Attendance

[ajgareri]

Does any body know what the attendance was because I have not found it anywhere

[RowdyZip]

Does any body know what the attendance was because I have not found it anywhere

4234

[cduke]

Attendance was: 4, 234

[The Hip Zip]

That's a great number for the likes of EMU. Makes me think we get 5,000 or better for Louie, Charlie and Reggie

[skip-zip]

That's a great number for the likes of EMU. Makes me think we get 5,000 or better for Louie, Charlie and Reggie

Unfotunately, those are all Wednesday games. And the Wednesday game against Toledo last week only drew 3,000.

I think possibly the Buffalo game, with Senior Night and an East title on the line could possibly reach the 5,000 mark. But, Miami and BG would be an unbelievable surprise.

[GP1]

4234

For the life of me, I don't know why our Saturday games don't sell out with the quality team we have. What are people in Akron and the surrounding area doing on a Saturday night in early February?

[RootforRoo44]

For the life of me, I don't know why our Saturday games don't sell out with the quality team we have. What are people in Akron and the surrounding area doing on a Saturday night in early February?

worshiping Ohio State

[GP1]

worshiping Ohio State

I don't think that is the problem. We only have a 5,500 seat arena. Surely we should be able to fill it on a weekend night. I don't even blame marketing at this point. Not sure what people are doing that would be more entertaining than watching this team play.

[RootforRoo44]

I don't think that is the problem. We only have a 5,500 seat arena. Surely we should be able to fill it on a weekend night. I don't even blame marketing at this point. Not sure what people are doing that would be more entertaining than watching this team play.

I really think this is a student issue. The lack of students showing up is embarrassing.

4000+ people and only 300 students maybe? That's just ridiculous.

[CincyZip]

I really think this is a student issue. The lack of students showing up is embarrassing.

4000+ people and only 300 students maybe? That's just ridiculous.

That's also an arena problem.

[johnnyzip84]

I really think this is a student issue. The lack of students showing up is embarrassing.

4000+ people and only 300 students maybe? That's just ridiculous.

I agree that's a big part of it. But I will add that I thought the student sections were much better coordinated in their cheers last night than they have been most of this season. I especially enjoyed the "shots" at the MAC refs

Hopefully the students will build off of last night and gain strength down the stretch, so they're at the top of their game come Q time.

[RowdyZip]

That's also an arena problem.

I haven't missed a home game in more than 3 years. I've also traveled to every MAC arena with the exclusion of the new Stroh Center, Ball State, and NIU. I can say, without a doubt, comfort-wise the JAR is the WORST in the conference to watch a game. Especially with a large crowd. The only place that's remotely close to 2nd is K-ent, and that's only because you can't see the scoreboard from the highest 10 or so rows because of the steel supports. Last night, we started in the 8th row along the sidelines and moved higher twice to try and have an empty row in front of us to avoid kneeing someone's spine and/or having our spines kneed. Our general admission is downright horrid. I'd hope if a new arena isn't on the horizon in the next 5 years or so, we could drop a couple hundred thousand on putting chairbacks throughout the upper sections as this would help at least a little.

[wadszip]

I really think this is a student issue. The lack of students showing up is embarrassing.

4000+ people and only 300 students maybe? That's just ridiculous.

I agree. There still seems to be student apathy with this team. I was watching the Butler-Detroit game. Butler is having a down year, but it looked like they still had 1,000 students at the game. No reason Akron shouldn't be drawing the same, if even more, considering UA's on-campus enrollment is larger than Butler's total enrollment.

Still, 4,234 is a good number considering Eastern Michigan is a bad team with no local appeal. Plus, the Zips were going head-to-head with the Cavs, who happened to be hosting the defending world champions 35 miles up the road. Between people from Akron choosing the Q over the JAR, or deciding to stay home and watch the Cavs (the team's local ratings rank No. 5 in the NBA at 89,000 per night, according to a PD article a couple weeks ago ... probably higher now with the way Kyrie Irving is playing).

