Andy Noel

[bigggreddd77]

Sheesh...

I was trying to compliment you...and just trying to say that I feel like Cornell is trying to make their athletics program a little more professional...which I really don't think is a bad thing...  

And...to help you out a little...I'M A WEB DEVELOPER...and I DO know what is involved in streaming audio as we provide live market calls to our financial advisors on the website that I work on...

I'm not jumping to any kind of conclusions at all...and I am by no means saying that Cornell athletics is making all of the best/most cost effective decisions.  But, I don't see how this is all as terrible as it is made out to be by some people.  I personally have no intentions of buying CornellPass...thank goodness for our opponents audio streams...and I do think it sucks to have to pay for it.  But, in the grand scheme of things, I think that the department is probably trying to make the our experience better.

[kaelistus]

Jason, have you seen Age's Video/Audio feed? It used to be DAMN good. Even if you pay, you are guaranteed to get a worse experience that what existed last year. (Audio and Video being unsynchronized). If by professionalism you mean a guaranteed feed. Age didn't miss a single one last year. If you mean quality, it was most definitely there.

If you mean selling out to a corporation because you believe that Corporations under contract can do a better job than a bunch of rabid fans. Then I don't know what to tell you.

Athletics says that every other school will have a pay system in place next year. That is, first of all, a terrible reason to do things. Second, I believe its a lie. We'll find out next year if every other ECAC University stops their transmissions I guess.

[mha]

The trouble with that outlook, Jason, is that it ignores the fact that Athletics already has a real contract with a real broadcast operation to deliver an audio performance of Cornell Athletics events to listeners.

WVBR set the bar back in 1997 when it implemented streaming online audio for its coverage of Big Red Football. WVBR knew it could do this, and knew it should, even though it cost several times as much to do it then as it would to start from scratch now -- and we don't have to start from scratch now.

When, later that fall, the fledgling Cornell Sports Marketing suddenly pulled the hockey season away from WVBR and put it on an Eagle station, I had to start all over again, this time wearing my Cornell Hockey Boosters Association board member hat, and set up another streaming audio server with CHBA money. All this because Eagle Broadcasting didn't see it was their responsibility or problem to provide Internet streaming, and Athletics didn't feel it was important enough to push for. The same is true now; if Athletics didn't want to do this themselves, no matter how easy that would have been, they could have made it part of the deal with Eagle.

Cornell/CHA still owns the equipment that we did this with. It provided the backup feed linked from the 14850 Magazine site last winter that many folks used when the Yahoo! Broadcast service wasn't working properly for a variety of reasons. It could again be pressed into service, if Athletics wanted to do their own streaming.

[Ben Doyle 03]

The whole thing just reeked of a "let 'em eat cake" attitude.

. . .haven't been around here in awhile, huh? that's the way everything is run these days. :-/

[bigggreddd77]

I have never seen it, but I do believe that Age's feed was probably great and its quality or reliability would NOT be improved by having a corporation do it.

But...I do think there is something to be said for having one cohesive corporation providing sports marketing/communication for the entire university.  So...if that is 'selling out' then I guess I'm a terrible human being for thinking that it might not be the worst thing.  You know...I'm just looking for the day when I can go to a regular college sports website and find some Cornell athletics gear to buy...  It shouldn't be as difficult as it is to buy myself a Cornell hockey jersey...  When is our Nike contract coming!!!???

[kaelistus]

Selling out wasn't the right word.

I do think that having one cohesive corporation providing sports marketing/communication is a terrible thing when they do less with more. Especially when they take away what alumni fans were already providing for free.

[Ben Doyle 03]

Oh. . .you must mean the Nike and Vodafone contracts??? They are slated to begin in 2004. But this is only after they tear down Lynah and build a new 12,000 seat piece of crap that looks like the new wrestling center.

but I could be wrong. . .

[mha]

Jason, "Cornell Sports Marketing" was a business venture, a division of Host Communications, a.k.a. USA Sports, that was intended to provide a central point of coordination for marketing Cornell Athletics. Scott Malaga '89 was the first general manager.

CSM was responsible for arranging broadcasts, for promoting ticket sales, for setting up the "Coaches Corner" radio talk show, and for such promotional gimmicks as the Subway Challenge.

Last summer, Athletics gave CSM the heave-ho, since it wasn't generating as much revenue for the University as had been hoped. They're now handling all of this internally again.

