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Category: meta sports (Page 3 of 5)

Sports link-mania dump (Vote Sounders)

March 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

1. While I defended the Seattle Republic, I’m going to vote Seattle Sounders tomorrow and through the rest of the week. And, so should you.

2. Watching Cork City tie with Derry City over the next few days. The game was played last Friday, but is still available for streaming over at RTE.

3. Might watch the Charleston Cup over at USL Live, but I was really hoping to download it and watch it on the ol’Ipod. But, seems like they made some security enhancements this year, so downloading seems to be out.

4. Just realized last night that I am the Beckham effect. Kartik at the US Soccer Show went on a very good rant at the end of the podcast about the impact of Beckham: soccer commercials during the NCAAs and MLS having higher ratings than the EPL in the United States.

I’m probably in the demographic that MLS wants to see. I played soccer in high school, but slowly stopped following soccer at the same time the MLS was building. I watched World Cup games, but only out of patriotism. Only after Beckham signed (ten years later) did my interest get stoked again. Also, having a DVR and Ipod helped.

Listen to Kartik’s show here.

#4 sonics brain dump

March 17, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Key Arena is owned by the City of Seattle. Qwest Field and Safeco are both owned (to some degree or another) by the people of Washington State through Public Facility Districts.

So, all three major sports venues in Washington (not including obvious college venues) are publicy owned, one more directly.;

Not really any facts here to back this up, but I think this makes the situation with Key more volatile. I’m all for more democracy, but that Key Arena is directly managed by elected officials, rather than a board appointed by elected officials, makes it more likely that folks will have problems with the arena’s management.

More of a public issue, if you know what I mean.

#3 sonics brain dump

March 14, 2008 / / 0 Comments

$75 million is a lot less than $300 million, which was how much Clay Bennett wanted for the Renton arena. But, how much is it compared to the stadiums and public financed sports venues the legislature helped finance last year?
Can’t you see the beauty in that?

Last year’s session saw the financing of a horse venue in Lewis County and a new hockey arena in Kent and a community theater down in Longview. I couldn’t find hard numbers for all three projects, but the financing for the hockey arena comes to $30 million public dollars.

$30 million for a minor league hockey arena and no $75 million for Key?

5 thoughts on the last “great” Husky team in the Seattle Times this week

January 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Have a good week Dawg fans. Do yourself a favor and read the Times’ series cover to cover and think hard.

1. We already new that Stevens and Pharms were this side of evil and that Neuheisel was a snake. But, now we have the details and we know about the King County prosecutors office was helping out.

1a. I’m probably not the first person to draw an analogy between the current discussion on the stadium and this series, but before I actually hear or read it: the foundations of Husky football are shaky in more ways than one.

2. What’s it worth to have a good team if you lose your soul in the process?

3. How hard is it going to be to fire Ty Willingham now? Former mayors offering up $100,000 for his head now seem pretty childish compared to what was going on before Ty showed up. Yes, the team should win, but in a post Don James world, we shouldn’t have to accept rape, robbery and multiple hit and runs to get to the Rose Bowl.

4. Wasn’t ALL Rick’s fault. Lambright was the one that recruited Stevens. But, then again, who knows how he would have handled Stevens, given the chance. Neuheisel was certainly lax.

5. And, I’m thinking — Good God — that maybe some things are worth it if college football has gotten to the point that we have to accept stuff like this to get that far. Neuheisel is back in the conference, so we will have to compete with his lowest common denominator.

5 reasons why My Football Club will work and My Soccer Club won’t

January 7, 2008 / / 0 Comments

1. Big reason: My Football Club didn’t ask for money up front.

I was tempted to join MFC when they were asking for folks to say that at some point they’d pay $70 to be a part of the project. I eventually didn’t, but I might eventually.

I don’t think I’ll ever pay the $50 MSC is asking, especially since they’re asking for it up front, even before there is enough people to say they would join.

By not asking for money up front, but rather a show of support and an indication that you would eventually pay to join, MFC was creating a sense of urgency as we saw the number of members move upwards each week and created a sense that they weren’t just out trying to steal your money.

