Sports documentaries come in one flavor—variety and creativity aren’t their strong suit. Somewhere in the history of the sports documentary (sportumentary?) it was ordained that they all must include the following elements: a deep voiced narrator, slo-mo replay, fanatical fans making fools of themselves and cheesy bell music. Whether it is a special recapping a magical playoff run, a historic dynasty or a fierce rivalry, these elements remain consistent.

Most of these videos are made in haste in order to satisfy the championship drunk fans, ready to shell out big bucks for any and all paraphernalia pertaining to their beloved champs.

Most of these videos are made in haste in order to satisfy the championship drunk fans, ready to shell out big bucks for any and all paraphernalia pertaining to their beloved champs.

Who else is going to watch a DVD about the Rockies run to the National League pennant other than a rabid Rockies fan? It is like giving crack to an addict or teaching a college course on sex. The audience is so invested in the topic there really is no failing.

For the most part, this documentary follows the pattern. If you are a Michigan or an OSU fan, you will enjoy this documentary. You will learn a few things about the history of the rivalry, and get a few laughs at how ridiculous Ohioans are (“O-H”….”I-O”) but most of all it will replay the events and highlights that you love to see again and again.

“The Rivalry” drips with intrigue, colossal characters and obsessive fans.

“The Rivalry” drips with intrigue, colossal characters and obsessive fans. Bo-Schembechler, Woody Hayes, the ten-year war, the snow bowl, the 1968 50-14 shellacking, Desmond Howard striking “the pose,” the list of monumental events in this rivalry’s history goes on. This documentary does a good job in recapping them all.

The one piece of this documentary that sticks out is the interview with the late Bo Schembechler. Not being a Michigander, I really can’t fully understand the influence that Bo Schembechler had on this rivalry, state and institution. The crowd at the premier for this documentary at Michigan Theater last week cheering and choking up at each mention of Bo gave me just an idea of the depth and breadth of Bo’s impact.

Whether it is old footage of Bo in his hay-day, the testimony of the players lucky enough to play under him, the fans who grew up with Bo as their hero or the late in life interviews with Bo, at its best, this documentary pays tribute to one of football’s greats.

It sponsored many local organizations and events, including Ann Arbor Summerfest, Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan Theater and the University Musical Society. The pharmaceutical company is also a major partner with Ann Arbor Spark, a not-for-profit economic development organization.
David Canter, Pfizer’s senior vice president and director of Michigan laboratories, sits on Spark’s board of directors alongside Michael Finney and other prominent local figures like University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman and Domino’s CEO David Brandon, a former University Regent.

In addition to the company’s significant financial support, Pfizer’s employees contributed a substantial amount of volunteer hours in the community. Losing this volunteer manpower is something Finney laments just as much as the loss of Pfizer’s charitable contributions. “Their staff, the Pfizer colleagues, committed thousands of volunteer hours on an annual basis,” he stated, “and now we’re going to lose these people and all of the time that they committed throughout our community.”

It’s a bit too early to tell how involved Google intends to be in Ann Arbor’s non-profit sector.

It’s a bit too early to tell how involved Google intends to be in Ann Arbor’s non-profit sector. Jenn Cornell, Google’s publicist, said in an e-mail that with the company relatively new to the city “a lot of work is being done to get the office started up, like hiring and training.” With that in mind, Cornell said Google is already partnered with Ann Arbor Summerfest as a “Media Support” sponsor for the festival.
She added that Ann Arbor Googlers have also created Google Cares, a volunteering and fundraising initiative whose goal each month is to select a non-profit organization to support with both volunteer work and “Donate-A-Dollar” campaigns. Cornell described Google Cares as an effort that “encourages volunteering and provides a forum for Googlers to organize volunteering activities.”

With these areas in mind, now it is up to citizens, experts, students and professionals to participate in ensuring the future success and stability of Washtenaw County’s economy. On one hand, this can be done by working to fill the void left behind by Pfizer with new businesses, whether they’re start-ups or established companies. At the same time, the city must make it a top priority to support and cultivate its new relationship with Google with the hopes that the company might consider bringing more of its operations to Ann Arbor. Both of these tasks are vital to the economic strength of the city, and both are very much the focus of area economic and political leaders, including Finney and his colleagues at Spark.

“With respect to Pfizer [leaving], and the three to five-year time frame for recovery, we think that things will start to happen,” Finney explained. “Some will happen this year, and we think they will all be knowledge-based job opportunities.” Finney stressed the importance of what he described as “repopulating” Pfizer’s facility once the company has completely left, although finding new companies for the 2-million-square-foot facility will be a lengthy process, mostly due to the high-tech, lab-based nature of the site.
With this in mind, Finney doubted whether another high-profile, Pfizer-sized business would come in and make use of the entire facility. “You’ll see that site repopulated with multiple users, and they may come from different industry sectors,” he explained. “It could be engineering firms, it could be other IT and software firms.” Still, Finney is confident in his city’s ability to attract businesses to fill that void. “We will slowly backfill so that we actually get to and go beyond what Pfizer represented to our community,” he said.

Ultimately, smaller businesses operating in Washtenaw County will go a long way toward diversifying the local economy, and filling the gap left behind by Pfizer.

