Spin

Spoken like a true Buckeye honk.What's the old saying? Walk a mile in an Ohio mid major fan's moccasins.Steelers fans wonder why we get sick and tired of their arrogance and hyperbole. They've never looked in the mirror.And I'm certain if we looked around Buckeye forums, we'd find somebody making jokes about MeatChicken, making fun of Akron and Toledo, blah blah blah.

Only difference, in Cleveland that walk involves traversing a gauntlet of exhibitionist, hookers, and thieves. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.Another option I have a van that can take five other people. We could get a couple of vehicles and car pool from W3rd or wherever to the game, and back. Hell I could run some guys up from campus or a shopping center. Bring a DVD to watch on the way. Depending on when the game is scheduled, we may not want to walk a half mile with the weather.

Good ideaToo bad there isn't any watering hole in the CSU vicinity. Is The Rascal House still open?Everything near The Q is a serious walk to the Wollstein center...at least in Cleveland, during the winter, it can be pretty rough.How much is a party bus?I just hope the basketball team shows up this year.

Good idea

There's no reason it has to. Modern construction methods can have stands that come right up to the basketball floor, and disappear for full floor events. It's that kind of single minded thinking that divides groups and results in nobody getting anything done.

Hello... Akron already HAS a hockey team. It's an entertaining brand of hockey, too. Finished 7-7 in their conference after moving up to Division 2 last year, against Dayton, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, IUP, Toledo, West Virginia, Wright State, and next year Ohio. Last year in the non-con they played Can't, tOSU, CSU, BGSU, Kentucky.They just need a closer place to play home games...

Seriously though, my favorite football game at the Rubber Bowl was October 22, 1983 vs. Moorhead State. The game ended 6-3, a real thriller. I played for Doylestown at the time, so I was use to pound-it-out games, every team had a fast farmboy they stuck at HB and let him run every play. Woodie Hayes would have loved it.It's my favorite game because it was my first date with a senior from Wadsworth High School. I spilled popcorn on her lap, ran off with my friends and terrorized the stadium for one quarter, all of the things idiots did on dates.She didn't seem to mind though. We'll be married 25 years in November.

Are you serious Spin? Did that happen? I don't think so. It most certainly did.One game was against the Jacksonville Tea Men, I can't remember who the second game was. I want to say Tulsa Roughnecks. It was the first sporting event I drove to after getting my license, which would put it at 1982. I got Bart Wolstein and Kai Haaskivi's autograph after the game.I remember parking up on the hill, where the airport markers are now, and driving up over the bank to avoid waiting in line and paying the parking fee. Everyone was surprised a Plymouth Duster could do that without dragging the exhaust off. Fun times.

Although, on second thought, anything Canton can do, Akron can do better...I'd still rather have a REAL arena suitable for hockey, and chase down a ECHL, CHL, or even an OHL franchise. I think it would be more viable.

The Cleveland Force playing NASL teams there.sorry, couldn't resist

Ada Zip to answer your question about the D League, the games I've seen on TV are poorly attended. It's just not anything close to NBA basketball, unlike minor league baseball and hockey.I've seen more minor league basketball leagues come and go, than anything else...

Have you been to the Canton Civic Center in the past, oh, 30 years?A new arena would have the D-League team BEGGING to come to Akron... That hole makes Thurmon Munson Stadium look like PNC...Personally I say let Canton have the D League. To me minor league hockey is more entertaining than minor league basketball anytime. And the Zips hockey team would have a local place to play.

Why can't baseball have something even remotely as nice as the softball stadium???

Why not, people travelled from West Virginia to Akron (Barberton and Kenmore) looking for work for over a century. The three R's in WV were Readin', Ritin', and Route 21.

In some ways, it does. In most ways, it doesn't. We have a top notch basketball program and a national champion in soccer. We have had pretty good track teams over the years. Other programs have performed well also. We have good facilities. There are positives. Our problem is we built White Elephant Stadium, which I like to refer to as The Big Dialer, and it sits empty because of poor performance on the field. The footbal team casts such a negative light on the rest of the Athletic Department because the games happen at the beginning of the school year, it makes it hard to get marketing traction for a good team like basketball. The University badly needs to get the team winning and people in the seats. The distance between where we are and where we would need to be is like the distance from the Earth to the Moon. While it isn't that far compared to other space bodies, it isn't exactly the easiest place to get to. We are much less like the Beverly Hillbillies Captain Kangaroo described and more like a guy who "built" a rocket and thinks he can fly it to the moon. A sample conversation might be like this: Skeptic: "That's a really nice rocket ship you've got there." UofA: "Thanks. We built it." Skeptic: "Do you know how to fly it?" UofA: "We built it didn't we." Skeptic: "I know you built it, but do you actually know how to fly it?" UofA: "Sure we do. We've seen other people do it before." Skeptic: "I understand that, but have you actually piloted one before?" UofA: "No, but we have a plan to fly it." Skeptic: "Where are you going to fly it to?" UofA: "Where else would we go? The moon." Skeptic: "How are you going to guide the craft to the moon?" UofA: "That's a silly question. Look how big the moon is. We'll just point it in the general direction and light a match." Skeptic: "You mean you don't have a guidance computer? They had guidance computers even in the 1960s when we were exploring space." UofA: "They were fools back then. Look up. If the three kings found Jesus by the light of the north star, we can find the moon by following the moon." Skeptic: "Ya, but the three kings were riding camels and not sitting on top of tons of explosive liquid." UofA: "There is little difference between driving a camel and driving a space craft." Skeptic: "Let's get back to the trip to the moon. Does the pilot have any experience piloting a spacecraft?" UofA: "Of course not, but he has an action plan." Skeptic: "Do you think the plan will work?" UofA: "The plan doesn't really matter, we built the rocket. The rocket alone will do all the work." Skeptic: "So nobody has any experience leading a group of people who could guide a craft to the moon? What about the ground crew?" UofA: "The ground crew is equally inexperienced. That doesn't matter though. We have this rocket and it will do all the work. Light a match and off you go." Skeptic: "Do me a favor. Don't light the match while I am within 100 miles of the rocket." UofA: "Don't worry. Everything will be OK. The rocket will do all the work." Looks like you have a tight handle on MAC athletics...

