Akron Tailgate Lot Priority Policy

[Zip Watcher]

If I recall correctly, that is actually Litigation Lager from Roo Brew.

[scottditzen]

Litigation Lager...Even better!

By the way, I was shocked that BW-2's on Exchange pulled our beloved ROO BREW from the menu.

Come on Akron fans...tell these places you want to (unofficially) support the Zips and buy a terrific local product.

If I recall correctly, that is actually Litigation Lager from Roo Brew.

[RootforRoo44]

So have most of you that received the call voice your opinion to the caller about being screwed over?

[akronad]

For me it will be big move. DW & I have supported UA athletics for 40 years and bee n fb season ticket holders for 25 yrs. Last year we purchsed priority reserve tickets and our assigned parking lot was #14, which is right next to the Alumni office. I call and complained to no avail & grudgingly parked and tailgated there all season. I just hope that I will have the opportunity to tailgate with most of you this season.

[AK-Rowdy4Life]

The problem at its heart is that the athletic administration cares nothing for the long-term. They'll all be gone in three or four years when the AD touts his predecessor's accomplishments as his own and gets hired away, like Akron ADs tend to do. Then we bring in another "quick fix" guy and the cycle repeats. So long as we have a short-term person in charge, we'll always have short-term money making schemes that kill any possible growth for the future. This is just a get rich quick scheme from someone who won't have to deal with the consequences of his actions.

When I become AD, things will be different...

[MaxZIP]

For me it will be big move. DW & I have supported UA athletics for 40 years and bee n fb season ticket holders for 25 yrs. Last year we purchsed priority reserve tickets and our assigned parking lot was #14, which is right next to the Alumni office. I call and complained to no avail & grudgingly parked and tailgated there all season. I just hope that I will have the opportunity to tailgate with most of you this season.

Lot 34 is/was $5 last year and was a darn good time. Plenty of other tailgaters and a good party every game. Join us and don't pay for priority. Hell, get there early enough and it is free. We were able to take advantage of that twice last year.

[Zipsrifle]

I'm a lot 34 guy myself. It's free if you are early enough. It's easy to get my myriad of friends to and it's close to the Rifle Range!

I have to agree that you guys will probably be OK, but this was a bad way for the athletic dept. to go about it. They know who you guys are, they should be taking care of you guys. Here is how I would have gone about it. Send out the request for the parking passes to all those who had them last year, put a deadline on them and state that spots will be assigned. The lot wouldn't sell out by the deadline....lock it down and give the rest of the spots to the guys with deep pockets. Don't call your biggest fans and break the news to them...save that for last. Don't make a press release about it, they just look worse for doing that!

I also agree with the comments that this is a bad way to treat your "Hardcore" fans. A hardcore fan movement is a grassroots thing that evolves into something bigger (ZNO for example!). IMO, on of the top priorities of the athletic dept. is to nurture this grass roots effort into something huge. Instead, what does UA do, they damage it......I just hope there wasn't anyone on the fence that fell off because of this, that would be a shame.

[RootforRoo44]

For me it will be big move. DW & I have supported UA athletics for 40 years and bee n fb season ticket holders for 25 yrs. Last year we purchsed priority reserve tickets and our assigned parking lot was #14, which is right next to the Alumni office. I call and complained to no avail & grudgingly parked and tailgated there all season. I just hope that I will have the opportunity to tailgate with most of you this season.

Lot 34 is/was $5 last year and was a darn good time. Plenty of other tailgaters and a good party every game. Join us and don't pay for priority. Hell, get there early enough and it is free. We were able to take advantage of that twice last year.

Yeah, i tailgated there every game and never paid anything. I had a great time there and we were never even bothered by Police or anything. Surprising what with our 30 foot beer bong, kegerator, and flip cup games.

[GP1]

I'm a lot 34 guy myself. It's free if you are early enough. It's easy to get my myriad of friends to and it's close to the Rifle Range!