Interestingly, if Finney and the city as a whole can successfully replace Pfizer’s facility not with another massive global corporation but rather with numerous different businesses from various industries, the end result will be a more stable and sustainable local economy — much more so than one that relied upon a large single entity like Pfizer for jobs and tax revenue.
This isn’t to say that the city would turn away future high-profile companies if they expressed interest in Washtenaw County, but by eliminating the dependence on a few major companies and instead diversifying with smaller businesses, the economy of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County will actually be better off.
It’s critical, Finney said, to “make sure that we’re going after and cultivating an entrepreneurial environment that creates 30, 40, 50, or 100 little start-ups on an annual basis because that’s going to provide the long-term sustainability and growth that we’re looking for.”

Ultimately, smaller businesses operating in Washtenaw County will go a long way toward filling the gap left behind by Pfizer, and diversifying the local economy. And it is this diversification that will maintain Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County’s status of one of the most prosperous regions in the nation.

He added, “In fact, I heard that only 1000 or so offers had actually been made, which is only 50 percent of the workforce.” Thus it appears the impact upon the workforce of Ann Arbor resulting from Pfizer’s untimely departure, though still significant, will likely be much less than first feared.

If Google finds Ann Arbor to be a good location for its purposes, it will be more likely to bring additional components of the company to the area.

Down the road about three miles from Pfizer’s state-of-the-art facility is the McKinley Town Centre building, home to Google’s new, colorful downtown office. Despite Google’s current staff numbering just over a hundred, the Mountain View, Ca. company plans to increase that total to around 1000 over the next three to five years. And, according to Finney, it is during this rapid growth period that Ann Arbor must strive to make a positive impression on Google executives and employees, to prove that the company’s decision to put roots down in Ann Arbor was, in fact, a smart one. Finney said that if Google finds Ann Arbor to be a good location for its purposes, it will be more likely to bring additional components of the company to the area. “We think this community will prove to be one where they [Google] perhaps could do some of their development work and other things here,” Finney said. If Google did bring parts of its IT or product management operations, in addition to its AdWords advertising offices already here, then it would go a long way towards filling the gap left by the loss of the Pfizer’s jobs.

(Note here: Given the nature of the company, most Google positions brought to Ann Arbor will be highly-skilled “brainpower-oriented” positions. And with an influx of these kinds of jobs, local economic experts hope this will reverse the trend of talented university graduates feeling the state to pursue jobs elsewhere. This might explain Governor Granholm’s presence at almost every important Google announcement leading up to the company’s arrival.)

Along with being the single largest private employer in Washtenaw County, Pfizer is also the county’s single largest taxpayer, and losing the company will likely take its toll on area tax revenues. The Michigan Daily reported in January that Pfizer paid the city around $13 million in taxes in 2006, which represented more than four percent of the city’s property tax revenues. Finney said he believes the loss of Pfizer’s tax dollars could affect public organizations and services. He said there will be “a clear impact” in local government-funded entities like public schools, local law enforcement and other city services.

The impact seen in the real estate market – a noticeable dip in property values midway through the year, followed by a steady increase – has much more to do with Pfizer’s departure than Google’s arrival.

In Google’s case, the amount of taxes it will have to pay to the city has yet to be seen. There have been no reports suggesting how much the company will have to pay, and there are no tax records filed on Google’s behalf available. The company reportedly received a 20-year tax credit worth $38 million, approved by the Michigan Economic Development Committee, upon agreeing to open an office in Ann Arbor. Economists familiar with Google’s tax credit say it will likely reduce the amount Google is required to pay annually, if they pay anything at all for the duration of the credit.

According to real estate agents Eric Pointer and Todd Waller, representing Real Estate One of Ann Arbor, the impact seen in the real estate market – a noticeable dip in property values midway through the year, followed by a steady increase – has much more to do with Pfizer’s departure than Google’s arrival. Interestingly enough, in the case of Pfizer leaving Ann Arbor, it has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise for area homebuyers and homesellers compared to markets elsewhere in the state. “Pfizer’s pullout simply accelerated the learning curve in our market,” Pointer and Waller said. What this means is that Pfizer leaving forced buyers and sellers to recognize that Ann Arbor housing prices appear to be heading toward, if they’re not already at, prices representative of the real estate market in 2001. It’s the stuff of Econ 101 classes: When demand falls (as it did in the aftermath of Pfizer’s departure), so does price.

“When you look at the housing crisis and the decline in southeast Michigan versus the decline just in Washtenaw County,” Waller explained, “Pfizer pulling out, and the sheer number of units that they had in this county, dropped the prices. And it forced homebuyers and homesellers to look around and say, ‘Oh, that’s how we sell a house.’” Pfizer leaving forced homeowners to drop their buying and selling prices to a certain amount, as dictated by the local real estate market, where the need to buy and sell real estate (the former representing supply; the latter, demand) meet, and, essentially, where houses begin selling again.

In the case of Google, Pointer and Waller both believe that the company’s arrival won’t have any negative effect on the local housing market. It is also very unlikely that Google’s arrival will impact the cost of living for nearby students as they will not be renting or purchasing the same types of homes and properties that Google employees will be purchasing. Ultimately, the housing market will likely continue its upward trend, with the entrance of Googlers into the market increasing the market’s current success.