College Hoops and Ailing Automakers
By Michelle Krebs April 6, 2009What do college basketball and troubled U.S. automakers have in common?
Plenty this year. The NCAA championship is taking place in Detroit and the "blue-collar" hometown team, Michigan State University, is in the final Monday night, to the surprise of many and the upset of those playing the brackets.
Indeed, as Wall Street Journal columnist Austin Kelley noted in Monday's edition, sports fans who wanted to forget General Motors' troubles and divert attention to college basketball were out of luck this weekend. "The specter of the ailing automaker was everywhere," he wrote.
For starters, there's the venue. The NCAA championship Final Four is taking place in downtown Detroit's Ford Field. The home of the Detroit Lions football team, owned by the Ford family of Ford Motor Co., has been converted into a basketball arena with a record-setting number of seats -- 70,000 plus.
Then there's the sponsor -- GM. The automaker has sponsored the NCAA men's basketball tournament for 25 years, though this year -- the year the final is held with its global headquarters as a backdrop -- may be its last.
And as the Wall Street Journal column pointed out, CBS announcers made frequent reference to Detroit's troubles and to the sinking economy. GM's thoroughly American and optimistic commercials during Saturday's broadcast reminded consumers to put on their "rally caps" and make a comeback. Chevrolet Chief Ed Peper, during the halftime award celebration, appeared "unnaturally cheery" as he mentioned the automaker was "reinventing" itself.
And then the unexpected happen. The underdog Michigan State Spartans upset the heavily favored University of Connecticut Huskies.
"The Spartans breathed life into the tournament by running and shoving their way into the finals, beating the top-seeded Huskies. UConn was cast in the villain's role, in part because of its alleged recruiting violations, but mostly because of geography. Connecticut is nowhere near Motown."
He went on: "Tom Izzo and Michigan State emerged as heroes. Mr. Izzo is known as a 'blue collar' coach, though he earns about as much as his counterpart Jim Calhoun, who is the highest paid employee of the state of Connecticut."
On Monday night, Michigan State goes against the North Carolina Tar Heels, which predictably won over Villanova and, in the words of the Wall Street Journal columnist, now "will face their biggest foe, industrialism itself. They're heavily favored."
Photo
Michigan State sensation Kalin Lucas is a Detroit native playing in the NCAA final Monday night at downtown Detroit's Ford Field.
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