In the News                                

Cape Coral swim complex plans still afloat
The News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida), March 13, 2010 Saturday
bliberatore@news-press.com A national swimming center could still be built in Cape Coral, but the city will have to pull funding from other programs in its budget, City Manager Carl Schwing said. The plan may possibly short-change projects such as utilities, wastewater, construction and road improvements. The council, which is split over whether such a plan is worth the effort, will vote April 26 on the deal. The National Swim Center Corporation wants to build a $22 million facility on the 180-acre Academic Village property in north Cape Coral. The project would include Olympic-style pools, arena, wellness center, a convention center, hotel, some shops and tennis courts.

Clemson, USC spending millions more on sports
The Greenville News (South Carolina), March 14, 2010 Sunday
Staff Writers Revenues from big-time athletics at Clemson University have soared by more than $20 million since 2005, yet the program last year operated at a slight loss even as income from ticket sales jumped 59 percent. Records obtained by The Greenville News under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act show a 50 percent increase in revenues over the past five years to $61.4 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The athletic department, however, spent nearly $62 million, records show. The story is much the same at the University of South Carolina, where spending rose almost $27 million and revenues were up more than $29 million over the past five years. USC, however, turned a $2.7 million loss in 2005 into a $2 million gain last year, records show. Operating deficits for a single year should be viewed in context with other years, Clemson spokeswoman Cathy Sams said.

Opinion: LHSAA change hurts basketball
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), March 13, 2010 Saturday
Would high school principals vote to eliminate eight weeks of teaching math to dedicate the teaching time to science or English? I don't think so! What happened recently at the annual Louisiana High School Athletic Association Convention (Jan. 29) did the equivalent to high school athletics.

Breakaway bases help cut injuries
FLORIDA TODAY (Brevard County, Florida), March 12, 2010 Friday
FLORIDA TODAY When it comes to preventing serious injuries to young athletes, Little League baseball remains ahead of the curve in many areas. After adopting strict pitch-count rules to protect young arms in 2007, Little League required all sanctioned leagues to use breakaway bases on playing fields since the 2008 spring season began. Prior to that, many leagues, including those in Brevard County, had stationary bases, often bolted to a metal post fixed to the ground with a concrete foundation.

Female D.C. football coach could open doors for other women
USA TODAY, March 12, 2010 Friday
When Natalie Randolph is introduced this morning as head football coach at Calvin Coolidge High (Washington, D.C.), it will be a big deal for female coaches across the country.

Some Binghamton faculty push for exit from Division I
The New York Times, March 12, 2010 Friday
In the first formal protest of the scandal surrounding the Binghamton University men's basketball team, a group of faculty members is collecting signatures to recommend that the university leave Division I athletics.

Synthetic turf attracts h.s. soccer even before official opening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 12, 2010 Friday
North Gwinnett High School's practice field gets a lot of use, with three sports teams cramming onto a patch of turf no bigger than a football stadium. "It gets torn up," athletic director Mark Karen said. "If it rains, we're playing on mud. If it's dry, we're playing on a dusty field." So the soccer coaches for the Suwanee school turned to Sugar Hill. Its yet-to-be-opened park features 255,000 square feet of synthetic turf fields that permit play, rain or shine.

Mandan Park District may face gym shortage
The Bismarck Tribune, March 11, 2010 Thursday
The Mandan Park District has found a home for its office space and fitness center at Raging Rivers water park. However, gym space for the park district programs leaves another gap that needs to be solved.

Rivals spar on gym funding; DeLay, Womack cite federal role
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock), March 11, 2010 Thursday
ROGERS - Two 3rd District congressional candidates sparred Wednesday over whether federal funding of wellness centers would be a "boondoggle" or would save money in the long run. Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said federal grant money could help build regional wellness centers - similar to the Rogers Adult Wellness Center - across the country that would promote a more healthful lifestyle and result in less money being spent on Medicare and health care over time. Gunner DeLay of Fort Smith, a former state senator and Sebastian County prosecutor, said "it's not the proper role of the federal government to get into the health club business" and, if there's money available for such grants, it should be returned to citizens as a tax break.

