Game 2 Attendance

[skip-zip]

I'm venting now because I was way too upset to do it last night. And it's not about the game. My biggest dissappointment came before the game even started.18,000 people? All those empty seats? When we had an opportunity to play a Big 10 team at home?After nearly 30 years of following this program, I may have never been more upset about a crowd size. I've followed the discussions on here for months about the first season being packed. And I truly wanted that to happen. And I jumped on the bandwagon of hope of "an entire season of sellouts to open the new stadium".....even when my history with the program doubted it. We can't blame it on the condition of the stadium anymore.We can't blame it on not having an on-campus facility.We certainly can't blame it on "the team isn't winning" after we just came off of a 41-0 victory...which 30,000 area residents witnessed.We can't blame it on the lack of a quality opponent.A game like this should easily sell itself, if people around here really cared, and they still don't. The tailgate lots were noticably more empty than last week, and the Zipsfest was noticably more empty. I knew it was a bad sign.After all of these years, I'm just so upset that I can't blame it on anything else anymore....except....that sports fans in this area just still won't get behind the Zips. It's obvious now that many of them only came last week for the novelty of being at the new stadium. And it really upsets me today. And so many people around me that did show up yesterday were paying more attention to the Toledo/Suckeye scoring updates on their blackberries from the moment they walked into the stadium. We just have so much more work ahead of us as diehard fans....more than I ever thought, or wanted to believe....to get this community to get behind Akron athletics.

[GP1]

I'm venting now because I was way too upset to do it last night. And it's not about the game. My biggest dissappointment came before the game even started.18,000 people? All those empty seats? When we had an opportunity to play a Big 10 team at home?After nearly 30 years of following this program, I may have never been more upset about a crowd size. I've followed the discussions on here for months about the first season being packed. And I truly wanted that to happen. And I jumped on the bandwagon of hope of "an entire season of sellouts to open the new stadium".....even when my history with the program doubted it. We can't blame it on the condition of the stadium anymore.We can't blame it on not having an on-campus facility.We certainly can't blame it on "the team isn't winning" after we just came off of a 41-0 victory...which 30,000 area residents witnessed.We can't blame it on the lack of a quality opponent.A game like this should easily sell itself, if people around here really cared, and they still don't. The tailgate lots were noticably more empty than last week, and the Zipsfest was noticably more empty. I knew it was a bad sign.After all of these years, I'm just so upset that I can't blame it on anything else anymore....except....that sports fans in this area just still won't get behind the Zips. It's obvious now that many of them only came last week for the novelty of being at the new stadium. And it really upsets me today. And so many people around me that did show up yesterday were paying more attention to the Toledo/Suckeye scoring updates on their blackberries from the moment they walked into the stadium. We just have so much more work ahead of us as diehard fans....more than I ever thought, or wanted to believe....to get this community to get behind Akron athletics.

I'm not surprised. Summit and Stark county sports fans were treated to free tickets from UofA for years and they expect it. Those that don't expect it aren't the type of people that shop at Dollar General.Years ago, we playerd Va Tech at the RB and only 18,000 showed. We are what we are. I'm not so concerned about the crowd as I am the product on the field. Nobody is going to pay their hard earned money to watch a qb throw 4 ints and poor tackling.Actually, on TV the stadium looked like it had more than 18,000 if you counted all of the people sitting on the hill. If you put them into the stands, it might have been full. I wasn't there though.

[Zipmeister]

It must have been a combination of good and bad marketing. ESPN reports that 18,340 showed up to the Rubber Bowl to watch the game. If The University had given better directions to those folks that would have put over 36K at the Info.

