City’s teamwork pays sports dividends for San Jose

This month’s newsletter leads with the story about our city being a major stop on the Amgen Tour of California professional cycling stage race. To be held in February next year, the Tour will bring the world’s top professional cyclists to California for the eight-day, 700-mile event. It’s anticipated that tens of thousands of cycling enthusiasts and sports fans will line the city’s streets to see the race.

The same team that worked to bring the annual Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon to San Jose collaborated in attracting a portion of the Amgen Tour of California. The city’s Office of Economic Development, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Sports Authority joined forces to convince AEG, the event’s owner, that San Jose would be the perfect location to host two of the Tour’s major components. The results of this joint effort underscore the benefits of municipal teamwork. Thanks to the staffs of both organizations for their efforts and professionalism in helping once again to put San Jose on the national sports map.

Thanks also to Amy Love, chair of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors, the entire board and the Sports Authority staff members who worked so hard and successfully to organize last week’s 11th annual Hall of Fame Induction Dinner. Great job everyone.

Dean Munro
Executive Director

Los Angeles-based AEG, organizers of the newly announced Tour of California, intend for the race eventually to rival the Tour de France on the annual cycling calendar and promise to spend $35 million over the next five years to make that happen.

The inaugural race Feb. 19-26 will run from San Francisco to Redondo Beach and will spend more time in San Jose than any city. San Jose will be the finish of the race’s second stage, which begins in Martinez, on Feb. 21. The next day, the race’s only time trial will start and finish in our city. More than a million spectators are expected to see the 700-mile race in person, and it will get one hour daily coverage on ESPN2.

The Amgen Tour of California is the second major annual sports event recently announced for San Jose. Earlier, Elite racing of San Diego selected the city to host the Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon and accompanying events Oct. 6-7, 2006. They bring the total to six annual events in which the Sports Authority played a major role in attracting to the city, including the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San José, Dew Action Sports Tour, State Farm Pacific-10 Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament and the USA Wrestling California Divisional Championships.

The Sports Authority’s 2004-05 fiscal year was a milestone for attracting events and establishing the city as a venue for major sports events.

The full scope of the Sports Authority’s activities is captured in its annual report, which is now available online. The report is in PDF form so you can download and print out a hard copy. It includes highlights of the previous year, including the largest sports event ever held in San Jose, the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix, and outlines events committed to the city in the future.

Sports media from up and down the West Coast visited San Jose last week to bone up on Pacific-10 Conference women’s basketball in preparation for season openers later this month.

Stanford, which went 32-3 last season and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the second straight season, was the media favorite to win the season championship.

HP Pavilion, which will host the State Farm Pac-10 Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament for the fourth consecutive year March 3-6, is also host for the media day.

More than 700 celebrants turned out at HP Pavilion on Thursday for the 11th annual San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Ceremony. Five South Bay sports personalities – 49ers tight end Brent Jones, Grand Slam tennis champions Barbara and Kathy Jordan, retired Saratoga High football coach Benny Pierce and golf star / TV analyst Ken Venturi – who made indelible marks on the local sports scene brought the total Hall membership to 54.

You may view and purchase pictures of the gala event here, and if you’re still wondering about the answers to some of those tough Hall of Fame Trivia Contest questions, you can see the answer sheet here.

Visit the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame’s new home page.

The San Jose sports scene expands this winter with the addition of the Skyrockets of the American Basketball Association, a men’s professional minor league with 48 teams in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Skyrockets open their 36-game schedule Friday, Nov. 18 in a 7 p.m. game against the Orange County Buzz in the San Jose Civic Auditorium, one of 13 opponents in the ABA’s West Conference, which includes teams in Washington, Nevada, Hawaii and Tijuana, Mexico. The schedule runs into March when qualifying ABA teams begin single-elimination playoffs similar to the NCAA tournament to determine the league champion.

Tickets for home games are affordably priced from $10 to $50.

Sports Authority board member Don W. Kassing was named president of San Jose State University by the CSU Board of Trustees in the 2005-06 academic year after several months as the university's interim president. Prior to that, he had been the university’s vice president for administration and finance and its chief financial officer since November 1993. He is responsible for the development of the new Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and the Campus Village Project (student and faculty housing).

Kassing worked 11 years in private industry before going to Belleville (Ill.) Area College, where he was a teacher, department chair and president of the Granite City Campus for two years. Before moving to San Jose, he worked in the academic world as vice president for university relations and administrative services at Kentucky’s Murray State University and vice president for development and public affairs at Western State College in Colorado.

Kassing holds a master's degree in business administration and a B.S. in economics from St. Louis University. He is married with three children and five grandchildren. He also serves on the United Way Silicon Valley Board, the United Way Community Impact Committee and the San Jose Downtown Association.