dfwabel
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Posts posted by dfwabel
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SI isn't going away quietly. They've hired Pat Forde away from Yahoo, but Forde will continue his podcast with Yahoo's Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel.
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Ariel Halwani just work sideline for ESPN's Mavs@Pelicans game.
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2 hours ago, dont care said:
Stan Kroenke is worth over 8 billion, the A’s owner is worth less than 2. That’s a huge difference
Not necessarily, especially when in MLB you get at least 81 attempts (as of now) per year to recoup your investment. As @Gothamite alluded to, billionaires have pretty easy access to funding when needed since they go to Goldman Sachs at virtually anytime for their core business. The Athletics make money as it is, so the books are fine, even without future revenue sharing checks coming in. As I stated before, when the news hit in February that Gap was going to spin off Old Navy, the family's net worth is going to increase since they will get one Old Navy share for every Gap one they own and they own 43% of Gap.
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37 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:
Because they don’t own the land?Apparently they've tried
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BTW, I'm pretty sure that hasn't been mentioned or posted, since I haven't done either, but earlier in October before this thread was made, the city of Oakland filed suit against Alameda County to prevent the county from selling their 50% of the Coliseum Complex to the Athletics.
Note/Warning: I'm posting you a link to an independent, Oakland blog (not anything from Zennie Abraham, for those Bay Area folks), which heavily leans to the Left, but the links within the blog are to major papers and websites which will produce the actual court filings in PDF.
From the blog:
QuoteThe Oakland City Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit against the County of Alameda (Case NO. RG19036930), on September 27, 2019, at the direction of the Oakland City Council to block the sale of the Coliseum complex property to the Athletics Investment Group, LLC (Oakland Athletics).
Earlier today, reportedly Alameda County Court Judge Frank Roesch issued a temporary restraining (TRO) to block the sale of the property. A hearing has been set for November 14, 2019, when the City of Oakland can make its case to explain why the County of Alameda should not be able to sell its 50 percent share of the Coliseum complex property to the Athletics Investment Group, LLC, a.k.a. Oakland Athletics.
According to the lawsuit, the County of Alameda and its Board of Supervisors failed to make an effort to either comply with the procedures of the Surplus Land Act or even ensure its public lands will be used to fulfill the statutory aims of the act.
When the County of Alameda entered into a binding agreement for the sale and transfer of the property (publicly owned land) to the Athletics Investment Group, LLC, in violation of the Surplus Land Act’s strict requirements, the City of Oakland’s opportunity to explore whether the property could be developed for affordable housing, continued recreational uses or other public good would be extinguished. The Act requires that a local agency proposing to dispose of surplus land must negotiate in good faith for a period of not less than 90 days. Allegedly, the County failed to do so, and did not comply with this mandate.-
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12 hours ago, the admiral said:
They had some decent Levi's money behind them until the mid-'90s, but then the patriarch died and thus began the series of piecemeal ownership consortiums (consortia?) that were only just getting by, which in turn begat Moneyball.
Raiders moving back didn't help and then-mayor Lionel Wilson saw then leave under his watch only to lure them back and still only get cold feet at the last minute to no avail after he received 40K signatures in a petition for a ballot measure.
12 hours ago, Wings said:Ken Hoffman & Steve Schott come to mind.
@Wings has it right. Hofmann and Schott bought the team from the Haas family, but were underfunded and out of their element. They were real estate guys, specifically homebuilders. They decided it was better to cut payroll and use young players at about the same time the new CBA gave them a revenue sharing check from the likes of the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox...
Schott claims they tried to get a new stadium at in the Coliseum complex parking lot. From 2005:
QuoteOne thing Schott couldn't get done as owner was put the A's in a new stadium. Attempts to move the A's to the South Bay failed because the San Francisco Giants have territorial rights to that area. Talk of building a new ballpark next to Network Associates Coliseum, where the A's have played for nearly 40 years, hasn't gone beyond the talking stage with East Bay officials.
Schott said not being able to work out a stadium deal played a part in the decision to sell the A's. Since he "did not feel up to challenge" any longer, Schott thought a change in ownership would be in the best interest of the team.
"Being an owner is like being the caretaker of a franchise. (This organization) is well over 100 years old, and there haven't been that many owners - I think we were the seventh," he said. "I felt 10 years, almost complete, was enough for me to carry the torch, and now the franchise can take the next step: to be more competitive. To get to the World Series on a regular basis, you need a new stadium, which will lead to more revenue."
And them selling to Lew Wolff and John Fischer was backed with Fisher's money, not Wolff's. Fisher had 80% when the bought it in 2005 and got Lew's 10% in 2016. Sadly, Fisher, like Wolff is looking towards more soccer investments with Celtic and he'll have more cash to spend when Gap officially spins off Old Navy and it goes public.