[skip-zip]

I'm venting now because I was way too upset to do it last night. And it's not about the game. My biggest dissappointment came before the game even started.18,000 people? All those empty seats? When we had an opportunity to play a Big 10 team at home?After nearly 30 years of following this program, I may have never been more upset about a crowd size. I've followed the discussions on here for months about the first season being packed. And I truly wanted that to happen. And I jumped on the bandwagon of hope of "an entire season of sellouts to open the new stadium".....even when my history with the program doubted it. We can't blame it on the condition of the stadium anymore.We can't blame it on not having an on-campus facility.We certainly can't blame it on "the team isn't winning" after we just came off of a 41-0 victory...which 30,000 area residents witnessed.We can't blame it on the lack of a quality opponent.A game like this should easily sell itself, if people around here really cared, and they still don't. The tailgate lots were noticably more empty than last week, and the Zipsfest was noticably more empty. I knew it was a bad sign.After all of these years, I'm just so upset that I can't blame it on anything else anymore....except....that sports fans in this area just still won't get behind the Zips. It's obvious now that many of them only came last week for the novelty of being at the new stadium. And it really upsets me today. And so many people around me that did show up yesterday were paying more attention to the Toledo/Suckeye scoring updates on their blackberries from the moment they walked into the stadium. We just have so much more work ahead of us as diehard fans....more than I ever thought, or wanted to believe....to get this community to get behind Akron athletics.

I'm not surprised. Summit and Stark county sports fans were treated to free tickets from UofA for years and they expect it. Those that don't expect it aren't the type of people that shop at Dollar General.Years ago, we playerd Va Tech at the RB and only 18,000 showed. We are what we are. I'm not so concerned about the crowd as I am the product on the field. Nobody is going to pay their hard earned money to watch a qb throw 4 ints and poor tackling.Actually, on TV the stadium looked like it had more than 18,000 if you counted all of the people sitting on the hill. If you put them into the stands, it might have been full. I wasn't there though.

But that's exactly my point....they decided not to show up BEFORE we didn't tackle anyone, and threw 4 ints.

[tbozeglav]

My biggest beef with the attendance was why in the world they opened up the hill. Why would they do that? I would have much rather seen full student sections than half empty stands with a hill full of apathetic students. It pisses me off to no end when students don't get into the game. I thought the grass hill was only for overflow when the student sections fill up??????

[RowdyZip]

I completely agree on the crowd. It was disappointing in the fact that it was a considerably smaller crowd than last week. However, you can't make the "product on the field" statement (even though I'm aware it's been either mediocre or poor since I've been following the Zips) when the headlines were about the team shutting out the opening opponent 41-0. This city and region doesn't take the team seriously, but until they're given a reason, they never will. Even if it were the case, and the the Zips pulled out a Ball State circa 2008 season, I don't the community would take notice. It's like there's been decades upon decades of apathy in this community in all things related to "Akron U." Take a look at any of the Ohio.com stories...and we wonder why the Beacon had been so poor at covering the local team? People care about Ohio State around here. It disgusts me. Watch the Cleveland news..."the Buckeyes sure did drub Toledo..." Like they're Cleveland's hometown team? Cleveland has the same sick obsession with that state university from Columbus that the entire rest of the state does. Columbus is 150 miles from Cleveland, 110 from Toledo. Nope...not proximity for the reason. Ohio University drubbed Cal Poly...sure not a name team, but a solid victory. Did that make the headlines? Nope. Must not be the "Ohio" thing either. The bottom line is winning. This was probably one of the greatest missed opportunities in the history of the program. The team was manhandled on both sides of the ball by a team that will likely win less than 2 more games the entire rest of the season. What does that say about us? It was just poor timing and an incredible letdown by a guy that was going to be a 3 year starter. Would we have won with Jacq under center? Probably not, but he certainly couldn't have done worse than an unexperienced kid that got a backup's worth or reps in practice all week. That being said, my money is on Rodgers getting better throughout the season, the kid has a pretty high ceiling. And another thing I've been thinking about is whoever has distinguished games as being "premium" games should be smacked upside the head. What does that mean to the public? The other 4 games aren't worth watching? That's what it says to me. Leave a standard price for EVERY game and then down the road maybe you can raise prices across the board if you put a decent product on the field.

[wadscarman]

I am sure it is from the league, but WHY televise home games???????????? The league and all MAC schools want and need attendance but continually televise these games. This will continue to be a problem to build a fan base when it is so easy just to sit at home and watch a game. Away games, obviously no problem. Televising home games has got to stop it you want to put people in the stands.

