New Orleans sports scene

Fred Dowler · Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:39 am

The Zephyrs enjoyed a large, near-capacity crowd for their home opener last night, the Hornets are in the playoffs, still have Chris Paul and are plowing ahead with their p.r. campaign (now they probably will have a tough time in the playoffs and may well lose Chris Paul, which would be bad news but those things haven't happened quite yet) and as for the Saints, well, there's nothing more to say that can add to what has already been said but of course they are as strong a force right now capturing interest and adoration of local sports fans as they have ever been.

Tulane, meanwhile, continues to slip on all fronts and C-USA for its part is not really making a push to be considered as something more than sort of a mid-major when it comes to the main two sports that matter and especially with Memphis no longer the type of national player in bball that it has been.

Someone (SMU??) needs to emerge as another type of program like TCU has been.

sader24 · Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:29 pm

There's a demand for a good college football team in New Orleans, for whatever reason we refuse to fill that demand. With UNO basically throwing in the towel for the time being Tulane could rapidly build the fanbase if they would just put in the effort.

jonathanjoseph · Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:25 am

I feel a blog post coming on, but it appear that the Big East will triple its media rights fees in a re-negotiation. That Dr. Cowen has FAILED Tulane University in betting against college sports is becoming a reality rather than a theory.

JTLiuzza · Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:02 pm

jonathanjoseph wrote:I feel a blog post coming on, but it appear that the Big East will triple its media rights fees in a re-negotiation. That Dr. Cowen has FAILED Tulane University in betting against college sports is becoming a reality rather than a theory.

Wow. I remember when they originally got raided a number of years ago, everybody thought they had been left for dead.

Also, our "joined at the hip" school TCU looks like they are about to get a huge payday. But of course they're on the wrong path. How did Rick Dickson put it when he reversed himself from the "joined at the hip" nonsense? "We're better than they are." Sure we are, Rick.

jonathanjoseph · Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:40 pm

1ndabag wrote:
jonathanjoseph wrote:I feel a blog post coming on, but it appear that the Big East will triple its media rights fees in a re-negotiation. That Dr. Cowen has FAILED Tulane University in betting against college sports is becoming a reality rather than a theory.
Wow. I remember when they originally got raided a number of years ago, everybody thought they had been left for dead.

Also, our "joined at the hip" school TCU looks like they are about to get a huge payday. But of course they're on the wrong path. How did Rick Dickson put it when he reversed himself from the "joined at the hip" nonsense? "We're better than they are." Sure we are, Rick.

If the deal does go down as people are suggesting, TCU will likely be walking into ~$10M year in TV money. USC is negotiating exclusively with Fox for a deal like Texas got with ESPN. I'd bet that's worth at least $15M/year? (I think Texas is getting $20M/year for their deal with ESPN).

CUSA's deal? $42M/year for 5 years. Split 12 ways that's $700K per year to Tulane.

Great leadership Scott Cowen!

Shame on all of you who say nothing while this guy collects big checks and ruins a once proud University.

jonathanjoseph · Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:45 pm

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Jour ... -East.aspx

Here's the link to the article.

JTLiuzza · Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:58 pm

It wasn't that long ago that we were actually looking at TCU in our rear view mirror athletically. That whizzing sound was TCU just blowing right by us at high speed.

Let's not forget former conference mates Louisville and Cincinnati.

jonathanjoseph · Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:10 pm

1ndabag wrote:It wasn't that long ago that we were actually looking at TCU in our rear view mirror athletically. That whizzing sound was TCU just blowing right by us at high speed.

Let's not forget former conference mates Louisville and Cincinnati.

Yes, Louisville and Cincinnati will also be getting $10M+ year in TV rights fees. They knew to shoot higher than CUSA whereas Cowen has been explicit about not moving.

Fred Dowler · Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:22 pm

Yes exactly. If you want people to keep on paying money to come to games you have to win, win consistently and play and win games against teams that people know and have some regard for.

These other schools understand that. Miami (another conference-jumping program) has long understood that.

Tulane's idea is "we'll build a new stadium." Or "we'll spend a lot of time and energy talking about building a new stadium."

But...the core truth of college sports at the Div. 1 level in the 21st century is that either you make the serious push to have success and make something of yourself or else you're left behind and branded as "mid-major."