Is 42 still open? There was also one that was near I71 near Cleveland that you could see from the xpressway. I would try to figure out the movie while driving. Cell phones have replaced that bad idea. You mean 480? Near rt. 10? Yeah it's still open.

Hey, at least you can read the media guides now. For the first time in years... Otherwise same ads, same lack of multimedia, same shit, just a fresh coat of paint. "Learn how to donate"??? Is it really that hard to get the U to take your money?

Magic City is still open, as is the Blue Sky in Wadsworth. Montrose use to put on one heck of a flea market, they made more off that than the drive in. I know a guy who made a living buying estate sale leftovers and selling at the flea market. It was huge. But the land became too valuable.

Why don't we try being competitive in the MAC, win some divisions and a couple more conference championships. Maybe a bowl game against another BCS fodder school. And how about having a team capable of beating a BCS school now and then? I'm sure the people in Toledo enjoy drubbing a Big Ten school every few years. Who knows what they're planning against the remains of tOSU this year... If we pull some of that off, we could be ranked. Ball freakin State was ranked for a time. Don't tell me a MAC school can't pull it off. Go for a BCS title, that's a pipe dream in our lifetime. But it can still be FUN. People will pay to watch that. They set records to see the Aeros, despite the fact they're never going to the World Series. it's still fun to watch a competitive team at any level.

That's cool. But the Compliance Department? That's just a bad idea.

I've thought about posting what I'm about to post for a while. You post made a good segway for me. It isn't just the people who come and go who are the problem. There are lots of people in the Athletic Department who have seen many ADs over the years. I'm not sure that's good for the school. The Athletic Department needs change, and I don't just mean the AD. If you look at the highest levels of the Athletic Department, some of those names have been around for a long time. I'm not so sure that is good for the Department and I'm not sure that is good for those people as well. I would take the following steps if I was Dr. Proenza: 1. Fire the AD. This guy is in over his head. 2. Get some help hiring a new AD. He didn't do a very good job last time and he may need better advice. 3. Require new AD to start searches for positions at highest levels of the Athletic Department. This task can be accomplished with recruiters. Don't let new AD hire his friends. 4. Require existing employees in those positions to re-interview for their jobs and demonstrate they are rowing the boat in the same direction as Dr. Proenza and the new AD. Keep those who are...can those who aren't. Get rid of the rats. I'm sure within the University, there are those who know who the rats are and they should be released. 5. Change culture of Athletic Department by repeating steps 3 & 4 all the way down to kids in work study. A cultural change is badly needed and a culture involves more than just the guy at the top. One guy can't do it alone. EVERYONE needs to be rowing the boat in the same direction. Sharpen your axe Dr. Proenza...and hurry up about it. While you are at it, sharpen one for the new AD as well and tell him to use it liberally. +1

If there were any chance of Akron getting serious about football, I'd be all for staying in the FBS. But other than a fancy looking stadium, cheaper to build than rebuilding the Rubber Blow especially with ssponsors, I see NO committment to become more competitive. I wonder if the U was ever serious about Div I-A, if they ever gave Gerry Faust what he needed to build a serious program. Seriously, if you can't sell football in northeast Ohio, you're in the wrong business. Crimony. There are high school games that outdraw some of the gatherings I've seen at Zips games. They sold out freaking Arena Football games for crying out loud, and broke attendance records. Even when the team won (which seems like a long time ago) they had a hard time making NCAA minimum. Unacceptable.

That's an interesting perspective.

Thanks for the tip off!!!

You guys can tout him for being truthful, is it really wise to piss off the people who pad your wallet with ticket sales, viewership, and most of all, paying exorbinant prices for crap with your name on it? Great idea. I'll shut up and let the love fest continue. Hope y'all fell asleep before the fourth period in that series...