FANS attending games at the JAR

[StandingZip]

WHY!!! Why isn't the JAR standing room only? It's depressing when you realize the success the program has had over the past several years (since DAMBROT arrived) and the stands are not full! Can't blame the players, Can't blame the Coaches (for those of you who love Coach D, would you blame him for not listening to the many offers from top level D-1 schools), Can't blame the teams record (6-1), Can't blame lack of winning at JAR (third longest winning streak in NCAA), Can't blame success (6-1 so far and second round of NIT last year), Can't blame finances, general admission tickets are cheap and gas is lowest it's been in months, Can't blame weather, it's been tropical, Can't blame community, walk down the halls of a mall and you'll find Browns, Indians, Cand CAVS items being worn by fans (we love our teams), Can't blame Lebron James, he attends a game now and then!!!! Who do you blame? Leadership starts at the top!! Who's responsible for MARKETING this product (for goodnessakes, SUCCESSS is the easiest product to market)......what a POOR job the Marekting department has done. They should be fired!! No billboards around town, No ticket promotions (where are you Summa, First Energy, FirstMerit - why are't you giving away tickets to the grade schools around town?). Who's the idiot who took away the cartoon of the MAC schools on the scoreboard. Come on University of Akron Administration (Mack Rhoades) let's see a little effort. Akron Basketball is putting Akron on the map. Why aren't you behind them? Look up (gotcha,ha) that's an AD flying around campus ready to snatch up Coach D to guide his program to SUCCESS!! Great job Players and Coaches!!!!

[zff]

