Sykotyk

On 5/19/2024 at 9:57 PM, TheAnt755 said:

I would love to have a NY team in the PVF, maybe I can go to a game someday.

A team on Long Island at the old Nassau Coliseum would be interesting.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/40206364/ncaa-power-conferences-agree-allow-schools-pay-players

Well this is monumental for college football. Surprised it hasn't been listed before. Not only are the Power 5 schools going to settle with the players, but then agree to share up to $20m/yr for each power 5 school.

I knew with the collectives that popped up this wasn't far behind. But the pace at which it changed really was staggering.

Now, with the schools on the hook, do we see more realignment to further concentrate the power 5 down to 2 or 4 major conferences?

48 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Are there no colleges in and around Detroit with stadiums that seat 5000? 

 

That's the kind of place that this team should be looking to rent.

Tom Adams Field at Wayne State is just 2.6 miles from Ford Field and holds 6,000. But then you're capped at 6,000 at an outdoor stadium.

6 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

 

Not defending it, but really..."H-Town" has been a thing since the late '80s. Shoot, a whole R&B group named themselves as such back in 1990! The nickname ain't devoid of culture at all.

 

All that said...I am also nowhere near defending the Texans' decision to roll it into their branding. The whole thing smacks to me of a/ A-class pettiness (more related to the light blue—and I still think their owner's wife is to primarily blame for that) and b/ a soft launch of NFL "city" uniforms, which I'm sure many of us don't care for. But given how many jerseys Nike contractually obligated themselves to sell, I get the profit business motive behind it. (For more on that, see the video in this thread which goes into far more detail.)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

It's just nicknames either have to have a cool factor or 'ease of use' factor. H-Town really does nothing. Hot-lanta, Sin City, Cincy, Shy-town, Motor City, Bean Town, City of Angels, Big D, Twin Cities, Believeland, Steel City, City of Brotherly Love, Mile High, etc have either. H-Town is just... two syllables, doesn't really describe anything. It's not like it's Jacksonville or Minneapolis that's being shortened into J-Town or M-Town or something, that's actually shorter even if it's bland.

On 5/19/2024 at 2:19 PM, 655321 said:

 

He is famous for his foot fetish.

 

https://youtu.be/DE6NcoCr1AU?si=wP8AEBOmKZr2XfuG

It makes sense that he got into football.

39 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think they don't have access to the stadiums past a certain point. I also think league size determines how many playoff teams you go with. It's why NFL Europe went straight to the championship game when they had 6 teams involved. 

I believe Michigan - Birmingham is already locked in at Birmingham due to field availability, so that Week 10 game could be a dud. 

That's tough. 

That's one reason the XFL 2001 crossover  was a good idea. Helped avoid a late season rematch. And whatever game it is was only the second time they played. It back fired when the Demons upset the Rage and had the Million Dolllar Game held at LA Coliseum. 

12 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Surely if and when the league expands to 10 teams, they’ll have the Top 3 in each division go to the playoffs with the 1-seed getting a bye.

I was hoping they'd have 10 if only to break the monotony of every league since XFL 2001 seeming to love the 8-team, 2-division setup so-much. They could've gone the CFL route and have the 3v2 semifinal. But it almost feels like they're just trying to get the playoffs over with as fast as possible.

3 hours ago, DCarp1231 said:

Do we think the league expected the playoff teams to clinch so early? Especially Birmingham?

This early, probably not. One of the flaws with the 8-team, 2-division setup is that you can get teams eliminated (or clinched) and make the later rounds uninteresting.

I still think if not for the USFL/XFL rivalry for the division setup, these spring leagues need to ditch the divisions and go with one 8-team field and take the top four. You don't need to have a balanced schedule. Keep the schedules the same if they want. The only game that really matters now is STL-SA in Week 10 and that just determines who hosts the same matchup the very next week.

Birmingham (8-0) (@ SA W9, v. MICH W10)

Michigan (6-2) (1-1, @ Birmingham W10)

St. Louis (6-2) (1-1, v. SA W10)

San Antonio (6-2) (1-1, v. BIR W9, @  STL W10)

-----

DC (3-5)

Houston (1-7)

Memphis (1-7)

Arlington (1-7)

In the current setup, Birmingham's W9 game matters for just Birmingham. If they win, it makes Michigan's game on Sunday meaningless. If Birmingham wins, it doesn't affect San Antonio.

