Week 5 (Buffalo) Thoughts

[zippy-claws]

19 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

I'm going to push back on this. First, we have an example in-house to show winning doesn't necessarily = attendance (MBB). Second, there are glaring weaknesses this athletic department has had for *years* that have held it back.

 

You are so right.  But you'll get shouted down by the old-guard that will stick up for the new regime.  It's no secret that Mr. Guthrie got rid of Pritt Entertainment Group last year, thinking he and his new cohorts had the expertise to put on a quality, or even competent, DI football game experience.  It is he who wants the DJ experience (not Irons, mind you), removing the traditional Marching Band in College Football stadium effect that exists at all the Big schools, and we have a helluva band to boot.  Marketing????  So, they hired some wiz from Robert Morris, boy now there's a powerhouse of DI athletics!  And has it made a difference?  You tell me.  We all made fun of Keith whatever-his-name-was when he was on the video board doing give-aways on the field, but God I miss those days now.  Where's the kiss-cams, the dance-cams, the juke box games, the give-aways?  How many times are we going to see some people standing on the field with Dr. Miller during a time-out and the PA guy not even mentioning what it is for?  And don't even start to defend the poor choice made for PA announcers the last two games!  It's not even a good high school football game experience.  And yes, I'd love to take the family to a winning program, but as an alumn I feel I need to go when I'm in town, and the lack of winning would at least be tolerable if there were some pleasurable distractions.   And your comparison to the Rubber Ducks is excelllent.  Nice to see someone else feels like I do.

[Blue & Gold]

22 minutes ago, zippy-claws said:

 

It's not even a good high school football game experience. 

Almost posted this very sentiment during the game last Saturday.

[GP1]

1 hour ago, zippy-claws said:

How many times are we going to see some people standing on the field with Dr. Miller during a time-out and the PA guy not even mentioning what it is for? 

Of everything you mentioned, this is the worst. It's inexcusable. Many of these people are from organizations that support the school financially. Some support individually.

 

This is extremely poor community recognition. Remember, the athletic department should support five areas with the general Akron community being one of them. Recognize those who support you. 

[LoyalZIP]

1 hour ago, zippy-claws said:

 

You are so right.  But you'll get shouted down by the old-guard that will stick up for the new regime.  It's no secret that Mr. Guthrie got rid of Pritt Entertainment Group last year, thinking he and his new cohorts had the expertise to put on a quality, or even competent, DI football game experience.  It is he who wants the DJ experience (not Irons, mind you), removing the traditional Marching Band in College Football stadium effect that exists at all the Big schools, and we have a helluva band to boot.  Marketing????  So, they hired some wiz from Robert Morris, boy now there's a powerhouse of DI athletics!  And has it made a difference?  You tell me.  We all made fun of Keith whatever-his-name-was when he was on the video board doing give-aways on the field, but God I miss those days now.  Where's the kiss-cams, the dance-cams, the juke box games, the give-aways?  How many times are we going to see some people standing on the field with Dr. Miller during a time-out and the PA guy not even mentioning what it is for?  And don't even start to defend the poor choice made for PA announcers the last two games!  It's not even a good high school football game experience.  And yes, I'd love to take the family to a winning program, but as an alumn I feel I need to go when I'm in town, and the lack of winning would at least be tolerable if there were some pleasurable distractions.   And your comparison to the Rubber Ducks is excelllent.  Nice to see someone else feels like I do.

 

The thing that bothers me the most about this regime's approach to gamedays so far is the importance they place on the optics of everything. Guthrie himself speaks so much about how things look and how things feel. Noting things like can you see trash cans on the TV broadcast or do chairs on the floor have jackets resting on them. Small, silly things to worry about. I agree on Keith Kennedy, at least the spirit of it. Zips football games from 2009-2021 may not have been any fun because of the crap football, but at least the in-house production seemed well put together instead of the free for all it has become. I miss our old PA guy so much, hoping he is back for basketball and only told football to kick rocks. Maybe they should hold open auditions for this spot in the offseason? That would be awesome! Through 2 games, I have seen a few members of the staff and players on the sideline puzzled when they hear wrong names announced. The ineptitude at InfoCision Stadium has spread far beyond the football field.

