Travel cutbacks?

Our travel budget hasn't suffered too much, although 99 percent of our sports travel is via car and in state.

We do have a limit on money we're allowed to spend per meal, and we do cover three major universities, but we didn't go to a bowl game this year after never missing one in my time here.

The local juco (my beat) sent its volleyball team to the national tournament in November, and while I had to talk to the SID in letting me crash in his hotel room I was allowed to go since all I was turning in was gas receipts which was cheaper than a stringer fee.

So yes, we've cut back. And for my beat, I travel to games 3 1/2-4 hours away sometimes. There are times I don't get out of the gym/stadium until midnight. In previous years, trips that far meant I could get a cheap motel room without any argument. Now I have to either get the room myself or drive all the way back. It sucks but I understand too.

 

how many who are covering D-I teams rely strictly on the school's media relations department to get the gamers for out-of-town games?

 

Tremendous travel cutbacks here. On a day-to-day basis, it's not easy to see, but look at a month's worth of sections compared with a few years ago, and the difference is telling. Also, we're using a few (prominent) freelancers who are based in farther-away locales.

 

I'm just not willing to do that. If the paper wants an event covered, it will pay for it. If you want to send me 4 hours away for a game that starts at 7 p.m., you've got to be able to pay for one stinking night in a hotel and maybe a meal or two. A down-and-back for a game that starts that late would require me leaving at 2 p.m. to get there on time and not getting on the road until close to 11. Now I'm getting back in after 3 a.m., 13 hours after I started. I don't trust myself not to nod off and kill someone, or myself, on the road in that scenario.

If the paper wants the story, it can pay for the hotel room. If it doesn't, I'm not going.

 

I hear you. If I'm travelling two hours or more, I try to leave at least three hours before tipoff/kickoff so I can pull over and take a snooze if necessary. Funny thing is, I usually have a tougher time staying awake while I'm driving to events than staying awake at the wee hours driving back. Not sure why.

 

Deadline adrenaline still flowing long after the game.

 

Hey Creole...i'll cover those games for you and even pay for it out of my own pocket.

 

Which is why I can handle the two-hour trips ... by the time I get into that third hour, the adrenaline is gone, and I'm fighting hard just to stay awake.

 

One of the best pieces of advice I got early in my career came from my first SE. I was going to a game four hours away, and he said I was certainly justified in staying overnight -- but, he recommended getting a room in a city about halfway back home. That way, he said, the two hours I would be awake anyway (from that adrenaline thing) would be put to good use, getting me halfway home. The next morning I could wake up and have a two-hour drive ahead of me instead of a four-hour drive. He was so right. I often made travel arrangements like that after that experience.

 

I'm seeing no difference. Mileage is still at $.40, but I rarely travel more than two hours away from the office.

 

When major papers in major markets stop going on the road with major pro sports teams, we should just pack up the presses and call it quits. What's the point?

Of course, this is already starting to happen, so ...

 

I'm sorry -- there is no way in fuck that any newspaper should ask you to drive more than 90 minutes after covering a night game that you are getting out of at 11 p.m. or later.

I would tell them no fucking way -- and would hope every other writer on staff would draw the line as well.

If they say -- fine we won't cover it -- well that's not your problem.

But it is ridiculous that, after driving all afternoon covering a game and everything else they'd tell you to drive back three hours and get home at like 3 a.m. - so they'll risk your life to save $65 or so for a typical comfort inn or whatever.

Fuck that