In the News

D.C. landlord: Stadium a drag
Field of Schemes - October 11, 2004
"At least one Southeast D.C. property owner says he plans to file a court challenge to the city's plans to seize private property to clear the way for an Expos baseball stadium. 'I have the money and the resources to challenge the city, even if I have to go to the Supreme Court,' Bob Siegel, owner of several buildings in the gay nightclub district that would be demolished for the stadium, told the Washington Blade."...

D.C. - Same cake, new icing
Field of Schemes - October 10, 2004
"It's looking more likely that the only change the D.C. city council will make to the Expos stadium bill will be to tack on some additional funding for social services, without reducing MLB's taxpayer windfall. ... Turning the stadium bill into a stadium-and-puppies bill is unlikely to placate the deal's opponents, who are planning rallies outside the homes of pro-stadium councilmembers Sharon Ambrose and Jack Evans next Saturday."

D.C. - Williams: Let them have cake and eat it
Field of Schemes - October 7, 2004
..."A day after accusing stadium opponents of 'populist grandstanding,' D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams played to the crowd himself, suggesting that he could raise $20 million a year toward "community benefits" to ease the sting of spending twice that amount on an Expos baseball stadium. 'My goal would be to try to generate around $20 million that could then yearly go into a community benefits package,' said Williams."...

D.C. Councilmen, Residents Protest Baseball Plan
Reuters - October 5, 2004
..."[Councilmember Adrian] Fenty said tax resources should pay for what he called more pressing needs, such as schools, infrastructure, affordable housing and public safety. He plans to push an alternative plan for the team to continue playing at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, where the Expos now plan to play until a new stadium can be built. The stadium now houses Washington's Major League Soccer team and was the last home of the Washington Senators baseball team. 'If the (baseball team) owners want a new stadium, they can build it themselves,' Fenty said at a rally outside the city government building in downtown Washington."...

Groups unite to oppose stadium in DC
Washington Times - October 5, 2004
"A diverse coalition — including local politicians, black-power militants, homosexual activists and child-welfare advocates — has emerged to oppose plans for a Major League Baseball stadium in Southeast, as the D.C. Council today begins debating legislation for the 'sweetheart' ballpark deal."

D.C. - Williams' voodoo economics
Field of Schemes - October 5, 2004
"Last week, I broke down D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams' stadium plan and determined it would create an annual loss to taxpayers of about $30 million a year. ... Even giving Williams his $12 million a year in new tax revenues, then - dubious as they may be - D.C. would still be looking at about $18 million a year in red ink on the new stadium. It'll be hard to fund any hospitals or police stations with that."

D.C. - A Major League Heist
Los Angeles Times (editorial) - October 2, 2004
"Our nation's capital was just had. In its quest for major league status, Washington, D.C., has agreed to pay a king's ransom — close to half a billion dollars — to build a baseball stadium in order to lure the game back to town after a 33-year absence."...

D.C. - Battle of the bills
Field of Schemes - October 2, 2004
"D.C. council chair Linda Cropp introduced Mayor Anthony Williams' $500 million stadium bill as promised yesterday - and was promptly met by the promise of a competing bill to tell the Expos to play in the existing RFK Stadium, or lump it. D.C. councilmember Adrian Fenty, a staunch opponent of public stadium funds, told the Washington Post: 'Where else are they going to go? They've already left Montreal. And no one else has a stadium ready.' Fenty also called for the city auditor to review the mayor's financing plan."...

D.C. at the bat, cont'd
Field of Schemes - October 1, 2004
..."Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports that D.C. councilmember Linda Cropp, until now counted as a sure pro-stadium vote, is "wavering in her support" of Williams' bill. If so, this could be huge: Williams needs seven votes to pass a bill, eight to make it veto-proof once the Dissident Three take office in January, and without Cropp he's down to six and a bunch of undecideds. That makes for a lot of room for horse-trading demands by those on the fence, which could make the next couple of months very interesting at the John A. Wilson Building."...

