GP1

Major League Baseball had a large increase in attandance over 2010 last season. If I'm not mistaken, it was their best season ever. Would you describe the condition of MLB as good or even ascending? Of course not, our national pastime is quickly becoming swallowed up by other forms of entertainment and is in steady decline and has been for a number of years now. TV viewership is terrible and 80% of the teams have no shot at ever even making the playoffs. People in cities like Pittsburgh and KC should never pay a dime to go watch their teams play. Don't count attendance as the only evidence that a sport is in decline or not. CBB is having problems and lots of people are starting to notice it. There are lots of ways to increase ticket sales through low prices, etc. Do we really want to build a 10,000 seat arena and then have $1.00 tickets just to fill the wasted space?

If it is growing, why isn't it #1? Arenas have only gotten bigger so the seating capacity has gotten bigger and fans aren't taking advantage of the increased size of arena. Building bigger arenas in the hope of fan interest and turnout is not the answer. An entertaining product with filled, smaller stadiums is the answer. The reason so many new baseball stadiums were built as small as they are was to drive weekday ticket sales. The teams could easily sell Friday, Saturday and Sunday tickets. They made them smaller to drive sellouts on the weekend so fans who were interested, but without tickets, had to go to Monday-Thursday games. A 10,000 seat arena for Akron isn't the answer.

Thanks for posting ZW. It is a topic I'm interested in and saddened by. College basketball is great entertainment and it's sad to see it in decline. If the NCAA ever goes to a college football playoff, everything will become about the playoffs and not about the games themselves. It will be interesting for a few years, then the stupidity that has crept into college basketball will take hold and the decline will begin. ESPN will be right there to aid in the decline. College of Charleston plays in TD Arena. They were on TV here last weekend the the talking head said it was their 5th sell out of the season. 5,100 seats is too small, but the configuration is great. A larger upper deck making the arena 7,000 seats would be perfect for the Zips. Now...if we would just move the Zips to Charleston, I could go to a lot more games.

This story only points to an increase. Doesn't say where the increase is coming from or gives any history of attendance beyond one year. The increase pointed to is an increase over the previous year, which was probably in decline because of the recession. While it may have increased, it may not be at the point where it was three years ago. Not just college basketball, but lots of industries are experiencing the same phenomena.

Start a thread anyhow. Sift through the nonsense and there are some good ideas on this board. There is an old saying that, "People buy from people." Really? Why are internet sales going up so much. Human interaction is overrated. A thread would be awesome and unique. I don't know if this is George or not, but my opinion is a reporter should search within for good ideas and write good, thought provoking articles. The articles that make me think, "I've never thought of that" are the best to read. Don't write about what people tell you they want to hear. Write about your unique thoughts. Everyone knows what Terry Pluto is going to write about...don't be Terry Pluto.

I totally agree. It is all being driven by football right now. My concern is this about college basketball in general and then I'll relate it to the Zips. I believe college basketball is in decline. A few ESPN folks have talked about it recently. Too many low scoring games. Not to pick on tosu, but they were ranked #3 Saturday and only scored 48 on their home court...terrible. There was a game not long ago when neither team scored 50. Dick Vitale called it terrible for college basketball and he is right. It makes college basketball Dollarr General. Players don't know how to play basketball anymore and fans still remember what a good basketball player should play like, which is why Jeremy Lin is so interesting...he actually know how to play basketball. What does the ncaa do to promote more scoring...move the 3 point line back so it is even harder to make one. The people who run the ncaa couldn't run a Boy Scout troop. To a large extent, the ncaa is at fault for the decline in college basketball. The sooner that organization goes away, the better. They are killing the goose that pooped out the golden egg. Everything has become about the ncaa tournament and "crowning a champion". It's so bad that making the Tournament isn't even good enough for some schools. A team either has to make the Sweet 16 or the coach gets fired....complete nonsense. How does not making or not even having a team to go deep in the Tournament hurt schools? If the game is about the Tournament, then why should fans go watch a regular season game? If the game is about going deep in the Tournament and a team is obviously not capable of doing that, then why go watch them play? Anyone notice how empty may big time college basketball arenas are now when you watch a game? It's not about the game anymore, it's about the Tournament because the ncaa needs that goose to poop out that egg every year so they can have another successful year of mismanagement. So, moving for ward with the Zips basketball program. We have a team on the ascent when the general college basketball market is in decline. Are we in a position where it doesn't matter if we continue to improve if fans are losing interest in college basketball? I look at attendance and it makes me think that. I still can't figure out why 5,500 fans a game aren't going to watch this team. I hope this isn't the case because too many people have put too much effort to get this team to where it is today and it would be a crying shame if that happened. This is why I think the Zips should really take their time and spend some of that time trying to figure out where the market for college basketball is going to be in 10 years. The last thing we need is a great team playing in a 10,000 seat arena with the same 4,000 fans going to the games.

Want to really hurt the player. Fine the crap out of them when they take cheap shots. Also, don't allow running backs to run with their heads down. That should be a fine as well.

We've done just fine without them.

I don't care if they start building an arena 10 months from now or 10 years from now. Just don't do it with the City of Akron. A delay would be better than a union with them.

Don't you think that is a little young for kids to be having sex?

Like I've been saying on this board for years now. Regardless of what our wives and girlfriends tell us, size matters.

How come old photos of the NFL show guys aged well beyond their years and their faces are crooked? The rugby analogy is good because I think it is a great sport; however, rugby players pitch the ball a lot and head on hits are rare. They don't pass the ball downfield so there isn't anyone to get hit going over the middle.

