akzipper

I mentioned college specific arena. Louisville's is used by both UL and the city if I remember correctly.

Well Oregon's is the most expensive college specific arena ever built. -Chaifetz Arena for St. Louis only cost $80million, built in '08. Although I don't like the layout since it's only 1 level. -Missouri State's JQH Arena cost 67million or UCF's Arena would be perfect if UA built it alone. Pretty affordable too, at least compared to the other arenas mentioned.

I agree, the Tullio Arena may not be in the best shape, but they are going to give it a huge renovation soon. Converting it into more of a horseshoe configuration. They have the Erie Otters a well followed OHL team. Arena football and NBDL have smaller crowds, but other events bring in A LOT of money! From what I understand they will be adding luxury suites and a restaurant as well. Now take that and add a second level and you have a perfect arena for Akron. How did we pay for the football and soccer stadiums? InfoCision, Summa, Cub Cadet, and FirstEnergy put a lot of money forward. Do you realize how much money some of these Northeast Ohio companies will be willing to put forward to put their name on it? Just face that there's a lot of people with a lot of money! That's not going to be a problem... People like to complain about tax money going into the stadium. That's why they just look ignorant.

At the end of the day, the better team won. Ohio came out with the gameplan of...if we can't defend them, just foul them. I was disappointed with the end of the game but really it's a learning process. I'm sure KD wasn't happy and will make sure they don't let it happen again. I'm not trying to say Q didn't deserve the T, but really that cueball on OU's sideline was screaming at the refs the whole game. He didn't get a T, but Q says one thing and does? Oh well it's over and done. I was not very impressed with anyone on their team and it shows that we are by far the best team in the MAC. btw, Bobby Bowden tweeted a pic from Terry at the game. Anyone see him there? funny I never saw Ianello and any sporting event other than football. And in reality that's the one place I didn't want to see him. I know it's been said a million times already. But it feels good to have a coach that really cares about our school while he's here!!

Look at BG's arena. It is pathetic and looks like it deserves to be for a D2, D3, or even a high school. Do we really want to make the same mistake as them? Do we want to build a 5k-6k arena and show the rest of the country we are content being mediocre team in the MAC. Unlike the rest of the conference, we strive to be competitive nationally, not just in the MAC. We have a coach, we have a foundation to be competitive, we have reputation, we have fans, and all we need is a great place to play. Building Infocision showed the country we are serious about football. When we build 60 million+ stadiums, other schools in the MAC (Can't State) are spending a few million to put in a scoreboard. The difference between football stadiums and basketball arenas is that stadiums can be expanded, but arenas are built and stuck at that attendance. Building a 9k-10k arena shows that we have a plan. We want to be great, and we are better than these rinky dink schools in the MAC. Big arenas bring in recruits, they bring in concerts and other shows, they bring in minor league teams. And people who don't think Akron can support a minor league hockey team. The Lake Erie Monsters were 2nd in the AHL attendance last year. Now the question is why would a bigger arena fill, when we can't even fill a 6k one. Break it down like this. Why don't people attend now? The Jar is old. No surprise people don't want to go to games. The seating is uncomfortable, there are only 1 set of bathrooms, 1 concession area, 1 lounge, and 1 team shop. Its tough to watch games from the upper level with people walking in front of you. The student seating is small and split into two sections. There is no club level or suites. No press level or pressbox for camera crews, etc so they are forced to set up on the track. Jumbotron above center court is old, has bad picture, and scoreboards behind students are old and not even full color. As a result of the small arena we also can't get big opponents to visit for OOC schedule. How do we fix it? Build a new arena. Have seats throughout the arena and no bleachers! The only place bleachers could be acceptable would be in the student sections, hopefully forcing them to stand. Now add restrooms, concessions, a walk-in team shop like at Infocision, and even possibly a game day restaurant. All in concourses BEHIND the seating areas. Create a club level that provides catered food and alcohol, with lounges to socialize with other fans pregame and during halftime. Now for students, take half of the lower bowl and designate it for them and the band. Keeping them together would create a larger united student section similar to First Energy Stadium. Give them Rowdy Rags for every game! Put in a HD videoboard at center court, and ribbon boards around the arena to show scores and ads. Probably not suggestions that haven't been made already, just giving my input