[GP1]

I am sure it is from the league, but WHY televise home games???????????? The league and all MAC schools want and need attendance but continually televise these games. This will continue to be a problem to build a fan base when it is so easy just to sit at home and watch a game. Away games, obviously no problem. Televising home games has got to stop it you want to put people in the stands.

Excellent post. The problem the MAC has right now is it isn't a very good league and until it can improve itself, it looks bad on TV. The more people see it, the more they realize they may not want to spend their hard earned money on it. The MAC needs to stay off of TV for the time being.

[eguins]

YSU and Akron need to put their differences aside. Want to see a big crowd with a big visitor turnout? YSU is the answer.

[ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net]

The stands looked fuller than 18K to me, so it was quite disappointing to see the actual number. Regardless of the crowd size, I love seeing fans (students) on that south hill. That needs to continue, because it adds a "feel" to the game that I love. I think that it's sinking in this morning that UA football will be a longer-developing, tougher-to-sell program than any of us believed. I for one thought/believed that the Info would essentially "sell itself" and that at least the first year would sell out, for novelty/location reasons that would be independent of the quality of football played on the turf. I was wrong.We are battling decades of apathy, of Akron residents knowing all too well the UA/Rubberbowl product. It was glorified high school football to be truthful, in their minds (and mine), and some of that "stink" is going to stick with the product for many years. Also, I hate to say, as an Akron resident, that many/most NE Ohio football fans are front running d-bags, and consider themselves to be "major league" fans. The Browns, the Indians (kind of), LeBron & Co., and yes, OSWho, are all close enough that Akron d-bags seem to believe themselves somehow too good to follow anything not at those levels. Yes, it's a ridiculous way to look at the sports world, considering that Akron is fast becoming a smallish and glorified college town. But those sentiments, reinforced by decades of the old UA/Rubberbowl stench, are going to have to be overcome. It's going to be tougher than I thought, and yesterday's game was a demoralizing and devastating reinforcement to those who think of UA football as small time. Every Akronite who picks up the paper this morning, and remembers the craptastic show that UA put on in the Rubberbowl for all those years will sneer at UA this morning. "UA built that stadium for THAT? They'll never be real, big-time college football." I won't rant much more here, but the paragraph above is why I was so incredibly angry at JD and the coaching staff after the game yesterday. How many shots will be there be to showcase the program in the brand new Infocision stadium? How many home game dates will include such incredibly beautiful weather? How many games in such situations will be played against "name" opponents the week after another big home win? This will sound overwrought and overly emotional, but I really felt yesterday that this coaching staff and team had set the program back significantly by not at least playing entertaining football, by losing SO badly. I could feel the energy being drained from the Info by early in the 3rd quarter.Tom Wistrcill should be swallowing hard this morning as he searches for answers....

[wadscarman]

I am not against TV and know it has a benefit for the league and the schools. However, any home game needs to be "blacked out" or whatever. The MAC and the schools owe it to their business supporters to get people into their establishments on game day and into seats to see the business marketing efforts throughout the stadium.

[ZachTheZip]

I am not against TV and know it has a benefit for the league and the schools. However, any home game needs to be "blacked out" or whatever. The MAC and the schools owe it to their business supporters to get people into their establishments on game day and into seats to see the business marketing efforts throughout the stadium.

There's a good idea. Broadcast nationally but not locally. I don't know if ESPN can do that, though.

[mivid12]

I am not against TV and know it has a benefit for the league and the schools. However, any home game needs to be "blacked out" or whatever. The MAC and the schools owe it to their business supporters to get people into their establishments on game day and into seats to see the business marketing efforts throughout the stadium.

