Duck Rant

Editor's Note: As a longtime Duck basketball fan, and in response to recent news/editorials in The Oregonian lamenting the lack of attendance at games, I sent the following email to Rob Mullens, the University of Oregon Director of Athletics.

"As a Duck basketball season ticket holder, I was disheartened to read in The Oregonian that Dana Altman, whom I consider a great coach and one of the best hires ever, was so frustrated after the NIT game against Wisconsin that he took way too much responsibility for the lack of fans in the stands.

 

While appreciating Dana as a stand-up guy, the actual reasons for the dearth of fans at the game extend way beyond the performance of the team or the coaches. The UO Athletic Department should become more circumspect and consider the real issues for poor attendance numbers at men’s games: lack of parking, overpriced tickets and too many late games.

 

Let’s start with the the severe lack of parking. Clearly, the parking allotment underneath Matthew Knight Arena is woefully insufficient to accommodate the number of fans in a full -- or even partly full -- arena. Furthermore, street parking has for all intents and purposes been banned by a shortsighted and draconian Eugene City Council.

To add insult to injury, city parking police monitor the neighborhoods near the arena and pounce on unsuspecting fans with expensive parking tickets. Fans also have the option of paying for parking at the limited number of lots available nearby, but that adds to the cost of the experience.

 

Speaking of cost, the men’s basketball team has been a victim of its own success, as witnessed by increased ticket prices over the years. By comparison, tickets for women’s basketball are much more reasonably priced, and they seem to be attracting decent crowds for their NIT games.

Whatever happened to Bi-Mart two-for-one tickets? The UO Athletic Department should devise more creative ways to price tickets in the interest of attracting more fans.

 

Another key detriment to attendance has been the sheer welter of late games, with 7-8 p.m. start times effectively putting a damper on attendance. How many fans from Portland, UO’s largest alumni base, are willing to spend 4-6 hours on Interstate 5 on game nights, especially when they can watch the contest on television? 

 

Admittedly, the coronavirus pandemic hasn't helped with attendance over the last few years, but attendance at men’s basketball games, in stark contrast to the women’s basketball games, is not demonstrating resiliency.

 

Dana Altman is not the problem. He is a Hall of Fame coach-in-waiting who recruits well and has won consistently. I hope he will remain at Oregon for many years to come.

The athletic department needs to develop new approaches to address the real issues for the lack of attendance: provide more parking options and get creative with sliding-scale ticket prices and scheduling of game times.

 

As always, go Ducks!"

Vanishing Point

The largest glacier between the high volcanic peaks of Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak has finally disappeared after a long battle with global warming. For thousands of years, the Hinman Glacier graced the crest of the Washington Cascades in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

Fifty miles due east of downtown Seattle, Mount Hinman sits deep in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, midway between Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass. Until recently, the Hinman was one of four named glaciers that provided cool water to the Skykomish River in the hottest, driest time of the year.

The glaciers of the Skykomish basin have lost 55 percent of their surface area since the 1950s. As Hinman Glacier dwindled in recent decades, late-summer flows diminished in the Skykomish River, bad news for salmon and farmers. The glacier was ancient, though how ancient is unknown.

In the 1950s, the Hinman Glacier flowed a mile and a half from the broad top of 7,492-foot Mount Hinman to the valley floor nearly 2,000 feet below. Mount Hinman gained protection from direct human disturbance in 1976 when it was designated part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

But Hinman’s snow and ice were no match for the rising temperatures of the fossil fuel era. In 1958, the Hinman Glacier covered 320 acres, about half the size of Seattle’s Lake Union. In August 2022, the biggest patch of ice found was about 10 acres — too small and too thin to flow.

Glaciers are rivers of ice that flow from year to year, as their own weight compresses snow into ice. Most include striking features like deep crevasses and deep-blue ice, sculpting the land beneath them as they go. Two other glaciers on Mount Hinman, preceded the Hinman into oblivion.

The rounded peak and the glacier on its northwest side were named for Everett dentist and mountain climber Harry B. Hinman in 1934. He started the Everett branch of the Mountaineers in 1911. Few ever touched the Hinman Glacier, reachable only by off-trail scrambling and mountaineering.

Visiting the site in 2009 while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass, we found the area to be magical. The Hinman Glacier touched many people by keeping the Skykomish River cool and flowing each summer and providing water. Sadly, however, it is now gone.