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Fun & Games for Thursday, June 26, 2008 |
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June 26, 2008 |
≡ Fun & Games ≡
 Want to sponsor an 85-year-old stadium? |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> New York, N.Y.: The NBA Draft is tonight and Peter Vecsey of the New York Post noted how times have changed:
“One of the elite draftees smokes more herb than both Cheech and Chong.”
“Twenty percent of those [players] invited to Orlando’s pre-Draft camp have children.”
“[T]he next big question is how many car dealerships Michael Beasley plans to adopt during three days of recreational shopping in New York. Owning five cars may have been suitable for an unpaid college stud, but the number is well below the chrome cap for a top-three choice.”
Remember, NBA commissioner David Stern thinks his biggest problem is the Tim Donaghy match-fixing scandal!
= The National Pastime =
>> Pittsburgh, Pa.: To whom much is given, much is expected, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in its coverage of Tuesday’s 12-5 Pirate win over the Yankees. Of the Bronx Bombers, wrote columnist Bob Smizik:
“This was no Murderer’s Row, as the great 1927 team of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were known, but a Multimillionaire’s Row. Batters two through six for the Yankees all earn eight-figure salaries, and three take home more than $20 million annually. It was this group, and, perhaps only this group, that [pitcher Tom] Gorzelanny handled.
“There was no greater example of Yankees ineptitude, and Gorzelanny’s brass, than the third. He opened the inning by going 0-2 on his pitching opponent, Darrell Rasner. He then threw eight consecutive balls to Rasmer and Melky Cabrera. The Yankees had Gorzelanny right where they wanted him. Due up were Derek Jeter, salary $21.6 million; Bobby Abreu, $16 million; Alex Rodriguez, $28 million; Jason Giambi, $23.4 million; and Jorge Posada, $13.1 million. The salary of those five batters was $102 million, more than twice the Pirates’ current 25-man payroll.”
With two on and none out, Gorzelanny got Jeter on a force play and then Abreu hit into an inning-ending double play. For the season, Pittsburgh (37-40) has outscored New York (41-36), 382-356.
= College Football =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The Wall Street Journal predicts an uphill battle for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in its sale of naming rights for the stadium which opened in 1923 and is the only main stadium to have hosted two Olympic Games.
The Coliseum Commission, which is responsible for the facility, has a 25-year lease agreement with USC which commits the Commission to about $100 million in renovations for seating, restrooms, concession stands, video boards and more. And it needs a big naming-rights deal to pay for it.
The Journal points out that university facilities have not drawn the kinds of fees that NFL or baseball stadiums have. “Naming-rights deals for college football stadiums are rare and have yet to fetch more than $2 million a year,” wrote reporter Matthew Futterman. “Beginning next year, TCF Bank will play the University of Minnesota $35 million to put its name on the school’s football stadium for 25 years.” That’s “just” $1.4 million per year.
Comment: The Coliseum has other factors in its favor, however. The facility is best known for its hosting of 6-7 USC football games annually, but it also has a lively schedule of international soccer matches and concerts which could be attractive to a major sponsor that wants to market to the Latin audience.
Moreover, the Coliseum is the home of a premiere college football program in the nation’s no. 2 market, where there is no NFL team. That makes the Coliseum’s naming rights that much more valuable.
And if the Coliseum is successful in selling naming rights for anywhere close to the $6 million per year that it is looking for, watch the money-losing Rose Bowl in Pasadena – home to UCLA football, the Rose Bowl Game and some other events – to follow suit, quickly.
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>> Starkville, Ms.: With Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom’s salary package increased to $1.7 million for next season, Scott Farrell of Louisiana Gannett News noted that “every head football coach at a public institution ion the SEC will be making more than $1.5 million next season.”
The obvious corollary came from former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, writing on Yahoo!.com:
“You can’t pay that much money to six different coaches and expect them all to win the SEC West. Can you imagine playing between $2 million and $4 million each to [LSU’s Les] Miles, [Alabama’s Nick] Saban, [Auburn’s Tommy] Tuberville, [Arkansas’s Bobby] Petrino and [Mississippi’s Houston] Nutt, knowing that every year one of those guys is going to come in fifth in their division?”