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23 hours ago, Jake3.roo said:
I'd most want to see the Athletics move to somewhere like Portland or Austin/San Antonio. Las Vegas proved that sure, they can support a hockey team for two years. But to support NHL, NFL, and now MLB that quick? It seems like one of those 3 teams would relocate again pretty soon due to expenses and lack of support. Also who's to say that the Athletics won't run into similar stadium issues if they choose to share a stadium with the Raiders (again).
I might be out of the loop, but what's wrong with Oakland? The Warriors just moved out (sure, to San Fransisco), and the Raiders now, is it just a terrible city to have a franchise in?
23 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:The city is flat broke. Basically the entire maritime shipping economy that supported the city back in it's heyday has fled across the bay for various different reasons. Bay Area real estate has ballooned to the point where they just can't keep up any longer. Basic services such as fire and police are an underfunded mess, which is why crime is downright horrendous in that area (Worst in the country, in most years). Oakland is fighting like hell to avoid getting sucked up by the rich, tech funded gentrification that has invaded the rest of the Bay Area and they're failing miserably at it and paying the price.
There's more to it than that, of course, and someone like @dfwabel could probably elaborate on it better than I can, but that's basically it, in simplest terms.
Unlike other metro areas, Oakland and its growth in the tech sector is not the problem, however like many municipalities of all sizes, Oakland's budget deficit of $43M over their two year budget, is an Expense problem. High worker pension and increasing health costs is what is damaging them municipally.
East Bay not only has had population growth in the last two decades, but also a large demographic shift, but less than 10% of all new housing is classified as "Affordable".
The Port of Oakland agreed to a Term Sheet with The Athletics this past May and it gives the team four years to their act together, but getting state approval for all the EIR (Environmental Impact Reports), is more of a holdup for the team than anything from the city and/or Alameda County.
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9 minutes ago, DG_Now said:
I just saw my calendar reminder I made last year to cancel my introductory rate. I like the idea of The Athletic, but I simply don't use it.
They also folded on China at a bad time.
I renewed, but not at the regular rate as you can buy yourself the gift rate at 20% off the standard rate.
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23 minutes ago, Digby said:
J.E. Skeets & co. have unsurprisingly signed on with the Athletic. "No Dunks" is the new podcast name.
I'm a little amazed if the Athletic will be sustainably profitable hoovering up all these media personalities for presumably pretty decent salaries. But I hope so!
With basically no ad revenue and most people's first year being given to them at 40% off their regular subscription price, it really is hard to see how they can survive long term in their current form. Venture capital still wants their investment back.
Does anybody actually pay $59.99 to renew?
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12 minutes ago, DG_Now said:
Was SI sold off to one of the Bain (or similar) crowd? Because this certainly speaks to an effort to buy an asset, strip it of its value, and mine the husk for what's left.
It's sad but not completely surprising.
SI could have gone the Playboy route -- change from a regular periodical to a quarterly showcase of longer-form writing (plus boobs, in both cases). The SI brand has/had value and it's a shame to watch it die.
Authentic Brands bought SI from Meredith and quickly flipped the media operations to The Maven six weeks later. Authentic just owns the name, like they do with other distressed brands.
https://www.authenticbrandsgroup.com/about-1
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23 minutes ago, Gothamite said:
I wouldn't expect a lot of brick-and-mortar sales. Not only is time running short (most December merchandise is already at the stores' warehouses), but it's also a huge up-front investment. I think it's far more likely that most sales are online, starting with their own sites, to streamline the process and lower the costs.
They still had a few DTC (Direct to Consumer) positions unfilled as this is a newly expired opening*.
*The same position is up on LinkedIn and other job boards.
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"That's the time to leave a nightclub. I usually go to sleep at 10 o'clock in the evening. For me, it was hell - very, very hot," Vieira said. "How did I cope? Just a lot of ice and cold water."
50KM Walk winner Joao Vieria after his face which had a similar start time as the Women's Marathon the day prior.
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To All:
The IAAF World Track and Field Championships are in Doha, and the Women's Marathon was "a disaster". It began at midnight and 40% of the field dropped out.
Bolded by me
QuoteThe race began at midnight to make it easier for the athletes, but the conditions were brutal nonetheless: The temperature at the start in Doha, Qatar, was 90 degrees, with 70 percent humidity, and the times reflected that.
A lead pack of five ran together for the first 20 kilometers (12.4 miles), while the trailing groups bunched up as best they could to endure through each of the six loops of the course. By 35 kilometers (21 miles) the group was down to four and included Ruth Chepngetich and Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, Rose Chelimo of Bahrain, and Helalia Johannes of Namibia.
In all 68 women started the race, and only 32 women broke 3 hours.
