ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
THE NCAA GRANTS the city an extension for the Division III football championship.
Salem and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference have gone to lots of trouble the last three years to help the NCAA pull off the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. The results always have been impressive.
The NCAA has decided to reward them for their efforts. On Thursday, the NCAA Division III football committee granted the city another extension to keep the game at Salem Stadium through the year 1998. It also took care of $10,000 worth of city expenses incurred during snow removal the week of the 1995 Stagg Bowl.
``The weather has never been fantastic, but we had a great game and the field was in tremendous shape,'' Salem Civic Center manager Carey Harveycutter said from Naples, Fla., site of this week's Division III football committee meetings.
Harveycutter said the committee was very complimentary of the local effort. In turn, the committee offered an extension without being approached by Salem officials. The subject of an extension had come up at their 1995 postgame wrap-up, but the two sides never talked about it until the Naples meetings.
``They think they've found a home and can be here for a long time,'' Harveycutter said. ``They wanted to solidify our relationship for future years.''
In the past, the NCAA had extended Salem's Stagg Bowl contract whenever the contract they were working under got down to one year. The present contract was to run out in 1997.
Meanwhile, according to Harveycutter, the $10,000 reduction should account for most of Salem's weather-related expenses. Salem normally guarantees the NCAA $25,000. All monies above that are split 60-40 between the NCAA and Salem, respectively.
The Division III committee meeting ends today. Other items on their docket included possible redistricting of schools, but Harveycutter said, to his knowledge, it would not affect the area's South Region members.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB