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Akron president says he would not have built football stadium

Akron struggled getting fans into the seats of InfoCision Stadium in 2014. And those attendance struggles are making the president of the school second guess the decision to build the new stadium a handful of years ago.

The Zips attracted just over 55,000 fans last year. Yes, that's for an entire season. In case you were wondering, each of the top 30 teams in FBS attendance in 2014 each averaged more than Akron's season total per game.

InfoCision Stadium seats 30,000.

In an interview with the Akron Beacon-Journal, the president of the university was pretty straightforward when asked about the stadium built in 2009.

Even UA President Scott Scarborough, who took over last year, is lukewarm on InfoCision Stadium.

“I would not have built that stadium,” he said, putting extra emphasis on the word “that” during a recent interview with the Beacon Journal editorial board.

According to the Beacon-Journal, the Zips' 2014 attendance was just over 50 percent of the attendance in the first year of InfoCision Stadium.

It's not like Akron was terrible in 2014, either. The Zips were 5-7 and could have been 6-6 and bowl eligible with a win in the final week of the season over Kent State. Three weekday games didn't help attendance though. The season-opening game against Howard was on a Thursday and two games were on Tuesdays in November.

The lack of attendance has also had financial ramifications for the school. Akron's football program is subsidized by the school outside of the tickets the school has been buying from itself. The stadium had a cost of approximately $62 million. Perhaps Scarborough would have preferred a cheaper alternative.

That has forced the university — already making annual debt payments of $4.3 million on the stadium — to dip deeper into its own pocket to drive up attendance artificially.

The NCAA requires universities to average 15,000 fans in actual or paid attendance over a rolling two-year period to remain in Division I. In 2013, the school bought 56,710 tickets valued at $10 each.

Is the football program in trouble? It's way too early to make that call. The school says ticket sales are up so far to-date and there's only one non-Saturday home game in 2015. It's also looking to continue and possibly expand a promotion that gave students tuition for attending a game. Though given that last year's tuition giveaway was at a cost to the school, Akron would like sponsors for the promotion.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!