Sport

10 hours ago, kimball said:

 

I won't lie ... I had the same thought.

 

Plus, Salt Lake City MORE so in the mountains than Denver is. Denver is basically Kansas.

I was surprised by this for both cities the first times I went there. Entire drive into Denver I kept waiting to scale a mountain and then I was in Denver while the mountains were still well in the distance. Then in Salt Lake City you fly over and then down a mountain to get to the airport. The mountain is like RIGHT THERE the entire time you're in the city. Not sure why Denver became known as THE mountain city when SLC is more mountainous. 

8 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

Not enough people to make any real difference.

But you’d rather have more than less, right? My point was to show that in addition to having a small metro area (47th last I checked) they’re also kind of geographically isolated. 

NHL Hitz ass arena. Can't believe they let this happen for even one home game, let alone two full seasons. 

7 minutes ago, BBTV said:

Wait who’s driving 200 miles to an NHL game? 

Me, people who live in a city that doesn't have an NHL team. 

16 hours ago, The_Admiral said:

I don't think we touched upon this, but Salt Lake City was the Golden Knights' biggest secondary market and now that's gone, along with most of the rest of the Intermountain West that they'd been allowed to squat on.

I'm kind of nervous about SLC for this reason. Found this website where you can find population inside of a certain radius. 

https://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx

I set Salt Lake City and drew a 200 mile radius, which I figure to be about the edge of where a normal person would drive to attend a game. The tool says about 3.7 million people live in that circle. Sounds like a lot of people, but consider that little small market Columbus, Ohio using the same radius is over 28 million (that doesn't even include Chicago) and it feels like trouble.

Here's some other markets not clustered in the Northeast using this same metric:

Nashville - 17 million

Raleigh - 16

St. Paul - almost 8

St. Louis - 9.5

"well the West is big and people are spread out" Yeah, still. There's 7.8 million people within 200 miles of Las Vegas. Denver, Colorado - 6 million. Seattle - over 9, etc. All way more than SLC. Phoenix's is 7.3, for the record. 

They're moving the team to a place on the map where there just aren't that many people, the closest NHL team to pull in visiting fans from is in Denver 500 miles away so they're not going to get the natural visitors gates like Columbus does from Penguins, Red Wings and Blackhawks fans. Plus they already have the NBA, College sports, and MLS teams. They're probably over-extended as it is. I wish them luck. 

Good! Maybe the new guy can come up with a less annoying/stupid victory call. 

Tonight is Jeff Rimer's last game on the call before he retires. He's been the TV play-by-play guy for the Blue Jackets since the 05 lockout, but also called games for the Panthers, Capitals, and Candiens before that. Once famously got in a clubhouse fight with Pete Rose during the 1984 Expos season. 

I hated Rimer at first because I didn't get him. He was unpolished, messed up names, never seemed to know what team the penalty was against, but I've grown attached to him over the last 20 seasons. Really loved all his little character moments, his genuine love for hockey, his small thesaurus of favorite phrases, and I get what he is now. He's a character. And as his time with the Blue Jackets got longer his homerism for the team got bigger and it came through over the air. A newer franchise without any success, it's nice and novel to have a homer in your corner.  Also developed a great ham and egg rapport with Jody Shelley. I'll miss him a lot. Wish he got to cover better teams in Columbus.

Hope the new person doesn't suck. 

15 hours ago, The_Admiral said:

I think Phoenix would have had to have been an expansion for it to work. Acknowledge that there's not an NHL arena and build one. Take time to assemble a decent hockey-ops staff and business staff (whatever they inherited from the Jets was not it) and most of all, an owner who knows exactly what he's getting into. Not Minnesota guys who got derped by the worthless goddamn Timberwolves, not real estate speculators trying to get rich off a strip mall, not Wayne Gretzky, and not the parade of dopes who came in after the league. It needed to be a conscientious, from-the-ground-up project, but it wasn't, so it failed.

