UA to Renovate the JAR

[skip-zip]

I was once told that Zippy does not perform and go to events and parties, etc., during breaks because it's too expensive to the U to bring that person back from break, the lack of support staff on campus, etc.

Really? Your most visible marketing tool gets sidelines during breaks and during the summer? We should be using that piece of publicity whenever, and wherever we can.

[Balsy]

Sportsjunkie330: Even though there is a "student section" some students sit in other areas of the JAR. My friends and I did that all the time.

[K92]

I was once told that Zippy does not perform and go to events and parties, etc., during breaks because it's too expensive to the U to bring that person back from break, the lack of support staff on campus, etc.

Really? Your most visible marketing tool gets sidelines during breaks and during the summer? We should be using that piece of publicity whenever, and wherever we can.

I hope UA was able to scrape together enough money to send her to Dallas to root on the Bucks. I mean, #teamohio and everything.

[skip-zip]

I hope UA was able to scrape together enough money to send her to Dallas to root on the Bucks. I mean, #teamohio and everything.

Of course. And the Nut Head is getting sent up here to cheer us on and yell "Go Zips" as we make a run towards another MAC basketball title. We'll also be getting encouraging tweets and Facebook messages from their President and Athletic Dept.

Go Team Ohio !!!!!!!

[taxpayer]

Zach The Zip: UA had a dynamic and creative young man in the Athletic/Marketing Department who was very creative. He also asked a couple of Zips players to speak to several student organizations as well as speaking in some dorms to ASK the students to ATTEND the games to provide the Zips with a home court advantage due by 1) attending and 2) being enthusiastic 3) sitting as close to the floor as possible.

The formula was: Win, interact with and invite the students and be creative. The young man in marketing was scooped up by Illinois to use his talents there.

[skip-zip]

Zach The Zip: UA had a dynamic and creative young man in the Athletic/Marketing Department who was very creative. He also asked a couple of Zips players to speak to several student organizations as well as speaking in some dorms to ASK the students to ATTEND the games to provide the Zips with a home court advantage due by 1) attending and 2) being enthusiastic 3) sitting as close to the floor as possible.

The formula was: Win, interact with and invite the students and be creative. The young man in marketing was scooped up by Illinois to use his talents there.

Yes, it takes a very talented, dynamic and creative marketing mind to create the powerful marketing message....."Tickets On Sale Now", which we saw on all of the billboards and newspapers ads.

[UAZipster0305]

Yes, it takes a very talented, dynamic and creative marketing mind to create the powerful marketing message....."Tickets On Sale Now", which we saw on all of the billboards and newspapers ads.

And yet this is what builds a resume and gets one a new job at a more prestigious institution.

Let's drop 90% of the athletics administration and insist that ZNO do the work. Better results, less expense. I only see benefits here.

[skip-zip]

And yet this is what builds a resume and gets one a new job at a more prestigious institution.

Let's drop 90% of the athletics administration and insist that ZNO do the work. Better results, less expense. I only see benefits here.

Trimmy....I've often liked your posts, but I need to interject here for a minute, at the expense of sounding a bit arrogant.

If you knew my background over the last several decades, I'm sure you'd find that I'm more than qualified to give my expert opinion about a marketing strategy. It's not some random sports forum rant. Trust me.

And No, I don't want ZipsNation to take over running the athletic program either.

[Staton14]

Not officially part of the renovations, but there's a nice, new mural on the lobby wall when you walk into the main entrance of the JAR.

[clarkwgriswold]

Yes, it takes a very talented, dynamic and creative marketing mind to create the powerful marketing message....."Tickets On Sale Now", which we saw on all of the billboards and newspapers ads.

The announcements about the season GA passes, listing the same price as before the season started are a nice touch too. Some "Come to the Zips games" billboards would be a nice touch and get the turnstyles spinning!

[ZachTheZip]

Not officially part of the renovations, but there's a nice, new mural on the lobby wall when you walk into the main entrance of the JAR.

Somebody is working on improving what can be improved in the short term. It's a bunch of little touches that have been absent recently. New scoreboard animations, a mural in the lobby, stuff like that. There are lots of little things that can be done on the cheap, but it takes someone who wants to be here or at least somebody who actually knows what they're doing for that stuff to get done. Things like that get ignored when you have resume-padders in charge, throwing out big expensive ideas so they can move on.

