You thought all the drama over the new downtown stadium was over once the City Council and the NCAA signed all those contracts last week? Guess again. Today, the Omaha World-Herald reported that MECA chairman David Sokol sold his house in February without having a new residence purchased. Ok. Many people sell their old house first, then buy the new one. But for some reason, rather than wait to buy his new residence, he started using his vacation home in Wilson, Wyoming as his address.
The problem with that is that he also cancelled his Nebraska voter registration, saying that he had moved out of Nebraska.
Which, of course, meant that he wasn't eligible to serve on the MECA board.
All this went undetected until a few weeks ago, when the city law department discovered the situation. Friday, Mayor Fahey notified Sokol that his February declaration that he no longer lived in Nebraska ended his term with MECA.
Bottom line is that while Sokol made a huge error by declaring that he "moved out of Nebraska", Fahey is capitalizing on Sokol's mistake. Will that mean more bad blood between the Mayor's office and MECA? Depends on who fills out the remainder of Sokol's term. But it will really set up quite the fight for the Mayor's office, should Fahey decide to run for reelection, as Sokol will definitely support former MECA board member Hal Daub's bid to return to the Mayor's office.
I'm more concerned that these types of political tit-for-tat games will harm the effort to raise funds for the new stadium.
Now that the 2007-08 college season is over, the Lincoln Journal-Star looked at where the Husker athletic program is at...and it's not pretty. In the last three seasons, Nebraska has won six conference titles. Texas has won 25. Texas A&M has won 18. Oklahoma has won 12.
Baylor has won 12.
Nebraska is now in the lower half of the Big XII conference in terms of conference titles over the last three years.
If that isn't "gravitating toward mediocrity," then I don't know what is.
After the Masters in April, I criticized the media's obsession with Tiger Woods, as it took away from Trevor Immelman's fantastic story. At the US Open this weekend, it's exactly the opposite. Just weeks after knee surgery, Woods returns to competitive action and limps through four days and forces Rocco Mediate into an 18-hole playoff tomorrow. Both are great stories; one guy who's on the verge of his first major title (and first win in over six years), and another guy who had to use a cart in a practice round a week ago.
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