PLNU athletes decry cutting of 4 sports; Some contend law "backfired" on them
The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 6, 2010 Saturday
Shock and frustration continued to flow among student-athletes yesterday at Point Loma Nazarene University, where about 100 marched in protest of the school’s recent decision to eliminate four sports programs. Some carried signs that said “Title IX sucks” and “Save our sports.” Others said federal gender equity regulations “backfired” on them and called it “reverse discrimination” against male sports. “It’s supposed to be equal rights, but they’re taking away our right to play, so it’s not very equal,” said Kira Wommer, a senior softball player. “It backfired.”

Melbourne OKs park for rowing team to train
FLORIDA TODAY (Brevard County, Florida), March 10, 2010 Wednesday
FLORIDA TODAY The city will allow a high school rowing team to use Ballard Park for training over the complaints of some neighbors who said private groups shouldn't get exclusive use of public parks.

Sun Prairie's new gym a likely sectional basketball site
The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), March 10, 2010 Wednesday
The massive field house inside Sun Prairie's new high school, which is scheduled to open in the fall, is a facility that can serve a great number of purposes. As athletic director Jim McClowry is quick to point out, its primary benefit is that of a spacious classroom for physical education students that eliminates overcrowding and gives teachers myriad options of activities to include in the curriculum. There's also the obvious advantage to the school district's student-athletes, who will have a breathtaking venue to call home. But there's an ancillary benefit to having a large facility with ample parking, and plenty of other bells and whistles, that has McClowry excited about the future.

Oakwood rec proposal includes upgrades at a time when other cities are making cuts
Dayton Daily News (Ohio), March 10, 2010 Wednesday
OAKWOOD - The city of Oak-wood, in a move that could make it a key recreation destination in the Dayton area, has unveiled preliminary plans to substantially upgrade its parks and recreational offerings.

Admission tax has members of new health club steamed
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), March 9, 2010 Tuesday
Anyone trying to get into shape knows how taxing it can be. Especially in Beachwood. Members of the new Life Time Fitness facility - a 120,000-square-foot fitness place with pools, basketball courts and a rock climbing wall along with the usual cardio and weight apparatus - were told in a recent e-mail that they would have to pay an extra 3 percent on their monthly dues to cover Beachwood's admissions tax. Members already pay a 5.5 percent state sales tax, 1.25 percent for Cuyahoga County and 1 percent for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

Working cash for UO athletic budget went red
The Register Guard (Eugene, Oregon), March 7, 2010 Sunday
Mar. 7--The University of Oregon's athletic department finished the last fiscal year with part of its budget in the red, a sign that the poor economy continues to depress sports revenue just as the large bills for a new basketball arena begin to come due. The department finished the 2008-09 year with negative working capital of $642,000, according to an analysis by the Oregon University System. The OUS, which oversees all seven public universities in Oregon, looks specifically at athletic department finances once a year.

NFL's return could be link to Latinos
San Bernardino County Sun (California), March 9, 2010 Tuesday
For years, America's most popular sport, professional football, has sought to spread into more Latino households. At the same time, a local billionaire, Ed Roski Jr., has been hoping to end Los Angeles' NFL curse by buying and moving an existing team here. So is heavily Latino Los Angeles County an ideal place for this expansion?

Changes to Mount Joy parks plan?
The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania), March 8, 2010 Monday
Mount Joy Township's contested parks plan will be back on the table this week, and could still see some major changes. After the fall election and a slew of resignations brought new township leadership, many in Mount Joy are wondering what will happen to the comprehensive recreation, parks and open space plan long championed by the former group of supervisors.

