Good article. I am going to give the new stadium a try. Hope to see some good games. I'm to worn out to go to the Browns yet another loosing year. Go Zips.

PS. How about some beer in the cheap seats.

Like Al Davis says, "Just win baby win" and everything else will fall in place.

They're called "ZIPS" for a reason:

They're: zilches
zero
nada
any term you like that describes losers


Nothing but a drain on the taxpayers and tuition paying students.

My daughter pays $250 per year for parking (now called transportation) services. And she will be told when she goes to park in a lot she's paid for, that she will not be able to park here because there is a football game today. Park in another lot (even though you paid for all lots) or fork over another $10 to 15 EACH TIME.

This stadium and it's costs (the donations won't even cover the water and electric!) will doom this areas economy by making college less affordable for everyone else ('cept the free-ridin' jocks)

Too bad this University has put education on the back burner.

It'll be empty in a few years (see Jacobs Field).

Gotta pay for security AROUND THE CLOCK, Always-on-duty Janitors, Maintenence personell, administrators, it goes on and on.

I hope your seveen Saturdays each fall, will, in your mind, justify further eroding Akron's economy, by making college more expensive than it need be.

It should be about fancy book-learnin', not "Football, you bet!"

Toss 'em a ball and they'll fetch . . . on a full-ride "scholar"ship . . .

. . . But attending class and doing schoolwork?

Forget it.

patriot76, um, good morning...

Akron U

Come on guys, lets not go through this, we all know that UofA President Proenza has education covered with polymers and all, dont be lured, cant wait for the basket ball team start back up!

To not be deemed negative, visit http://www.uakron.edu/ and get facts before possibly posting incorrect statements, other than that enjoy the Pouch and fear the Roo.

Wow Patriot76 seems to hate athletes. I wonder if the QB in high school dumped her for a cheerleader and shes never gotten over it? I hope this works out. I can't see it hurting the economy. I mean people have been working to build it. People are going to have to work there and operate it. It will house other non University sponsored events such as concerts to bring in revenue to the city. Everyone will have to deal with parking. I am a UofA alumnist and learned early on in my carreer that if you wanted good parking start classes before 8a.m.; as most college students think "morning" or "Sunrise" or evil. Besides how many students are actually in Class on saturdays anyhow.
Peace

Go zips

Too high of expectations I would say. You guys always pump these things up as if it is gonna be so overwhelmingly successful. We will be lucky if this investment breaks even.

Patriot76, Are you as big of an a**** in real life as you are on this message board? Get a life!

Don't forget Alsostuck, they plan on using some of the rooms in stadium for classes as well. They have killed two birds with one stone. Some new classrooms AND a new stadium. Don't forget about having a reception area as well.

@patriot76, your daughter paid to park. She never paid for a specific lot or spot.

I heard they were spending up to a million a year to keep the old Rubber Bowl functional. With a new building that requires less maintenance and is more energy efficient, it will be simple to run on their past budgets numbers or even less. Yhey were already spending on electric and water at the old place, so your statement on stadium operations is illogical and irrelevant.

Security costs will be less at the new stadium, because it is now on campus and patrolable. Security does not need to travel to get to it.

It is clear you do not know what UA was already doing with the Rubber Bowl and how it transitions to the new stadium.

Patriot,

If your daughter is a resident, she will still have plenty of places to park.. Here is why..

1)Any special event parking does not apply to students with valid parking permits. For instance..

When EJ holds a concert or event, they charge to park in North Deck. If you have a valid pass, you do not pay.
or
When the Aeros play, they use Polsky Deck for parking, but again students with valid passes do not have to pay.

2) As far as I know, resident students' parking areas will not be used for game day parking. The visitors will be limited to "commuter" parking areas. If yo are not familiar with the new parking designations (i.e. R, C, F, etc.) at UA, consult your daughter, she will fill you in.

That "250" she spends on transportation costs also goes towards the Roo Express which runs campus wide so people aren't driving from deck to deck or residence parking to deck. It doesn't just pay for the lots.

Please do a little bit of research before commenting.

patriot76 I see your as delusional as always. Your daughter can fully go to another school and will pay the same expenses whether that school is building a new stadium or not.

The Rubber Bowl is 69 years and is falling apart and conservative estimates says it would require more then 61 mil UofA is spending to build the Info.

Building an On campus stadium with private funds and bonds is what UofA needed and is another plus for Akron.

The rest of your ranting is just that. Ranting

These comments are all entertaining,but the fact is they built this stadium with absolutly no parking. People are not going to like the experience.

What a colossal waste of resources, lets get drunk and watch guys play with balls. Afterwards we can brawl in the streets and set thing on fire, but hey it makes money.

Beautiful facility, new dorms, new classrooms and plenty of parking, reachable without crossing streets on a campus closed to motor traffic. Convienent to dorm students for the games without having to ride 10 miles to a falling down past its time stadium. No finacial burden to the students. Yes this is a terrible place so George j. and hopsing and the so called Patiot, you stay away while the rest of us who love our school amd support it enjoy ourselves at the games. Makes one wonder if your lives have ever had anything positive in them. I am a happy alum.. SO GO ZIPS.

