Motley Bowl

More financial information about bowl games that dovetails very nicely with the WSJ article.

More College Bowl Information from the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is one of the truly great sources of information. Yes it focuses on the money and lacks a consistent coverage of sports but time and time again the WSJ is ahead of the curve when reporting the news. When it is not getting ahead of the other sources of news it provides information not found elsewhere.

In The Not-Another-Bowl there is an interesting bit of information about Disney Sports and their motivation for aiding in the creation of bowls.

A big driver behind the increase in bowl games is ESPN. For all the prestige of playing in a bowl, many teams that participate in them spend more money than they earn on the games. ESPN, on the other hand, has turned even no-name bowls into commercial hits. The 17 bowl games ESPN televised last year averaged the same rating the network got for the 2006 Major League Baseball playoffs. ESPN has even started several bowls, including the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.

This article also contains interesting information about the sucesses and problems that schools are having in selling game tickets. The more interesting one being Auburn fans and their lack of interests in attending the Cotton Bowl. Is it that the Cotton Bowl has lost its luster or is it the AU fans willing not travel for anything less than a BCS game.

One omission from the article is the local economic of the influx of fans on the local economy especailly the need to fill empty hotel rooms.

Follow Up--Smoothie King Robbery

Often the news is reported and we are left to wonder about the outcome of situation. That fire at that abandon warehouse that makes for a pretty video on the evening news and is reported as having a cause that is under investigation rarely is is the subject of a follow up when the findings are reported. Unfortunately the same is not true in the case of a tragic fire with the loss of life as that often will warrant an explanation.

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Former Whitman football player will serve 10 days in jail
Judge orders teen to serve 30 days of home detention, complete 150 hours of community service and three years of supervised probation

A former Walt Whitman High School student began serving a 10-day jail sentence today for his role in planning the robbery of a Bethesda smoothie store.

Patrick Lazear, 17, considered to be one of the top college football prospects in the region, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the charge of conspiracy to commit robbery, with all but 12 days of the sentence suspended. Circuit Court Judge Katherine D. Savage also gave Lazear credit for serving two days following his arrest in April.

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Patrick Lazear's robbery of a Smoothie King discussed in this blog is one of those time where the tragedies that will get that attention. The article does mention the others charged and convicted in this crime but one wonders had this not involved a promising young football player would this have been treated as a mere warehouse fire.

Not Far Out Enough

When Old Dominion University announce that they were entering the college football scene and building a new stadium for their D II team with luxury boxes this blog joked about the next step being the addition of the boxes to your local high school stadium. If you live in Texas or Georgia the silliness of the future has already arrived. From the pitcures in the WSJ article Carroll Senior High School has a better stadium that much of the MAC, Mountain West, C-USA, WAC or the University of Miami (the Orange Bowl is a dump). What other FACILITIES does the better dressed high school need?

The meaning? We Americans have too much wealth for our own good.