 

That said, I think these guys have done a nice job at the JAR for MBB games. Between moving and mobilizing the students and the new lounge area, it's at least a step in the right direction.

[K92]

23 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Kent had 13,000 at their game and they blow. Akron had 5,000. There are ways to get the fans to feel like they’re part of the program without a winning product on the field. 

I can’t not respond to this.

 

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Have you ever attended a game with a big crowd at Dick Stadium?  It’s like being surrounded by the weirdest teachers from your childhood who know less than zero about football.  I’d rather be lonely.

[Hilltopper]

3 hours ago, K92 said:

I can’t not respond to this.

 

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Have you ever attended a game with a big crowd at Dick Stadium?  It’s like being surrounded by the weirdest teachers from your childhood who know less than zero about football.  I’d rather be lonely.

Keener!

[Let'sGoZips94]

3 hours ago, K92 said:

I can’t not respond to this.

 

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Have you ever attended a game with a big crowd at Dick Stadium?  It’s like being surrounded by the weirdest teachers from your childhood who know less than zero about football.  I’d rather be lonely.

 

Valid. 

[GoZips86]

I'll take a stab here at some of the attendance comments, even if most disagree with me here:

 

I think as a Zips fan you just have to accept youre a fan of a program and school that will never be popular. 15,000 consistently at a game would be HUGE (that's the stadium half full). The fact is Akron will just never be Ohio State. Im not proud of that either. The Zips could go undefeated 3 years in a row and win their bowl game each of those 3 years and NE Ohio will still rather watch Ohio State on Saturdays and even Akron students will skip the Zips games to watch the Buckeyes in their dorm or at a bar. 

 

Someone else mentioned on here about the Rubberducks games being fun and such. Very good comparison, however kids aren't really born and bred to be Indians (excuse me, Guardian) fans, so getting some minor league action in as opposed to going to downtown Cleveland is a perk. However, on Saturdays, children are bred to watch Ohio State football. Most kids goes to U of Akron for any given reason, however they prefer to watch the Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon.

 

In my opinion, no matter how much Akron could win, they may get increased interest and attendance,  however, Buckeyes will still always prevail in people's attention and overall popularity. Its lame, but it is what it is. 

[Reslife4Life]

11 hours ago, GoZips86 said:

I'll take a stab here at some of the attendance comments, even if most disagree with me here:

 

I think as a Zips fan you just have to accept youre a fan of a program and school that will never be popular. 15,000 consistently at a game would be HUGE (that's the stadium half full). The fact is Akron will just never be Ohio State. Im not proud of that either. The Zips could go undefeated 3 years in a row and win their bowl game each of those 3 years and NE Ohio will still rather watch Ohio State on Saturdays and even Akron students will skip the Zips games to watch the Buckeyes in their dorm or at a bar. 

 

Someone else mentioned on here about the Rubberducks games being fun and such. Very good comparison, however kids aren't really born and bred to be Indians (excuse me, Guardian) fans, so getting some minor league action in as opposed to going to downtown Cleveland is a perk. However, on Saturdays, children are bred to watch Ohio State football. Most kids goes to U of Akron for any given reason, however they prefer to watch the Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon.

 

In my opinion, no matter how much Akron could win, they may get increased interest and attendance,  however, Buckeyes will still always prevail in people's attention and overall popularity. Its lame, but it is what it is. 

I think this is the most accurate take on this thread. Yes, a “winning” program would get more people out. But that would be a winning MAC program vs Ohio State. We would need to be ranked for people to even notice that the football team is any good. If you ask any students that have started after 2018, they will all say the same thing without even thinking about it “The football team sucks”. I even had my best friend, who is a huge sports fan, at the Buffalo game ask me if we were FBS or FCS! When we have these buy games against P5 schools, students especially those that aren’t that in tuned to CFB, see that we lose 66-6 against Michigan State and just say “oh yeah that’s akron!”

