Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 11, 1993 TAG: 9312110045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: jack bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They were right.
The 21st NCAA Division III football championship will be decided today at Salem Stadium. Temperatures are expected to fall through the 30s, with a wind chill around 0 and scattered snow flurries possible, but, hey, the NCAA certainly can't say it has gotten the cold shoulder during Stagg week.
When Salem was awarded a three-year Stagg contract in February, winning over incumbent site Bradenton, Fla., James "Moose" Malmquist, the warm NCAA Football Committee chairman, said, "I'm from Minnesota, so I know snow. You aren't peddling sunshine there, but you aren't peddling the Arctic Circle, either."
The locals gladly should weather the conditions, especially since the Stagg Bowl has been a much hotter ticket than expected. The sold-out matchup between Mount Union and Rowan has had more than teeth chattering the past few days, and with 7,250 seats sold, 200 shivering room-only tickets will go on sale this morning.
The interest even has been staggering to its biggest salesman, Salem Civic Center manager Carey Harveycutter, the game director whose organization and attention to detail have amazed even the constantly i-dotting and t-crossing NCAA officials and committee members.
"Honestly, when we first got into this, I told people that I would have been pleased if we had sold between 5,000 and 5,500 tickets," Harveycutter said. "I think the NCAA would have been pleased with that, too. It was something new. People here didn't know what the Stagg Bowl was."
Like the woman who called Harveycutter's office one day earlier this year, inquiring about today's game.
"She wanted to know if it was an event for all men, you know, like a stag party," Harveycutter said. "She did sound serious."
This day seemed like it never would arrive for Harveycutter, his staff and the local organizing committee. It's already a day of some disappointment to some Mount Union students, who had planned to ride several buses here this morning from Alliance, Ohio, and buy their tickets at the gate.
On Thursday, Mount Union officials called back to campus to tell the fraternity bus-riders that if they didn't already have tickets, they shouldn't come. Harveycutter said Salem couldn't sell any more SRO tickets. He went from having to explain what the Stagg Bowl was to telling people who wanted to travel 400 miles that they had to watch the game on ESPN.
It's been three years and two weeks since Dan Wooldridge, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference commissioner, first talked publicly about wanting to bring the Division III championship game to the Roanoke Valley. The original plan was to make the bid with Roanoke's dingy Victory Stadium.
It couldn't have happened there. Salem's 8-year-old facility was the right size. Well, actually, it wasn't big enough. The NCAA-Salem relationship was love at first sight. In their three-year contract, the NCAA gets a $25,000 guarantee, with Salem keeping the next $10,000. The NCAA retains 60 percent of the remainder of the gate.
"Even with our expenses, we'll make money," Harveycutter said. "It's too soon to say how much."
The NCAA will prosper, too. After running last year's 16-team Division III football playoffs at a deficit of almost $400,000, the performance of the Roanoke Valley, Mount Union and Rowan at the box office will crunch that number somewhat. Bradenton announced a crowd of 5,200 last year but sold only 3,509 tickets for Wisconsin-LaCrosse's victory over Washington & Jefferson.
The Stagg success also has the NCAA considering Salem for more Division III championships. The women's softball tournament visits in May, but besides the Stagg Bowl, the most appetizing food for thought is the possibility that Salem and the ODAC might bid for the Division III men's basketball Final Four, which is in Buffalo again this season.
A year ago this weekend, Harveycutter made perhaps his best move in Stagg plans that finally will produce a game and a first-time national champion today. A year ago Friday, Harveycutter and a couple of fellow Salem officials were supposed to fly to Bradenton to watch the Stagg Bowl.
It wasn't a necessity because the formal bid had been made, but it never hurts to schmooze the committee, which would be making a decision two months later. At the last minute, Harveycutter canceled the trip.
"I didn't want to have to explain to them what it was doing in Salem that day," he said.
It was snowing.
by CNB