This was posted on Friday about the marketing department:I found this article about the ever expanding marketing department. The last part talks about spending more time on ticket sales but I guess they are taking basketball season off. Hummmmmm........... I am going to have to dig deeper on all this new personnel...... more to come later......A tougher gridiron game By JOHN BOOTH2:10 pm, August 30, 2006The Can't State Golden flushes and the University of Akron Zips might be Mid-American Conference gridiron rivals, but each faces tough contests on their home fields: getting fans to come and see them play.Under an NCAA rule taking effect last season, Division I-A schools must average 15,000 “in either actual or paid attendance for all home football games once during a rolling two-year period.” Akron and Can't State are among 12 Division I-A schools that didn’t meet that mark last year, with the Zips averaging 10,983 in the 31,000-seat Rubber Bowl, while the Golden flushes saw an average of 6,658 at 30,520-seat Dix Stadium.Can't opens its football season Thursday night against visiting Minnesota. Akron won’t kick off its home schedule until a Sept. 23 game with North Texas. Can't State athletic director Laing Kennedy blames last year’s disappointing turnout in large part on a tough season — the team started off 1-3, with losses to Michigan State, Miami (Oh.), and Ohio University — and bad weather late in the campaign. The team finished the season with a 1-10 record.“When the product on the field is not where it needs to be, (and) if it’s kind of cold, windy or rainy, you’re not going to go” to a game, he said. “We just had a brutal early schedule. It would be huge if we had three home games in September against comparable opponents.” Leaning on the GophersThis fall, Mr. Kennedy says the school has poured “in excess of $150,000” — a figure that includes money from corporate sponsorships — into this season’s football marketing budget. The school also has leaned heavily Thursday’s game against the Golden Gophers, which will mark the first visit by a Big Ten team to Dix Stadium. Can't also has used the Minnesota game to fuel sales for other home dates, selling package deals that include additional tickets to some or all of the Golden flushes’ games against archrival Akron (Sept. 30), Toledo (Oct. 14), Ohio (Oct. 28) and Eastern Michigan (Nov. 17).Mr. Kennedy expects a crowd of 25,000 for the Minnesota game and another 20,000 for Akron, which would go a long way toward helping reach the Division I-A bar. Pre-sales of tickets have already almost doubled last year’s total home attendance of 33,290, he noted.“We need to sell 75,000 tickets (for the season),” Mr. Kennedy said. “Right now, we are looking at very close to 66,000 sold.” Football cushionWhile Akron isn’t trying to dig itself out of as deep an attendance hole, it will have neither the boost of a marquee visitor to the Rubber Bowl nor the privilege of hosting this year’s Can't-Akron clash, a traditionally big draw for both schools.On the other hand, Akron senior associate athletic director Hunter Yurachek notes, the school’s athletic programs do have a newly-expanded marketing department, with $150,000 invested in new personnel, and a three-week football cushion provided by the Zips’ season-opening road trips to Penn State, North Carolina State, and Central Michigan.During the transition period following Akron’s hiring of new athletic director Mack Rhoades in January, Mr. Yurachek said, “there was very little done from a football sales standpoint.”“It definitely is later in the year than we would like to start (pushing ticket sales),” said Mr. Yurachek, who was hired in June. “We were fortunate that our season doesn’t open up at home until Sept. 23.” Akron also hopes that winning last year’s Mid-American Conference title and making its first-ever Division I-A bowl appearance will spark ticket sales this year. Decent showings in early-season games at Penn State and North Carolina State wouldn’t hurt, either.Besides making a traditional advertising push, Akron has also partnered outside its offices, hiring InfoCision to help solicit its 63,000-person database of “donors and friends of the university” for season ticket sales, and contracting International Sports Properties to handle advertising sales. Those moves free up the university’s own marketing staff to focus solely on boosting ticket sales, Mr. Yurachek said. Ticket sales upDespite the late push, season-ticket sales already are around the 1,300 mark, up slightly from the 1,250 sold last year. The bulk of Akron’s crowd figures comes through single-game purchases and student attendance.Shooting for the same 75,000 mark as Can't State, Akron is taking particular aim at its first three home games: Sept. 23 against North Texas, Oct. 21 against Miami (Oh.), and Nov. 4 against Bowling Green.“All three of those games are on Saturdays, and two of them are at night, and we traditionally draw better at night,” Mr. Yurachek said. “We would like to draw somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 for each of those three games.”Such turnouts would take some of the pressure off the Zips’ last two home games, which are a Thursday nighter against Buffalo and a day-after-Thanksgiving game against Western Michigan. Neither, Mr. Yurachek said, are likely to draw many families or senior citizens, which are Akron’s biggest markets.Division I-A schools that don’t meet the 15,000 mark at least every other season will be put on a 10-year watch, during which they must meet the minimum or be placed in restricted membership and lose postseason bowl eligibility. If that happens, according to the NCAA, they’d have to meet the requirement the following year or else lose their Division I-A status. Football cushionWhile Akron isn’t trying to dig itself out of as deep an attendance hole, it will have neither the boost of a marquee visitor to the Rubber Bowl nor the privilege of hosting this year’s Can't-Akron clash, a traditionally big draw for both schools.On the other hand, Akron senior associate athletic director Hunter Yurachek notes, the school’s athletic programs do have a newly-expanded marketing department, with $150,000 invested in new personnel, and a three-week football cushion provided by the Zips’ season-opening road trips to Penn State, North Carolina State, and Central Michigan.During the transition period following Akron’s hiring of new athletic director Mack Rhoades in January, Mr. Yurachek said, “there was very little done from a football sales standpoint.”“It definitely is later in the year than we would like to start (pushing ticket sales),” said Mr. Yurachek, who was hired in June. “We were fortunate that our season doesn’t open up at home until Sept. 23.” Akron also hopes that winning last year’s Mid-American Conference title and making its first-ever Division I-A bowl appearance will spark ticket sales this year. Decent showings in early-season games at Penn State and North Carolina State wouldn’t hurt, either.Besides making a traditional advertising push, Akron has also partnered outside its offices, hiring InfoCision to help solicit its 63,000-person database of “donors and friends of the university” for season ticket sales, and contracting International Sports Properties to handle advertising sales. Those moves free up the university’s own marketing staff to focus solely on boosting ticket sales, Mr. Yurachek said.

[Captain Kangaroo]

On the other hand, Akron senior associate athletic director Hunter Yurachek notes, the school’s athletic programs do have a newly-expanded marketing department, with $150,000 invested in new personnel

And they still can't pay a student $6.00/hr to give the fans some stats at the games. How freaking bush-league can you get? A 6-1 Division 1 basketball team with about $2million dollars in scoreboards and they can't give you one freaking statistic the entire game. Hey - Great live shots of the basketball game going on directly below the monitors. Everyone in the stands wants to look up at that monitor to see the game rather than watch it on the court below. Pathetic, bush, Division III effort. Whomever is in charge of that stuff has no idea what it is like to be a fan. BTW - Love the fact that I need to buy my 5-year old a 20 freaking ounce pop for $2.75 if he's thirsty...and a $3.00 hot dog or a 3-lb sack of Skittles when he's hungry. No one at the JAR has ever seen "Super Size Me" I guess? How about some bottle of juice or some normal-size food? Or, WARM pizza?Also a great innovation - Offering soft pretzels at one concession stand with chesse being an extra $0.50. But, you need to get back in line over at the nacho stand to get your pretzel cheese.Ahhhh....the game day experience at the JAR in awesome. Does St Francis have a win yet?

