GP1

Doing nothing is a perfectly fine decision right now. They can't afford a new arena and any "upgrades" to the JAR will be a waste of money. KD isn't going anywhere. No school is looking for a 55+ year old coach who has as performed as poorly as he has with Akron in the NCAA Tournament and has such an unimpressive record against decent out of conference opponents. It just isn't in the world of reality.

I will be releasing a GP1 Guide to Charleston for those making the trip. It will include things to do, places to stay, place to eat and such. If you have not made your plans yet and are going, how soon do you need this done? BTW, why isn't Charleston playing in their own tournament?

It never is. That was an illusion created in a movie designed for Baby Boomers to feel bad about their childhood. We shouldn't be making decisions centered around millions of dollars being spent to build and maintain a potential white elephant based upon that idea. Anyone see Real Sports last week and the segment on golf courses? It made me think of this topic. They used the same phrase about the boom in golf courses when Tiger Woods got popular. Today, those same golf courses are closing at a rate of one every 48 HOURS. The entire golf industry is in free fall. At some point, everyone has to put down childish things. Spending government money on things so adults can go play is a childish way to think and masks the inability of government agencies to put forward any ideas to improve communities in a meaningful way that will have a long term impact on that community. Better schools, roads, bridges, sewer, etc. (the sort of stuff that separates us from our knuckle dragging ancestors) improve communities, not arenas. In ten years, Youngstown and their new arena will still be the armpit of Ohio. Further, universities spending money on play pens for adults is a childish way for them to attract students. Attract childish students, get childish results. I'd rather them spend money on research and top notch education than an arena.

Article

No thank you.

I love a 6' tall DB. Speed can be made slow......Size never gets smaller. I almost stood up at my desk and applauded when I saw he was 6' tall, but it would have scared the crap out of my dog. In general, this is a good recruit. Miami isn't the program it once was and the ACC isn't the old Big East Miami used to play in, but there are still talented players there. The coach at Miami has also been pretty good at keeping good discipline on and off the field so we may be getting a quality guy as well.

Isn't that the place where the Zips got worked over last year on national television? Also, isn't that the place where the little school that could and did win NCAA tournament games plays their home games? Do we really need a bigger arena to experience more success? Do we really need 3,000 more empty seats?Anyone want to talk about the Big East?

The cost of building a structure is only 20% of the cost of maintain the same structure over the life of the building. It's extremely expensive to build a building that may or may not make money. We were heading down a road where the County was going to be telling us how much money the building made with control over the P&L and we were going to have to pick up the cost for any shortfalls. Am I crazy, or does that sound like a disaster in the making? UofA would have had a good 80 years of getting screwed by the clowns in the City and County. I think we need to look at some other questions. Who was the leader(s) at UofA who thought this ballot initiative was a good idea? My bet is they will find a way to throw the majority of the blame at Proenza, but others had to be involved? Like many, I have still have some concerns about the new President's history. In this case, he might have earned a gold star by not fully backing this bad idea. The school is swimming in red ink and there is no need to jump into something like this until that is under control. And by control, I don't mean on paper in forecasts....that's the sort of thing the Federal Government does. I mean under real control with real expenses and income considered. Sorry guys, but that could take years. We have a great basketball program playing in the JAR. Go watch it and enjoy.

No dispute from me. Choosing the mostly lifetime of abuse that is being a Zips football fan makes me regret I don't look back more frequently at those players worth remembering. My God, Smith was a wrecking machine. It also makes me wonder why we don't appreciate some really good players on the team right now, like Pohl, who are developing nicely and will one day hold some meaningful records at UofA. Maybe not All Americans like Smith, but really top notch MAC players.

Why can't both soccer and MAClike football play in the spring? There are plenty of networks with nothing to show worth watching. We really can't change soccer because it belongs to the world. We would need a UN approval.

Good article CK. New President+A sea of red ink+zero taxpayer support for arena=dead issue. Sanity prevails.

Beats and Coke have the money, but probably not the interest. Beats is becoming an international company and Coke is. No reason for either to invest in a regional arena. Needs to be regional company.

