CoSIDA NEWS Intercollegiate Athletics News from Around the Nation DECEMBER 19, 2006 Stadium fails to live up to billing Page 1 of 2 Email this article Click to send Print this article Choose File Print or Ctrl P or Apple P Most emailed pages Today | This Week Stadium fails to live up to billing Dan Bickley The Arizona Republic Dec. 17, 2006 12:00 AM It's been a rough year for the new stadium. The grass won't grow. The retractable roof has been benched. And people who saw the Rolling Stones still aren't sure what they sound like in concert. Alas, the acoustics from an eight-track player in a 1972 Gremlin surpass the sound quality inside this building, a post-industrial colossus full of girders, beams and exposed concrete. Look, I love the exterior of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. It's unique, shining and stunning. It's wonderfully communal, with one of the best tailgate areas in the history of beer swilling. But the interior is a joke. And not at all what we thought we were getting with our hard-earned tourism dollars. At its core, football is about character, and part of that means dealing with the elements. This applies to the players and the fans, and to seal out elements for collective comfort is to test karma and anger the football gods. The Bears and the Packers play in open-air stadiums, in cities that get bitterly cold. They have won Super Bowls. The Lions and the Vikings have shut the roof and won nothing. In the NFL, the weather must be in play. From the Ice Bowl to the Fog Bowl, many games become classics simply because of the playing conditions. And barring a strange heat wave or freakish rainstorm, the roof in Glendale should be open for all day games starting in November. After all, the aging Keith Richards didn't mind the roof being open, and his circulation is hardly what it used to be. Now that's character. Pathetically, the Cardinals are choosing the path of least resistance, which is what bad franchises do when small pockets of people complain, even though the Cardinals went to great lengths to explain sun patterns and high-glare areas to new customers. Problem is, bad franchises don't have replacement customers waiting on season ticket lists. And after all those years of empty bleachers, the Cardinals don't want to anger anyone they have on the hook, especially the customers who were sold on a comfortable fan experience. Doesn't matter. These roof controversies should've ended with Curt Schilling. Instead, another retractable roof is another game-to-game proposition, and another very expensive joke. All we know for certain is that the roof will be open before the Fiesta Bowl, when an Air Force parachute unit drops onto the field as part of the pregame ceremonies. And then it'll close again before kickoff. Meanwhile, there's the matter of this cow pasture they call a playing field. All over the Valley, playing fields are green and lush. According to witnesses, you wouldn't believe how good the field looks at Sun Devil Stadium. But in Glendale, the http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/arizon... 12/17/2006 Stadium fails to live up to billing Page 2 of 2 expensive field-in-a-tray is growing more sporadically than a Chia Pet. Granted, the field looks worse than it feels under cleat. And, hopefully, it'll look better today than it did last week, when the stress of three football games in 30 hours left but a few splotches of grass between the 20-yard lines. But if the field doesn't look significantly better today, then we've got big problems. The clock is ticking, and aesthetics are very important this time of year, especially with two Bowl Championship Series bowl games coming down the pike. While the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority is seeking long-term remedies and improvements, some thorny issues remain. What if the grass never grows in that tray? Must we send the high school games back to Tempe? Must we pass another referendum to buy field turf? For now, the sports authority seems confident that the tray technology is sound. They claim a strange phenomenon has sabotaged the football season. It seems when the field-in-a-tray comes rolling into an air-conditioned stadium for two days in September and October, the grass begins to think it is winter when it is not. And then it goes to sleep or something. The sports authority is working feverishly trying to solve the problem (before the BCS wonks get wind of it), and either way, grass hasn't gotten this much attention since Woodstock. It seems almost certain that new sod will be required for the Fiesta Bowl, as well as the traditional field overlay (more new sod woven into existing grass) for the BCS title game. Which means the owner of some lucky turf company will have some extra spending money for the holidays. If it helps any, the Cardinals will be done with the field come Sunday night. They close out their season with two road games. And from the botched Tillman tribute to Denny's "Monday Night Meltdown," from the naming rights controversy to the Roof and Grass fiasco, the honeymoon at home didn't last long at all. Reach Bickley at [email protected] or (602) 444-8253. Check out his blog at azcentral.com. Email this article Click to send Print this article Choose File Print or Ctrl P or Apple P Most emailed pages Today | This Week http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/arizon... 12/17/2006 Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page Page 1 of 2 Football Playoff Gets Push From Two Florida College Presidents By Curtis Eichelberger Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- College football's disputed method for deciding a national champion is facing a new set of critics - - two prominent college presidents. University of Florida President Bernard Machen, whose football team is playing Ohio State University for this year's title on Jan. 8, and Florida State University President T.K. Wetherell, are pushing for a playoff tournament instead of a single game. Their clout may give added traction to the annual calls for a playoff. The two schools have participated in a combined eight title games and won three championships since 1993. ``A playoff is inevitable,'' said Machen, 62, who hasn't yet drafted a detailed plan. ``The public strongly favors a playoff, but university presidents are in denial about that. They just don't see it. Whatever the format, I believe we need to get ahead of it and create the system rather than responding to the external pressures.'' Under the current Bowl Championship Series system, two teams are selected for the title game using criteria such as poll rankings resulting from votes by sportswriters, coaches and former players and administrators. Four other games match teams that finish near the top of the BCS rankings. The system, created by six of the most powerful football conferences and accepted by the others, has sponsored a title game since 1998. Most other college sports champions are determined in a playoff, men's basketball most famously in the so- called March Madness tournament, which fields 65 teams and lasts three weeks. Florida's 73-57 victory over UCLA in April's championship game was watched by 12.3 million U.S. television households. TV Money More than prestige is at stake with a football playoff. The schools are turning their backs on as much as a 60 percent increase in television and sponsorship money by not adopting a playoff system, said Kevin O'Malley, a college sports consultant in Tampa, Florida. New York-based News Corp. pays about $85 million a year for the right to televise four of the five BCS games, including the title game. And Walt Disney Co.'s ABC pays about $30 million a year to show the Rose Bowl, which is the fifth BCS game, O'Malley said. ``Fans are already familiar with the playoff format, and interest would build more each week as teams fell to the side,'' O'Malley said. ``The title sponsorship for the championship game, it would go through the roof.'' A football playoff would generate excitement akin to the NFL's Super Bowl or the college basketball championship, said Jack Myers, chief executive of the Myers Reports Inc., a New York-based media research company. Super Bowl The Pittsburgh Steelers' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in last February's Super Bowl was watched by 41.6 percent of U.S. households with televisions, and 30-second ads sold for $2.5 million. Last January, the University of Texas's 41-38 win over the University of Southern California for the BCS championship was seen by 21.7 percent of U.S. television households, and 30-second ads sold for $800,000. ``A college football playoff and championship? That's a franchise you would want to own,'' Myers said. ``If they developed it, over three to five years, I could see advertising revenue increasing 30 percent.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=aqszRK5jhMEY 12/19/2006 Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page Page 2 of 2 The challenge Machen and Wetherell face comes from college presidents concerned about lengthening the football season, lost class time and an impression that they are sacrificing education for money.