[Balsy]

Zach +1. One thing I will never understand is that UA has a school of Art...also has graphic designer students...why not give them the opportunity to develop a project or art piece for the university?

This is the type of thing I've always hated about UA, or even universities in general. They outsource that which can easily be tapped on their own campus. There are many students, if given the opportunity to do so (and of course given approval) could probably come up with some very awesome and unique things. But like you said Zach, that gets ignored when all you have is resume-padders who don't care.

[Staton14]

Somebody is working on improving what can be improved in the short term. It's a bunch of little touches that have been absent recently. New scoreboard animations, a mural in the lobby, stuff like that. There are lots of little things that can be done on the cheap, but it takes someone who wants to be here or at least somebody who actually knows what they're doing for that stuff to get done. Things like that get ignored when you have resume-padders in charge, throwing out big expensive ideas so they can move on.

I walked in there today and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Its a nice greeting for fans as they walk in the building. Hopefully more relatively inexpensive things like this can be done throughout the arena.

[UAZipster0305]

Trimmy....I've often liked your posts, but I need to interject here for a minute, at the expense of sounding a bit arrogant.

If you knew my background over the last several decades, I'm sure you'd find that I'm more than qualified to give my expert opinion about a marketing strategy. It's not some random sports forum rant. Trust me.

And No, I don't want ZipsNation to take over running the athletic program either.

I was being facetious.

[taxpayer]

Could someone post a picture of the mural for us out of towners?

[Blue & Gold]

I walked in there today and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Its a nice greeting for fans as they walk in the building. Hopefully more relatively inexpensive things like this can be done throughout the arena.

I've always enjoyed seeing the life-size pictures of players. You can stand next to them & get a feel of how huge these guys really are. When you're sitting in the bleachers & everyone out on the floor is 6'8, it can be difficult to tell how huge those players really are.

The Q also has pedestals with basketballs painted with the handprints of various players. Again, it just lets you appreciate the size of the players.

[Spin]

Staying in the MAC as a mid major, A 4500 seat renovated JAR would be fine. If I'm not mistaken, we haven't had 4000 fans in there yet this year.. The only games we may get over 4k is OU and Cant. Cant will sell out like it usually does because of the rivalry. OU has been a second place rival to us and than maybe Miami in third The new JAR seating maybe only effected with a big name opponent and the Can't game We may be able to play a big name opponent in the Q.. As far as I concerned renovate the JAR, I'm sure it will be nice when done.

I understand that line of thinking, and if that's the direction the University wants to go, I'm fine with that. After what they've done for the soccer program and the football program, that would be a hell of a flip flop. But if that's all the U and the alimni wants to be, with tOSU eating our lunch everyday and selling T-shirts to our students and tickets to our area college basketball fan base, so be it. Just don't pretend.

I enjoy going to a few minor league baseball games every year. I'm not going to follow them like I do the Tribe, but it's a good time.

That's how I feel about a program that's just happy to be where the Zips are.

[Balsy]

Bottom line: we need a new arena. Now someone go win the megamillions and make it happen!

[Blue & Gold]

Someone... someone... SOMEONE at UA just has to be working on getting funding together.

The City of Akron.

Summit County.

The University of Akron.

LeBron.

-Nike

-McDonald's

-Coca-Cola

FirstEnergy.

FirstMerit.

Goodyear.

Diebold.

The funds just have to be out there for a 8-10,000 seat arena. Especially if we are willing to drop $30 million on a JAR renovation project.

Here is a list of N.E.O. Fortune 1000 companies.

http://www.ohio.com/news/top-stories/northeast-ohio-companies-on-fortune-500-list-1.147984

[Sportsjunkie330]

Someone... someone... SOMEONE at UA just has to be working on getting funding together.

The City of Akron.

Summit County.

The University of Akron.

LeBron.

-Nike

-McDonald's

-Coca-Cola

FirstEnergy.

FirstMerit.

Goodyear.

Diebold.

The funds just have to be out there for a 8-10,000 seat arena. Especially if we are willing to drop $30 million on a JAR renovation project.

