The_Admiral

Well, I googled it, of course, he's a host on Fox Sports 1. GOD DAMN IT. Does anyone actually sit down and watch Fox Sports 1 in earnest, or does it only exist for people to get Mad Online about? That is its only relevance. It's self-parody at this point! So apparently he went on TV and just said "uhhh, I love boobs" and even that was enough to make everyone angry. Get rid of this stupid channel, no one needs it, it provides no service, it's only noise. The Jemele Hill story was bad enough without this guy. Go back to being the racing channel and put postseason baseball on channels that matter. F-ck Fox Sports 1 I hate it. 

I have no idea who Clay Travis is. Is he a country singer?

why, exactly

Who cares about McMahon Stadium? The CFL isn't worth building a billion-dollar stadium.

Thing of it is, the Saddledome probably does need to be replaced in the next six years. I guess one of the downsides of an idiosyncratic, non-cookie-cutter indoor facility like the Saddledome is that it can't really do much in a world where everything is designed for cookie-cutter indoor facilities. I read that the acoustics for concerts suck when they can actually book concerts because the setups are too sophisticated now and need a support system in the ceiling that a dome in the style of a saddle cannot have. Also, the seating bowls are all wonky and don't seem to be optimal for hockey. I wouldn't say the situation is as dire as it was in Quebec City, where the Colisee had no air conditioning and was falling apart from being old and jury-rigged three times too many, but it's probably a building that's facing down obsolescence sooner than it should be.

That being said, the Flames should pay for it. It's their tenants, their concerts, their profit. They've never negotiated in good faith on this. The idea of a giant building that pivoted between hockey and stupid Canadian football was even more doomed than an arena with a concave roof. Like the failed Charaiders stadium, it was to be built on a toxic waste dump. It was a stupid demand and they should have come forth with something reasonable and offered to pay for most of it, if not all of it.

So yeah, pulling for Calgary and Flames fans here, but screw these oil barons who own the team and their dumbass posturing. "We'll run the team as long as we can." I guess it's a good thing they're a pretty high-revenue team, then. Should be able to run an NHL team in a major Canadian city for a pretty long time!

So what this is is this was the mayor who pretty much told Bettman to stick it and now Bettman and the Flames are trying to get him voted out of office. Say the right things when electioneering!

I'm really depressed about Irma and life and everything but for some reason that tiny bit of satire brings so much joy to me. It is perfect. There are like 5,000 Extremely Sports-Online people in the world that joke is for and for those people it is perfect.

The NHL declares itself a Woke Ally while still continuing to be a confederation of mostly heartless and terrible businessmen. Hockey is for everyone regardless of socioeconomic status! Are you gonna kick a few bucks to disadvantaged communities who can't afford the ever-escalating, absurdly escalating costs of playing hockey, to say absolutely nothing of the costs of attending professional games? No, I'll just say I will and then never do anything for twenty years.

Every time I see this empty crap, I flash back to my sophomore year of high school when my comm arts teacher was this insane disciple of Franklin-Covey corporate self-help books and made us all write mission statements about being proactive and using synergy, yeah, exactly like the boardroom scene in the Poochie episode, yes. And everyone knows they have to go through the motions and everyone knows no one means any of it, it's all just so desultory. Who is impressed by this? Nothing will change. None of this develops character or life skills, it's just a game that's fun to play. 

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1 hour ago, Sodboy13 said:

A guy who made his living punching other players is the new head of Player Safety.

I was hoping you meant Georges Laraque because he turned out to be kind of a hippie in retirement but no it's just Parros. At least it isn't John Scott, because I would get whiplash watching him go from Actually Good to Actually Bad on a daily basis.

In fairness to the Jets and their 15,000, I'm sure their gates are better in Winnipeg than they were in Atlanta (and higher in the pack than Winnipeg 1.0 ever was). And venue sizes are decreasing across all three sports facility formats. It's possible that arenas and stadiums did get too big for a while there -- glaring directly at the Palace of Auburn Hills and its twin brother in Ottawa -- and needed to cut back. It still feels like a moral defeat to see NHL teams reducing inventory, because like you said, hockey is a live-and-in-person spectacle above all, and you would still like to think Detroit could bring in 20,000 a night.

15 hours ago, Ark said:

A hockey jersey doesn't have to have a traditional waist stripe to be great

 

The ultimate example of this is the set the Flyers had for 20 years:

Agreed, but it's worth nothing that that sweater had a hem stripe, just not a patterned one, and the hems were straight. We're not talking about a sweater on a template that was originally designed to be worn tucked in before everyone realized that looked really stupid.

Yeah, I meant relative to other teams in their respective leagues. I am not a complete idiot.

2 hours ago, Gothamite said:

How much of that is influenced in part by the fact they play an outsized number of games against the Yankees and Red Sox, though?