Also, people still have to give this product some time. This is still "Year One" in the new-age Zips era. ... up-and-down the court, above the rim basketball. It's going to take some time for people to really buy in. Let's face it, for as much success KD has had so far, up until this year, it hasn't exactly been an exciting product to watch ... halfcourt offense with undersized perimeter guards shooting 3s and big men who play below the rim.

This team just needs to keep winning (while continuing to improve the overall play while doing so) and people will come.

[zippy5]

Akron gets plenty of students at each game. they just don't sit together.

[ZachTheZip]

That's also an arena problem.

Not even that. It's just a matter of having one combined student section instead of splitting them into opposite sides and scattering the rest in GA seating.

[wadszip]

Not even that. It's just a matter of having one combined student section instead of splitting them into opposite sides and scattering the rest in GA seating.

That would help raise the atmosphere ten-fold. Put all the students together, then the couple hundred rowdies could help energize the couple hundred of students who are scattered around the place, who generally just sit there and cheer on occasion. That would go a long way into creating a unified student section people want to be a part of.

[plowerman78]

its something that will be addressed (if) a new arena comes. As ive said in convos with KD we def would like to have the student seating (section) on the side similar to MSU, OU and OSU. I have never understood student attendance at mens basketball games, but no need to complain bc this is something that has been discussed before. Is it better then last year, yes but it should be even better for a team that is 8-1 in the conference. BTW nice attendance last night, 4000+ for EMU is a good sign for things to come. I know those games are on Wednesdays but they have a better name value then EMU. Back to trying to get people to NIU i guess lol

[zippy5]

its something that will be addressed (if) a new arena comes. As ive said in convos with KD we def would like to have the student seating (section) on the side similar to MSU, OU and OSU. I have never understood student attendance at mens basketball games, but no need to complain bc this is something that has been discussed before. Is it better then last year, yes but it should be even better for a team that is 8-1 in the conference. BTW nice attendance last night, 4000+ for EMU is a good sign for things to come. I know those games are on Wednesdays but they have a better name value then EMU. Back to trying to get people to NIU i guess lol

Any chance you'd be able to find a student attendance number for us? Just curious how many actually go and don't sit down low

[Zipmeister]

I agree. There still seems to be student apathy with this team. I was watching the Butler-Detroit game. Butler is having a down year, but it looked like they still had 1,000 students at the game. No reason Akron shouldn't be drawing the same, if even more, considering UA's on-campus enrollment is larger than Butler's total enrollment.

Still, 4,234 is a good number considering Eastern Michigan is a bad team with no local appeal. Plus, the Zips were going head-to-head with the Cavs, who happened to be hosting the defending world champions 35 miles up the road. Between people from Akron choosing the Q over the JAR, or deciding to stay home and watch the Cavs (the team's local ratings rank No. 5 in the NBA at 89,000 per night, according to a PD article a couple weeks ago ... probably higher now with the way Kyrie Irving is playing).

Also, people still have to give this product some time. This is still "Year One" in the new-age Zips era. ... up-and-down the court, above the rim basketball. It's going to take some time for people to really buy in. Let's face it, for as much success KD has had so far, up until this year, it hasn't exactly been an exciting product to watch ... halfcourt offense with undersized perimeter guards shooting 3s and big men who play below the rim.

This team just needs to keep winning (while continuing to improve the overall play while doing so) and people will come.

Spending time trying to figure out ways to get students to the game is pretty much time wasted. Nearly ALL commuter schools like Akron suffer from poor student attendance at sporting events; always have and probably always will. At such schools you tend to have a lot of first-generation college students taking full course loads and working at least part time. For the most part they are just too busy to attend games and there is almost nothing that can be done to get them to attend. At schools like Butler where most of the students are in residence, they don't have a job to worry about and going to the game is something to fill some time. Best way to improve student attendance - increase the number of dorm students by about 1,000%.

[plowerman78]

when i was in charge i did, but no idea now. i will say it looks up, but not anywhere close to what it needs to be for a 8-1 first place team. its not even an issue of having to have a ROWDIE shirt on, anyone is allowed to sit down there, they've been letting akron students down there the whole year. Do we prefer to have u have a rowdie shirt on yes of course but there letting any akron student have a wristband. its as simple as asking for a wristband when u come in the student entrance.