Beer, guns and football. Sounds like my kind of day.

[MaxZIP]

For me it will be big move. DW & I have supported UA athletics for 40 years and bee n fb season ticket holders for 25 yrs. Last year we purchsed priority reserve tickets and our assigned parking lot was #14, which is right next to the Alumni office. I call and complained to no avail & grudgingly parked and tailgated there all season. I just hope that I will have the opportunity to tailgate with most of you this season.

Lot 34 is/was $5 last year and was a darn good time. Plenty of other tailgaters and a good party every game. Join us and don't pay for priority. Hell, get there early enough and it is free. We were able to take advantage of that twice last year.

Yeah, i tailgated there every game and never paid anything. I had a great time there and we were never even bothered by Police or anything. Surprising what with our 30 foot beer bong, kegerator, and flip cup games.

That bong was crazy. Were you the guys doing the beer relays as well?

[RootforRoo44]

For me it will be big move. DW & I have supported UA athletics for 40 years and bee n fb season ticket holders for 25 yrs. Last year we purchsed priority reserve tickets and our assigned parking lot was #14, which is right next to the Alumni office. I call and complained to no avail & grudgingly parked and tailgated there all season. I just hope that I will have the opportunity to tailgate with most of you this season.

Lot 34 is/was $5 last year and was a darn good time. Plenty of other tailgaters and a good party every game. Join us and don't pay for priority. Hell, get there early enough and it is free. We were able to take advantage of that twice last year.

Yeah, i tailgated there every game and never paid anything. I had a great time there and we were never even bothered by Police or anything. Surprising what with our 30 foot beer bong, kegerator, and flip cup games.

That bong was crazy. Were you the guys doing the beer relays as well?

Yeah we were one of the groups doing that, i skinned my arm up real bad before the Can't game relaying. Filling the cups with Yuengling was a bad idea, it got rowdy haha.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Thanks to all of you who contributed to the thread. It looks like the vast majority of those affected don't really care for the decision.

I'll close this out, on my end, with a short story --

My wife graduated from UA both undergrad and from UA's School of Law. A couple years ago I introduced her to Gary Bogue, who does fund raising for UA's Law School. Afterwards, she decided to become a law school donor.

Maybe three months ago, my wife said to me: "You know, I really enjoy donating to the law school. I would never have thought to do it if you hadn't introduced me to Gary."

Fastforward to the beginning of April. My wife gets an invite to a symposium at UA featuring a NY Times writer who covers decisions of The United States Supreme Court. Invitations, she was told, we're only sent out to a select group.

She immediately responded, and said she'd "...be honored to attend." We then went on vacation for 1 week.

When we returned, my wife wrote an email to the woman responsible for the event asking for information on UA parking. The woman responded - "Oh, you can't come to the symposium. We had too many people respond. We took you off the list."

That's it. As cold and inconsiderate as that. Without even the courtesy of a phone call or an email stating "I am so sorry, but the response to this event was overwhelming and..."

My wife was furious. She wrote Gary, who is a solid guy, and voiced her disappointment. He did what he could to make amends, but the damage was done.

This year, my wife will not be donating to the School of Law. Maybe the following year, we will re-visit the decision. Time will tell.

How does this tie into the Football forum?

At the Cadillac Ranch @ the MAC tourney, a person involved with UA Athletics approached me and stated "Hey, I just found out what you give to the Law School. We need to find a way to get your Z-Fund donation up to that level!" I assured the person that one day it would get there.

Fastforward to last week, when Tom Wistercil announced his parking plan:

"This new plan continues to allow all Zips fans to park on campus in close proximity to InfoCision Stadium-Summa Field while rewarding our donors and fans who have the most invested in our programs," said UA Director of Athletics Tom Wistrcill.

Obviously TW does not consider my Z-Fund donation, or potential for future donations worth much. He also feels that I do not really have all that much invested (his words, not mine) in the University's athletic programs. That, as GP1 observed, is a real slap in the face.