Director protects many from attacks
Hattiesburg American, March 8, 2010 Monday
Lou Marciani once worried about questions of budgeting and marketing during stints as athletic director at four universities. These days, as director of the University of Southern Mississippi's National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4), his concerns range from identifying stadium security gaps to simulating evacuations in case of terrorist attacks. Things are happening fast for the four-year-old center which moved its 15-member staff into the Trent Lott National Center for Excellence in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship.

Athletic spending reviewed at Yellville-Summit
The Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, Arkansas), March 8, 2010 Monday
Bulletin Staff Writer YELLVILLE - In the midst of controversy over effective solutions to fiscal distress and a literacy alert, Yellville-Summit School District also is under scrutiny by the Arkansas Legislative Joint Auditing Committee for its athletic expenditures. In 2007, the Arkansas Department of Education established rules governing athletic expenditures for public school districts in an effort to standardize reporting. The Division of Legislative Audit is responsible for auditing 20 percent of the state's school districts every year on a rotating basis, ensuring that every school is audited at least once every five years. The audit dated Feb. 8, 2008, for the school year ending June 30, 2007, followed the new guidelines and included Y-S. Compared to districts of similar size, districts in the 3A football conference to which Y-S belonged in 2007, the athletic expenditures at Y-S were significantly higher:

UTEP students vote this week on athletic department fee to help with funding
El Paso Times (Texas), March 9, 2010 Tuesday
EL PASO -- Students at the University of Texas at El Paso will vote this week on whether to help financially troubled intercollegiate sports. A new fee would go toward an athletics fund for coaches' salaries and team travel. If approved, UTEP could impose a new athletic fee of up to $240 a year for a full course load beginning fall 2011. The increase could come in addition to a tuition hike the University of Texas Board of Regents approved last week. UTEP will already see tuition increase from $6,288 to $6,568 per year in fall 2010, and to $6,948 in fall 2011.

Spurs group might be Alamo Stadium's savior
San Antonio Express-News, March 6, 2010 Saturday
Alamo Stadium's future could be as a pro soccer, entertainment and high school sports facility managed by Spurs Sports & Entertainment, the holding company that owns the Spurs, Silver Stars and Rampage. Preliminary plans discussed by SS&E and the San Antonio Independent School District last year called for them to enter into a shared-use agreement that would allow SS&E to run the venerable, 70-year-old facility after teaming with the city and county to refurbish it, officials said Friday. Although talks were put on hold after it was discovered the cost to renovate the stadium and outfit it for a pro soccer team was more than $30 million, SS&E and the district haven't ruled out renewing the discussion.

Parks Get Prettier; What has come of '08 bonds to improve sites around city?
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico), March 8, 2010 Monday
"Santa Fe is a first-class city and we deserve first-class parks," declared Bette Booth as she sat back in her chair last week at the city's Parks Division office. Booth, chair of the city's Parks and Open Space Advisory Commission, was echoing an old rallying cry from 2008, one that helped convince Santa Feans that year to overwhelmingly agree to spend $30 million on the city's parks, trails and open space hard hit by drought and neglect. A bond, paid for by a small property tax increase, passed with around 70 percent of the vote. Today, roughly halfway into a three-year plan, about 43 percent of the money has been spent, and around 36 percent of planned improvements have been completed, as have most of the recreation facility renovations, including close to $1 million's worth at Genoveva Chavez Community Center, and at Fort Marcy Complex and Salvador Perez. City officials say the bond has not only improved parks but also boosted pride among residents and parks workers and even provided a small spark to the local economy.

Rio Rancho: City, schools agree to share facilities
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico), March 6, 2010 Saturday
More than 100 people recently showed up at V. Sue Cleveland High School during a free open gym night. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," said Jay Hart, Rio Rancho's director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Service Department.