Here is a list of N.E.O. Fortune 1000 companies.

http://www.ohio.com/news/top-stories/northeast-ohio-companies-on-fortune-500-list-1.147984

Why would U of A want an 8-10,000 seat arena? They can't even get 3,500 people to the games now. It would be foolish for them to build that size arena.

And please forget about LeBron..... he is an OSU guy, not a U of A guy.

[wadszip]

Perfectly stated, IMO. And then we should actively try to schedule a couple big opponents at the Q; it could only help our visibility in NE Ohio and with Cleveland potential recruits. I'm sure quite a few local Clevelanders attend the MACC there and would also come out to see Akron vs. B1G/ACC/A10, etc.

I 100 percent agree. Whatever the monetary losses are in losing a true home game would be made up with the exposure, regionally and nationally (with a win).

Though a couple would be impossible, I think having one big name draw at the Q per year is doable if Dambrot wants to use his LeBron connections, and he and Wistrcill seek out a school that may be willing to to come to Cleveland.

On top of having a game in Cleveland would help Akron recruit locally, the amount of talent coming up in this area could be even more incentive for big name programs to want to play here. NE Ohio has become a hot bed for elite talent.

In the 2015 class, Cleveland has two top 50 recruits in Carlton Bragg and Esa Ahmad, along with a top 200 guy in Kipper Nichols.

The 2016 class is even better, but took a huge blow with the top two players (both 5 star prospects) VJ King (SVSM) and Omari Spellman (North Royalton) transferring to out of state schools. Still

, the area has 4 other elite level prospects in Derek Funderburk (top 50), John Teske (Medina, Michigan commit, top 100), Tervell Beck (top 100) and Willie Jackson (top 150).

The 2016 class has another handful of high majors who aren't quite top 150.

The 2017 and 2018 classes look strong too.

Bottom line, this area has kids that everybody in the country is fighting over. Not only would Akron benefit from the visibility of playing a high major at the Q, the high major would also benefit from that visibility as well on the NEO recruiting trail.

[Blue & Gold]

On top of having a game in Cleveland would help Akron recruit locally, the amount of talent coming up in this area could be even more incentive for big name programs to want to play here. NE Ohio has become a hot bed for elite talent.

In the 2015 class, Cleveland has two top 50 recruits in Carlton Bragg and Esa Ahmad, along with a top 200 guy in Kipper Nichols.

The 2016 class is even better, but took a huge blow with the top two players (both 5 star prospects) VJ King (SVSM) and Omari Spellman (North Royalton) transferring to out of state schools. Still

, the area has 4 other elite level prospects in Derek Funderburk (top 50), John Teske (Medina, Michigan commit, top 100), Tervell Beck (top 100) and Willie Jackson (top 150).

The 2016 class has another handful of high majors who aren't quite top 150.

The 2017 and 2018 classes look strong too.

What source are you referencing?

[Zip_ME87]

Why would U of A want an 8-10,000 seat arena? They can't even get 3,500 people to the games now. It would be foolish for them to build that size arena.

Because it wouldn't be a U of A arena. It would be an Akron or Summit County arena shared by U of A. As numerous posters have pointed out, in these economic times, it's difficult to justify a new arena. To me, doing so requires multiple occupants with multiple uses. An 8,000 - 10,000 seat arena would allow for concerts and other entertainment as well as allowing the Zips to host blOSU as so many seem to want to go to the Q to do (in another thread).

[Dave in Green]

An official description of the scope and current status of the JAR renovation study is available as one small item in the full 356-page report generated from UA's Dec. 10 board meeting, which is publicly available through an internet search. For those who don't want to bother digging through the whole document, I'll post below everything I could find about the renovation study:

PROJECT NAME: James A. Rhodes Arena Feasibility Study

PROJECT NUMBER: 110028

DESCRIPTION: Study for improved sight lines, revisions to seating configuration, improved concessions, novelty and ticketing as well as team and offices facilities.

STATUS: Additional scheme requested which includes revised seating and south lobby renovation.

[Dave in Green]

Maybe that scope and status report above isn't so illuminating after all. A further search turns up a report from the December 2012 UA board meeting where the identical wording is used. So it appears that the wording quoted above is just a placeholder, and whatever progress is actually being made is not being called out in the board meeting reports.