Sykotyk

12 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/37805484/ex-usfl-prez-launching-spring-league-high-school-players

 

Woods said his league will use NCAA playing rules and will operate independent of high school state athletic associations, therefore giving players the chance to profit off their name, image and likeness without any restrictions.

 

League officials intend to have a season running from April 19 through May 24 with teams located in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tampa, Florida. Woods said he hopes to start hiring coaches in the next two to three months.

Woods said the league could supplement the recruiting camps and 7-on-7 programs that provide recruiting showcases for prospects during the months when they aren't playing high school football.

 

So this looks like those players in the ESPN Top 300 and a few more would be able to play football year round and make some money before college. The fact that it doesn't mention only high school seniors tells me this is capable of blurring a lot of lines for these players. A 6 game season isn't much, but unless those kids made sure to graduate prior to the league games, they'll be missing a lot of school. Will they be placed in a school at those locations, or have a deal with some online academy? As a parent, I would rather my kid not be attending this. Limiting the amounts of hits they'd take even before college, let alone the pros would lead me to think this is just another thing we can do without. And for high school eligibility, that may just go out the window, though some states do allow NIL deals in high school now. 

Many state associations don't allow kids to play on football teams during the off season and then be eligible in the fall. Ohio is one such state. Also not all states allow NIL so they'd instantly be ineligible. And unlike the college fight over NIL the high schools and associations aren't selling the player's NIL for video games, etc. So it would be hard to force many of them to accept this for players. 

Secondly, this league isn't providing insurance and underage kids traveling across state lines for sports dealing with their families insurance or state children's coverage for an injury that might detail their entire playing career for a few thousand possibly from an NIL deal since they're not actually getting paid. 

And which fans will be watching? 

This seems destined for failure. 

12 minutes ago, Unocal said:

This team won 11 of 12 after falling behind 3-1

 

HOW?!

think they spent what they had and now are coming up empty when it matters. I was not expecting this outcome. I think Panthers regroup at home, but even then I still don't see how Vegas gets beat in either of the next two games.

Either Vegas completely relaxes and thinks they can just waltz through the next game and not have to try too hard. Or some fluke goal gets scored at the right time that gives Florida a 2-goal advantage that they can camp out on and force Vegas to tire themselves out in desperation. I just don't see it likely. And not enough for 4 of the next 5.

5 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:

 

Interesting little stat. The only Super Bowl that fits this is New England vs Carolina, unless you want to count NE vs NY. It's never happened in the World Series

I thought about the Islanders, as well. But figure the principal city of their market counts.

Funny that the NBA has so many teams with their city name where other sports have a tendency to use the state. Charlotte, Miami  (Marlins started as Florida until TB started basically), Denver, Phoenix, etc. Utah they're the only Big 4 in the city (Their minor league teams go by Salt Lake, Utah, (real) Salt Lake, so par for the course). Even old time Minneapolis Lakers instead of Minnesota. Only one that bucks convention is Pacers cohorts the Indianapolis Colts use the city name rather than state name. Yet, NBA has one of the weirdest ones: Golden State.  Which always feels like a college name to me.

23 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

America’s most trash sports league is about to give America’s most trash city its first pro sports title. Fitting. What a stupid league. 

Las Vegas Locomotives in the UFL won two titles in 2009 and 2010.

Las Vegas Dustdevils won a CISL indoor soccer title in 1994.

Was thinking how this year the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers both don't use their city's name for their location. One uses a nickname and another uses the state. And thought, well, how often does that happen. And when did it happen last.

Well, easy to forget that Tampa Bay is not the city name, because it happened just last year. With Colorado and Tampa Bay.

But here's the history

2023 - Vegas v. Florida

2022 - Colorado v. Tampa Bay

2001 - Colorado v. New Jersey

1996 - Colorado v. Florida

What is interesting, is that this is the first time not to include Colorado. And Carolina, Minnesota, and Arizona have yet to be part of a two-team non-city finals. Carolina has made it to the finals, just only faced Detroit and Edmonton.

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

The location name "Chesapeake" worked only because the nickname "Bayhawks" starts with "Bay", so the full name made "Chesapeake Bay".  That wouldn't be true for any other nickname.

Because otherwise Chesapeake by itself conjures up a connection to one of the other cities in the Norfolk area of Virginia.

11 minutes ago, SpidersReorg said:

 

Redwoods more of northern thing, maybe?

Correct. Sequoia are located in the Sierra Nevada north of Death Valley up toward Yosemite, Tahoe, etc. Redwoods are coastal mostly north of San Francisco to Oregon. Most would associate Redwoods with northern California. 

Sequoia are technically redwoods but most refer to them only as Sequoia. And they're more central or Eastern st best. 

