Stadium Ticket Sales

[ZachTheZip]

Perhaps my information is a bit dated. 5 years ago, Akron was considered a last resort even behind some D-1AA schools. I certainly hope that's not the case now. The biggest problem that more than likely still exists is the misconception that our campus is still what it was like 10 years ago, and our academics being sub-par.

[72 Roo]

The issue of local kids being told to go somewhere else is born out of misperception by the writer/speaker. Local coaches are not blind. They see our program is on the rise. They also know that is across the board including all sports, facilities, academics and campus. Most people who believe coaches won't recommend us also believe tons of D-1 athletes are coming out of Summit County. That just isn't happening.To build the program we all want JD must go out of Akron and out of state. The days of building a dominant D-1 football team from NE Ohio have long gone. There are not enough. No one expects Ohio State to recruit a majority of Ohio athletes. Why do people think we need to do it with a majority of NE Ohio athletes? It can't be done.

[xu9697]

I'm going in the opposite direction from many of you when it comes to my thoughts on attendance potential for this Fall....maybe. I wonder how many locals, who might have in other years spent $$ to travel in the region to see Cowlumbus State, or ND, or other "name" programs might be looking to watch a little D-1 college football and save a buck on tickets and travel during this looming recession/depression. Let's face it; if you live in the NE Ohio region, where are you going to see better and less expensive college football than at InfoCision? I agree with some posters here that it will be critical to the stadium's acceptance that UA not go cheap on the "fit and finish" details of the stadium. If it's well done, with comfortable seating and good concessions, I really do think it will draw better than many might expect in the current economic conditions, and draw some football fans who want to see some action while saving some coin. GO ZIPS!SeeTeeZip

I'm one of those fans...XU grad, OSU & BC fan as well (for various reasons). I have become an Akron fan over the years for many reasons (improvements on campus, LeBron Clev& Akron connection, wanting good things for the NE Ohio region, coach like Dambrot, etc.) since moving back to Cleveland area in 2001.Having a family of 4 now, I am SERIOUSLY considering season tix to Akron football. Good DI football 50 minutes away..on campus stadium, tailgaiting, etc. Take the kids a couple times, leave them home a couple times. I will still travel to a couple of other games as I love the game of college football, but Akron will be venue #1. But A LOT of this is contingent upon games being on SATURDAYS!!!! Every year I try to fit in 1-2 MAC games, and SO MANY times the stupid MAC weeknight schedule is a killer.Give me 5 home Saturday games and I am in!!!

[pdt1420]

I'm one of those fans...XU grad, OSU & BC fan as well (for various reasons). I have become an Akron fan over the years for many reasons (improvements on campus, LeBron Clev& Akron connection, wanting good things for the NE Ohio region, coach like Dambrot, etc.) since moving back to Cleveland area in 2001.Having a family of 4 now, I am SERIOUSLY considering season tix to Akron football. Good DI football 50 minutes away..on campus stadium, tailgaiting, etc. Take the kids a couple times, leave them home a couple times. I will still travel to a couple of other games as I love the game of college football, but Akron will be venue #1. But A LOT of this is contingent upon games being on SATURDAYS!!!! Every year I try to fit in 1-2 MAC games, and SO MANY times the stupid MAC weeknight schedule is a killer.Give me 5 home Saturday games and I am in!!!

I think this is VERY telling of the situation the MAC is in. We can't get on TV unless it's on a weeknight, but we can't see vastly improved attendance unless we play on saturdays. People want, NEED, the saturday tailgating college football experience. This is especially true when it comes to season tickets. Playing some weeknight games doesn't automatically mean poor attendance numbers, you can still have alot of walkup sales, especially if the team is doing well, or it's good weather, or it's a big opponent.But season ticket sales is where the money is for the athletic department. People don't by season tix based on who our opponents are. It's based first on when the games are. You simply can't ask people to know whether they'll be available on a Wednesday night 6 months from now. And in a sport like college football, where season tickets only means 5 games, even one game that a person can't attend is too many... they might as well buy walkups for four games and assume they'll be able to get decent seats than buy season tickets and miss one game.What's the solution? Get the games on Saturdays, national TV viewing be damned. I'd much rather build a fan base within a 50 mile radius. If you want out-of-area exposure, start negotiating HARD to get games on FSN or STO. Also, get a real online streaming video of all games. Hell, charge $50 for the season for it. As long as people know it'll always be up and always be a good video stream, they'll pay for it.On the budget bottom line, it may make more money to get one game on ESPNU than to get 5k more people per saturday games, but for the future, it leaves us in the same spot: decreased local fan base and begging ESPNU to put us on a Weds night game.Bite the bullet for 5 years, get a strong saturday fan base, and ESPNU will be asking us to put a saturday game on TV.

