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9100 Attendance


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Buffalo announced 17343 for the 11/11 game versus the Zips. Can you give us an estimate of actual attendance on that Tuesday night?

I'd say it was around 7,500 - and the balmy weather probably helped. It's crazy (but not too uncommon) that in one week's time Buffalo's weather went from low 60's (evening of game) to 5 feet of snow.

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I'd say it was around 7,500 - and the balmy weather probably helped. It's crazy (but not too uncommon) that in one week's time Buffalo's weather went from low 60's (evening of game) to 5 feet of snow.

It looked so terrible on tv that I thought maybe it was a lot less than that. I remember as a child that the NFL reported attendance along with the number of no-shows. I wish that practice would come back.

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The two sports that matter in attendance are football and basketball.

I am beginning to wonder if attendance matters at all. If it did you wouldn't schedule Tuesday night games in November so they could be on ESPN3 and you sure as hell wouldn't schedule a Thursday night game in August for NO REASON PERIOD.

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My bad, I get it now......... win and they will come. I mean just look at our women's basketball team's attendance skyrocketing

11/14 1205

11/15 668

11/18 1262

11/25 531

12/5 592

Nevermind..... :rofl::rofl:

The two games of over 1000 are clear outliers. The first was a doubleheader with the men's (so anyone who came early for the men's got counted for both games) and the second was a education day for local schools.

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My bad, I get it now......... win and they will come. I mean just look at our women's basketball team's attendance skyrocketing

11/14 1205

11/15 668

11/18 1262

11/25 531

12/5 592

Nevermind..... :rofl::rofl:

The year before coach Kest arrived, attendance averaged 293. Last year it was 679. Establish a winning culture, and attendance more than doubles. But it takes time to see results. One winning year doesn't improve attendance, but several in a row will.

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To play devils' advocate here Zach...Men's Basketball has sustained success for a long time, but attendance has never seemed to reach that "next-level". It has improved over Dambrot's tenure, but not in huge amounts. There's a saturation point it when it comes to a successful program and attendance...

I blame the JAR for ours :horse:

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To play devils' advocate here Zach...Men's Basketball has sustained success for a long time, but attendance has never seemed to reach that "next-level". It has improved over Dambrot's tenure, but not in huge amounts. There's a saturation point it when it comes to a successful program and attendance...

You're not playing devil's advocate. You are absolutely correct. Especially when you are talking about a non-nationally-recognized entity that's winning against other non-nationally-recognized entities.

I often find it amazing that people who consider themselves avid Zips fans will jump into attendance discussions regarding football with the "if only we started winning" argument, when 10 years of a consistently winning basketball program already provides that data.

There would be some impact. But it wouldn't be what some people want to believe it would be. Not in the MAC. Sadly, most sports fans in NE Ohio couldn't tell you what Akron's football record is during any given year.

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There would be some impact. But it wouldn't be what some people want to believe it would be. Not in the MAC. Sadly, most sports fans in NE Ohio couldn't tell you what Akron's football record is during any given year.

Agreed. I think there are only a handful of ways to realistically improve attendance at games, which vary for each sports.

Men's Basketball:

1. Schedule Bigger name opponents (this will also relate to No. 3)

2. Have a huge winning streak/Televised games against opponents during that time

3. A better Arena

No. 3 I think is the most important. As avid a fan as I am, the though of going to the game some weekday nights is unappealing...especially when I have to sit on horribly uncomfortable bleachers to watch us play a school from BFE. And I'm not a casual Zips fan, so I can't imagine what it'd be like for those who are. We did see attendance increase in 12/13 with the win streak on the line, but (again) there was a saturation point with just how many people would show up. Better than a regular weekday without the win streak, but still not a "sell-out".

Football:

1. Schedule bigger name opponents (the attendance boost will largely be a boost in the opponent's fans)

2. Schedule better "give-aways" for students. AKA not stupid stuff like bobble-heads.

The BGSU game had a decent student attendance for a horribly cold and wet weekday game. There'd probably be a few more if it was a nice day. But again, I don't think the football program has as much potential to grow as some think it does. I also don't think football games being nationally televised from The Big Dialer, has any real impact on attendance.

Soccer:

1. Win a National Championship.

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There would be some impact. But it wouldn't be what some people want to believe it would be. Not in the MAC. Sadly, most sports fans in NE Ohio couldn't tell you what Akron's football record is during any given year.

Agreed. I think there are only a handful of ways to realistically improve attendance at games, which vary for each sports.