[AK-Zips]

On the other hand, Akron senior associate athletic director Hunter Yurachek notes, the school’s athletic programs do have a newly-expanded marketing department, with $150,000 invested in new personnel

And they still can't pay a student $6.00/hr to give the fans some stats at the games. How freaking bush-league can you get? A 6-1 Division 1 basketball team with about $2million dollars in scoreboards and they can't give you one freaking statistic the entire game. Hey - Great live shots of the basketball game going on directly below the monitors. Everyone in the stands wants to look up at that monitor to see the game rather than watch it on the court below. Pathetic, bush, Division III effort. Whomever is in charge of that stuff has no idea what it is like to be a fan. BTW - Love the fact that I need to buy my 5-year old a 20 freaking ounce pop for $2.75 if he's thirsty...and a $3.00 hot dog or a 3-lb sack of Skittles when he's hungry. No one at the JAR has ever seen "Super Size Me" I guess? How about some bottle of juice or some normal-size food? Or, WARM pizza?Also a great innovation - Offering soft pretzels at one concession stand with chesse being an extra $0.50. But, you need to get back in line over at the nacho stand to get your pretzel cheese.Ahhhh....the game day experience at the JAR in awesome. Does St Francis have a win yet?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand boom goes the dynamite!

[skip-zip]

I've commented on some of this before. I am a sales and marketing executive with over 15 years of experience. Not only are the marketing efforts lacking in terms of volume, but they are also lacking it terms of the message. "Fear The Roo" is what our OPPONENTS are supposed to do, not us (Re: Basketball Radio Commercial). Plus, all of the print marketing in the newspapers lack the principles that most professionals follow that know how to create good marketing material. I hate to say this, but look at Can't's "On The Hunt" campaign. It incorporates some very effective messages.When athletic administrators come in from out of town, and bring others from out of town with them, they often lack the knowledge of the city, the fans, and the school to produce effective marketing material. Plus, oftentimes these people never held any kind of high-level marketing position prior to being assigned somewhere as an athletic administrator in charge of marketing. And the people at the top may never realize that this is such an important investment to make if you are going to attract more fans.Sure, they might be investing more dollars in marketing efforts. But if a campaign stinks, it's not going to have an effect on the target market...no matter how much you invest into it.

[seatea]

I think what ZFF is trying to point out is exactly what you are saying skip-zip. If you look at the bio's of the personnel in the marketing department, they all are rookies. Hiring infocision and ISP to do all the work while the marketing department does what? Not only are the newspaper ads lacking in substance, they continue to be laden with many mistakes (last week stated that Akron was on a 19 game winning streak, not HOME winning streak).Skip-zip mentions a campaign, what campaign? Fear the Roo came and went last year during the bowl hype. To try and use the same thing again this year was a lack of vision and effort. Coach Dambrot deserves more than this. He is screaming for fans to come to the games, but there that message is not getting to the masses.I vote for you to come and lend a hand...

[ziptrumpet87]

Had I not been at the WSSU game, I would have no idea that the next home game is dollar night ($1 GA tickets). I'm sure this is meant to get more people there, but if they don't tell the people about it (radio, TV, etc.), it won't succeed.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Coach Dambrot deserves more than this.  He is screaming for fans to come to the games, but there that message is not getting to the masses.

