A Little Different, A Little Of The Same
posted by Scott Hood on Monday, July 07, 2008
About 10 miles outside of the city’s center in a town called Beaverton lies the world headquarters for Nike, one of the largest shoe and apparel manufacturers in the world.
Of course, how those goods are made and where they’re made is a subject of much controversy, but that’s another article for another day.
But there’s no questioning the considerable impact Nike has had on the sports world over the last 25 years.
One of the sports the company is deeply involved with is track and field. Therefore, it’s no surprise the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials were held last week in Eugene, OR, home of the University of Oregon, or that the local media is consumed with the sport.
Upwards of a half dozen pages per day in the local newspaper (The Oregonian) were devoted to coverage. Many of the stories were devoted to the high number of local athletes competing in the trials.
Many of the top long-distance distance runners in the world train in Eugene, which is renowned for its outstanding track facilities.
In the five days we spent in Portland, I didn’t read a single article in the local newspaper about either Oregon or Oregon State football.
I was also surprised by the lack of Oregon or OSU clothing on the streets. Portland is clearly not a college sports town, putting it on polar opposites with Columbia.
It was the same thing in Seattle, home of the University of Washington. Except you wouldn’t know it by walking through downtown.
Seattle is a major league sports city with three professional franchises.
Okay, make that two.
Within hours of our arrival in the Emerald City, the mayor held a press conference announcing he had reached a deal with the owner of the Supersonics allowing the franchise to move immediately to Oklahoma City.
Seattle got $45 million, and a promise to receive an additional $30 million if the city doesn’t obtain a new NBA team within five years.
The squabble had, apparently, lasted for several years. Even the Sonics’ previous owner, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, had attempted to get the city to build a new arena for the team at taxpayers’ expense just a few years after it has spent tens of millions of dollars on renovations.
When his efforts failed, a frustrated Schultz sold the team to Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett, who didn’t even try to hide his true intentions. Bennett and city officials battled continuously over the quality of the arena where the Sonics played.
The relationship deteriorated so badly that Seattle filed a lawsuit to force Bennett to honor the final two years of the team’s arena lease.
The agreement giving Bennett the right to leave town left thousands of Sonics fans without a team to cheer for. Undoubtedly, the people of Seattle learned a tough lesson when it came to the dynamics of pro sports.
But Sonic fans won a consolation prize. Sort of. As long as the arena was upgraded with $300 million in improvements, the city might get another team.
Or so NBA Commissioner David Stern said.
With the distinction between pro and college sports becoming more and more blurred every day, the Sonics’ plight propels me to ask this intriguing question: could a college conference do the same thing with one of its schools?
Consider this extremely unlikely scenario: could the SEC tell South Carolina in five years that the $200 capital campaign wasn’t enough, that the Gamecocks were being kicked out of the league and they had no chance to return unless they spent another $300 million in athletic facility upgrades.
A bribe? You bet.
With the facility arms race still ongoing, is it only a matter of time before in the not-too-distant future a powerful conference like the SEC informs a conference school that it must make the ultimate choice: upgrade or die?
In short, is the day coming when college conferences regard their member schools as little more than chattel, like franchises in a pro sports league?
It might be.
It would be a sad day indeed for college athletics, but one we couldn’t claim we didn’t see coming.
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Vacationing in the Pacific Northwest last week exposed me to a different world when it comes to athletics. Portland, Oregon’s largest city, is a sporting mecca. But not in the way you would think.
About 10 miles outside of the city’s center in a town called Beaverton lies the world headquarters for Nike, one of the largest shoe and apparel manufacturers in the world.
Of course, how those goods are made and where they’re made is a subject of much controversy, but that’s another article for another day.
But there’s no questioning the considerable impact Nike has had on the sports world over the last 25 years.
One of the sports the company is deeply involved with is track and field. Therefore, it’s no surprise the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials were held last week in Eugene, OR, home of the University of Oregon, or that the local media is consumed with the sport.
Upwards of a half dozen pages per day in the local newspaper (The Oregonian) were devoted to coverage. Many of the stories were devoted to the high number of local athletes competing in the trials.
Many of the top long-distance distance runners in the world train in Eugene, which is renowned for its outstanding track facilities.
In the five days we spent in Portland, I didn’t read a single article in the local newspaper about either Oregon or Oregon State football.
I was also surprised by the lack of Oregon or OSU clothing on the streets. Portland is clearly not a college sports town, putting it on polar opposites with Columbia.
It was the same thing in Seattle, home of the University of Washington. Except you wouldn’t know it by walking through downtown.
Seattle is a major league sports city with three professional franchises.
Okay, make that two.
Within hours of our arrival in the Emerald City, the mayor held a press conference announcing he had reached a deal with the owner of the Supersonics allowing the franchise to move immediately to Oklahoma City.
Seattle got $45 million, and a promise to receive an additional $30 million if the city doesn’t obtain a new NBA team within five years.
The squabble had, apparently, lasted for several years. Even the Sonics’ previous owner, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, had attempted to get the city to build a new arena for the team at taxpayers’ expense just a few years after it has spent tens of millions of dollars on renovations.
When his efforts failed, a frustrated Schultz sold the team to Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett, who didn’t even try to hide his true intentions. Bennett and city officials battled continuously over the quality of the arena where the Sonics played.
The relationship deteriorated so badly that Seattle filed a lawsuit to force Bennett to honor the final two years of the team’s arena lease.
The agreement giving Bennett the right to leave town left thousands of Sonics fans without a team to cheer for. Undoubtedly, the people of Seattle learned a tough lesson when it came to the dynamics of pro sports.
But Sonic fans won a consolation prize. Sort of. As long as the arena was upgraded with $300 million in improvements, the city might get another team.
Or so NBA Commissioner David Stern said.
With the distinction between pro and college sports becoming more and more blurred every day, the Sonics’ plight propels me to ask this intriguing question: could a college conference do the same thing with one of its schools?
Consider this extremely unlikely scenario: could the SEC tell South Carolina in five years that the $200 capital campaign wasn’t enough, that the Gamecocks were being kicked out of the league and they had no chance to return unless they spent another $300 million in athletic facility upgrades.
A bribe? You bet.
With the facility arms race still ongoing, is it only a matter of time before in the not-too-distant future a powerful conference like the SEC informs a conference school that it must make the ultimate choice: upgrade or die?
In short, is the day coming when college conferences regard their member schools as little more than chattel, like franchises in a pro sports league?
It might be.
It would be a sad day indeed for college athletics, but one we couldn’t claim we didn’t see coming.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.