Is the District Being Sold A Bill of Goods?
Sally Jenkins, Washington Post - September 30, 2004
..."'Any independent study shows that as an investment, it's silly,' says [Roger] Noll, the co-author of 'Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums.' 'If they're trying to sell it on grounds of actually contributing to economic growth and employment in D.C., that's wrong. There's never been a publicly subsidized stadium anywhere in the United States that had the effect of increasing employment and economic growth in the city in which it was built.'"...

Le plus ca change...
Field of Schemes - September 30, 2004
..."'People were amazed that the District had done the deal that they did.' Post writer Peter Whoriskey speculates that D.C. could have cut a much better deal for taxpayers, had they noticed that Virginia's competing bid was falling apart. It's not like it was exactly a secret."...

New Jersey Mets?
Field of Schemes - September 30, 2004
"You let one city steal another's team, suddenly everybody wants to get into the act. Yesterday it was San Jose, today it's New Jersey, where acting-governor-in-waiting Richard Codey says he wants to lure the New York Mets to a new stadium built in the Jersey swamps."...

U of Toronto: Stadium too rich for our blood
Field of Schemes - September 30, 2004
"Man, those Canadians just don't know how to throw money at their sports teams. After committing to help pay for an $80 million stadium to be shared with the Toronto Argonauts football team, the University of Toronto has abruptly pulled out of the project. Why? Because rising costs meant they'd have to foot the bill for an additional $20 million in construction."...

DC taxpayers to foot 80% of stadium bill
Neil deMause, Baseball Prospectus - September 28, 2004
..."Still, it's also not the 100% publicly financed stadium that Bud hoped for when he set the Expos roulette wheel spinning; that MLB is apparently set to accept close to a fifth of the costs is a sign of how few other viable options they have. And if the D.C. council realizes this, then things could start to get interesting, because there's nothing stopping council members from whittling away at the public's cost between now and November. Once the MLB cabal sends up the white smoke, after all, it's not like they have many options"...

DC at-bat
Washington Times (editorial) - September 28, 2004
..."the present value of the mayor's largesse easily exceeds $500 million. And that is before consideration of the inevitable construction cost overruns, which conceivably could exceed $100 million. Who would be obligated to pay for them? Will the final agreement protect the taxpayer? The D.C. Council — whose approval is necessary and, unfortunately, probable — needs to take a skeptical look at the mayor's offer. At an absolute minimum, any approval by the council should require that MLB and the new owners be obligated to pay for any cost overruns that, for whatever reason, are not absorbed by the contractors."

Monster green for 49ers, S.F.
Field of Schemes - September 28, 2004
..."With yesterday's announcement that the San Francisco 49ers have sold naming rights to Candlestick Park to speaker-wire manufacturers Monster Cable, the team and the city are set to split 50/50 the $6 million fee the company is paying over the next four years. Starting this Sunday, the stadium will now officially be known as, yes, Monster Park, though it'd be a shocker if any locals call it anything but the Stick."...

Isles owner draws pretty pictures
Field of Schemes - September 28, 2004
"New York Islanders owner Charles Wang yesterday unveiled plans for a $200 million renovation of the Nassau Coliseum that would add a ring of luxury seats and a new concessions concourse. And how would it be paid for, you ask? 'Financial details,' reports Newsday, are 'sketchy,' beyond an Isles exec saying it would involve 'help from state, the county and Wang.'"...

DC - Badly Fooled By the Pitch
Sally Jenkins, Washington Post - September 25, 2004
"I hate to be a killjoy, but somebody has to look at this baseball deal with eyes that aren't clouded by sublime pastoral cliches. Do you mind my asking why we allow baseball officials to squeeze our municipalities, and make poorer people pay for stadiums that make rich people richer? ... If we strip away all the pastoral nonsense, and the nostalgia, and the exuberant projections about urban redevelopment, doesn't it look like the nation's capital is being extorted by Commissioner Bud Selig?"...