There's a good idea. Broadcast nationally but not locally. I don't know if ESPN can do that, though.

blah blah blah...you want fanny's in the seats? WIN...it really is that simple...& i'm not talking about Nobody state....beat teams like Indiana and prove that this team can compete...sadly, that will never happen under brookhart...he needs to go

[zipsbandman]

After the freak show those 18000 were treated to yesterday expect half that next home game. I read elton's newspaper column this morning and wow he let us have it. I can't say I disagree with anything he wrote. There is a losing mentality here in Akron because we do just that at every big opportunity....we lose. How many bowl opportunities have we missed in JD's tenure? People are not stupid. We shutout a 1-AA team that had no business ever being in the game. We play a legit division one opponent and they come in here and pound us to the ground. And I hate that CJ getting booted off the team gives JD a pass from everybody. He recruited that winner and he is another player out of a long line of his recruits that came with baggage. And on another note, those who do not think OSU stunts our growth as a program are kidding themselves. OSU plays in BCS bowls and we cannot even make it to the Chick fillet or whatever bowl. They win. We lose. I could not be more disappointed with Akron football. I was not entertained. It was predictable. I told my friend at the game at the half that we were going to lose the game because I've read this book so many times and know how they all end. We don't know how lucky we have it to have Caleb Porter and KD.

[skip-zip]

I am not against TV and know it has a benefit for the league and the schools. However, any home game needs to be "blacked out" or whatever. The MAC and the schools owe it to their business supporters to get people into their establishments on game day and into seats to see the business marketing efforts throughout the stadium.

There's a good idea. Broadcast nationally but not locally. I don't know if ESPN can do that, though.

blah blah blah...you want fanny's in the seats? WIN...it really is that simple...& i'm not talking about Nobody state....beat teams like Indiana and prove that this team can compete...sadly, that will never happen under brookhart...he needs to go

Mivid....I agree with some of what you are saying here. In both football and basketball, I've always said on here that we need to win something of SIGNIFICANCE for attendance to change dramatically. But....in our 2nd game in the new stadium we're more than 10,000 short of a full house? I really thought that the "I hate the Rubber Bowl, and I'll go when we have a new on-campus stadium" excuse would have lasted a lot longer than that.

[mivid12]

I am not against TV and know it has a benefit for the league and the schools. However, any home game needs to be "blacked out" or whatever. The MAC and the schools owe it to their business supporters to get people into their establishments on game day and into seats to see the business marketing efforts throughout the stadium.

There's a good idea. Broadcast nationally but not locally. I don't know if ESPN can do that, though.

blah blah blah...you want fanny's in the seats? WIN...it really is that simple...& i'm not talking about Nobody state....beat teams like Indiana and prove that this team can compete...sadly, that will never happen under brookhart...he needs to go

Mivid....I agree with some of what you are saying here. In both football and basketball, I've always said on here that we need to win something of SIGNIFICANCE for attendance to change dramatically. But....in our 2nd game in the new stadium we're more than 10,000 short of a full house? I really thought that the "I hate the Rubber Bowl, and I'll go when we have a new on-campus stadium" excuse would have lasted a lot longer than that.

Quite frankly I did as well...apparently the new stadium provided a short honeymoon....I just can't take anymore of brookhart...that 3-3-5 is an awful awful scheme....any team will run all day with 6 in the box

[wadscarman]

I will agree that winning is part of putting butts in seats. However and unfortunateley, we do not have enough Zips "fans" that bleed blue and gold like we do in the area that will continually fill the stadium. There are semi interested Akron area people(I can not use the word fans here) that will attend Zips athletic events if it is convenient. There are approx. 30,000 students and faculty with over 100,000 plus alumni in the area and even most of these are the semi interested people I am referring to. Winning will "help", but the athletic department and the MAC have got to quite making things "convenient" with TV and "forcing" those semi interested fans to come to events if they want to see it. Everything that has been said with this topic are pieces of the puzzle.

[bUAkronG]

My biggest beef with the attendance was why in the world they opened up the hill. Why would they do that? I would have much rather seen full student sections than half empty stands with a hill full of apathetic students. It pisses me off to no end when students don't get into the game. I thought the grass hill was only for overflow when the student sections fill up??????

There are more problems on that grassy hill than just not having students in the stands.First off, the slope is too steep. Yesterday a poor sorority girl was walking down in flip flops and slipped on the moisture that was on it. She fell and broke her leg.The atmosphere there is too relaxed. I watched the first half from GA with my parents and I was able to pound the stands with my feet on third downs and I felt comfortable making noise and getting rowdy. On the hill where I sat for the second half with my gf, the atmosphere is completely different. I couldn't make noise on third down with my feet. And if I yelled I would feel like an imbecile.In order for the grass to be useful they need to lower the slope so people can stand all the way down it and make noise.

