Quickzips Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Ok guys, BIG game. A game that is back and forth. 4 minutes to go. The crowd is on their feet (even the alumni). Everyone is behind the team. I'm sittin in the back row of the south side jumping and yelling my throat off, with a mild cold mind you. I look across the way and what do I see? 15-25 North Side Rowdies sitting on their hands chumming it up. UNACCEPTABLE. You guys all signed a contract at the beginning of the year stating you would be STANDING and YELLING all game long. STAND AND YELL. If not, get out of your seats and let some people in who will. I would have much rather seen the greeks sitting down in those seats tonight. At least they would get off the fat rear ends and get into the game a little bit.I'll step off the soapbox now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Ok guys, BIG game. A game that is back and forth. 4 minutes to go. The crowd is on their feet (even the alumni). Everyone is behind the team. I'm sittin in the back row of the south side jumping and yelling my throat off, with a mild cold mind you. I look across the way and what do I see? 15-25 North Side Rowdies sitting on their hands chumming it up. UNACCEPTABLE. You guys all signed a contract at the beginning of the year stating you would be STANDING and YELLING all game long. STAND AND YELL. If not, get out of your seats and let some people in who will. I would have much rather seen the greeks sitting down in those seats tonight. At least they would get off the fat rear ends and get into the game a little bit.I'll step off the soapbox now. I totally agree. At least now we won't have to complain about it again until next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgm405 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 A few problems with your line of thinking...A) I thought the student sections were fine tonight. B.) Have you noticed the student sections this year? How many games have they been full? I don't know why people can't seem to understand this - until you have people fighting over seats, you absolutely cannot be picky about who you let sit in the student section. C) Not every fan is the type to expend mass amounts of energy during a game. Heck, I stand and stuff, but I don't do much else except for the "Defense" and "Let's Go Zips" chants because I'm so locked into the action. So the solution is me sitting up top and an empty seat being left open? D) I'm not saying the students there for Greek night wouldn't have been loud and crazy - but how do you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNCLZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 except for the "Defense" and "Let's Go Zips" chants You mean Z-fense. :DIt is disappointing that so many folks down there were sitting, but it seems like that at every game. I've been at both ends and the south end is definitely more lively and only sits at halftime. Of course, not all in the north end are Rowdies members--the folks who haven't signed the contract might not know about the expectation to stand and be rowdy. The folks in the t-shirts should have known better. It projects a much better image if folks are all standing.I wish the band would have saved Apache for a full timeout tonight. It's always more fun to get two rounds of the chorus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgm405 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 except for the "Defense" and "Let's Go Zips" chantsYou mean Z-fense. :DIt is disappointing that so many folks down there were sitting, but it seems like that at every game. I've been at both ends and the south end is definitely more lively and only sits at halftime. Of course, not all in the north end are Rowdies members--the folks who haven't signed the contract might not know about the expectation to stand and be rowdy. The folks in the t-shirts should have known better. It projects a much better image if folks are all standing.I wish the band would have saved Apache for a full timeout tonight. It's always more fun to get two rounds of the chorus. I actually do "De-fense" to be honest lolI agree in wishing that every student down low would stand and be crazy. Again though, here is the reality of the situation:1) Overall student turnout was extremely poor this year2) Overall turnout in the lower sections has been extremely poor as well3) Contract or not, it's tough to be picky with what you ask for when it's a tough enough task filling the seats. Sure, we could kick those people out. And then you have empty seats...not sure what you accomplish there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNCLZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I agree in wishing that every student down low would stand and be crazy. Again though, here is the reality of the situation:1) Overall student turnout was extremely poor this year2) Overall turnout in the lower sections has been extremely poor as well3) Contract or not, it's tough to be picky with what you ask for when it's a tough enough task filling the seats. Sure, we could kick those people out. And then you have empty seats...not sure what you accomplish there.I agree, they shouldn't be kicked out, with the attendance what it was in the north end section, so at least the seats are occupied, but it's too bad that the folks who go down there don't get more into it. It's a bad situation, and what's sad is that some people just won't get into it at all even when they're courtside. I'm not sure how that could be. I'm mainly frustrated and can't think of a good answer to the problem.I was at that end for several games