Ted Gross: 20 Courts in Universal Studios? And the Olympic Circus Beat Goes On . . .
I podcasted this, essentially, on Wednesday
So, the Olympic Circus continues. First, we
get shafted from what everybody assumed would be a 48 or 64 draw. I
believe the PSA stated that. That's what they expected. But at minimum,
a 32 draw per division.
Down to now a lowly, embarrassing, and I'm
going to add disrespectful, 16 player draw per men and women. And so
they're letting a measly total of 32 squash athletes into this thing.
Letting them march in the parade with the smiles and with the lanyards
around the necks.
After all the pomp and circumstance and
worldwide celebration, which continues in some form almost daily, and
we're three years away. But again, the celebration that we got into the
Olympics. Wow. Unbelievable. And that's what we're reduced to. That's
what they think of squash, and that's what they've reduced us to. The
LA Olympic people, the IOC, whoever the heck. They.
Now, the Olympic schedule comes out
yesterday and what are they doing? What are they doing here? They're
booking off a full 10 days straight for the sport of squash. Are you
kidding me? First of all, if you're booking off a full 10 days of
squash straight through--
No interruptions, no other sport getting in
the way, no days off. If you're doing that, you couldn't have had
larger, normal-sized draws. There was no way? You gotta be kidding me.
Mark Walter, buddy, you got us in, I'm assuming, didn't you? Along with
Billie Jean King?
You're one of if not the major power broker
in Los Angeles sports, are you not? I think you're one of the major
power brokers in American sports right now. Just having fully bought
the Lakers, while already owning the Dodgers? But there was no way,
even after attending --
the World Squash Championships every year
with 64 draws in Chicago, which you sponsor. And you see how it plays
out correctly and professionally with the 64 draws. Now 16 players
really? You had no wiggle room there, Mark? Give me a break here.
How did this happen? But now, a staggering
eight days of silly pool play. Little dinky round robin stuff. Followed
by two days of medal rounds. Really, two days of real squash in the
Olympics. After all the celebration gone wild stuff?
The pomp and circumstance, Holy Toledo. Has
any major squash event ever lasted 10 days? Maybe they have, maybe they
do, and maybe I'm not thinking straight, But it seems like a long time
when you have 16 players to stretch it out for eight days, before you
get to actual squash.
But come on, what are they doing here now?
First of all, you have so much space on that studio back lot. I don't
know if anybody's been there though I'm sure a lot of people have. But
you could set up 20 courts. You could set up 50 courts back there and
no one would notice, honestly. But you could set up 20. And in fact,
that's what they should do. Separately, that's what...
the powers that be, Brian Roberts is in
charge of it, he's a squash guy, whatever -- Somehow they should set up
20 courts permanently at Universal Studios, 20 outdoor courts, maybe
get the Maspeth guy involved to do them decoratively. There's a lot of
ways to do it. Forget the Chicago outdoor concept if the rumor is true
that it took them three years of red tape to get that one court up. But
get somebody who can do it, Knows what they're doing. Who can move
quick.
But set up 20 courts. Let the visitors, the
daily visitors to Universal Studios, which is a massive number of
people going through those gates, let them play squash as part of their
daily admissions pass. Just let them check out racquets and balls and
let them get in there and hit the ball around.
I think if somebody did that one thing,
made it happen, Los Angeles might very well become the squash epicenter
of the United States.
There's more room back there than God's
country. Think about when you watch movies, Hollywood movies, they
create cities in that back lot. They create Manhattan in that back lot
and San Francisco and another version of Los Angeles in the back lot
and Istanbul in the back lot. There's so much space, you wouldn't
even notice 50 courts there. But stick in 20 permanently. Do it right
now. If you have seen anything that U.S. Squash has done or tried to do
in LA, let me know.
In Los Angeles, since we got into the
Olympics, I've asked before, but email me if something has happened, if
there's been any development. I haven't heard from anyone when I've
asked this before. I tried to contact the Southern California Squash
Association, asked them a few questions, how many players, how many
courts, never heard back, tried it twice, no answer at all. There's
nothing going on, it's dead.
So stick in 20 courts in Universal Studios
and rejuvenate the damn sport. Let the West Coast take charge. But
getting back to this, Universal Studios is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
every day. So that's 12 hours. If you bring in one more court...
