Athletic Department + AK-ROWDIES = Allies

[quickasazip33]

I would like to take this opportunity to retract my statements from Monday regarding the Athletic Departments decision to sell Rowdies tickets in the North End during the holiday break games. I have spoken to several members of the department and now have a better understanding of why the decision was made. The Athletics Department made the decision to try and sell the seats at the North End of the JAR in an effort to create the best possible home court advantage for the Men’s Basketball team against a national power. History has shown that students do not attend basketball games during the holiday break in large numbers. Rather than risk holding the seats for students and having one end open or both ends half full, a decision was made to hold the seats at the South End for Rowdies and to sell the North End to Z-Fund members and other Zips fans. The Athletic Department would like nothing more than to have both ends filled with Rowdies and other Akron students on Friday night, but it is up to us to make this happen. Only 65 Rowdies were in attendance last night as the Zips blitzed St. Francis. We need 164 on Friday night to pack each end and give the Men’s Basketball team the home court advantage they need and deserve. We can still make this happen! As of this posting a limited number of tickets have been sold in the North End. If we can arrive early (6:00 PM) on Friday night and pack the North and South ends, the athletic department will consider these areas sold out and will not sell any of these seats. It is up to us to make this happen! We can write all we want to about how we think we are being mistreated, but we have an opportunity to make this all right. The Athletic Department sees their relationship with the Rowdies and the Akron students as a partnership. They want us to show up in full force for each and every game. Let’s not let history repeat itself. Let’s show the Athletic Department and the University and surrounding communities that this is not the same old Akron. Let’s show them that a new era has indeed arrived, that will create a home court advantage that others in the MAC will strive to imitate. The STREAK is now 21! You can be the difference in making it 22! I will be there on Friday with several other Rowdies and I hope that everyone reading this will also make the same decision. GO ZIPS!Friday, doors open at 6:00 get in line to get a great seat for the BIGGEST game in James A. Rhodes Arena History.This is my last post so all I have to say is

[AK-Zips]

dude, you know how i know you're gay? you let them manipulate you into believeing it was for the 'right cause' rather than seeing the undermined bottom line. they were trying to make a quick buck rahter than leave an empty seat. over break and under certain circumstacnes i get that. it was in the way that the situation was handled and publicly announced. not at the beginning of the year or any other release other than a ucik sentence that said it was happening. END OF STORY.

[sgm405]

History shows that those seats don't sell over break? And how would this athletic department - in its first year - know/have that kind of information? I know they havent taken counts on the number of students sitting down low...so - whether its true or false - how would they know this information?Face it - they sold out the students to make an extra buck. If that's what they're telling you, and if that's what you want to believe, that's cool. And hey, if nobody is going to do anything, that's the way it's going to be. The Alumni seats weren't even close to being filling last night or for any other game...are their spots going to be put up for grabs too? I'll be there for Nevada...like I would've been. Hopefully others won't be scared off by this joke of an athletic department.

[Randolph Duke]

Enjoy the Kool Aid.

[RowdyZip]

I would like to take this opportunity to retract my statements from Monday regarding the Athletic Departments decision to sell Rowdies tickets in the North End during the holiday break games. I have spoken to several members of the department and now have a better understanding of why the decision was made. The Athletics Department made the decision to try and sell the seats at the North End of the JAR in an effort to create the best possible home court advantage for the Men’s Basketball team against a national power. History has shown that students do not attend basketball games during the holiday break in large numbers. Rather than risk holding the seats for students and having one end open or both ends half full, a decision was made to hold the seats at the South End for Rowdies and to sell the North End to Z-Fund members and other Zips fans. The Athletic Department would like nothing more than to have both ends filled with Rowdies and other Akron students on Friday night, but it is up to us to make this happen. Only 65 Rowdies were in attendance last night as the Zips blitzed St. Francis. We need 164 on Friday night to pack each end and give the Men’s Basketball team the home court advantage they need and deserve. We can still make this happen! As of this posting a limited number of tickets have been sold in the North End. If we can arrive early (6:00 PM) on Friday night and pack the North and South ends, the athletic department will consider these areas sold out and will not sell any of these seats. It is up to us to make this happen! We can write all we want to about how we think we are being mistreated, but we have an opportunity to make this all right. The Athletic Department sees their relationship with the Rowdies and the Akron students as a partnership. They want us to show up in full force for each and every game. Let’s not let history repeat itself. Let’s show the Athletic Department and the University and surrounding communities that this is not the same old Akron. Let’s show them that a new era has indeed arrived, that will create a home court advantage that others in the MAC will strive to imitate. The STREAK is now 21! You can be the difference in making it 22! I will be there on Friday with several other Rowdies and I hope that everyone reading this will also make the same decision. GO ZIPS!Friday, doors open at 6:00 get in line to get a great seat for the BIGGEST game in James A. Rhodes Arena History.This is my last post so all I have to say is

