Need Fans!!!

[akron football]

What does this football team need to do to get more people in the stands??

[ZachTheZip]

Win, maybe?

[InTheZone]

Win, maybe?

That would certainly be a start, but honestly the basketball team has been winning for a while now and it's not like we're packing out the little ole JAR. In order to get more butts in the seats at a school like Akron it really comes down to the fact that the team has to do something significant that captures the public's imagination and makes it "cool" to be an Akron fan. The harsh reality is that we've got to somehow pull a Boise State, because winning the MAC is just not going to cut it. You're still going to get a "so what" from Joe Akron. We will never get more than a 15-20 k per game average unless we become significant in the college football world somehow, and we're a long way off from that. We're not even significant in the MAC at this point.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Win, maybe?

That would certainly be a start, but honestly the basketball team has been winning for a while now and it's not like we're packing out the little ole JAR. In order to get more butts in the seats at a school like Akron it really comes down to the fact that the team has to do something significant that captures the public's imagination and makes it "cool" to be an Akron fan. The harsh reality is that we've got to somehow pull a Boise State, because winning the MAC is just not going to cut it. You're still going to get a "so what" from Joe Akron. We will never get more than a 15-20 k per game average unless we become significant in the college football world somehow, and we're a long way off from that. We're not even significant in the MAC at this point.

I don't think we need to be Boise State.

I do think we need to quit going 4-8, 5-6, 3-9, etc.

Win 7 or 8 games and then ask the question. If we stay sub .500, the "Why won't fans come?" question is pretty pointless.

NE Ohio fans see enough losing on Sundays. They want to at least go .500 for the weekend. Thus they root for Ohio State on Saturday. I can't blame them.

Being a Zips fan is work. Until being a Zips fan is a party, Joe Akron remains in a coma.

[InTheZone]

Win, maybe?

That would certainly be a start, but honestly the basketball team has been winning for a while now and it's not like we're packing out the little ole JAR. In order to get more butts in the seats at a school like Akron it really comes down to the fact that the team has to do something significant that captures the public's imagination and makes it "cool" to be an Akron fan. The harsh reality is that we've got to somehow pull a Boise State, because winning the MAC is just not going to cut it. You're still going to get a "so what" from Joe Akron. We will never get more than a 15-20 k per game average unless we become significant in the college football world somehow, and we're a long way off from that. We're not even significant in the MAC at this point.

I don't think we need to be Boise State.

I do think we need to quit going 4-8, 5-6, 3-9, etc.

Win 7 or 8 games and then ask the question. If we stay sub .500, the "Why won't fans come?" question is pretty pointless.

NE Ohio fans see enough losing on Sundays. They want to at least go .500 for the weekend. Thus they root for Ohio State on Saturday. I can't blame them.

Being a Zips fan is work. Until being a Zips fan is a party, Joe Akron remains in a coma.

See Akron Basketball. Consistent winner, but still no butts in the seats. Why? Because they still aren't relevant in the college basketball.

We could go 7-5, 8-4, 9-3, 8-4, 8-4, etc. over the next few seasons and the attendance still won't look all that different. Attendance will only change if we become a consistent contender in the top 25 and knock off a few big boys. That's what average sports fans get excited about, not beating Northern Illinois and Ball State on a consistent basis. Central Michigan has been a consistent winner for a few seasons now and their attendance still doesn't look all that much different from ours, because they still aren't relevant in the bigger college football world.

[Zipmeister]

What does this football team need to do to get more people in the stands??

Free food and naked cheerleaders.

[skip-zip]

Win, maybe?

That would certainly be a start, but honestly the basketball team has been winning for a while now and it's not like we're packing out the little ole JAR. In order to get more butts in the seats at a school like Akron it really comes down to the fact that the team has to do something significant that captures the public's imagination and makes it "cool" to be an Akron fan. The harsh reality is that we've got to somehow pull a Boise State, because winning the MAC is just not going to cut it. You're still going to get a "so what" from Joe Akron. We will never get more than a 15-20 k per game average unless we become significant in the college football world somehow, and we're a long way off from that. We're not even significant in the MAC at this point.