Don't forget to call Steve Frenchs' t.v. sports show on Monday night to listen to him talk about his shirts and how good looking he is.
If you have ever seen his wife you would know how in his mind that he looks so good. Christmas for her is easy, a box of milkbones.
I'm sure the $60 million spent will make this team even better. Please don't forget to call steve and tell him how great those Goodwill shirts look.

Why are we attacking Steve French? Steve is "da man" !

Akron U couldn't get their own lawn maintenance crews to do the landscaping? That had to be part of the bid?

patriot - the games are at night and on the weekends. Does your daughter attend school during these times?

The stadium was needed...most high school stadiums are better than the rubber bowl was...I can still feel the fiberglass splinters in my a__s!

The story mentions JD's losing record of the last 3 years...how about his first 3 or 4? Judge the man as a whole, not what has he done lately...Jacquemain is not the caliber of Charlie Frye. I do feel his recruiting could be better, but not his coaching. More importantly, as is Dambrot, he is a great coach for some of these kids who need guidance.

Go Zips!

This on-campus stadium will host other non-athletic UA sponsored events such as concerts to entertain students and the community and bring in revenue to The University of Akron. Also, the FACT is UA built this facility with absolutely sufficient, already existing parking. People are going to love this experience. You can tell when certain posters have it out for UA. They are the ones who always bring up and whine about the non-issue of parking.

Also, even more advantageous is the fact that UA police will have their own satellite station in the stadium.

Oh, The University of Kent also uses outside ground keepers in addition to their own crew just like The University of Akron does.

I think we should all support the home town team!


Go Zips, win them all.

Right on, phisig677. Couldn't have said it better myself. It's a shame all these fuddy-duddy trolls have the time to sit around and complain about their lives and anything positive for this city and university. As for me, I'm counting down the days until Sept 12 when I'll be planted in my seat on the 40 yard line in the 3rd row of the upper deck. GO ZIPS! It's gonna be a good year!

It made me happy to see that most of these comments were positive. With the exception of 3 or 4 dolts, I'd say most people in this city are excited, or at least optimistic about the new stadium. No matter how you look at it(unless you're delusional) there's really no way this stadium could hurt the city, the university, or it's citizens/students.

GO UA!

This new on campus stadium is such a positive to renew interest in the school and the City. I will be bringing so many new people down there with me on game days. I can't wait, this is definitely going to be quite a new, refreshing, positive experience.

GO ZIPS AND GO AKRON

FEAR THE ' ROO. . .

Yep, with this new stadium I can see it now'
Akron Zips National Champions and lets throw in
Cleveland Browns Superbowl Champions.

Jer, you just don't get it!!!

It's not about winning the National Championship. Watch the game, have fun. Wear a Kent jersey for all I care. Come on down and tailgate with us, I'll give ya a beer.

@ phisig677 - no cost to the students?

HAH! Yes there is!!! Take a look at this...
tuition is going up this spring. It's a sneaky way to helping to pay for this!

http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/52551747.html

At Wednesday's UA trustee meeting, trustees Jane Bond, a retired Summit County Common Pleas Court judge, and Warren Woolford, retired Akron city planning director, voted against the increase.

Bond said university administrators did not present enough information on why the increase — expected to generate $2.2 million — was needed.

''I want to see what a budget would look like if we did not increase,'' she said after the meeting.

''Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should do it,'' she said.

They want a tuition increase to help pay for Zips sports.

Yes, the students ARE paying for this. If not, then please, dear University Administrators, explain why the increase is needed. You couldn't explain it to Bond and Woolford...

@patriot76 - I too have to pay to park. They better not tell me I can't park in a deck or lot I paid to park in because of a game. I had to pay for the parking pass - I dang well better be allowed to park in any of the lots I paid for, whenever I need to park there.

Don't even get me started on the Roo Bus which runs empty most of the time...

Bear Fan - UA had not raised tuition since 2006. Meanwhile, annual costs to the university has increased, including health care costs for the employees. Now UA is being FORCED to raise tuition because Gov. Strickland cut $170 billion in funding to state universities. The employees did need recieve any pay increases this year and have been told not to expect any in the near future, perhaps even until 2013. Have you had your pay frozen for 3 years? Believe me, the tuition increase is NOT going towards the stadium. It is being used to fund the day to day operations of the university, and to fund student services.

I hate ignorant people.

Bear fan,

My grad school tuition at another NEO university went up every year. It's just basic inflation and not attributed to a new stadium. When you figure that it hasn't been raised since 2006, consider yourself lucky.

Nuhuh & TOJ - Actually, not only have I not had a raise recently and don't expect to, I have had a reduction in pay - it may be a very long time before I am back to where I would have been if I had received a raise instead of a cut. I try not to gripe about it because I know a lot of people in the same boat and at least I am working.

I don't think that it's being ignorant to say that it is probably going at least partially to the stadium when the some of those voting on the increase can't explain why the increase is needed. ''Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should do it,''

In addition, if they are so tight on money - why is money being spent on a stadium? IMO - that's not something you spend money on when you are so tight you can't give your employees raises.

