GP1

I know a guy who ate his salad at a wedding reception in Key West who would also bend over backwards to help someone.

One other thing. I think younger people struggle with watching live sports events and television in general without assistance. For example, I like listening to music in bars. I'm also capable of understanding what's going on in the sporting event I'm watching without listening to the announcers. Younger people will throw a fit now if they can't hear the announcers during a game. Another thing I was reading about recently was young people watch television with the closed caption on even if they aren't hearing impaired. What kind of assistance would they need if at a game?

I really don't know. People don't go to games or even the movies anymore. My home TV is great for watching movies. It's a better view for most games than most seats. Watching a game at a bar, which I did Friday, is a pretty awesome viewing experience. Is a free T-shirt going to motivate me to go to a game? Probably not. I have more T-shirts than I need. I should probably go upstairs and throw a few away after this post. Beer? I can drink beer at a bar or home. Free parking? I probably blow more than $10 per day on things far more stupid than a parking spot. Free tickets? Maybe if they were decent and I didn't need chiropractic care after. I do like to attend events of high quality and gladly spend the money. This isn't a high quality opportunity.

That's interesting. VT tied for last is the most shocking part of the story.

What is the best thing to do when you find yourself in a hole?

He's hard to get to show up. Need to catch him on a good day.

Destruction

Ball hog.

Buffalo is playing well. This won't last long.

For the sake of many of us, they better hurry up before it's too late.

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.