Times are tough here in the rust belt. GM & Crysler are bankrupt, our housing market is as bad as any in the country, on top of that we have the nations highest unemployment rate, and are trying like hell just to hold on day by day. The sweet release of college hoops is still half a year away, and believe me we could use the diversion. The trouble is the god damn economy has started to appear in our sports world, and have the same depressing effect.
Just like this current recession/depression it isn’t going to effect the wealthiest among us. The Big Ten is going to carry on with little visible difference ( I hear they are even talking big renovations to Crisler Arena). The brunt of the impact is going to go to the mid majors, college basketballs middle class families. Just trying to stay above water, living pay check to pay check, etc… The Mid American Conference has begun to feel the pinch. They are not printing media guides this year, they are not going to have a media day and they are scaling back the conference tournament by 4 teams moving the first round games to campus sites. The rent at Quicken Loans Arena is becoming burdensome to the already thin stretched budgets of the conference members. At Western Michigan renovations to the locker rooms and offices at University Arena have been postponed indefinitely because of revenue shortfalls, which caused Coach Hawkins to have a mini melt down at a golf outing with the local Kalamazoo media.
I guess it really isn’t that suprising that these small cuts are taking place at a time and place when many people are forced to make drastic life changes to weather the economic storm. After all this is a conference situated in the hardest hit areas of the economy, made up of schools that have often struggled to get large numbers of alumni to contribute financially or even show interest in their athletic programs. Still it is sad that the conference tournament is being diminished, and that our diversions are colliding with our realities.
