*The St. Pete Times Forum is host to the opening rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this week, and the draw couldn’t have been better for Tampa. Besides getting crowd favorite Florida, the field will also include heavyweights UCLA, Michigan State, West Virginia and Kentucky–plus quintessential Goliath-slayer prospect Princeton. The TV ratings should be good, and the local-color, network TV shots will provide a gratis marketing boost. Plus, programs such as Kentucky travel especially well and fill up hotel rooms. Even USF’s sports-economics iconoclast Phil Porter might see real economic impact from this two-day, six-game event.
*Two sides–the merely wealthy and the obscenely wealthy–are still haggling over how to divide at least $9 billion in annual NFL revenues. In the context of earthquakes, tsunamis, grinding recession, polarizing politics, concerns about terrorism, worries about health care and anxieties about Rick Scott-induced “Floriduh” subplots, so what? Besides, there’s USF, Florida, Florida State, Jefferson High, Plant High and Armwood High for those who like their football without a sense of entitlement, socialized show business and threats of antitrust lawsuits.