I say some of these things all the time. But, I didn't come to this conclusion overnight. After 30 years of being a fan, from the beginning of my student days to now, I've seen every scenario possible without any major changes in overall fan support in our two major sports. Consistent winner?...we've done that in basketball in both the latter half of the 80s, and in recent years. Conference titles?....yes, we have them in both sports.

I say the words "National Significance" all the time because, until OSWho relocates to another region of the country, we'll be viewed as a minor league, doesn't-matter program in either football or basketball by most of the general public....UNTIL.....we play enough of the teams they play, and eventually get to the point where we can beat some of the level of teams they play. Heck, I still even talk to people who are sports fans in the area who don't even recognize that we play in the same division as the Suckeyes. I don't even think many people view us as being much different than the Div. II and III schools in our region. We still, unfortunately, have a long way to go.

[Captain Kangaroo]

See Akron Basketball. Consistent winner, but still no butts in the seats. Why? Because they still aren't relevant in the college basketball.

Basketball is a winner, statistically. But in the world of mid-major basketball (Note: Not "Major"), we aren't. Quality mid-majors beat us like a drum.

We won 24 games last season, but it was a toothless tiger.

We lost to VCU by double digits...got smoked by K.e.n.t. twice...lost at home in the CBI, not to mention following up our NCAA tourney appearance by blowing a 15-point home, late-2nd half lead to Austin Peay. Losing to Rhode Island, Texas A&M and NC State...gheezus...

I spoke to someone high-up in UA athletics at the Wisconsin Green Bay game (you can probably figure it out because there were only about 12 people in attendance). That person also said "I can't figure out why more people don't come to basketball games...the team wins?" Coming from this person, that scared the sh!t out of me.

We had a sh!tty 24-win basketball season last year, and "yes," such a thing is possible.

And obviously Dambrot knows that he's gotta up his level of play. Hence the massive (by Dambrot standards) player turnover we've witnessed in the aftermath of 2010.

Soccer had a special run, and they needed to bring in temporary bleachers to accommodate the fans...and there still weren't enough seats at year's end. Joe Akron exists.

Basketball is the #2 winning sport, record-wise, at UA. And there is a laundry list of reasons why it doesn't draw fans (facilities, marketing, etc.). But pointing to a 20-win cake walk schedule and looking aghast at the JAR attendance...like LeBron, that one-time-out-of-50 that he shoots a lay up and doesn't get a foul call...is crazy. It's as plan as the nose on your face.

All the Zips need to do is find 2,000 butts in the seats per game and the JAR is full. That should be easy. I saw 5,200 people watch the UA/K.e.n.t. game, and only about 300 were K.e.n.t. fans. Joe Akron is there. Just quit laying egg on his face. Quit blowing a tire and losing a fan belt every time the bandwagon exceeds 35MPH.

And back to football -- 3k in attendance @ the JAR is equivalent to 14k at InfoCision. If the Zips football team won 7 or 8 games, they'd draw a "real" 13k. If anything, Joe Akron is consistent. It's up to Ianello to prove that.

[g-mann17]

Lot of talk about "Joe Akron" and the bottom line is we have 90,000 alumni within 90 minutes. How about we start focusing on getting 30% of the student population and 25% of alumni to show up?

8400 students and 22500 alumni is a full Infocision.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Lot of talk about "Joe Akron" and the bottom line is we have 90,000 alumni within 90 minutes. How about we start focusing on getting 30% of the student population and 25% of alumni to show up?

8400 students and 22500 alumni is a full Infocision.

3-9 is work. 9-3 is a party.

People want to work during the week, and party during the weekend.

We might as well be holding "3rd Quarter Earnings" Power Point Presentations on the Info scoreboard on Saturdays. It has to stop.

[xu9697]

Winning is #1 for either b-ball or football. 3,000 fans at the JAR become 1,500 if the team is 9-24. But, really, it is not one thing.

Facilities= football has it, basketball needs it.

A player to watch/get excited about. Zeke and Nicely might become those players.

An "experience". Tough to do in b-ball even with an improved facility. Football can be all about the experience (Browns suck, the gameday is still an experience). Area around Info could make it "A (if not THE) place to be" on a Fall Saturday (at a much cheaper price than OSU).

Getting current students involved is huge. Then start with recent alums. Keep on moving up.

