I said to my wife when they showed the one side of the stands that there couldn’t be more than 1,000 people on that side, quess I was right.

There were NOT 2000 people there, ha! Not even that many

They expected to lose. There starting QB was out and Ohio was a 13 point favorite. We lost, that is why they are still in the MAC.

Imo actual butts in seats was less than 1000. I did a mental calculation of how many season ticket holders they have who were no shows, plus maybe some distribution of tickets to schools, etc, and I expected a paid attendance figure of about 8000. I was stunned to read the announced attendance of over 17,000. That is completely laughable .

The city of Akron and The University of Akron should be synonymous but they're not - at all. Grab a copy of the Beacon Journal. Buckeyes are front page sports news. Zips could win the MAC next month and it'll be page 4.

They used to be. Shoot the ACME Zip game used to pack the Rubber Bowl each year. I remember riding my bike to the Acme on Brittain Road every fall to buy tickets and some lard for my mom. I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons why people don't attend - the downtown location being one of them.

https://www.ohio.com/akron/lifestyle/local-history-acme-z...

I think the main reason they don't draw very well is that practically speaking Akron still remains a commuter school. Sure, they have added some dorms and Akron is certainly more "residential" than when I attended law school there in the latter 80's, but the majority of their students still don't live on campus. Thus, I don't think that a lot of their students develop that certain bond other students do who actually reside at their campus.

And Alan, that's interesting that you say one of the reasons Akron might not draw very well is because of the downtown location of Infocision Stadium. You might be right about that. It's just funny because I remember the talk years ago was that the Rubber Bowl didn't draw well because it was off campus and the students didn't want to bother having to drive all the way to the Rubber Bowl.

The on-campus Akron location is perfectly safe. Downtown is close by, so what. They built the stadium because the thought was it would attract students. It attracts no one. Pathetic. The fact that Akron is so rinky dink makes it even more embarrassing that they beat us. But the Akron football situation is a joke.

I think the weather cost us a huge walk up on opening day. We've been pretty lucky with weather in recent years. Rain still makes a huge difference for our fan base.

Yes this is a conversation the Zipsfaithful have almost every year. But basically boils down to this:

1) Still mostly a commuter school
2) 3-33 over three years accompanied with a successful Soccer and Basketball team
3) Lack of administrators who give-a-damn to try creative things
4) Lack of culture (you could throw in the ABJ to this, they're an awful publication, and often make excuses why they can't give decent coverage on the Local D-1 college instead of a college 2 hours away).
5) The college student has fundamentally changed

IMHO it's probably mostly #4 and #1. I was a commuter while I went to Akron, and I was considered weird for wanting to attend games. Especially for a team, at the time, who was 2-22.

I mean, the Zips haven't been to a Bowl game (before 2-years ago) in over decade, and haven't been to the MAC C game in 12 years.

To be honest, the Zips will need to string some winning seasons together, and maybe a marquee win over someone people actually know (like in the Big-10), before there is a big change in attendance.

So I guess the lack of any, even marginal success, for almost two decades and a lack of culture for that long is what has resulted in what we see today. :(

Expect a large and vocal crowd in the stadium this coming Friday night. It is the State Division IV semi-final game featuring Shelby and Steubenville Big Red.

A ton of tradition between Big Red and Shelby. Your teams sounded very impressive Mike. Thanks for posting.