And even forgetting the whole back lot, for
Olympic purposes, we have the fake plaza where they're planning to put
the court in front of the fake courthouse. There's so much room there
to stick a second court side by side next to the first one or with its
own separate little gallery, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just get it
in there. Get two courts in there, two portable four-wall glass courts
in there, in the fake plaza,
Just get David Carr to stick in another
court, drive it down. I'll help him, in fact. There's nothing to it.
I'll help him drive it down from Northern California. It takes half a
day. We got two courts there. If you stick in two courts instead of
one--which compared to what the LA Games does, the depths they go to at
Olympic venues--is child's play. For the swimming events for example
they're digging up So Fi field and sinking a pool into the middle of
the turf.
The NFL stadium where the Rams and Chargers
play football. Think of the work that's involved with that. And running
the water and the filtering and the cement work. Just stick one more
damn squash court in here, please. If you put one more court in here,
then you're going to have 16 matches a day because you figure eight
matches a day in 12 hours per court.
That's comfortable, especially if you're
abbreviating the format. So then when you've got 16 matches a day, if
you had a straight 16 draw, regular, normal squash, as we know it, and
not screwing around with gimmicks and round robins and different
scoring systems and alternate this and that, dragging it out, then you
can wrap it up in four days.
If you have two courts, and you start with
16 draws, each court, you have eight matches the first day, four the
second, two the third, that's the semis, and then the finals on the
fourth day, and we're out of there. And that's what they should do.
That's the right way to handle it. That's the respectful way to handle
it. I mean, we're dealt a crummy hand here, leaving a whole bunch of
our best players at home
But you know what? At least conduct the
thing with dignity. Don't drag it out for 10 days. Don't drag out the
glaring fact that so many of your sport's top players are not even
there. Don't keep reinforcing that. When you've got El Hammamy sitting
at home, for example, one of the great players in the history of
women's squash. And we'll get to that in a minute.
But you know what? You can have a straight
32 draw on those two courts in the fake plaza. Two McWil courts. No
problem bringing them in there, setting them up. And you can wrap that
up in how many days? That's six days.
And to top it off, if you have a 32 draw,
you could have four players eligible per country or at least three.
Now, there's no way you can see more than two players per country being
allowed. That'd be impossible. So everybody gets gypped. Just have a 32
draw, put the extra court in, and you're out of there in six days. And
it's quality play all the way through. Day one...
You'd have a round of 32, that's a round of
32 women and would be 16 matches. Day two, round of 32 men, 16 matches
on the two courts. Day three, round of 16 men and women...
Combined on both courts, that's 16 total
matches, eight on each court. Day four, quarters, men and women, eight
matches total. Day five, semis, men and women, four matches total. And
day six, the finals, two matches and the anthems being played and the
medals around the neck and we're out of there. But you know what? You
want to step it up further: In 10 days that they've given us now,
you could have a 64 draw with two courts
and that would be straight squash again no screwing around gimmicky
alternate scoring systems, regular competitive squash . Day one to four
you have both the men and women's round of 64 matches
64 total matches, and that's 16 per day, 8
on each court per day. Day 5, round of 32 women, 8 on each court.
Day 6, round of 32 men.
16 matches, or you can flip-flop the men
and women half and half. Doesn't matter. Day 7, round of 16 for both
men and women, that's 16 total matches. Day 8, both quarters, 8 total
matches. Day 9, both semis, 4 matches. Day 10, final day, we're out of
there. They've given us the 10 days, let's just use them properly here.
Both finals, that's 2 matches.
What they're going to do, it's pretty
clear, is they're going to use one court. They're not going to think
outside the box, one iota. They're going to have pools of four players.
So four pools in the men's, four in the women's. Each player then plays
three matches during the pools over the eight days.
And that comes out to 32 players playing
three matches, 94 total matches. You divide that by eight days. That's
12 matches a day. So again, four pools. The winner of each pool makes
it into the medal round, which is the semifinals, and hopefully
actually plays regular squash at that point.
To make sure they get 12 a day onto the one
court, they're not only likely to go two out of three, but from what I
have heard, as far as a rumor goes is they're going to shorten the
scoring even further to either one game to 15 or two out of three games
to seven.