 

I honestly say that winning won’t solve everything. I mean the soccer team has been top 5 all year and I don’t think there has been a game attended more than 2500 yet. There definitely is something to having a gameday experience. Even if the team is 8-0, not that many people are going to want to come to a 4 hour long game on a Tuesday night when it’s 35 degrees when there is absolutely no entertainment for an excessive amount of TV timeouts. CFB is simply made for TV. 

 

 

[Blue & Gold]

42 minutes ago, Reslife4Life said:

I think this is the most accurate take on this thread. Yes, a “winning” program would get more people out. But that would be a winning MAC program vs Ohio State. We would need to be ranked for people to even notice that the football team is any good. If you ask any students that have started after 2018, they will all say the same thing without even thinking about it “The football team sucks”. I even had my best friend, who is a huge sports fan, at the Buffalo game ask me if we were FBS or FCS! When we have these buy games against P5 schools, students especially those that aren’t that in tuned to CFB, see that we lose 66-6 against Michigan State and just say “oh yeah that’s akron!”

 

I honestly say that winning won’t solve everything. I mean the soccer team has been top 5 all year and I don’t think there has been a game attended more than 2500 yet. There definitely is something to having a gameday experience. Even if the team is 8-0, not that many people are going to want to come to a 4 hour long game on a Tuesday night when it’s 35 degrees when there is absolutely no entertainment for an excessive amount of TV timeouts. CFB is simply made for TV. 

 

 

The tv timeouts are killing even me.

I MUCH prefer the pace of the high school games. 2 hours. Long enough.

 

[Captain Kangaroo]

Summarizing attendance and community/campus interest - We don't need to be, or compete with, Ohio State.

 

We need to be like Toledo. Have 10k+ locals show up on home Saturdays. Have our students and community respect our program (rather than be embarrassed, or completely disinterested). Win our fair share of games. Have a magical 10+ win season every once in a while. That's the goal of a MAC program.

 

The best thing that ever happened to UA Athletics was the building of Infocision, because it gave every administrator an excuse - "I wouldn't have built that stadium".  If it sits 80% empty, it isn't their fault. 

 

I'm still waiting for the first AD to make any effort to fill Infocision to a respectable level. Instead we get exciting announcements on clear bag policies and body scanners. Instead of creating focus groups to increase football attendance, they create them to fabricate unimaginative logos. 

[LoyalZIP]

I view Toledo the same way now that I did Akron back in the early 2000s/End of Rubber Bowl era. They win more games and win more titles than Akron did, but the community interest is strong. You can walk into the local businesses and see a lot of Toledo gear, hear people talking about Toledo coaches and players. I used to love that about Akron. Now, when it gets to February and March, people ask me how the Zips did this year or how they're looking for next year, totally unaware of anything. This fanbase is dormant and I can't blame them. I hope it comes back to life one day, but it would take a lot more than a couple of 5 win seasons and a single winning season over 20 years. 

[Blue & Gold]

2 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

I view Toledo the same way now that I did Akron back in the early 2000s/End of Rubber Bowl era. They win more games and win more titles than Akron did, but the community interest is strong. You can walk into the local businesses and see a lot of Toledo gear, hear people talking about Toledo coaches and players. I used to love that about Akron. Now, when it gets to February and March, people ask me how the Zips did this year or how they're looking for next year, totally unaware of anything. This fanbase is dormant and I can't blame them. I hope it comes back to life one day, but it would take a lot more than a couple of 5 win seasons and a single winning season over 20 years. 

Anecdote concerning lack of community awareness, a couple weeks ago I had a guy at work ask, “Are they still called the Zips? Are they still D-1?” 😐

[Hilltopper]

Scanners and clear bag policies were mandates from the MAC that did come with a cost. Money that could have been spent elsewhere. The search for a marketing director was extensive but in todays job market finding one was not easy. A very small pool of qualified applicants. 