Perhaps the tuition is the same for the last 3 years, but fees, parking, etc. have gone up, and they spent money on Roo bus system that I often see running empty. Yeah - that made fiscal sense - not! It was a way to charge EVERY student a fee. The overall cost to attend U of A is NOT the same as it was in 2006 so it is rather ignorant to imply they aren't getting any more from students now than they were 3 years ago.

Nuhuh - There will be more of them to hate if tuition becomes out of reach for a larger number of people.

Personally - I hate people who make assumptions regarding intelligence because they simply don't agree on the point of view.

It's one thing to raise tuition and say we are doing it because of funding cuts, etc. It's another to say we are raising tuition because we can't afford not to - and then spend money on things like this.

That's like me telling my kids I can't afford vegetables, but I'll buy you a new toy.

@ Bear Fan

If we can get concrete proof that you are even remotely right then that's another story.

And I can see you were a commuter student. I was a resident my freshman year. That's how I know that the roo express is routinely packed. I remember times that we had to stand because the seats were full. So of course you might see some of the roo expresses running low or empty, but most aren't.


You MAY, MAY be right about SOME of the increase in tuition going toward maintaining the stadium. But I don't think it's going to cost more than the rubber bowl would have.

UA Engineering, this is a forum for debate, and that's what I am doing... debating the U of A budget choices.

I agree that maybe in the course of many years, it is probably wiser to have a more up-to-date stadium than the Rubber Bowl. However, I seriously question the timing. During a time when many people are receiving pay cuts and layoffs (students as well as those who support students), I am amazed that so much money is being put into a stadium while tuition goes up and employees go without pay increases.

A part of why I question this is that those who were asked to vote on an increase do not seem to understand all sides of the issue. How can they make an intelligent, informed vote if they do not understand why they are being asked to vote for an increase? I am not pulling this from my imagination. My question is based on questions posed by Bond and Woolford. Bond said she wanted to know what a budget would look like without an increase. That sounds like an intelligent question to me. My thoughts stem from that and a search for honesty (although we may never know the whole story).

Enough debate for me for tonight.

"Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by-product."
--Christopher Lasch

akron guy,

Whenever a project of this magnitude is done, every facet of the project must be bid out. That includes landscaping, plumbing, electric, contracting, etc. Therfore, they can't just do it themselves.

Bear Fan,

There is no need to be salty over the new stadium. There was a fundraiser done to raise MOST (notice I did not say all) of the money for the project. Without athletics, additional revenue besides tuition is few and far between at UA. Athletics, just like any other dept., can be self-substantiating. Through revenue from games, sponsors, and advertising, they are able to raise funding for day to day operations.

When they increase tuition, and they will, they are using that money for a variety of reasons. ALl the athletic haters will say that money is going to buy new equipment for all the jocks, and the athletic people say it's going to buy dumb learnin things. It just depends on what side of the coin you are on.

I don't have a beef with either because in my eyes they go hand in hand. Both generate publicity for UA as they draw students for each.

As far as the Roo Express.. I think it's a great asset for students. Not only for traveling to classes, but also giving students a safe way to travel downtown on the weekends and to further help students from not having to decide whether they are sober enough to drive. But I'm sure any of you would rather have deaths associated with drunk driving than appreciate a transit system for students.

On a side note - any predictions on how likely it is that the stadium will be ready in one month? Right now, it doesn't look close at all...

@Jer1963

Why the unprovoked attack on French ? You must be a real man to insult a guys wife on a pubic message board. At least I know what the first three letters of your username stand for.

Jerkovv??

Thats a double v not a w. Didn't think the ff would get by the censors.

Oh , and go Zips!!

I hope the team has a grat season just to spite patriot and others. Can't wait for hoops season and the arrival of Zeke. They should be awesome for the next 4 years.

@ Bear fan

You're assuming way too many things. Let's just support the zips and thank the university for giving us something that will pay dividends: a degree.

@ UAEngineering "thank the university for giving us something that will pay dividends: a degree."

Really? Gee, if they are GIVING me a degree, why is it costing me so much? Duh... they are not GIVING me a degree. I am EARNING it with hard work and hard earned dollars.

@ Ronald 33 "I'm sure any of you would rather have deaths associated with drunk driving than appreciate a transit system for students."

Wow... They should be smart enough not to drive drunk with or without a transit system run by U of A. Your comment is just suggesting another excuse for drunk drivers (rather than personal responsibility) and I'm not buying it. There is NO excuse for drunk driving.

Bear Fan,

Did you go to college? Kids make bad decisions all the time. It's a learning process. Is it a mistake to drink and drive, absolutely. With the transit system, it takes the thought out of their mind. They won't have to even think of it. I'll take that any day. It protects innocent drivers and the students. Why wouldn't you want that?

Compare tuition costs of UA to other MAC schools. Let us know what you find.

The Info is one of the bright stars in an otherwise gloomy sky. As a proud alum, I can't wait to experience the full game day experience, right on campus. I will definitely be a good patron for the eateries and watering holes within walking distance of the stadium as well. Go Zips!!!

FEAR THE ROO!
WE LOVE YOU!
AKRON U!