I think their ceiling if they'd built an arena on the east side of downtown would be Dallas' floor. It wouldn't have been a smashing success, but they'd still be around. The Westgate Entertainment District was like intentionally walking into quicksand and they've only lasted this long because the league dragged them along. But I believe if you took any hockey market in the league and plopped the team on the other side of the city away from the bulk of the money then they would also struggle. It was suicide doing it with a team with no roots established in the city. 

There's been so many bad moves with them it makes the Blue Jackets look like the Lightning. Remember when they hired a math-whiz middle schooler to be GM who thought he could moneyball the Coyotes to success and then threw a diaper tantrum and quit? Probably best known now as the guy with the hot sister. 

On 4/11/2024 at 5:58 PM, The_Admiral said:

 

I have no excitement for this. I have major reservations about a market of 2.5 million with heavily directional sprawl where the only other team in the market runs concurrently and is almost as established as the Church of England, where hockey does not have a long history of success, where the arena has the same NBA-first sightlines that doomed Phoenix in the first place. The only advantage Salt Lake City has over Quebec City is staying on Mountain Time.

I have no excitement for Utah either and I think we're all kind of blindsided by that being the location that ultimately landed the Coyotes after the dozen other markets that got close in the last decade. It reminds me of Jacksonville getting the Jags because the NFL needed to expand by two teams, but the bids in better markets all tripped over their own butts so the Jacksonville bid was picked by default. 

I was just correcting our guy up there who said that people were hypocritically celebrating the Utah Hockey Pucks using public funds to build an arena when A. nobody is doing that because B. that would require that anyone be fired up for Utah at all. 

On 4/11/2024 at 5:58 PM, The_Admiral said:

But the Coyotes have been on life support for 15 years, the league has cockteased four or five different cities now only to keep doubling down on stupid, and every owner since the days of league control has run out of money, not paid taxes, or both. Enough already. I'm old and tired. Just let this end.

A thing I think is interesting is most people's response has been "ahh yeah well probably for the best" Very few people defending Phoenix.

At least now we get to stop following their endless relocation saga. It's a bit of a relief. 

Just now, spartacat_12 said:

 

Look I'm well aware that I've taken the unpopular side of this debate over the years. Part of it is because I've personally seen a couple of my teams get relocated (including one I was working for), and part of it is just playing devil's advocate to try and balance things out. When they lost the Tempe vote I assumed that would be it for them, and I'm still a little confused as to why the league didn't just get the relocation wheels in motion as soon as that happened.

 

What I'm pointing out is the hypocrisy within the hockey community (not just on here). Any time a new arena/stadium is announced people complain about public funding and talk about how it never actually helps taxpayers, yet there's suddenly all this excitement about Utah having a new publicly funded arena planned. 

I don't think that's happening. People don't seem that excited for Utah (I know I'm not). Utah might as well just be NOT PHOENIX right now. I've seen excitement from some people that the Phoenix experiment is finally coming to an end, but the where and the how isn't what people are worried about at the moment. 

Just now, TBGKon said:

Theres always these....

That logo is trash though. 

Always thought "Coyotes" as a team name is really cool. You can abbreviate it to Yotes or Dogs, comes with a fun howl cheer the fans can do. Plus it's got good logo potential. I wouldn't mind if they kept it for Utah. The kachina logo doesn't make much sense there, but neither does Jazz. 

I actually think the problem is UConn isn't dislikable enough. They're also not lovable. They're nothing. I can't be moved to feel one way or the other about them. The only thing I know about this current team is Hurley is for some reason a lifelong Bengals fan, which is weird because he's from New Jersey. 

Getting out to big leads or not being tested isn't a knock on them as a basketball team - That's just what good teams do. What a dumb piece of criticism. 

Another problem is the game started at 9:30 last night. I learned about UConn's victory on my phone this morning when I woke up as I was fast asleep before the second half. I say this every year, but you cannot convince me that starting the national championship game after 9 on the east coast is helpful for ratings. 

On 4/2/2024 at 2:24 PM, SFGiants58 said:

That and it’s a gimmicky “old timey” font that you’d find on Creative Market for $20.

It's so gimmicky and I hate it. It was novel in 2007, but it looks extremely 2007 now. It's got all the superfluous flourishes, dialed up to 11, completely unrestrained hallmarks that Brandiose became known for. 

