| No Pac 10 Advertisement
There's no advertisement or a commercial that a Washington State fan attending the Pac-10 basketball tournament. Not one. Not ever.
Except for the school's radio crew, I have never seen anyone from the Wazzu-area media at the Pac-10 tournament. And, no, Seattle does not count.
Maybe, part of it is because the Cougars were not invited to the 2002 and 2003 tournaments at Staples Center. And even when WSU qualified, it has gone 0-3. For the first five years of the Los Angeles-era tournament, it was as if the Cougars did not exist.
But this season, is different. The Cougars are rolling. They are the ranking Cinderella story in college hoops. Hoping to seize the moment, WSU fans have awakened. They want to join the party.
Here is what they found:
A round-trip airfare to Los Angeles is very costly not to to mention the other expenses such as hotel accomodations, food, etc.
Every WSU fan who leaves the Palouse can count on a $1,500 expenditure, and that's the low ball figure.
Cougar boosters have discovered what Oregon, Washington and Arizona fans learned long ago: Unless you live in the L.A. basin and commute to and from the colorless Staples Center, the Pac-10 tournament is not for Joe Fan.
Leaving Staples Center would be out of the network's comfort zone. It would have to buy plane tickets, pay for hotel rooms and purchase rental cars. It is not likely to do that. It will pass those costs to fans from Tucson and Eugene, Ore., and Spokane, Wash.
"I don't think we should let Fox Sports Net dictate to our conference," said UA coach Lute Olson, the first and loudest detractor of the tournament's anchored location. "You can imagine the support this tournament would get in Portland or Phoenix. It would be huge.''
Fox Sports Net has taken command of the event, holding the Pac-10 hostage and, worse, presenting it like something you would expect out of the Missouri Valley Conference.
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