[akzipper]

5 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

I view Toledo the same way now that I did Akron back in the early 2000s/End of Rubber Bowl era. They win more games and win more titles than Akron did, but the community interest is strong. You can walk into the local businesses and see a lot of Toledo gear, hear people talking about Toledo coaches and players. I used to love that about Akron. Now, when it gets to February and March, people ask me how the Zips did this year or how they're looking for next year, totally unaware of anything. This fanbase is dormant and I can't blame them. I hope it comes back to life one day, but it would take a lot more than a couple of 5 win seasons and a single winning season over 20 years. 

 

I wish this for not only Akron, but every school in the MAC. It's so embarrassing turning on the ESPN mid-week #MACtion games to see 100 people in the crowd. We live in a country where people live and breathe football. The day of the week or current record shouldn't matter. Us Browns fans have been supporting 1-5 win teams our entire life and a lot of us have never lived in Cleveland. Yet, most people who actually attended UA couldn't care less about anything that isn't scarlet and grey. 

Edited October 4, 2023 by akzipper

[GP1]

8 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

We need to be like Toledo. Have 10k+ locals show up on home Saturdays. Have our students and community respect our program (rather than be embarrassed, or completely disinterested). Win our fair share of games. Have a magical 10+ win season every once in a while. That's the goal of a MAC program.

Amen. Want to know how we measure against them?  Play them every year whether mandated by the Conference or not. It's a school very similar to Akron so if we can win, great. If we can win and get a look every other year at how a school like ours is capable of a good game day experience, even better. If we lose, we get to gauge where we can get better. There isn't much to learn about your program getting destroyed by a P5 school twice a year.  The Sun Belt figured this out. 

[tomzip]

I am late to this but I grew up under the acme zip game era.  The great thing about those games were 30k people there to enjoy local high school bands, fireworks, sky divers etc.  It was an event driven by cheap tickets. I so wish they would try this again and maybe a bunch of people who have never experienced a game may want to come back and see them?

The ticket prices are way too high for the product that is on the field, see if acme can subsidize one game a year and see what happens.

 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, tomzip said:

I am late to this but I grew up under the acme zip game era.  The great thing about those games were 30k people there to enjoy local high school bands, fireworks, sky divers etc.  It was an event driven by cheap tickets. I so wish they would try this again and maybe a bunch of people who have never experienced a game may want to come back and see them?

The ticket prices are way too high for the product that is on the field, see if acme can subsidize one game a year and see what happens.

 

Every taxpayer in Ohio should get four general admission tickets to two MAC sporting events per year. They a paying for the product and should have access to their publicly funded teams. 

[1981 grad]

13 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

The tv timeouts are killing even me.

I MUCH prefer the pace of the high school games. 2 hours. Long enough.

 

I cannot determine what I hate most.  The very long TV timeouts.  The loud music that gives me a headache.  The speakers cannot take the high volume and it sounds distorted even if I like the music which is about a quarter of the time.  Also, I like the chairback and now 80% of those seats are covered up at the opposing sideline.  I will say the band stays engaged but that was about it until it bacame 4th down and we heard a little croud noise and the Zips were on defense.  Of course they made the 4th down play.  

[zippy5]

14 hours ago, GP1 said:

Amen. Want to know how we measure against them?  Play them every year whether mandated by the Conference or not. It's a school very similar to Akron so if we can win, great. If we can win and get a look every other year at how a school like ours is capable of a good game day experience, even better. If we lose, we get to gauge where we can get better. There isn't much to learn about your program getting destroyed by a P5 school twice a year.  The Sun Belt figured this out. 

I'm once again asking why Toledo would ever agree to this

[GP1]

33 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

I'm once again asking why Toledo would ever agree to this

The same reasons UNC plays Wake Forest every year regardless except for this season because WF has to squeeze in a trip to Notre Dame. It benefits all the right people. 

 

1. Players and  families don't have to travel as far. They get to play familiar faces from high school. Some are from those areas.

