Bud Withers of the Seattle Times has some interesting quotes today:
News item: Oregon agrees to give outgoing athletic director Bill Moos $1.825 million over 10 years, plus interest, to forgo the final 15 months of his contract.
News item: McArthur Court turns 80.
News item: Aaron Brooks hits another winning shot, and the Ducks bring down a second top-10 team in eight days, allowing Oregon to crash that list.
Hmm. Are circumstances aligning that would finally push Oregon toward construction of a new arena to replace the cozy but creaking Mac Court?
Maybe.
"It's not a very usable building," said Ducks coach Ernie Kent. "It's aging by the day. At some point in time, it's going to have to be done."
Three years ago, when players like Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston were being recruited, it was partly on the suggestion they'd be in a new arena by now, a mega-playpen that was estimated at $160 million, far in excess of other comparable new gyms.
That got tabled for its cost, the Ducks hit a competitive dead spot, and the arena went to the back burner. Then Moos' departure was announced, and the widespread assumption - because of public differences between Moos and uber-donor Phil Knight - is that Knight now is more willing to unpeel about $100 million from a wad of bills in his Nike warmups.
And he might. But there could be more to it. Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer hinted recently the $160 million figure is too much - three years later - while Knight is known to be cool to any edifice less than a lasting monument to Nike, himself and the wonderfulness of Oregon.....
At issue is the most endearing, if outdated, college basketball venue west of Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse, one that hosted its first game Jan. 14, 1927, eight months ahead of Babe Ruth's 60th home run.
It has hosted untold rich moments, none bigger than the 1974 day when Oregon beat top-ranked UCLA to hand John Wooden's Bruins a second defeat atop the one Oregon State administered less than 24 hours earlier
Oregon center Gerald Willett, who famously battled Bill Walton that day and found himself on the cover of the next week's Sports Illustrated, summed up the dilemma the other day to the Times:
"You've got to have a new arena sometime, so you might as well do it," he said. "When (ex-coach) Jerry Green was here, I was kind of fighting it. I realized it was going to have to happen.
"I just know they're not going to be able to replace not just the history, but the emotion."
To read the rest of Withers' column click on the title for a link
