UPI NewsTrack Sports

NCAA awards Final Four for 2012-16

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The NCAA Wednesday announced the sites for its Division I men's basketball title games for 2012-16, with four of the Final Fours set for southern venues.

The Division I Men's Basketball Committee said the 2012 Final Four would be in the Superdome in New Orleans while the 2013 title -- the 75th NCAA basketball championship -- will be decided in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

The 2014 Final Four was awarded to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with the 2015 event in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the NCAA's home city, and the 2016 Final Four is to be played in Reliant Stadium in Houston.

The title games in 2012 will mark the fifth time the Final Four will have been contested in the Superdome while the Georgia Dome was the site of Final Fours in 2002 and 2007.

Upcoming Final Fours are scheduled for Detroit in 2009, Indianapolis in 2010 and Houston in 2011.

"Now and for the foreseeable future, we'll have at least 70,000 fans in the venue and tens of thousands more visitors in the host cities to experience the atmosphere and events that accompany the three basketball games," said NCAA President Myles Brand. "It is a wonderful spectacle that continues to grow into one of the world's premier sporting events."

Wakamatsu to manage Seattle Mariners

SEATTLE, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Oakland Athletics bench coach Don Wakamatsu has been hired to be the manager of the Seattle Mariners.

Wakamatsu, 45, becomes the first Asian-American to manager a U.S. major-league team. His major-league playing experience totaled 18 games as a catcher for the Chicago White Sox in 1991. But he's served as a coach for all four teams in the American League West, including last season as the Oakland bench coach.

"This is a heck of an opportunity and something I've looked forward to for a long time," Wakamatsu told MLB.com before he found out he had been hired. "I feel like I went in and represented myself as a strong candidate.

"It seems like this is a perfect fit for me. Almost like it's something I've been groomed for."

Seattle was 61-101 last season.

Wakamatsu told MLB.cm: "Anyone can come in here and say you're going to win right away, but you have to be realistic to the situation. There's still a lot of work to be done this winter."

Wakamatsu replaces John McLaren, who was fired last June. Jim Riggleman managed the team on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2008 season.

Gymnast says trainer Karolyi beat her

SACRAMENTO, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A former Olympic gymnast charges she was frequently beaten by world-famous coach Bela Karolyi while training at his gymnastic center in Transylvania.

Trudi Kollar, known to the world as Emelia Eberle, was only 12 years old when she joined Romania's national team in 1976, KCRA-TV, Sacramento, reported.

During her career she earned 13 individual medals in international competition including an Olympic silver medal.

Kollar said mistakes in training or competition resulted in frequent beatings from Karolyi.

"In one word, I can say it was brutal," she told KCRA.

Kollar said Karolyi's wife, Martha, watched the abuse and sometimes inflicted her own punishment.

"Occasionally she scratched us. She stuck her fingernails in the back of our necks and she shook us," Kollar said.

Marsha Karolyi is currently the U.S. national women's gymnastic coordinator. Her husband, who is semi-retired, was a star commentator for NBC during the Olympics.

Attempts to reach the Karolyis for comment were unsuccessful.

LPGA to have 31 events in 2009

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- LPGA officials released a 2009 schedule that features 31 tour events, three fewer than in 2008, totaling nearly $55 million in prize money.

The 2009 season is set to begin Feb. 12-14 with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Hawaii, and concludes Nov. 19-22 in Houston with the Stanford Financial Tour Championship.

The LPGA's first major tournament of 2009 is the Nabisco Championship scheduled April 2-5 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The McDonald's LPGA Championship is set for June 11-14 at Harve de Grace, Md., while the U.S. Women's Open is to be contested July 9-12 in Bethlehem, Pa., and the Ricoh Women's British Open is July 30-Aug. 2 in Lytham St. Annes, England.

The LPGA said its 31 tournaments will be played in 10 countries and there is an average purse of $1.767 million.

"Given the current state of the global economy, we view today's release of our 2009 Tour schedule as a barometer of the stability, appeal and value of our players and property," LPGA President Carolyn Bivens said in a release.

"With 31 events in 10 countries, we remain focused on providing market-based playing opportunities for our members, as well as providing fans with a great entertainment experience across the schedule."

Bay Area stadium projects hinge on economy

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Three sports teams in the San Francisco Bay Area say they are sticking to their plans to build new stadiums despite the soft economy.

The management of the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland A's and San Jose Earthquakes told the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News that the credit crunch is expected to make the financing of their respective projects more difficult.

That raises the question of whether or not cash-strapped city governments will be asked to pony up additional funding if the teams can't raise the money on their own.

The A's and Earthquakes are owned by developer Lew Wolff, who had planned to pay for two new venues with revenues from new residential developments, but that was before the booming housing market went south.

But Wolff told the newspaper he was not concerned about building during a downtime.

"The best building I've done has been in times when I shouldn't be building," Wolff said. "We could easily put our plans on hold for two years, but that is the furthest thing from our minds."

The 49ers' plans don't involve housing sales, but the Mercury News said they do involve a potentially hefty subsidy from the City of Santa Clara that must still be approved by city leaders and ultimately the taxpayers.