 

2. Students can travel to the game. Easy travel to take the band. 

 

3. Alumni can go watch their school play close to home. Alumni associations can more easily have larger alumni gatherings. 

 

4. Fans can easily drive the two hours between cities and enjoy a day at a game. 

 

5. General communities will see a name they know and be more interested than the Temples of the world. Larger crowd can generate more excitement. If the city leaders had half a brain they could work with the universities to promote the game.  

 

Toledo is playing at UMass this weekend. I can't think of a less interesting match up for Toledo fans to think about other than Temple. A trip to Akron for a non conference game would better benefit all of the five categories above. 

 

Until the MAC wakes up, eliminates divisions and has 9 conference games per year, I'd like Akron to schedule: FCS, P5, G5, Toledo or in years when the conference schedules Toledo another G5. That is a challenging non conference schedule that prepares a team for conference play. 

[1981 grad]

During the long tv timeouts, have a a small group of the band go throughout the stadium and do a 2-3 minute quickie song.  It could be the drum line, tubas, trombones, or flutes do a mini concert.  Have the dance team do a routine like they do during basketball timeouts.  Do something other than have people get awards that nobody hears or listens to.    

[GP1]

30 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Do something other than have people get awards that nobody hears or listens to.    

Why can't they do both?  During the three minute time out, they can spend 90 seconds recognizing an important member or business of the community for their support in an an organized way in which the crowd can hear and understand what the PA announcer is saying. Then they can spend the other 90 seconds playing music and dancing around. 90 seconds is a long time. 

 

Wake Forest manages to do this several times a game. Why can't Akron? It doesn't seem all that difficult. As crazy as this sounds, it almost seems as if Wake Forest spends some time during the week preparing for this activity.  Maybe Akron could spend some time during the week organizing. 

 

Here is some advice. Step one, write a script to honor someone that lasts 60 seconds allowing 30 seconds for stepping onto the field and waving at the end. Read the script out loud to make sure it fits into the allotted time. If too long, shorten. If too short, add a little. 

 

Step two, tell the band and dance team when they will be performing and for how long. They are to prepare materials to last 90 seconds. Practice during the week to make sure everything fits in allotted time slot. If too long, shorten. If too short, add some. 

 

There, problem solved. Not everyone is going to pay attention to everything, but if someone does want to pay attention, they can understand what in the heck is going on. 

 

It really isn't hard to professionally produce a football game. Akron just makes it more difficult than it needs to be. 

[zippy-claws]

21 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

A very small pool of qualified applicants. 

The guy they got was evidently in the kiddie pool, FWIW!  There are HUNDREDS of unemployed marketing managers from the private sector, and if you don't think they could step in and run this program efficiently and spectacularly successfully, you've got institutional bias way beyond compare.

[Lee Adams]

15 hours ago, tomzip said:

I am late to this but I grew up under the acme zip game era.  The great thing about those games were 30k people there to enjoy local high school bands, fireworks, sky divers etc.  It was an event driven by cheap tickets. I so wish they would try this again and maybe a bunch of people who have never experienced a game may want to come back and see them?

The ticket prices are way too high for the product that is on the field, see if acme can subsidize one game a year and see what happens.

 

Amen. I can't count the number of Acme/Zip games I went to. Unfortunately, I am that old. That game was publicized all over the area by Acme and the media. Ya, the tickets were cheap but people showed. They had people parachuting into the Bowl among other entertainment attractions every year. If only for a short period of time people were interested in Akron football. Most of that is when Akron was DII. But they won. Then it stopped. Someone told me the University apparently thought it cheapened the product. Don't know that for sure. But, I have wondered for years why the University wouldn't reach out to local business to do something similar now. At least they might get some relativley big crowds a few times a year. The players would sure notice. And, it would sure make it a lot more attractive for the general public to attend a game or two.

That said, Akron football never has, never will be a consistently big draw. But, the Athletic Department does nothing to try to improve visibility.