And that that's going to be it, one or the
other. Obviously that could change, but I heard that from a good
source. So that way, no match will approach an hour. You'll get the 12
matches in easily in the 12 hours that Universal Studios is open to the
public, even if you don't go overtime. And that's it. For eight total
days. If that scenario holds. Take a step back. Isn't that ridiculous?
Isn't that insane? All the celebration. What are we doing? What is
squash doing here?
Maybe it's the IOC, maybe the local
organizers. Mark Walter have anything to do with the final formatting?
Either way we needed to push past the 16. Don't be putty in any
association's or sports body's hands. That's bad. We have to stand up
for ourselves here. And at this point,
It's looking like there's no third place
playoff in the works, so losing semifinals, that's it. The semis and
then just the finals by itself without a third place match is the way
it's apparently shaped up. And that means that the two semifinalists in
both the men and women's divisions all get bronze medals, and that's
incredibly dumb and stupid. Why do that?
Those early rounds, who's going to come and
watch those mini games, round robins, for eight days? No doubt the
event is going to give either free tickets to anybody that walks
through the door at Universal Studios just to pack the galleries, or at
minimum give them a discount. I bet they give them free tickets and
make them line up. Then it looks crowded. People are lining up to sit
down because it's free. That's no way to present our sport.
If the games were tomorrow and we're going
with the presumed two players per country limitation, let's take a look
at who would be in there. In the men's, Asal and Gawad would be
representing Egypt. Elias Peru.
Paul Coll, New Zealand. Makin and Marwan Shorbagy the UK. Victor Crouin and Massotti France. Yow Ng, Malaysia, Cardenas Mexico.
And I'm going to put Zakaria in there.
Zakaria, because he just signed with Pakistan. I'm quite sure he's
going to be playing for Pakistan. So he's in. Steinmann and Mueller.
Nicky Mueller, Switzerland.
And old man Rodriguez, you have to give the
guy credit, 38, 39 years old. But anyway, he's in from Colombia. Al
Tamimi, has he done a lot in the last few years? But there he is,
Qatar. He's in as the 15th player, and the 16th and final slot rounding
out this elite men's field is Iker Pajares from Spain.
Iker Pajares is the 31st ranked men's
player, but he gets into the 16-player Olympic draw due to the
two-per-country rule. And what that does, that passes over, of course,
15 players who are more qualified by ranking. In the women's, Gohar and
El Sherbini representing Egypt.
No El Hammamy, Hania El Hammamy doesn't
make the cut. Here you have one of the top women players, not only one
of the top women players currently, but one of the top women players in
the history of the sport, and right in her prime age-wise, and she
stays home on the couch. Weaver and Sobhy, U.S., in.
Watanabe, Japan. The Gilis sisters are in
from Belgium. Subramaniam and Rachel Arnold represent Malaysia. They're
in. Gina Kennedy and Jasmine Hutton for the UK. Melissa Alves and Marie
Stephan, France.
Tomato Ho and Kai Yee Lee, Hong Kong. And
rounding it out, Holly Naughton from Canada. So in the women's draw,
you have to dig deep down the ranks, deeper even than in the men's.
There are so many Egyptians in there and quite a few British players,
all ineligible. Maybe even one American in there. You have to go down
to the 48th ranked player, Marie Stephan of France to complete your
16-player Olympic draw.
The 48th ranked player marches in the
Olympic parade, and that passes over a whopping 32 women's players who
are more qualified by ranking. So what do you think of that? We're
getting the old Scroogie one more time? And can we change it?
The reality is they gave us 10 days, which
we didn't expect. Got that court for 10 days. Got that plaza for 10
days. We have three years. Let's make it happen. Let's get a 64 draw in
there. If not a 64, get a 32. Let's push for that. PSA, just push for
that now. Start right now. And US Squash, what's left of you--I don't
know if there's anything left of you--but push Mark Walter on this. He
can make it happen.
Doesn't matter if things are semi-official
in the Olympic roster system. Let's get bigger draws and play it
straight. Don't screw around with this silly eight days of round-robin
pool play, an embarrassing display in what's supposed to be a glorious
Olympic opportunity.
