Alas. After more than 10 years in and around downtown Los Angeles, the X Games will leave Southern California for a new destination next year. Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C. have been announced as finalist cities to earn three-year contracts to host the North American summer stop on the X Games global tour [...]
Posts under ‘Other sports’
UIL moves to limit high school football practice time
They are doing it to limit the risk of concussion. Established in 2001, the University Interscholastic League’s Medical Advisory Committee has done its best to be proactive and stay ahead on issues. That’s been the case in requiring schools to have automated external defibrillators, dealing with concussions and establishing protocols. On Sunday, the committee did [...]
Adios, Aeros
It was nice knowing you. After 19 years, the Houston Aeros will be no more after this season. The Minnesota Wild, who own the majority of the Aeros AHL franchise, were unable to reach a new lease agreement with the Toyota Center. According to person familiar with the situation, the team [sought approval] Thursday from [...]
Is this the end of hockey in Houston again?
Looks like it. As the Houston Chronicle first reported in January, it appears the Houston Aeros’ 19-year run in Houston is all but over. An announcement could be coming in the next couple of weeks, basically after the Aeros’ season, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Tuesday. The Aeros, affliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, are expected [...]
Feeling good about the Super Bowl bid
The city of Houston has submitted its bid to host Super Bowl LI in 2017, and they feel pretty good about their chances. Houston’s competition will be San Francisco or Miami – the city that fails to get the coveted Super Bowl L. League owners will vote on both Super Bowls on May 22 in [...]
The Hall calls for Guy Lewis
Long overdue. Former University of Houston coach Guy V. Lewis, who won nearly 600 games, was the architect of the high-flying, rim-rattling Phi Slama Jama dynasty of the 1980s and helped integrate college basketball in the South, will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, a person familiar with the selection process said [...]
RIP, Jack Pardee
A sad day for Houston sports. Jack Pardee, a legend of Texas football from the six-man playing fields of Christoval to the barren wasteland of Junction to the Astrodome in Houston, has died of cancer, his family disclosed today. Pardee, 76, was diagnosed with terminal gall bladder cancer in November. “My dad was committed to [...]
The Summer X-Games
Another sporting event that could be coming to Houston. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority is making a bid for ESPN’s action sports event, an annual competition that began in 1995. “It’s definitely another feather in our cap,” said Janis Schmees, the CEO of Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. “It’s a useful event, it’s a great timing [...]
How cursed is Houston as a sports city?
So another Super Bowl is history, and as you might have noticed the Houston Texans were not be playing in the game. This continues an unbroken streak of Houston football teams not making it to the Super Bowl, some in particularly heartbreaking fashion. The Astros have never won a World Series, having only won one [...]
Boise bails on Big East
By my count, the Big East has now lost more members than it ever had. Boise State will remain a member of the Mountain West Conference and will not join the Big East in 2013. The Broncos’ decision, confirmed in news releases by the the school and Mountain West on Monday, is the latest crippling [...]
Reliant gets its new scoreboard
As expected, and in time for the next push to get a Super Bowl in Houston. The state-of-the-art digital scoreboards will be manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric’s Diamond Vision Systems Division and installed for the 2013 season in place of the current end-zone scoreboards. County and Houston officials, as well as Texans owner Bob McNair, believe [...]
The Big East is imploding
I never really believed that the reconstituted Big East was going to be viable in the long term, but I didn’t see its demise happening in this fashion, nor this quickly. The Big East is headed for another break up. This time, the seven prominent basketball schools that don’t play FBS football are planning to [...]
Maryland to join the Big Ten
The dominoes have resumed falling. Maryland is joining the Big Ten, leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference in a shocker of a move in the world of conference realignment that was driven by the school’s budget woes. The announcement came Monday at a news conference with school President Wallace D. Loh, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany [...]
TAPPS changes its playoff policy
Good for them. The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which faced controversy last spring in a basketball tournament scheduling issue with a local Orthodox Jewish school, has amended its bylaws to ensure that its statewide high school competitions will not conflict with “the Sabbath and religious days of observance” of member schools. The [...]
Will the Astrodome derail our Super Bowl bid?
Heaven forbid. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told a crowd on Tuesday that by 2017, Reliant will be 15 years old and therefore in need of some upgrades like digital scoreboards. Texans owner Bob McNair says the city must look at all its venues when wooing the NFL, and on the top of that list is [...]
Maybe the fourth time will be the charm
The city of Houston is once again bidding for a Super Bowl. If everything goes according to an ambitious plan devised by city and county leaders, Houston will host its third Super Bowl in 2017. The NFL informed the Texans and the city on Tuesday that Houston will be one of two finalists for Super [...]
Sale of Dynamo to Les Alexander falls through
From the weekend: Anschutz Entertainment Group has turned down Rockets owner Leslie Alexander’s offer to purchase the Houston Dynamo and the 30-year lease on BBVA Compass Stadium, effectively ending any further negotiations between the sides. “Ownership evaluated the offer,” Dynamo president Chris Canetti said. “At the end of the day, they determined that they’re not [...]
