Letters: What's the bottom line for the Bruins?

Cartoon showing Major League Baseball's PPE.

May 22, 2020 2:57 PM PT

Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California system, overseeing 10 campuses, including UCLA, makes $570,000 a year. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block makes $441,334. Martin Jarmond, the new UCLA athletic director, will make $1.2 million in the first year of a six-year contract, (more than Napolitano and Block combined) rising to $1.7 million in the last.

In what job that you or I might apply for would we negotiate a 42% raise in advance? In a time when people are lining up for hours to get a box or bag of food, it’s outrageous that any public sector job pays that kind of money, and yes, I know what Power Five football coaches make.

Where exactly is it that Mr. Jarmond cannot hold his head up without a seven-figure salary? The first thing he should do is announce he’s taking half his salary and starting a scholarship fund and daring Chip Kelly to match it.

Mitch Paradise
Los Angeles

Ben Bolch must be having a tough time in quarantine. The story on the new UCLA AD turned into yet another attack on Chip Kelly. I am firmly convinced that LA Times sportswriters are the worst thing that ever happened to UCLA sports bottom line. Firing coaches every couple years is not a viable option.

Rich Holland
Aliso Viejo

The recent letters from fans of UCLA and USC claiming your paper favors their rival school is just more evidence that the real bias stems from their own partisan perceptions.

Bennett Beebe
Westwood

Last week’s letter writer must be smoking cardinal and gold toilet paper to think The Times favors UCLA over USC in football coverage. For one thing, The Times didn’t fly the “Fire Clay Helton” banner over the Coliseum last year, and for another, nobody’s been able to say anything good about Bruins football for years.

Mario Valvo
Ventura

Martin Jarmond’s first move as athletic director should be to get out of the Rose Bowl lease and sign one with SoFi Stadium. Playing in the new stadium alone will attract sellout crowds, no matter how weak the team is, and more importantly, Chip Kelly will have in his arsenal the best stadium in the country to help recruit the top high school players.

Mike Anderson
Sherman Oaks

Tough call

Magic vs. Scully? Can’t we just call it a tie? I love both of those guys! Both of them are my heroes! Both of them remind me of better times in our lives.

Randy Childs
Manhattan Beach

Magic Johnson and Vin Scully. They are both legends. Icons in sports and, proud to say, Los Angeles, my city. Both with flashing smiles and hearts of gold. Both have witnessed and triumphed over heartbreak in their personal lives and sports. Both speak from the heart and strive to help and educate others.

But there is no contest. It’s Vin. Greatest broadcaster of all time. The one who will make you feel as if you are the only one in the room if you are fortunate enough to meet him. The kindest, most knowledgeable and humble person in baseball. No, in all sports.

Eileen Pohl
Glendale

LZ Granderson’s article points out, once again, what a remarkable human being Magic Johnson is.

John Snyder
Newbury Park

Play ball?

If MLB returns without crowds, is that even baseball? Or is it quite simply a money grab by TV networks and club owners trying to recoup revenue losses?

It seems to me that games played without cheers or beers or bags of salted peanuts only qualify as batting practice and when all is said and done, who’s fooling whom?

Bob Ory
Elgin, Ill.

I wonder if Bob Uecker will say: “Nice crowd on hand” when the Brewers have their first game.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

Construction costs

So, the current bunch of billionaire NFL owners decide to forgo their “all teams get the same amount of money from the NFL” policy that they fed Chargers owner, Dean Spanos, but give the more popular Stan Kroenke half a billion bucks — about the same amount of money Spanos could’ve used to help build a stadium and keep his team in San Diego.

Their shortsightedness (and obvious prejudice toward Spanos) proved quite costly as the Chargers fell $300 million short of their projected $400 million in seat license sales, which were earmarked for SoFi Stadium construction costs.

So, instead of a thriving, popular San Diego Chargers team, with a new stadium in what had been their home for many years, with a strong, dedicated home fan base, we have the “afterthought” Los Angeles Chargers struggling for relevancy in a Rams stadium with over-the-top extra expenses.

The NFL’s drawing the line for Spanos, but not Kroenke, was a perfect example of what was good for the goose not being good for gander.

Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa

As Stan Kroenke seeks to borrow an additional $500 million to complete construction of the $5-billion SoFi Stadium, Mr. Kroenke may consider upwardly extending his loan application to $1 billion, five hundred million to complete stadium construction and five hundred million to donate to COVID-19 vaccine research. Absent a vaccine, Mr. Kroenke may soon become owner of the largest proverbial white elephant in Los Angeles County, and potentially a “debtor in possession” in bankruptcy court.

Konrad Moore
San Diego

Different story

What a difference gender and money makes!

My mother was also a senior at USC in 1956 and had to leave her last semester because she was pregnant (with me). Unlike Tom Capehart (“Making the most of his gap years,” May 15), when she approached USC to complete her degree in 1975, they would not give her the time or consideration. “Too much time has passed.” “The program has changed significantly.” They were going to require her to begin anew.

Maybe were she a donor and a man the results would have been a bit different?

LeeAnn Stone
Santa Ana

Fighting Irish

I appreciate Eric Sondheimer’s “Season Interrupted” profiles of high school seniors whose final seasons ended early because of the pandemic, and I have nothing against the performing arts or Michael Flatley. But to borrow from Dr. Fauci, it seems a bridge too far to include “competitive Irish dancing,” especially when so many dedicated athletes in CIF-sanctioned sports have yet to be covered.

J.M. Wilson
West Hollywood

Triple play

So it took horse racing only a century and a coronavirus epidemic to get it right. Spread the three Triple Crown races out a month apiece and shorten the Belmont from its ridiculous 11/2 miles for the safety of the horses.

Mike Reuben
Anaheim Hills

Making skins crawl

Start with four pro golfers, one whom nobody’s ever heard of. Put them in shorts in front of no gallery but mic them so the TV audience is treated to the most boring banter imaginable. In fact, I now use Dustin Johnson’s audio to help me sleep at night. “I thought it was inside right but it wasn’t.” ZZZZZZZ.

Then have the whole event climax with some unsatisfying closest-to-the-pin baloney. I realize it was for charity, but there’s gotta be a better way.

Gary H. Miller
Encino

Room service

I don’t know if Michael Jordan’s pizza was poisoned or not, but I’m sure it was made with GOAT cheese.

George Sands
Torrance

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