on Anthony Schrock and him falling to the MAC. There's still the chance to walk-on a MAC school, before going all-in with Mount U.

I was in a summer class with CG. Very nice, head-on-straight young man. I was an instant fan.

That was goaltending, wasn't it?

That's the figure I was going by. 6-8k for basketball, 4-6 k for full floor events (hockey, soccer, football, lacrosse).

Be fair. The Crusaders were a WHA team, that drew well, but got booted by the incoming NHL Cleveland Barons #2 (the former California Golden Seals). Cleveland Barons #2 were given two years to succeed, with a bad roster and worse results. The Gunds merged the franchise with Minnesota (the last franchise in the big four sports to fold). The Gunds later got it back as the, get this, the San Jose Sharks. In other words it took the franchise 15 years to move 42 miles... Sidenote. Anyone else remember Gilles Melloche? The Lumberjacks drew well, until moving to the Q. I already went over why they (and Barons #3) could not exist there. And now we have the Monsters, doing well. We have the Wooster Oilers doing well. We have the Zips doing well. Sorry, a blind statement that "hockey doesn't work here" does not convince me. If the simple fact that the franchise has made it work in agricultural Wooster, Ohio for six years during a depression (sorry, recession) doesn't prove profitability, nothing will. So people who will never go to a game are worried about empty seats in a 4-6,000 seat (for full floor events) arena. I give up.

That's the scenario some hope for. Not me. I want the program to get their money too.

You're talking MINOR LEAGUE HOCKEY. That's like going to an Aero's game and complaining they don't outdraw the Yankees. The Monsters (and Aeros) rank high in the league in attendance and are profitable. You have to understand expenses of minor league vs. major league. Wooster has a Junior A team that makes a profit with a couple hundred fans. It's all about the bottom line.

Basketball. If you don't build an arena with expectations of what the team COULD draw in the future, you're wasting money. Build too small, and you're going to be replacing it a lot sooner. If you know for sure that the program will NEVER draw more than 3000 per game, then build small and keep this great "atmosphere" I have never seen at the JAR. And maybe some will get their wish of people wanting to pay to see this team and are unable to get in. I've already stated my opinion of campus/downtown, university/community owned. Nobody has changed my mind on that.

Do any Zips programs break even?

Wow this took off while I was at work/class/clinicals. LOL The club hockey team is outgrowing the arena they're at now. They have sold a bunch of season tickets, and draw a good walk-up every night they play. This for a club sport that is not mentioned on GoZips or any of the U's marketing (billboards, emails, other games, Zip points). So IMO a sanctioned sport could do better, maybe even break even (something unheard of in non-BCS programs). Wooster packs their place for Junior-A hockey (rumor is the Zips are going there for a game next month), the Monsters are a good draw. The Lumberjacks drew well at the Coliseum. What happened to the Jacks and Barons at the Q is simple economics of the Cavs owner getting ALL of the parking and concession $$$. Now the hockey owner IS the Cavs owner so he gets that profit, is able to do better marketing. And that explains his buying the Gladiators... But I digress. The team needs a bigger arena. They could draw better with the marketing power of the U, as deficient as it may be for big time college football. An on-campus rink would be a great plus, with open skate times, intramurals?, throw down turf and have open and intramural indoor soccer. It becomes a great recreational/fitness facility for ALL of the students. Have you guys ever been to a pick-up indoor soccer game? A public skate? Those would be very popular if on campus. But, there's only 15 students we're worried about here, isn't there? But that won't work if it's downtown, the place will always be set up for the Akron Charge and the Harlem Globetrotters and monster trucks. Everyone whines about the switchover between hockey and other sports (that they don't have to do), while watching videos of change-overs between hockey and basketball games in the SAME DAY. It's simple. Scheduling. You don't schedule both teams in the same day, the same weekend. If it's even needed, the changeover is done once a week. That's my thoughts on hockey. Game time is 8:40 tonight, by the way.

Point is there are other sources of funding for college sports venues than there are for the other projects.