Probably less than it seems given how many other teams they have to play and the likelihood that a lot of people are paying for the out-of-market package and watching those teams on YES and NESN all year instead of Rays games. I mean, Yanks/Sawx games not taken national add up to, what, 34 games out of 150ish local telecasts?

25 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

Funny that in Phoenix the baseball stadium is centrally located and the hockey arena isn't and it's the opposite for Tampa and the stronger support in both cases goes to the team that is easier to get to. To me the problem and solution in both cases is pretty obvious and simple.

But the Rays do get good TV ratings, while the Coyotes flirt with losing to infomercials.

On 8/29/2017 at 7:35 AM, Lights Out said:

I was also surprised at how much this proposed logo foreshadowed their 2000-2013 look almost a decade earlier:

 

This is fantastic! Use it now! Who else is using vertical type like that? No one I can think of.

EDIT: no, turn the ball/sun's rays to an orange/yellow gradient; why would sunlight be grey??

I'm glad San Diego is thriving as an AHL market because it doesn't seem like Stockton and Bakersfield are, and we know San Jose2 isn't. The AHL compromised a lot of competitive integrity to make this California deal work, the least they can get out of it is a major-league city not pissing all over itself.

51 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

 

And once upon a time those Penguins needed a couple generations to build their fanbase into what it is today. Penguins fans have only existed since 1967 (or 2005 depending on what month of the year you ask me) and it wasn't always a pillar of strength nor did it happen overnight. What did a 35 year old Penguins fan with a season ticket used to be? He/she used to be a kid who got hooked on the team in 91. This is what I'm saying.

I mean, in a sense you're right, but I've dug my heels in too deep on this argument and I don't really see a viable exit plan for myself here, so I probably kinda have to see this through to the bitter end where I get mod-edited for calling everyone retarded and gay or something.

I would say that these more precarious markets also have to deal with new generations of fans feeling less and less bound to local teams. I'm even seeing it around Chicago where there are more and more kids running around in Rodgers, Brady, Manning, or otherwise Not Bears jerseys. Same with the NBA field and the Bulls, which, as a child of the dynasty, is still unthinkable. I think baseball and hockey are a little more inoculated against that sort of globalization for various reasons, but who's to say the inevitable fall of the RSN model doesn't let all hell break loose in terms of fan allegiances? What if everyone everywhere starts picking teams a la carte and they don't even care about season tickets? I don't know, I don't even remember what point I was initially making, I don't even want the Rays to move, lay off.

55 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

Their issues are bigger and more complicated. It doesn't mean it's not true, though, because the entirety of the professional sports model depends on child fans growing up to become adult ticket buyers. That's how it works.

Right, but what about when the formula requires the children of transplanted Pittsburghers and Western New Yorkers to break with who their families like? Those stains don't wash out easy. Raleigh should be crawling with the children of Penguins fans who grew up to be Hurricanes fans. They seem to have grown up to be more Penguins fans. (Which is fine by me because the Penguins are cool.)

10 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

Why would you say it's too much in "that corner of America"?

I've never been keen on supersaturating the American Southwest for the frozen-pond game, this is not a revelation to anyone who's read this board

25 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

The big issues would be that the Ducks likely consider San Diego part of their extended market, hence they put the AHL Gulls in San Diego. Not sure if they have any exclusivity to that effect but they may object.

I don't think they could stop it any more than they could stop Las Vegas (which, come to think of it, L.A./San Diego/Anaheim/Las Vegas is REALLY too much hockey for that corner of America. That's four teams where I'd have one).

Also, AHL over NHL helps because NHL price points are ridiculously high in most cities.

That's too much NHL for Southern California. It would be a second Anaheim and the first one isn't setting the world on fire business-wise.

2 hours ago, mr.negative15 said:

Not MLB but, I've been hearing this about the Argos for years and years and a new stadium hasn't helped them.

Obviously different sport, different city, heck, different country. 

I'm just skeptical about that argument.  

You can't have a Canadian league without Toronto. Probably for the best to have a smaller stadium, though.

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

I also don't understand why "people who were kids when the team first started are now adult fans with money" is verboten round these parts as if it's been debunked.

Devils fans have been pushing this for years and I still don't think their season ticket base is where you would expect it to be. 

I don't believe on giving up on Tampa for baseball because the TV ratings are still pretty good, certainly not commensurate with the awful attendance. Besides, there's nowhere else to go. I hope they have the money to build a new outdoor park.

35 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

I have to side with @raysox that the first true generation of Rays fans is in the age range of 30-35.  I for one am 32, and was 13 when the Rays began play.  Been a fan ever since the beginning, but when the core group of Rays fans is in their early thirties, theyre just beginning families which will continue to grow.

Hear this as an excuse for giving taxpayer bailouts to NHL teams

35 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

The Lightning are 5 years older than the Rays and are just now beginning to hit their strides.

There it is

The entire city is flat and covered in pavement; I can't imagine anywhere fared well.

Don't drain the wetlands, maaaaaaaaaaaan.