NBA's Etan Thomas: "I am Totally Against This War"
Common Dreams - September 24, 2004
..."When athletes like Etan Thomas step forward and make their voices heard, they do more than rewrite the rules of Cosell's "Jockocracy". They reclaim the humanity of all athletes normally presented as having muscles and tattoos but not minds. They also provide an outlet for the millions of people who oppose the priorities of this government yet embattled and embittered, feel they stand alone."...

DC at the bat, cont'd
Field of Schemes - September 24, 2004
..."MLS team D.C. United, which would temporarily share RFK Stadium with a relocated Expos, has jumped in with its own demands for a new stadium, across the Anacostia River from the proposed baseball site. D.C. officials say the soccer stadium would be "funded primarily" by D.C. United's owner, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, but full financial details are still murky."...

DC - A generous baseball 'deal'
Washington Times (editorial) - September 24, 2004
"The District's Sept. 14 Democratic primary served as a de facto referendum on the use of taxpayer funds to funnel hundreds of millions of public dollars to the owners of Major League Baseball ... Three D.C. Council incumbents (who supported the taxpayer subsidies) were defeated by three challengers (who opposed the subsidies). The public spoke, and MLB got the message. The day after the primary, D.C. and MLB representatives engaged in a 12-hour negotiating marathon to close the "deal" before the balance on the council shifts from pro-subsidy to anti-subsidy at the beginning of next year."...

DC gridlock
Field of Schemes - September 23, 2004
"MLB's executive council has concluded its summit meeting on the Montreal Expos, and decided ... nothing. The eight-owner group emerged after three hours without a recommendation on the Expos' fate, and apparently without resolving how or if to compensate Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos for dropping a team onto his doorstep."...

DC - Re-crunching the numbers
Field of Schemes - September 23, 2004
"A reader points out that while my summary of the D.C. stadium finance plan is accurate, the Washington Post's math is not: $5.5 million in annual rent, plus a few million more a year in ticket and parking taxes, makes for a total private contribution of closer to 30% of the whole project than the 44% that the Post reported."...

Redskins fans seek to vote with feet
Field of Schemes - September 23, 2004
"Ever since the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field opened in 1997, fans have avoided the team's $25-a-car parking fees by parking at the nearby Landover Mall, and walking to the stadium. This June, however, Prince George's County transportation director Dale G. Coppage, citing "public safety" concerns, ordered all sidewalks leading into the stadium closed to pedestrians on game days, effectively forcing all fans to use the Redskins parking lots."...

Schwarzenegger vetoes team nickname bill
Kansas City Star - September 23, 2004
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill from the California Assembly that would have prohibited five high schools from using the nickname Redskins, considered by some to be a racial slur against American Indians."...

DC marks a spot
Field of Schemes - September 22, 2004
"With the MLB executive council set to meet tomorrow to discuss the fate of the Montreal Expos, Washington, D.C. officials have finally agreed on a stadium site, a plot of privately owned land near the Navy Yard in southeast D.C. The stadium plan, according to the Washington Post, would cost $440 million"...

No Jones Tax Arlington Coalition hopes to turn voters against Cowboys' stadium plan
Dallas Morning News - September 20, 2004
..."The battle they hope to win is for the support of Arlington residents. Voters will go to the polls Nov. 2 to decide whether to raise sales and other taxes to finance $325 million to pay for the city's half of a Cowboys stadium. With interest, the project will cost taxpayers about $650 million over the next 30 years – a bit more than $20 million a year."...

Expos ponder fate
Field of Schemes - September 20, 2004
..."[Expos pitcher Joey] Eischen's theory is that with the league's collective bargaining agreement due to expire in 2006, the league will hold off on selling or moving the Expos until then, at which point Bud Selig will again raise the threat of 'contracting' teams in order to force players into bargaining concessions."...

Blackouts a black eye for NFL
Alameda Times-Star - September 19, 2004
..."I'm no economist, but it strikes me that at some point the NFL must come to the conclusion that its blackout rule is killing its marketing of the sport. The blackout policy occurred because they were afraid free football would chase customers away. Instead, prices are. The NFL is going to have to start selling its game again ... which means making those games look attractive at the prices they insist on charging. You don't sell by limiting your product."...

