The Valley of Fairness

[ShockerFever]

http://www.mvc-sports.com/baseball/news/2010-11/5372/mvc-announces-2011-12-championship-sites/

Anybody noticing a trend lately in hosting sites?

With how much support WSU athletics gets and how well we support championships when we do host, I'm a bit perturbed by yet another sports season of events not being hosted by WSU.

Am I shocked? Absolutely not. The Valley hates WSU. Am I getting pissed about it? Uh yah, now I am.

The Valley of Fairness.

(by the way I dunno where I should have posted this, I figured here would get the most exposure..)

[The Mad Hatter]

Just for the record, WSU is hosting the Outdoor Men's and Women's Track and Field and Men's Golf championships (they are listed at the very end of the article).

[martymoose]

I'd be interested in seeing the average income from the MVC baseball tournament over the last 10 or so years for each school who has hosted. I'm sure the Valley wouldn't dare post those figures...with the whole fairness thing and all. :roll:

[60Shock]

SF, seems to me we would have to look at this over a several year period, perhaps like five years.

Question being - have we and the other MVC gotten our fair share? If not, then our AD should take it to the top and demand a resolution.

[ShockerFever]

Just for the record, WSU is hosting the Outdoor Men's and Women's Track and Field and Men's Golf championships (they are listed at the very end of the article).

I saw that, but I was referring to the main revenue generators/larger spectator drawers.

[ShockerFever]

SF, seems to me we would have to look at this over a several year period, perhaps like five years.

Question being - have we and the other MVC gotten our fair share? If not, then our AD should take it to the top and demand a resolution.

If the Valley likes seeing bigger checks and likes seeing events well attended, then WSU would be a good place to look at... and that's why we've hosted our fair share of tournaments.

If other schools were pulling as much as WSU or if WSU was slipping, then I wouldn't dispute the current trend, but that's simply not the case.

All I see in that article is Omaha, Springfield, and Frostbite Falls over and over and over again.. :roll:

[The Mad Hatter]

Just for the record, WSU is hosting the Outdoor Men's and Women's Track and Field and Men's Golf championships (they are listed at the very end of the article).

I saw that, but I was referring to the main revenue generators/larger spectator drawers.

I assumed that might be the case, and it is a fair point about the larger revenue draws.

[martymoose]

The problem is the Valley is a sinking ship... The Valley's best years are when WSU is at the top, when we suck, so sucks the Valley. I'm sure CU will represent us well this weekend...probably similar to ISU representing us in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Valley's best basketball season in 30 years was when we were ranked and made the S16. The Valley's best baseball years are when we're hosting Super Regionals and winning the CWS. Sure we win the coveted MVC All Sports trophy year in and year out...that great and all :roll: The rest of the Valley is perfectly happy with being mediocre and oddly many of them see proud of our current place.

[SB Shock]

There were some CU posters a couple weeks ago saying WSU was not going to get the baseball tournament because Gene/WSU has made other unhappy with the way they have ran the tournament and treated each school. One of them was the way Gene has had the Seat Nazi checking tickets even in non-WSU games and running them out of seats.

[martymoose]

There were some CU posters a couple weeks ago saying WSU was not going to get the baseball tournament because Gene/WSU has made other unhappy with the way they have ran the tournament and treated each school. One of them was the way Gene has had the Seat Nazi checking tickets even in non-WSU games and running them out of seats.

Probably has nothing to do with it... We had it in 2010, CU in 2011, MSU in 2012, I assume it'll be back here in 2013.

[SB Shock]

There were some CU posters a couple weeks ago saying WSU was not going to get the baseball tournament because Gene/WSU has made other unhappy with the way they have ran the tournament and treated each school. One of them was the way Gene has had the Seat Nazi checking tickets even in non-WSU games and running them out of seats.

Probably has nothing to do with it... We had it in 2010, CU in 2011, MSU in 2012, I assume it'll be back here in 2013.

Wsu should call their bluff and tell the mvc they are done bidding (or at least bid minimum) on the tournament until the mvc awards them on merit and not charity.

[shocker3]

There were some CU posters a couple weeks ago saying WSU was not going to get the baseball tournament because Gene/WSU has made other unhappy with the way they have ran the tournament and treated each school. One of them was the way Gene has had the Seat Nazi checking tickets even in non-WSU games and running them out of seats.

They sure didn't check tickets when they sat in my section. And if they were checking they certainly would have shooed those annoying screamers from Springfield out of the blue seats.

[ShockerFever]

There were some CU posters a couple weeks ago saying WSU was not going to get the baseball tournament because Gene/WSU has made other unhappy with the way they have ran the tournament and treated each school. One of them was the way Gene has had the Seat Nazi checking tickets even in non-WSU games and running them out of seats.

Probably has nothing to do with it... We had it in 2010, CU in 2011, MSU in 2012, I assume it'll be back here in 2013.

That would be pathetic if that had anything to do with it. I know even the Valley wouldn't be that ignorant.

sCUm fans and MSU fans simply aren't used to having reserved seating sections because they draw so poorly. They're used to the $3 please-we're-begging-you-to-come-out-to-the-ballpark-sit-anywhere-you-want seats. So therefore when they come here, they expect the same situation to be upheld. Fact is, there are seating designations at Eck. Simple solution: Fork over the extra $4 a ticket to sit in the reserved seats and you don't have an issue. Otherwise, they can fry to death, for all I care, up in the first base bleachers.

[WuDrWu]

Fork over the extra $4 a ticket to sit in the reserved seats and you don't have an issue. Otherwise, they can fry to death, for all I care, up in the first base bleachers.

An appropriate fate befitting the fans of Joan of Arc Day at the stadium.

[WSUwatcher]

Yeah, sure...

Sounds like typical Creighton whining to me, SB. I guess it's possible that WSU has turned its seat police loose during MVC tournament games.

But I suspect it's more likely that any such directions have come from the league office, because I certainly haven't had a problem with it during the regular season, when WSU is certainly in charge. In all my years as a season ticket holder I've never had anything but a punchcard, and on those occasions where I've opted to move into a box seat I've never once been booted out. (I usually don't move down, by the way, because the stands are low enough that my preferred locations are either at the top directly behind home plate -- essentially the Mike Kennedy view a few feet down, which long ago convinced me that he can't precisely judge the balls and strikes he loves to complain about -- or near the top of the bleachers directly above first base, which is a great bird's eye view. But when I do move down I've always been discreet enough not to take Rusty Eck's seats or George Fahnestock's, and I've never been moved.)

Anyway, this thread reminds me of one of my pet peeves about NCAA sports in general and the Valley in particular, which is the idea that equality means fairness. It doesn't: equality means sameness, and treating unequals the same is most definitely not fair. It has always annoyed me, for example, that in baseball tournament play schools basically alternate batting as the home team or the visitor, a practice that makes a mockery of the seeding, which is based on performance during the year.

The fair, although not equal, way to do it would be to reward the higher seed for having earned their spot and to have them bat last. Similarly, when it comes to placing tournaments that can actually produce real revenue (i.e., not golf or cross country) the league should operate like a business and put them where they generate the most fan interest and money, which in a disproportionate number of cases would be Wichita.