1 hour ago, Gobbi said:

Weird stuff. If you look up "MLB Crossover" on Fanatics you can see the other jerseys availalbe... and some Phillies/Eagles mashup hats.

I could see a Philadelphia fan wanting the hat. I could dig that. But why would anyone want these jerseys?

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Hurricanes fans on reddit seem pretty supportive of the move, which is a bit of a poison pill, because supporting Genius Owner Tom Dundon on this also requires one to lean very hard on "well come on what are they supposed to do when only 2,000 people are listening." 

 

Incidentally, if their radio numbers are that bad, how bad is the TV side? The Canes and Perds are able to hide their television ratings because of some quirk in how Fox Sports South is distributed, but I maintain that if they had numbers to brag about, they'd find a way to tell us.

You inspired me to go over and look.

What a delusional group.

Hurricanes fired radio play-by-play guy, Chuck Kaiton, today. Kaiton had been with the franchise for 39 years going back to Hartford. Carolina will join Dallas and Buffalo as the only NHL teams to simulcast their TV broadcasts on the radio.

The real relevant information from the News & Observer article:

Quote

Kaiton’s agent submitted a counterproposal to the Hurricanes after Kaiton’s contract expired on June 30, but the team stood firm on its final offer to the broadcaster, which included a dramatic pay cut as the Hurricanes and new owner Tom Dundon attempt to reckon with their money-losing radio broadcast while giving Kaiton the opportunity to recoup some of the losses by selling sponsorships, which is the kind of arrangement more typical on the minor-league level.

---

 The expiration of his contract combined with the change in ownership from Peter Karmanos to Dundon brought a re-examination of the economics of the team’s radio deal. The team pays WCMC-99.9 FM to carry the broadcast, incurring six-figure losses while apparently drawing fewer than 2,000 listeners per game. Kaiton’s salary was a big part of that expense.

 

“Radio is not a prudent financial decision,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said earlier this summer. “It’s important, I think, to have it for the people that still want to listen to it, but it’s something from a business standpoint that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

FULL ARTICLE

Hurricanes fired radio play-by-play guy, Chuck Kaiton, today. Kaiton had been with the franchise for 39 years going back to Hartford. Carolina will join Dallas and Buffalo as the only NHL teams to simulcast their TV broadcasts on the radio.

The real relevant information from the News & Observer article:

Quote

Kaiton’s agent submitted a counterproposal to the Hurricanes after Kaiton’s contract expired on June 30, but the team stood firm on its final offer to the broadcaster, which included a dramatic pay cut as the Hurricanes and new owner Tom Dundon attempt to reckon with their money-losing radio broadcast while giving Kaiton the opportunity to recoup some of the losses by selling sponsorships, which is the kind of arrangement more typical on the minor-league level.

---

 The expiration of his contract combined with the change in ownership from Peter Karmanos to Dundon brought a re-examination of the economics of the team’s radio deal. The team pays WCMC-99.9 FM to carry the broadcast, incurring six-figure losses while apparently drawing fewer than 2,000 listeners per game. Kaiton’s salary was a big part of that expense.

 

“Radio is not a prudent financial decision,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said earlier this summer. “It’s important, I think, to have it for the people that still want to listen to it, but it’s something from a business standpoint that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

FULL ARTICLE

(Also posting in Sports Media thread)

Yeah, his info blurb on the NHL's press release was laughable.

Somehow, they failed to include his biggest legacy of three (could well run into four) separate lockouts, including the cancellation of a full season. But hey! He moved the Jets from Winnipeg! to Phoenix Glendale Arizona! where they've failed thrived! and begrudgingly graciously gave Winnipeg another Jets!

20 hours ago, the admiral said:

OITGDNHL or 4chan: Mike Hoffman's girlfriend trolled Erik Karlsson's wife on the internet about her dead baby. Hoooooooooly crap this is just toys-in-the-attic crazy. Why? Why?

Absolutely disgusting and bonkers. Like what in the hell.

And after Hoffman said they were "150 percent" not involved, a bunch of current/former Sens wives/girlfriends vouched for how nuts this girl is.

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

Also, as long as we're wildly off topic, Rachel Maddow is the highest rated cable news show. Crazy, right?

What? Really?

Are people just tuning in every night waiting to finally see those tax returns?

On 4/19/2018 at 12:46 PM, the admiral said:

Let's play some Jellybean Jar here. Can you guess the word count on the article with this war crime of a headline?

