9100 Attendance

[Balsy]

2 hours ago, zippy5 said:

I feel like we've had this discussion once or ten times before

 

Why not continue to do so?  It's something to read while we're in the doldrums of July sports.

[Balsy]

1 hour ago, skip-zip said:

 

Not even close.  Only 4,400 for a Friday night Bracketbuster Game on ESPN2. 

 

But that season did have good crowds.  There were 3 straight conference games of 5,000+ to close that year.  

 

FYI:  Not the same year as the VCU home game, if that what you were thinking.  

 

Isn't 5000 considered a "sell-out" at The JAR?  4400, is pretty damn good.  Besides KENT games, That one was one of my favorites.
 

They also gave a damn to make this cool post-game video afterwards.

 

 

[skip-zip]

47 minutes ago, Balsy said:

 

Isn't 5000 considered a "sell-out" at The JAR?  4400, is pretty damn good.  Besides KENT games, That one was one of my favorites.
 

They also gave a damn to make this cool post-game video afterwards.

 

 

 

I was responding to the poster who was calling the NDSU game a sellout, which was far from correct.  

 

The 4 games that year that were over 5,000 included the OU game, which shows as 5,770.  But I believe that official capacity since they added the chairback seats upstairs several years ago was reduced to 5,500.  We must have let some extra people crowd into the bleachers that night, in spite of the Fire Marshall's restrictions 

 

But you're right that the NDSU crowd was pretty decent.  And thanks for sharing the video.    

Edited July 2, 2017 by skip-zip

[GJGood]

19 hours ago, skip-zip said:

 

Not even close.  Only 4,400 for a Friday night Bracketbuster Game on ESPN2. 

 

But that season did have good crowds.  There were 3 straight conference games of 5,000+ to close that year.  

 

FYI:  Not the same year as the VCU home game, if that what you were thinking.  

I was in attendance for the NDSU game and I can only make it to Akron on weekends when I do not have to work. That game must have been on a Saturday. I can tell you, though, that arena was pretty crowded. I remember literally rubbing elbows with my neighbors next to me for that one.

[skip-zip]

15 hours ago, GJGood said:

I was in attendance for the NDSU game and I can only make it to Akron on weekends when I do not have to work. That game must have been on a Saturday. I can tell you, though, that arena was pretty crowded. I remember literally rubbing elbows with my neighbors next to me for that one.

 

Definitely a Friday night, and definitely only 4,400 attendance. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012–13_Akron_Zips_men's_basketball_team

[a-zip]

All this discussion around basketball does beg the question of building "that stadium".  Maybe it should have been "that arena".  Just sayin'.

[Balsy]

On 7/4/2017 at 1:49 AM, a-zip said:

All this discussion around basketball does beg the question of building "that stadium".  Maybe it should have been "that arena".  Just sayin'.

 

This is a confusing statement a-zip... are you saying we should have built the basketball arena in lieu of the Football stadium?  Or is that we'd be having this same conversation if we'd built a 8000 seat basketball arena that fills at 3400 regularly vs a 27,000 seat football stadium that regularly has 9100?

 

At any rate, I think it's a no brainer that Football > Basketball in NEO.  If Cleveland could even muster a mediocre season in the NFL, the fan-fare support for the Browns would be about 1000x that which we see the Cavs get.  It's not even comparable IMO.  Football is KING in NEO sports, so making the call to go with a New football stadium on campus, is a fare better investment than a new, larger Basketball arena. 

 

[zippy5]

As has also been discussed a million times, a lot of money was going to be spent either on a new stadium or rubber bowl renos.. and a stadium was the more prudent move. It wasn't an arena vs. stadium issue

[skip-zip]

4 hours ago, Balsy said:

 If Cleveland could even muster a mediocre season in the NFL, the fan-fare support for the Browns would be about 1000x that which we see the Cavs get.  

 

Now now.  Cleveland might be a "football town", but a Championship in ANY major sport in Cleveland was a big deal.    There'd be more, but the difference between the Cavs and Browns would not be in multiples of thousands 

[kreed5120]

3 hours ago, Balsy said:

Football is KING in NEO sports, so making the call to go with a New football stadium on campus, is a fare better investment than a new, larger Basketball arena. 

 

When you factor in the University would actually be able to rent out the new arena for midsize concerts and other stuff since it would be Akron's largest and nicest indoor venue, they both come away as roughly equally poor investments.

[K92]

12 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

Now now.  Cleveland might be a "football town", but a Championship in ANY major sport in Cleveland was a big deal.    There'd be more, but the difference between the Cavs and Browns would not be in multiples of thousands 

1.3 million reportedly celebrated the Cavs championship in person.  I can see 1.3 billion coming to celebrate the Browns winning the Super Bowl.  They have Browns Backer chapters all over the world, Skip.  Jeez.

[kreed5120]

34 minutes ago, K92 said:

1.3 million reportedly celebrated the Cavs championship in person.  I can see 1.3 billion coming to celebrate the Browns winning the Super Bowl.  They have Browns Backer chapters all over the world, Skip.  Jeez.

 

Not to mention the whether. It's much better taking to the streets when it's 80 and sunny compared to when it's 25 and snowing.

[Cykron]

I've been away from the site for a week or so and am just getting caught up with the conversation.  Thought it might be good to give some out-of-state comparisons.  