There is plenty of blame to go around. KD needs to look in the mirror a little too. The loss to UALR makes us 6-1. The difference between being undefeated and 6-1 is huge. We shouldn't have lost to UALR on a neutral court. We should have been playing Bobby Knight & Texas Tech on ESPN. THAT would have gotten the locals to take notice. A win would have been HUGE. Instead we beat Gardner Webb (Wyatt's cousin?).We've started our home slate off with three Div 3 schools and a 1-11 D1 newbie. That, coupled with the disappointing performance in Lubbock doesn't get the bandwagon up to warp speed.The Nevada game is our chance to shine. Beating them will garner some local and national attention and set the table for a nice gate for the remainder of the season. We can't choke like Buffalo vs. Pitt. We MUST win that game.Side note: Our marquee game this home season was set up by ESPN (payback for last year's Bracketbuster). If you look at the games we set up on our own, it is pretty shabby. Hopefully we get a nice bracketbuster game this February too. We should.

[FearTheRoo]

Regardless of whether we would or would not have beat UALR, do you really think we would have beaten TTECH?? We would still be 6-1!!!Look, it starts here. Commit to bringing more people to each home game with you. Be a pain in their ass and hound them with messages to get them to keep going with you. Keep adding people. Encourage them to bring someone. WE have to get it going as well. The front office has an uphill battle and I am quite sure they are working on it every day. Let me give you an example of what we are up against:I was at EJ recently for a show. The show was sponsored by a local radio station. The program director came out to introduce the speaker and rev up the crowd. He made a joke that he could get the crowd going by only speaking two letters. He then yelled "O - H!" and of course 3,000+ yelled back "I - O!". I then yelled "GO ZIPS!" and was laughed at by the people around me. It is sad that a local radio producer can give the battle cry for a D-1 Rival IN OUR OWN "house"! But this happens. Until we can force people to realize that it is a great, exciting product on the court in Akron, they won't do it on their own!

[Captain Kangaroo]

Regardless of whether we would or would not have beat UALR, do you really think we would have beaten TTECH?? We would still be 6-1!!!

Why is it such an unbelievable feat to beat Texas Tech. They aren't exactly Duke, although they did crush Gardner Webb by 12 and North Dakota State by four this season, to go along with their 3 losses. They aren't anything special this season. Stating we would definitely be 6-1 if we played Texas Tech exudes a pretty pathetic, loser D-3 mentality. We could have beaten them, and it would have been on national TV for everyone to see regardless. And Akron people need games on national TV to see their team, since we have no local TV station. UALR was a crippling early season loss. It can be overcome...but it was what it was.

[GP1]

All good points by everyone on this subject, especially skip-zip and seatea. When I'm not goofing around on this board, I'm a regional sales manager for a product line in half the US and Canada for the largest privately held company in the United States. Three quick items about what UofA has always done wrong in this area.1. Sales or Marketing2. Sales/Marketing3. Sales and MarketingUofA has always done the marketing end of #1 fairly well, they have always thought they are doing #2 (keep the jokes to yourself), but they need to do #3. The AND is the most important part of #3. Sales and marketing are separate things, but they must work together for either to work effectively. My skills are in sales and not marketing. Most marketing people frequently lack effective sales skills. I couldn't do my job without the marketing department.With that said, the folks at UofA need to be quicker getting scheduling and ticket information conceptualized, designed and printed. Selling season tickets during the season in the future should be considered a failure. Late spring/early summer is best. I know it's government work, but get your butts in gear and stop with everyone putting their little stamp on everything so they can add it to their resume for their next job interview. That's the marketing end.The sales end should involve more than just the ISP guy selling tickets to corporations. From what I have heard, the ISP guy is doing a good job. My company outsources our field level sales representatives and it really is the most cost effective way to get a product to market. Outsourcing this function is a bright spot and a step in the right direction. For UofA to be able to sustain a future football stadium, the general population of at least Summit County and northern Stark County are going to have to be brought in to purchase tickets. I've seen enough ineffective billboards and ABJ adds over the past 20 years to last me a lifetime. On as many days as possible throughout the summer, Mack or Brookhart or Dambrot or Kest, etc. need to be in front of as many community groups as possible, with marketing material, promoting the Athletic Department and ticket sales to every community organization possible until rubber chicken lunches are coming out of their noses. They could give the same talk at every event. Someone within the Athletic Department should be in charge of scheduling these lunches and this needs to be a priority so giving the task to an intern to shield yourself from responsibility is unacceptable.I don't know if it is possible to do what I want or not, but the same old nonsense isn't working and hasn't worked for my 20 years in NE Ohio. It's time to start selling!

