By Koran Addo
[email protected]
Forty-years of back-and-forth in the football rivalry between Southern University and Grambling State University don’t mean much to one longtime member of Southern’s governing board, at least not when the money starts slowing down.
Tony Clayton, a Southern law school grad and member of Southern’s Board of Supervisors, didn’t wait more than two days after Southern beat Grambling 40-17 in this year’s Bayou Classic in New Orleans before deciding to rub some salt in the rival school’s wounds.
Clayton on Monday confirmed that he sent an email to Southern board members raising the possibility of kicking Grambling out of future Bayou Classic match-ups. The contract between the two schools is good for one more year.
The idea sparked a bunch of “no comments†and unreturned phone calls Monday from supporters of both universities. Of the few who did comment, there wasn’t much support for Clayton’s proposal.
Reached by phone late in the day, Clayton refused to back down, arguing that his reasoning was sound.
Both schools rely on the week’s worth of events as a recruiting showcase to attract students from around the country. And every year, after the Bayou Classic parade through downtown New Orleans is over and the marching bands have faced off, both schools count on a major revenue boost when the two teams meet in the
Mercedes-Benz Superdome in front of a national television audience.
But this year’s announced attendance of 47,000 fans is down significantly from the record 76,641 who showed up in 1994, or the average of roughly 70,000 who attended each of the games between 2000 and 2004.
“For the last several years, Southern has been doing 90 percent of the work and producing 70 to 80 percent of the fans, and we’re having to split the proceeds,†Clayton said. “It doesn’t make sense.â€
http://theadvocate.com/home/7739457-125/su-board-member-go-away
[email protected]
Forty-years of back-and-forth in the football rivalry between Southern University and Grambling State University don’t mean much to one longtime member of Southern’s governing board, at least not when the money starts slowing down.
Tony Clayton, a Southern law school grad and member of Southern’s Board of Supervisors, didn’t wait more than two days after Southern beat Grambling 40-17 in this year’s Bayou Classic in New Orleans before deciding to rub some salt in the rival school’s wounds.
Clayton on Monday confirmed that he sent an email to Southern board members raising the possibility of kicking Grambling out of future Bayou Classic match-ups. The contract between the two schools is good for one more year.
The idea sparked a bunch of “no comments†and unreturned phone calls Monday from supporters of both universities. Of the few who did comment, there wasn’t much support for Clayton’s proposal.
Reached by phone late in the day, Clayton refused to back down, arguing that his reasoning was sound.
Both schools rely on the week’s worth of events as a recruiting showcase to attract students from around the country. And every year, after the Bayou Classic parade through downtown New Orleans is over and the marching bands have faced off, both schools count on a major revenue boost when the two teams meet in the
Mercedes-Benz Superdome in front of a national television audience.
But this year’s announced attendance of 47,000 fans is down significantly from the record 76,641 who showed up in 1994, or the average of roughly 70,000 who attended each of the games between 2000 and 2004.
“For the last several years, Southern has been doing 90 percent of the work and producing 70 to 80 percent of the fans, and we’re having to split the proceeds,†Clayton said. “It doesn’t make sense.â€
http://theadvocate.com/home/7739457-125/su-board-member-go-away
