Canzano: Racing to the bottom of a sports record

Oregon-Ohio State... Oregon State on The CW... Pac-12 strategy

Autzen Stadium may set a state record on Saturday. (Photo: Naji Saker)

Remember the state attendance record for a live sporting event in Oregon? 63,000 people showed up for an Indy Car race at Portland International Raceway in 1993, we’re told. It was a great race on a sunny day, but I’ve always wondered if the attendance record was a fish story.

Oregon and Ohio State will play a football game at Autzen Stadium on Saturday. Standing-room-only tickets are sold out. The stadium record of 60,055 should be broken. I’ve thought for a while that Saturday’s crowd might even challenge that all-time state record.

63,000?

That perfectly round number has always bothered me. It feels more like an estimate, doesn’t it? There were no turnstiles at the race track. Fire marshalls didn’t count, either. I did some calling around to find out more.

That motorsports race was a big deal in Portland. A large crowd was expected. That’s not debatable. Jeff Wohler was the sports editor of the local newspaper. He told me that so much traffic congestion was expected that the paper decided to rent a helicopter to transport eight staff members (writers and photographers) from downtown Portland to the raceway.

I nearly fell over laughing at this next part.

“Unfortunately, the person in charge of renting the helicopter went on the cheap,” Wohler said. “The helicopter was tiny and only had room for one passenger.”

The little helicopter made eight trips from the top of a parking garage in downtown Portland out to Portland International Raceway. The round-trip took 20 minutes. Traffic, particularly after the race, wasn’t as bad as expected, Wohler said.

“I don’t know if it was 63,000, but before the race, we were talking 50,000 or 60,000 people or more,” he said. “None of us had ever seen a crowd like that.”

The whole thing reminds me of a story that Harry Glickman, the Godfather of sports in the state, once told me. Glickman, the founder of the Trail Blazers, ran a hockey franchise, promoted boxing matches, and brought a series of NFL exhibition games to Portland. He knew events.

Glickman said: “In the old days, we often had to ‘eyeball’ it.”

I miss Glickman. He died four years ago. He didn’t promote the auto race. Thomas Lasley, the entrepreneurial genius who set up ticket box offices inside G.I. Joe’s sporting goods stores, sold the tickets for the event. He died years ago. Mike Nealy was the promoter.

I reached Nealy at his home on Wednesday. He said he couldn’t remember exactly how many tickets were sold for the motor sports event. He did recall that the 63,000 was an “all-in” number on the track grounds that included race officials, teams, media, comps, and tickets sold. That’s an important distinction.

“In those days, we would credential close to 900 (media),” Nealy told me. “There were six International film crews on the site for the race.”

The race went off beautifully. Former Portland Mayor Charlie Hales gave the “Drivers… start your engines!” call on the track. Emerson Fittipaldi won. It was a pleasant summer day. The broadcast aired on ESPN. I watched a videotape of the 2.5-hour event, lap by lap. There was no mention of that day’s attendance on the broadcast. The crowd looked robust, but it was so spread out, who knows?

I’m glad Jim Etzel is around. He’s a wealth of institutional knowledge. The CEO of SportOregon happened to be at the racetrack that day in 1993. He’s worked and promoted live sports events for most of his adult life. SportOregon is responsible for bringing the Women’s Final Four to Portland in 2030, among other things.

What did event promoters do in that era when there wasn’t a turnstile available?

“You’d sometimes go to the parking lot, count cars, multiply by 3.5, and estimate the number of people,” Etzel said.

I asked Etzel if he thought 63,000 people were at the track that day for the Indy Car event. He offered a diplomatic answer that meshes with Nealy’s account.

Etzel said: “The way I’d frame it is that this week’s Oregon-Ohio State game is going to be the largest actual ticketed and fire-marshall-controlled sporting event in state history.”

I’m glad he brought that last part up. Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens told me months ago that the only limitation on how many tickets Oregon could sell for the game was the fire marshall.

I’m eager to see if Saturday’s attendance eclipses 63,000 and puts the entire controversy to rest. Or maybe we can just agree that the “all-in” race crowd was huge, but Saturday’s football game is expected to be the largest ticketed spectator event in state history.

Etzel has a standing-room-only ticket. He bought it the day they went on sale. He said: “I can promise you there won’t be an empty seat in the place.”

I expect lots of traffic.

Be sure to leave early.

Or maybe rent a helicopter if you can find one big enough.

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Oregon State’s double-overtime win over Colorado State was the highest-rated football game of the season. (Photo: Naji Saker)

Emptying the notebook:

• The Oregon State vs. Colorado State game on Saturday drew an audience of 568,000 viewers. It was the most-watched football game on The CW this season. Viewership peaked at 7 p.m. at 881,000. The previous high this season was San Jose State at Washington State, which drew 542,000. The top three games on The CW this season are Pac-12 games.

• The number raised some eyebrows because The CW channel in the Los Angeles TV market didn’t air the game. It carried the Clippers preseason basketball game live in that window instead.

• The Pac-12 is taking its media rights to market. I’m told by sources that the conference is expected to finalize the choice of its media consultant this week.

• How long could the process take? It depends. Bob Thompson, the retired president of Fox Sports Networks said: “Deals with ESPN and Fox can go quicker because of their history in the space. If the package gets divided up amongst a number of outlets, that may take a bit longer.” Bringing in a streamer might delay things as well given the lack of experience in the space.

• Thompson will join Jon Wilner and me on the next episode of “Canzano & Wilner: The Podcast.” It should post Wednesday afternoon. Make sure you’re subscribed to the show on YouTube so you don’t miss it.

• Anyone else watching the content Jeremy Darlow is posting on Twitter? He’s a brand consultant and former marketing director of Adidas football. Darlow took a hard look at social media engagement, comparing the Mountain West vs. the Pac-12. He also looked at the addition of Gonzaga, underscoring the brand value of the Zags.

• I had Darlow on my radio show to break down what he saw happening on social media in more depth. The interview with Darlow was an educational talk about brand building, strategy, and social media metrics.

• Darlow’s unsolicited advice to the Pac-12 this football season? Sell the success of Boise State. He wrote on Twitter: “If I’m the Pac-12, I’m promoting BSU now. Take advantage of this hype window… good look to your potential suitors. And you’ll get free promo, as the media will find one conference promoting another conference’s school worth writing about.”

• If you missed the Monday Mailbag, give it a read. The questions were rich this week.

• My picks, thoughts, opinions, and predictions for Week 7 of the college football season will be posted on Thursday. I went 6-6 against the spread in Week 6 and finished 9-3 picking games straight up. I am going to pick 15 games this week.

My 2024 record vs. the spread: 39-30 (.565)

My record straight up: 54-15 (.782)

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