A Few for Friday (ASU Mountaineers)

[ZippyRulz]

Not to steal Dr. Z's thunder, but here are a few more poll questions for tomorrow's game. Prize: bragging rights. Discussion welcome. These should be easier since there are only 2 choices (over/under) per question

 

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by ZippyRulz

[kreed5120]

1) App State is a running team

 

2) They can't keep up this level of being undisciplined. At least I hope.

 

3) I haven't heard enough buzz surrounding this game to make me believe it will draw that much better than the typical game. The better over/under would be 15k IMO. Win this game and then win the 2 games after and I feel a 5-1 Akron team will receive some media attention going into the home WMU game.

[ZippyRulz]

Announced attendance, mind you 

 

[skip-zip]

4 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Win this game and then win the 2 games after and I feel a 5-1 Akron team will receive some media attention going into the home WMU game.

 

Now there's a guy who's looking at all of this realistically.  

 

Announced attendance will be over 17k, but actual attendance will not.  

Edited September 23, 2016 by skip-zip
edit

[Dr Z]

Which referees will be at the game? Hope we get the female referee we can last year, is she still in the MAC?

[LZIp]

Don't know why I am even wasting time addressing anything related to the attendance discussion, but I would bet actual attendance will equal the announced attendance all season, as it clearly was for the VMI game. Last year was the inflated season to help meet attendance requirements for the rolling 2 year period. If you recall, the 2014 season was the year in which we had the worst attendance in the NCAA, where I am assuming actual attendance figures were used. The University gave (bought) all recent alumni season tickets last season, thus able to use the "paid" attendance number. I haven't heard of anything like that this season.

Edited September 24, 2016 by LZIp

[Dr Z]

On September 24, 2016 at 7:53 AM, Dr Z said:

Which referees will be at the game? 

Sun Belt Conference was the answer. 

 

I might have won, I'll wait for an official announcement from the author of the thread. 

[ZippyRulz]

I left this as a private poll so I am not able to see individual votes. If you voted for under 300 passing yards allowed (280 actual), under 100 yards in penalties committed by the Zips (72 actual) and under 17K announced attendance (15K+ actual), you are a winner! Also, board settings do not allow a non-moderator to close a poll which means people can vote after the fact. As of 11:00 a.m. Sat. I noted the majority voting was

 

21-3 for under 300 yards passing allowed

16-8 for under 100 yards penalized

13-11 for under 17K announced attendance

 

So the voters as a whole were correct on all questions.

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by ZippyRulz

[kreed5120]

On 9/24/2016 at 10:07 AM, LZIp said:

Don't know why I am even wasting time addressing anything related to the attendance discussion, but I would bet actual attendance will equal the announced attendance all season, as it clearly was for the VMI game. Last year was the inflated season to help meet attendance requirements for the rolling 2 year period. If you recall, the 2014 season was the year in which we had the worst attendance in the NCAA, where I am assuming actual attendance figures were used. The University gave (bought) all recent alumni season tickets last season, thus able to use the "paid" attendance number. I haven't heard of anything like that this season.

 

The listed attendance for Saturday was 15,381. I was at the game and that stadium looked nowhere close to being half filled. Maybe there was thousands of unused tickets?

[Balsy]

55 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

The listed attendance for Saturday was 15,381. I was at the game and that stadium looked nowhere close to being half filled. Maybe there was thousands of unused tickets?

 

It looked 25%-33% full to me.  

[skip-zip]

9 minutes ago, Balsy said:

 

It looked 25%-33% full to me.  

 

That would equate to about the same "maybe 10,000" that I said earlier.  

 

And at least half of those people left early in the 3rd quarter when ASU took a 21 pt. lead.  

[Balsy]

9 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

That would equate to about the same "maybe 10,000" that I said earlier.  

 

And at least half of those people left early in the 3rd quarter when ASU took a 21 pt. lead.  

 

I think it'd be safe to say that the Zips probably consistently have around 10k at that stadium.  The thing that probably changes attendance is special groups (band days, with families and the kids themselves...Lebron James Foundation Day...etc), and the school we're playing.  I'd imagine they're allotted a certain amount of tickets, and alumni groups probably also buy blocks or something.  I don't believe it's ever real attendance vs. Sold, it's probably always sold tickets reported.  Some years are inflated because they do the massive ticket giveaways.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

The listed attendance for Saturday was 15,381. I was at the game and that stadium looked nowhere close to being half filled. Maybe there was thousands of unused tickets?

I would agree in this case. I was buying my tickets and saw somebody in line who ran in the marathon claiming her free ticket.

[Blue & Gold]

53 minutes ago, Balsy said:

 

It looked 25%-33% full to me.  

I'd go with 33% full.  With most sitting in the west stands.

 

I was sitting in the west stand on Saturday, so looking across at the east stands, the stadium as a whole appeared emptier to me than it actually was.

[tboned]

This was a game we really needed to win. Regardless of the number of fans, there were many more than any previous games (this year or past years).  It was a chance to hook a few people.  To get them to come back for another game. A big missed opportunity for the program IMO. 

[Balsy]

25 minutes ago, tboned said:

This was a game we really needed to win. Regardless of the number of fans, there were many more than any previous games (this year or past years).  It was a chance to hook a few people.  To get them to come back for another game. A big missed opportunity for the program IMO. 

 

I see what you're saying, but I don't necessarily agree.  Winning the MAC championship should mean more than beating App. State.  Their a good team.  But at this point I honestly don't think it matters how good the Zips are, attendance will state relatively the same.  The only thing that might change is additional student attendance, which always (historically) dropped off after the first 2 home games.  If athletics gets creative, there are ways to get more students in the stands..

