FiddySicks

Yup, that's exactly what I was referencing. Obviously it's more than just a dollar figure, but that's pretty much the basis of his issues with ESPN to begin with. 

Point is, if Simmons has the scratch to land Rusillo, it would stand to reason he has the money to properly fund everyone else's relatively reasonable requests. 

I found Rusillo joining The Ringer to be pretty surprising, but not really surprising at the same time. He's been doing work for them for awhile now, so it's no surprise that he would want to make a transition like that at some point. But the whole crux of his argument against ESPN, and the reason he's been kind of on again/off again with them over the past few years is money. I'm sure there's more to it in that guys complicated, malcontent brain, but money is definitely #1. Him joining The Ringer full time and leaving ESPN has to be about money (And with his new Manhattan Beach home he goes on about ad nauseam, he probably needs it). If that's the case, than what's been Simmons' holdup on actually paying his already established people their fair share? They obviously have the cash flow to pay a guy who's in as high demand as Rusillo. Stands to reason that they would have the cash to pay everyone else. 

Rusillo is a really strange one for me. He's probably my favorite personality in sports, and there's absolutely no podcast I look forward to more than his. He's fantastic at what he does and has an insight that almost nobody has, and he can articulate things to his listeners better than anyone out there. That's a HUGE get for Simmons and The Ringer. That being said, he comes across as such a miserable, smug douche (His "You know, no big deal" line he puts out whenever he drops any name with even the tiniest bit of clout is absolutely cringe inducing). He's probably the last dude in sports media I'd ever want to "have a beer" with. With that being said, though? I still love the guy's work. 

In other words, he's PERFECT for The Ringer. 

2 hours ago, Still MIGHTY said:

Alex Meruelo's purchase of the majority stake in the Arizona Coyotes is official. First Latino NHL owner, his parents were Cuban immigrants.

 

Meruelo owns a construction and real estate firm as well as five LA radio stations, one LA TV station, prepackaged sushi company Fuji Food, the Grand Sierra in Reno and the SLS (soon to be Sahara) in Las Vegas. He has a $7-million+ home in Key West, a nearly $11-million penthouse in New York City and also bought an island off of Spain. And then of course all the other things documented in this thread of his failed Hawks bid, the lawsuit with the SLS casino.

 

Welcome to the OITGDNHL family, I guess.

I'm pretty sure I know this person. I worked for GSR right after their holdings acquired it from Hilton and did work for them until some time around 2012. 

Bury the Coyotes under the bowling alley in Reno. 

They're going to delay this as long as possible and when we do eventually get some grand unveiling, it's all going to be complete and total GARBAGE. 

23 hours ago, LMU said:

The adherence to the code of conduct was added to the registration process due to a continued increase in dupe accounts made because of forgotten passwords despite a rule against it and a whole thread dedicated to it. There was an option to require active accounts to agree to the code of conduct which was activated to prevent cases of board violations due to ignorance.

19 hours ago, the admiral said:

More and more I think they're just going to build a new 40,000-seat park in the existing parking lot and that'll be that.

As cool as a stadium in downtown Long Beach would be, I have to agree. It just makes too much sense considering how much space they have around there for parking. I'd have to imagine the total cost of building in the parking lot of Angels Stadium vs downtown Long Beach would be a LOT less considering the infrastructure is already there. 

Ebersol paying for those, too? 

On 7/6/2019 at 3:06 AM, Quillz said:

Tokyo

Paris, duh. 

Good to see the River Cats hold a spot on that list. Their RC primary cap logo is trash, but the bridge gear is stupid popular. 

14 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Right in your colon... or maybe even an intestine - whichever is the lower one. Maybe if we have a dr in the forum, he/she can advise. I’m not saying 100% to eliminate the brand, but it should be an option, and it shouldn’t be considered too sacred to retire it. 

This is how we're going to end up with the Portland Rosebuds and it'll be all your fault. 

11 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

So shove this "bad take" up your ass - there's no reason to be obligated to hold on to a team name when it doesn't make sense.

