NCAA Tourney coverage and the economy

I'm credentialed for the Regionals next week. Once I figure out who's coming here, I'm definitely gonna try to pick up some extra work, for specifically this reason.

 

How many newspapers have special sections for the tournament to showcase the local team that made it and then don't travel?

 

Sent Mississippi State to freaking Portland, of course, showing much love to the SEC tourney champions. We're in, of course, but I don't have to be happy about that.

 

Not to reach for the silver lining, but seems to me there's ample opportunity for freelance work for those of you lucky enough to live near a opening-round site or regional. Newspapers that can't afford to travel still might want original copy from the games ...

 

One would think. I've made a decent sum of money off freelance work for all kinds of local college events - bowl games, conference tournaments and NCAA tournaments, primarily - and am finding a hard time convincing papers I've done work for in the past that this year is worth it as well.

At my place, the freelance/stringer budget was one of the first things to get torn to shreds.

 

One local women's team is playing in the subregional in the 'burbs so we got lucky there.
Other local women's team got sent to Iowa City so I'd be surprised if we go there.

Thankfully all four of our men's teams were godawful this year so we didn't have to worry about any postseason at all.

 

No thanks to the four in a room. If that's my assignment, I ain't going. I don't give a fuck about the economy. I'm not staying four in a room for up to five days. Fuck NO. Don't cover the fucking thing if you have to stay four in a room.

 

Nobody's out of money. They just don't want to spend it, because not spending it is a quicker path to suicide.

 

Seriously, why are you agreeing to four in a room? The idea of it really makes me upset for some reason. That's too many in one fricking hotel room.

 

These are the type of things that allow sports writers to be taken advantage of. Sure, when we need to save money let's make four sports guys share a room.

But allow the f'ing publisher - and really anyone from any other department - to get a $100-200 hotel room to stay overnight if they're an hour from home after 6 p.m.

There is a double standard here, largely because sports guys don't say "you want me to do what?" and risk not traveling.

Shit, get a damn stringer. It's about having pride for being treated like a grown up. People in this business need to quit acting like they're a hero if they do stuff like this. It does no good in the long run. Next year they'll ask you to do six in a room and eat only once a day. I wouldn't stay four to a room for a non-work related trip.

I'm tired of having my peers continue to sacrifice like this. All it does it give our CEOs and suits another reason to believe that sports guys will ANYTHING to do their job. At some point there's a limit, which was passed a long time ago.

Having someone drive all day and night to get somewhere, bust their ass to get the job done, sleep in horribly cramped conditions and then drive all day and night to get back is dangerous and stupid. You're pretty much risking your life,health and well being to do this job, and it's not worth it.

I stopped bleeding for the product when my employer stopped giving a shit about its employees. Maybe that's from making some similar sacrifices earlier in my career, only to continue getting walked over until I said enough was enough.

With a stringer, the job still gets done - and I don't have to live like a damn hermit for a week or risk falling asleep at the wheel at 3 a.m. Newspapers get what they pay for.

 

It's been a while since I've covered an NCA basketball regional, and maybe the NCAA's media criteria has changed. But I think to be credentialed you must have covered a team at the regional throughout the season. Maybe if you're in the hometown media they make an exception, in which case plenty of opportunities will be there.

Again, not 100 percent sure because it's been a long time.

 

I don't know if this is true. Because, back in the good old days of like four years ago, most major papers staffed every regional ... whether they had a team there or not.