Observations and Punditry
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Woody's Ramblings
Monday, May 20, 2007
By Woody Peele |
Clark-LeClair ready to
pinch-hit for Turchin
By Woody Peele
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
When Tulane was awarded the 2006
Conference USA Baseball Tournament, a hurricane named Katrina was the
last thing on anyone’s mind.
But the devastating storm that nearly
destroyed New Orleans also damaged Tulane’s Turchin Stadium, eventually
forcing the conference to start looking for different accommodations.
East Carolina, which was to have hosted
the 2008 tournament, suddenly found itself flip-flopping with the Green
Wave and hosting the 2007 event instead.
Generally, the host school has an entire
year to plan and get ready for the tournament, but East Carolina found
itself in the position of having only a little more than a month for the
event, which runs Wednesday through Sunday.
Four games are scheduled for Wednesday and
Thursday, with two on Friday. Saturday’s schedule will have at least two
games and possibly as many as four, with the championship game on
Sunday.
East Carolina will play in the final game
of the day on Wednesday.
“The conference has a 75-page manual of
check lists,” Assistant Athletic Director for Ticket Operations Scott
Wetherbee said. “Some are to be completed by six months out, others by
three. But when the conference called on us, we had only 45 days left.
“And they were wanting to know where we
stood on the six- and three-month levels,” he added.
J.J. McLamb, Assistant Athletic Director
for Administrative Affairs, agreed.
“It was short notice, but we looked at it
as more of a challenge instead of a headache,” McLamb said. “We’re just
treating it like five home games over five days.”
Part of the background job was lining up
hotels for the other seven conference teams and the brass that will
accompany them from the schools and the conference. That was
accomplished in just a few days.
Sponsorships have been a little more
difficult, but both McLamb and Wetherbee said that Pirate fans have come
forth eagerly.
“Typically, what we would have done was to
incorporate the tournament into next year’s proposals,” Wetherbee said
of obtaining tournament sponsors.” That would take care of not only the
tournament, but football, basketball and baseball. “Everyone has pretty
much done with their budgets for the year and were looking ahead to next
year, so it hasn’t been as easy as it would have been.”
Among Wetherbee’s rush jobs has been
tickets. “But fans have responded well,” he said. “We’ve sold more
tournament tickets than season tickets, so that’s a good indication.”
He’s also had to rush to find things like
companies to sponsor hospitality and cars.
“Having run the Keith LeClair Tournament
for the past two years has really helped us,” McLamb added. “But not
having longer than we’ve had, you can’t just say, ‘I’ll do it next
week.’”
One of the factors that has helped in
getting all of the final pieces in place has been ECU's baseball
schedule. The Pirates played their final regular season series at UAB,
meaning most of the staff was at home getting things ready, such as
painting the necessary logos on the field, and making things a little
more special at Clark-LeClair Stadium for the event.
“We have to make it seem like a Conference
USA event, not an ECU event,” McLamb said. “We have to equally host
everybody.”
While all this is going on, Director of
Media Relations Tom McClellan, has also been preparing, but not quite
with the same rush.
“A lot of our area is being handled by
Conference USA,” McClellan said, “things like credentials, the game
program, the logistical areas.
“Most of our work will be during the
tournament. (The media relations staff) will be the first ones in the
press box and the last ones to leave,” he added.
Staff members will be handing different
games, getting quotes, setting up post-game interviews and others as
needed, handling hospitality.
“Scheduling people is going to be our No.
1 priority,” McClellan said.
Coverage, however, may not be as great as
one might think.
“Conference USA has major media markets
and baseball is sometimes a hard sell,” McClellan said. “We expect one
writer from Houston, doing double duty for Houston and Rice; one from
Southern Miss; and maybe one from Florida. With the troubles they’ve had
in New Orleans, we’ll be lucky to get one from there.
“So we’re not talking about a lot of media
people with the exception of each of the schools having radio, and even
that isn’t a lock.”
Of course, McClellan expects a lot of
media covering the home team.
“Obviously, East Carolina is the bell-cow
because of the local interest,” he said.
That would call for a number of television
and print media conferences.
There will some national television exposure, with CSTV, which will
cover the championship game of Sunday.
Even so, it’s not what everyone would hope
for. Because of another commitment, the championship game will be shown
on tape-delay instead of live.
“We’ll do everything we can to accommodate
them,” McClellan said.
Tulane and New Orleans will have to wait
another year to host the tournament, but East Carolina knows, to some
extent, what people there are going through as they remember Hurricanes
Dennis and Floyd which caused wide-spread flooding throughout eastern
Carolina.
For ECU, putting on a good show could lead
to other things — like hosting an NCAA regional at Clark-LeClair.
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05/21/2007 01:56:55 AM
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