Bowden noted, “Even Bear Bryant couldn’t live up to those expectations.”
= College Basketball =
>> New York, N.Y.: Just in case there’s any doubt, the Pac-10 Conference will officially be crowned as the nation’s best for 2007-08 tonight at the NBA Draft.
Among those expected to be selected as “Lottery picks” in the top 14: Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook of UCLA, Brook Lopez of Stanford, O.J. Mayo of USC and Jerryd Bayless of Arizona: that’s five of the top 14 picks.
Ryan Anderson and DeVon Hardin of California and Kyle Weaver of Washington State are also expected to be in the first round or close to it; that’s potentially eight of the first 30. And there are other Pac-10 stars in the draft: Malik Hairston and Maarty Leunen of Oregon, Davon Jefferson of USC and Luc Richard Mbah A Moute of UCLA. Notes veteran college basketball observer Frank Burlison in the Long Beach Press-Telegram: “[Y]ou can count on every coach in the Pac-10 making the strong draft night showing by the conference a big part of his recruiting pitches for the high school classes of 2009 and beyond.
“In case you did realize it, the perceived ability of a program to help a prospect get to the ‘next level’ or ‘the league’ – both of which are other names for the NBA – is a critical factor when it comes to a coach getting a letter of intent of almost any highly touted prospect these days.”
What does that say about UCLA coach Ben Howland: in five years since taking over a moribund program run by Steve Lavin, he’s sent Jordan Farmer and Aaron Afflalo to the NBA as first-round choices and will have Love, Westbrook and possibly Mbah A Moute drafted tonight. That could be five in five years, not to mention the likely matriculation of senior center Lorenzo Mata-Real to a professional team in Spain next season. There’s a reason why Howland continues to sign star high school players; he turns them into professionals, on and off the court.
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>> Eugene, Or.: The long-proposed replacement for iconic McArthur Court in Eugene is on its way, now that the state of Oregon sold $200 million in bonds to play for the construction of the new arena.
The University is taking on annual debt service of $16.85 million for the arena, land and an adjacent parking garage, but the State treasurer’s office sais that’s $900,000 less than expected as the 30-year bolds sold for 5.88% interest. The hope is that the arena will open in 2010.
Along with the Ducks’ record, watchdogs will be looking to see whether the arena’s revenues and investment/interest income from a new school legacy fund will cover the annual costs. Nike founder Phil Knight contributed $100 million to the school to open the fund last year.
= Soccer =
>> Moscow, Russia: Russia’s drive to the semifinals of the 2008 European championships has already had an impact in the maternity wards.
Two families in Russia have named their newborn sons “Guus” after the Dutch-born head coach of the Russian squad, Guus Hiddink. In the case of one of the newborns, the registration office accepted the request . . . but gave the parents a month to possibly reconsider their choice. The Russians play Spain in the second semifinal of the tournament on Thursday.
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>> Rome, Italy: In the meantime, despite losing to Spain on penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie through 120 minutes, Italian fans are still shouting that they are world champions after winning the 2006 World Cup.
Writing in the London newspaper, The Telegraph, Malcolm Moore takes note of this Italian sense of supremacy and writes:
The belief in Italian “primato,” or supremacy, has its roots in Ancient Rome. The magnificence of the Renaissance helped fan the conviction, and Mussolini really drummed it in. Italy should lead the way in everything from aeronautics to football, he instructed, adding that Italians make the finest engineers, architects and inventors.
For the rest of us, the idea of Italy as a shining example, a second Rome, was laid bare by its embarrassment during the Second World War. Italians, however, are still banging their fists to their heart and proclaiming that their capital remains “Caput Mundi – the centre of the world.”
No other country is in such denial about the forces that are changing the rest of the world: globalisation, the crises in food, resources and energy.
Leonardo Sciascia, a leading poet and writer, presciently remarked before his death 20 years ago that: “We will continue to fall, without ever hitting the bottom.” Pampered with endless sunshine and fine food, Italians simply refuse to believe their dolce vita is changing.