Akron apparel= chicken and egg/supply and demand thing. Team Shop has to open though and at least get some worthwhile stuff. I am a believer in, especially at a place like Akron, if you see more of it, more people will ask questions, do a bit of research, etc.

Just general marketing of the product, the facility (Info), the low ticket cost, etc.

No doubt the big wins help. For football= Syracuse game is huge this year. Find a way to win that one, GW and play IU and UK close..might get a couple thousand more interested for Northern Illinois. Then wins need to keep coming.

[skip-zip]

See Akron Basketball. Consistent winner, but still no butts in the seats. Why? Because they still aren't relevant in the college basketball.

Basketball is a winner, statistically. But in the world of mid-major basketball (Note: Not "Major"), we aren't. Quality mid-majors beat us like a drum.

We won 24 games last season, but it was a toothless tiger.

We lost to VCU by double digits...got smoked by K.e.n.t. twice...lost at home in the CBI, not to mention following up our NCAA tourney appearance by blowing a 15-point home, late-2nd half lead to Austin Peay. Losing to Rhode Island, Texas A&M and NC State...gheezus...

I spoke to someone high-up in UA athletics at the Wisconsin Green Bay game (you can probably figure it out because there were only about 12 people in attendance). That person also said "I can't figure out why more people don't come to basketball games...the team wins?" Coming from this person, that scared the sh!t out of me.

We had a sh!tty 24-win basketball season last year, and "yes," such a thing is possible.

And obviously Dambrot knows that he's gotta up his level of play. Hence the massive (by Dambrot standards) player turnover we've witnessed in the aftermath of 2010.

Soccer had a special run, and they needed to bring in temporary bleachers to accommodate the fans...and there still weren't enough seats at year's end. Joe Akron exists.

Basketball is the #2 winning sport, record-wise, at UA. And there is a laundry list of reasons why it doesn't draw fans (facilities, marketing, etc.). But pointing to a 20-win cake walk schedule and looking aghast at the JAR attendance...like LeBron, that one-time-out-of-50 that he shoots a lay up and doesn't get a foul call...is crazy. It's as plan as the nose on your face.

All the Zips need to do is find 2,000 butts in the seats per game and the JAR is full. That should be easy. I saw 5,200 people watch the UA/K.e.n.t. game, and only about 300 were K.e.n.t. fans. Joe Akron is there. Just quit laying egg on his face. Quit blowing a tire and losing a fan belt every time the bandwagon exceeds 35MPH.

And back to football -- 3k in attendance @ the JAR is equivalent to 14k at InfoCision. If the Zips football team won 7 or 8 games, they'd draw a "real" 13k. If anything, Joe Akron is consistent. It's up to Ianello to prove that.

I agree with some of what you are saying. But, the highlighted area is all the proof that anyone should need about Joe Akron.

Does anyone really believe that thousands more people in Akron suddenly became soccer fans? Or, that they just wanted to be associated with someone who was winning games?

They started showing up because we were accomplishing something that had NATIONAL significance.

We can't ever put this label on basketball or football.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Football can be all about the experience (Browns suck, the gameday is still an experience).

There's is a HUGE difference between people showing up for a Browns game and a Zips game.

The Browns are on sports talk and TV pretty much 24/7. The Zips - Zero.

The Browns are built into the fiber of the NE Ohio community. The Zips - Zero

The Browns bring in nationally recognized opponents. Super Bowl champions. Hall of Famers. The Zips give you K.e.n.t. State, EMU and a bunch of players with talent closer to Youngstown State than Ohio State.

And also - There is a big myth surrounding Browns attendance -- don't tell anyone, but Browns stadium is often "filled" to wayyyy under capacity. Hence why 30,000+ Steelers fans annually clogged the place throughout the 2000's.

Even in NE Ohio, with the massive NFL/Browns marketing machine, people have their limits.

[scottditzen]

This is the thread that the new AD needs to take a look at.

[Quickzips]

Winning and winning games that people care about is the only thing that is going to really get Joe Akron's attention. If the Zips ever put together a nice 9, 10, 11 win season where they went on the road and beat a Penn State or a Michigan or a <gasp> Ohio State you would see a significant uptick in attendance. Put two or three seasons like that together in a row, maybe get yourself ranked in the top 25 or even start hearing whispers about a BCS at large and we will be looking at having to expand the Info. Joe Akron will be out of his comatose state and showing up in droves.

