Thursday, August 27, 2009

I don't understand

So, I ran across some interesting news tonight in my browsing of the message boards.

The Oklahoma State - Georgia game has been designated a "premium" game by the Cowboy athletic department. This means that Oklahoma State did not make any single game tickets available. You have to a be season ticket holder (or student) to get tickets to the Georgia game. Oklahoma State projects to sell around 44,000 season tickets this season. They gave UGA 5,000. The stadium seats 60,000. Apparently, there are going to be 11,000 empty seats for the game Sept 5.

Check out the Oklahoma State board. The OSU people are saying "It'll look like a sellout on TV." That's the best they can come up with apparently.

This kind of burns me up because I heard (though did not verify) that Oklahoma State would not sell season tickets to Georgia residents. It seems to me that they're leaving an awful lot of money on the table. We took 20,000 people to Tempe last year, so I'm sure we would have taken 16,000 to Stillwater if we were given the excess allotment. These tickets are $100.00 face value. Do the math. With 11,000 projected empty seats, if Oklahoma State would only sell HALF (either to UGA or their own fans as single game tickets), they'd gross $550,000.00. That's an awful lot of money that they are almost certainly foregoing, only to severely limit the opposition's numbers and goad your own fans into buying season tickets.

I really do fail to see how that model makes any real sense... I'm sure that the rest of the coaches throughout their athletic department are thrilled that Oklahoma State left a gross payday guaranteed to be over a half a million dollars sitting on the table. I'm sure that the local business in Stillwater are thrilled about the prospect of several thousand people who would have come out, bought beers, food, merchandise, stayed in hotel rooms, you name it, not doing any of that because the Oklahoma State athletic department decided to only sell the Georgia game to season ticket holders. It cuts both ways. It's obviously a rough economy, so why would you try and force your own fans to lay out several hundred dollars a piece for season tickets when they don't want to? And why would you take revenue away from your local businesses?

I'm wondering who benefits from Oklahoma State's ticket policy for this game, and honest to goodness, I cannot come up with one entity. Oklahoma State has pointed to the Georgia game as a chance to show that they are a national program, an emerging powerhouse. More power to them, it's a great opportunity for them to do so. But I have to say, that's very much a bush league approach by their athletic department, and it says anything but "elite", in my view.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Nightmare on West Peachtree Street

I don't know why I felt this was necessary, although I suppose that the follow up would answer the question.

He was wearing a blue hat and riding a bicycle in front of the High Museum of Art, moving right to left as a stared at him from my apartment balcony. Lifting my 30.06 rifle to my right shoulder and holding it with my left hand, I put the iron sight on him. The tip of the rifle was very steady and I was calm. I squeezed the trigger, the rifle fired, but nothing happened. He was not knocked off of his bicycle and not affected in the least. I didn't fire a second shot, rather, went back inside my apartment. I don't know why.

About 10 minutes later, I noticed a ladder resting on the outer half of the balcony rail. I walked outside to see that the ladder extended down to a balcony two floors below mine. I didn't think much of it and walked back inside.

A few minutes later, I walked back outside. I don't know why, I just did. I looked down the ladder to see the guy with the blue hat climbing up. He was very deliberate and methodical. He didn't miss a step. I walked back inside. I don't know why.

Several seconds later, I looked up to see him climbing off of the ladder and onto the balcony.

I said out loud, "He's going to kill me."

I ran for the door and attempted to lock it behind me. I don't know why. It's not like he can't unlock it from the inside. I could feel him pulling the door open as I attempted to hold it shut. Looking down the hall, I figured I had two options. I could go for the elevator or the stairs. As time was quite a consideration, I went for the stairs. As I sprinted for the door to the stairwell. I could feel him behind me. If I could just get down one flight of stairs I could, theoretically, lose him.

I'm sprinting down the first row of stairs when I hear the door swing open behind me. "He saw me" I think to myself, and I think again "This man is going to kill me."

I'm almost down one floor when I hear him yell "HEY PEACOCK." I freeze, dead in my tracks, and look up. We lock eyes.

And then I woke up.