Several weeks ago as the NFL was considering the Dallas bid to host the Super Bowl in the Cowboys’ new playpen, I mentioned that there were rumors that Jerry Jones wanted to bring the Cotton Bowl to his new stadium and to restore the Cotton Bowl to it historically prominent place in the college football bowl picture. Well, that’s happened. The Cotton Bowl will happen in the new stadium on 2 January 2010. The hope is that the BCS will expand to include at least one more game sometime in the future and the Cotton Bowl hopes to be on the short list to join the BCS power rotation if that happens. Playing in a new stadium that can seat close to 100,000 folks will not hurt their chances.
Oh, and Jerry Jones has also landed the Big 12 Championship Game for the new stadium for 2009 and again in 2010. There’s a double-edged sword for Jones in that game. Look at what happened to the ACC last year when it played its championship game at a “neutral site” and wound up with two non-traditional teams in the game. The stadium could not have been half-full. If that happens to the Big 12 Championship game – say a confrontation between Missouri and Baylor – there might be lots of empty seats for the game. We shall see on that one…
I made some snide remarks about Mark Cuban and his UFL idea. To be fair, there are a few things he – and his deep pockets co-investors – might do to get the league started on a positive track to build a following and to generate revenues. Cuban is correct to identify the American appetite for football as huge and growing. So in the spirit of magnanimity, let me offer some opinions and advice to these folks on what might work and what might not:
1. Do not go head-to-head with the NFL from day one. If you want to avoid being a “spring league”, start your season in June – before NFL teams go to training camp – and end the season with a simple playoff structure around October 1. Imagine the marketing advantage the UFL could have in July and August when the NFL is trying to promote entirely meaningless Exhibition Games and the UFL teams are making their playoff runs… Yes, I know this would put the UFL in direct competition with the CFL for time and attention; that should not be a huge problem south of the Canadian border.
2. Put the first tranche of teams in cities where there are no existing NFL teams. [This is a corollary to the first suggestion that the UFL not go head-to-head with the NFL from day one.] That gives the UFL a way to enter the Los Angeles and Las Vegas markets right away. Assuming an eight-team league at first the UFL might want to fire one shot across the bow of the NFL and put a franchise in Mexico City. It would certainly seem as if the NFL has designs on establishing itself there with “overseas games”; the UFL could be a permanent presence there from the outset. Just a thought…
3. Other cities without NFL teams that could support UFL teams might include Orlando, Sacramento, San Antonio, Birmingham and Oklahoma City.
4. Here’s a philosophical question for the league organizers. If you are going to put your initial franchises in cities with no NFL presence, can you still consider putting teams in Detroit, Cleveland, Phoenix and/or Oakland? Just asking…
5. Do not play in cavernous stadiums at first. If you want to look like a successful sporting venture on TV, you cannot have your games played under conditions where 70% of the seats are empty. The UFL will need to establish itself in terms of public credibility; empty seats make many folks believe the game on TV is some kind of bush league that has no future.
Let me change gears here and refer to the now infamous play by Alex Rodriguez where he shouted something at an opposing third baseman causing him to drop an easy pop fly. A reader sent me a note citing Rule 7-09 (d) which the reader said prohibits a base runner from doing anything to “confuse, hinder or add to the difficulty of the fielders…” He said A-Rod should have been called out immediately; he then went on to say that if it were any team but the Yankees, that would have been the call. I do not buy into the “Yankee conspiracy theories” even a little bit so I immediately ignored that. But I do have a long-term friend and former colleague who umpired baseball for about 30 years. I always defer to him on questions about the rulebook and here was his reply to me on this matter:
“Yes there is a rule to that effect … as with most rules; judgment is involved in the enforcement decision. There are some egregious circumstances under which it would be enforced. For example, a runner retired on a force play at second continues running to third to draw a throw. If such a move affected the defense, the umpires would call the ball dead and do whatever to remedy the situation.
“The A Rod yell was a bush league move that I’ve seen many times in amateur baseball and have never called nor would any other umpire. He would have had to make a much more overt attempt to interfere for it to be called.”
The Asheville Tourists play in the Class A South Atlantic League. They have a “Bark at the Park” day scheduled where fans can bring their dogs to the park and they’ll give out Frisbees to dog owners and stuff like that. I’d be willing to wager that neither Michael Vick nor Clinton Portis will be invited to throw out the first pitch or sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame that night…
Finally, here’s some commentary from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“I will donate $100 to the ASPCA chapter in the first city that hosts the Atlanta Falcons and, when the Falcons’ offense takes the field, the PA system plays How Much is That Doggie in the Window?”
“Sadly, the Falcons don’t play at Cleveland, so we won’t get to see Vick greeted by the Dawg Pound.
“Maybe I’m too hard on Mike Vick. Maybe it’s just my frustration. I’m having a lousy season in my dog-fighting fantasy league.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…