St. Paul - Hockey lockout about more than just sports
St. Paul Pioneer Press - September 19, 2004
..."We know some of you could care less about sports. Your eyes glaze over whenever we write about taxpayer funding for a new Vikings or Twins stadium. But the current National Hockey League lockout has some significant economic consequences for residents of St. Paul and Minnesota, whether you're a Minnesota Wild fan or not."...

Vikes to stadium lobbyists: Go home
Field of Schemes - September 18, 2004
"The Minnesota Vikings have laid off their stadium lobbyists for 2005, saving themselves an estimated $500,000. ... Suburban Anoka County still insists it's working on a $645 million stadium complex for the team, but it's unlikely to make headway with either state legislators or local voters."

DC - Evans to MLB: You suck
Field of Schemes - September 18, 2004
..."'Major League Baseball is so screwed up, they probably won't give us the team anyway. I have nothing but disrespect for the owners of Major League Baseball, to be honest with you. And if they drag this thing out any longer, they can take the team and put it in Northern Virginia, and I hope it fails. Good for them.'"...

Rush job on D.C. stadium?
Field of Schemes - September 17, 2004
"With stadium opponents set to take over the D.C. city council, there's increasing speculation that the lame-duck council will try to push through a stadium bill for the Expos before it leaves office. The timetable would be extraordinarily tight, reports the Washington Times' Eric Fisher: Given procedural requirements of the council, 'a bill introduced in October would not be completed until early December at the soonest, just days before [stadium supporters Harold] Brazil, [Kevin] Chavous and [Sandy] Allen make way for Marion Barry, Vincent Gray and Kwame Brown on the council.'"...

K.C. at the bat
Field of Schemes - September 17, 2004
"Voters in the Kansas City region will go to the polls this November to decide on 'Bistate 2,' a plan to raise sales taxes by 0.25% for 15 years, with the proceeds going half for a $380 million renovation of the Royals and Chiefs stadiums, half for local arts programs. (If you haven't noticed, this is a trend: Presumably sports team owners have discovered that it's easier to get a stadium bill passed if it's sold as 'money for stadiums and fluffy puppies.')"...

Red Sox to add more seats, Mayor eager to see proposal
Associated Press - September 16, 2004
"Red Sox officials said they hope to add up to 2,000 seats to Fenway Park after next season in a proposal that will be unveiled to the neighborhood and the city over the next few months. Team officials refused to disclose any specifics of where the seats would be added. A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the mayor is looking forward to seeing the team's proposal."...

D.C. - Baseball Barry, Barry bad to him
Field of Schemes - September 16, 2004
"Presumptive D.C. city councilmember Marion Barry (he still needs to win the November general election, but that's a foregone conclusion in a Democratic town like D.C.) lashed out at Mayor Anthony Williams' stadium plans for the Expos yesterday, declaring: 'Over my dead body. I don't believe we should spend one cent of taxpayer money on a stadium. ... These owners stick you up. I won't let them stick you up.'"...

Expos - Gentlemen, start your lawyers
Field of Schemes - September 16, 2004
"Stadium negotiations may be going nowhere fast, but the MLB Commissioner's office has nonetheless filed notice with the judge overseeing the RICO suit filed by former Expos minority owners that the league plans 'subject to the negotiation of satisfactory terms and the affirmative vote of the major league clubs to relocate the Montreal Expos baseball club in time for the commencement of the 2005 regular season.' The RICO plaintiffs promptly indicated that they would file for a preliminary injunction against any relocation"...

Piling on vs. Jets stadium
Field of Schemes - September 16, 2004
"You know your stadium plan is in trouble when even traditional City Hall suck-ups are listing the reasons why it won't be built. Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin today declares New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Jets stadium plan to be 'in Big Trouble'"...

