Bye - bye bleachers

Do you remember those bleachers that were supposed to be installed at the campus pool for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation water polo tournament taking place Nov. 24-26?

Well, forget about it.

Cal State Long Beach officials, who had looked into the idea of renting bleachers, decided they were not going to spend the money for proper seating for the event.

So the conference coaches recently agreed - unanimously, no less - to move the postseason tournament to Newport Harbor High School. Their decision was approved by the conference's administrative personnel.

"Basically, we couldn't host it properly,'' CSULB Coach Ken Lindgren said Wednesday. "The school said it couldn't pay the money for the bleachers.''

Lindgren did not seem overly angered by the decision.

"This is a big tournament and has to be done properly,'' Lindgren said. "We couldn't do it here without bleachers. If 1,000 people showed up, what were we going to do?

"We only have room for 50.''

In another development, all nine teams will be allowed to participate in the tournament, which will send its winner to the NCAA Championships.

Earlier, a proposal had been made by CSULB officials to knock a day off the tournament by not letting the last-place team qualify. But that was not a popular idea among the conference's coaches.