Sports Blog

I know that I can’t complain if games are selling out and they certainly are in Raleigh, but hockey ticket prices are too high again.

When the NHL had its strike a few years ago it returned with several changes. Many were rules changes, getting rid of the two-line pass rule among others. But the NHL also lowered its ticket prices in an attempt to fill arenas in a time where fans were disappointed in the league for the strike.

Now, prices seem to be back up to normal levels. I understand its the playoffs, but the cheapest ticket to the RBC Center for Game 6 between the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins on Tuesday night is $50. And that ticket gets you a seat way up in the third level. But I guess if the Canes are selling out, then any smart business person would sell them for that much.

It’s just unfortunate for those fans who can’t afford to pay that much for a ticket.

I remember during Carolina’s last playoff run when tickets were under $40 and for the first and second rounds I think they were even as low as $25. But those were the good old days I guess.

Former Burlington Indian Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games Thursday after testing positive for a banned substance.

Major League Baseball announced the suspension which quickly erupted, making him one of the biggest names to be suspended for a failed drug test.

The loss of Ramirez is a huge blow to the L.A. Dodgers who have the league’s best record.

Ramirez said in a statement that a doctor prescribed him a drug which as it turns out was on MLB’s banned substance list. He apologized and said he will not appeal his suspension.

This is just another hit for MLB as it tries to rid itself of the steroid era. Even though Ramirez claims it was not performance enhancing and not intended for that reason, can we really believe him? Most will say no.

It’s tough for anyone to trust players who test positive anymore. We the fans have been betrayed all too often.

It seems like Brett Favre has ruined every summer in recent years by dominating sports headlines.

The legendary Green Bay Packers QB has see-sawed back and forth about playing or retiring for what seems like the last decade.

Last spring, Favre finally retired. Then he unretired and joined the New York Jets. Then in the winter he stirred up some drama and they basically ran him out. Now he’s retired right?

Nope.

Favre and the Minnesota Vikings have began talks of a Favre return to the NFC North.

Favre will meet with head coach Brad Childress this week to discuss the possibility. I could care less if he plays anymore, but please Brett just make up your mind soon. I don’t want the lead story on Sportscenter all summer long to be about you and if you’re going to play or not. We’re all sick of it.

Make up your mind and move on.

Just a guess, but a lot more people cared that North Carolina lost that game to Boston College than cared that Boston College won Sunday.

Entering the weekend, Boston College had played an Atlantic Coast Conference-high 10 home games. Average attendance for those games was 4,111 - only Miami had a lower average in the league than the Eagles.

Meanwhile, North Carolina averaged more than 20,500 per home game.

– While many in the Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd were aware of North Carolina’s loss by the early stages of the Virginia Tech / Duke game, Duke players and coach Mike Krzyzewski said they weren’t privy to that information until after their game was complete.

“When you’re a Cub fan, you don’t scoreboard watch,” Krzyzewski said, referring to his Chicago roots.

– At least for now, the phrase “last-place North Carolina” applies.

– Virginia Tech’s points in a 69-44 loss at Duke marked the lowest output for the Hokies since they joined the ACC. The previous low came in a 49-41 home loss to Massachusetts in 2000.

– Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said Monday that he wishes his team had a game this week. The Demon Deacons will have all week to think about their matchup Sunday night against visiting North Carolina.

Bob Sutton is sports editor of the Times-News.

CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina has sold out its allotment of tickets for the Meineke Car Care Bowl against West Virginia on Dec. 27 at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.

Tickets were gone in eight days.

The school had an allotment of 22,000 tickets after starting with 12,500 tickets.

North Carolina ticket operations director Clint Gwaltney said the school expects more than 40,000 North Carolina fans to attend the game because of other ticket purchases.

Any other tickets will have to be purchased through the bowl

By Bob Sutton

The bowl breakdown for North Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina State took twists and unexpected turns before the three teams received their postseason invitations during the weekend.

So just how did this fall into place?

– North Carolina appeared destined for one of the upper-tier slots in the Atlantic Coast Conference bowl hierarchy until the last few weeks.

The Tar Heels had been three years without a bowl bid, so that often creates fans itching to show up at a postseason venue. But the Tar Heels were derailed from a more prestigious destination after losing to North Carolina State and — probably even a bigger factor — Clemson’s late-season surge.

When the Chick-fil-A Bowl picked Georgia Tech and the Gator Bowl invited Clemson, it left some logical selections for other bowls - and the guarantee that the ACC title game loser (Boston College) fall no lower than the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl benefited from this. The Charlotte bowl matches North Carolina against West Virginia, which has the biggest bowl fan following of any Big East Conference school these days.

– When surveying the bowl landscape and Navy’s early acceptance into a spot for the inaugural EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., the most logical assumption was that Wake Forest wouldn’t be going there. Among other things, these teams already played this season.

A few other factors surfaced and the Demon Deacons, if you will, became Washington lobbyists. They pushed to go to Washington, wanting to avoid assignments to San Francisco or Boise, Idaho, where their fans would be less likely to follow them.

“Our first thought was location,” Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. “We thought Washington, D.C., would be great for Wake Forest fans.”

Wake Forest is still trying to ride the wave of the bolstered interest in football since the 2006 ACC championship, so giving its fans another chance to experience a bowl became important. But Wake Forest, as a small private school, has a limited fan base so common sense would dictate that it would be a candidate for a cross-continent trip because not many ACC teams will take hordes of fans there anyway.

In this case, Wake Forest’s limited national appeal worked in its favor. The Emerald Bowl in San Francisco had a chance to select Miami, which despite a few less-than-stellar seasons continues to carry a reputation in college football. Plus, that bowl had California lined up as its Pacific-10 representative, and a Maryland / California pairing would be a rematch (and those are supposed to be taboo).

That left the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise to pick - and here’s another break for the Demon Deacons. Maryland asked to avoid to the EagleBank Bowl because its pre-Christmas date came too close to the end of the university’s semester exams next week.

The ACC tries to help the lower-tier bowls sort out the selection, so this request meant Maryland was tagged for Boise to face Nevada.

Conveniently, that left Wake Forest as the lone team standing for the EagleBank Bowl. Navy had to agree to a rematch based on terms of its bowl arrangement, but there wasn’t much of a choice given the circumstances.

– N.C. State, which as the ACC’s only 6-6 bowl qualifier, had to wait until the other teams were placed. That left it needing an at-large spot in a bowl outside of the ACC tie-ins.

The Wolfpack, which did its part by winning its final four games, was just in luck. The Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., needed another team to face a Big East representative, in this case Rutgers.

The Southeastern Conference was pegged to provide the opposition, but that league didn’t have enough bowl qualifiers. Bowl regulars Auburn and Tennessee had losing records. It helped N.C. State’s cause, for example, when then-No. 1 Alabama defeated Auburn in the regular-season finale.

And Saturday’s victory by Troy against Arkansas State limited the Sun Belt Conference’s pool of seven-win teams as the Papajohns.com Bowl’s back-up plan. That meant a vacancy for N.C. State.

Odd as it might seem, but as the ACC’s 10th team in the bowl blitz, the Wolfpack faces a Rutgers team that finished in a three-way tie for second place in the Big East.