skip-zip

Back to the point. How does everyone feel about the letter? First, I wouldn't think you'd see something like this coming from a team owner, no matter how they feel, or the fan base they are trying to inspire. Secondly, I see a bit of irrationality in the thought that Cleveland will win a title before LeBron. Sure, we never know what will happen. But, I think you'd have to be crazy at this point to think that Miami is not in a far superior position to make that happen than Cleveland.

Yes, and no. More than 90% or NBA fans that live in Akron are Cavs fans. He pooped on Cavs fans last night on national tv. That hurt/dissed a lot of people that live in Akron. The one thing I can say about LBJ, he has said "Akron" so much in the media that most of the media people are repeating it. I think most people around the country realize he's from Akron and not Cleveland. I'm not sure that really helps anything though. Maybe if the University builds a South Beach branch. How could "most" people around the country recognize that he is from Akron, when sports media people all over the country often fail to make this distinction? And don't believe for a second that Cleveland has not tried really, really hard over these last 7 seasons to convince sports fans all over the country that Akron is really just a Cleveland "suburb".

I might be inclined to believe that this is a possiblity, if it wasn't for the fact that he continues to emphatically declare his loyalty to Akron as his hometown over, and over, and over again when he's making public appearances, accepting awards, etc. At the very least, I think it's awfully premature to believe that he's only loyal to himself when all he's done here is decide to play for one NBA franchise instead of another. And NEITHER of these two franchises are located in his hometown.

LBJ leaving Cleveland doesn't come close to the trainwrecks that were The Fumble, Drive and Shot. Or even the way in which the Marlins won. The Cavs made the finals once with LBJ and they were run out of the gym in four games. I'm convinced that if the fumble doesn't happen and the drive doesn't happen, but Browns win the Super Bowl or at least had a better shot at winning than the Cavs did in the finals. For those of you too young to remember, the Browns were as good those two years as the 49ers were with Montana. They had it all going on. The Indians were on the edge of winning the World Series and blew it. The Cavs were just as good the year of the Shot if not better than the current Cavs team. LBJ leaving doesn't measure up to these disasters. This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The Cavs can win without LBJ. The economy of Cleveland is not going to get any worse because LBJ is leaving. The economy of Cleveland is not going to fold because some factory in China is now making Miami jerseys in lieu of Cavs jerseys. The economy of cleveland is not going to fold because a couple less parking attendants are not working. It is all such nonsense. +1 I agree with this pretty much. It's been an opinion of mine that the 91-92 Cavs team would have thumped these recent 2 teams. Mostly because of talent and basketball dilution in Vince McMahan ... er .. David Sterns NBA. And the effect on the economy that the sports writers have been talking about is overblown. After all, it's not like Michael Symon is leaving town or something important. Go Zips. It's hard to say how much this will effect the entire Cleveland economy, but it's certainly not good news. I think that the overblown bar and restaurant district which surrounds the arena will definitely suffer.

Some great comments here. I'm sure plenty of Cleveland people will say that he "alienated his hometown". But maybe this will finally make it clear to them, and the national media, that LeBron is from AKRON not CLEVELAND. And I expect that he will continue to do the great things he's always done for HIS HOMETOWN OF AKRON for many years to come.

THAT would be entertaining.

This is just my opinion. But, what I always find very amusing is how Cleveland uses Akron whenever it benefits them. They leave the Coliseum in Richfield so that they would make the Cavs "Cleveland's team". But since LeBron is from Akron, it seem that it's now convenient for Cleveland to embrace Akron as a part of their area. This has gone on for years. Anyone who becomes famous from anywhere within a 100 mile radius is claimed as their "hometown kid". They did this with that singer from the Pretenders and Joe Walsh when they sang the national anthem at a couple of World Series baseball games back in the 90s. I never associate Akron as being part of the Cleveland metro area. Nor do I want to be associated with the Cleveland area in any way, shape or form. It's 50 miles away, and in many cases I wish it was further than that. Quite frankly, I have to agree with some of the folks on here who believe that Akron will benefit more if LeBron is playing somewhere else. Because, I think many people outside of this area identify LeBron as being a Cleveland hometown boy.

I'll assume you are talking about Dials getting grabbed while shooting a three-pointer at the buzzer, and it was unbelievably called a "non shooting foul"? That highlight was in the internet for a long time, and maybe still is. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I still believe that he would have hit all three FTs. With Dial's FT shooting average, that would have been a safe assumption. And then we go to a 3rd overtime, and still have a chance to beat a ranked team on the road. I really believe it was a situation where they were afraid to make the CORRECT call because he was so far away from the basket. But really, there was no excuse for not making that Dayton kid pay for one of the dumbest last-second moves ever in a college basketball game.

I'll assume you are talking about Dials getting grabbed while shooting a three-pointer at the buzzer, and it was unbelievably called a "non shooting foul"? That highlight was in the internet for a long time, and maybe still is.

Fret not, Skip...you are dead wrong. I agree. The kid has too much natural talent to flop in the MAC unless at some point he becomes a compete head case and I don't see that happening either. My only concern was his accuracy, but he has some good coaches around him who can help with that part of his game. If he is willing to listen to his coaches and work hard during the summer, his accuracy should not be a problem. I hope he is working hard this summer. The responsibility for his development falls squarely on his shoulders. Amen Captain. Here's to hoping I am wrong, and you are right GP...I think it's tough to say that accuracy is the "only" concern.....when it could be a HUGE problem if it continues. But, a lot of other people are seeing it besides you. I'm not sure how tough it is to "coach" a kid out of something like that. It seem a lot like the challenge of trying to coach a basketball player to become a more accurate shooter.

