From my perspective, the USOC Open Hearing went pretty much as expected. Both sides were given ample opportunity to state their cases and take questions from the USOC and callers. I think it is safe to say that anyone listening in should have a pretty good sense as to each sides general philosophy.

The most revealing exchange to me, were the responses to the USOC’s question as to what happens if your organization is not selected. The UTHF said that they would fold up their tents and go away and the ATHA said that this was their passion and that they weren’t going anywhere. It’s safe to say that anyone who has put in time, money and sweat to try and build handball in the USA is going to be turned off by the UTHF response and sympathetic to the ATHA. I will give credit, however, to the UTHF’s honest answer as they could have sugar coated their response. Perhaps, the calculation though was to make sure the USOC understood that it was “now or never” if they wanted to get their funding and marketing expertise on board.

Also of note, I was somewhat surprised with the USOC’s assertion towards the end of the meeting that the ATHA staff management was not in place, implying that the UTHF management was well organized. While the UTHF has someone identified (Amir Haskic), I think that the ATHA could also find someone as capable to run day to day handball operations. Additionally, while a strong case can be made that Mr Krassner and Mr Esch could very well be a tremendous boon to USA Handball with their willingness to self-finance and use their existing business connections to find sponsors, I’m not sold at all on their expertise to run a non-profit sports federation. Business is business to a certain extent, but running Wilhemina modeling is one thing and being involved with team selections, anti-doping issues and organizing competitions is another thing entirely. And, in their own words, these guys are busy people doing a lot of different things. That being said, while I think the ATHA has made a strong case that they are ready to develop a strong grass roots program, I’m less convinced in their ability to step right in and run national team programs. In other words, either side will have a steep learning curve in that part of operations.

[b]What will the USOC decide? [/b]

The questions the USOC asked and their final closing remarks gives some hints. It’s pretty clear to me that the USOC sees complimentary strengths and weaknesses in both proposals and is practically telling both sides that they need to work together. Heck, they even forced them into a “Let’s Do Lunch” date at the USOC Training Center Cafeteria. What they would like to see is the potential marketing skill and financing of the UTHF proposal combined with the more coherent grassroots plan of the ATHA.

One compromise would be to adopt most of the better thought out ATHA plan and turn over the entire grassroots development (with the necessary funding fenced off) to the ATHA contingent. The badly needed marketing efforts would then be principally led by the UTHF contingent. The board structure would be comprised of the UTHF ($50,000) club plus some at-large members (ATHA Grassroots). National Team operations would need engagement from both contingents and some agreement would need to be brokered in this area. Of course, some will argue that this is simply heading down the road that been traveled before: trying to do to many things with limited resources. When push comes to shove a BoD is going to have decide where the money gets spent. And whoever’s in control will make that decision. Maybe the fundamental differences are too great and the desire for a controlling stake too strong for these sides to compromise and work together. Who knows? But a good faith effort should be made. Why, because as I see it, the USOC might select one of the two proposals, but only with a lot of hesitation. If the two proposals were somehow to merge, however, they would endorse that merged effort with enthusiasm.

Side point: Incidentally, there’s been some speculation that the USOC is biased towards the UTHF proposal. (And with the DITC deal already being signed and the DITC on board with the UTHF proposal there’s some legitimacy to that speculation.) While, I’m sure the USOC sees the dollar signs, many of the folks who work at the USOC are former athletes, some of them from lower profile sports. They know that the work that goes on at the grassroots level is vitally important and they also know how hard that work is. As such, when they see the UTHF proposal they undoubtedly remember the dedicated coach who taught them in some nondescript gym many years ago. Also, while they pay decent wages at the USOC, they don’t likely have $50K to throw around. So, bottom line: don’t necessarily infer which way the bias factor might play out.

Hungarian Champion Veszprem beat Danish side Viborg 31-26 in London on Saturday night. This was the first time that two top European Clubs have played an exhibition match in a non-traditional handball nation and it is reminiscent of NBA matches staged in Europe, Japan and Australia that helped pave the way for basketball’s unprecedented growth worldwide. Let’s give credit to worldhandball.com, Veszprem, Viborg and the British Federation for staging this groundbreaking event and let’s hope that this is the first of many more matches to come.