Now all of that said, nothing in the history of Zips football suggests that we are anywhere close, or that we even have the capability of putting a run like that together. Maybe some time in a far far away land in an alternate universe it might be possible, but in the physical universe we live in, today, not happening.

[Captain Kangaroo]

See Akron Basketball. Consistent winner, but still no butts in the seats. Why? Because they still aren't relevant in the college basketball.

Basketball is a winner, statistically. But in the world of mid-major basketball (Note: Not "Major"), we aren't. Quality mid-majors beat us like a drum.

We won 24 games last season, but it was a toothless tiger.

We lost to VCU by double digits...got smoked by K.e.n.t. twice...lost at home in the CBI, not to mention following up our NCAA tourney appearance by blowing a 15-point home, late-2nd half lead to Austin Peay. Losing to Rhode Island, Texas A&M and NC State...gheezus...

I spoke to someone high-up in UA athletics at the Wisconsin Green Bay game (you can probably figure it out because there were only about 12 people in attendance). That person also said "I can't figure out why more people don't come to basketball games...the team wins?" Coming from this person, that scared the sh!t out of me.

We had a sh!tty 24-win basketball season last year, and "yes," such a thing is possible.

And obviously Dambrot knows that he's gotta up his level of play. Hence the massive (by Dambrot standards) player turnover we've witnessed in the aftermath of 2010.

Soccer had a special run, and they needed to bring in temporary bleachers to accommodate the fans...and there still weren't enough seats at year's end. Joe Akron exists.

Basketball is the #2 winning sport, record-wise, at UA. And there is a laundry list of reasons why it doesn't draw fans (facilities, marketing, etc.). But pointing to a 20-win cake walk schedule and looking aghast at the JAR attendance...like LeBron, that one-time-out-of-50 that he shoots a lay up and doesn't get a foul call...is crazy. It's as plan as the nose on your face.

All the Zips need to do is find 2,000 butts in the seats per game and the JAR is full. That should be easy. I saw 5,200 people watch the UA/K.e.n.t. game, and only about 300 were K.e.n.t. fans. Joe Akron is there. Just quit laying egg on his face. Quit blowing a tire and losing a fan belt every time the bandwagon exceeds 35MPH.

And back to football -- 3k in attendance @ the JAR is equivalent to 14k at InfoCision. If the Zips football team won 7 or 8 games, they'd draw a "real" 13k. If anything, Joe Akron is consistent. It's up to Ianello to prove that.

I agree with some of what you are saying. But, the highlighted area is all the proof that anyone should need about Joe Akron.

Does anyone really believe that thousands more people in Akron suddenly became soccer fans? Or, that they just wanted to be associated with someone who was winning games?

They started showing up because we were accomplishing something that had NATIONAL significance.

We can't ever put this label on basketball or football.

You are close...

Basketball DOES need to do something of National Significance. But it doesn't need to be a "Butler" or a "Zips soccer" Final Two game. Just start beating some respected teams, and back it up the following year. Build something meaningful. OU beat Georgetown in the NCAA's. We need to accomplish something similar, or we're not catching Joe Akron's fancy.

15,000 people showed up @ Ford Field to see a barely-over-.500 Zips football team play Memphis. That's all the proof you need that Joe Akron will show up, if you give him a decent reason.

Whether it's basketball or football...we can't back up our success. We either sink back into the abyss...or continue at a "decent" level. "Decent" is certainly better than "The Abyss," but neither will pack the house. Nor should it.

There are too many other entertainment options out there today to expect people to pack the house for losing football, or Malone basketball beat-downs.

[Dr Z]

What does this football team need to do to get more people in the stands??

Win + Marketing = Fans (always has) Our marketing is still below average. Youtube messages are nice, but they are not going to cut it as an only source. It seems that we have tried all the budget marketing attempts, but are afraid to put both feet in and go all out. I'm not going to get into football vs basketball because IMO, they are two totally different animals. Football has more marketing potential for many reasons. Like I have mentioned umpteen times here, we need to get students to the game to create lifetime fans. Your not going to have a lot of success getting current alumni to the games if they aren't already there. They are already set into their lifestyles that don't include Zips football. We need to start current students off as being Zips football fans so they adjust their fall schedules to Zips football when they are alumni. You need to show them a good time and create a "fun" atmosphere for them.