[ziptrumpet87]

I'm one of those fans...XU grad, OSU & BC fan as well (for various reasons). I have become an Akron fan over the years for many reasons (improvements on campus, LeBron Clev& Akron connection, wanting good things for the NE Ohio region, coach like Dambrot, etc.) since moving back to Cleveland area in 2001.Having a family of 4 now, I am SERIOUSLY considering season tix to Akron football. Good DI football 50 minutes away..on campus stadium, tailgaiting, etc. Take the kids a couple times, leave them home a couple times. I will still travel to a couple of other games as I love the game of college football, but Akron will be venue #1. But A LOT of this is contingent upon games being on SATURDAYS!!!! Every year I try to fit in 1-2 MAC games, and SO MANY times the stupid MAC weeknight schedule is a killer.Give me 5 home Saturday games and I am in!!!

I think this is VERY telling of the situation the MAC is in. We can't get on TV unless it's on a weeknight, but we can't see vastly improved attendance unless we play on saturdays. People want, NEED, the saturday tailgating college football experience. This is especially true when it comes to season tickets. Playing some weeknight games doesn't automatically mean poor attendance numbers, you can still have alot of walkup sales, especially if the team is doing well, or it's good weather, or it's a big opponent.But season ticket sales is where the money is for the athletic department. People don't by season tix based on who our opponents are. It's based first on when the games are. You simply can't ask people to know whether they'll be available on a Wednesday night 6 months from now. And in a sport like college football, where season tickets only means 5 games, even one game that a person can't attend is too many... they might as well buy walkups for four games and assume they'll be able to get decent seats than buy season tickets and miss one game.What's the solution? Get the games on Saturdays, national TV viewing be damned. I'd much rather build a fan base within a 50 mile radius. If you want out-of-area exposure, start negotiating HARD to get games on FSN or STO. Also, get a real online streaming video of all games. Hell, charge $50 for the season for it. As long as people know it'll always be up and always be a good video stream, they'll pay for it.On the budget bottom line, it may make more money to get one game on ESPNU than to get 5k more people per saturday games, but for the future, it leaves us in the same spot: decreased local fan base and begging ESPNU to put us on a Weds night game.Bite the bullet for 5 years, get a strong saturday fan base, and ESPNU will be asking us to put a saturday game on TV.

Catch 22... can't get better TV exposure if you don't have the fans in the stand (to show you have a following), and you can't get the fans if they can't get to the weeknight games.

[zipsbandman]

We need the fans that live within 25 miles of the university to support us before we can think going national. And who watches ESPNU anyway? Playing weekday football games is the worst concept ever. I have not attended one in years. I was shocked at how full the stadium was this past season when we played BG on Saturday for the homecoming game. It was a great atmosphere too. Set up a video stream online if you want zip fans out of town to follow games. There will be plenty of room for cameras in that nice big press box we'll have and maybe fox sports ohio will pick up a few here and there.

[xu9697]

I think the "happy medium", and I have said it many times before, is that every MAC team agrees to NO MORE THAN 1 home weeknight game, and NO MORE THAN 2 total weeknight games per team.I have always liked the Thursday night games..weekend is almost here, definitely was a big party night when I was in college 12 years ago (dang..been a while!), etc. But Tuesdays & Wednesdays suck for games...especially when they almost always occur in November!!!

[xu9697]

Well, I did it...I, my wife and my 2 children are now Akron Zips football season ticket holders. Jumped on the family plan, which is just a great deal!!! Go Zips!!!

[Hilltopper]

Well I guess there are now 3002 season ticket holders. I just forked over $1175 for 5 seats. My biggest concern is not knowing where my seat location is right now. There is no such thing as a seating chart yet. I was told we will have a day sometime this spring/summer to choose our seat location. I went through this once before with the Browns. After they came back in the new stadium, we had to pay PSL's for seats without even knowing where they would be. After we got our seat location, they were much worse than our seats at the old Muni stadium. I hope this works better this time with UA.

[xu9697]

Well I guess there are now 3002 season ticket holders. I just forked over $1175 for 5 seats. My biggest concern is not knowing where my seat location is right now. There is no such thing as a seating chart yet. I was told we will have a day sometime this spring/summer to choose our seat location. I went through this once before with the Browns. After they came back in the new stadium, we had to pay PSL's for seats without even knowing where they would be. After we got our seat location, they were much worse than our seats at the old Muni stadium. I hope this works better this time with UA.

My 4 and your 5= 3009!!!I think this will be a better experience. I can't wait to pick out my seats!!!