I will keep my season football and basketball tickets, and attend the other UA athletics events that I have always enjoyed. But if I am booted from Lot #9 due to my investment in UA athletics being considered insignificant, I will withhold my 2010 Z-Fund donation. Like my wife's law school donation, will revisit things the following year. But it appears UA does not value the money my family donates. And there is only one way to voice my displeasure over it...at least in a way the TW will feel, and understand.

There are a lot of great people at UA, and programs I enjoy supporting financially. But I took a 10% pay cut the past two years, due to the recession. And also lost about 30% of my commission/bonus. This isn't the best of economic times, and I need to spend my money where I feel it is valued.

Tom made his business decision. I'll make mine.

[ZachTheZip]

CK's story is really unfortunate.

UA athletics has no future. It only has the present. It's inconceivable to short-termers that somebody might consider donating more in the future, after that short-termer has moved on. So they do what they can to appease the people who donate the most right now, while they are at that job. They don't worry about making things better for the future because they won't be here to deal with it.

I know I was critical of Hunter Yurachek during the last hiring cycle, but now I see the value he brought simply by virtue of wanting to be here for the long haul.

[scottditzen]

This email speaks volumes.

Thanks for posting CK.

Thanks to all of you who contributed to the thread. It looks like the vast majority of those affected don't really care for the decision.

I'll close this out, on my end, with a short story --

My wife graduated from UA both undergrad and from UA's School of Law. A couple years ago I introduced her to Gary Bogue, who does fund raising for UA's Law School. Afterwards, she decided to become a law school donor.

Maybe three months ago, my wife said to me: "You know, I really enjoy donating to the law school. I would never have thought to do it if you hadn't introduced me to Gary."

Fastforward to the beginning of April. My wife gets an invite to a symposium at UA featuring a NY Times writer who covers decisions of The United States Supreme Court. Invitations, she was told, we're only sent out to a select group.

She immediately responded, and said she'd "...be honored to attend." We then went on vacation for 1 week.

When we returned, my wife wrote an email to the woman responsible for the event asking for information on UA parking. The woman responded - "Oh, you can't come to the symposium. We had too many people respond. We took you off the list."

That's it. As cold and inconsiderate as that. Without even the courtesy of a phone call or an email stating "I am so sorry, but the response to this event was overwhelming and..."

My wife was furious. She wrote Gary, who is a solid guy, and voiced her disappointment. He did what he could to make amends, but the damage was done.

This year, my wife will not be donating to the School of Law. Maybe the following year, we will re-visit the decision. Time will tell.

How does this tie into the Football forum?

At the Cadillac Ranch @ the MAC tourney, a person involved with UA Athletics approached me and stated "Hey, I just found out what you give to the Law School. We need to find a way to get your Z-Fund donation up to that level!" I assured the person that one day it would get there.

Fastforward to last week, when Tom Wistercil announced his parking plan:

"This new plan continues to allow all Zips fans to park on campus in close proximity to InfoCision Stadium-Summa Field while rewarding our donors and fans who have the most invested in our programs," said UA Director of Athletics Tom Wistrcill.

Obviously TW does not consider my Z-Fund donation, or potential for future donations worth much. He also feels that I do not really have all that much invested (his words, not mine) in the University's athletic programs. That, as GP1 observed, is a real slap in the face.

I will keep my season football and basketball tickets, and attend the other UA athletics events that I have always enjoyed. But if I am booted from Lot #9 due to my investment in UA athletics being considered insignificant, I will withhold my 2010 Z-Fund donation. Like my wife's law school donation, will revisit things the following year. But it appears UA does not value the money my family donates. And there is only one way to voice my displeasure over it...at least in a way the TW will feel, and understand.

There are a lot of great people at UA, and programs I enjoy supporting financially. But I took a 10% pay cut the past two years, due to the recession. And also lost about 30% of my commission/bonus. This isn't the best of economic times, and I need to spend my money where I feel it is valued.