Start to market your "stars" in print. PN7, AA10, BW34, AS56 schedules, posters, fatheads, magnets, billboards, building banners, print & web ads. Get on the morning local news by running some kind of charity event. Get on the evening local news by giving them some personal interest story. Work with the local paper, use your own photographer to take photos and make them available to all the media sources. Make it easy for them to do a story. Start an Akron Football Twitter account (include photos). I've seen all this successfully work in this local area for a new sports league. They have actually figured out how to get billboard time (digital) donated to them. They got STO to show their event on tape delay for free. It's really not that hard. You just need to hire the right person (hard working with experience) and give them a budget (which really doesn't even need to be that much).

[zip37]

I've been a Zips fan since the early 60s, and neither the football nor basketball teams outside of the Faust-Owens, Rupert-Cunningham- Crawford- Hipsher years has had the fan support I thought they deserved. Solution? I have no idea, but I am responsible for ME, and I'm there.

I hope someone out there has an answer and that it works but I don't worry about it because I've got nothing to offer as a solution .

[MaxZIP]

I bet the attendance figures and SOS are both trending downward.

Chart taken from:

http://www.letsgoguins.com/forums/viewtopi...p?f=2&t=151

[ZachTheZip]

Getting fans is a long term process. Dr. Z is right when he says that if alumni aren't already going to games then there's very little you can do to suddenly make them start. So the focus needs to be on students.

We only have 6 football home games a year, but there are only student promotions tied in to the games that draw the most anyway (homecoming, home opener, and sometimes Can't). Every single game needs to have the RHPB holding a contest between dorm room floors, with the winning floor getting a pizza for every person or something. Every single game. Or maybe by signing in with your student ID every game you get entered in a chance to win an awesome prize like a blimp ride or a 3DTV. The more games you attend, the more chances you have to win. 1-off promotions don't get people back into their seats the next game. It's like the athletic department is afraid that too many students means not enough room for paying customers, even though there's room to spare.

For basketball, the students show up for Can't. They don't show up for anything else. Part of this is scheduling. There are no interesting teams, and if we ever do get an important OOC game it always happens over winter break, like Nevada and UMass were. Winning the MAC is not an accomplishment because in most people's minds the MAC is on par with the worst leagues. We are a 1-bid league that only wins a single game in the NCAA tournament once per decade. But most importantly, the games aren't fun. There's no fun to be had at a Zips basketball game. It's boring, it's work. One thing that could be done is to consolidate the student section. Another thing is to up the production values, which means adding things like animations to play after an amazing shot/dunk, getting the concessions lines actual cash registers instead of a hand calculator, having souvenir cups instead of pop bottles, having giveaways other than t-shirts like a Zippy bobblehead, and getting ANYTHING other than middle school dance troupes for half time.

[scottditzen]

^ Not to get too far off topic, this being the football thread...but you're right. Everything surrounding the basketball games at the JAR is boring. From the uncomfortable, poorly designed facilities on up, it does seem more like a high school event. Being winter, there is absolutely no allure for me to come to campus. There are much better bars/restaurants where I live in Lakewood. Or I'll just listen to the game on the radio.

On the other hand, I do think that football has a real upside because of tailgating. The tailgate scene should improve as people become more comfortable with the Info. I made it a point to invite old friends and their families to a game. I felt if I could get someone at just one game, they would recognize that the entire experience could be fun, social event regardless of the outcome on the field.

As the tailgating culture improves, you will see the tradition take hold.

[skip-zip]

See Akron Basketball. Consistent winner, but still no butts in the seats. Why? Because they still aren't relevant in the college basketball.

Basketball is a winner, statistically. But in the world of mid-major basketball (Note: Not "Major"), we aren't. Quality mid-majors beat us like a drum.

We won 24 games last season, but it was a toothless tiger.

We lost to VCU by double digits...got smoked by K.e.n.t. twice...lost at home in the CBI, not to mention following up our NCAA tourney appearance by blowing a 15-point home, late-2nd half lead to Austin Peay. Losing to Rhode Island, Texas A&M and NC State...gheezus...