St. Louis County executive candidate McNary: County gave too much money for dome
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - September 15, 2004
..."McNary, a Republican who was the county's chief executive from 1975-89, tried to build a stadium in Earth City in the 1980s in an attempt to keep the football Cardinals from leaving the city. He said that stadium could have been built without taxpayer dollars. But downtown business interests were too strong and wanted the stadium in St. Louis. The Cardinals moved to Arizona, and the Rams moved to St. Louis from Anaheim, Calif., 10 years ago."...

More opponents for Expos stadium
Field of Schemes - September 15, 2004
"Poor Bud Selig. As if things weren't going badly enough with his stadium extortion schemes for the Montreal Expos, now yesterday's council primaries in Washington, D.C., swept out three allies of pro-stadium Mayor Anthony Williams and replaced them with stadium opponents: Vincent Gray, Kwame Brown, and Marion Barry. ... Put it all together, and it's looking more and more like another April in Montreal."...

Sacramento County Sheriff touts poll backing his arena plan
Sacramento Bee - September 15, 2004
..."Sixty-two percent of likely Sacramento city and county voters polled said they would support developing 10,000 acres of unincorporated North Natomas as long as equivalent acreage along the Sacramento River and the Sutter County line was preserved as open space, according to results released by J. Moore Methods."...

NHL freezing out fans
ESPN.com - September 14, 2004
..."The NHL and the players' association have not met since Thursday, when the players presented a proposal, which was a slight modification on a series of concessions first presented last October. The centerpiece of the proposal -- a luxury tax -- was almost instantly dismissed out of hand by Bettman, even though it's clear such a tax would put a drag on the salaries that owners claim are bleeding the league dry."...

Anaheim City Council lays out NFL priorities
North County Times (CA) - September 14, 2004
"The Anaheim City Council agreed Tuesday that zero risk to taxpayer funds and a positive fiscal return should be top priorities in any negotiations with the National Football League over building a stadium. Earlier this summer, NFL officials from New York made several visits to Anaheim and to a prospective site for the purpose of bringing an NFL team to the Anaheim/Los Angeles area by 2008, the city's John Nicoletti said."...

Marshall's Pruett apologizes for calling Buckeyes 'Mandingos'
USA Today - September 14, 2004
"Several times in recent seasons, Marshall coach Bob Pruett has publicly referred to opposing players as 'Mandingos' or 'Mandingo Warriors,' terms viewed by some as racially insensitive toward African-Americans. ... Charles Farrell, director of Rainbow Sports, a division of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition, says Pruett should be reprimanded by Marshall for use of the term."...

MLB Owners for Bush '04
Associated Press - September 13, 2004
..."More than a dozen current and former owners and family members are among the president's top re-election fund-raisers, an Associated Press review found. Seven are Bush "Rangers," each raising at least $200,000, and six are "Pioneers" who have brought in $100,000 or more. The Bush campaign has also received direct contributions from owners and executives of more than half of the sport's 30 teams, the AP analysis of Federal Election Commission reports found. Those include $2,000 contributions from owners George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, Fred Wilpon of the New York Mets, Carl Pohlad of the Minnesota Twins, Peter Magowan of the San Francisco Giants and Michael Ilitch of the Detroit Tigers."...

Anaheim - Promises, promises
Field of Schemes - September 13, 2004
"The Anaheim city council is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss building a stadium for an NFL team, but local officials swear they've learned their lesson after being spurned by the Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. 'We realize it's not the end of the world not to have an NFL team,' City Attorney Jack White told the Orange County Register."...

Race, class and the silent - Athletes, too, need to speak out
Minnesota Daily - September 13, 2004
"Athletes cannot be isolated from the society that celebrates them. The perfect athletes not only sacrifice their souls for the sake of competition, but transcend their sports. The names of athletes brave enough to speak out stand out from their times: Ashe, Didrikson, Owens. Sadly, today’s top professional athletes have refused to take similar risks for the betterment of society."...

San Francisco - Newsom twosome
Field of Schemes - September 11, 2004
"It seems that new San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is intent on reversing his city's two-decade-long history of saying no to sports subsidy demands: First he's opening stadium talks with the San Jose Earthquakes, now he's saying he wants to be 'proactive' on a new stadium for the 49ers."...

