Millions of dollars for what?

By: Jenna Santelli

Posted: 2/21/08

Just when you think you've seen it all, the University of Oregon throws a curveball in the direction of Oregon State. The expansion of Goss Stadium has been a sign of what winning two national championships can do to a program: more seats, a better score board, a turf field and a more exciting atmosphere overall. It seemed like we were going to have the finest ball park in the Pac-10 until the proposed Duck stadium appeared on the Ducks' website.

This proposed stadium is going to have it all: a state-of-the-art video board, picnic tables, and between 4,000-5,000 seats. It is also going to have nice locker rooms for both home and away teams.

Now, before talking about the stadium, I want to share something. I know that athletic department websites are supposed to be biased and talk up their respective schools, but the U of O goes above and beyond bias. While reading an article pertaining to the new ballpark I stumbled across a paragraph that took bias to a new level. After reading this paragraph, I though they had interviewed Terrell Owens. (TO and the Oregon athletic department both have confident and cocky attitudes.)

To take a quote from the press release, "The hiring of two-time National Coach of the Year and 2004 College World Series manager George Horton provided immediate credibility and demonstrated the school's aspirations to field a national-caliber program from the outset."

They might be able to talk the talk, but really it's going to come down to swinging the swing and walking the walk.

Coach Horton is certainly one of the top five coaches in the nation. However, he has nothing on OSU coach Pat Casey. In the 2007 College World Series the Beavers beat his "credible and national-caliber" top five team.

I hope the Ducks do have a national-caliber team, because then the Civil War series would just get a whole lot better. That first baseball Civil War will be the revolution to a new and exciting rivalry, and the Beavers will get to battle their two biggest rivals in one season in the Washington Huskies and the Oregon Ducks.

Now with their supposed national-caliber team comes their national-caliber stadium, which will be built in two phases. Totaling costs will range between $12-$15 million - or at least $12-$15 million is the proposal. I guarantee it will cost more than that.

Louisiana State University, which has won five national championships, is redoing its stadium to have 18 luxury suites and 8,000 seats. That project is going to cost around $35 million. LSU has been playing baseball for at least 20 years and, like I said earlier, has won five titles. LSU's stadium will have 3,000 more seats than the Oregon ballpark and more luxury suites as well. LSU's Alex Box Stadium will boast a new hall of fame, more parking, covered batting cages and an outfield berm. In the original proposal the stadium was going to cost less; however, construction costs have increased since Hurricane Katrina.

I personally think LSU's proposal gives fans, players and the athletic department much more bang for its buck. For one, LSU has a well-established baseball program. Even when Oregon did have a baseball program before cutting it in 1981, they never had a program like LSU's.

While Oregon will offer all new state-of-the-art stadiums, it doesn't have two national championships under its belt like Oregon State does, nor does it have the best coach in college baseball. All Oregon will have is one costly stadium, some good recruits for the 2009 season and a costly coach.

While we're on the topic of the Ducks' extravagancies, how about their proposed $200 million basketball arena, which is more ridiculously priced than the ballpark. Just to put that amount into perspective for people, that is almost as much as Houston's $202 million Toyota Center, home of the NBA team the Houston Rockets. The Charlotte Bobcats' arena cost $260 million, but again, they are a professional team. To spend $200 million on a college facility is absolutely ridiculous. Phil Knight and the Oregon athletic department have raised the bar so high that other Pac-10 teams can barely hang on.

Reading all this makes me feel like I have the flu again. My body feels achy, my head is pounding and I feel sick to my stomach. I feel there should some kind of spending cap like there is for the NBA, NFL and MLB.

Like I said earlier, they might talk the talk - or, in this case, throw the dollar bills toward Oregon athletics - but can they actually get the athletes to pitch the pitches? We have seen the Ducks' basketball team perform exceptionally well in the last five years, but the chance of them making the NCAA tournament is slim to none this season. You are better off betting on the Beavers having a winless Pac-10 season before betting on Oregon making the sweet dance.

The point is, money doesn't buy success. It might help attract fine, young athletes, but they don't always mean success.

So to Phil Knight and Oregon, go ahead and build your costly stadiums, and have fun paying for them. Just remember come game time that it doesn't matter the cost of your stadium - what matters is getting the "W" and winning championships. Good luck with that.

Jenna Santelli, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com