Waffles

The seating chart for the Islanders-Devils preseason game in Brooklyn has reverted back to the original, non-horseshoe arrangement on the game's Ticketmaster page:

(FWIW, the Barclays Center site is still showing the horseshoe)

New York Post: Bettman spotted at Barclays Center

From Page Six: So who was that commissioner of a professional sports league seen exiting the Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center subway stop and then hurrying across the street to enter the new Brooklyn arena on Friday afternoon?

Why, informants tell us he looked suspiciously like Gary Bettman, who could have been trying to score tickets to the Sept. 28 Jay-Z that will open the arena, might have been checking out the location of the suite from which he would watch the Oct. 2 Islanders-Devils exhibition match if it?s not canceled by a lockout, but may also have been visiting the office of developer and owner Bruce Ratner to chat about the possibility of, oh well, an NHL team moving to Brooklyn.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum ? the lease expiring in 2015, Charles Wang seeking a new venue for his club and the overburdened suburban taxpayers unlikely to defray the cost of a new arena for the hockey club.

To be sure, there are roadblocks to consider in moving the Islanders to Brooklyn, the least of which by the way is Barclays Center?s seating capacity of less than 15,000 for hockey, because revenue is about gate receipts, not attendance.

There is the literal issue of roads, limited parking and whether folks from the Island would travel by mass transit to watch a transplanted team or whether the franchise would have to develop a new fan base within the city that has longed pledged its allegiance to the Rangers (as the Nets will do within the boroughs that are betrothed to the Knicks).

But it?s a conversation worth having. The Dodgers could have gone to Queens when they instead skedaddled to Los Angeles. It would be an everlasting shame if the Islanders were to go to Quebec (or Seattle) if they instead could move to Brooklyn.

It?s merely a subway ride, as our moles tell us the NHL commissioner took on Friday.

I have to imagine if the Isles move here on any kind of regular basis (either temporarily while something's being built on Long Island or permanently) the Nets would be open to making some changes to the arena. Both sides have some incentive to make this work - the Isles keep their fanbase and massive NYC cable deal, and the Nets pick up a solid tenant to fill 41 (plus preseason and playoffs) dates on the calendar they don't have to find other events for.

I agree Brooklyn is always an option, but only for the short-term. They'd need to have the arena deal in place before moving in to a facility with such a limited capacity, lest they be stuck there.

Tickets for the Islanders-Devils exhibition game went on sale today - here's the seating map on the ticket page:

Asbestos Investigation Underway at Nassau Coliseum

State inspectors began an asbestos investigation at Nassau Coliseum Friday, prompted by complaints from workers, a state department of Labor spokesman said.

About a dozen workers told NBC New York that several areas of the more than 4-year-old [sic] arena are covered with what they believe is dangerous asbestos. Photos provided by their lawyer showed a white substance on the floor and walls of the coliseum's boiler room.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Asbestos-Investigation-Nassau-Coliseum-Islanders-Long-Island.html

The Islanders would be leaving a lot of TV money on the table if they left the New York area:

No one doubts owner Charles Wang is absorbing huge losses, but the blow is softened by $20 million or so per season that MSG Media pays to carry Islanders games in a deal that runs until 2030-31 -- that's not a typo, folks -- by which time the rights fee will rise to about $36 million. There would be no such contract in the much smaller Kansas City market -- certainly not in dollars and presumably not in length.

Read more: http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/87430-tv-may-keep-islanders-in-new-york#ixzz1mNfw0goK

WVU to the Big XII has gotten a little complicated...

A Big 12 conference call Tuesday night was expected to be a formality on West Virginia?s road to admittance. Instead, objections were raised.

A late push by Louisville has put political pressure on the Big 12 and opened the possibility of Louisville?s being the university that is admitted instead of West Virginia. Two people with direct knowledge of the situation said that lobbying by the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, including to David Boren, the president of the University of Oklahoma and a former senator, helped slow West Virginia?s admittance to the Big 12.

West Virginia officials, who called the deal ?solid? late Tuesday afternoon, declined comment Wednesday.

West Virginia is joining the Big XII, according to the New York Times:

West Virginia is headed to the Big 12, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, a move that leaves the Big East with five football programs and an uncertain future. The person said Tuesday that the Mountaineers had ?applied and are accepted,? leaving only legal entanglements from making the move official. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been formally announced.

From CBSSports.com:

TCU has been invited to join the Big 12 Conference and is expected to accept the offer for the 2012-13 school year, college football industry sources told CBSSports.com.

TCU was scheduled to join the Big East on July 1, 2012, but instead will join the Big 12. By leaving the Big East before it officially became a member, the Horned Frogs will have to pay a $5 million exit fee but is not bound by the Big East’s 27 month requirement for notification.

