See, I knew I would be back to critiquing someone this week. And how appropriate that is the anonymous columnist from my alma mater's student newspaper. (In my day, when I wrote for The New Hampshire, they didn't allow anonymous columnists.)
Anyway, anonymous Joe (he admits to being male), has a holiday wish list for the University of new Hampshire that includes a few sport-related things.
First he wishes for a new football stadium because the current one is "small" and "ugly." I never thought it was that bad. He said that because the team has done so well recently they deserve a less-embarrassing facility. Perhaps. But it clearly has not affected recruiting. After all if you can make it to the second round of the post-season, you must be getting quality players who come in spite of the allegedly crummy stadium. And, of course, it costs a lot of money to build a new stadium. Anonymous Joe said that a new stadium, though, would bring in more revenue. But alas, it would still not be enough revenue to cover both the costs of said new stadium and the costs of the program. UNH is not one of the dozen or schools fortunate to have a football program that actually turns a profit. And football stadia, unlike say hockey arenas, usually sit unused 42 weeks of the year (in terms of revenue-generating activities anyway).
Anonymous Joe would also like UNH baseball back. Seriously, UNHers, it's time to build a bridge and get over it. I was there when baseball was cut--along with lacrosse--and since that time even more athletic programs have been cut, including crew. It's New Hampshire. And baseball may still retain its moniker as the great American pastime, as Anon Joe notes, but we all know that's just some lingering romantic notion. We live in a capitalist country where football is king. In other words, baseball is not coming back to campus.
Also, curious that Joe thinks UNH "adopted" Title IX in 1997 (when baseball was cut), as if Title IX was optional or that they hadn't been subject to it since, oh like the 1970s. When I was there, UNH claimed compliance under prong two. Don't know where they are at at this point.
Anon Joe does do a nice shout out to the women's hockey team and encourages the student body to engage in more random acts of fandom at some of those other sports that are not football and men's hockey. Good job, Joe.
And as someone who not resides in UMass territory, I really appreciated his sign off: Stay classy, not UMassy. Sorry UMass peeps. Old rivalries die hard.
2 comments:
Hey, I just wanted to clarify a few things. A lot of people at UNH are pushing for a new football stadium... the whole reason behind UNH allowing tailgating at football games was so that "attendance" could top 10,000. I've also heard that ESPN (or some network) refused to broadcast a game there do to the condition of the broadcast booth. And trust me, a nice stadium can play into recruiting. Players love playing in front of a bigger and louder crowds. I realize that the timing isn't the best right now (2 CAA's teams recently got cut) but I wouldn't be surprised if Cowell got a renovation within 10 years... How sweet would it be for UNH to have night football games (make it for soccer/lax too) and host the NH state championship games there.
The baseball team comment I made was more of a personal issue. It's always been my favorite sport so I kinda snuck that one in there. I do realize that UNH didn't adopt title 9 in '97, that was just when UNH became in full compliance with it. (Bad word choice on my part, it can be hard when you're word count is limited.)
Also, the reason behind my anonymous writing is that I write a blog on campus. It deals with many controversial issues that I might not want my name to be tied with down the road. TNH asked my to join them as an opinion columnist and allowed me to keep my alias so my column could be tied to the blog. Thanks for showing interest in my column and deeming it post worthy (if that's a good thing I mean.)
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