Grantland.com -- an art-house site promoted by ESPN.com and run by Bill Simmons as well as a place where the use of the occasional swear word is allowed -- tried to get a writer credentialed for Saturday's UNC-Duke men's basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The request was denied, and Simmons, now with an interesting avatar, didn't really take it in stride on Twitter:
Curious as to why the request was denied, we reached out to Duke's sports media relations folks. Matt Plizga, the school's Associate Sports Information Director, followed up with an e-mailed reply that read, in part:
Unfortunately due to space limitations at Cameron Indoor Stadium we are unable to accommodate all of the media requests that we receive for the Duke-North Carolina game each year. For the game on March 3, the ESPN umbrella of networks, websites and branches has absorbed 10 press row seats (4), tickets (3) or overflow spots (3) as well as a photographer spot and the numerous camera spots required to air the game as well as College GameDay.
We would love to be able to accommodate each legitimate request we receive but because of space issues we have had to make some tough decisions. One of those being the inability to credential blog sites and websites that do not attempt to cover the team on a regular basis. I communicated this to Sarah Larimer who requested a credential for Shane Ryan and received a courtesy reply from her on Wednesday, Feb. 22. I heard nothing more from anyone at Grantland and was more than a little surprised and disappointed that Mr. Simmons would take a complaint to Twitter rather than picking up the phone. Zing! But a practical zing. Poynter also tackled the credential story, but to us it's a simple matter of supply and demand. If there aren't enough seats for everyone, why should Grantland -- at least somewhat affiliated with ESPN.com -- get one?