To make this worse is that using the faux 1870's number font means they're not using their perfect block font. 

4 minutes ago, jerrylawless3 said:

You're actually on to something here. It's now a 'cast' shadow now instead of a 'drop' shadow. You can really see it in the serifs of the I and Ns.

 

The wordmark also looks slightly less tall before. I don't know, but it's definitely not the same mark as before.

Good catch. I expanded the picture of Spencer Steer and now I see it. 

I guess that's an improvement because now it matches the numbers, but it feels like it's heavier on the black, which I don't like. 

1 hour ago, MNtwins3 said:

Reds have desperately needed to drop black for like 20 years at this point

It would be hard to find a Reds fan at this point who disagrees with you.

The black drop shadows look even worse with the larger sleeve cuffs. Also, it felt like the drop shadows are slightly larger now. 

compare previous years

and last night. 

hard to say. Something's different there. 

On 3/9/2024 at 8:00 PM, BBTV said:

 

This is how I feel.  How many cities in the States would very few people have ever have a reason to hear about if not for pro sports?  Like Cincinnati for example.  Nothing at all against the fine people of Cincinnati, but if not for the Reds and Bengals, would >90% of Americans have any reason to know about it or even where it is? 

Probably true, but wouldn't that also be true of most cities, even large ones? Like if sports didn't exist I don't think I would need to know anything about Atlanta. 

On 3/9/2024 at 8:08 PM, The_Admiral said:

There's something kind of grounding about Kroger and Procter & Gamble being headquartered in li'l ol' Cincinnati and not somewhere back east, but also, Kroger is terrible.

 

Also GE Aerospace where a very handsome, smart, funny guy I know works. 

If there's one improvement from the Fanatics hostile takeover it's the sleeves on the Reds road jerseys. 

This is what it used to look like 

Now it's an accidental callback to the 1990 uniforms and we're one step closer to my dream of wearing these with belts and buttons. 

call it a pleasant surprise when I turned the game on last night. 

On 3/30/2024 at 4:50 PM, infrared41 said:

 

So it's fine if us civilians decide to stay somewhere for the lifestyle and weather even though we know things might be better and more lucrative elsewhere, but ballplayers hurt their legacies if they do the same thing?

I don't know why this expectation is of Mike Trout that he needs to leave to prove himself exists. I don't know of another player in sports who's been held to that same standard. He's on a major league baseball team and he's compiled these stats against grown ass major league pitchers who don't suddenly get worse when they play the Angels. If he'd grown up in, I don't know, Nebraska, would there be this mandate that he must play in Philadelphia to prove that he can play in Philadelphia? If anything, playing 1/2 of the Akron Groomsmen role means he's been asked to carry a team and exert himself more than he would if he were with a more stacked roster. 

Now that I've defended him, I must say that I don't like Trout's vibe either. Some players you just don't gel with and he just isn't my guy. I saw him play in person in Seattle and he had an impressive game, but it was so blah. I just think he's kind of a vacant, black hole of charisma, which isn't important for playing good baseball, but it is important for being an entertainment product that I seek out when my team isn't playing the Angels.

21 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Yes. Exactly. I fell so hard into ALL of this when I was younger. But then you get older, realize what the world actually is (or, in the very least, what it’s become), and realize that a lot of the mystique around baseball is just their fabrication of their own place and importance within society. They use it as a warm blanket to cover up the warts, and as a screen to avoid dealing with any of the actual problems. It’s as soulless of a money making operation as any other business entity. 
 

And I’m not indicting baseball alone on this. There are countless “American institutions” that rest on these laurels and use it to hand wave anything that’s problematic. But people are starting to push back on some of this and baseball certainly isn’t going to be immune from that. 
 

Baseball has a choice to either stick to their guns and continue to shrink in popularity, or adapt. For as dumb as some of these guys at the top are, they’re at least trying.
 

I just wish the HoF would start to reflect some of that, too. 

This is me with the designated hitter and interleague play. Used to have impassioned arguments about both and now I just cannot care. If you asked me now I would argue multiple points about how both are actually good. I've become less of a baseball purist as I've aged and less of a hard-ass sports fan all around.

