So, a week and a half ago, the lights in Tad Smith went out right in the middle of the Vanderbilt game. Sometime in the last two years ago, the roof started leaking during a Ole Miss women’s basketball game. And now, there’s this from Lafayette County Emergency Management, suggesting that folks going to the game tonight carry an umbrella and a flashlight (and that all those white tshirts they are putting in every seat in the place may be to aid seeing folks if the lights do go out):
From Lafayette County Emergency Management: THERE IS A MODERATE RISK FOR SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS THE ENTIRE
MIDSOUTH. THE MOST LIKELY TIME FOR SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE FROM LATE
THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MIDNIGHT WEST OF THE MISSSISSIPPI
RIVER…FROM 8 PM TO 2 AM NEAR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER…AND FROM LATE
EVENING THROUGH OVERNIGHT EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. THE PRIMARY
SEVERE THREAT WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND TORNADOES…WITH A
SECONDARY THREAT FOR LARGE HAIL.A WIND ADVISORY IS ALSO IN EFFECT ACROSS THE MIDSOUTH THROUGH
TONIGHT DUE TO STRONG WINDS. REFER TO THE LATEST WIND ADVISORY FOR
DETAILS.
To balance out the non-PC of the Little Walter song, here’s Mabel John (with some great backup from Booker T & the MGs and the Memphis Horns. Listen particularly to Steve Cropper’s guitar).
In 20-20 hindsight, Tadpad officials should have turned out the lights about three minutes before the game was over. While the illumination was still there, it appears that the team turned them off internally.
I wouldn’t have guessed it was a problem that Ole Miss was spending too *little* on athletics.
Anderson,
A couple of weeks ago when the lights went out during the game they were out over much of the campus, apparently as the result of work being done on the Pharmacy building. And yet ESPN and other national media ran with stories about how it was an example of the terrible condition of the Coliseum. I think the university administration was eager to allow this misperception to take root.
There is something to be said for having nationally recognized sports teams, and right now Ole Miss is getting some pretty good press for football, basketball, and baseball. Not many schools manage that. Maybe the cost of keeping this is massive infrastructure spending.
That said, I think the Tad Pad is just great. I can’t help but wonder how the sales of the Rebel Club and South Suites are going since the university almost doubled the price for 2014 and beyond. So now a Rebel Club ticket requires an annual donation of $1,750, plus the ticket cost, plus a one-time capital donation of $4,000 that locks in your seats for 10 years. So the cost for a family of four to attend all the home games in the Rebel Club is now roughly $10,000 per year.
University athletics are an odd thing. Most of these people would have little interest in donating a like amount to academics. As Bear Bryant noted, 70,000 people never turned out to watch a bunch of kids take an algebra test. And having a good sports program helps the university. I certainly want one. But I buy my tickets off Stubhub, often for virtually nothing. I don’t mind skipping the “big name” games. But that’s just me.