Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405220018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Yes, Roanoke College has been successful in NCAA basketball, soccer and lacrosse, but the Maroons carry the name of the valley's other city. There's a certain resignation in Salem about that.
However, Salem has built its own reputation in Roanoke College's niche in the NCAA. Being the address for the office of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference wasn't enough. Salem now has a national Division III presence that is dripping in irony.
While the city impressively has been host to two Division III championship events in the past six months, the sports have been among those Roanoke College doesn't play. And Salem wants the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl football championship and the Division III women's softball tournament to be the start of something big.
The final of the softball championship is this afternoon at the Moyer Sports Complex. The Stagg Bowl, a sellout that amazed NCAA officials in December, returns for two more winters. The city already has placed a three-year bid with the NCAA for the Division III men's basketball Final Four at the 5,900-seat Salem Civic Center, starting in 1996. It wants more softball, too.
And when the city's new 6,000-seat ballpark is built - the opinion here is there's not much if about it - Salem will make a fast pitch for the Division III baseball World Series.
Salem's sports facilities are impressive, and they're the right size for Division III. But it's not enough to have well-run sites. There has to be an aggressive, if financially reasonable, pursuit of events. Salem decides what it wants, then goes for it and showers attention on Division III and its athletes and coaches, who play their games far from the glare of the Division I spotlight.
Carey Harveycutter is much more than the Salem Civic Center's manager. He has become the city's NCAA events director, coordinator, promoter, negotiator, bidder and schmoozer. And after guiding two NCAA events, he has connections and a deserved reputation for making things happen with hard work.
Having the ODAC as a co-sponsor helps, too. Commissioner Dan Wooldridge's career in college sports as an administrator and official helps sell Salem. Like they say, it's not what you know but who you know.
Salem's three-year Stagg Bowl contract paid the NCAA a guarantee of $25,000. The next $10,000 was retained by the city, and the NCAA received 60 percent of the revenue above the initial $35,000. A crowd of 7,304 produced about $56,000 in ticket sales. Game program sales were more than 2,000 percent above the goal.
The NCAA never got more than its flat guarantee in a Stagg Bowl contract before. NCAA officials saw the Moyer Complex when they toured facilities before the game. Salem's budget for the six-team softball tournament is about $10,000, and there was no guarantee to the NCAA.
The Division III softball moves to Storm Lake, Iowa, next year, but the NCAA needs a Division II tournament host. Salem wants the event but needs a Division II school or conference to co-sponsor it. Wooldridge promised Harveycutter he'd help find one.
Division III committee chairwoman Sheilah Lingenfelter of Wittenberg (Ohio) has told Salem officials that after her experiences the past few days, she will recommend Salem to the Division II committee.
"When you prove yourself to the NCAA, I think it goes a long way," Harveycutter said. "If the committee members don't talk, the committee staffs [at NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.,] do talk. After the Stagg Bowl, we had a very good track record. The softball tournament can't do anything but solidify our reputation."
In Salem's bid for the basketball Final Four from 1996-98, Harveycutter wouldn't reveal the city's financial proposal, but a source familiar with the bid said the city's guarantee to the NCAA is $20,000 annually, with a contract structure similar to the Stagg Bowl deal.
The NCAA won't reveal the sites that have bid for the event, which will be awarded in July, but it is believed that two of the other three bidders are Washington University in St. Louis and Wittenberg. Salem seems to like its chances.
Salem won't turn a profit on the NCAA softball tournament, but Harveycutter said losses won't exceed $2,500. After the numbers were added from the Stagg Bowl, which brought in revenue of $102,000, Salem had a loss of about $10,000. Much of that was one-time costs, like the purchase of play clocks and TV line installation.
"We look at it as not so much a loss, but as an investment," Harveycutter said. "Think of the exposure. Think of the people who know about Salem now that didn't before. And we're putting people in hotel rooms and restaurants all over the Roanoke Valley, too."
And when a columnist calls the NCAA for some information and identifies himself as being from the Roanoke newspaper - as he did four days ago - the receptionist asks, "Is Roanoke anywhere near Salem?"
Not if you're talking sports.
Write to Jack Bogaczyk at the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010.
by CNB