and I was surprised at how some people just went down there to hang out and chit-chat and not pay attention to the game or participate at all. Why come to the game if you're not going to participate? I actually saw a couple people who seemed annoyed with me because while I was in my sling and splint for a month and a half I couldn't clap so I'd bang the seat bottom against the seat back with my good arm. The annoyed guys showed up late, sat down and didn't participate, and then seemed really peeved that I was banging the seat. Needless to say, they left early in the second half as well. <groan> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgm405 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I agree in wishing that every student down low would stand and be crazy. Again though, here is the reality of the situation:1) Overall student turnout was extremely poor this year2) Overall turnout in the lower sections has been extremely poor as well3) Contract or not, it's tough to be picky with what you ask for when it's a tough enough task filling the seats. Sure, we could kick those people out. And then you have empty seats...not sure what you accomplish there.I agree, they shouldn't be kicked out, with the attendance what it was in the north end section, so at least the seats are occupied, but it's too bad that the folks who go down there don't get more into it. It's a bad situation, and what's sad is that some people just won't get into it at all even when they're courtside. I'm not sure how that could be. I'm mainly frustrated and can't think of a good answer to the problem.I was at that end for several games and I was surprised at how some people just went down there to hang out and chit-chat and not pay attention to the game or participate at all. Why come to the game if you're not going to participate? I actually saw a couple people who seemed annoyed with me because while I was in my sling and splint for a month and a half I couldn't clap so I'd bang the seat bottom against the seat back with my good arm. The annoyed guys showed up late, sat down and didn't participate, and then seemed really peeved that I was banging the seat. Needless to say, they left early in the second half as well. <groan> I guess it all just depends on what type of fan you are. You wouldn't catch me dead looking like some of the Rowdies do during gametime (and I'm definitely not going to use examples lol), but thats their prerogative. Different people support the team in different ways. What should matter (for now) is putting butts in those seats. Until they are consistently filled up, we really can't be too picky in what we ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exexec Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 THIS IS GREAT COMPLAIN IF THE SEATS ARE EMPTY THEN COMPLAIN IF THEY DON'T CHEER THEN COMPLAIN IF...... IF YOU DIDN'T GET MY POINT BE HAPPY SOMEONE WAS THERE AND QUIT COMPLAINING!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valpo Zip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 THIS IS GREAT COMPLAIN IF THE SEATS ARE EMPTY THEN COMPLAIN IF THEY DON'T CHEER THEN COMPLAIN IF...... IF YOU DIDN'T GET MY POINT BE HAPPY SOMEONE WAS THERE AND QUIT COMPLAINING!!!! I totally disagree with that mentality.We should be ambitious and always strive to be better. First we fill the seats and then we want the seats to be filled with rowdy people and then you ask the AD to expand the JAR and then you complain about not filling the 10,000 seats etc...this is how you achieve a great bball program not by settling to whatever you can get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippyrifle32 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 THIS IS GREAT COMPLAIN IF THE SEATS ARE EMPTY THEN COMPLAIN IF THEY DON'T CHEER THEN COMPLAIN IF...... IF YOU DIDN'T GET MY POINT BE HAPPY SOMEONE WAS THERE AND QUIT COMPLAINING!!!! I totally disagree with that mentality.We should be ambitious and always strive to be better. First we fill the seats and then we want the seats to be filled with rowdy people and then you ask the AD to expand the JAR and then you complain about not filling the 10,000 seats etc...this is how you achieve a great bball program not by settling to whatever you can get. i couldn't agree with you more skhorbotly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Folks....I think things will be getting better in the future.Let me share some insight. I was a student 25 years ago. Back then, there was only a few thousand students living on campus, and many of them left on the weekends. Beyond that, a few thousand more lived off campus, and many of them left on weekends too. There wasn't much to do after Friday night on exchange street to make people want to stay on campus.This is changing. That new student rec. center is helping. The emergence of a major bar and restaurant district on main street is helping. And maybe most of all, the new dorms and condos, and the proposed new commercial district on exchange street will help.I don't think it has as much to do with wins and losses as some people might think. We won all year (as we did in the mid-80's) and the crowds were still dissappointing. We need to continue to make this transition from "I go to school here because it's convenient" to "I feel like I belong on this campus, and want to be on this campus, and take pride in being a part of this school". As this happens, more and more Akron Students will become Akron Fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted February 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 A few problems with your line of