Commentary

Our Stadium’s Nice, But Other Things Are Frosty

By Amy Linn, 10-19-09

	Bobby Hauck. Photo by Tim Kupsick, Montana Kaimin archive.

We’re getting a nice nod from the Sports Network, which wrote today about the five towns that are publicly bidding to host the final game of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

The story by David Coulson notes that the championship game has been played in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the past 12 years. But the 2011 game—slated for January—could end up in a different place, owing to stiffer competition between wannabe hosts. At least five towns have placed bids with the NCAA football committee, Coulson writes, and one of them—a dark horse—is Missoula. The other four are Chattanooga; Frisco, Texas; Little Rock, Ark.; and Spokane.

Coulson is a pragmatist. “It is hard to think that Missoula has much of a chance,” he writes. The stadium is “perhaps the loudest stadium in the FCS”; flights into town are “limited and expensive”; and it “isn’t the best of ideas” to choose a spot that’s potentially snowy and freezing, he concludes. (Coulson doesn’t mention the other freeze-out in town—the fact that University of Montana football coach Bobby Hauck is refusing to speak to reporters from the Montana Kaimin. But that’s another story.)

The good news? “There is no doubt that Washington-Grizzly Stadium is a fantastic facility,” says Coulson, who goes on to call it a “gorgeous stadium.” It has “a fine field turf surface” and “there are plenty of great restaurants and other activities,” he says. “Most people who have made the trip to Montana come back raving about the friendliness of the local people and the hospitality of Washington-Grizzly Stadium.”

There you have it. Friendliness, hospitality and warmth are critical drawing cards. Coaches need them, too.

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