QuoteIn a race that started at midnight local time, Briton Charlotte Purdue was among the athletes to pull out in temperatures of 32C and with humidity reaching over 70%.
Organisers decided to go ahead with the event in its scheduled slot despite fears that the conditions might not be conducive for marathon running.
Linet Chebet of Uganda was taken away in an ambulance after failing to complete the distance, while Italy's Sara Dossena, another who did not finish, was seen in a wheelchair.
Ethiopia's marathon coach Haji Adillo Roba witnessed his trio of athletes stop, including Tokyo Marathon winner Ruti Aga.
"We never would have run a marathon in these conditions in our own country," he told BBC Sport.
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XFL introduced team names four weeks earlier than the AAF (August 21 compared to September 25), but AAF announced their apparel supplier in July of 2018.
AAF also did not debut uniforms until November 28. Unless they are just going to online retail their goods, if XFL wants them in stores before the Holidays, they need to hurry to get them to wholesalers ASAP cause you are fighting for floor space as it is.
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9 minutes ago, Kramerica Industries said:
Hold on a minute...what?
It was during a November 2018 podcast with Simmons. Basically, Gladwell tried to claim that one drop of Nigerian blood made you Nigerian for his basketball roster. It included South African-born Steve Nash and Jamican born Patrick Ewing.
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11 minutes ago, DG_Now said:
I thought Tate was the literal worst, but didn't realize Bill would dip deeper into the bro pool with his nephew Kyle. (For someone who speaks so highly of hard work, Bill Simmons is awfully prone to including his uninteresting family members in his podcasts.)
Where did Tate go? Presumably far away from Mike Lombardi?
He just quit and didn't give two weeks notice. Word on the street (Reddit) is that he may have gotten a job doing digital work for Tar Heel athletics or some entity focusing on UNC athletics.
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2 minutes ago, DG_Now said:
The star:censored:ing and bootlicking phase of Bill Simmons' career is really disappointing.
Bill trying to display his writing ability to Sean Penn last week forced me to punch out of a pretty interesting conversation. He bragged to Penn on how many pages and words his basketball book was. I'm now listening to him at 1.5x speed.
On the bright side, Tate is gone from The Ringer.
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20 hours ago, DG_Now said:
I have no patience for Malcolm Gladwell or Joe Paterno defense. Is Bill Simmons trying to be Joe Rogan? I'm glad I'm done with this.
https://deadspin.com/malcolm-gladwell-goes-on-bill-simmonss-podcast-to-dust-1838218193
Edit:
Who is the audience for this?o
Can't wait for Gladwell to tell me the President and Athletic Director at Michigan State as well as USA Gymnastics acted properly regarding Dr. Larry Nassar and Simmons go, "Yea, yea, yea".
EDIT: Gladwell was once on an Epstein airplane and in the Epstein "Black Book".
Quote“I don’t remember much except being baffled as to who this Epstein guy was and why we were all on his plane.”
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2 hours ago, waltere said:
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On 9/10/2019 at 6:39 AM, Red Comet said:
Marshawn Lynch is co-founding an arena football team in Oakland called the Oakland Panthers. (Original story: here) Yeah, he's naming it after the 60's Black Panthers but it wouldn't surprise me if they cribbed off the comic book character/movie quite a bit for the uniforms and mascot.
Hey, if you're going to piss away your post-retirement money, might as well do it entertaining others.
The principal owner is Roy Choi, who also owns the Cedar Rapids and San Diego teams. The San Diego Strike Force had 300 fans at their home finale.
A Union-Tribune writer counted all 400 at an earlier game.
Scott McKibben is also part of the group. McKibben was formerly the Coliseum Stadium Authority Board Executive Director, which runs the stadium and Oracle Arena, and prior to that in 2014 he was the CEO and Commissioner of the ill-fated A11FL. The HC is the creator of the A11 offense and the A11FL too.
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8 minutes ago, DG_Now said:
After the umpteenth Bill Simmons podcast in a row where he complains about hurt feelings -- coupled with a healthy bit of Pats superfandom -- I'm out. Life's too short to be trolled by the media I choose to consume.
If someone can let me know when he's off this kick, I'd appreciate it. But for now, who needs it.
He is still a Friday afternoon/evening tradition (for now) to listen to his two or three podcasts of the week, so I guess I'll update you on his "me-itis". We're in football season, so at least Cousin Sal puts Bill in his place once a week.
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The Sports Media Thread
in Sports In General
Posted
I'm not sure there is an investor for such an outlet. They could pool together and create material behind a Pateron just to test the waters and try to prove there is an audience.
It's seems unsustainable. This week, they had another 40% off offer available for first time subscribers. They seem to be using the razor/cartridges or printer/ink method of revenue