If Birmingham loses to San Antonio, it doesn't matter if STL wins or loses. Because the winner in Week 10 wins the XFL Division. And if Birmingham does lose, it setups up the Week 10 matchup, that if Michigan were to win after winning in Week 9, for both teams to finish 1-1 head-to-head and 5-1 in conference games. Next tie-breaker will be Strength of Victory.  Both teams have the same schedule and if they finish 8-2 would have the same opponent wins in the 1-1 head-to-head matchup. They both would have lost to the other, and both would have lost to San Antonio.

Next tie-breaker is net points in all games among conference teams. Birmingham is +93, Michigan is +36.  Birmingham would drop a minimum of 2, Michigan rises a minimum of 2. That means in the two games Michigan has to make up 53 more points. Including the head-to-head game.  Even if Michigan wins by 20 and Birmingham were to lose by 20 in Week 9, Michigan still would need to beat Birmingham by 9 to take the tie-breaker.

So, that Week 10 game would just be deciding who hosts the very next week even if Michigan can pull that type of point-diff comeback.

Under the 8-team setup, Birmingham and San Antonio have a lot to play for in Week 9. Neither can really afford to take the loss. In Week 10, the MICH-BIR and SA-STL games would be huge for seeding and not necessarily be previews of Week 11 matchups that set who hosts where.

2 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

The Rock was the face of it because he invested in it. Do I think his presence made a difference in attendance? Only slightly.  I mean, look at the numbers. What did it matter? He's likely a bigger star given Hollywood than Brady is. So what sort of attendance bump do you get from Brady as owner.

 

 

You said it yourself - maybe a few more would attend. That's not enough.

So, why not the other two primary (and larger) investors being the face instead of the third wheel smallest investor of the three? Oh, it's because he's well known and has fans already who will get their league in front of their faces if only because they follow him on social media. Nobody follows the other guy. Oh wow, he runs an investment firm. I'm sure the groupies go crazy for him.

And 'few' was being facetious. 3 million on Twitter, almost 15 million on IG. You think ESPN and local media aren't going to follow him? You think Colorado got a lot of attention because the nation felt they were going to be one of the top teams in college football? No. It was Deion that drew the attention.

1 hour ago, Sec19Row53 said:

How many of those people would go to a football game because he's the owner? How many of them are near enough to do so?

You don't think more people would even be aware such a team even exists?  And a few of them might go to a game? You think there was no reason The Rock was the face of the XFL last year and not Gerry Cardinale?

3 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Explain that logic. Why would people who don't attend the Panthers now suddenly attend because the owner went to UM?

 

Why do you think people attend games? How far down the list (or in this case, up on the list) do you think the owner is?

"Legitimacy". People are lemmings who follow the crowd. There's a reason 'celebrities' and 'influencers' are a thing.

There's a reason 3 million people follow Tom Brady on Twitter and 14.9 million on Instagram.

And it's not because he posts a lot of insightful things for his followers.

56 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

In Detroit? Tiger Stadium has a new field built on it. The Silverdome in Pontiac is now home to an Amazon warehouse and new development is being built on the Joe Louis Arena site. The Palace of Auburn Hills site is a big parking lot though, but MLS is done with its new stadium in the suburbs phase

A turfed field on the footprint of old Tiger Stadium will not be a detriment to doing anything on that site.  FCC had a bigger HS field they had to move a street over to build TQL Stadium and that was barely a thought in the process.

2 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Detroit Free Press - Detroit City FC acquires abandoned hospital site for future soccer stadium

USL Championship News - Detroit City FC announces acquisition of land to build a soccer-specific stadium

Detroit City FC has acquired land in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood with an eye towards building a soccer-specific-stadium with a seating capacity of up to 14,000. The club is targeting the 2027 USL Championship season as its first in the new facility.

I know where there's one large plot of already cleared land that previously held a stadium.

2 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

So after following PVF all season, I won't be able to watch the championship. Conflict with my mom's 70th birthday party

She'd understand. Lol

2 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

lol this is a great series. Watch game 7 be a 2 point game. 

2 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

Minnesota saw all the heat they took for losing the last three games in a row and said "Watch this" as they blast the Nuggets to kingdom come.

 

Game 7 is going to be well worth it.

This might be the most interested I've been for a second round game 7 in the NBA that doesn't involve the Cavs.

Denver was the cindarella team last year. Minnesota is the cindarella team of cindarella teams. Go up 2-0 on the road. Lose 3 straight. And then do THAT in Game 6?!?! I hope Game 7 is close, because this series deserves to be talked about for years to come. And it won't if it's a 20+ point snoozer.