I spoke to someone high-up in UA athletics at the Wisconsin Green Bay game (you can probably figure it out because there were only about 12 people in attendance). That person also said "I can't figure out why more people don't come to basketball games...the team wins?" Coming from this person, that scared the sh!t out of me.

We had a sh!tty 24-win basketball season last year, and "yes," such a thing is possible.

And obviously Dambrot knows that he's gotta up his level of play. Hence the massive (by Dambrot standards) player turnover we've witnessed in the aftermath of 2010.

Soccer had a special run, and they needed to bring in temporary bleachers to accommodate the fans...and there still weren't enough seats at year's end. Joe Akron exists.

Basketball is the #2 winning sport, record-wise, at UA. And there is a laundry list of reasons why it doesn't draw fans (facilities, marketing, etc.). But pointing to a 20-win cake walk schedule and looking aghast at the JAR attendance...like LeBron, that one-time-out-of-50 that he shoots a lay up and doesn't get a foul call...is crazy. It's as plan as the nose on your face.

All the Zips need to do is find 2,000 butts in the seats per game and the JAR is full. That should be easy. I saw 5,200 people watch the UA/K.e.n.t. game, and only about 300 were K.e.n.t. fans. Joe Akron is there. Just quit laying egg on his face. Quit blowing a tire and losing a fan belt every time the bandwagon exceeds 35MPH.

And back to football -- 3k in attendance @ the JAR is equivalent to 14k at InfoCision. If the Zips football team won 7 or 8 games, they'd draw a "real" 13k. If anything, Joe Akron is consistent. It's up to Ianello to prove that.

I agree with some of what you are saying. But, the highlighted area is all the proof that anyone should need about Joe Akron.

Does anyone really believe that thousands more people in Akron suddenly became soccer fans? Or, that they just wanted to be associated with someone who was winning games?

They started showing up because we were accomplishing something that had NATIONAL significance.

We can't ever put this label on basketball or football.

You are close...

Basketball DOES need to do something of National Significance. But it doesn't need to be a "Butler" or a "Zips soccer" Final Two game. Just start beating some respected teams, and back it up the following year. Build something meaningful. OU beat Georgetown in the NCAA's. We need to accomplish something similar, or we're not catching Joe Akron's fancy.

15,000 people showed up @ Ford Field to see a barely-over-.500 Zips football team play Memphis. That's all the proof you need that Joe Akron will show up, if you give him a decent reason.

Whether it's basketball or football...we can't back up our success. We either sink back into the abyss...or continue at a "decent" level. "Decent" is certainly better than "The Abyss," but neither will pack the house. Nor should it.

There are too many other entertainment options out there today to expect people to pack the house for losing football, or Malone basketball beat-downs.

I agree. I didn't mean to imply that achieving something of national significance = a national championship run.

[GP1]

It's really not that hard. You just need to hire the right person (hard working with experience) and give them a budget (which really doesn't even need to be that much).

Agree. The problem is, we hire people with "Sports Management" degrees.

The problem is two fold. First, the people we hire only get ideas from other inexperienced people in college athletics when they go to seminars together to network for their next job. The people they listen to are from schools with supposedly good marketing programs like the large BCS schools who have to just offer tickets and they are sold because there is an over demand for the tickets.

Second, we have turned over a lot of marketing responsibility to ISP. I think ISP is great, but they are paid on revenue so they use their creativity for big ticket items to maximize their revenue. As long as revenue increases, the AD and ISP can show results. Revenue does not always equal increased attendance.

[akron football]

OK now that I've heard all the comments and suggestions,here's my take we need to single out the players that can be the face of our program. What does this program want to project to the public? I think we need to have players that want to look at the big picture and accept the responsibilty of being a Division 1 football player. Time passes by so quickly and these young men need to understand the urgency. Hopefully we have a leader on the team that will lead us to the promise land and a MAC Championship. Go Zips!!

[GP1]

One other thing. A better quality of play would help. People are not stupid and they know a bad sports product when they see it. Not just from the Zips, but from the MAC in general. Unless I'm watching NC State, my laugh-o-meter does not go off during ACC games. It never goes off during SEC, Big 12 or PAC 10 games. It goes off frequently during MAC games.