Mike Burke
I read in Tuesday’s Times-News that Allegany County Board of Education Superintendent Bill AuMiller is disappointed in the lack of public involvement in trying to raise funds for the renovation of Greenway Avenue Stadium.
AuMiller told the stadium renovation committee on Monday, “everybody thinks we’re kidding” when school board officials claim one side of bleachers will be torn down and fans from both schools will have to (yikes!) sit on the same side of the field.
I don’t think anybody thinks the board is kidding. I think everybody is praying the economy is kidding, because everybody I know is afraid to even turn on the heat in their homes because of what they perceive heating costs to be this winter. Everybody I know wastes the gas that is already in their car by driving all over town to find the cheapest per-gallon rate.
Penny-wise and pound foolish? More like scared to death of what today’s economic news may bring, because many of us don’t know what that will bring tomorrow when it comes to our jobs, our homes, our children’s college educations, our immediate and long-range future.
For instance, two very good friends of mine celebrated their wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. They celebrated by staying home that evening to spend time with each other, which is all very charming. Now both of my friends have great jobs, and both of my friends do pretty well for themselves and their family. But my friends have two children in college and another one who’s going to be in college very soon. What’s happened to the stock market has already affected what my friends have saved for their children’s futures, so my friends have put the clamps on any disposable, or recreational income for now that they don’t feel is necessary to spend.
Now would a romantic anniversary dinner for two send my friends to the brink of financial ruin? Of course not. But my friends got to be in the position they’re in because they’re smart, and they’re very good with the dollar, so why get into a habit of spending money they don’t have to spend when that money might have to be put to a lot better use in the future?
(Personally, I would have taken the dinner and, as Scarlett O’Hara said, worry about that tomorrow. But then that’s probably why 80 percent of my wardrobe says “Terps” on it.)
Which brings us back to the stadium renovation and the raffle tickets that are being sold in the community, with the winners of said raffle to be drawn during halftime of the Homecoming Game at Greenway on Nov. 8. The raffle tickets cost $50 apiece and once I buy one, I’ll have a shot at winning all kinds of great stuff.
Trouble is, as of Monday afternoon, only 36 tickets — or proceeds of $1,800 — have been sold, compared to 127 tickets for a total of $6,350 at the same time last year. In the immortal words of Steve Luse, “That ain’t good.”
At Monday’s stadium renovation committee meeting, members speculated as to why so few tickets had been sold, and, of course, the sagging economy was cited as a reason. Allegany Principal Mike Calhoun said, “Everybody I ask said ‘yeah, I’m gonna get one (but) I don’t bring $50 to a football game,’ ”
That is very true, although even if you might be carrying 50 bucks at a high school football game, it’s unlikely you’re carrying 50 extra bucks.
According to Kevin Spradlin’s article Tuesday in the Times-News, Kathy Getty, senior executive vice president and regional president for Susquehanna Bank, said it seemed as if stakeholders were lacking in effort to get the word out.
“That’s where we’re falling down this year,” Getty said. “We’re not getting the message out.”
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Give the nice lady at Susquehanna Bank a prize. Although, not the new car.
That only 36 raffle tickets have been sold to this point — with Homecoming just three-plus weeks away — is not promising. That 127 were sold at this time last year wasn’t promising either, but last year we had an excuse. The raffle was the newly-born brainchild and, given the short time the committee had to get the word out and the raffle under way, last year’s raffle sales were understandable. This year’s sale is inexcusable, but it’s not the fault of the community; it’s the fault of the board and stadium committee.
First of all, $50 for that raffle ticket is more than a fair price when you consider all that’s being raffled off and what the money supports. But it’s unfair to expect the community to shell out that 50 bucks on such short notice, particularly when you consider we’ve had all year to sell these babies.
I was asked last year by a member of the committee if I thought the price of the ticket was too high. I said I didn’t. My feeling was if the committee got those tickets out on the streets, say in late January or early February, providing a buffer in the time that we begin the sale and Christmas, we’d see a successful raffle sale building through the summer months when even more disposable income is seemingly available, with the fall months leading up to Homecoming providing the homestretch.
But the raffle tickets didn’t hit the streets this year until August, just in time for back-to-school shopping. Great planning, huh? Now we’re less than a month away from Homecoming and just 36 tickets have been sold.
Concerning stadium fundraising in general, AuMiller asked Monday, “What do you do to light a fire under people ... in a crisis? This is a crisis.”
Greenway Avenue Stadium is in dire need of renovation, nobody is disputing that; nobody thinks the board is kidding; everybody who supports the city schools and Greenway Avenue Stadium knows this and wants to help, and if buying a raffle ticket for a chance to win some great prizes helps the cause, we’ll be glad to do our part. But we’ve got our own crisis, or potential crisis, at this time to monitor and try to stave off. Much as we all love the old girl, right now Greenway Avenue Stadium is not our priority crisis.
Sure, I’m going to buy a raffle ticket, as I did last year. I just don’t know when I’m going to buy it, because I don’t know when I will be able to afford it.
I can tell you, though, if somebody had bothered to light a fire under the board of education to get those tickets on the streets last winter, I would already have my ticket, maybe two, in my grubby little hands as we speak. I can also tell you a lot more than 36 others would too.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