thinking...A) I thought the student sections were fine tonight. B.) Have you noticed the student sections this year? How many games have they been full? I don't know why people can't seem to understand this - until you have people fighting over seats, you absolutely cannot be picky about who you let sit in the student section. C) Not every fan is the type to expend mass amounts of energy during a game. Heck, I stand and stuff, but I don't do much else except for the "Defense" and "Let's Go Zips" chants because I'm so locked into the action. So the solution is me sitting up top and an empty seat being left open? D) I'm not saying the students there for Greek night wouldn't have been loud and crazy - but how do you know? A.) Good for you, I didn't think they BOTH were.B.) Yeah, I've noticed them. I'm not blind. I've noticed the same thing every game I've been to (quite a few). The South Side pretty close to if not full and on their feet and loud all game. A few diehards on the East side of the North Section standing and making a little noise and the "seat fillers" sitting on their hands doing nothing. All I'm saying is that with a little creative planning last night COULD have been different. It also COULD have established some new Rowdy Rowdies to build on for next year by bringing in some new blood. I'm not saying it would have happened that way. I'm merely saying that I would have prefered that alternative to the same old same old.C.) As long as your actually on your feet and you make noise at appropriate times thats cool. Just don't sit on your hands and do nothing.D.) Again, I don't know for certain that the greeks would have been louder. BUT, I do know that when the status quo CLEARLY isn't working you need to do something to shake it up. Last night was a perfect opportunity and it was wasted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgm405 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 A few problems with your line of thinking...A) I thought the student sections were fine tonight. B.) Have you noticed the student sections this year? How many games have they been full? I don't know why people can't seem to understand this - until you have people fighting over seats, you absolutely cannot be picky about who you let sit in the student section. C) Not every fan is the type to expend mass amounts of energy during a game. Heck, I stand and stuff, but I don't do much else except for the "Defense" and "Let's Go Zips" chants because I'm so locked into the action. So the solution is me sitting up top and an empty seat being left open? D) I'm not saying the students there for Greek night wouldn't have been loud and crazy - but how do you know?A.) Good for you, I didn't think they BOTH were.B.) Yeah, I've noticed them. I'm not blind. I've noticed the same thing every game I've been to (quite a few). The South Side pretty close to if not full and on their feet and loud all game. A few diehards on the East side of the North Section standing and making a little noise and the "seat fillers" sitting on their hands doing nothing. All I'm saying is that with a little creative planning last night COULD have been different. It also COULD have established some new Rowdy Rowdies to build on for next year by bringing in some new blood. I'm not saying it would have happened that way. I'm merely saying that I would have prefered that alternative to the same old same old.C.) As long as your actually on your feet and you make noise at appropriate times thats cool. Just don't sit on your hands and do nothing.D.) Again, I don't know for certain that the greeks would have been louder. BUT, I do know that when the status quo CLEARLY isn't working you need to do something to shake it up. Last night was a perfect opportunity and it was wasted. 1) Much easier to fill your end with the band having to be there...they fill half of the section and are required to stand and make noise. If you take them away, the North and South ends start to look awfully similar... 2) You think by kicking people out and inviting the students from Greek life (who by the way, had to be there), it would've helped the future of the Rowdies? And what if the Greek students didn't want to sit down there? I know of more than a few that didn't want to sit down low. 3) Agreed on C. And I didn't see any Rowdies not doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Much easier to fill your end with the band having to be there... That has nothing to do with the the relative rowdiness of each side. The south side has more crazy, obnoxious, loud fans than the entire north end even though the north end has twice as many students. Why is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgm405 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Much easier to fill your end with the band having to be there...That has nothing to do with the the relative rowdiness of each side. The south side has more crazy, obnoxious, loud fans than the entire north end even though the north end has twice as many students. Why is that? I just edited my last post because I had more thoughts to add. Half of the South Side is filled by the band. The band is required to be there, required to stand, and required to make a lot of noise. If they don't, I'm sure it affects their status/grade in the band. That means you guys fill about what, 40 or so seats? It's a much tougher task to find a full section of people to be loud and crazy than it is 30-40. Furthermore, I really don't see what made the South Side that much better than the North last night. There were an even number of defense chants and Let's Go Zips chants...the only