British Federation Article: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=1625
Pictures from Veszprem Website: http://www.veszpremkfc.hu/?page=hirek&hir=825&from=0

Living in Europe for five years broadened my horizons in many ways and one of those ways was my sports viewing habits. Through the wonders of satellite TV I still had ready access to American Football, NCAA and NBA basketball, and baseball, but I couldn’t help but also sample the offerings on French TV. There was no doubt that I was going to watch Handball, but what surprised me is how I became a fan of a “beautiful” game.

Oh, the crisp passing, the non-stop action, the intense fans, the national pride. And, if you think I’m talking about soccer then you obviously don’t know much about American sports fans. Like most of my fellow countrymen it is beyond my comprehension why this mind numbingly, boring game is the world’s favorite. Don’t get me wrong. I tried to watch. Even made my way out to the Parc des Princes to see Rolandinho when he played for Paris Saint Germain. And while the World Cup and the European Championships are worthy as grand spectacles you are never going to teach this old dog to like soccer. But Rugby, well that’s a different story.

It wasn’t like I was predisposed to become a fan of rugby. In fact, when I was first exposed to the sport at the Air Force Academy, I was anti-rugby because I was envious of the rugby club and the level of support it got compared to the Handball club. I also thought Rugby was crazy. American football without pads and only an excuse to party. On more than one occasion I harassed a friend who played rugby with lines like, “There’s a reason why we Americans modified the sport– Ever thought of adding the forward pass? It’s quite a concept- you guys should look into it.” And while I‘m still partial to American Football, seeing rugby played at a high level on TV was a revelation and pure entertainment.

I started out at first as a casual fan in 2003. While channel flipping I came across a rugby match. Not bad. I thought. This is certainly different than the rugby I had seen before in the U.S. And then because it was the Rugby World Cup and there was a match on TV every night for a whole month, I was hooked. Of course, I could understand the very basic strategy of the game, move the ball to the goal line or kick it through the uprights, but with limited French skills I had no clue as to what the announcers were saying and was really going on. Every morning, I’d spend 15 minutes peppering my British and French colleagues with questions on line outs, kicking into touch, etc.

Over the next four years, my level of interest continued to grow and I started to follow the club teams as well as the European 6 Nations tourney. I made my way to the Stade de France to see France-New Zealand in person and several trips to see the local club Stade Francais play. And if anybody had told me five years ago that I’d be flipping back and forth between rugby on French TV and American football on my satellite and finding myself watching the rugby more than the American football I would have thought that they were crazy.

So what’s the point of the story? The point of the story is that you can teach an old dog a new trick. But, it’s got to be a entertaining trick that the dog can relate to and you’re not going to “teach” that dog overnight. Or ditching the metaphors, altogether, I became a fan of the sport of rugby for the following reasons:

1) I was first exposed to the sport on [i]free television[/i].
2) I saw the sport being played at the [i]highest level[/i].
3) While it was a sport that I didn’t know much about and one that I had never played, I could relate to it since it was similar to a sport that I was [i]familiar[/i] with.
4) I had [i]repeated exposure [/i]to the sport which allowed me over time to develop a greater appreciation and understanding of the sport.

So what’s the point? Well, the point is I’m convinced that the same thing could happen for Handball in the United States and other countries. Handball will never approach the popularity of basketball or football, but it can and should be more than the near zero it is now. If you were to put a weekly EHF Champions League match on ESPN or any basic cable sports network on a Saturday morning, before the first NCAA basketball game tipped off on the East Coast people would watch. And a good portion of them would have the following conversation with themselves:

“Hey what‘s this? O.K. this sort of like basketball or soccer. Damn, that guy drilled the ball past that goalie. Where is this being played? Does anyone in the U.S. play this game? Damn, this game is almost over. When did this game start? When is it going to be on TV again?”

And slowly, but surely, you build a fan base. And some of those fans will become hooked enough that they end up buying merchandise and television subscription packages. Well, how do I know? I know because this one time rugby neophyte still wears his Stade Francais triple lightning bolt hat and purchased Direct TV satellite, solely for Setanta Sports and its Rugby package. The 2007 World Cup starts on Friday, 8 September and I will most definitely will be watching again.