Wally B Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 Is it possible that a wednesday game may be just the thing to BOOST attendance? Think about the following: 1) Day before thanksgiving. I'll be home for the holidays, and will attend the game. 2) What do public schools do on the last day before a holiday? Nothing. Hey lets take them to the Zips big game -vs- Can't. Infact, lets invite all the scholls from Summit, Portage, and Stark counties. Lets do this every year and build fan support. Players will consider coming to Akron to play in the big game, in front of their families. 3) That weekend..... put the players and bands in the christmas parade! Winning team gets a ceremonial trophy to hoist during the route! 4) If you build it (community support), they will come. the MAC better ingredients better football Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipsrifle Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 I think this is driven mostly by ESPN. We really don't know what is going to happen. I hope the game has a good crowd, but there is a valid point that 1:00 on the Wed. before Thanksgiving will deter a lot of people. People will be at work and a lot of students will skip the game to head home. Attendence could increase if the recently hot rivalry makes people leave work early (or take the day off) or stay on campus to come to the game. There will also be more people coming into town that may want to see the game due to the holiday too. In the end, nobody really knows what is going to happen. I give UAM a big for doing something to get some more national exposure. I'm sure there will be a huge ticket push and promotional campaign to make sure we don't have an empty stadium on Wed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RACER Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 heres my take, and i hope im dead wrong.i think it's a big mistake. game day temp 30 degrees, Can't with 1 mac win, we are out of the mac race. joe average fan "hey i have a great idea. lets go to the Can't/ au game. "oh that's right it's on tv. no sense in going to freeze your --- off for two teams ot of the mac race." all youll here then is how akron can't draw fans, and our attendace stinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kangaroo Craig Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 I hope your wrong Racer, but unfortunately If you put a gun to my head I would probably predict it the same way. In order to draw a nice crowd, both or at least one team would have to be playing for something by then. Last year JD, along with Superman worked their magic and kept us competitive throughout the year. I trust that JD will have them working harder than ever this upcoming season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryno aka Menace Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 Well I live in Columbus Ohio and would have to call off work to attend the game....and you know what I am gonna be there too!!! Even if they have no wins. I hope Racer is wrong, we really need a good showing to have "ANOTHER" good recruiting class to back up this years. I am trying to stay optimistic, arguably you could have said the same thing about last years team playing Marshall on ESPN. Team started out 0-3 then. But it ended up being a good thing. I have confidence in JD I think he will pull some wins outta his butt and keep AU in the mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally B Posted April 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 heres my take, and i hope im dead wrong.i think it's a big mistake. game day temp 30 degrees, Can't with 1 mac win, we are out of the mac race. joe average fan "hey i have a great idea. lets go to the Can't/ au game. "oh that's right it's on tv. no sense in going to freeze your --- off for two teams ot of the mac race." all youll here then is how akron can't draw fans, and our attendace stinks. Then again, If you tell a kid to get on the damn bus, they can't sit in a warm classroom watching the game on TV. I know, in my day I tried to get out of my fair share of kiddie concerts! Choice: Math word problems or Football game and hot dogs? I'm not a child psychologist but I think I know the answer. I'm living in the carolinas now and both minor league baseball and the ACC practice this regularly. Honestly, how can you sell out an opening round game of the ACC WOMENs basketball tournament if its between two unranked non-local teams (let's say Miami -v- maryland) . Simple, sell the tickets to local schols, pack the house and call it a day! When the Zips first made the move to D1a the city of Akron supported the team by buying enough tickets to make the yearly quota. Rule changes have twarted that by requiring actual in the seats. What I'm suggesting is that this is the perfect opportunity for the city to continue buying those tickets and give them to the schools. Something that couldn't be done on a saturday! The Zips stay D1a, attendance looks great, ESPN will want to come back.... which promotes the City (a return for their money). I could see this becoming an annual event for the region, which builds fan/family support. If that happens, we wouldn't have to rely soley on being competitive. Look at what tradition and fan support has done for the crappy Browns. (Frickin Model). Our pessimism keeps killing us. but remember "Complaint w/out resolution is just whining!" JD has and will continue to do great things for the Zips! But our success isn't his responsibility alone. The real question is how are we going to help ! A new stadium will do a lot, but it isn't the panacea it would apear to be. I've heard all of the excuses not to go to the games before. Regardless of the Rubbers condition they are just excuses. I would remind everyone to take note of the packed Munincipal Stadium in Cleveland. Good teams or not, they still drew a decent crowd. Now that stadium was a piece of $h!t. I leave this to the capable hands of the uA marketing department! the MAC better ingredients better football Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipsrifle Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 Wally, Good idea, only one problem. Those kids are going to be exposed to the foul mouths of a few guys sitting in the endzone . Well, I guess they've got to learn those words some time. On second thought....maybe we'll just move to the visitors side to piss off the Can't fans . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RACER Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 the differnce is we were playing marshall team that was in the hunt for a conference title,and we were also playing some very decent football at the time. that's why people showed. Can't never has been in anything at that time of year except out of it. they will bring no fans. which leaves everything up to akron. if you have it the 1st game of the year your gonna get 25-30 k. it's like going to vegas and betting $100.00 dollars to win $103.00. there is just no risk /reward that i see to this deal.it's all risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 Making a schedule for the 2005 season was a nightmare. Conflicts galore with just about every MAC opponent. Akron is very aware of the fact that the late-season matchup with Can't will struggle get 5-10k, while a season-opener would easily draw 25k. Having no inside information, I will offer the following conspiracy theory: The MAC office begged the Zips to schedule the flushes at season's end to make scheduling easier for other MAC schools. As compensation for the loss in attendance, they gave us the ESPN2 slot and a bit of national exposure. When you're a MAC school you sometimes gotta do stuff like this. I've been to some of the late-season Akron/Can't games. The weather can be B-R-U-T-A-L (remember Dwight Smith's finale?) with crowds in the low hundreds. We need to pray for some freakishly nice weather and hope for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Zip Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 I think this is driven mostly by ESPN. The method to that madness might be vague, tricky and hard to understand, but it is working and has shown through athletic directors in mid-major conferences making extreme efforts. Conference USA has attempted an extreme effort that has been paying off over the past year. During the 2004 football season, the conference has played games on Tuesday night, as opposed to the normal college football days of Thursday and Saturday, to get aired by ESPN. The National TV exposure has brought more attention to mid-major conferences and has been a recruiting tool used by schools from smaller conferences. The Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences also have contracts with ESPN for Friday nights and late games on Saturdays. “Building around a winning foundation can be hard for some schools, but efforts have to be made for success,†Max Corbet, Boise State assistant athletic director, said. “Finding ways to get your program on TV, whether it would be at 8 a.m. or 11:30 p.m., is a big way to attract recruits that might not be blue-chip recruits, but ones that are not far from that line.†http://www.ocolly.com/new_ocollycom/show_s....php?a_id=26655 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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