*cough* BULLSH*T *cough*

[Valpo Zip]

At this point, the only thing we can do is show up in huge numbers and occuppy both ends. Now the only situation we can complain about is if we have rowdies who show up and still cannot have seats because they're sold. Other than that... the AD will appear to have made the right decision.

[RowdyZip]

just kinda have this funny feeling most of those seats'll sell for nevada and we'll more than fill the south end. then a bunch of rowdies will be stuck up top, cuz we all know they'd never boot their precious $20/seat snoozers that wont even stand up, let alone make noise.

[GoZips88]

RowdyZip - I've noticed a fair amount of coughing lately. You'd better have that looked at!I'm not buying the line. The athletic department has known about this game for almost a year now and they wait until the week OF the game to do something to fill the seats behind the baskets? No way. Knowing that a win tomorrow night could give us some nice national exposure and act as a nice springboard heading into the MAC portion of the schedule, they should have been all over 12/22 long ago (start of the fall semester?). Nope - they get an 'F' on this assignment and it may be a long time (how long ago did Xavier play at the JAR?) before they get a chance to try again.

[zip37]

I've been around a loooooooooooooong time & what the Deept states is TRUE.With ball ammunition lock and load and of ourse

[akronad]

Unfortunatley, what the Athletic Dept. has stated is true. I have seen games since the hey days of Billy Turner. During the holiday season, it did not matter whether it was at Memorial Hall or the JAR, and it didn't matter who the opponent would be, the place(s) did not sell out.That being said, however, it does not excuse the University from shutting out the fans that mean the most. A better line of communication would have solved most of the problems and a truly better marketing strategy would have taken care of the rest.I can only hope that the Athltic Dept. gets their crap together and do a much better job of selling the sports teams.

[RowdyZip]

I've been around a loooooooooooooong time & what the Deept states is TRUE.With ball ammunition lock and load and of ourse

it may be true...and i've seen it first hand too. I was one of 4 watching rashon brown over break 6 years ago. The zips are on the verge of stepping up a level...and near an unprecidented level of success following on what football did two seasons ago. While it may be a "good" decision to sell the seats, the way that it was done was wrong. Athletics told the leaders of the AK-Rowdies that the seats would be sold monday night (that's right, LATE the night before the next home game). That very same night, some 45 minutes later, the story pops up on gozips.com "select lower level seats usually reserved for students are now on sale!" Oh, and how kind of them to offer up that section in return if the students could sign up 164 students to attend the nevada game in a 2 day time period. We've done our best, without the help of the AK-Rowdies President's master email list, by using myspace and facebook. The list is up to 70 attendees and 60 maybes. Not bad, considering how few AK-Rowdies are even aware of the zipsnation myspace and facebook groups. Regardless, I'm giving the athletics department the benefit of the doubt until zip students show up in force tomorrow and a bunch are forced to sit up top and watch the game while those who bought out those tickets put their feet up and snooze through the game. Thanks to whoever that was that said they bought a couple and planned to sit up high. I'm assuming you dont think you can be loud enough. GO ZIPS! BEAT NEVADA!