[RowdyZip]

BTW - Love the fact that I need to buy my 5-year old a 20 freaking ounce pop for $2.75 if he's thirsty...Why is it such an unbelievable feat to beat Texas Tech. They aren't exactly Duke, although they did crush Gardner Webb by 12 and North Dakota State by four this season, to go along with their 3 losses.

Best part is that they turn off and put paper over the pop machines that sell those same 20oz pops for $1.25 every other time of the day except for game time.And if we had beaten UALR and gotten past Texas Tech...we surely would've lost to Marquette or Duke. Even I, forever the optimist, would concede those games, especially with how poorly we played UALR. One loss is one loss...and there's never a better time to have one than the first game of the season.GO ZIPS!

[seatea]

It really does not matter who you play. If people really cared, they would be at the games. UA Basketball has a good record over the past two years and Coach Dambrot does not lose at home. People in the basketball community know that and refuse to play here. The issue is butts in seats. Until we can sell out, this discussion will continue. Take a look at some of the teams you all mention and aspire to be like and where there season attendance is at:GonzagaMen's Basketball Season Tickets:All season ticket packages are currently sold out through April 2009. If tickets become available as a result of annual attrition, only Bulldog Club members will be eligible to purchase them. For more information about the Bulldog Club and how to join please click on the following link. Gonzaga Bulldog Club Information Wichita StateSOLD OUTBut if you are going to miss a game, you can sell your seats on the ticket marketplace. They want BUTTS in the seats, not just sold tickets!https://www.ticketmrktplace.com/ex/loginFra...er%20BasketballORAL ROBERTS Had 5,201 for the Akron game and 4,771 for the Lamar game two nights later, their record is 4-3.CREIGHTONvs. Mississippi Valley State (0-2) had 13,517. Recorded largest crowd in state history against Xavier with 15,872. Creighton is 4-2.It does not matter what the record is, UA is just not selling the product. GP1 is correct, we need sales and marketing.Niagara 0-3 had 1183 for the Akron game, Akron managed 2195 for Winston Salem State and we are 6-1.Winning does help sell tickets, but how many games in how many seasons do we have to win before people begin to come to games?

[ZipAlumn]

I've commented on some of this before. I am a sales and marketing executive with over 15 years of experience. Not only are the marketing efforts lacking in terms of volume, but they are also lacking it terms of the message. "Fear The Roo" is what our OPPONENTS are supposed to do, not us (Re: Basketball Radio Commercial). Plus, all of the print marketing in the newspapers lack the principles that most professionals follow that know how to create good marketing material. I hate to say this, but look at Can't's "On The Hunt" campaign. It incorporates some very effective messages.When athletic administrators come in from out of town, and bring others from out of town with them, they often lack the knowledge of the city, the fans, and the school to produce effective marketing material. Plus, oftentimes these people never held any kind of high-level marketing position prior to being assigned somewhere as an athletic administrator in charge of marketing. And the people at the top may never realize that this is such an important investment to make if you are going to attract more fans.Sure, they might be investing more dollars in marketing efforts. But if a campaign stinks, it's not going to have an effect on the target market...no matter how much you invest into it.

There are a lot of excellent comments on this subject. i too am extremely disappointed in the U of A's marketing of their athletic teams. In case anyone noticed the box score for the Winston-Salem game were all screwed up. And Akron has other teams besides football and basketball that could use a little "love" from the Marketing Department.One additional comment I would like to make concerning skip-zip's post. Personally I don't care if these people are new to Akron, I don't care if they are "inexperienced". They are drawing a paycheck and thus they should be professionals. Tickets not printed on time, news flushes and publicity releases full of errors, ticket promotions not getting promoted, and in general shooting yourself in the foot over and over is NOT PROFESSIONAL. Somethings about the job are standard and expected no matter where you are. Hey, was he reason this board was "down" Sunday is that they were adding a spell checker? Good work

[skip-zip]

GP1...Thanks for adding your professional expertise as well.Someone mentioned about how the "Fear The Roo" campaign may be communicating an "old" message. This might be true. But what concerns me more is that it is not being used in the correct context. The music on both the basketball and football commercials sounds "cartoonish", which is not what "Fear The Roo" is supposed to convey. And in the basketball commercial, it asks us to come out and attend the games and Fear The Roo, as if we are the opponent. Yes, we do need to utilize every opportunity we have to "sell" Akron athletics to the community. But with marketing material like this to support the sales efforts, we're fighting a very tough fight.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Take a look at some of the teams you all mention and aspire to be like and where there season attendance is at:GonzagaWichita StateORAL ROBERTS CREIGHTON

