GP1

The arena is squeezed into an existing block and the entrance is almost at the sidewalk. If you didn't know it was a basketball arena, you might not know what you are standing outside of. One has to go in, show your ticket then go up to the concourse then down to your seat. There is a small club level at the top. Most of Charleston did not exist in revolutionary times and was mostly swamped so you can't really dig down to build because it's mostly fill and the cost of waterproofing alone would send the project skyrocketing. That's why the court is on sidewalk level. An expensive problem in downtown Charleston is getting your design through the historical society's review board. Akron wouldn't have that problem. Akron could save money by putting some of the arena below ground and not having to use products that blend into a city that is a museum. CofC has a nice arena. I wasn't awestruck, but did appreciate it. I just don't know how Akron pulls anything off in the next decade or two given their finances.

Because there would be no athletic department.

Charleston is an extremely trendy place. There are loads of people looking to impress and be impressed. I'd bet it is part of the driving force. Compound that with a great game day experience and there is the success.

The CoC discussion is interesting. I didn't know their attendance was so successful until today so I'm learning along with everyone. I live in SC and go there about once a month. The people I know don't talk about going, but it's a big area and it doesn't take many people to fill their arena, which is a takeaway for Akron. Everyone in NE Ohio can't go to every game. They just need more people who are interested and willing to go. CoC does get a big student crowd, which doesn't strike me as unusual because they tend to live on campus and going to the beach isn't an option during basketball season. The students also take a lot of pride in going there. I've always heard that their baseball team gets good crowds. They play over by the aircraft carrier at Patriot Point in Mt. Pleasant, I think and it's a convenient place to go. What they have executed on is the goose that laid the golden egg in sports attendance. The key to success is selling as many season tickets as possible. CoC has three consecutive seasons of sell out season tickets. That's amazing. If people buy tickets, they tend to go or give them to someone who will. The downtown area of Charleston is slow in the winter and there are far fewer activities because their organized activities tend to be outside and it does get cold there in January and February. CoC allows a high quality indoor event separate from the cold so that has to be attractive. Moreover, it's cold but there are not several inches of snow on the road. The parking situation isn't the greatest, but with fewer tourists in the winter, it's manageable. I don't know. Call me crazy, but maybe making their athletic department benefit the athletes students alumni fans and general community around the school pays off.

Akron is in a great spot to be aggressive, or not. The website shows Ford as the Head Coach. Akron is the gold standard for MAC basketball and I'm not sure a career assistant is the right person.

In all seriousness, I agree. Fans are too quick to panic when there is turnover. Honestly, I've been guilty of it in the past. Again, my experience following a well run athletic department is Wake Forest. When I saw Dave Clawson getting hired after Grobe around 10 years ago, I thought they were doomed because I simply didn't know who he was or much about him. As it turned out, he was the right guy, at the right place, at the right time. When they hired Jake Dickert I thought they were screwed for the same reasons and he won 9 games in his first season and were better than the last two years of Clawson. He was the right guy at the right place at the right time. Wake finds football coaches who are right for Wake Forest. Akron has successfully found two consecutive successful coaches in a row who were the right guys for Akron at the right time. At some point, we have to admit that the culture around Akron basketball is a good one. Culture matters and leads to good decisions. In recent years, Akron has through the TP and NIL brought in high quality players and people. Akron isn't desperate and doesn't need to abandon this cultural foundation. The question isn't about who is out there to hire. The question revolves around who is out there and who is a good fit for Akron. There are many good coaches. We need to find the best one for Akron.

I don't think a young Gerry Faust is the answer.

Maybe it's not just about the job.

Akron is being left on solid footing. You may need to plan better.

They could have asked to be given the last look, JG shows them the offer and they told they couldn't do it. Decision made.

I'm hoping there were enough conversations behind the scenes so that the AD was not caught off guard and already has formulated some thought about where he will go next.

Is Jim Grobe available?

Excellent points. Americans seem to have lost the appreciation of watching people compete for the sake of competition. The word "competition" throughout history has had nothing to do with winning or losing. When one competes at any level, that means to bring out the best in yourself AND the person who is your opponent. The worst thing to do is to win a game against someone who isn't trying hard. The best thing to do is to win against someone who has given it their all for the entire game and you also had to give it your all to win. It's hard to imagine how great UConn players must have felt after beating a Duke team that played at an extremely high level. Like the attendance issue, there are many variables as to why this is. In some ways, I am guilty of this. I don't like going to high school sporting events. I don't even like going to college football and basketball games below the G5 level. In fact, I won't go. I have not always been like this. Over time, I think my tastes have been "refined" for lack of a better term. What may have solidified this for me was having Wake Forest football tickets for 18 years. It is high level college football in person very close to the field because their stadium is so small. Guys on both teams will play in the NFL and the fan experience is still good, but not as good as it used to be (see all of my comments on games lasting entirely too long).

The purposeful devaluation of college basketballs regular season by those who run it. Make everything about March Madness and nobody pays attention until March Madness. There are many other problems, but I think that's a big one.

I love discussions about attendance. It lets me watch fan misjudge all of the variables that go into attendance. Moreover, it allows fans to believe the fiction (lies) athletic departments publish about their attendance. Compounding all of that, it allows fans to apply those misjudgements and lies into motivations for a coach's decision making.

And the food.

Someone once told me that a manager must be able to manage two things: safety and turnover. If this all goes down, we'll find out how good the ad really is.

It's partly about attendance. It's mostly about other things. Some say MACtion is a great brand. It's a catch phrase. The MAC is a conference and a brand. A brand is how others see you and you have to do things to make yourself more attractive. Playing on weeknights in empty stadiums is horrible for the MAC; therefore, it is horrible for the brand. I'm sorry if there are some athletic directors out there who may shy away from MAC schools because they gave up weeknight games. Maybe they can find other universities to run into the ground. Either way, they need to go away.

He wouldn't find himself in a better position to win an NCAA game. Charleston is one of the few places he should leave for. At his age and close to being or is an empty nester, living somewhere like Mt. Pleasant could be awesome. I'm in Charleston at least once a month. With the kind of money he probably has, the lifestyle could be great.

Couldn't it just be the case that he is positioning himself and his staff for a nice pay increase at UofA?

Or not....

Sort of. There is a Woke left and a Woke Right. Both run deep within American politics which is why we are living in dangerous times. Both utilize Maoist tactics but attach American characteristics to their arguments. Both are focused on group politics and fitting each of us into one of two groups. We are a country founded on the rights of individuals. The entire Bill of Rights is geared to the individual being protected from the state. This horse's ass running for the Republicans is trying to fit Ohioans into his world view. We don't need one university in NE Ohio, we need many with competing ideas which will strengthen each other. I can't believe this is the party of Ronald Reagan that I grew up with. It's a crying ass shame.

I took the time to read it. He basically lumps in Akron with Kent and Central State. Then he talks about getting programs to make schools central to one field of study. Think we aren't at or near the top of his list? This guy will gut Akron down to a shell of itself and what will follow will be the elimination of sports at Akron and Kent. If you care about UofA, you will vote for his opponent and let things play out for four years.

Depends on who you are selling it to. If you are selling it to dimwitted without an ounce of creativity athletic directors who will destroy the institutions they work for in order to get a higher paying job, it's an easy sell.

Fantastic article.