[akronad]

Apathy is probably the best word to describe this mess, both on the field and in the stands. It is becoming more obivous that JD is not the answer as a head coach. It is also appearing as though all of those "prized" recruits have done virtually nothing for the program. Prime example is Bains. Didn't play 1 st year, because of transfer rule, didn;t play last because of substance abuse and isn;t playing much this year because of a bad back. Bains has been a poor investment. Fans and students are not going to want to see this type of product, even if it is a sparking new stadium. You can gift wrap a turd, but it is still a turd.I hope we can turn things around for the rest of the season, but I am not betting the house on it.

[GP1]

Fans and students are not going to want to see this type of product, even if it is a sparking new stadium. You can gift wrap a turd, but it is still a turd.

Good post. It's not even that they will not want to see it. They may go if tickets are free. They will not spend their hard earned money to watch a bad product...that's the real problem.

[wadscarman]

I thought they were only using the grass area if there was a sell out.

[InTheZone]

Bottom line, whether any of us want to admit it or not... The MAIN reason there were only 18,000 butts in the seats yesterday?? OUR GAME OVERLAPPED WITH OSU. I don't really care if you want to say this is a small time mentality, because at the moment, guess what, we are small time. From now on, when we're setting the time for games, we need to wait until OSU sets their's and then set ours FAR FAR away from that time. Why'd we sell out last week? Because OSU played at night. If we would've played at night this week, we would've seen 7,000 more people at the game and you can put your hard earned money on that fact. If you want to take some time and go through attendance figures over the past 20 years, regardless of how the team was doing, our best attended games have been at times when OSU wasn't playing. Our worst attendances have always been when we tried to overlap the big boys.Poor planning by the athletic department, and even poorer play on the field.

[GP1]

Bottom line, whether any of us want to admit it or not... The MAIN reason there were only 18,000 butts in the seats yesterday?? OUR GAME OVERLAPPED WITH OSU. I don't really care if you want to say this is a small time mentality, because at the moment, guess what, we are small time. From now on, when we're setting the time for games, we need to wait until OSU sets their's and then set ours FAR FAR away from that time. Why'd we sell out last week? Because OSU played at night. If we would've played at night this week, we would've seen 7,000 more people at the game and you can put your hard earned money on that fact. If you want to take some time and go through attendance figures over the past 20 years, regardless of how the team was doing, our best attended games have been at times when OSU wasn't playing. Our worst attendances have always been when we tried to overlap the big boys.Poor planning by the athletic department, and even poorer play on the field.

You're probably right. I wonder if ESPN forced their hand.

[tbozeglav]

Bottom line, whether any of us want to admit it or not... The MAIN reason there were only 18,000 butts in the seats yesterday?? OUR GAME OVERLAPPED WITH OSU. I don't really care if you want to say this is a small time mentality, because at the moment, guess what, we are small time. From now on, when we're setting the time for games, we need to wait until OSU sets their's and then set ours FAR FAR away from that time. Why'd we sell out last week? Because OSU played at night. If we would've played at night this week, we would've seen 7,000 more people at the game and you can put your hard earned money on that fact. If you want to take some time and go through attendance figures over the past 20 years, regardless of how the team was doing, our best attended games have been at times when OSU wasn't playing. Our worst attendances have always been when we tried to overlap the big boys.Poor planning by the athletic department, and even poorer play on the field.

You're probably right. I wonder if ESPN forced their hand.

Most definitely. UA probably wanted this matchup televised because it was a Big10 opponent, but ESPN could only give them this time slot, which also happened to overlap with OSU.

[tbozeglav]

First off, the slope is too steep. Yesterday a poor sorority girl was walking down in flip flops and slipped on the moisture that was on it. She fell and broke her leg....In order for the grass to be useful they need to lower the slope so people can stand all the way down it and make noise.

I am under the impression that the hill was sloped like that so that, if the need presented itself, the university could easily convert that section into a concreted, benched section. They wouldnt slop it like that and then leave it grass forever.