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You touch on a number of things here about the study quite accurately. For me, it was somewhat encouraging to see that some dramatic improvements can be made. Other changes are just impossible, based on the existing structure, as you point out. I just have a big problem with lowering the capacity significantly for the sake of comfort for fans who already attend the games anyway, when I feel like the program can still do so many things to reach higher and increase demand from area fans. The reduction would limit that growth, and may limit it for many years.

Sometimes I feel like we are going back to the same things that we felt about 6 years ago, when many of us were certain that people would be filling up football games, if we just had a better and more comfortable venue. I think what you'll find is that people who already want to go to games are the ones clamoring for more comfort, but you have to WANT to go to games for that to make an impact. The lack of Akron Zips basketball fans in the area is the primary reason why people aren't at the JAR. Basketball fans would jump on our bandwagon and flock to JAR if Akron basketball was accomplishing something of significance. They wouldn't care.

The objective is to get as many people to attend games as possible...period.

LOL...I've actually never heard to the term "Futsol", but I'm old. Let me be clear. I love watching my Zips play soccer. And I got into the USAs games during the World Cup. But, I have no attraction for the game itself.

Don't get me going on this one. You have no idea how close we were, in dollars and cents, to being able to make this an indoor basketball and/or football facility for actual games. I think some people would have looked at that facility a little differently if they could have looked ahead just a little bit further to the eventual demise of the Rubber Bowl, and the desire to conquer some of the modern-day inadequacies of JAR Arena.

Wow. It's amazing for me to see a student complain about availability of recreation facilities. In the early 80s, we'd occasionally get a chance to play for awhile at old Memorial Hall. And once, I remember having some open gym time at Rhodes. This was a time when talk of a future swimming pool just thrilled people. Actually, I don't blame you for wanting all of this. You guys pay thousands of dollar a semester in tuition. I paid $500.

That's my point. It's a bad recipe. The people most likely to have the means to not care about the tax increase are the ones to likely benefit the least. And....the people in the closest proximities are the ones most likely to predominantly vote NO. Plus, I don't care if poor people traditionally have poor voter turnout. When it's a tax increase that will affect them all directly (unlikely a property tax levy), they will be there.

Good point. Tax increases are hard to sell as it is, especially one that would affect everyone, and the poor even more. That info. above from the article is compelling. The people of Akron, who are the closest and most likely beneficiaries of such a project, include a lot of people who are under the poverty level and will likely vote against the tax, no matter what.

News breaking that City of Akron is planning a HUGE party for Bron's return. Good move. I wonder how the people up north are going to feel about that?

I'll give you this much.... I heard someone the other day talk about how Restaurant revenue will be nothing more than a shift from the outlying areas to the arena area during gamedays. Not really an increased impact to the region, just a shift in location during home games. Interesting.

I think you just found something we can ALL agree on. Unless you live in Hudson

WHOA!! I have lived in both places. I was even born in Cleveland. Forty miles and a huge recreational valley in between is a Godsend to us Akronites.

You've obviously missed something over the last few days. They did far more than beg. Besides everything that was going on behind the scenes over the last couple of years, they even traded away some first round picks, and a future first round pick in a gamble to attract him. I'd say it's a blatant denial if someone thinks that they didn't pull out every option they could think of to get him back here. But still, the bottom line is this... The reason he's here right now is not because the Cleveland sports fans are forgiving him. He's here right now because he is forgiving what people in Cleveland did to him.

I have a few thoughts after letting this sink in, and watching fan behavior. 1) One of you guys mentioned Bron being a "bigger man than me". I have to agree 100%. No way would I have worked for an a-hole like Gilbert again, if I was him. Speaks volumes about his character, which most of us in Akron already knew. 2) I have a serious problem with some media/fans attempting to frame this as "Cleveland fans forgive LeBron". That's waaaaaay backwards folks. Cleveland sports fans should be eternally grateful that LeBron forgave everything that happened here upon his departure. A lesser man would have never returned to this dysfunctional sports culture. Many of you need to thank God he missed his home so much. 3) I read a great article in the last couple of days about the difference between LeBron doing a written statement instead of a spoken statement this time around. It was great. It talked about how the video/audio gave the media so much fuel to fire up people's hatred by having the ability to chose to play one small snippet, and play it over, and over, and over. If some of the dimwit Cleveland sports fans would have ever paid attention to the rest of it, and heard things like, "Wow...this is really hard", and listened to him explain his ties to NE Ohio, and seen his discomfort, you would have noticed some of the same things in his character and his makeup that you see today. It was a great article. I'm just thrilled that he's back. He'll certainly be able to continue his activities in Akron more easily when he lives here again, full time. He always said he would put Akron on the map. Well....just the number of times that AKRON has been talked about in the national media over the last couple of weeks....alone....is probably more than he ever could have ever possibly imagined when he said that as a teenager. His impact on the future of this community is only beginning.

When someone is serving probation, they often cannot even leave the area without requirements. But, I don't know his circumstances.

I I wonder if it's just because his probation has not allowed him to leave the country until now, and he's thankful to finally be able to get back there to visit? But, the "good luck" response from George makes you wonder if it's more than just a vacation. I've heard nothing else on this topic recently, which was not the case with the Harney situation.

Absolutely. Like you said...If not now, when? It couldn't happen soon enough for me. It'll generate more fan interest, help recruiting, increase exposure, and there's far more benefit than risk, both short-term and long-term. It's a no-brainer for me.

Dave. I love almost the entire post here. Great stuff. Totally agree. But I have to question that first sentence. How do we know that piling up victories with home OOC cupcakes got us from a top 200 to a top 100 team? With the poor SOS of most of those teams, it's hard to make the point that it helped at all. I'd attribute our conference performance to that climb. And even if we found that it did help, would we have possibly moved to that Top-100 level much faster if the "tough road game" strategy had been put into place much sooner?

Sometimes, I find it unbelievably amazing that our performance in the Big House last September has this kind of lingering effect with someone like this ESPN blogger. Maybe we got more value out of it than we could have ever expected.

That won't surprise me. I've always seen him as a body type that probably won't end up playing a guard spot or on the perimeter, even before he's supposedly "bulked up". But, I know he can shoot. I picture him as a guy who might keep moving closer and closer to the basket as his career progresses, much like Brett McKnight.

Not only them, but the LOCALS also. See 2012 Ken+ baseball season. All they did was simply QUALIFY to be in the NCAA baseball tournament, and the Cleveland stations were all over it, every night. They even sent people to Omaha for "on location" reporting. They even sent cameras to the campus when a few dozen people showed up to send them off on the busses. Unbelievable. Would the local media care if it had been November instead of May? Not even close.

Oh my. Here we go again. Compare it to the Olympics. Rooting for the USA against other countries once every four years in Soccer gets people temporarily hyped up, just like rooting for our nation in Swimming, Track and Field, Gymnastics, etc. And in this case, it's like an Olympics with only one sport, which even increases it's ability to generate some short term attention. But, nobody would try to make the argument that any of those sports have gained massively in popularity based on how many people watched them in a few day period every 4 years. I watched the game at a bar yesterday. I stood around with friends who all got excited about watching the USA possibly pull off a great sports win against a European country. NONE of them were soccer fans. And NONE of them will become soccer fans after the World Cup concludes.

That's exactly my point. I bet you there are plenty of Browns fans who don't know we even exist. This will be an awakening for some of them, especially when they see the facilities. Some probably will think they are coming to a stadium similar to a high school, until they arrive.