GP1

I can only State some facts. These are facts I pulled off of the top of my head. Coming last football season, they had the second most win in the ACC over something like a 6-8 year period. Only Clemson was better. They Were in the ACC championship two years prior. They have had several Top 20 rankings in the past 20 years and even some top ten. Their baseball team was in the college world series last year. In the past 20 years they have won six national championships in six different spots. The women's golf team won the national championship last year. They compete at the highest level in soccer, mens golf, women's golf mens tennis and women's tennis. Will Zalatoris is a known professional golfer. They contribute nothing? Their school and athletic department are not taxpayer supported. I think you may have them mixed up with Pitt, Boston College, Syracuse, Georgia Tech or NC State. Unless, you just don't know what you are talking about.

I don't know. Maybe they measure it differently. Maybe having SDSU helps. Maybe being in larger cities helps. A couple are the state school in their state.

The belief that another conference would solve all of our problems is delusional. I think there is a saying about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The lack of coordinated efforts on the part of G5 schools is a bigger problem. The idea that attendance is low due to a lack of awareness because the ABJ doesn't cover enough, or whatever, is nonsensical. Because of social media, people have more information about the state of Akron athletics than they ever have. Attendance in college athletics is down across the board at all levels of college athletics. The Zips are just down from already bad levels. It has more to do with societal changes and increased entertainment options than the product. The product is excellent. People just have many, many, many more options for their free time.

Good post. Many times kids want to go but to isn't practical. For example, is it practical or reasonable to take a elementary or middle school child to a basketball game starting at 9 PM on Friday night? If course not. For many kids that age is isn't reasonable to expect them to stay awake past halftime while watching a game that late on Friday night.

Years ago, I would argue about the price of tickets assuming it was a supply and demand issue. I was wrong. Akron doesn't have a ticket price problem. People aren't going to the games because of $7.00, $10.00 or $15.00 GA tickets. They need to sell hundreds of tickets, probably thousands. Thousands people aren't staying home because of the price of tickets. Bigger problems revolve around but are not limited to weather, start times and past game day experiences.

To be upset with the price of tickets, one would have to know the original price of the tickets. I don't think people are paying that close attention.

Class and character are different things.

Your point about recruiting is a good one. Position coaches are teachers, strategists and salesmen. JD is really good at the relationship and selling part. Maybe they need a boost in that area. I don't know because I don't care enough about recruiting to follow it closely.

Hiring JD is a bit confusing to me. A lot has changed since he last coached.

It's a NE Ohio thing. I moved from NEOhio almost 16 years ago. I always look back fondly. It's a great place with lots to do. Pro sports year around, great restaurants, great schools and suburbs, museums, Cleveland orchestra, the waterfront, national parks, universities....the list goes on and on. I travel all over the country for work. There is really nothing going on in NYC or Los Angeles that cannot be done in NE Ohio. I don't know how you make people appreciate what they have. Places aren't boring, people are.

The very basics of producing a game should involve concessions being open until the end and an open team shop for people who want to wait until after the game to on buy something.

So all of the lower bowl tickets aren't sold before the season starts?

I love your Thought 1. In fact I think the ignorance is deeper than you describe because even high school athletics attendance is down. Since fans don't have an in person baseline to draw from, they cannot draw a comparison in their minds when they see it in person. I'm always shocked at how hard D1 BB players are playing defense. It's something high school players could never come close to competing against. MAC football is also very good. There isn't much difference between a bottom 25% P5 football program and Toledo or Miami this year. Wake Forest isn't much better than the OU team I saw Akron play after Thanksgiving last season. We have the transfer portal to thank for that. Humans are the only animal capable of convincing itself of things that simply aren't true. If everyone remembers when the Browns were struggling a few years ago, there were a lot of people who I'm sure never attended an NFL game in their life, would say Alabama or OSU could beat the Browns. I work with a guy whose brother is a well known defensive coordinator for a team that will be playing this weekend. When people were saying this he asked his brother what he thought. His brother laughed out loud and told him Cleveland would beat either Alabama or OSU 77-0 and the college team would have trouble getting a first down. It would almost be cruel.

So, if someone has two lower bowl tickets and bank them, do they get their tickets and X more for a future game?

It's more than the price of the event. Start time is important but since we let TV networks, who don't care about attendance as they are better off if everyone stayed home and watched the game on TV, decide our start times, we will struggle with attendance. Why can't the MAC get with a western conference like the MWC, go to CBS and see if they would do a MAC/MWC triple header? Play MAC games at 6 and 8 PM and then the MWC at 10? There is a big difference for fans between an 8 and 9 PM start.

Of course, the inability to draw a big crowd has everything to do with the cost of sodas and not the 9PM start. I can't imagine how uninterested I would be in going after working my butt off all week, coming home exhausted, having to haul my butt off to dinner, going to a late starting game and then not getting home until almost midnight. I'd probably give my tickets away to someone who actually would use them.

Reason ten thousand I'm glad we are not KSU or YSU. I'd imagine with all of this cheap parking, they are drawing overflow crowds.

If Friday night's game was on pay per view, I would have paid $25 to watch it.

Probably bidets in the bathroom.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the cost of a basketball ticket to Hudson High School. It costs $8.00 for an adult to attend a high school basketball game. The quality of play at the mid major level shouldn't even be compared to a HS, but some think tickets should cost less. It's utter insanity.

Ok, I looked it up. Yes for exhibitions and non conference in seats that would make it difficult to see which sport is being played. Everything else is more expensive. BTW, OSU is a terrible place to watch a basketball game. https://www.wdtn.com/news/ohio-state-to-set-mens-basketball-ticket-prices-for-2023-24-season/

I don't know and I don't care. The first time I went to a Wake Forest football game with the luckiest woman in the world, Mrs. GP1, we bought two tickets and parked at the basketball area across the street from the stadium where single game ticket holders park. There was a huge line to get into the lot. When we got to the front, we realized they were charging $8.50 to park and it was taking the morons taking the money forever to make change because of the coins and singles. It was stupid beyond belief. My wife was livid at the stupidity and said she would gladly pay an extra $1.50 up to $10 to avoid the line. She didn't say they should round down to $5.00. Akron has a very good mid major basketball program, in a competitive conference with entertaining games. The prices they are changing are not unreasonable in the least. If you want cheap tickets and free parking, maybe high school games are more your speed.

I agree. Can the university execute on both?

Anyone who doesn't want to pay $10 to go to one game really doesn't want to go in the first place. The next time someone tells you that, you should come up with a polite way to tell them they are full of poop.

I can't believe there isn't a discussion about how to help lower bowl season ticket holders get their unused tickets to people who can attend the games.