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Baseball's Coming Back


KNCLZip

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So many choices as to where to put this, but I'll try here.

Former Akron sports writer Terry Pluto, uses a lot of words in this article about baseball, football, the confernce and money.

• For years, Akron had problems with its baseball program. Nearby Can't State dwarfed the Zips in terms of recruiting and success on the field. The Golden Flashes went to the 2012 College World Series. They have been to the NCAA tournament in six of the last nine seasons.

• It makes little sense (and saves relatively few dollars) for Akron to leave the MAC in football to play FCS (the old Division 1-AA).

• And the truth is that simply going down a level wouldn't help the bottom line very much, and it would dearly hurt the other athletic programs."Akron has been very successful in basketball, soccer and track," said Steinbrecher. "That's important to remember."
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Don't blame Scarborough. This is Louis Proenza's bills coming due! SS is jut the adult stepping in and trying to balance the checkbook and make the credit card payment. UA's athletic subsidy is twice the entire annual disbursement of UA's endowment. It is fully 5% of the university's entire budget.

Somebody explain to me why this should be considered proper.

You are correct when you say that this is Proenza's mess. It goes beyond decisions inside the university. There was the University Park Alliance debacle. That wasn't all Louie Pro's doing, obviously. A lot of politicians and rich people had there fingers in that smelly mess.They all made bad decisions. But, building Info was an overreach that wasn't justified given the state of the program. Now,as the bills are apparently coming due the entire university and athletics specifically will suffer a long term hit. Its a shame that the educational side is going to deteriorate more and more because of what has been going on for the last 20 years. Frankly,I'm glad that the students got some break with the decision to not impose the 50.00 fee. But, unless priorities are changed on campus and in Columbus,institutions like Akron will continue to suffer over the long term.

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I don't think the Infocision Stadium itself was a mistake. With the renovation and foundation repair costs of the Rubber Bowl, the naming rights (five different organizations) of the stadium and the field, and the other advertisers who came on board, a new stadium of similar size made sense. And still does today.

Now the seven story monstrosity with sections that sit empty most of the time, that's a different story.

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LSU adds veteran pitcher John Valek as a transfer who is eligible immediately

http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2015/07/lsu_adds_pitcher_john_valek_as.html

Is he in for a shock when he experiences fan support for the Tigers baseball team. In 2014 LSU led the NCAA with an average home game attendance of 10,880.

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Coach Rembielak has placed almost all of his players with other programs as he himself is on his way out. Great guy.

Most Zips fans will never know what they missed.

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“We looked at you know whether we could do something maybe with the Rubber Ducks to save the baseball; and those very intelligent people looked at it and both said nah we can’t make it work either. So when they said that, we just didn’t have any other alternative." Scott Scarborough

What kind of suggestion was made to the AA club? One can only speculate which is par for the course IMO.

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My guess is that UA looked at partnering with the R-Ducks with the thought of drawing on that organization's promotional expertise to potentially draw larger crowds by playing all home games at Canal Park. That would have also eliminated the cost of upgrading and maintaining Lee R. Jackson Field and opened up that campus space for other use. Still just guessing here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the R-Ducks organization had already seen enough, since the few Zips games at Canal Park just didn't draw large enough crowds to make it economically feasible to staff the games. The reality is that only the top 50 college baseball teams in the country average more than 1,300 spectators per game, and almost all of those teams play in sunbelt states. MAC games tend to be played in front of dozens of fans, not hundreds or thousands.

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I wonder how many of them, who may have been on schedule to graduate from Akron in the Spring, will not be able to do so because of what they might lose in the academic transfer?

I feel so badly for these guys. The timing right before the start of the school year was horrible.

I feel bad for them, but lets be real, there is never a right time. If you're on schedule to graduate in the spring, stay and graduate (that is if you value school more than a sport). It seems all that have wanted to transfer and continue to play baseball have found a new home.

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My guess is that UA looked at partnering with the R-Ducks with the thought of drawing on that organization's promotional expertise to potentially draw larger crowds by playing all home games at Canal Park. That would have also eliminated the cost of upgrading and maintaining Lee R. Jackson Field and opened up that campus space for other use. Still just guessing here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the R-Ducks organization had already seen enough, since the few Zips games at Canal Park just didn't draw large enough crowds to make it economically feasible to staff the games. The reality is that only the top 50 college baseball teams in the country average more than 1,300 spectators per game, and almost all of those teams play in sunbelt states. MAC games tend to be played in front of dozens of fans, not hundreds or thousands.

So now we're back to the tired argument that a college team HAS to draw fans and HAS to make money. While only 6 of the 18 sports even sells tickets and none break even. How many of those 18 sports draw as many fans as baseball? Or club hockey for that matter? Why isn't golf or rifle or swimming or track or the rest held to the same standard?

If tennis or cross country were cut, how much opposition would that create, besides the affected student athletes?

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What kind of suggestion was made to the AA club?

Dave: Thanks for responding. I think it's fair to speculate that (people) in Buchtel have plans for LJF and it could be the driving force behind banging baseball. Spin: I agree the attendance piece is garbage.

Per SS's talk with WAKR, is the baseball money getting reallocated to football due to the new cost-of-attendance model? Say it ain't so in the spirit of fiscal constraint.

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Spin: I agree the attendance piece is garbage.

So, when did the purpose of college athletics change from building healthier better-rounded adults to being an important entertainment medium for everyone else? When we were shoved into Division I?

And I'l, ask again, why aren't Men's and Women's Cross Country, Men's and Women's Golf, Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Golf, Men's and Women's Rifle, Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Tennis, and Men's and Women's Track & Field held under the same standard? Why is nobody on this forum calling for the end of these money wastes? Students and taxpayers are subsidizing these sports (as well as the "revenue producing" sports).

Unless those questions are answered, then all this anti-baseball chatter is baseless opinion.

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