THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2007
SPORTS
7B
NFL
Vick to enter plea in dogfighting case
BY LARRY O'DELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. — Michael Vick's guilty plea to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge will cap one of the most rapid and startling falls from stardom in U.S. sports history.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback is scheduled to formally enter his plea Monday, following the path of three co-defendants who already have pleaded guilty.
In Vick's written plea agreement filed in federal court Friday, he admitted helping kill six to eight pit bulls and supplying money for gambling on the fights. He said he did not personally place any bets or share in any winnings.
With negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys out of the way, all that's left is for U.S. District judge Henry E. Hudson to accept the plea and decide how much time Vick will spend in prison, and for the NFL to determine the fate of Vick's career. The NFL suspended him indefinitely without pay Friday after his plea agreement was filed.
Merely associating with gamblers can trigger a lifetime ban from the NFL under the league's personal conduct policy.
If Monday's proceedings follow the pattern of Vick's three co-defendants, the quarterback's plea hearing will be brief, with the judge setting a sentencing hearing for late fall after a background report is completed.
The plea agreement calls for a sentencing range of 12 to 18 months. But Hudson is not bound by any recommendation or federal sentencing guidelines and could sentence Vick to as much as five years in prison.
The case began in late April when authorities conducting a drug investigation of Vick's cousin raided the former Virginia Tech star's property and seized dozens of dogs, some injured, and equipment commonly used in dogfighting.
A federal indictment issued in July charged Vick, Purnell Peace of Virginia Beach, Quanis Phillips of Atlanta and Tony Taylor of Hampton with an interstate dogfighting conspiracy. Vick initially denied any involvement, and all
four men pleaded innocent. Taylor was the first to change his plea to guilty; Phillips and Peace soon followed.
The details outlined in the indictment and other court papers fueled a public backlash against Vick and cost him several endorsement deals, even before he agreed to plead guilty.
In announcing the suspension, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell opened the way for the Falcons to attempt to recover $22 million of Vick's signing bonus from the 10-year, $130 million contract he signed in 2004.
Vick's plea Monday will come hours before the Falcons play against the Cincinnati Bengals. This will be the first chance for the team to see what effect Vick's case has on attendance. Vick is given much credit for the team's 51 consecutive sellouts.
After initially denying his involvement, Vick has said little publicly about the case. Privately, he met with Goodell and Falcons owner Arthur Blank when the investigation was beginning, and almost certainly lied to both.
SPORTS IN A MINUTE
Quick Hits
SOCCER
CARSON, Calif. — David Beckham is taking a break.
Exhausted after playing three games in six days, Beckham won't travel with the Los Angeles Galaxy for Sunday's Major League Soccer game in Colorado.
Coach Frank Yallop decided to rest Beckham after evaluating the star midfielder's condition following a 3-0 loss Thursday to Chivas USA. He's expected to play next in Wednesday's SuperLiga championship against Pachuca at the Home Depot Center.
HOCKEY
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Milan Michalek agreed to a six-year, $26 million contract extension with the San Jose Sharks.
The Czech, a 22-year-old right wing, is considered a rising star after just two full NHL campaigns. He was San Jose's fourth-leading scorer last year, compiling career highs of 26
goals, 40 assists and a plus-17 rating.
TENNIS
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — James Blake beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) in a match that ended just after midnight Saturday to set up an all-American final at the Pilot Pen.
Blake will play his best friend, Mardy Fish, for the title.
Fish beat hard-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (3), 6-4 to advance to his first final this year.
It will be the first time the frequent practice partners have played each other for a championship.
OSAKA, Japan — Luke Kibet of Kenya won the marathon in two hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds, claiming the first gold medal of the 2007 track and field world championships.
Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar was second in 2:17:18, and fast-finishing Viktor Roethlin of Switzerland was third in 2:17:25.
TRACK AND FIELD
It was the slowest winning time in world championship history. The previous was 2:14.57 by Hiromi Taniguchi of Japan in Tokyo in 1991.
AUTO RACING
The race was marred by a NASCAR scoring error against Kyle Busch that cost him a chance to run for the victory. Busch was penalized with 77 laps to go because NASCAR said he violated the pit-road commitment line. He had to forfeit his second-place position, a penalty NASCAR later said was incorrect.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kasey Kahne passed Ryan Newman with eight laps to go, then held off several charges from Jason Leffler to win the Busch Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
But it was too late by then, as Busch had dropped all the way back to 28th.
Associated Press
Missouri could legalize scalping
>> TICKETS
Legislators, sports teams support law's repeal
BY DAVID A. LIEB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - If you're an avid sports fan, chances are fair that you've abetted a crime to get to a game.
Not by speeding down the highway to reach the stadium (though you may have done that, too) but by buying a ticket from a scalper.
Missouri is one of a dwindling number of states where it remains illegal to re-sell tickets to sporting events for more than face value. Scalpers can be fined $50-$1,000 and jailed from 15 days to one year, depending on how many times they have been caught.
Yet ticket scalping continues on sidewalks and Internet sites, largely because the 1989 law is difficult to enforce.
Now Missouri lawmakers appear poised to scalp the law.
The Missouri House of Representatives voted last week to repeal the anti-scalping law as part of a broader economic development package backed by Gov. Matt Blunt. The Senate is expected to do the same this week, when the focus of a special legislative session shifts to its chamber.
So should sports fans be celebrating?
Or should they be shaking in their seats for fear scalpers will freely jack up their ticket prices?
Advocates of repealing the law contend there's no need to worry. In fact, they claim fans likely will pay less when scalpers can legally charge more.
Huh?
Their reasoning rests on basic supply-and-demand economics. If ticket scalping becomes legal, then more people should be willing to do it. Thus the supply of tickets on the re-sale market should increase, and if demand for those tickets remains the same, then the prices should fall.
"There will be a flood of tickets for sale," St. Louis Cardinals lobbyist John Bardgett Jr. predicted last week to a legislative committee. "When that happens, competition works — prices get driven down."
That theme was echoed by representatives of the St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Ticketmaster, eBay and the Overland Park, Kan-based ticket brokering firm Ticket Solutions.
The Cardinals, for one, insisted legal ticket scalping would provide a greater benefit to their fans than their front office.
But Ticketmaster, among others, acknowledged the potential to make more money. The company already acts as an original ticket seller for the Chiefs and Rams, and also hosts an Internet site allowing for the re-sale of tickets.
With Missouri's current law as a deterrent, Ticketmaster refuses to allow Chiefs and Rams tickets to be sold above face value, said Joe Freeman, a company vice president and assistant general counsel. But if the law is repealed, Ticketmaster would allow sellers using its Internet site to charge as much as they want, he said.
It's unlikely, however, that Ticketmaster would allow people to charge less than face value, because professional sports teams don't like to devalue their product, Freeman said.
Other Internet sites already offer tickets to Missouri sporting events at prices both above and below Face value.
Some supporters of free-market ticket scalping point to a 2006 study by economist Craig Depken of the University of Texas at Arlington, who analyzed the average per-game season ticket prices from 1991-2003 for professional football and baseball teams.
Depken found that legalized ticket scalping can actually drive down prices charged by team owners. He estimated that baseball teams charge about 14 percent more when scalping is banned, and football teams charge nearly 24 percent more.
Although some acknowledge it seems a bit of a stretch, advocates of legal ticket scalping contend it could help Missouri's economy.
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