I have some experiences now that I didn't have as a teenager/early 20's person and those have given me a healthy dose of perspective. When the Reds or Bengals lost when I was a kid my dad would laugh and move on instantly and it made me angry that he didn't care. I get it now. It's not that he didn't care, he just knew that it wasn't important enough to spend any time worrying about. His response was correct. It's just sports.

Opening Day is a top 5 day in the baseball season. The day after opening day is easily the worst. 

11 hours ago, Kevin W. said:

The what now?

In the late 90’s OSU built a new pro-style basketball and hockey arena while the city/Blue Jackets built Nationwide Arena. They’re not literally on the same street. One is downtown, the other is on OSU’s campus. The problem it caused was two arenas competing for concerts and other events. 

1 hour ago, The_Admiral said:

 

The whole two-arenas-on-the-same-street thing did give them a bit of a scare, though, didn't it? Like, if they hadn't come up with a single body to manage both buildings and keep them from cannibalizing the market, wouldn't they have been in some danger?

The only scare according to my contact with the team was that the original lease agreement made it impossible to compete without losing piles of money (they were also GMed by a moron who made it impossible to compete by doing things like ignoring his scouts' advice and drafting Gilbert Brule instead of Anze Kopitar) That had nothing to do with the market or fanbase, was just a poorly designed agreement structure. Restructuring the lease agreement in 2011 brought them more in line with the rest of the league in terms of operating expenses. They used some standard "we would hate to have to move" tactics to get a new deal done, but it was never seriously considered. 

This connects back to OSU and the reason an outdoor game at Ohio Stadium hasn't been entertained until this year - Ohio State is a famously terrible partner to work with in Central Ohio. They don't give a honk about the rest of Columbus unless it has something to do with Ohio State. I very much doubt they would've cooperated on an arena in the late 90's if the hockey team had been amenable to it anyway. 

So, in conclusion, Columbus is fine. 

18 hours ago, PlayGloria said:

 

That's great to hear. Honestly it's pretty impressive that the crowds are that good for a team that's pretty much had no chance at a championship. 

If Josh Anderson doesn't get hurt against Boston the Blues might not have a cup and you'd have a different username. That team had more than a good chance at a championship. 

18 hours ago, PlayGloria said:

 

I will say this though... I'm pretty much an all around sports fan. I watch most major sports, golf, etc. The Jackets are super forgettable from an outsiders perspective.  That probably mostly has to do with the fact that they haven't been relevant in the standings. I think it also stems from a pretty strange identity with the neon hornet, to the cannon, etc. For a non Columbusian, there is almost no reason to follow them since they aren't a good hockey team and I don't find their visual identity appealing. Plus I follow the Blues, so I watch a lot more Western Conference teams.

 

But this post isn't meant to dog the franchise, just FYI. I'm glad that Columbus is supportive of them. And the posts you gave have written make me think a Blues road game in Columbus would be cool. 

Fair and I don't disagree. If I could time travel back to 1997 and name them anything other than Blue Jackets I would. Too late now. 

But that's a different topic than "Nobody cares about them, they shouldn't even get the B version of the outdoor game, and I'm surprised they haven't relocated". 

On 2/23/2024 at 11:23 AM, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

No one cares about the Blue Jackets. Why is it in Columbus?

You don't have to be this guy. Lots of people care about the Blue Jackets. It's in Columbus because they haven't participated in an outdoor game yet and there's a famous outdoor sports venue in the city that would've been used years ago, but the outgoing OSU athletic director was a stubborn wrench that prevented any discussions with the NHL and Ohio State. He's finally retiring and getting out of the way, which is why it's now happening in Columbus. 

On 2/23/2024 at 12:20 PM, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

 

I wonder if people in Columbus actually care about them.

They do. Currently averaging >93% capacity with a reliable season ticket base to watch a team who's going to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. 

On 2/23/2024 at 12:20 PM, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

I'm surprised they haven't been a topic of any relocation talk.

That's because they aren't a candidate for relocation. At all.