Hall should take some ads

IU interim athletic director Terry Clapacs recently rejected the idea of placing advertisements inside Assembly Hall. The idea has come up before, and it was rejected every time. We support Clapac's banning of advertisements, to a degree -- we feel there should be some concession. \n If IU Athletics' funding is in the red, there needs to be some raising of cash. We understand that advertising on or near the playing floor can be distracting, and they take away from the purity of the game. In Indiana, almost nothing is more important than basketball, so the idea of keeping the floor clean of everything but the teams and the ball is a good one.\n Assembly Hall is also the location for many of IU's athletic teams' trophies and likenesses of some members of the IU Athletics Hall of Fame. No advertisements should be placed near these achievements; to have a hamburger ad next to Keith Smart's face would be utter disrespect.\nOur compromise would be to have advertisements limited in size and type in the hallways next to seating entrances, and along the rim of the balcony out of the direct view of most spectators. This way, audiences aren't being bombarded with extra stuff when watching the games on TV, and it would take a special effort to notice the advertisements in the crowd while cheering the Hoosiers.\nWith this sort of compromise, IU athletics could raise money to get out of debt, and perhaps fund more athletic scholarships while keeping the integrity of the game intact. The Hoosiers need the money, but we also don't want to see any other name but Indiana near the game we love.\n\n-- George Lyle IV for the Editorial Board\n