We are in no way shape or form in Gonzaga's league from a recent historical pespective. They have multiple players in the NBA, multiple runs in the NCAA's, incessant presence in the national media. During that time the U of A has had Coleman Crawford, Dan Hipsher, no MAC titles, no NCAA's and one lone NIT win.Wichita State is in a great gonference and also a post season NCAA regular. They're #10...yes #10 in this week's AP poll. I think the Zips are #8...in the MID-MAJOR poll! The shockers are also in the middle of nowhere...what else is there to do in Wichita?Oral Roberts was in the NCAA's last season and expected to do it again this year. If we had beaten Toledo and gotten to the NCAA's last season, that would have been a decent comparison. However, we fell far short of Oral Roberts success last season. Who has Akron played at home that's our equivalent? NO one. Just a pile of crap thusfar. And people are supposed to pack the house for Winston Salem Marlboro...Hillsdale...Tiffin? No freaking way.Creighton? Compare our last 10 years of hoops to Creighton. We don't hold a candle to them. Again, they play in a great conference (4 NCAA bids last season), they've played in the NCAA's multiple times and been very successful. People at the University of Akron plant a seed on Monday and expect to be picking fruit by Thursday. It doesn't happen. Win SOMETHING and people will show up. If we had K.e.n.t's success over the past 8 years, we'd be packing the JAR every night...even for garbage opponents. But we've experienced minimal success over the past decade, and you don't overcome that negative inertia with a measly NIT win.

[GoZips88]

Wow, excellent thread.Holding firm on the 2PM start time for Tiffin on a Sunday afternoon when the Steelers are in town to play Charlie Frye and the Browns. Why NOT move the start time to 6PM?!? My two seats were empty at the JAR.Winston-Salem State - my 12-year-old son who bleeds Akron blue and gold asked if he could stay home but I MADE him go to the game. This is the same boy who talks Akron up at his middle school and helps to arrange a Zip night out for his Upwards! basketball team. I know - when you want 1-for-1 scheduling, you take what you can get but ... St. FRANcis (Pa.) - another dud that will see me dragging either my son or my 8-year-old daughter to the game. NEVADA! Thank you ESPN. EVERYWHERE I go, people are talking about ... uh, no, wishful thinking on my part and TERRIBLE sales and marketing (I hope I got that right) on the part of the U of A. THE game of the year other than Can't and what have we heard about it? Little if any mention of the game during the Winston-Salem game and even that was of the "oh, by the way ..." variety. I picked up tickets for my mother- and father-in-law and another for a former Akron student friend of mine who will be back in town that week. Why NOT mention SOMETHING over the PA system asking everyone to BRING A FRIEND to pack the JAR for the #19 Nevada Wolf Pack? (#25 or so now after their loss to UNLV) I've arranged for three additional butts in seats and I didn't even make much of an effort to do it!?! Same thing can be said for Loyola Marymount. It's Christmas break and many of us have family and friends coming back into town. These are quality opponents and the games would make for a great night out for people looking something to do with family and friends while in town.Hello, Mack, you guys are REALLY missing the boat!

[seatea]

The Captain says:If we had beaten Toledo If we had K.e.n.t's success Win SOMETHING and people will show upIf and WIN. Well, it has not happened and when you keep up the comparison of other schools it never will. Thanks for biting on that Captain. Which brings us full circle with this discussion. Sales and Marketing. Question: Do we have a marketable product? If so, who is out selling it?If you can answer that question it might solve the mystery of season ticket sales and game attendance.

[Zipster]

and where's the Zippy cartoon????

[Captain Kangaroo]

Sales and Marketing. Question: Do we have a marketable product? If so, who is out selling it?If you can answer that question it might solve the mystery of season ticket sales and game attendance.

