tpsjugglerdude Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 I posted this in another thread but I would like to make it a thread of its own... I went to the Marketing Department last week and asked some questions. They have no say in what is in the team shop since Barnes & Nobles is in charge of it. They can suggest things but BN doesn't have to listen to the request. This seems wrong to me. It is OUR team shop so AKRON ATHLETICS should be in charge of it. How did we get in this deal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 Hmm. Idk, but to me it sounds like you may have simply been given the run-around. B&N would likely control the merch found in the bookstores, since they're run by B&N. But the team shops @ the JAR & the Info would probably be different. I only say this because last year in the Info the were selling InfoCision Stadium t-shirts as well as one shirt that read something like, "my two favorite teams are the Akron Zips and whoever is playing Can't State," or something to that effect. I just can't see a national corporation like B&N stocking items like those. They'd likely just have more generic UA merch. I have no way of knowing this, of course, but I would venture to say the lazy, incompetent bums in our athletics department simply didn't want to talk to you about it. So UA, when's the Info Team Shop opening? How lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpsjugglerdude Posted March 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 The workers in the JAR team shop, the new team shop, and the little trailer they have at soccer games are all employees of Barnes & Nobles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 Now I'm the one who was totally wrong! Lol. Yeah, that's really weird. Can we sue for breach of contract? Not having the Info Team Shop open by now is shameful. It's embarrassing really. Is our athletics department demanding enough excellence to be equally appalled and embarrassed? Or are they content with incompetence? Knowing the less-than-brilliant history of the department, I'm afraid I know what the answer is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 Now I'm the one who was totally wrong! Lol. Yeah, that's really weird. Can we sue for breach of contract? Not having the Info Team Shop open by now is shameful. It's embarrassing really. Is our athletics department demanding enough excellence to be equally appalled and embarrassed? Or are they content with incompetence? Knowing the less-than-brilliant history of the department, I'm afraid I know what the answer is. It can't look good. The team shop sticks out from the stadium. It's the thing closest to the street and the thing you see most prominently when driving by. Not having it open is losing money. I wonder how many more people would be willing to walk into the team shop when it's at an easily accessible location on a main road instead of buried in the center of campus away from prospective buyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 Now I'm the one who was totally wrong! Lol. Yeah, that's really weird. Can we sue for breach of contract? Not having the Info Team Shop open by now is shameful. It's embarrassing really. Is our athletics department demanding enough excellence to be equally appalled and embarrassed? Or are they content with incompetence? Knowing the less-than-brilliant history of the department, I'm afraid I know what the answer is. http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?s=...st&p=103952 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 Hilltopper, thanks for the above link! I had completely missed that conversation! That actually clears a lot up. Doesn't get anything accomplished, but clears it up for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozips1! Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Hilltopper, thanks for the above link! I had completely missed that conversation! That actually clears a lot up. Doesn't get anything accomplished, but clears it up for me. There are issues with emminent domain that is one of the main reasons for the delay in the development of the Team Shop. The current deal with B&N and Athletics is a short term deal. For B&N to consider spending $$$ for the buildout, a long term deal is necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 More small time-ness in the program. Gotta love a system that builds a beautiful 60+ million dollar stadium and fills it with a 3-9 football team and no team shop a year later... And people wonder why OSU gobbles up all of the positive attention of the locals. I just fired off my second "Ask the AD" email to AS Wistrcill about my opinion that the Team Shop sitting empty sends a terrible message to the local community. It signals that the overall program is still unable to get its s**t together, regardless of the reason it sits empty. It signals a small-time, apathetic approach to the program. It says, in effect "We don't think that there is any substantial revenue to be gained by putting energy into developing product lines for sale in a team shop." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Hilltopper, thanks for the above link! I had completely missed that conversation! That actually clears a lot up. Doesn't get anything accomplished, but clears it up for me. There are issues with emminent domain that is one of the main reasons for the delay in the development of the Team Shop. The current deal with B&N and Athletics is a short term deal. For B&N to consider spending $$$ for the buildout, a long term deal is necessary. What does eminent domain have to do with anything? The team shop is already there, just the interior has yet to be built. They don't need to acquire new property or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zipboy Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 While we don't have the largest fan support, I am pretty confident that with more items available revenue would surpass $8,200. I hope the new assistant AD turns out to be good. It is a little refreshing to see someone with a different background than the normal college sports administrator. I have worked with my fair share of MBAs fron Ivy or near Ivy schools. Some turn out to be as good as the pedigree and others were utter disasters. I hope Dan is one for the win column and when Tom moves on in a couple of years an in house hire may actually give us some continuity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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