City of AA vs MGoMarquee
Yesterday AA City Concil voted to 'ask' the university to take down their new digital billboard.
I wonder how this will turn out since it cost $2.8 Million.
Now that it has been up for a while what does everyone think of it? I've only seen it on gamedays and havent really been a huge fan. I for one would rather have a giant noodle.
November 8th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
I find it funny how townies and city council members get so irritated with the state of things between the university and the rest of the city. It's not like the U of M and its tens of thousands of employees and students and billions of dollars of budget just showed up one day and started loitering around. Without the university, Ann Arbor would just be another little mid-michigan town that nobody outside of the state has ever heard of. Yeah, sometimes you have to deal with obnoxious lighted signs or whatever, but that's the price you pay for being the host of a world-class university.
November 8th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
| Michigan | Wexford County | 5 mi (8.0 km) north-northwest of Cadillac |
You and I have differing opinons of the meaning "Mid-Michigan".
November 8th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^
I think the sign is tacky, and that the University/AD loses a lot of goodwill with the public and its neighbors when it doubles-down on its carte blanche pass against city ordinances. It's the bigger picture, once again, that this Athletic Department fails to see.
Just because you don't have to follow city ordinances doesn't mean you should flaunt the fact you don't have to follow them. It's a gigantic, tacky, out-of-place sign to announce sporting events no one will go to anyway. It's too big for the space and doesn't match its surroundings.
The City Council didn't want it in the first place, neither did the neighbors, but Athletics flexed their muscles and continues to smugly do so every time Dave Ablauf opens his mouth to defend it. It's a lose-lose for everyone for a sign that really serves no enduring or compelling purpose.
November 8th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
It's surrounded by two golf courses, a basketball arena, the largest football stadium in the universe , and one of the largest high schools in the state. I've seen it a number of times, and while I think it was kind of pointless, it's still 'to scale' with its surroundings.
November 8th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
It's a piece of signage, not a building. And as far as signage goes, it's oversized and overtly placed.
November 8th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
Isn't the entire point of a sign to be seen? So overt placement is something of a necessity for it to fulfill it's primary function. And, regarding the "goodwill with the neighbors," ever since the locals started calling in noise complaints against the houses on State and Packard on gamedays in '09 (don't know if they still do, but that's the year I remember it starting), I don't really care about their complaints about the university around which their town is centered.
November 8th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
So you don't care what locals think because your neighbors several miles from the stadium called in noise complaints on your gameday house parties?
November 8th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^
Or Gamenights?
November 8th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ^
It's a gigantic, tacky, out-of-place sign to announce sporting events no one will go to anyway.
Yep, you'll win a lot of arguments insulting the athletes, coaches, and fans of a couple dozen varsity sports at the university you supposedly support.
November 8th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
I like non-revenue sports as much as the next guy. But the vast majority of them don't get the same following or attendance revenue sports get, like it or not, sign or no sign. I'm sorry. It's not an insult to anyone. The folks you name would probably be the first people to tell you that.
I'm not saying I don't think the University should advertise those events, but pointing to ads for cross country meets and field hockey games as a justification for a sign pretty much no one else wants is a pretty lousy rationale.
November 8th, 2013 at 3:51 PM ^
What neighbors?
November 8th, 2013 at 9:45 AM ^
Which came first, the University or the City?
November 8th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
Tricky question!
1817: University of Michigan established... in Detroit.
1824: Ann Arbor founded... but it was far from a city at that point.
1833: Ann Arbor incorporated as a village. Still not a city!
1837: University of Michigan moves to Ann Arbor onto 40 acres of land that was originally set aside in hopes of becoming the state capital.
1851: Ann Arbor chartered as a city.
So, the university predates the city, village, town, whatever. The settlement was in the area before the university was, but the university was established in the area before the area became a city. Yay semantics!
November 8th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
I am as big a Michigan fan as there is, but as a townie I think that sign is over the top. Can you imagine if Dominoes pizza put up something like that? Yes I guess we can, can't we. As I sit in Crisler Center tonight and cringe when the PA announcer exclaims "Who wants a pizza". Its only a matter of time before that drivel ends up on that sign
November 8th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
within limits, but not without consequences. The University and particularly the Athletic Department both have a symbiotic relationship with the City of Ann Arbor--and count on the City to provide them with additional security and traffic control--remember "Saline Road is one way after the game". As an earlier poster noted, the City doesn't have to do so. Further and just as important, the Athletic Department should seriously appreciate how its actions effect the City---if for no other reason than its the damn right thing to do. Finally, that Board is an effing monstrosity and an embarrassment to a top-tier university (and athletic department)--almost akin to Goss's stadium "improvements"--and says everything that one needs to know about Brandon's approach to college athletics.
November 8th, 2013 at 3:57 PM ^
Rather than bending over backwards for the University every time you wouldn't have Main street blocked off during the games. But they couldn't say yes fast enough.
November 8th, 2013 at 1:53 PM ^
The ugly-assed thing doesn't even work 25% of the time. I often go by it and there are weird jagged lines or huge black boxes over it. THAT is even more distracting than the "UM athletes did 2000 hours of community service last year" sign I usually see.
November 8th, 2013 at 5:42 PM ^