I agree with this wholeheartedly! 

Problem is, ditching a brand as valuable as the A's brand (Which has survived several cities already) is, very much so, a bad take. No matter where you wanna put it. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Man, I've seen some BAD takes on here over the years, but the "They should ditch the A's moniker if they move" take is probably the worst one yet. 

I mean, that's an impressively bad idea. 

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

So what are the odds that Oakland gets their stadium finalized?

There are probably better odds that I’m playing center field for the A’s next season. 

3 minutes ago, kimball said:

 

Why not California Angels and California Athletics? Who says both can't represent the state? I mean, we have the New York Mets/Yankees and Chicago Cubs/White Sox right now? Why not a state identifier? 

 

Just a thought.

That's an interesting idea. I personally don't like that as much, because I think there is a certain dichotomy between Northern and Southern California that should be represented and celebrated. It's a bit different from the New York and Chicago teams because the both represent the same market.

9 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Only in the last few years. FIFA didn't even make the water breaks mandatory until Brazil 2014. That's partly why San Antonio FC plays most of it's home matches after 7 PM in summer. The humidity adds to the heat threat. 

Republic does the same thing. We start early/late season matches at 7, and in the middle of the season our matches start at 8. Never seen the water breaks, though. I certainly get it in places like Phoenix and San Antonio, though!

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

AFCON Players Union says they need 4 water breaks during games

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48716285

African Cup of Nations is apparently forecasting temperatures of 104 F during the tournament, which is being played in Egypt. I know moving it helped the European clubs, but unless the tournament is held in the south, they need to keep this in January. Clubs may lose great players for a month but I'd rather not lose a player permanently due to heat stroke. 

I just recently found out that Phoenix Rising of the USL has mandatory "Water and Safety" breaks during matches. Is this a relatively common thing around soccer in areas where it's unusually warm?

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 11:45 AM, pmoehrin said:

They had it right with California Angels. It perfectly reflected their identity as a suburban team trying to attract LA sports fans who don't live in LA. Every name change since has been a downgrade from the one preceding it.

I've been torn to shreds here for suggesting this (It was a long time ago, though), but I've always thought the California AL teams should be as follows:

Southern California Angels

Northern California Athletics

You somewhat solve several problems by going this route.

The only way I'm cool with this is if they're the Tampa bay Rays for half of the season, and the Montreal Expos for the other half. They have to switch leagues after the All Star break, too. 

Ok these are awesome. The “foil” bill and the text below the main script are a nice touch  

I've been to two Arena Football games in my life. The first one was a San Jose SaberCats game somewhat in the league's "heyday" in 2007 when they were one of the most successful teams around. Even then, the whole thing felt like a glorified sideshow and the actual football was mediocre at very best. The second game was a post suspension Arizona Rattlers game around 2013 or 2014 and there were maybe fifty people there. The actual football made the first game I went to look like Super Bowl XXXII. 

Almost all of these are great. That Fresno look is probably my favorite, but that Hillsboro hat is probably going to be a purchase for me. That’s a great design. 

This is the best the RiverCats have ever looked, and it was worn for just about every significant moment in their history. Just go back to this and call it a day.

Good God. What a mess. 

I do like, and already own, that new road cap, though. The bridge pullover is fine as well I guess. They can ditch the rest, though. 

1 hour ago, LMU said:

I’m sure Oakland would be thrown in. Fitting that they have the white elephant origin of their mascot.

This was my first thought. It's not really because the A's aren't a viable organization, either. It's mainly because they've been led by terrible owners since the early to mid 1990s. For all of the talk about their media market issues, it's pretty much their own fault they're in that quandary in the first place. At this point, I'd say they would be a good fit for an area like Portland, but not with the current dopes they have in ownership. That in itself would set them up for failure no matter where they were. 

YES. That was it. I totally forgot about that saga. How close was to actually happening? It felt like it had some real potential at the time, but seemed pretty unthinkable. The Expos at least made some sense, but the Twins? How did they get wrapped up in that whole mess?