Who says sport isn’t important? Without it, the Italians wouldn't be "caput"!
= Tennis =
>> London, England: The British papers have their knickers in a twist over what measures the Wimbledon folks are taking to avoid any possibility of match-fixing this year after a study showed that more questions should be asked about a small number of matches – 45 – held over the past eight years.
One of the better ideas at all tournaments has been to limit the number of people who can accompany players in the locker room. At Wimbledon, the limit is one person, obviously lessening the number of people who might spy a player with an injury and then use that information to move a betting line. But as Liz Clarke noted in the Washington Post.:
The rule isn’t being universally well received. “The good thing is we don’t have to many people in the dressing room,” said 10th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis. “The bad thing is that maybe some players need two people in the changing room, and that’s important for those players.”
Second-seeded Rafael Nadal is among them, accustomed to having his uncle-coach Toni Nadal accompany him to the locker room, as well as a physiotherapist who tapes his wrists and shins before each match. Nadal’s request for an exemption has been denied. “Very strange and unfortunate,” Nadal wrote Monday on the daily blog he is going for the Times of London. “But it is not my tournament, so I don’t make the rules.”
That’s encouraging.
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>> London, England: While fewer people are being allowed near the players, that hasn’t stopped pigeons from storming the All England Club. Wimbledon organizers have used two hawks to keep pigeons away, but they have been an annoyance to players on the grass courts already and have been dive-bombing tables in the open-air media restaurant.
Considering the potential health hazard in the restaurant area, marksmen were called in to eliminate the problem, inflaming the folks at PETA, which has complained to both the organizers and the police. The group says the killing of the birds is not out of a concern for public health, but because “the animals were deemed inconvenient” and said the shootings are against the law.
Not if Squab Lorraine is on the menu!
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Beijing, China: From Radio Netherlands:
“Chinese state media report that six weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the black market in tickets is flourishing. The big attraction remains the opening ceremony, tickets for which originally cost 500 euros [about $780 U.S.]. The tickets are now being offered on the Internet for 10,000 euros [about $15,601 U.S.].
“Although every ticket sold carries the purchaser’s name, purchasers of black market tickets have been approaching staff at the state sales offices to get the names officially changed.”
Comment: This is the surest sign yet that capitalism has fully taken hold of China and an encouraging sign for those who foresee political change to follow. If the Chinese government can’t control its citizens selling tickets, what else can’t it control?
≡¶≡
>> New York, N.Y.: The trade journal Brandweek reported that the three sponsors who paid up to $15 million each to be affiliated with the Olympic Torch Relay – Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lenovo – aren’t exactly getting their money’s worth.
“[P]rotests en route regarding China’s political and ethical positions in Tibet and Darfur forced those marketers to reduce their visibility and surrounding promotions. Separately, the earthquake that hit central China in May saw many Olympic partners shift resources from marketing to humanitarian, including Coke, Panasonic, McDonald’s and GE.”
Comment: There will be some quiet but frank discussions by sponsors with the International Olympic Committee about the bang-for-the-buck that sponsors receive for their Olympic affiliations. Remember that the Olympic Games – unlike the FIFA World Cup – does not allow in-stadium signage of any kind during the Games, although it will be interesting to see if the IOC allows some signage during its inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.
Moreover, the activities of companies which are not sponsors of the Games, but instead sponsor – at a much lower cost – athletes or individual teams are on the rise. A study at the Coventry University Business School indicates that as many as 50% of consumer may mistake ambush marketers for official sponsors. One noteworthy lesson from the 2008 European soccer championships is Heineken’s marching-band-style, logoed hats designed to be worn by the supporters of the Netherlands team, although Carlsberg is the official beer of Euro 2008.
The IOC, in particular, cannot continue increasing its charge for worldwide sponsorship without better delivery systems, protection from competitors (which may require national legislation in countries where the Games are held) and providing better inventory for sponsors. Other than the seemingly-always-committed Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, all of the IOC’s other TOP sponsors aren't all that likely in play into the future.
~ Rich Perelman
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