Sports
Net?raskan
Thursday, August 11,1994
HuskerVision awaits fans returning to stadium
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter __
Any Nebraska fan who hasn’t seen Memori
al Stadium since last winter will be in for a big
surprise this fall.
Almost $5 million worth of improvements
and renovations have been done to the home of
the Huskcr football team since last season.
The most noticeable difference is the instal
lation of two 17-by-23-foot Mitsubishi Dia
mond Vision screens. One screen is located in
the southeast corner of the stadium and the
other will be in place in the northwest corner.
The screens, which have been dubbed
HuskcrVision, will show every play of each
game live.
“We are going to show every play, and i f lime
permits, we’ll show every replay, too,” Joe
Selig, Nebraska’s assistant athletic director for
facilities and events, said.
Selig said the Big Eight Conference had set
standards that permitted teams from showing
controversial calls in most situations.
But no other Big Eight schools have video
screens, therefore a precedent has not been set.
Selig said Nebraska planned to show every
replay, controversial or not.
“We feel that we arc safe in that area if we go
ahead and show every replay,” he said.
In addition to the HuskcrVision screens, 88
additional closed-circuit, 27-inch televisions
will be installed throughout Memorial Stadi
um.
“All the concession stands will have screens
to accommodate the fans and we will also have
televisions lined along under the balconies in
the cast and west stands.”
Selig said fans in the top four or five rows of
the first deck would not be able to see the entire
HuskcrVision screens.
The total cost of the video screens and tele
visions, which were funded entirely through
corporate sponsorships, came to $3.8 million,
Selig said.
Jeff Schmahl, who is the production director
of the HuskcrVision system, said the screens
would be used to show approximately 14 fea
tures during each game.
“We are going to do things like have the
Armour hot dog of the game,” Schmahl said.
“For that, we will pick out four crazy-looking
fans in the stands and choose one as the fan of
the game. We are going to have trivia contests,
a puzzle reveal, Husker moments in history,
Jason Levkulich/DN
Jeff Schmahl, HuskerVision production director, scans the monitors that aid in the operation of memorial Stadium’s
closed-circuit giant video screens.
halftime highlights, quarter statistics and the
previous week’s players of the game.”
To aid Schmahl and his staff, which is partly
comprised of University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
journalism students, the athletic department
also has added a new sound system to Memorial
Stadium.
The $811,000 sound system is the second
largest off-season renovation to the stadium. A
large set of speakers is in place atop the
scoreboard in the north end-zone. Additional
speakers have also been installed throughout
the concourse level of the stadium.
“One of the things that you have heard fans
complain about in the past is that they would
rather stay home and watch the game on TV,”
Schmahl said. “Well now, with the video screens
and the sound system, they can come to the
game and get the best of both worlds.”
Other changes include rebuilding Section
14, which collapsed in the summer of 1993. It
has been repaired and made handicap accessi
ble. In addition, the west stands arc being
overhauled and waterproofed.
On Sept. 16, at 7:30 p.m., the university will
host a HuskerVision KickolT Celebration at
Memorial Stadium to showcase the improve
ments. The replay boards will be unveiled and
the Huskers will also lake time to recognize the
fans for the the upcoming 200th-consccutivc
sellout of Memorial Stadium.
The following day Nebraska w ill host UCLA
in a 2:30 p.m game.
Baseball fans are big losers in owners-players dispute
The clock is fast approaching mid
night. A priest has administered the
last rites. The prisoner is on his way to
the death chamber.
By Friday, the 1994 Major League
Baseball season will be over.
Barring a miracle — and that’s
exactly what an 11 th-hour agreement
between players and owners would be
— today’s games will be the last for a
long time.
Say it ain’t so.
But that’s reality. Baseball is big
business. And everyone just wants to
protect his own interests. And, appar
ently, both owners and players feel a
strike is the best way to do that.
Two weeks ago today, the players
announced Friday’s strike date. The
fact that no progress at all was made in
that time is an indicator ofjust how set
both sides are.
Owners want a cap on players’
salaries. Players want an increase in
X.
the league’s minimum salary. Owners
want a revenue-sharing plan. Players
want to restore arbitration to players
with two years of service. Fans just
want the games to continue.
Some onlookers have said that what
the fans want should have no bearing
on the negotiations. Consumers in
other industries have no say in labor
management disputes.
But baseball is not like any other
American industry. Unlike other in
dustries, baseball is exempt from fed
eral anti-trust laws. And, of course, it
is our national pastime.But that’s
neither here nor there. Eventually, the
strike will end and the games will
begin again. The big question is when
that will happen.
Not soon, according to union head
Donald Fehr. “If they (the owners)
believe players will panic in a week or
two, I have bridges to sell them,” he
said.
Matthew
Woody
Many people have predicted the
strike would end in time for this year’s
playoffs to take place. If the strike
indeed lasts that long, it could rival
1981 *s strike, which lasted 50 days.
And that seems quite possible since
both sides seems as unmoving as
Gibraltar in their current positions.
Will the owners get a fair shake?
Bud Selig, chairman of the own
ers’ executive council, has claimed
that between 12 and 19 teams would
lose money this year. Changes must be
made to ensure that the industry docsn ’ t
go belly up, owners insist.
But it’s hard to feel sympathy fora
group of people who arc conceited
enough to let the game go without a
commissioner so they wouldn’t have
to answer to anyone, and stupid enough
to pay players millions of dollars a
year as they complain about losing
money. If you can’t take the heat, you
know what to do.
And then there’s the players. It’s
also hard to sympathize will them.
When the median annual salary is
more than one million dollars and the
minimum salary is more than
$100,000, it seems like they’re just
being greedy.
We just want to be paid the market
value,players contend. Well, the mar
ket is way out of whack.
There may be no winners in this
dispute, but there are clear losers: the
fans.
Last season, fans wondered how
the game would goon without legends
Nolan Ryan and George Brett. Well, it
did — for roughly 115 games.
But now baseball fans are left to
bite the bullet. After tonight, they’ll
have to go clean and wait for the dirty
dealing to be done, left to wonder
what-ifs.
What if San Francisco’s Matt Wil
liams would have hit 62 home runs,
breaking Roger Maris’ record? What
if the White Sox’s Frank Thomas
would have won the Triple Crown?
What if good-guy Tony Gwynn batted
.400? What if the Astros’ Jeff Bagwell
never stopped batting in runs? What i(
a team in tnc American League West
would have finished with a .500
record?
These are questions that, in all
likelihood, will never be answered.
Everyone must now wait until the next
season to ask new ones.
Woody it a senior news-editorial major and a
Daily Nebraskan sports columnist.