Good point. How often would you think you'd see a bad MAC team, but their QB was the best in the league? Which would tend to indicate that you are getting good blocking, good receiving, and scoring a lot of points? Yet, you are still one of the worst teams in the league? I don't see that happening either. I'm shocked as well, especially after seeing last week that another service didn't even list Patrick as one of the best 12 QBs in the league. Maybe this again reminds us of just how little these ratings matter. Personally, I don't see him becoming the QB we need to be successful. And I hope I am sooooo wrong about that. Wagner is a no-brainer. I see in him a lot of the same things I saw in guys like John Mackey and Phil Dunn over the years at LB. Good nose for the ball, and a solid tackler. We need a couple more like him.

This adds to my overall thought that these kids are COLLEGE STUDENTS who participate in athletics. The STUDENT part should always be the primary objective. And their safety while participating in their sport should always be a big part of regarding them as students first.

Zach, this month you predict 5 wins, last month 2, what's next month gonna be? What changed since you thought "we're crap, the coach is crap, the talent is crap"? ZachTheZip: Wow. You mention the QB situation, the running game, our defense, our pressure on the QB, and our ability to stop the run. You might have been better off to just say that everything that went poorly last year needs to go good this year in order for us to win 5 games. And as much as I am hoping for bigger and better things..I'd have to agree with you.

Unfortunately, I think you are correct on the first two points, but probably not on the third. For whatever reason, many Americans just don't have any interest in this sport.

I'll chime in before soccer slips into obscurity again. I look beyond things like whether good young athletes are "pressured" into playing football or basketball. Or, the coaching, or the way we teach soccer. I think the overwhelming factor here is that sports fans simply don't have the level of interest in the sport that they have in other countries. Just look at the college level. At the national championship game, you could probably count the people in the stands. With football or basketball, they're looking for ways to fit 100,000 or more into venues, and have hundreds of thousands more people who would go if they could only get in. Many Americans simply don't care much for this sport. A good number of people who showed interest in these World Cup games did so because it was a big, worldwide sporting event that had our beloved USA competing against other countries. And they wanted to see us beat some of these countries. I was sitting next to a guy in a bar watching the USA/Ghana game, and something happened during the game that nobody understood. The guy next to me said, "I don't know what just happened. I don't ever watch soccer". Yet, the guy was just as excited about the happenings in the game as anyone else in the place. I think this summed it up for me.

Look closely, and you'll see that they have more than one player from a team at some positions. It doesn't appear as if they intended to rank each team by position, but simply the best 12 players in the league at that position. Allen and Nicely? Seriously? One of them has hardly played due to injury, and the other was a 3rd stringer who got thrown into duty. Would anyone really think that a rating service would project either of them to be among the top dozen or so players in the league at their position? Well....apparently the bar has been set pretty low. We can only overachieve from here.

And Indiana. Could we have played them at Info this year instead?

Akron really, really needs this. I'm glad it finally came to fruition.

For those of you who are old enough to remember "The Wave" at sporting events, the debate went on forever as to where it started. Some claim that it was at a Seattle Seahawks game. But oddly enough, it appears that it may have been at Detroit Tigers baseball games. Anyway, I think that if the use of these sound-makers for soccer DID start at Akron games, it would be a benefit to us to get that information out there as fans. But, it might be a real challenge to find out if this actually is true.

Would an upstart FCS team help them to lose the status? The question for me is: Would anyone go to their games? Plenty of vacant property on the East side to build a stadium, but who would want to venture into that part of town? But what do you do? Build another football stadium right in Browns Town? Try competing for fan interest in the Browns back yard. And talk about a "commuter school". I'm trying to find reasons why this would work. And I can't find any.

EMU.....I just don't think they can keep going like this. They keep losing, and keep losing fans. Being right next door to Ann Arbor doesn't give them much of a chance to begin with. Funny Story...I went to a game in Ypsilanti back in the early 80s while I was a student at Akron. The place was PACKED. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were there that night. The people around there told me that they had been running some big-time promotions, and were seeing a dramatic boost in attendance. Maybe that was short-lived, or maybe those kinds of promotions really have no long term effect.

I only started going to Akron soccer games over the last couple of years, purely to give my support to a winning team at my alma mater. But I have to admit, I do enjoy watching a live soccer game a little more than I expected. Possibly because of Porter's attacking style of play. Your point about the World Cup is potentially a good one. I think that every time the World Cup comes around, many people with a soccer interest in this country hope that it will influence the public's interest in the sport. Could this finally be the time when that happens? Wouldn't that be great timing for the Zips? Who are looking to establish a perennial top-notch national program and fill a new facility? I'm hopeful, but I'll be surprised if history does not keep repeating itself, and the American public will again lose interest in the sport shortly after the World Cup is over.

I hope you guys are all correct with what I am sensing is an overwhelming "attendance is only going to continue to get better" thought. But remember something: Last year represented the most absolutely perfect conditions. We had a team that was #1 in the country, and on a run towards a perfect season, and people wanted to be a part of that. And I think we got a lot of people who might have never, ever gone to a college soccer game if it wasn't for this phenomenal situation. If those circumstances occur again, expect the same response, or better. But don't forget that we've had good soccer teams for many, many years, and many of them did not attract this outpouring of fans. Unfortunately, I think you'd be mistaken to believe that most of those people were there because they just wanted to see a good soccer team play.

And thank god for that! Oh, come on now, who can honestly say they don't miss the Chuckery? Ahh....can we all please pause for a moment of silence for the old Chuckery.