[Captain Kangaroo]

23 minutes ago, tboned said:

This was a game we really needed to win. Regardless of the number of fans, there were many more than any previous games (this year or past years).  It was a chance to hook a few people.  To get them to come back for another game. A big missed opportunity for the program IMO. 

I don't think anyone attending that game would be deterred from coming back. If someone didn't get $15 worth of entertainment out of that game, there's something wrong with them.

 

Let's pound Kent, whip Miami, and see what the crowd's like for WMU. If we take care of business, it will be pretty decent. 

[Ham]

35 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

I don't think anyone attending that game would be deterred from coming back. If someone didn't get $15 worth of entertainment out of that game, there's something wrong with them.

A win would have been nice, but this was Aktion Maction!

[kreed5120]

49 minutes ago, tboned said:

This was a game we really needed to win. Regardless of the number of fans, there were many more than any previous games (this year or past years).  It was a chance to hook a few people.  To get them to come back for another game. A big missed opportunity for the program IMO. 

 

I met up with a friend from college yesterday that I hadn't seen in a few weeks to watch the Browns game. He knows I follow Zips athletics. Without me saying anything he mentioned how he can't believe the Zips lost to App State. I asked if he watched the game. He said no, but he followed the score on twitter (I suppose that's a start).Then said he was shocked by the Akron-Marshall game a week ago. I told him he should tag along with me for the WMU game. He said he'd definitely be up for it. This is the same friend that last season said he'd never pay $15 to go to a Zips game. That was of course before they mounted that nice end of the season winning streak.

 

Akron won a grand total of 14 games in my 5 years of college. I have plenty of friends that are huge football fans, but after watching the Zips lose consistently by 20+ each game, they lost desire to care.

[Dr Z]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

I told him he should tag along with me for the WMU game. He said he'd definitely be up for it. This is the same friend that last season said he'd never pay $15 to go to a Zips game. That was of course before they mounted that nice end of the season winning streak. Akron won a grand total of 14 games in my 5 years of college. I have plenty of friends that are huge football fans, but after watching the Zips lose consistently by 20+ each game, they lost desire to care.

 

Reading your post makes me think the Zips should parody something like this. 

 

 

 

[LZIp]

I have a similar story as kreed's as well. I took two of my friends Saturday who went to maybe one UA game a piece during their time in school. One had to lose a bet to me in order to go and the other has been gradually becoming more interested as I basically force it upon him. I think both enjoyed their time even though they lost and both would be open to attending again. Some exciting football was played Saturday. Even my father, who is a casual sports fan at best, texted me about how he saw the butt-whooping we gave Marshall.

 

As has been stated on here before, there is no reason to get all worked up about attendance. Keep winning and people will take note. Each of us need to do our best to get other people to attend who might have been turned off during the RI years and show them that its different.

[Blue & Gold]

I try not to get too worked up over attendance.  If we average ~20,000 one day, that will be a very respectable mid-major number & we'll have a really nice game day experience.

 

[skip-zip]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

Keep winning and people will take note. Each of us need to do our best to get other people to attend who might have been turned off during the RI years and show them that its different.

 

I wish this whole attendance issue was nothing more than "a couple of bad years under RI", and we'll soon see a surge back to "what it used to be".  But, that's not the answer.  It goes back much further than that.  Heck, in 2006 we had just won a MAC Title, and just got a big road win at North Carolina State, and had our first home game in 2006 against perennial Sun Belt power North Texas, and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  Anyone want to guess the attendance for that day?  What if I told you it was 16k, about the same as it was last Saturday against Appalachian State.  . 

 

People in Akron don't care about Akron football.  We've never done anything significant enough to get their attention.  Until that changes, it's a monumental challenge to impact attendance in the way that some of you folks are expecting.  

Edited September 26, 2016 by skip-zip
edit

[UA1987]

25 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I wish this whole attendance issue was nothing more than "a couple of bad years under RI", and we'll soon see a surge back to "what it used to be".  But, that's not the answer.  It goes back much further than that.  Heck, in 2006 we had just won a MAC Title, and just got a big road win at North Carolina State, and had our first home game in 2006 against perennial Sun Belt power North Texas, and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  Anyone want to guess the attendance for that day?  What if I told you it was 16k, about the same as it was last Saturday against Appalachian State.  . 

 

People in Akron don't care about Akron football.  We've never done anything significant enough to get their attention.  Until that changes, it's a monumental challenge to impact attendance in the way that some of you folks are expecting.  

I agree with Skip on this. We need to break out with respectable early wins (like Marshall) and have a double digit win season. Then, people will take notice. The worst thing we can do is schedule away top tier opponents that confirm, in the casual fan's minds, that we are not to be taken seriously. Build to that, but for now it's all about scheduling. Our forward OOC schedule looks OK (except for one or two games), so we may be on the right track.         

Edited September 26, 2016 by UA1987

[zippy5]

19 hours ago, skip-zip said:

 

I wish this whole attendance issue was nothing more than "a couple of bad years under RI", and we'll soon see a surge back to "what it used to be".  But, that's not the answer.  It goes back much further than that.  Heck, in 2006 we had just won a MAC Title, and just got a big road win at North Carolina State, and had our first home game in 2006 against perennial Sun Belt power North Texas, and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  Anyone want to guess the attendance for that day?  What if I told you it was 16k, about the same as it was last Saturday against Appalachian State.  . 

 

People in Akron don't care about Akron football.  We've never done anything significant enough to get their attention.  Until that changes, it's a monumental challenge to impact attendance in the way that some of you folks are expecting.  

I can't believe the rubber bowl wasn't full with North Texas in town.