That's easy: "Yes" we have a marketable product. "No," no one's selling it.Next question: Is anyone held accountable for the poor Marketing efforts this year?What I would like to believe it the Marketing Group decided Marketing the first 4 home games is a lost cause due to Rosie O'Donnell-esque uglyness of the schedule. The Marketing Group hopefully is laying low, waiting for the Nevada game to kick things into high gear.What I believe is people are sitting on their thumbs saying "Gee we're a really good team and we have $30.00 ticket plans...why aren't we selling out the JAR? I guess the people of Akron just won't ever support a winner?"

[Z-P]

Hi!It's ole myopic me again with just two lines to blow this up even more:1. You never know you're in your best period until you're thru it2. Mike Waddell, unqualifiedSorry..........

[Captain Kangaroo]

1. You never know you're in your best period until you're thru it2. Mike Waddell, unqualifiedSorry..........

1.) If a 7-6 football season and a NIT win in basketball is our best period, shoot me now. 2.) I dig Mike...but he also struggled with the scoreboard stuff. He seemed to be "getting it" last season. By year's end there were nice stats on the center board and good clips and graphics. This year is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. The most creative thing I've seen from this Marketing crew is Dambrot, reading a cue card, asking people to bring teddy bears to the St Francis game. Great stuff.

[RowdyZip]

The most creative thing I've seen from this Marketing crew is Dambrot, reading a cue card, asking people to bring teddy bears to the St Francis game. Great stuff.

At least this was funny...probably not what they were going for. Nothing like watching coaches eyes shift from the camera to slightly below the camera and then back again.

[ziptrumpet87]

The most creative thing I've seen from this Marketing crew is Dambrot, reading a cue card, asking people to bring teddy bears to the St Francis game.

I wonder if the players could have done that better than KD (if NCAA rules allow?). I love what KD's doing on the court etc., but making "commercials" doesn't seem to be his forte, and that's OK. Just get us the wins, baby!

[GP1]

Next question: Is anyone held accountable for the poor Marketing efforts this year?

Probably not, but the season is not over yet. Not feeling much hope though.I'd be interested to know Mack's priorities. If they are to generate money through season ticket sales, football season tickets went up from approximately 1,150 to approximately 4,100 and they broke their 15,000 ticket average. That is a successful first year. My guess is the ISP guy sold a bunch of tickets to community minded corporations. That's all well and good and looks great on a resume, but it does not solve the underlying problem which is getting at least the alumni and community around Akron to pay to come out to support the team.If the intent is to get people in the stands, the football season has to be considered a disappointment. Money must be made from just ticket sales. Food and clothes need to be sold as well. Let's face it, the food is crap and has been for years, and the clothing items sold at games are crap and have been for years. Every away game, with the exception of Buffalo, the fans have better merchandising than Akron. You never see anyone wearing anything around Akron because most people would not be caught dead outside of their house or a game with some of that stuff they sell on their backs.Back to basketball.Next point, I've seen on this board that they are having $1.00 ticket nights for basketball coming up. Is this A. good marketing, or is it B. the same old give away crap I have seen here for 20 years? Answer: Neither A nor B. It's worse.....in fact, it stinks of desperation. Organizations that only market and don't sell are doomed to failure.Another point. Do any of us know why people don't go to games? Probably not, but it isn't our job to know because we are just fans. Does the Athletic Department know why? That's the question. When I hear of $1.00 give away nights, I can only assume they don't know why or they would not have to be so desperate. They need to do some type of survey to see why people do not go to games. Don't survey the choir either. Every time a customer does not buy from me, I know exactly why. I don't know that the University does. If they would go out and talk to the local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Knights of Columbus, etc. they could hear first hand why someone may not want to buy. Everyone can't be satisfied, but hearing first hand from people is a good way to formulate your message. It is also the best way to overcome a person's objections as to why they do not want to buy. There could be a lot of misconceptions out there about the program and a good Q & A session in front of 50-100 people per day all summer long helps to clear up the misconceptions. God knows anyone reading the ABJ would be confused about the state of athletics if that was their only source of information.Selling the program should not be difficult. What do they have to lose? It's like getting a date. If you don't ask someone out, you don't get a date. If she says "no", you have lost nothing. So if you are in a slump, ask as many as possible. The University has nothing to lose by going out and asking people, and lots of them, to come to games. The costs of selling are small compared to the costs of not selling. Let's start selling this product.Sorry to go on for so long, but when I see the same nonsense going on from the marketing team now that I have seen fail over and over again for the past 20 years, I tend to get a little upset.