2. MFC was a fan thing, not just a soccer/football thing. The folks behind MFC wanted to change sports ownership, it just so happened that the country they lived in (as most of the world) was a soccer/football country.

If this experiment happened in the United States first, I could see them doing it with an independent baseball team (United League, Golden League) before a soccer team. I’m a big soccer fan, but I also live in a baseball country.

The folks behind MSC seem to have taken the idea too literally.

3. There is already a tradition of fan-owned teams in the UK.

MFC was revolutionary not because fans would own a team, but because the fans would be connected through the web in order to manage the team. Fan owned teams are a not uncommon, if not popular, model in Europe and especially in England.

Starting a fan owned soccer team would be a big deal in America and especially if it were a web-based effort. The fans of the California Victory tried to save their team by following a similar path as many other fan-owned teams in England, but they failed.

Jumping to a MFC effort in England was probably a much smaller jump than trying to make the entire leap in America.

4. General trust issues based on behavior

In addition to asking for the money up front, the behavior of the folks behind MSC has been shady. Example here.

I heard Trevor Hayward, one of the guys behind MSC, interviewed on MLS Talk a few months back, and I got the impression that Trevor didn’t know what he was talking about.

5. General trust issues based on background

Will Brooks may not be famous, but he is a known quantity in football/soccer circles in England. A former journalist, he knew the lay of the land, and people knew him.

Who the hell are the guys behind MSC?

But, don’t worry. If MSC isn’t going to work out, there will eventually be other web based sporting team projects out there. I’m probably never going to join MFC, but the idea is too good to die.

Command and Control sports entertainment

December 22, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Another reason why the NBA sucks, but not the reason you were thinking:

Last week, a fan was moved to a new seat and issued a written warning for heckling Head Coach Isiah Thomas; the card read “You are being issued a warning that the comments, gestures and/or behaviors that you have directed at players, coaches, game officials and/or other spectators constitute excessive verbal abuse.” On Monday, a fan had a “Fire Isiah sign” confiscated, pursuant to a policy that prohibits signs that block the views of other patrons.

…

But at some point won’t teams figure out this is not worth it? In exchange for removing one sign that probably was not blocking anyone’s view (see above), the team gets more bad publicity and it sent the fans into the streets, literally: A “Fire Isiah” rally was held on the 7th Avenue side of the Garden today, complete with an 8-foot-tall pink slip. Maybe the Knicks are so desensitized to bad publicity at this point that it does not matter.

Not a sport likely to embrace “hey let’s let the fans fire the manager every four years” model.

Last minute thoughts about Hornets game (its a rivalry now)

November 23, 2007 / / 0 Comments

1. Happy Hornets Day:

2. This woman, come on:

Shante Hastings, president of the University of Delaware Alumni Association, asked The News Journal for a written list of questions before commenting.

In an e-mailed reply, Hastings, a 2000 graduate who lives in Millsboro, said she is “really not sure” why it has taken so long for a UD-DSU football game to take place. However, she said, she doesn’t believe race was a factor.

“It seems to be unfounded considering that UD and DSU play each other in other varsity sports,” Hastings said.

The two schools did not compete against each other until 1991.

The only time I’ve ever experienced someone who wanted questions before hand (in my time as a reporter) was when they thought they might be quoted out of context, or they thought they’d say something stupid. I’ve only ever offered something like that when I thought that was the only way to get the interview, or I was trying to be nice.

3. Last thought. UD has never had to play DSU before, they’ve always gotten out of it. That itself is understood.

If they had played Delaware State before, it would have been in a rivalry game. They don’t play in the same leagues, so any game they would have played would have been of the Apple Cup, Big Game variety.

But, without a historic rivalry game, the Blue Hens never had a rival. After today, that won’t be true. Win or lose today, the Hornets will be the Blue Hens rivals. Hornet fans and alumni will openly root against the Blue Hens.

The demands for a rematch won’t be hollow, the Hornets will know what its like to play on the same field as the Blue Hens. The only difference winning makes now is whether the Hens will want the rematch.

For years, the Hens could consider themselves the only game in town. Blue Hens Country will share space with the Hornets for now on.

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