Canal Park

[mcperp]

Does anyone know if the Zips Athletic Department has taken a look at playing some home games at Canal Park. It's hard to imagine that they haven't explored adding 10-12 thousand temporary seats for a capacity of about 20,000. I don't know if this is even feasible logistically, but playing in downtown Akron at a beautiful and intimate facility certainly has a lot more cache than the aging, decrepit Rubber Bowl. Though the capacity will be much lower, the Zips could charge a premium price for a Canal Park Game.

[Balki Bartokomous]

It will never happen. It would cost more to rebuild Canal Park to be able to shift seating and fields than it would to build a new football stadium. Besides, the people who own and run the Aeros would never go for it. Even if the math behind tearing up a baseball field and repositioning the outfield walls, scoreboard, bullpen, seating, was sound, they are too cheap. They don't even pay their interns. Asking to play football games in their field would be like asking to punch their children in the face. Actually i bet punching the kids would have a better shot of happening. Perhaps we should just start taking pride in that pile of crap Rubber Bowl. I mean sure it sucks, and at any moment could colapse in on itself but its still ours. It will always be better than Dix stadium. I mean imagine if K ent played in the rubber bowl. It would implode just to save itself the embarrassment of having the worst team in the country playing in it. Hopefully a new stadium is built before Akron cycles back into its doormat like state.

[zen]

I mean imagine if K ent played in the rubber bowl. It would implode just to save itself the embarrassment of having the worst team in the country playing in it.

[Zipsrifle]

I mean imagine if K ent played in the rubber bowl. It would implode just to save itself the embarrassment of having the worst team in the country playing in it.

It must be in better shape than we all thought. 11 years ago, the worst team(s) in the country played in that place 6 times. Akron was the worst team the entire season until the last game against OU, who was the 2nd worst team. This was actually Akron's first DI-A bowl game, but nobody acknowledges it. Known as "The Toilet Bowl" , Akron defeated OU 24-10, and as a Freshman I was already fine tuning my heckling skills from the endzone . Sure, that was quite some time ago, but what about last season??? It should have imploded on Thanksgiving Day. Nobody would have known about it since it wasn't televised and nobody would have gotten hurt because well, there was nobody there. The only thing I can think of is that it was frozen solid last year and the high winds blowing over the stadium actually created an area of low pressure that kept stadium intact. Actually, I love the RB. Sure it is a piece of crap, but when that place is packed, it has the atmosphere of a Bigtime program. I hope in the new stadium the seats are close enought to the field so that I can continue heckling the opposing players.

[danalleman]

Actually, a baseball park is not a good place to watch a football game, even with the seats angled towards the field. I flew out to Phoenix with my dad to watch Andy play in the Insight bowl in 2002 at Bank One Ballpark (or whatever it's called now) when Pitt played Oregon State. The seats were really crammed and the park didn't "feel" at all like a football stadium. The bleachers that the OSU fans sat in ran from right to center field and they just looked strange. They were about 1/3 the height of the rest of the stadium, with about 100 feet of outfield left behind them. The actual stadium seats behind the outfield football bleachers couldn't be used leaving a huge cavernous space behind the fans. Here are two pics I took pregame that shows where the OSU bleachers were in realation to the rest of the stadium.

[zipsbandman]

I'm actually all for the idea. The Rubber Bowl is a great atmosphere when it is full. The Marshall game was a real taste of big time football a year back. However, it can be the worst atmosphere even half full, plus the place is a dump. Canal Park is a great facility, and I love the idea of a football game in downtown Akron, and I believe we would increase ticket sales if we do so. Fans can gather at local bars and restaurants instead of being out in the middle of an airport. The place would be much easier to fill. They would probably have to rig up temporary additional seating though.

[Z.I.P.]

I just want to know why the term "FULL" in regard to the Rubber Bowl now means something like thirty or thirty-two thousand people in the stands, while when I was a student and an Akronite, a "Full" Rubber Bowl meant at least forty thousand people. I was at the Cleveland Browns game vs the NY Giants about 1972 when they fit about 44k in the bowl. Where have all the seats gone?

[Balki Bartokomous]

again, Canal Park will never happen. Too much would have to happen.

[ziptrumpet87]

I just want to know why the term "FULL" in regard to the Rubber Bowl now means something like thirty or thirty-two thousand people in the stands, while when I was a student and an Akronite, a "Full" Rubber Bowl meant at least forty thousand people. I was at the Cleveland Browns game vs the NY Giants about 1972 when they fit about 44k in the bowl. Where have all the seats gone? 

I think the expanding waistlines of the Akron fans have reduced the capacity