things the South really did otherwise were the "You Can't Do That" chants (which personally I think is wayyyy overused) and the thing when the guy fouled out (which is great but, like a lot of stuff you guys do, it is something the South side can only really do because of the proximity to the opposing bench). And while I love seeing people do the things like wearing capes, painting their faces, etc. that does not make them a better fan to me. Again...you don't become the Cameron Crazies overnight. You have a small portion of the Rowdies who are "crazy, obnoxious, loud"...you have another big portion that gets into the game, stands up, makes noise, does defense and lets go zips chants...and you're trying to push those people away. The goal should be to attract more people to the group and to encourage current members to get more into it...not to badmouth them and push them away. The 10 or so of you that are "crazy, obnoxious, loud"...but you won't have any effect if you end up being the only ones there. Enough people have been pushed away already this year - let's stop the bleeding while we can, okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted February 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I really see little point in continuing this debate, mainly because the home season is over now and it is time to start regrouping for next year. However I will try one last time to emphasize my point.-First off, regardless of what you might want to think, a large portion of the North side was sitting quietly for well over half of the game. I have never once seen the North side do the jump, or really much of anything outside of Zfence and Lets Go Zips. The band being on the South side is completely irrelevant to the argument. Quite honestly, from where I sit I can't hear them when they aren't playing anyways.-Second off, and I've tried to make this point repeatedly to no avail. When something isn't working and you have an opportunity to do something different you need to take that opportunity. No, I have no idea if the Greeks would have wanted to sit down in those seats. I have no idea if they would have been any better than the deadbeats who have sat in them all year. What I do know is that they couldn't be much worse. You talk about not becoming the Cameron Crazies overnight, but you also don't become them by settling on the same old stuff that we've seen all year when you have a chance to change it up and POTENTIALLY make the section just a little bit better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I guess I'll just tell you what I saw and didn't see from the north side last night, and what I saw and didn't see from the south side last night. This is not to bash anybody, nor is it to say one side is better than the other, because that would be stupid, especially because of the fact that if we go to any more games this year, we will all be sitting together in a GA section somewhere.The good:- Both sides were loud. I could here all of the chants clearly for most of the game. Of course, that might be because the rest of the crowd was as silent as ever for a great deal of time.- Some communication between the sides. For a few chants both sides were in sync with each other. it is a shame it took almost until the end of the season to get to that point. Maybe if there were leaders on both sides with walky-talkies to communicate we could have done that from the beginning. Oh well, too late now.- Dakich almost getting a "T". That can be credited to a few particularly obnoxious fans on the south side (you know who you are), as well as the refs. When he ripped his jacket off, that was awesome. When a certain AK-Rowdy ripped his yellow shirt off to reveal a referee's shirt and imitate Dakich, well that was even more awesome. I hope the video of that shows up on Youtube soon. AwesomeDude has it, I think.The bad:- Don't take this the wrong way, but during the first half, when BUGS were shooting free-throws towards the north end, there were about 15-20 kids directly behing the basket just sitting down and talking to eachother. They did this for every free-throw taken in the first half instead of making noise or at least showing some interest in what was happenning. I think that is where a lot of the complaints about the north side are coming from.- Going with my last point, the die-hards that sit on the end of the north section didn't try, at least from my perspective, to get those people who were sitting down at least a little bit motivated. I don't know since I wasn't over there, so maybe someone else can explain that to us.- There was a lack of originality that I saw last night. The free-throw scissors-chop thing was an exception to a pretty weak stable of chants. I don't know where the old school defense chant that the north side started doing came from, but I liked it, even though I didn't hear all the words. We need new cheers and stuff.That is a basic summary of what i saw. It doesn't matter anymore, though. We are all going to sit together in one big group anyways at Can't State and in Cleveland. Lets just try to move on, shall we? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyZip6 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I am a south sider. I love the south side I feel I NEED to be on the south side. Personally the things that have been said on here are quite rediculous. I see the same thing on both sides students that just want to be there and be down low students having non basketball conversations. The people I know who like to be on the south like to be on the south side to give the opponents ear fulls of things to think about on the bench in hopes to get into their heads...such as jockage (BG coach's nickname) did you see how many time he looked pissed off at the ROWDIES that was sweet. Personally as like as the DOWN LOW Sections everyone stands to make it LOOK good that's all I care about to be honest. I feel you stand and some how you get into the game some how and then you begin screamin getting into the game. Any student section can get away with just yelling DEFENSE or LETS GO YOUR TEAM NAME and that's fine. But I agree that until there is a fight over seats down low we can't inforce the rules of the ROWDIES board and student organization rule or whatever (that goes for the t-shirt rule too) YEAH it looks good but having people there looks even better. STANDING should be the ONLY "RULE" there should be sitting down low. That's all I have to say about that GO ZIPS!!! and Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNCLZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 - Going with my last point, the die-hards that sit on the end of the north section didn't try, at least from my perspective, to get those people who were sitting down at least a little bit motivated. I don't know since I wasn't over there, so maybe someone else can explain that to us. I've been at the north end several times this season and there are just some folks who sit there (literally sit) who just won't get into it regardless of how the die-hards try to get them going. Disappointing, but true. I don't think you can fault the die-hards there.The least the folks at the north end who don't want to be involved could do is at least stand up or try to look involved some of the time. Can't make them do it though--have to make them want to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 - Going with my last point, the die-hards that sit on the end of the north section didn't try, at least from my perspective, to get those people who were sitting down at least a little bit motivated. I don't know since I wasn't over there, so maybe someone else can explain that to us.I've been at the north end several times this season and there are just some folks who sit there (literally sit) who just won't get into it regardless of how the die-hards try to get them going. Disappointing, but true. I don't think you can fault the die-hards there.The least the folks at the north end who don't want to be involved could do is at least stand up or try to look involved some of the time. Can't make them do it though--have to make them want to do it. I don't know what people want from the Zips in order to care. They already have 21 wins on the season and were getting votes in the coaches and AP polls. Sometimes I get the feeling that even if we would win a national championship, they wouldn't care. We would be called a fluke and they would go back to cheering for OSU at the start of the next season, and the Zips would have to start from scratch all over again. They just don't want to care, and there isn't a thing we, or the teams, can do about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNCLZip Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 I don't know what people want from the Zips in order to care. Ditto for me....don't know what could be done to get people to care. The only thing I am sure of is that it's very frustrating.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleacher Bum Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 By the way, the scissor chop worked. We used to put our arms up, and our free throw shooting was terrible. Then we moved them down and it progressed a little bit. Then it eventually got worse. When we did the scissor chop, we seemed to hit more of the free throws. Hopefully we can ride that through that tourny and not have any more problems. Who are you calling superstitious? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zipsbandman Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Its called winning a MAC championship and getting in the tournament. Remember we have not done that yet.....recently anyway. That would be even bigger than making the Motor City Bowl and would create a zips fever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZip_08 Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Superstitious is right... hey that's how weird traditions start."D) I'm not saying the students there for Greek night wouldn't have been loud and crazy - but how do you know? "I would have forced them- that's how. I've been a Greek since fall 2004... I'm old, whopping 21 years of me, I have clout and would have used it. That actually would have been a great tool if we have intermixed some Greeks down below with Rowdies, especially TKE's- not my favorite fraternity (I don't have one fyi) but they're loud and obnoxious when given the opportunity.Also I was the Southsider in Greek letters and a couple people gave me crap about it. I laughed at them and reminded them that the entire student section up above was filled with hundreds of Greeks in letters, afterall it was GREEK NIGHT AT THE JAR. Which should have been earlier in the season. It would have driven some interest up in the Greek community and maybe a few more students would have been coming to games for the rest of the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleacher Bum Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Speaking of Greek Night, do these fraternities and sororities even know what school they go to? I saw a sign last Saturday that said "Akron University" on it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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