 

The Wizards Of Aughts: The Post-Millennium Washington Wizards And The Bloggers Who Immortalized Them

Oh my  ing God, why???

Both the length of the story and the headline,  ing what???

For tomorrow's NHL trade deadline, ESPN will simulcast TSN's TradeCentre on ESPN 2 (2-4 p.m. EST, deadline at 3 p.m. EST) and WatchESPN/ESPN 3. (8 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST).

Frankly, I'm absolutely shocked by this.

ESPN doesn't have any NHL game rights (there is a roundabout connection with MLBAM and the NHL and WatchESPN/ESPN 3.) NBCSN, who actually does have the rights, doesn't do any trade deadline coverage. NHL Network simulcasts Sportsnet's Canadian coverage (they previously did it with TSN's coverage when TSN had the Canadian national NHL rights).

It's quite the interesting move, but I'm not mad about it.

"We won an Internet fan vote"

This team has five Stanley Cups.

10 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Also, nice to see Fox putting those Disney bucks to immediate use.

Fox doesn't quite have those Disneybucks quite yet. Merger of that size will take a bit of time to sort out. That's still Murdollars.

---

LAFC, MLS' newest franchise, has signed it's local TV contract with... YouTube.

An interesting move, especially because, honestly, I'll probably watch more LAFC games this way than if they were picked up on some local channel. I'm on my computer so much as it is for work and whatever that as soon as I get a notification, I'll open up a tab and watch some soccer.

Disney’s purchase today of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets include the purchase of the Fox Sports regional networks (which also includes YES, I believe).

So for those serviced by a FSN get ready for ESPN West, ESPN Arizona, ESPN North, ESPN Southwest, etc.

This also means, for those markets, that the NHL will be on an ESPN property for the first time since 2004.

11 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

 

Carolina to Carolina and Expansion in Seattle. Gary's got Karmanos' back for eternity, even if he sells, and he's going to sucker Chris Hansen and whoever else out of $600 million.

Gary's already fought hand over fist for Glendale. Is he really going to do that too for Karmanos and Raleigh? While still having Glendale in the wings? And who knows however long Florida can hold out? Eventually, one of these things will just cease to exist.

And you know they could extort Quebec for $800 million and they'd still pay it.

Jesus...

Carolina to Seattle, and Expansion to Quebec? Right? That's what we're going to do here?

I figured it was that Philly was on SNF last week. Don't they try to avoid back-to-back?

Penguins vs Flyers in a Pennsylvania football stadium....

We did this literally LAST SEASON. Don't even bother making new jerseys. 

19 hours ago, the admiral said:

Today's top story: women in sports tricked into DMing nudes to what was very obviously just three kids stacked on top of each other under a trenchcoat

I'm usually more up on my sports medias than anybody should be.... but...

...huh?

EDIT: Are you talking about this Ryan/Becca Shultz married man/teenage girl baseball blogger thing?

You take the strangest angles on things.

I delete at least half of the Ringer podcasts that come into my feed without even a listen or a read through the description. There's also a bunch I'll listen to the start of, but delete part way through. Others I'll read the description, fast forward to what I'm interested in (although, Simmons' podcast is horrible in listing it's timecodes. Always way off.) I listen to a fair amount, but I delete a lot.

Their problem, to me, is that they're so far into their own bubble at this point. Like, if you weren't listening to any of these from the start, I can completely see why someone wouldn't give *any* of it the time of day. It's a lot of inside jokes and inside threads and the only reason to know half the people on these podcasts is that they spun out from the rest of the Ringer. 

29 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

Did the show ever actually air?

Yes. They did their first episode. Over the weekend, they had recorded interviews with Dan Patrick for this week's second show and their podcast, Pardon My Take.

20 minutes ago, CS85 said:

ESPN cancelled their Barstool show.

 

Really? You didn't think you could "distance" your efforts fron Barstool by hiring Barstool's biggest faces and calling it Barstool Van Talk?

Color me shocked.

Didn't they try sensors or chips in the pucks, but couldn't create a puck strong enough that it wouldn't split in half every time it was shot/hit something?

1 hour ago, wildwing64 said:

La Flammes de Québec when? 

5 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Today in Guys, Bill Foley May Have Some Problems, we examine his vision for what will allegedly be tonight's pregame ceremony. Also, there's a Knights blog that earnestly and frequently refers to Foley as "The Creator," so maybe this guy's found his audience.