The addition of TCU replaces Texas A&M, which is headed to the SEC. If Missouri remains in the league, sources said the Big 12 is expected to remain at 10 schools.

If Missouri leaves for the SEC, the Big 12 likely would add three more schools to get to 12. The leading candidates would be Louisville, BYU, West Virginia and Cincinnati.

The loss of TCU is another blow to the Big East. The league also lost Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, but Commissioner John Marinatto has said previously the Big East would make Pitt and Syracuse stay the 27 months until 2014.

The Big 12 is still waiting to get a commitment from Missouri.

Maryland's a strong athletic department that would help them grow BTN.

How many schools in the B1G play lacrosse?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Maryland's athletic department is flat broke, nobody at UM cares about football, and they don't have the tradition of a school like Indiana to make up for it in basketball.

They DO have basketball tradition and the founder of Under Armour is an alumn.

Maryland's basketball tradition is a fraction of Indiana's basketball tradition. Maryland isn't a blue-blood by any stretch of the imagination.

It's still telling when Kevin Plank is your personal ATM and you still have a $1.2 million budget shortfall in the athletic department. Maryland's ADs Debbie Yow and Kevin Anderson have botched the football situation to where they're basically paying Ralph Friedgen $2 million a year to watch the Terps play on TV, or provide color commentary, or whatever it is Fridge is doing these days.

The only advantage I'd see for any other school in the B1G in Maryland joining is Penn State finally getting a real rival in football. Maryland students and alumni have been begging and pleading with the AD to schedule a game with Penn State. UM-PSU in football is a big deal here, even though it has been decades since they last played.

If Maryland does jump, Plank is gonna have to bust out his checkbook again. The ACC raised its exit fee to $20M last week.

If you're worried about Baylor engaging in protracted, pointless, expensive and vindictive legal battles, rest assured that their president is none other than Ken Starr.

Here's one that I don't think was mentioned.

Randall Cunningham as a Cowboy and a Raven...

Seeing any player in a blue Cowboys uniform is weird and jarring to me.

TCU to the Big East is apparently happening today, according to the New York Daily News.

Darryl Strawberry, Los Angeles Lakers.

Bumping this...it looks like Big Ten expansion is coming, and it's coming sooner than previously anticipated. From the Chicago Tribune:

Remember the talk that the Big Ten would take 12 to 18 months to decide whether to expand?

An accelerated timetable has emerged, according to sources familiar with the process.

High-ranking Big Ten representatives will meet Sunday in Washington to discuss expansion. The timing and location of the session make sense considering the Association of American Universities has its semi-annual meetings there through Tuesday and all 11 Big Ten schools are AAU members.

Among those attending will be Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, according to a university spokesman, and Illinois' interim chancellor, Robert Easter.

If the conference can emerge from the meetings with a mandate to expand, Commissioner Jim Delany could take a substantial step next week at the annual Bowl Championship Series meetings outside Phoenix.

It looks like the writing's on the wall for the Big East as a major conference - or possibly even a football conference. If they lose three schools to the Big 14, it would seem to follow that the other football schools might also look to jump to stronger conferences lest they be relegated to mid-major status.

If Syracuse is indeed one of the teams that receives and accepts an offer to join, I'd be tremendously disappointed to see the end of Big East basketball at the expense of football, and I'd likely have fewer opportunities to see my school play in my part of the country. But I'd be incredulous if my school passed up the money that would come with a move to the Big 14, and stayed in a conference that has shown no interest, ambition, or aggression in proactively adapting to the economic realities of college athletics.

They don't use either a raised or lowered C for the "Mc"s? I've seen some teams actually randomly do it both ways. Some just use a space, like MC NABB

The jersey for sale on NFL.com has a lower-case c.

Syracuse's fonts are custom and proprietary. You won't find them.

k i understand that, but i know ive seen a knock off before

The font G-Mac is wearing is Diamante Bold, slightly modified.

I started at the end and worked my way back to page 22...can't take it any more. (Too much Favre turning my tummy.)

So how 'bout this?

Now on sale at the Birmingham Barons online store:

Anybody having, or hearing about other people having, problems running Illustrator CS2 after the latest OSX Tiger security update? The damn thing shuts down in the middle of opening every time.

My lazy ass needs to upgrade to either CS3 or Leopard, or both...

Did someone say free?

http://www.fonts101.com/xt_search.asp?txtS...h&vt=Search

Maybe you could also add a Code of Conduct or repeat the one we see at registration?

js °, you wouldn't happen to have that with a collar, would you?

Awesome, joel.

Thanks.

joel, do you have a helmet to go with your football template (i.e. the template you use in the contests on this board)?

Many thanks.