Consumer rules can take weight off stranded gym members
The Baltimore Sun, March 7, 2010 Sunday
What can you do if the gym where you've been working out isn't working out? That's the conundrum faced by about 3,000 members of the former Gold's Gym in Parkville who received letters last month stating that the franchise location had closed as of Feb. 6. Some customers, like Esther Roskam, were upset because by the time she received her letter Feb. 12, her monthly membership fees had already been automatically debited from her checking account. For some other members, it was more than just a month's fee at risk. They had paid hundreds of dollars upfront for long-term contracts.

Army, Air Force make a Whopper of a decision
Air Force Times, February 22, 2010 Monday
At least 50 Army and Air Force Exchange Service concessions serving U.S. troops in Afghanistan - including many popular fast-food eateries - will close within 90 days under an order issued Feb. 3 by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in that war zone. Troops' fitness centers and Internet access sites are among the facilities that will stay open. But most brand name fast-food outlets, including Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Popeyes, as well as new-car sales offices, jewelry stores, souvenir shops and other retail outlets, are among concessions slated to close.

ATC wants everyone in the pool
The Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio), February 28, 2010 Sunday
If supporters of the Aquatic Training Center have their way, Greater Cincinnati will have a new swimming and diving facility ready for use by the end of 2012. The wheels are in motion on an effort to build a new facility in one of two undisclosed locations in the area, according to Bob Farr, a former high school diving coach at Indian Hill and Mariemont, who is president of the non-profit organization.

Group raising funds for Mishicot outdoor sports complex
Herald Times Reporter (Manitowoc, Wisconsin), February 27, 2010 Saturday
Herald Times Reporter MISHICOT - A special committee in Mishicot is raising money to enhance the school district's outdoor sports complex, and the group hopes to break ground in the spring.

Number of defibrillators tops 500 in Fox Cities
The Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin), March 7, 2010 Sunday
Post-Crescent staff writer When Dr. John Mielke looks around the Fox Cities, he likes what he sees. A cardiologist who started practicing in Appleton in 1965, Mielke served on a committee in the mid-1990s that put automated external defibrillators in the hands of emergency responders, and that effort has exploded since then. Sign up for news, weather and sports text alerts.

Retailers welcome lycra crowd as gyms fill empty storefronts
The Seattle Times, March 5, 2010 Friday
No longer the 90-pound weakling of the commercial real-estate market, fitness centers are muscling into prime shopping space ceded by traditional retailers. "We have a joke in our industry that the way you know a shopping center is in trouble is if it has a wig store and a nail salon," said Jeff Green, a San Francisco Bay Area retail consultant. "Fitness centers are somewhere between that and traditional retail." Now though, amid a widespread pullback in consumer spending, shopping centers are turning to fitness centers as retailers close stores or stop expanding. The vacancy rate for retail properties in the Puget Sound region topped 6 percent in 2009, up from 4 percent in 2007, according to Pacific Real Estate Partners. In the past two years, the region's average annual asking rent has dropped 18 percent to $19.31 a square foot.

Parents question handling of helmet probe
Herald News (Passaic County, NJ), March 3, 2010 Wednesday
Troy Bianchi thought it was just a headache, a nagging reminder of a routine helmet bump with a Lakeland High teammate during football practice. In reality, his brain was bleeding and within days he would wind up in intensive care. Two weeks earlier, the company that reconditioned Troy's helmet ? and thousands of others for teen athletes across North Jersey ? had sent letters to area high schools admitting flaws in its helmet-testing program. The company president would later plead guilty to financial fraud and acknowledge the firm had misrepresented the results of its safety tests. But none of that was known to Troy or his parents, Jodi and Robert, not until long after the memory loss and other consequences of the subdural hematoma he suffered in September 2007 came to light. They did not find out from the Lakeland school district, but from a story published in The Record last November detailing the federal investigation of Circle System Group and the lack of follow-up into its findings by school officials in North Jersey. Now the Bianchis have hired attorney Marco Benucci of Raritan to help them determine if Circle's testing lapses played a role in Troy's injury. And the Wanaque family wants to know why no one told them that their son's safety may have been compromised.