Men's Basketball:

1. Schedule Bigger name opponents (this will also relate to No. 3)

2. Have a huge winning streak/Televised games against opponents during that time

3. A better Arena

No. 3 I think is the most important. As avid a fan as I am, the though of going to the game some weekday nights is unappealing...especially when I have to sit on horribly uncomfortable bleachers to watch us play a school from BFE. And I'm not a casual Zips fan, so I can't imagine what it'd be like for those who are. We did see attendance increase in 12/13 with the win streak on the line, but (again) there was a saturation point with just how many people would show up. Better than a regular weekday without the win streak, but still not a "sell-out".

Football:

1. Schedule bigger name opponents (the attendance boost will largely be a boost in the opponent's fans)

2. Schedule better "give-aways" for students. AKA not stupid stuff like bobble-heads.

The BGSU game had a decent student attendance for a horribly cold and wet weekday game. There'd probably be a few more if it was a nice day. But again, I don't think the football program has as much potential to grow as some think it does. I also don't think football games being nationally televised from The Big Dialer, has any real impact on attendance.

Soccer:

1. Win a National Championship the season before

2. Play State Ohio University at home

But the thing that needs to be pointed out here: is the the vast majority of any of these attendance boosts is going to be student attendance.

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My bad, I get it now......... win and they will come. I mean just look at our women's basketball team's attendance skyrocketing

11/14 1205

11/15 668

11/18 1262

11/25 531

12/5 592

Nevermind..... :rofl::rofl:

There's "apples and oranges" which, I guess, they're both fruit. But this is more like apples and elephant turds.

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Fixed it for you.

The Tuesday and Thursday games did put the nail in the coffin of this year's attendance numbers. No doubt.

But overall, I completely agree with Balsy that the teams we play has the greatest affect on drawing attention from potential fans right now. After 20+ years, people have literally fallen asleep at the thought of watching us play Buffalo, EMU, etc., whether we win or not. See Northern Illinois.

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The Tuesday and Thursday games did put the nail in the coffin of this year's attendance numbers. No doubt.

+1

My season tickets were already purchased when the 2014 schedule was announced. Would I have renewed if I had known the schedule before hand? Yes, but I am sure many people who were considering purchasing season tickets decided against it when they saw there were only 3 Saturday games versus Marshall, EMU and Miami. Especially since the Hurons and Redskins only won 2 games between them in '13. Less than sexy, to say the least.

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+1

My season tickets were already purchased when the 2014 schedule was announced.

Great point. I actually buy a section of tickets for myself and other people. So, I screwed some other people too, since they said they could not make enough games after I already purchased their tickets for them.

People who bought game-by-game tickets really made out this year, since they were able to skip those games, and we had already paid for 6 of them.

And while we are ranting about the fate of season ticket holders this year, maybe I should get on my soapbox again about all the sweet deals they offer to people once the season starts, like discounted tickets, parking passes, concession vouchers, etc., for those who wish to attend any remaining games. That's always a slap in the face to the season ticket holders also. And this year in particular.

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  • 1 month later...

Bump.

The city is named to an unflattering list. Never mind that "Akron" beat one of the cities on the "winning list" and that the writer misspelled that city to boot.

A winning season for the Zips in 2015 is needed badly to change this perception.

Whoever compiled that list obviously never tried any of your poutine.
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  • 3 months later...
But the positives weren't enough to overcome the negatives. Seven programs saw attendance declines of more than 5,000 fans per game, including Purdue (minus-13,684), Pittsburgh (minus-8,426), Akron (minus-8,680), Northern Illinois (minus-7,106), Virginia (minus-6,959), Michigan and Arizona State (minus-5,510).

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12886474/major-college-football-attendance-hits-worst-average-2003

Where in the world did Akron have the capacity to lose 8680 in average attendance?

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Last season, Can't, Ohio, and Buffalo were all road games. Those are the Zips current three biggest athletic rivals. Miami has fallen off, BG doesn't draw fans, and absolutely nobody cares about EMU or UMass.

This year, we get Pitt at home, plus Can't, OU, and Buffalo. That's a recipe for good attendance.

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Zach, I am not sure what you'd call "Good Attendance" at this point. Can you give us a number?

Honestly, I've bought into the idea that the Weekday nights certainly hurt us a bit last year. But, I don't see that Buffalo and OU in football will draw significantly different than Miami and BG. I might even be inclined to say that the latter two would surely collectively have more alums living in the area.

Obviously, having the Ken+ game at home is always going to help the yearly total a bit.

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