LSU Move Angers Fans

[MeanGreen61]

LSU's move angers fans

Glenn Guilbeau

La. Gannett News Service

BATON ROUGE - Talk radio in Baton Rouge exploded Tuesday afternoon in reaction to LSU moving its home game against Arizona State to Tempe, Ariz., on Monday.

LSU athletic director Skip Bertman was "spineless" for letting Arizona State officials walk all over him, one fan said

"Nick Saban (former LSU coach) would have never let LSU go to Arizona State," another caller said. "Sean O'Keefe (LSU chancellor) blew it. Mark Emmert (former chancellor) would have never let this happen."

No. 5 LSU, which already postponed its Sept. 3 home opener against North Texas, plays at No. 15 Arizona State at 7:45 p.m. Saturday in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. Both games were changed because the LSU campus has been the primary relief center for victims and evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, which rampaged New Orleans on Aug. 29.

Most callers and fans understood why LSU is not playing at Tiger Stadium, but they do not understand playing 1,400 miles away in Tempe when stadiums in Shreveport, Houston or Oxford, Miss., could have held the game and given more local fans a chance to see the game.

"Why not Shreveport?" a caller beckoned.

"Houston would have been great," another caller said. "That's only a five- or six-hour drive, and there are lots of LSU fans in that area."

As it turns out, neither Bertman nor anyone at LSU contacted other potential sites. LSU officials thought until Sunday and Monday that it would be playing in Tiger Stadium, but O'Keefe said the flow of patients onto the LSU campus has not slowed down enough

"Now that the game has been moved and our spineless athletic director has ensured that we will not be able to play a home game, I implore you to tell all season ticket holders to activate their ticket for the game this weekend," LSU fan Carmen Caro of Baton Rouge said in an e-mail.

"Even if they do not go, tell them that they must do this to ensure that we don't have to face 80,000 hostile ASU fans for our 'home' opener," Caro wrote.

One radio show co-host said LSU should have made Arizona State either come to the game or forfeit.

Buddy Songe, who hosts a noon to 2 p.m. show on WSKR (1210 AM), said most callers understood why LSU decided not to play at Tiger Stadium, but they thought a closer stadium would have allowed more fans to go.

"I wouldn't say fans were angry," Songe said. "They were frustrated and disappointed. The fans feel LSU is a top 10 program now and that LSU needs to start negotiating like it's a top 10 program. They feel Mark Emmert and Nick Saban would not have let this happen."

What really got to LSU fans was the wrong end of a two-for-one deal that is miles from happy hour.

"For LSU to go to Arizona State this season and Arizona State to come here is a no-brainer," Songe said. "The fans don't like the fact that Arizona State got two for one."

LSU will also go to Tempe in 2008 to play Arizona State as part of the original home-and-home agreement. Many thought LSU going to Sun Devil Stadium would simply mean Arizona State would come to LSU in 2008.

Instead, Saturday's game has such a unique format, each team will get a home game afterwards. LSU will be called the home team for this game, controls all the tickets and will get all gate receipts. The Fiesta Bowl, meanwhile, is paying for virtually all of LSU's expenses to get to Tempe, and the plane Arizona State had booked to fly its team from Tempe to Baton Rouge will now bring LSU to and fro instead.

"All the proceeds from the game after expenses will go to the hurricane relief fund, so nobody is going to make any money," Bertman said.

"But the fans feel LSU should have acted like it had more leverage," Songe said. "I agree with the fans in a lot of ways. There's no way Nick Saban would be going to Arizona State twice."

Arizona State is getting an extra home game, but it was not able to put it on its season ticket package and advertise it ahead of time. Tickets may not be available to a lot of Arizona State fans either, since LSU fans with tickets could sell their tickets to LSU fans in the western region.

One LSU fan said the callers angry at LSU, O'Keefe and Bertman do not know all the facts.

"We couldn't have played in Shreveport or Lafayette," said Ricky Couget of New Orleans. "They have the same hotel problem Baton Rouge has. They're all full with hurricane evacuees. We couldn't have played at Ole Miss or in Jackson, Miss., or in Houston. Their hotel rooms are all full, too. The whole southeast region has hurricane evacuees.

"I think it's great we're playing at Arizona State. I'd much rather go there. Plus, if the game was at Arizona State and there was a natural disaster there, you know we'd all want the game played in Tiger Stadium. And it should be if that happened."

While Bertman admitted that LSU contacted no other potential sites, he also said no other sites like Shreveport, Ole Miss, Louisiana-Lafayette, Houston or Jackson, Miss., contacted LSU.

LSU assistant athletic director Herb Vincent said it would have been difficult logistically to get any neutral site ready for the LSU-Arizona State game in less than a week.

"Arizona State offered a turnkey solution, and we jumped on it," Vincent said. "If we had planned earlier to play somewhere else, maybe we could've done it. But we were working on playing at Tiger Stadium, and everything around here has been so unpredictable. Plus there are hotel problems all over our region, and we would've been trying to put two teams up in hotels at neutral sites, not one."

Now, LSU has to do little more than take a free plane ride on Friday to make this game happen.

"Arizona State is ready now to host a game," Couget said. "None of those other places are ready and don't have the hotel space."

Jon Fine, who hosts a 7 a.m. to 9 a.m show on 1210 AM, said he received no calls against LSU's decision.

"The selfishness of the fans was superseded by their concern about the tragedy that has happened in New Orleans," Fine said. "Most people who called my show agreed with the move."