[Greg Berge]

A word about what happens in a typical IT company.  The people making decisions tend to have gladhanding business/marketing skills with no technical knowledge.  They are severely defensive, especially since every prick who has ever written a line of Perl affects a studied Simpsons Comic Store Man snide superiority.  So you get decision-makers who fake their way through the workday too scared to ask questions and be ridiculed, and technoserfs who toil inside a fortress of angrily dismissive victimization.  The decisions (i.e., guesses) that get made in this environment are inevitably going to be ill-informed and horrendously stupid.

[rhovorka]

Jason Demby wrote:
[Q]I feel like Cornell is trying to make their athletics program a little more professional...which I really don't think is a bad thing... [/Q]
Be careful with the use of the word "professional."  After all this is a college program, and therefore is supposed to be amateur by definition.  I know you probably mean "more polished in marketing and presentation," but these days it's very easy to treat college sports as you would professional sports, which I feel only leads to corruption and misuse of alleged "student-athletes" in big-time college athletic programs.  I hold the old-fashioned (and apparently stupid) idealistic view that college athletics exist to offer student-athletes a chance to compete as a compliment to their studies.  Silly, I know, when many so-called academic institutions have converted their football and basketball teams into glorified minor leagues for the NFL and NBA in exchange for million$.  That's why I value Ivy League athletics so much, because we tend to be closer to that purer amateur ideal.

In that model, the Athletic department exists to ensure that the student athlete gets as fulfilling an experience as s/he possibly can, provide and maintain the facilities for the athletes and fans, and communicate with other institutions for the sake of providing interscholastic competition.  By becoming more like "professional" sports, they overstep the bounds of this ideal.  It's a fine line to walk, really...providing for the amateur athletes, while finding the resources and money needed to do so adequately.  As crazy as he was (CEO of Athletics?  Spirit of the Red?), Charlie Moore actually did a good job of walking that line.  The current administration seems much more interested in solidifying corporate relationships than anything else.  When that happens, it's easier to have the door open to corruption than before.

No, this isn't high school hockey, but it isn't the Colorado Avalanche either.  And that's just one reason why I choose to be a fan here.  I would watch our team if they went 0-29 and were forced to play at Cass Park.  Why?  Because they chose to be Cornellians and represent my school on the ice in competition.  Not because of how much money Athletics spent on presentation and marketing, or any attempts to appear "professional."  In my mind, amateur athletics should be as different from professional sports as possible.

[Al DeFlorio]

Amen, Rich.  

A very articulate statement of why I no longer have the slightest interest in "big-time" college sports, and hope to see the Ivy approach continued without corruption.

[jtwcornell91]

Greg wrote:

every prick who has ever written a line of Perl affects a studied Simpsons Comic Store Man snide superiority.

Hey!  I resemble that remark! :-P

[Tom Hamill \'85]

OK, my two cents worth.

I'm not particularly inflamed at plunking down some money to listen over the internet to the hockey broadcasts.  They are providing a service, and as long as they're going to make sure that service is reliable, I'm willing to pay a nominal fee.

The Skeptical Bear Logo.  Now, there's an issue that gets me irritated.  A year ago we had a perfectly fine, intellectual-looking bear, the best athletic symbol in the nation (where else will you find a mascot who looks like he's thinking?).  But like professional sports must re-color their jerseys every so often to cajole their bovine herds go out and buy new apparel, so thunk the Cornell administration.  We can make more money by changing our logo!  They'll buy the new t-shirts!  We'll be rich!  

Whatever you do, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE never buy anything with that ugly new logo on it.  Let's let them know that tradition counts for something at our school.  The skeptical bear is Cornell.

The older I get, the less I want to give money to Cornell.  I love Cornell hockey, I love the thought of Cornell, a university where at one time I learned a lot and where I hope the current generation of students are having their minds stretched.  But Cornell seems no less soulless in its pursuit of the almighty dollar than anywhere else these days.    It feels sometimes like a grand money-making scheme,  where the purpose of education is but  to raise a crop of healthy rich alumni donation machines.    It bothers me to watch Cornell whoring itself out just like any other business in pursuit of that almighty dollar.

[CowbellGuy]

Well, I've tried to explain why they had the new logo made. It's not for the reasons you state (at least not primarily). Feel free to maintain that the new logo is crap, though.

[Jim Hyla]

To me the saddest thing about all of this, is that Coach did not even know this was happenning. I mean, maybe he doesn't care, but don't you think he ought to know about it before one of us asks him a question about it?

Unfortunately, this was just done poorly, and there is no way around that. Someone from Athletics should fess up and say they made a mistake, and that they will look into making it better (better later than never), and let us all enjoy a wonderful season.