Maybe we are letting kids play football at too young of an age and they can't grasp the fundamentals of the game to the point where they can play it in a safe manner. There are a lot of bad jr high coaches who can't teach the proper way to play the game as well.

He had a point alright... A stupid point.

Concussions happen when the brain bashes against the skull. We are not made for sudden stops. They can design all the energy absorbing equipment, nothing can stop the brain from bashing against the skull when a hit is made. It all goes back to hgh. Force = Mass x Acceleration. The players today are too big from taking hgh and the human body cannot take the force. Look at James Harrison. When he came back from injury, his face was so red, he could have guided Santa at Christmas. The red was from all the hgh he takes. He is only one example of many in the NFL. My brother overheard the Falcons strenght and conditioning coach yelling at some linemen one day, "I don't know what you are taking, but you had better get off of it before your head explodes." Everyone knows it is going on and nobody wants to do anything about it. Back to force.... Specifically, the head can't take the force. Some may laugh when I say this, but the NFL needs to go through a five year period where they bring down the maximum weight of the players through weight limits like they do in little league. Make the NFL a sport again instead of a freakshow. I hate to say this because it may come true, but I don't think it is unreasonable to believe that an NFL player, or even a high level college football player, could get killed on the field of play in the next five years. If not killed, one of the linemen die from a heart attack during a game. If that happens, parents will really think twice about letting their kids play.

Actually, there is a funny story behind this that started the saying. To this day, when I call the MAC Dollar General, it drives some on this board insane. My wife, Mrs. GP1, the luckiest woman in the world, went to Miamioh (got here MBA from UofA). I forget how many years ago it was, but Akron played Miami on a Tuesday or Wednesday night ESPNWhatever game. Miamioh had an alumni party to watch the game in uptown Charlotte so we went. At that time, the MAC was really at a low point. Miamioh beat us that night 3-0. Almost a completely unwatchable game. On the way home, my wife says, "Being commissioner of the MAC must be like being VP of Sales and Marketing for Dollar General. You can trick someone to come in to shop once, but once they see the crap you are selling, it is hard to get them to come back." Mrs. GP1 described exactly why, for a long time now, MAC stadiums sit empty. You are new to the MAC...Would it surprise you to know the MAC has been around since the late 1940s? In over 60 years now, they have not been able to do anything with the league, but like a cockroach, it still lives.

I would have to say no to your question, because not enough people pay enough attention to the MAC to bash it. On the second point, the MAC is straight Dollar General

Article I know this isn't about the Zips, but it is about football and I worry about what the future may hold for some of our fellow Zips in terms of long term health problems.

Go Zips!

Respectfully, this wasn't a major problem compared to the history of losing and an inability of ANY athletic director to put a winning product on the field for a sustained period of time. Wistercil couldn't possibly have been ignorant of our football history...the records are easy enough for even a dimwitted guy like him to read. He was ignorant of how to manage the exit of an existing coach (Reno issue ties into this) and hire a winning coach that would put a winning product on the field. If this team won and where people parked became our biggest problem, I'd be all for it. In the mean time, parking is way, way, way down on the list of past problems. Our problems stem from not winning, not winning and not winning. If we win, everything else takes care of itself.

Actually, there is a magic bullet and it has "winning" written on it. Our major problem in the past has been that when we locked that bullet in the firing chamber, we often shot ourselves with the bullet before the gun even got out of the holster. Over the years, we have had countless discussions about our problems winning in football and what caused the problems. The truth is, we have been our own worst enemy. There was always a "building process" and never a "winning process". I have a good feeling that is going to change in the relatively new future.

:lol: Still a little sweaty from my morning work out right now. I got a kick out of this response. Sometimes I read the news and hear of something happening outside of a bar at 1:00AM and I think to myself, "1 AM? I'm getting up to take a leak at that time."

Good point. I guess how I look at a flagship institution is how the people of that state would look at it. That's why Michigan is a little different. I really don't know what the answer would be, but I think a school called Purdue in Indiana wouldn't be looked at as the flagship school. There are tons of Germans in Indiana. I can't see them going for more than one flagship school. That's just my guess.

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Good question. I'm going to assume, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but you are from the south.?.? Now that I live in SC, I understand this point much more than I would have had I never lived in the south. Is Clemson or SC the flagship school of SC?...Depends on who you ask. Same goes for NC and NCST. Same goes for Florida. Miss or Miss St.? Other states like Tennessee, Kentucky or Georgia are more like the midwest. Out west, OR and ORSt. Wash and Wash St. AZ and AZ St. God only knows what the flagship school in California is. In the midwest, I can't think of a state, with the exception of MAYBE Michigan that doesn't have one school that is the flagship. For better or worse, that school is looked upon by what seems like the majority as the center of the world when it comes to following a college program. It creates a different world view that those schools outside of the midwest. Maybe it's all of the German immigration to the midwest years ago that created this orderly fan dynamic (lots of Germans in Kentucky and Tennessee as well)...who knows. In any event, we are just a little different about those things. We value order and hard work. Anything that distracts from an orderly day of work, such as thinking about a flagship school other than the one most everyone follows, becomes very uncomfortable. I'm totally comfortable with tosu being the flagship school of Ohio. Our problem has never been tosu...it has always been the gun we keep shooting ourselves in the foot with when we try to pull it out of our holster.