If you are looking for a company that might sponsor an arena in a city like Akron, you should look at the types of companies that have sponsored similar arenas in other parts of the country. Or, find one that has sponsored more than one arena. BB&T Bank and TD Bank (some of you will see this arena this fall) have both sponsored various arenas in the Carolinas and other places. It is going to take both private (personal) and corporate money to get this done in my opinion. A company can do a lot more for their shareholders than sponsor an arena. One has to be swimming in money to give away $60+ million.

Too late.

He's too busy saving the economy of Cleveland. He also has this other thing he does other than saving the economy of Cleveland and building stadiums for the Zips, and that's being a professional basketball player. Maybe the next time a reporter catches him on the sidelines of an OSU football or basketball game, they could ask him what he is going to do to support his old JCC and St. V. coach.

Goodyear has been doing well in recent years, but it looks like they have more important things going on other than donating money to build a stadium.

This always seemed a little poorly conceived and poorly launched to me. If a couple of community hacks can prevent this from going to ballot in the fall, there may not have been much to it. I'd be interested to see what the initial polling might have been on this initiative. If a lot of people were saying "no" to the tax for the outlined reasons, that isn't always a bad thing. Finding out why they don't want it is important. If I was running a poll to find out why, I would structure some questions around whether or not people really understood the issue fully. "Never" means never and most people aren't that closed minded. Ballot initiatives are very simple choices: yes or no. "No" means "not now" in many cases. This is why if you are in sales, it is just as important to find out why someone didn't buy as it is why they did buy. UofA is trying to get people to buy something in this case. Find out why they didn't buy and do a better job of selling next time. We shouldn't look past the poor showing of those who wanted this to succeed and pass some scorn their way. They have some blame here. They let a couple of loud clowns beat them down. Years from now, we might look back on this as one of the best things to ever happen to UofA. Regroup and take something better back to the community. Or, find another way all together. There's always one way to skin a cat.

You can say that again...

I'm not sure about that, but I'd be concerned about the field.

Agreed. Akron doesn't have enough of what they are looking for. Meaning, grass fields. Let's hope they don't spend any more than 15 minutes putting together a proposal.

Agreed. Akron doesn't have enough of what they are looking for. Meaning, grass fields. Let's hope they don't spend any more than 15 minutes putting together a proposal.

I'm so Akron, I actually care about what happens to the school.

The Zips 2013 NCAA Tournament appearance against VCU was similar to watching Cale Yarborough go over the wall in Darlington in 1965.

Google non-BCS schools and look at the maps. You might be pleasantly surprised how close they are to major cities. The Pacific NW would be the biggest challenge, but not everything can be perfect. This isn't really about attendance. If it was, MAClike schools would have gone under long ago. Taxpayers are more than willing to pay for their state universities to have football programs. It's really about meaningful television coverage and television rights ($). As much as I love football, a break would be a good thing. I don't watch football even when it is on every day in the fall. Give me one between the Super Bowl and the week after the NCAA Final Four. Give me another between Independence Day when my college national championship would be played and Week 1 of the NFL.

I think it is a matter of right sizing the new structure. Contrary to popular thought on this board, the arena doesn't need to be 10,000 seats. 8,000 is enough....8,500 tops. It drives me nuts when I hear about what a great arena OU as and when I see them on TV, half the arena is empty....It's a joke. Right now, the season ticket base (the real prize in ticket selling) is less than 4,000 based upon current attendance. If 8,000 is good enough for an ACC school like Miami, it's good enough for Akron. "But GP1, that's short sighted. We are in the middle of a building process that will give us that many season tickets." Probably not, but let's assume that in 50 years, UofA is selling 8,000 season basketball tickets. The simple answer is to raise ticket prices if they want more money. If season tickets are that much of a prized possession in 50 years, then everyone will be willing to pay more for tickets. BTW, Charlotte Motor Speedway has plans to tear down part of the stands they built not that long ago along the back straightaway. Outdoor stands are easy to remove. A new arena will be around for 80 years.