8/21/2012: Pat Kilkenny paid for the park with a secret balloon loan from the UO Foundation that UO wouldn’t explain unless I paid the public records office $484.42:
UO students had to pay $1.54 million in subsidies for baseball last year, and even Bob Berdahl thought that coach George Horton scheduled too many away games during classes.
And now Horton is asking Mullens and UO President Mike Gottfredson for a 33% raise, to $600,000 a year. Adam Jude story in the Oregonian. Best suggestion from their comments? Pay Horton 10% of the profits. Net profits, that is.
Whereas:
1) Phil Knight is worth $10 billion.
2) Phil Knight loves sports, particularly Duck sports.
3) Phil Knight has shown he will pay for almost anything that involves Duck sports.
4) Phil Knight will not pay for UO baseball.
Therefore: There is no one on the fucking planet who is willing to pay for UO baseball.
Kill it.
Other implication is obvious.
5) Phil Knight does not consider baseball a real sport.
Nope – here’s the correction:
5.) Phil Knight has already shown his commitment to collegiate baseball…up the road at OSU.
Kill it.
Why just 10% of the net? Let’s offer Horton 100%. Take it or leave it.
UO has a baseball team?
That’s the rumor, although NCAA baseball involves so many away games I’d never see them in class if we did.
I hear the Beaver teams take all their classes online – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Pat Kilkenny and Renee Baumgartner brought baseball to Oregon–at the expense of wrestling–an expense that has now proven to be 5-6X more expensive. Tragically, Kilkenny actually convinced many in Oregon that it would prove to be a profitable move while Baumgartner blatantly lied about wrestling’s participation numbers. Not a misunderstanding, mind you, but blatantly lied and went mute when called out on it. A few hundred miles away, Boise State president is following the same path, making the same sell, even seeking advice from Kilkenny.