Art Thiel checks in with UW AD Scott Woodward this morning for the SeattleP-I.com to get a temperature check on how the ol' administrator is doing in the midst of all the bad news he's had to deliver lately.
Most of it made me yawn. Until I reached this passage:
Speaking of the legislature, Woodward said the last thing he wanted to see during the session was a story about moving the Apple Cup to the Seahawks' digs. But a leak to the Spokane Spokesman-Review apparently was decisive in derailing the idea.
"I didn't want this to get discussed in the middle of the legislative session, because all the issues get mixed up," he said. "I asked to deal with this after the session, and it didn't happen."
So, let me get this straight: Everyone has consistently said this deal fell apart over UW ticket demands, yet Woodward subtly implies that the deal actually tanked because WSU leaked the deal to the Spokesman-Review before he was ready for it.
Now, I sort of understood his initial comments about Sterk and Floyd in the immediate wake of S.B. 6116 dying, even though I thought it was classless. He was frustrated. I get that. But to still be simmering to the degree that you feel the need to throw another jab about the thing three weeks later? It just smacks of the same baseless bitterness that caused him to lash out in the first place.
But, ever the peacemaker, Woodward is more than willing to mend fences -- especially with regards to the Apple Cup at Qwest:
Woodward still thinks the idea works if UW could strike a deal with Washington State for a 60-40 allocation of tickets seats every other year to accommodate the Huskies larger season ticket base, while splitting the revenue each time.
"You split the (67,000) seats down the middle, and I'm potentially telling 8,000 season-ticket holders, 'You're out of luck,'" he said. "I don't want that kind of alienation.
"I think Qwest Field has great potential to make a bigger event out of the Apple Cup, one where everyone can win."
In Woodward's world, this is a scenario where "everyone can win":
- UW: Three times neutral contest, three times home field advantage, zero times road disadvantage
- WSU: Three times neutral contest, zero times home field advantage, three times road disadvantage
That's right -- everyone wins! Unless, of course, you count the WSU football team, which would have to play at a disadvantage every other year without the benefit of a reciprocal advantage. But what do they matter, as long as their athletic department is getting paid?
The more Woodward talks, the more I grow to dislike him. If you want to say that you couldn't do right by your season ticket holders in a 50/50 split and that caused you to pull out, fine. But don't continue to lob insults across the mountains through the media and then further insult your counterparts by insisting that an inherently unfair system is a situation where everyone wins.
It's just the typical, arrogant Husky rhetoric that suggests that they're the ones doing us a favor by letting us hang around their neighborhood. As long as the world revolves around the University of Washington and its whims and wishes, everything is cool. But if someone dares not to "bow down?" Someone blows their top.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- this kind of empty rhetoric does nobody any good. Insult each other all you want in times of plenty. This isn't a time of plenty. Let's get back to working together. We both need the help.