by Ry Rivard
Daily Mail Capitol Reporter
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The $230,000 deal the West Virginia Coal Association has to brand the Civic Center basketball court for 10 years is only the newest tie between the industry and the state's sporting world.
The industry-sponsored "Friends of Coal" floor at the Civic Center has drawn criticism from an environmentalist and raised questions about why the deal with the association wasn't bid out. The Civic Center is a public building owned by the City of Charleston. A Civic Center official said last week the city wasn't required to bid the deal out.
But that wasn't the first time the association has entered a no-bid sponsorship deal with a public entity.
In 2006, the Coal Association got a $1 million no-bid contract to call the series of West Virginia University-Marshall University football games the Friends of Coal Bowl.
For its money, the association received the right to put up signs in the universities' stadiums and advertising on the radio networks of both schools, among other perks.
While the Friends of Coal Bowl may be the center of its efforts, the Coal Association has repeatedly linked up with the sports world.
"As a kid, I remember listening to West Virginia Coal Association commercials on radio," said WVU deputy athletic director Mike Parsons. "It's a longstanding relationship with the association, not just the association itself, but many coal operators have been long-time supporters of the university."
About a decade ago, the Coal Association decided to intensify efforts to improve the industry's image. It created the Friends of Coal campaign.
In 2002, former WVU football coach Don Nehlen signed up to be a spokesman for the campaign. Former Marshall coach Bob Pruett joined him.
WVU athletics' affiliation with the industry intensified a bit this year.
WVU head football coach Dana Holgorsen, an Oklahoma transplant, started a ritual dubbed the Mountaineer Mantrip. A mantrip is a small train or shuttle coal miners traditionally use to enter and exit an underground mine.
During the new pre-game ceremony, the team walks through the fan-filled parking lot to the stadium. When players reach the east end of the field, they rub a chunk of coal from the Upper Big Branch mine, the site of 29 men's death in a 2010 explosion that investigators have said was preventable.
Parsons said Holgorsen was "new to the environment" and "was looking to take things he was learning and incorporate it into the things he wants to accomplish."
He said Holgorsen and new WVU athletic director Oliver Luck wanted to capture that, too.
"It's been Oliver and Coach Holgorsen that have brought about the football aspect of things," Raney said.
Raney said he, Nehlen and Holgorsen had all met to talk.
Raney said the ceremony at WVU was not part of any concerted effort by the association.
Teaming up with sport teams makes sense for any company. Companies across the country have named stadiums, branded arenas and partnered with teams.
The ties have perhaps strengthened as the coal industry has attempted to re-brand itself.
Association chairman Gary White recalled the past decade of efforts at the Bluefield Coal Show in September.
White said the association imposed a "per ton fee" on its membership and hired Charleston-based marketing firm Charles Ryan & Associates "to move the needle" of public opinion, according to The Beckley Register-Herald's account of White's remarks.
In 2001, the industry did a poll of state residents and found only 45 of those surveyed had a favorable image of the industry, White said. A decade later and that number is 75 percent.
Denise Giardina, a Charleston author and opponent of mountaintop removal mining, said the association's campaign has been effective in removing an "us versus them" mentality that she said used to exist between people who identified with the union and people who identified with the coal operators.
"This whole 'Friends of Coal' idea - it was brilliant because it's no longer 'the West Virginia Coal Association;' it's 'Friends of Coal,' " she said. "They have got a segment of the public to buy into this. They are masking the fact that they are coal operators."