Tom made his business decision. I'll make mine.

[GP1]

I will keep my season football and basketball tickets, and attend the other UA athletics events that I have always enjoyed. But if I am booted from Lot #9 due to my investment in UA athletics being considered insignificant, I will withhold my 2010 Z-Fund donation. Like my wife's law school donation, will revisit things the following year. But it appears UA does not value the money my family donates. And there is only one way to voice my displeasure over it...at least in a way the TW will feel, and understand.

There are a lot of great people at UA, and programs I enjoy supporting financially. But I took a 10% pay cut the past two years, due to the recession. And also lost about 30% of my commission/bonus. This isn't the best of economic times, and I need to spend my money where I feel it is valued.

Tom made his business decision. I'll make mine.

Here is a big question I have. Are there that many people out there who have the kind of cash necessary AND willing to donate it at the higher price?....For a parking spot next to the stadium, when in reality, most places to park at UofA for less money really aren't that far from the stadium?

Before I owned my own business, I worked for big companies and believe it or not had really good positions. Before we made a business decision that we were certain would upset a customer, we would make a "risk analysis plan". The purpose of the plan was to explore all possible outcomes of a decision to see if making the existing customer base upset was really worth the risk. At times it was......at times it wasn't, but we at least put some thought into it. How this went down was so stupid it makes me think they spent zero time weighing the pros and cons.

Let's face it, if the team is bad again next year, attendance will drop off dramatically. Even if some of those spots open up at a much lower price, many of you (and there really aren't that many of you all together) are upset to the point you will not get a Lot 9 sport OR you realize you are having just as much fun in your new, less expensive lot as you were in Lot 9. The lot will sit empty and they my as well allow the Sun Grill and The Odd Corner to be rebuilt there. It's funny to think about how things could go full circle.

I always thought the parking questions were silly when we played at the RB. Let's face it, there was no real difference in parking location from one lot to the next...just different levels of crappy. The Bid Dialer is a different story and there should have been some consideration for long term fans. I take that back. Mack did have consideration for long term fans, TW has consideration for his next job. This situation has been poorly, poorly, poorly, poorly conceived and executed.

[Zipsrifle]

There is a lot of work being done to satisfy the current "Big Donors" but very little work being done to build up the future donors or the die hard fans. I think the AD's immediate concern is paying for the stadium, so going after "Big Donors" is the approach they decided to prioritize. I ask, what is being done to bolster the current hard core fans and develop future hard core fans? I don't think a lot needs to be done to get people excited, this is where UA is dropping the ball.

[akron football]

I feel your pain CK, you feel like a red headed step child. You've put so much into this University and get treated like you are just common folk. I think that the powers to be have not done there due diligence. When you put such energy into any given project and to be overlooked is frustrating. I think the AD is made a mistake in not addressing the diehard fans. He needed to ask the insiders first to get a gauge on there opinion. It's not like we're talking about thousands. We need to stick together to get this program off the ground, hopefully the new coach can get it done.

[MaxZIP]

I feel CK's pain. Both my wife and myself recieved a solicitation from the University for donations prior to recieving our diplomas. She also recieved one from the Z fund because she was an athlete. Hell the least they could have done was to send the $40,000 piece of paper prior to asking for a donation.

[Zips Win!]

Since my last post earlier in the week, I received a call from UA asking me to purchase a parking pass for $50.

My response was $50? It was $25 last year!!!

Her reply was, well, we changed the parking rules from last year and I see you were in lot 9. Lot 9 is now a Z-fund lot.

I said, yes I know. I am a Z-fund member with reserve seats in football and basketball. I want a pass from lot 9. I will gladly pay the $50.

She said that because I did not have priority reserve seats that I could not get a pass from lot 9...

So I responded with, you want me to pay $50 for a spot that I have no idea where it's located?

Why would I do that? Complete silence on the other end.....

After further discussion that I've been a supporter for 25 years and that I expect a pass for lot 9, she again said that she could not promise this...