Bloomberg: No stadium, no Olympics
Field of Schemes - September 13, 2004
"I've previously described New York's multi-billion-dollar Hudson Yards plan as 'all cart and no horse,' and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg made another stab at muddying the waters of causality in statements at yesterday's Jets game. Though the city has certified an official backup plan (Shea Stadium), Bloomberg nonetheless insisted yesterday that the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics will be withdrawn if the Jets' $1.4 billion Manhattan stadium is not approved."...

Monster might devour Candlestick moniker
San Francisco Chronicle - September 12, 2004
..."The naming -- and renaming -- of the city-owned stadium has been a story in these parts for some time. If you're keeping score, it was Candlestick ... then 3Com Park for five years ... then back to Candlestick ... and now, from the looks of things, Monster Park."...

Denver - Stadium name-droppers, unite!
Denver Post (Editorial) - September 11, 2004
..."Stop the insanity. Selling our civic soul to the corporate gods was a stinker of an idea in 2001 when the stadium district traded public sentiment for $3 million a year - and it still smells foul today. News that Denver's Invesco Funds Group will combine with Houston-based AIM Investments has restarted the corporate name-game carousel in town."...

San Jose - Earthquake tremors
Field of Schemes - September 11, 2004
"The San Jose Earthquakes are quickly becoming the Expos of soccer, inspiring stadium talks in no less than four different prospective host cities. ... All this presumably needs to be settled by September 17, the deadline by which Anschutz has said he wants to have the team either sold or moved. Though as we've seen, deadlines are made to be broken."...

“Hey redskin, come over here!”
Native American Times - September 10, 2004
..."Nationally, both the use of a mascot dressed as an American Indian and the use of the word 'redskin' by high schools as a mascot is still an issue. In August of 2004, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools criticized the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for allowing the controversy over its American Indian mascot to damage its academic reputation. According to the report, the school’s Chief Illiniwek mascot is 'an embarrassment' and 'is a troubling failure of enlightened leadership.'"...

Expos saga - The first hit is always free
Field of Schemes - September 10, 2004
"This just in from Rocky Mountain News baseball columnist (and official MLB suck-up) Tracy Ringolsby: Bud Selig is currently trying to get owners to back a plan to 'place the [Montreal Expos] in Washington in what can be announced as a two-year trial.'"...

St. Paul mayor to Twins: Pick me! Pick me!
Field of Schemes - September 10, 2004
..."Now it's St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly who's told the Minnesota Twins that unless they anoint his city as their preferred home in the next few months, he'll take his stadium site and go home. 'This has been going on now since 1999,' Kelly told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. 'Either the Twins will want to come to St. Paul and partner up with us on a stadium, or we need to look at other opportunities for that property.'"...

San Diego - Brace for plenty of Bolts blackouts
San Diego Union-Tribune - September 10, 2004
..."Reports that almost none of the Chargers' home games this season will be available on television in San Diego have not resulted in a mad rush for the ticket windows at Qualcomm Stadium. ... The upside to this, especially if the Chargers are lousy, could have been that we'd get better games every Sunday – except the NFL is one step ahead of you. A blackout doesn't mean only missing out on watching the home team; it's missing out on another game, period."...

No final answers to those BCS questions
USA Today - September 9, 2004
..."Last season's LSU-USC split title was the 11th in the sport's history. So why not expand a too-tight, two-team bracket to, say, a championship field of 16? Beyond the issue of fairness — virtually ensuring that every championship-caliber team gets a shot at the title and settles it on the field — there is financial incentive."...

Anti-racism rally held in Athens
Associated Press - September 9, 2004
"More than 2,000 immigrants and members of anti-racist groups chanting 'No to racism - Yes to unity' marched Thursday after an Albanian man was stabbed to death following a World Cup soccer qualifier. Gramoz Palushi, 20, was killed during fighting that broke out between Greek fans and Albanian immigrants on Saturday, hours after Albania upset European champion Greece 2-1 in Tirana."...

