Houston Chronicle Asking People To Help Rice

[50's PONY]

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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports

May 6, 2004, 11:40PM



Rice needs our help, not just our concerns
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
The shock and anger that you've been feeling -- that I've been feeling -- is an instinct.

The passionate fight you want to wage in order to keep sports at Rice, especially football, is shared by many. By me.

But it is emotion talking. It is the raw, guttural reaction to someone daring to suggest that Rice athletics be scaled back, played at a diminished level or even vaporized.

We are sports fans. Houston sports fans to boot. To be unemotional about it, specifically a drop from Division I-A football, would be akin to turning down half-price beer at Reliant Stadium. Or free barbecue at Rice Stadium.

Who here would actually want to see Rice athletics remade into something less than top shelf? I wouldn't. You wouldn't. No one would.

But knee-jerk emotions do not pay bills that stack $10 million deep every year and will not change significantly with a move to the more geographically friendly Conference USA.

Raw emotions do not change consumer trends. Demographics will not suddenly reroute a path that was set long ago -- before, even, the breakup of the Southwest Conference, which many Owls supporters consider the beginning of this talk about an end.

The truth, in fact, is that Rice long ago began losing its appeal to its most significant potential audience -- us, the beer-and-barbecue crowd. The interested but uninvolved parties.

The decline has been gradual but sure since the 1960s.

Houston became a professional sports town, beginning with the arrival of the Oilers and Astros and continuing with the Rockets. Our allegiances to NCAA teams also became more diversified right along with the changing face of the city and so many ways to spend a buck.

That's why Rice University's emotional rescue, if you will, lies not with its students, faculty supporters, loyal fans or alumni.

It also is why some of the changes blowing in the wind could well stick.

The answer is in our hands. Those of us with no real affiliation to the university, other than it is in our city and we always like to see the local teams do well, probably already know the answer to the question we face when it comes to Rice athletics.

Will we pay to see it?

Remember the Owls' wonderful run to the College World Series last season? It warmed hearts and drew virtually priceless notoriety. It didn't, however, significantly boost fund-raising.

Will we buy the season tickets? Fill the stands? Provide the sponsorships?

The unemotional truth, and perhaps a harbinger of the Owls' inevitable fate, is that this city's taste for sports essentially went low-carb years ago. We cut out a lot of Rice.

As much as we all feel appalled at the suggestion of downgrading Rice athletics' status, we are doing more stomping of our feet than marching to the ticket window.

The McKinsey report, a thought-provoking, 104-page study into the viability and future of Rice athletics, makes the school's place in our city's sporting landscape clear. It also makes it clear there really is nothing Rice can do on its own to boost Division I-A prospects.

It has been nice hearing high-profile Rice alumni put into words the emotions we all are feeling. And at least one alumnus has promised that if changes are indeed made, he wants the $10,000 check he sent to the university returned.

But the reality is such words might not matter. And the donations "do not come close" to making the athletic program self-funding, according to the report.

In fact, according to the McKinsey findings, even if all of Rice's top 200 donors who dedicate more than 5 percent of their gift to athletics asked for a refund, the university still would take less than a 5-percent hit in general donations.

As for the stirring voices, we might all be with them in spirit. Everywhere those voices call out against change -- at Reckling Park, on message boards, on the call-in shows, we are there, figuratively standing shoulder to shoulder with the Owls and willing to fight the good fight.

But the McKinsey report also points to those voices being only the vocal minority.

Barely more than 18 percent of Rice undergraduates regularly attend football games, the report said. That is about 500 students.

Five hundred.

"Compared to others in their peer group," the report said, "Rice's participation in Division I-A competition is in many ways a statistical outlier."

Those within the close Rice athletic community are understandably emotional. They have our support, but they need our money.

"How possible is it to achieve a quality program," the McKinsey report asks, " ... in the context of Rice's traditions, constituents and size?"

The key word is "constituents."

Rice probably will not get the support it once knew from the beer-and-barbecue crowd any time soon, or at least not enough to alter the bumpy path this department was set on years ago.

The road to change? We feel your pain.


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Saturday: San Antonio's Trinity University, the model program.




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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2554831

[Water Pony]

As for the stirring voices, we might all be with them in spirit. Everywhere those voices call out against change -- at Reckling Park, on message boards, on the call-in shows, we are there, figuratively standing shoulder to shoulder with the Owls and willing to fight the good fight.

But the McKinsey report also points to those voices being only the vocal minority.

Barely more than 18 percent of Rice undergraduates regularly attend football games, the report said. That is about 500 students.

Five hundred.

"Compared to others in their peer group," the report said, "Rice's participation in Division I-A competition is in many ways a statistical outlier."

Those within the close Rice athletic community are understandably emotional. They have our support, but they need our money.

"How possible is it to achieve a quality program," the McKinsey report asks, " ... in the context of Rice's traditions, constituents and size?"

The key word is "constituents."

Rice probably will not get the support it once knew from the beer-and-barbecue crowd any time soon, or at least not enough to alter the bumpy path this department was set on years ago.

The road to change? We feel your pain.


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[Water Pony]

The article is on target.

The message equally applies to Dallas and SMU. The days of 35k in the Cotton Bowl or the halcyon days of Doak Walker are reminders that more than the students (who could certainly improve their attendance, including there at Kick-off time), alumni, etc. are needed to put 25-30K in the seats for what I believe will be a good product, value and entertainment in the near future.

SMU could and needs to be Dallas' college team, despite having no many alumni of other sw schools. The beer and barbeque ground could be a source. Soccer families too.