Digby
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Everything posted by Digby
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Uh, has anyone been aware that Sports Illustrated (or whomever owns that brand these days) is planning to get into the hotel/resort business? https://siresorts.com/#locations
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Ah yes, I keep forgetting about the new, terrible structure of the World Cup we'll have in 2026. Seems like there's barely a point to a group stage if it's just three teams.
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Foxboro has a commuter rail stop on stadium property just for the big special events — Patriots games, Beyoncé concerts, etc. (The Revs could benefit the most from it but don’t draw enough people to make it worth running, lol.) So that’ll certainly run for any WC26 games. It’s painfully slow, the trains are limited, and one of Gillette’s few advantages is having a nice tailgate, but there ya go. A nice thing is that this stop has access in both directions so they run trains from both Boston and Providence. Philadephia and Atlanta at least have their own subway stops, which is nice for them.
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Seattle's kind of far out, but in tandem with Vancouver it makes for a nice "pod" (to the extent that's possible here) which I think FIFA likes to minimize travel strain. Denver didn't have that, especially without a Vegas or Phoenix bid which would have (relatively) eased the isolation, so that was probably points off. I guess an ideal distribution in the Northeast would be Baltimore/DC, New York and Boston... but, Boston and Philly are both more touristy and affluent markets than Baltimore is (plus Gillette will be almost a brand-new stadium by 2026). It's a real shame the DC market itself has two giant stadiums in a race to see which one decays to dust first.
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Soccer's already only behind the NFL and NBA (and probably CFB) in American television viewership... if you're looking at Liga MX and the English Premier League, not MLS.
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The attempt at "reframing" the entire rebrand around the throwback instead of the core three rebrand jerseys is just... so laughably obvious that I feel sorry for the marketing department.
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Beyond Bobby K being an old-school soccer guy who always gets these (remember not only did Old Foxboro host in 1994, but New Foxboro had Copa American Centenario too), it's a good basecamp area with the new Revs facility being right behind the stadium, you could probably build a 2nd facility on the Patriots fields, and Harvard's complex is always a basecamp for international teams touring the US as well. So lots of options. That plus with the renovations, it'll be a new-ish stadium again in 2026 (with natural grass again!). Unfortunately all of these things are also why the Revs won't ever have a proper MLS stadium for themselves.
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I think you're about right for the prices and that's if you're the winner of some 1-in-10 lottery first, and only for the upper-deck seats. As a not-Patriots fan I haven't even been in the Gillette upper deck (or seen it open) since the 2002 MLS Cup final. Not sure if it's worth it or if I can handle it without getting a nosebleed.
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What are the odds of a normal, unconnected person being able to even buy a ticket to any of these games? Gotta be close to zero, right?
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My feeling on the Pistons is that they are always obligated to have some crappy secondary logo that they don't need and isn't popular, but they try anyway. Whether it's the ball horse or the DP monogram or, now, the 313 thing. They can cycle through them all but the Pistons' primary logo is always going to be the only one that actually matters.
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Apparently the MLS deal is actually a separate, MLS-only app within Apple TV. So you won't need an Apple subscription to watch the games but you will need to subscribe to, yes, another different thing.
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Wouldn't be surprised if Steffen and Horvath are on new teams, at least on loan, this fall. I think Turner has an outside shot at getting regular minutes at Arsenal, considering how badly Aaron Ramsdale has caught the yips since 2022 began.
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I was surprised that the NHL/ESPN+ deal still had local blackouts, but -- I guess they needed to work around the local deals already in place (MLS apparently made all the teams ensure that their local deals would expire this season), and I'd also imagine few, if any, MLS team owners have stakes in their local RSN the way NHL and MLB teams do, so there's less shortsighted protectionism of that particular revenue stream.
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The MLS plus Apple TV deal is happening. No more local broadcasts (nor blackouts), all on Apple TV (enjoy another subscription fee folks!). Centralized production studio. https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/06/14/mls-apple-partner-broadcast-tv-rights-media-deal
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As long as they change the name to "Long Beach Angels", for the sake of giving this forum another eight or so years of content and argument.
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Getting ahead of ourselves but apparently we have our first 2023 leak. A year late, maybe, but I think more like the away kit that everyone wanted/expected with the Revs rebrand. I think it's pretty close to perfect although the navy side panels are hard to figure out what's going on with, must be the new wacky Adidas Template Thing of next season. https://www.thebentmusket.com/2022/6/11/23163865/exclusive-leak-new-england-revolution-2023-24-secondary-jersey
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I don't think they've been dropped... I think the last couple years they've worn the City Connect in the weekend leading up to the Marathon, but then they wore the "Boston" regulars on Marathon Monday proper. But either way it does speak to one of the issues, that the team had this special jersey connected to the Marathon -- one that had a rare origin story that was endearingly un-focus-grouped in the modern time and wasn't driven by commerce -- and now they've made a second Marathon alternate. You can only wear one on Marathon Day!
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To this point, it must be noted that the Marathon gear that everyone wears around Boston every April has been manufactured by Adidas for the past 25 years. The City Connect jerseys -- and more importantly, the beanies and t-shirts and all the other associated merch -- gives Nike their opening for an unofficial slice of that pie.
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It's the oldest annual marathon and one of (if not the) most prestigious in the world. Calling the Boston Marathon "a running event" is like calling the Super Bowl "a Sunday game in a park". I have no love for the Boston City Connects, I think they're garish and unnecessary and the Red Sox should always look like the Red Sox, not gimmicks. But doubting the Marathon and its importance to the city (and I'm not talking about the bombing) frankly betrays a lot of ignorance. Already got two other Boston-area sports teams mining that. Again, hate the whole CC concept, but can at least appreciate that these acknowledge that more things have happened in the city since the Revolutionary War. (Though, what does it say about Boston that the 120-year-old event passes for "modern".)
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I just love that the guy that made his billions on annoying pop-up surveys is the one so cluelessly out of touch with his fan stakeholders.
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Tottenham's red sponsor has always looked off, for obvious reasons, but it's even worse now if we're going to make two-color trim on their home jersey a thing.
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More than one Adidas team doing it makes it look like pinkwashing. I'm so old I remember when Nike made a big show of giving the same kits to both teams for the USA. One nation, one team and all of that. -
Basically modeled on the SUM model of convenient business and power linkages between the league, the "nonprofit" federation, and a less-than-arm's-length shell co. to run the business deals. Obviously this was all signed before the MNT had this renaissance in the current World Cup cycle. My read is that sure, the players want more money given their current success, but also a more sustainable and equitable structure going forward... and now is the time that they've got leverage for both. To be frank, as much stick as MLS gets for not being a top-tier league where elite players will play, the CPL is obviously a couple rungs below even that. So it doesn't seem like a great idea to concentrate all the power with those owners if you're a World Cup-quality nation. As a further wrinkle, the men's players were calling to equalize percentages of WC pay between the men's and women's teams, but the women's team actually wants equal dollars. The US equal pay settlement has set the precedent.
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Most of my favorite Cavs uniforms have been navy blue (or even a lighter blue, that OG CavFanatic...), but I think the overall logo set/color palette looks nicer with black. Obviously they shouldn't do both. I'm so torn! (But at any rate, only works with a bright gold/yellow to lighten the triad of them... metallic gold makes it all too muddy.)
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Yeah, I felt similarly, even if the chest area took up more room and the raglan sleeves took up less, maybe it'd work. I'm pretty close to liking the shirt a lot (putting aside the block graphic pattern AND curvy knit pattern, which is altogether too much -- the players will always look like they're hidden behind fencing) but as part of the whole kit, that's where the too-much navy really takes hold for me.
