I think Akron's Arena is the biggest part of their attendance problem.
I was at the Ohio @ Akron game last year. Packed house. My knees were hitting the people in front of me. The atmosphere is terrible. They don't even have a true student section.
They talk about selling it out before they can get a new arena. The JAR is the reason they don't sellout. That place is a joke.
Akron fans shouldn't take that as a knock. I am saying that if they built a legitimate arena, they could easily get 6,000 regularly. If they built a new arena, they should shoot between 7,000 and 10,000 IMO.
I disagree. "If you build it, they will come" is just not true. Does the JAR suck? Yes. Does a moderately uncomfortable wood bleacher keep an actual fan away? Hell no. Ask the majority of Butler fans filling Hinkle. Ask the Ozone. There are probably 50 more examples of basketball fan bases who show up to crappy arenas in droves.
Akron's problems with respect to fan support are legion, and few are related to the craphole JAR. Here are a few: They have a legacy as an open-enrollment commuter school, and though they've done great work to move away from that, their alumni base is not particularly proud or passionate. They have the same Bucknut problem every Ohio MAC school faces, but they also compete with Cleveland pro sports for attention. Those casual fans can choose to drive 40 miles to watch the NBA or they can watch a MAC team play opponents like Coastal Carolina, who they probably don't even realize are a D1 team. Finally, for people in the region who just like college hoops, there are several choices, so they can't dominate the market for those fans.
I'm sure there are more reasons people ignore the Zips despite their success, but those are a few.
Most germane to this discussion, however, is the fact that unless a handful of very rich donors pony up the funds, there's no way in hell they're getting any kind of arena. The school is in dire financial shape, having built and improved the campus with a hope of spurring enrollment growth. Trouble is, enrollment has declined and they're firing teaching staff to cover the budget issues. Add in the bitter recent memory of tumbleweeds rolling through the new football stadium, and I don't see anyone stepping up to pay for a new arena. Akron is a great basketball team representing a sad, struggling school.