The brand name for people opposed to brands
Haaretz (Israel) - September 9, 2004
..."Employee organizations that recently visited factories in Asia report that the situation there is not good. Not only are wages low - a base salary of 18 cents an hour and an average salary of 25 cents an hour - but there is also the employers' aggressive attitude, the limit on freedom of movement, the tough sanctions and long work hours (from 7:30 to 21:30). One of the plants surveyed by journalists and social activists manufactures, one after the other, shoes for Nike, Adidas, Asics, Reebok, Converse and New Balance. There is one factory producing all the brand names. And, still, the anti-globalization protesters wear New Balance."...

Equal play for all
San Francisco Chronicle (Editorial) - September 9, 2004
..."City and county recreational programs too often provide girls with outdated and/or unsafe facilities and equipment, reserving better fields, services and most of the funding for boys, despite the dictates of Title IX. That's primarily because local park and recreation programs are not included under the federal law. ... Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime advocate of safe and healthy activities for all young people, should advance the cause by signing AB2404 into law."...

Phoenix - It's great that Colangelo's been dumped
JOHN DOUGHERTY (opinion), Phoenix New Times - September 9, 2004
..."Cheering on the taxpayer fleecing is Jerry's propaganda mill, the Arizona Republic. The newspaper shamelessly promotes these expensive monolithic projects -- whose architecture kills any sort of pedestrian scene downtown -- without reporting the true underlying costs to taxpayers. ... The Republic is beside itself in despair because its water boy pushing for huge taxpayer-subsidized developments has suddenly lost his clout."...

Tackling longtime issue of performance-enhancing drugs
USA Today - September 9, 2004
..."Progress against doping has been stymied by two key factors: technological advances that keep abusers one step ahead of the authorities and conflicting rules and procedures adopted by hundreds of sports governing bodies."...

Denver - Amvescap stays mum on Mile High name
Rocky Mountain News - September 9, 2004
"Since Invesco's parent is considering getting rid of the U.S. mutual fund brand, you'd think it also might toy with the idea of yanking the name from Denver's football stadium. But global money manager Amvescap PLC, which owns Invesco and AIM Investments, has not contacted the Metropolitan Football Stadium District about bailing out of the naming rights agreement for the Broncos home."...

MLB owners - Dissension in the ranks
Field of Schemes - September 8, 2004
"True to form, when the going gets tough, MLB owners turn to infighting. According to unnamed sources quoted in the Washington Times, a group of owners is now pressing Bud Selig to ditch the current Montreal Expos relocation process, and instead just 'sell the team, get the money and let the new owner figure all this out.'"...

Fairness anyone? Tennis looks as bad as calls
Dallas Morning News - September 8, 2004
"Tennis has a big problem. The sport's mostly white establishment keeps getting it wrong when the two best black women's players are on the court. Racism? Let's pray not. But it's getting to the point where tennis should start feeling uncomfortable. Four incorrect line calls went against Serena Williams in the third set alone of her loss to Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Tuesday night. None was bigger than an outrageous overrule on a deuce point in the first game by chair umpire Mariana Alves of Portugal. ... Williams would have had game point. Instead, she went on to lose her serve and the match, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6."...

Indianapolis - It's raining Super Bowls!
Field of Schemes - September 8, 2004
"As part of his continuing efforts to extract a new $450 million stadium from the city of Indianapolis, Colts owner Jim Irsay is now promising there would be a "high probability" of the city landing a Super Bowl if the stadium were built. At the rate NFL teams are making this promise - and making it again (and again) - the NFL is going to have to hold three Super Bowls a year if everything gets built that owners are asking for."

Illinois' leaders must step up, get rid of Chief
Chicago Sun-Times - September 7, 2004
"Embarrassment. Divisive. Hypocrisy. Damaging. Troubling. These are just some of the words that have been directed at the University of Illinois by a major accreditation organization for higher education. And no, the subject was not the Illini football team. The subject is Chief Illiniwek, the school's mascot (or symbol, if you prefer)."...

Tank McNamara