I've never really had any need to park in any of the close lots. But I think I'd rather see them give first priority to those that have bought season tickets before. Say for the first season you have to park at a normal lot, then the next year you move up. Would help give motivation to buy tickets the following year. I prefer perks based on loyalty as opposed to $$. It would give the best parking to the most loyal fans and prevent the fair weathers from just buying season tickets one year and ending it. Also hope they have a gift, like the have done with bobble heads and scarfs. I was thinking maybe mini helmets, or like I suggested for basketball, replica jerseys. Need something that would be considered a "hot" item because the Bowden name won't sell tickets alone.

I wish gozips.com could post clips of some of these interviews. I've seen articles about them but haven't had the chance to tune in.

I would like to see him start sometime this season, just to see how it works out. We seem to be having trouble starting games strong. It's a bit frustrating to see them starting a game down 12-3 to a weak BG team like today.

So that's why they built a high school gym...

I noticed there was a bit of a jump after Ianello was fired, and Tressel dreams. Regularly I've seen over 100+ people online in the evenings. Guess it can't be bad, right?

Not a good first impression of our basketball team for Bobby. Hopefully he knows they are a much better team than they played tonight!

Still think T-Bow is too close to Tebow. I know different pronunciation, but online you really can't emphasize that. Unless you want to add a (\ˈbau̇\) after every time you type that haha. Maybe just "T-Bowd"?? TB doesn't work, all I think of is tuberculosis. Not a good thing Just simply "bowden" could work but 95% of America would get him confused with his dad or brother Tommy. Since I think they are two of the more famous Bowdens.

Bobby Bowden gave the bball team a nice shout out on facebook/twitter:

The announcers wanted Calhoun to "Shove it down Zekes grill", I still don't know what that means or what he did to anger them so badly. But they felt the need to make a ignorant remark every time he was on the bench. I guess I'm glad at the end of the day "Harney shoved it down BG's grill"

"I've never seen a team complain to much to the refs as akron does" How did the game end? BG complaining to the refs.... Irony is quite funny!!

BG wins it now. Diggs missed a crucial FT, BG will score here...

Well this is a loss...terrible what are they shooting 10% wow simply pathetic

Looks like a glorified high school to be honest, really terrible. Guess UA has to use it as an example of what not to do! These announcers are by far the biggest joke I've ever heard. There's been a lot of homers this season announcing the away games, but these guys are talking trash about our players. Calling Serb a crybaby, saying he wanted their players to dunk right in Zekes grill, and swearing. Not to mention they talk like this team is the second coming of the 90s Bulls. Real classy, and def giving me extra incentive to hate BG.

Down 12-3 to BG? really...looks like the poor play has carried over from last game

...probably the same 2 people that post on Ohio.com, pretty sad they couldn't even find a blog reporter for that "school"

I understand why the posts about all players we are going after. But I'm with you, mainly because it gets pretty depressing seeing someone posted here just to say that other schools are out recruiting us. Hopefully Bowden can help us get some, but who knows...

KFC Yum! Center....take away 5,000 or so seats and it's the perfect example of what Akron (both UA and city) needs. If Louisville, Memphis, and other big schools can share arenas, there's no reason we can't!!

Ask Colt McCoy if an O-Line is important. Ask Dick-J if a D-Line is important, especially when he watched his defense give up 200yards rushing a game.

I thought about tire marks too. Doesn't have to be "in your face" but could be just a subtle pattern on the helmet and sleeves.

I came across this company HGI. They did the chrome Oregon helmets, Metallic gold Notre Dame, TCU etc. I think we should seriously talk to them to see if there are any unique things they could do for us. I really like Notre Dame's new metallic gold helmets and I think that would look pretty good as replacement for our current ones. Then adding a matte blue one to wear for some of the big games. It could also be interesting to see a metallic gold facemask with the blue helmet.