Cheap Seats
What’s in a name?
Millions of dollars if it’s attached to a stadium, and that is sparking debate about adding former Gov. John McKeithen’s name to the Louisiana Superdome’s official title.
A decision by the Legislature to rename the Superdome after the late governor, at a time corporations are willing to spend millions to add their names to stadiums, could be costly and possibly endanger retaining the city’s NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints.
Saints owner Tom Benson told the Superdome Commission renaming the stadium could mean a loss of corporate revenue and, consequently, the team.
“I’m not against McKeithen,” Benson said. “Certainly he was a great governor and was a main source of getting this built. But they could have thought that through a little further as far as I was concerned.”
If he’d been “Pepsi” or “Nike,” Benson would be sold.
What are the odds?
An online sports betting site called Intertops.com (www.intertops.com), a fully licensed company in St. John’s, Antigua, has laid claim to establishing the first odds - 5-to-6 - on Michael Jordan’s returning to the National Basketball Association to play now that Phil Jackson has taken over as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Internet gamblers can also bet against the likelihood that Jordan will come out of retirement. The odds on that proposition are currently posted at even money.
Think how much salsa they’ll fit in the Cup
George Strait will sing “All My Ex-Point Guards Live in Texas” and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings will redo their piece and call it, “Mommas Don’t Let You’re Babies Grow Up to Be Left Wingers.”
Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan agrees.
“So what’s wrong with this picture?” he writes. “They’ve got rodeos all over Queens, and Texas is now the undisputed winter sports champion of the American sports world.
“First, the Dallas Stars bring the Stanley Cup to the Lone Star State. And now the San Antonio Spurs … have brought an NBA championship to the land of pickup trucks, sad country ballads and six-man football. As far as excitement goes, this will just have to do until the Cowboys come to camp.”
Some cold words from the Iceman
George “Iceman” Gervin, a former star for the San Antonio Spurs, commenting to Shaun Powell of Newsday on the lack of scoring in the NBA Finals:
“I could play in any era, especially this one. The players today can’t put the ball in the basket. There are too many guys who run up and down the floor faster than ever, and they can jump real high, but they can’t shoot a lick.
“Most of them are athletes, that’s all.”
Don’t tell the Senior PBA guys
Marlen Weingartner of Germany lost 6-0 6-0 in singles Wednesday at Wimbledon, then lost by the same score in doubles the next day. She will take home $12,672.
The last word …
`Nice pants, Bud.”
- Chris Evert, walking off Centre Court after losing a Wimbledon final to Martina Navratilova and greeting television interviewer Bud Collins