[gozips19]

was on gozips.com today and saw that they updated their site for season tickets. not only do they have nice pics and links for each sport but wait for it..............the link to buy tickets actually works! bout time but should help with future sales!

[Zipsrifle]

Well, I did it...I, my wife and my 2 children are now Akron Zips football season ticket holders. Jumped on the family plan, which is just a great deal!!! Go Zips!!!

Dude, you can join me in the family section. That is a hell of a good deal and if it was like last year, they don't differentiate between a "Child" ticket and an "Adult" ticket so when you leave the kids at home, you can bring a couple of your buddies. I've got it all figured out. The "Family" section is in the upper deck which is a stupid idea, I see my kids falling over the side and as you know, the kids are going to be chasing Zippy around the stadium. Anyway, we rig up some type of jungle gym about 15 rows up, all the guys sit in the front rows, drink beer and cuss at the refs. The Moms sit behind us and make sure the kids don't learn any phrases they aren't supposed to know.

[Roo]

I got my tickets as well. Got a pair with my father. It should be a good time...Im excited. The last Zips game I went to was the Can't game at the Rubber Bowl. Looking forward to making it a regular thing.Anybody have any info on the seat locations? How are they going to work that out?

[xu9697]

Well, I did it...I, my wife and my 2 children are now Akron Zips football season ticket holders. Jumped on the family plan, which is just a great deal!!! Go Zips!!!

Dude, you can join me in the family section. That is a hell of a good deal and if it was like last year, they don't differentiate between a "Child" ticket and an "Adult" ticket so when you leave the kids at home, you can bring a couple of your buddies. I've got it all figured out. The "Family" section is in the upper deck which is a stupid idea, I see my kids falling over the side and as you know, the kids are going to be chasing Zippy around the stadium. Anyway, we rig up some type of jungle gym about 15 rows up, all the guys sit in the front rows, drink beer and cuss at the refs. The Moms sit behind us and make sure the kids don't learn any phrases they aren't supposed to know.

Yeah..odd about "upper deck" for a family section. When I go to pick my seats, I will definitely be factoring that in! I like your thinking, no doubt. Being the rule follower that I am, I'll just hit the concourse a couple times to shotgun a beer!!!

[xu9697]

I got my tickets as well. Got a pair with my father. It should be a good time...Im excited. The last Zips game I went to was the Can't game at the Rubber Bowl. Looking forward to making it a regular thing.Anybody have any info on the seat locations? How are they going to work that out?

They are supposed to have a day or two sometime in May where fans can "pick-a-seat".

[Zipsrifle]

I got my tickets as well. Got a pair with my father. It should be a good time...Im excited. The last Zips game I went to was the Can't game at the Rubber Bowl. Looking forward to making it a regular thing.Anybody have any info on the seat locations? How are they going to work that out?

They are supposed to have a day or two sometime in May where fans can "pick-a-seat".

My understanding is that they will have "Priority" this year which is probably based on several things. I think one of them is how long you've been a season ticket holder, which apparently will work in my favor. When I called to get my tickets the guy sounded very suprised at how long I've had season tickets....I think this season makes it 7 years.

[Zipgrad01]

I bought 4 priority reserved tickets this year and for the 2009 season. From what they told me when I got my tickets people with priority seats would get to pick their seats ahead of others. First pick went to longest season ticket holders and then it went down in order. Who knows if they is still how they are doing it.

[Hilltopper]

I bought 4 priority reserved tickets this year and for the 2009 season. From what they told me when I got my tickets people with priority seats would get to pick their seats ahead of others. First pick went to longest season ticket holders and then it went down in order. Who knows if they is still how they are doing it.

There are several factors which will determine seat location. The number of years as a season ticket holder, and the amount of $ you donate to the Z-fund are the 2 most important. Based on those factors, you are given a ranking from 1-6 with 1 being the lowest. I am a 6 with 38 yrs as a football season ticket holder and a contributor to the Z-Fund from day one. I just wonder how many more of the 3000 or so past season ticket holders are also at my level. I hope I'm not camping out over night at the entrance to the Info to get a good seat location.

[Zipsrifle]

I hope they aren't too restrictive with where people sit if the place isn't full. Though I anticipate sitting West side, front upper deck near the North 30-40 yard line (Family Section), I wouldn't mind moving around. Specifically, I want to sit on the East Side upper deck near the South Endzone. I think there will be a KILLER view of the University, Downtown, and the presstower from that location and I would like to take that in at some point during one of the evening games. Would be kinda cool to look down and see Exchange street far below you.....at least until the dorms are completed.