She proceeded to tell me the lot numbers that my contribution to UA athletics warranted... I responded that this was not acceptable and that I expect a pass from lot 9....And if this was not granted, any future donations to the Z-Fund and my reserve basketball tickets would not be renewed...

Again, complete silence on the other end...

At the end of the day, I will park where I am assigned. But if UA thinks that they are going to screw over the dedicated, hardcore fans who travel the country to support the Zips and not give them preferential parking for 6 events a year, then any donation from my end will cease.....

P.S. Who decided that 4 priority reserve seats warrants a free parking pass? I hear the same story that we want to be like the big schools....Well, no school gives away free parking. When was the last time that buckeye fan parked next to the slipper for free?

Furthermore, how are free parking passes generating additional revenue.

As Frency would say, "you gotta be kidding me"...

Late...

[zip37]

Like any bureaucrat, the U of A has no sense of history,or public relations.

I joined the Pacesetters way back when, but the Univ has no record of it, although some individuals remember.

P.S. The Univ has o records of anybody that joined the Pacesetters

[Hilltopper]

Like any bureaucrat, the U of A has no sense of history,or public relations.

I joined the Pacesetters way back when, but the Univ has no record of it, although some individuals remember.

P.S. The Univ has o records of anybody that joined the Pacesetters

I remember those days also. I figured this out years ago, all that matters for the bozos who run things, is what are you doing for them now. What you did in the past is meaningless. There is no sense of history. Just because you've been a loyal supporter for 30-40 years, unless you meet their expectations for this year, you are nothing to them. When they told me that I had to donate $5000 to be able to purchase a basketball parking pass for a lot I had been parking in for 20 years, I responded in kind. I dropped my lower reserve seats that cost me $3600($2000Z-Fund) and went with upper level for $800. Net loss to UA of $2800 over a parking space. And all this happened before TW, so its not just him.

[shadowkap16]

I was in Lot 9 as a Reserved ticket holder and also got the call. In the end I payed for the new parking because I really don't no why. What cracks me up is your lot assignment according to them goes by when you renewed your tickets. Not how long you been a holder which seems silly. By the way I would be a Priority Reserved ticket holder except the fact that if you are 6'3 or bigger try getting into those seats. Your knees are jammed against the chair backs. Also what ever happened to the be a part from the start bricks? I am ranting some but Lot 9 was awesome to park in and play cornhole.

[g-mann17]

I was in Lot 9 as a Reserved ticket holder and also got the call. In the end I payed for the new parking because I really don't no why. What cracks me up is your lot assignment according to them goes by when you renewed your tickets. Not how long you been a holder which seems silly. By the way I would be a Priority Reserved ticket holder except the fact that if you are 6'3 or bigger try getting into those seats. Your knees are jammed against the chair backs. Also what ever happened to the be a part from the start bricks? I am ranting some but Lot 9 was awesome to park in and play cornhole.

There are bricks by the gate near Stiles, the small bricked semi circle. Also the Foundation plaque is near the main ticket office wall.

[Zips Win!]

What cracks me up is your lot assignment according to them goes by when you renewed your tickets. Not how long you been a holder which seems silly.

What do you mean that your assignment is based on when you renewed your tickets?

I renewed mine in April? What will this get me?

[GP1]

P.S. Who decided that 4 priority reserve seats warrants a free parking pass? I hear the same story that we want to be like the big schools....Well, no school gives away free parking. When was the last time that buckeye fan parked next to the slipper for free?

Furthermore, how are free parking passes generating additional revenue.

An amazing thing about the call you received was there was no concern at all from the caller about your situation. Just a terrible sales call all the way around. Calls like this to a long term fan should be from the AD.

Would anyone like to ask Dr. Proenza the following question?..... What the Hell were you thinking when you hired the new AD? I have zero confidence in the guy. I think some of you feel the same way, only you are too nice to say it out loud.