[plowerman78]

i will say though the atmosphere at games has been drastically improved. KD said it in his post game last night having an atmosphere (and im talking everyone, ROWDIES, blue seats, bleachers) like that really helps his team, so everyone keep it up.

[wadszip]

Spending time trying to figure out ways to get students to the game is pretty much time wasted. Nearly ALL commuter schools like Akron suffer from poor student attendance at sporting events; always have and probably always will. At such schools you tend to have a lot of first-generation college students taking full course loads and working at least part time. For the most part they are just too busy to attend games and there is almost nothing that can be done to get them to attend. At schools like Butler where most of the students are in residence, they don't have a job to worry about and going to the game is something to fill some time. Best way to improve student attendance - increase the number of dorm students by about 1,000%.

I fully understand that, and I know Butler is coming off of back-to-back title game appearances, so that helps their attendance.

I was the type of student you are alluding to when I was Akron, and admit I only attended a half dozen games while in school. So, I will agree with you there, especially when people complain about how a school with 30,000 students can draw less than 4,000 a game. It's not a fair argument because of what you said.

However, there are still roughly 5,000 or so traditional students who attend UA (either living on-campus or right off campus). Butler's total undergrad population is a little more than 4,000. That's the apples-to-apples comparison I was trying to make. If the traditional students buy in, there is no reason why the rowdies couldn't grow to 1,000 a game.

The Rowdies will never be the Izzone (which looked to be 5,000 strong today), but I think it's realistic for Akron's student section to resemble the one I saw at Butler yesterday (non-marquee game against Detroit).

Again, this is still a growing product so it will take some time. And it will take unifying the student section, but it should be a reasonable goal for the university to have.

[AKZ]

Does anyone else find it odd that there's usually a large chunk of students who make the trek up to Cleveland for the MAC championship, yet the student section at the JAR typically has about 40 students max? It has everything to do with the design of the JAR. There are tons of students scattered about the general admission seating during a typical regular season game.

During the Can't State game, there was a large group of students standing in the general admission area behind the basket(not the floor seats...but above, where it is usually sparsely filled). The University handed out signs for the students to wave during the game(good idea). I noticed that at the next home game, a lot of those casual students came back, holding those signs in their hands. They had such a great experience at the Can't game, and they expected the same thing the next time around. The problem was(and is) that there wasn't enough students to re-make the Can't experience, and most of the casual students would rather sit on their hands in the GA rather than head down to the floor seats with the more serious AK-Rowdies.

The more serious AK-Rowdies on the floor seats(bless their souls) are rather isolated. And many of them know each other--or at least that's the impression I get. I'm not so sure that the average student feels comfortable just heading on down to the floor seats. If there was a single, large student section with ample seating, I'd guarantee more students would show up for the game time experience.

And I agree with others; it's ridiculous that Akron can't find a way to reorganize their student section and bring in more students. Akron has more students living on campus and in University Park than Xavier and Dayton's entire student population. We're way overdue for some serious change. If a new arena isn't built in five years, please just get rid of the damn track and expand seating all the way to the floor.

[Quickzips]

The student attendance issue isn't all that puzzling. The average student has a wealth of entertainment options available to them on any given night. You can get 100s of channels of cable television in almost every dorm, apartment or house around campus. Pretty well everyone has an X-box, Wii, or Playstation. The internet and sites like facebook and twitter provide seemingly endless entertainment options. Combine that with the more traditional, out of house entertainment options such as bars, concerts, professional sports, parties, etc. and there are more entertainment options for todays student than at any time in history.

The challenge of any marketing department is to find a way to rise above all of the other options and attract students to these games. It isn't an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm not sure that anyone in the college landscape has truly figured it out yet. Having a team like this years squad that plays fast and above the rim and is winning a lot of games is a good start.

[skip-zip]

Does anyone else find it odd that there's usually a large chunk of students who make the trek up to Cleveland for the MAC championship, yet the student section at the JAR typically has about 40 students max? It has everything to do with the design of the JAR.

Come on. Students aren't driving an hour to Cleveland because the arena is better designed than the JAR. They are driving there because they want to be a part of a possible championship.