After a quarter and a half of waiting, the greatest weekend of the year is finally upon us - Sibs' Weekend.
While some of you may prefer cracking a beer with your dad or getting groped by a friend's mom during other university-sponsored weekends, Sibs' has always been my favorite since I first came down as a high school sophomore to visit my brother.
Now it's my turn to play host. After three years of being missing in action, my brother is flying almost all the way across the country for Sib's at Ohio. Finally, both Shugar brothers will be in the same area code.
That warning is for you, ladies. Try to control yourselves.
So, what to do with my brother during his return to his old haunt? As appealing as David Banner is, I have a feeling my brother, an ex-sports writer and editor for The Post, had aspirations of being able to do one thing when he first planned this journey - catch a men's basketball game.
Let's check the schedule. Hmm, it seems that Ohio will be out of town this weekend to take on the high-flying Bowling Green Falcons. Wait a second, the Bobcats are at BGSU? It seems that if my brother wanted to see the IT men's basketball team with me, he and I should have met back home in Northwestern Ohio.
Oh well, I will do the next best thing and take him to the women's game. Those lady Bobcats have been playing out of their minds lately. Let's see, they're in action against Central Michigan ... on the road?
OK, OK, no basketball on the horizon. And it also seems that the wrestling team will be in Virginia, and the indoor track teams are at Kent State for the Central Collegiate Championships.
I am definitely running out of options here. Now that I'm looking, it seems that only the swimming and diving teams and the Ohio club hockey team will be at home this weekend.
This is ridiculous.
While the hockey series with Eastern Michigan will be a good one, there is not a doubt in my mind that Bird Arena will be sold out. After all, Bird's limited capacity fills up quickly most weekends as it is. Add a sib to every regular, and it means you had better be getting your tickets as soon as they go on sale midweek. Good luck getting in at the door.
Limited space will also be a problem at the Aquatic Center. While it would be great for everyone to take their sib to the swim meet between Ohio and Ball State, there is absolutely no way it could be done without breaking numerous fire codes. The max capacity of the facility is 1,105 - that's simply not enough.
Is it just me or did the athletic department or the university official who is in charge of scheduling Sibs' Weekend totally drop the ball here?
This is a weekend for Ohio to showcase itself to a cash crop of possible future Bobcats and what do they have to offer? A concert, cards at Baker Center, midnight movies at the Athena - that's all well and good, but where are the sports?
The Convo can seat 13,080 people, and I've never once seen it close to capacity mid-season. However, I would like to think that if there was a game and the 7,238 fans that attended the Miami game each brought a sib, the place would finally sell out!
And think of the revenue. While most of those original 7,238 fans are students, think of the cash the university would make off the sibs filling the remaining seats going at $10, $15 and $20 a pop?
Ohio is missing an excellent opportunity to showcase some of its more exciting, popular sports and also missing out on a nice sum of money, too. I don't know who to point the finger at, but this is one particularly horrible case of bad timing.
- Mark Shugar is a junior journalism major and sports editor for The Post. Send him an e-mail at ms314803@ohiou.edu.
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Mark Shugar