On 5/16/2024 at 1:30 AM, MalibuSunrise said:

 

Texas Pride & Kansas City Krush

Can't imagine them doing the Texas name. If any team was going with a state name, it would've been Grand Rapids. Not that it couldn't happen.

As for KC:

Kansas City Karma

18 hours ago, BBTV said:

 VS chiefs must not be a national game otherwise it’d be contractually bound to be one of KC’s 13 home games. 

Would be a good one but even with flex scheduling it won't happen. Browns are at Denver on a Monday night, host the steelers on Sunday at 1, host kc on Sunday at 1, at Cincinnati on Thursday night, and then host Miami on SNF. 

Browns need every minute of off time between the KC game and a potentially major division game on Thursday night. 

2 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

PVF needs a better TV deal for next season with LOVB having games on ESPN's main channel. Working out a deal to have some PVF games air on CBS' main channel would be an ideal counter punch assuming they still plan to partner with CBSSN next year.

It's not nearly as good as they make it out to be:

   "

ESPN platforms will begin the new agreement by airing 10 LOVB Pro matches across its linear networks beginning in January 2025 when LOVB’s inaugural season begins. Eighteen of LOVB’s matches will also stream on ESPN+, the industry’s leading sports streaming service. All match telecasts will include commercial inventory for LOVB to enable brands interested in reaching volleyball’s passionate audience the opportunity to make a big impact across all ESPN platforms.  

    "

So ten games will be somewhere on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU. There's no guarantee any of them are on the flagship station.

18 will be paywalled on ESPN+. PVF has them on Youtube for free. Good or bad, it's much easier to see a PVF game than it will be for LOVB fans who will have to sign up for ESPN+ to get the 18 non-'linear network games'.

But the caveat emptor for this transaction has to be the final bolded part. This is a time buy. It's a nice way of saying it, but LOVB is the one that has to find the sponsors to fill the slots. If ESPN was paying, they'd be the ones making the money to air them. This is starting to sound more like the XFL deal with ESPN.

Not saying PVF doesn't need a better deal. But for an untested league in an untested pro sport, I think it handled its first season pretty well to put them name out there and what they offer going forward.

6 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Mojo is a tough matchup for the Novas R1, it was 2-2 in the season series, with two of those going five sets. 
 

But the home team has taken every matchup, so I’d expect us to take care of business in Omaha. 

For the sake of the league, I hope Omaha is in the final. If only to help boost the attendance of the final. I'm sure their tickets are packaged as a presale to attend both (or all 3)... but gotta imagine actual butts-in-seats will be nil if Omaha isn't in the final.

7 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

As of right now, what I've been able to glean from media reports - as well as info from friends and colleagues in Indiana - indicates that it's likely an either-or situation.

The Indy Eleven name making its way to a Major League Soccer club would be dependent upon either Ersal Ozdemir somehow being involved in ownership, or - in the event he isn't a part of an Indianapolis-based MLS club's ownership/management team - being compensated for the intellectual property. Either way, while the name might make the transition to Major League Soccer, the club would most likely  adopt a new crest. The latter was the case with the likes of Orlando City SC and FC Cincinnati.  

They'd create a new crest if only to have new merch to sell. Portland, Minnesota, Seattle, etc all did as well.

18 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

The emperor has no clothes. But he insists he's wearing a suit.

57 minutes ago, TheAnt755 said:

It's crazy that this league have 16 teams by Week 1 and then lose 6 teams in just 3 weeks.

 

Should've never started 16 in the first place... Do you imagine if a spring football league started their 1st year with 16 teams?

The biggest issue this league faced was self-inflicted. By stating '16 teams' from the Day 1 announcement, they went with so many under-funded halfass teams rather than just going with the handful of well-funded teams that are making a legitimate attempt at it.

Should go with:

American:

Albany

Nashville

Orlando

Billings

Washington

National:

Rapid City

Salina

SW Kansas

Wichita

West Texas

Only tough split is that Billings and Rapid City would be better closer together for any future schedule adjustments. But it would be wise to keep the smaller central teams lumped together. Washington has to travel far no matter what. And RC to Kansas isn't a bad drive if they opt for busses over flights which would make sense for a minor league level stature most of these teams in the middle are. Billings is at least trying to play up the AFL positioning. And Albany, Nashville, and Orlando are obvious ones to help promote as 'major league'. Washington is simply a byproduct of their need to fly most everywhere makes them prime to be in that group.

53 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

So the league should finish with 7 active teams and 9 folded, right?

Next year the AFL will have the Philadelphia Fraudsters, Chicago Shysters, and the Columbus Conmen.

And still not have a name as prescient as the Myth.