 

1.  EIU (the Iowa school in the B10) is seeing declines for football and basketball, despite its 12-0 B10 season in 2015.  Why?  I think it is mostly because their prices are expensive and their rich fans who can afford them are preferring to watch games in comfort of their homes.  Also, the 12-0 season was wrapped with 5 loss (3 the season before and 2 in the B10 championship and Rose Bowl).  Their fans still travel for bowl games, but they didn't even sell out late in their 12-0 season.  For basketball, they have to give out pizza to get students to come.  Their MBB home game with Iowa State didn't even sell out.  

 

2.  Northern Iowa (UNI, not NIU) sounds much like Akron.  A decent amount of success, free tickets for students, but poor marketing and low attendance.  I think they mostly suffer from having a tradition of students going home on weekends and the Purple Hawk Syndrome (dual fans go to EIU home games).  They just never have had more than a dedicated, but small fan base.  The only games that sell out are MBB when the team is ranked and playing Wichita State or FB when competing with North Dakota State for FCS top ranking.  I think they could do so much better if they did better on-campus marketing.  I hear students say that they didn't even know a home BB game was occurring.

 

3.  Iowa State is either great in terms of student attendance or terribly behind the times (insert Iowa joke here).  Great campus housing and off-campus housing helps.  Iowa State is not primarily a commuter campus.  And at 60,000, Ames is big enough to have plenty to do, but not so big that the campus gets lost in the city.  The campus is the center of the town.  And athletic events dominate the community when they take place.  Things seems to have been building and building over the years.  We have a public tailgate lot that is the student hangout before football.  There are anchor groups who line up the night before in order to be the first in.  We have students who line up in January for days for big MBB games (almost a week before the Kansas game).  I think a big group of our students really believe that they make a difference, especially in basketball.  Once you have a solid foundation, I think the rest just builds on it.  A few dozen camp out before big MBB games for days, but then it just builds on gameday until a few thousand are waiting outside.  I'm not sure how to re-start it once lost, but hope we never lose it.  

[skip-zip]

4 hours ago, K92 said:

1.3 billion

 

Just to put that into perspective, can you imagine the entire population of the state of Ohio, Multiplied by 100,  packing into downtown Cleveland for a parade?

[K92]

1 hour ago, skip-zip said:

 

Just to put that into perspective, can you imagine the entire population of the state of Ohio, Multiplied by 100,  packing into downtown Cleveland for a parade?

They're going to need to order more porta-pots.

[GJGood]

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 0:28 AM, skip-zip said:

 

Definitely a Friday night, and definitely only 4,400 attendance. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012–13_Akron_Zips_men's_basketball_team

OK, it must have been a Friday although I cannot recall ever having a Friday in February where I would be able to make the trip due to my work obligations. Somehow I must have found a way. the 4,400 attendance still seems off to me though. The JAR was pretty well packed for that one. I had to sit in the second to last row because of the size of the crowd and I remember being told the game was a sellout by others in attendance. Oh well, doesn't really matter and I am not sure why I commented about this in the football forum. 

 

 

[LZIp]

Seems relevant.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/universities-turn-focus-to-young-fans-as-football-attendance-declines/ar-BBE2Mtg?li=BBnba9I

[Cykron]

1 hour ago, LZIp said:

Seems relevant.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/universities-turn-focus-to-young-fans-as-football-attendance-declines/ar-BBE2Mtg?li=BBnba9I

 

FYI, Iowa State has a young alumni offer for those under 30 to get a decent season ticket for $275 (a $200 discount), not just for three years (30% discount) like Pitt.  

[kreed5120]

Yeah, I don't really feel that article applies to Akron that much. Akron's problem isn't that students are attending the game in masses then can't afford to attend once they graduate so they watch the games at home or a local bar instead. Their problem is that students aren't attending period and the alumni aren't watching the game period. Unlike OSU where you are paying $75 for nosebleeds, you can get 30 yard line lower bowl GA tickets for $10/piece (with season tickets) and numerous times I've had strangers give me them free. Not only are alumni not attending, they aren't watching from home nor the bar either.

Edited July 10, 2017 by kreed5120

[K92]

Surely, I am not the only one who sees a post by Kreed and hears "and I said ohhhhhhhhhhhh" playing in the background while I read his post.

[kreed5120]

12 minutes ago, K92 said:

Surely, I am not the only one who sees a post by Kreed and hears "and I said ohhhhhhhhhhhh" playing in the background while I read his post.

[skip-zip]

2 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Akron's problem isn't that students are attending the game in masses then can't afford to attend once they graduate so they watch the games at home or a local bar instead. Their problem is that students aren't attending period and the alumni aren't watching the game period.

 

I couldn't agree more.  Sadly enough, we're working on most of our students and alums from a "no interest at all" starting point.  

 

As a businesses analogy, you have groups of prospects.  Some are good, some will take a lot more work, and others aren't interested in buying your product at all.  I'd hate to try to estimate the percentage of our students or alums who fall into any category higher than "not interested at all".  

 

Earlier this summer, I know I tried to illustrate what it would take to just get 10k more Summit County residents into that stadium.  It was only 1% or 2% of the entire population of the area.  Seems attainable.  But not when you are starting from a point of ZERO interest.  

[K92]

Everyone should be happy with the 22,811 attendance at least!

[skip-zip]

  

[Al_4_ISU]

14 minutes ago, K92 said:

Everyone should be happy with the 22,811 attendance at least!

 

Your ticket counters are very creative.