It
is amazing what trend setters my wife and I have become. What is there to say?
The last person to leave Los Angeles should turn off the lights, if there is
any electricity left in the state of California by then.
When
we left my native land, we did so with the idea of achieving financial
stability. It is cheaper to live in the Midwest after retirement than it is in Southern California and we knew that. My wife and I frequently brag that we
sometimes to go the bank just to visit our money. What the heck, we don’t have
much of a social life. Might as well visit all those dead presidents.
Well, the world was paying attention. At least the sporting
world was. Two institutions of higher learning followed the Elders. The
University of Southern California and the University of California at Los
Angeles both noticed the financial pitfalls of living in California. The
schools recently announced that their athletic departments would follow the
Elders and begin playing their road games in the Midwest and even in New
Jersey.
Brilliant. The two Los Angeles schools obviously considered
their surroundings and bailed. Bordered by the wastelands of Beverly Hills,
Santa Monica and Hollywood, they felt hindered by the greater Los Angeles area
business climate. The schools were hopelessly limited in their ability to raise
funds. Forced to compete with the limitless funding available at schools in
Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, the SoCal schools bolted for
the pot at the end of the rainbow in the Midwest. Those two bastions of business
education will send their teams east for the same reason we went: Money.
The Bruins and Trojans can send their golf, tennis,
track/field and beach volleyball teams to venture off into the splendor of New
Jersey, where each can play against Rutgers. Imagine beach volleyball along the
shores of the Atlantic in the bracing air of the northeastern United States.
They’ll play tennis on ice skates and rake in all that money. It will be easy
to judge the shot putting competition; all the judges have to do is look for
where the shot went through the ice.
And think of how inclusive home games will become for USC
and UCLA! All the Midwesterners who have moved west will be able to attend and
root, root, root for the visiting team. It’ll sound like a Rams game. If that
isn’t inclusion, there isn’t any such thing in today’s world.
Yes, my wife and I are proud we were able to show the way.
We’re happy that the geniuses who guide those two proud schools followed our
lead and headed east. That’s where the money is.
Thanks for reading.