It’s all about the pensions
I didn’t stay up to see the end of the Monday Night Football debacle. Whether you endured it or not, perhaps you’re wondering what exactly this particular labor dispute is about. To be blunt, it’s about the NFL attacking the referees’ retirement plan. The referees’ union and NFL team owners remain at odds on several [...]
Bring the USWNT to Houston
I’m in. If you love the beautiful game, you should want to help Jen Cooper. Cooper has been on a crusade for women’s soccer in Houston for almost two decades. She’s on a mission again. Cooper is one of the key figures leading an Internet campaign to get Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and the rest [...]
NFL will go with replacement refs in Week 1
Bad idea. NFL officials have been locked out since early June. In a memo sent to teams, obtained by USA TODAY Sports, NFL executive vice president Ray Anderson told clubs talks remained deadlocked, with the league remaining in contact with federal mediators. Anderson cited issues that include: •Pay increase rates. •The league’s desire to replace [...]
The bid is in for the NCAA Champions game
We are officially bidding on the new Champions Bowl, the 2014 replacement for the BCS Championship Bowl, for Reliant Stadium. We heard about this in July, and it makes sense that Houston was solicited for a bid and that we’d go through with it. Mostly I’m noting this because I was amused by the following [...]
Armstrong gives up the fight against USADA
Wow. With stunning swiftness, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he dropped his fight against drug charges that threatened his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, said Armstrong would also be [...]
The fate of private junior colleges
Fascinating story of Lon Morris College and its grand plan to save itself. Like so many other non-profit, two-year private campuses, Lon Morris has been seeking ways to survive as more than half the country’s private junior colleges have disappeared since the mid-1990s due in part to cheaper tuition at community colleges. Dozens have closed. [...]
Les Alexander on the verge of buying the Dynamo
I like the thought of this. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is in the final stages of negotiations to purchase the Dynamo and secure the 30-year lease and development agreement on BBVA Compass Stadium, three officials with knowledge of the process said Thursday. The deal is not complete, but the sides are close, said the three [...]
On the NCAA hammering Penn State
I’ve been thinking about the punishment the NCAA meted out to Penn State earlier this week. The NCAA has hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998, the organization said Monday morning. The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect these [...]
Big East settles up with departers
Everyone who wants to leave the Big East is now free to do so. Well, maybe “free” isn’t exactly the right word. Pitt and the conference announced that the school will pay $7.5 million to join Syracuse in leaving the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2013. The Big East reached [...]
Houston to compete for new college football championship game
Sure, why not? The city of Houston and Reliant Stadium plan to make a push to host college football’s new football championship game, the head of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority said Tuesday night. “We decided we want to aggressively pursue this opportunity for Houston,” said Janis Schmees, the executive director of the Harris County-Houston [...]
FIFA may face up to reality
The world of international soccer may finally adopt technology to help officiate its games. The most powerful man in soccer called goal-line technology a “necessity” Wednesday, only hours after Ukraine was denied what appeared to be a legitimate goal in its must-win match against England at the European Championship. “After last night’s match GLT is [...]
Bye-bye, BCS
Some sort of playoff system is on its way. The expected became a reality Wednesday as college football’s leaders announced that they will move forward with a four-team seeded playoff to decide the sport’s champion starting in 2014. The decision effectively ends the controversial and polarizing Bowl Championship Series system, which began in 1998 as [...]
Texas State to the Sun Belt
The conference carousel is still spinning. The Sun Belt said Wednesday that Texas State will join the league in July 2013 and begin conference play for the 2013-14 academic year. Texas State is going into its first season at the Football Bowl Subdivision level in 2012, when coach Dennis Franchione will lead the Bobcats into [...]
UTSA to C-USA
According to reports. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source confirmed that the Roadrunners would be among a group of schools joining C-USA. The same source said UTSA had also received invitations from the Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences. The Mountain West and C-USA are in the process of joining their 16 existing members [...]
Before Beren
Meet Arlington Burton Adventist Academy, the school that had to deal with TAPPS’ reluctance to reschedule playoff games before Beren. Before the Beren Academy boys basketball team captured national attention a few months ago, another school about 300 miles away lived a similar story. But that school’s tale had a different ending. While the Beren [...]
More trouble for TAPPS
Maybe they just can’t help themselves. Even as they face calls for reform, TAPPS board members also face a fundamental question in the Beren Academy controversy: whether to discipline Beren for a rules violation or to let the matter slide, the group’s executive director said Monday. Edd Burleson, executive director of the Texas Association of [...]
The Grand Prix is back
For those of you who are into that sort of thing. After a six-year hiatus, the Grand Prix of Houston will be returning in 2013. With city and race officials on hand, IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard announced Wednesday at Redstone Golf Course that Reliant Park will host the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix [...]