Media Bowl Gifts

UConn scandals? That's unpossible.

 

Theoretically, I mean.

 

BCS game is impossible to do anything but the team you cover. 4 stories a day, blog posts and 14 hour days and suddenly I have to be Woodward and Bernstein?

How the heck is a visiting writer in 6 days going to uncover 20 years of corruption? Obviously someone who thinks that way has never covered a BCS game.

Seriously folks. It is 14 hour days from morning to night without stopping.

And, did plenty of stories saying how the bowl systems bleeds universities like a mafia with bowl ticket purchases at triple of secondary market value as well as mandated purchase of $250 hotels that go unused.

The Fiesta is a multi-million charity. It's up to local media to ask if it is legit or not. Not the freaking out of towners who are there for 6 days.

 

One of the nuggets I pulled out of report was the claim that local politicians needed to be bought off to support a ballot measure to build the Glendale stadium. The money would also be used to build local youth ballparks, improve spring training facilities. Where did the money come from? Increased taxes on rental cars, hotel rooms and a sales tax at the Glendale stadium. You wonder why local pols needed to be bought off for a tax increase that would be paid largely by out of staters.

 

The short answer is, no one ever believes they're not going to end up not paying for it themselves, and there's a significant portion of the population that hears "tax" and starts jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam.

 

Tourism is big business in Arizona. The tourism industry fights these kinds of taxes like crazy -- especially the hotels.

Hotels along with the CVBs compete for meetings and conventions. High hotel and car rental rates can cause groups to go elsewhere.

That hurts restaurants too. It hurts hotel workers, cab drivers, etc. Lots of people fight against these taxes.

 

Blaming the UConn writers is absolutely inane. Lets stipulate that the UConn beat writer sees enough shady stuff going on at the Fiesta Bowl to have his antennae go up.

Writer: "I'd look to do some investigative work into what goes on at the Fiesta Bowl. I think there was some shady stuff going on."
Editor: "Like NCAA violations at UConn?"
Writer: "No. I just don't think the Fiesta Bowl is on the up and up. It's supposed to be a non-profit, but they spent pretty freely on a lot of stuff."
Editor: "So the only local angle is that a bowl that UConn played in this year may serve as a tax-avoiding slush fund for rich white guys?"
Writer: "Yes."
Editor: "And how long is this going to take to research and write?"
Writer: "Several months. I'm going to need to take several trips to Arizona to interview sources and I will need to pour over financial records. We're probably going to need to consult a tax attorney to make sure the bowl isn't exploiting a legal loophole."
Editor: "So I am supposed to blow up my budget because shady stuff is happening in Arizona? Are you out of your freaking mind? Get out of my office."

 

Its worth noting too that, in taking a quick peek at some of the bylines on the Republic's coverage of the Fiesta Bowl fiasco, it's not sportos doing the mainbars, it's news side people. They're the ones with the training in searching for and reading expense reports, government documents, etc. The main sports columnists (Dan Bickley, Paola Boivin and Bob Young) are contributing commentary, but newsies are doing the heavy lifting. I believe one of the lead reporters, Craig Harris, has the sports industry as his primary beat.

If someone really expects someone untrained in the ways of finance reports, etc., to take a week off from blocking schemes and prevent defenses to uncover all the shit the Republic has, they're only kidding themselves. Throw reporters that do know their way around the stories, and you get what the Republic has come up with.

The problem isn't the tchotchkes. It's properly utilizing resources.

 

So they sent in the news staff when it was time to get serious?

 

They sent in the news staff because the sports section did not have the bodies to assign to this story on a full-time basis. What are they supposed to do, ignore Arizona basketball, an NBA and NHL team, and spring training? Also two PGA events?
It is utter bullshit to say a sports reporter who is competent can't do news stories. And I might add, vice versa. Due to a management slipup, we the staff suddenly realized that we had no reporters assigned to the Rams for our post-Super Bowl XXXVI coverage at the Herald. A business side guy who was there covering the rich frauds hanging out at the Super Bowl volunteered, went down to the interview room, talked to Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Mike Martz and others and wrote a perfectly good sidebar on what the hell happened to Faulk in the game.
If you can report, you can report, although admittedly it take some time getting up to speed on many topics before you can.

 

^

 

Burbs, I'm more than willing to concede that, while I don't necessarily agree 100%, there is a case to be made that reporters should never accept the complimentary gifts at bowl events.
But you picked an absolutely God-awful example to make your case.