12 hours ago, SCMODS said:

 

Not my prediction but from another site: 

 

Baltimore Whipsnakes 

Columbus Waterdogs

Dallas Atlas

Denver Archers

Los Angeles Redwoods 

New England Cannons

New York Chrome

Toronto Chaos

 

 

 

There's just something really wrong about this combination.

The rest are all servicable.

36 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

I think the Heat's best shot at a win is game 3. If it's game 4, I don't see them pulling it off down 3-0.

Well, I was wrong. Denver got down by too much but made a valiant comeback to make a 3 point game at the buzzer.

7 hours ago, Cujo said:

Denver has the NBA's best player, the deepest roster in the league and the Heat seem totally gassed after that series with Boston. The Nuggets didn't bring their A-game on Thursday and owned every aspect of that game.

 

This series is over. The only question is: Nuggets in 4 or Nuggets in 5?

 

I think the Heat's best shot at a win is game 3. If it's game 4, I don't see them pulling it off down 3-0.

6 hours ago, the admiral said:

Six of the last eight finalists don't have to pay state income tax in a hard-cap/guaranteed-contract league

Always argued that in a cap, there should be an adjustment made for state and federal taxes between teams. Plus you pay tax where the game is played as they're considered traveling performers. So only home games are affected but it's definitely an issue. 

10 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

Washington-Vegas in 2018.

Yep. Just found it after asking. I was thinking it was Vegas. But couldn't remember who they played off the top of my head.. 

2018 Washington v. Vegas

2007 Anaheim v. Ottawa

1999 Dallas v. Buffalo

1996 Colorado v. Florida

1991 Pittsburgh v. Minnesota

1934 Chicago v. Detroit 

Pre NHL/Post Challenge Cup Era

1916 Montreal Canadiens v. Portland Rosebuds

1915 Vancouver Millionaires v. Ottawa Senators 

1 hour ago, TBGKon said:

Guess we'll have a first time winner this year.

When's the last time we've had a guaranteed first time winner before the Finals started? 

Felt like Vegas realized they needed to actually put them away and not just sleepwalk through a game they were expecting to win.

Guess this raises the question... which hurts worse. Getting woodshedded an entire series like the Lakers were to the Nuggets in four... or to be 0-3 and come back for a game 7 and get stomped on your home court and it never really being close?

6 hours ago, panthers_2012 said:

Do they glow in the dark? 

No. But when you close your eyes, you can still see them imprinted on your eyelids.

2 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

It's probably lame to have a favorite part of the Strip, but Mandalay Bay/Luxor/New York New York is my favorite part of the Strip. I'm shocked they can squeeze a baseball stadium in there, but they did manage to squeeze a basketball arena and a football stadium not there far away, so there you are.

Arena yes. Allegiant Stadium is on the other side of I-15 from the strip. 

2 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

 

How would the sun be in the spectators faces when it’s always in the southwest?

 

Also I imagine the roof will be closed most of he time.

Yeah the batters' eye in center field would be due North. Only a lefty would have the sun opposite of them, but only until it sets far enough below the stadium, which will probably be around first pitch. And most of the time the roof will be closed. And when it's not, will probably be early April or late September, when the sun will lower on the horizon anyways.

1 hour ago, TBGKon said:

Its clearly just a first draft for a rendering, we're a long way from a true rendering.

Precisely. Once they start figuring out how many suites/club seats/levels, etc, they'll start having to decide how/where everything will fit. I'm guessing they'll squeeze that foul territory down a bit. But would be neat to keep the curved wall instead of a bunch of angled walls.

Funny thing about that mock-up is... how much do you think the A's would demand from MGM for advertising to face it that direction?

6 minutes ago, VampyrRabbit said:

Buffalo has two teams in the big four (Bills and Sabres), so NFL and MLB have the same number of markets to themselves (Jacksonville for the NFL and SD for MLB).

Also pretty sure that Newark is in Northern NJ.

 

Can't believe I forgot about the Sabres. So, knock that one out.

I know where Newark is, but as I said, in name they claim that area. For markets, yes, they share it with the NYC teams. But just transportation issues alone, northern NJ cities might as well be their own market. Giants and Jets just play there because they have nowhere else in NYC capable. And very different getting fans to travel for 8 games a year than 41 or 81. Same way Green Bay survives with a huge number of Milwaukee-based fans. And when you consider tolls and traffic, the LI and NJ based teams might as well be in separate markets.

(29 miles from Devils to Islanders home arenas while Ravens to Commanders home stadiums are 32.8 miles). But many here would consider DC and Baltimore separate markets.

Dallas just helped out Florida.

5 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

Where would the Brewers even go for potential relocation with the league still looking into expansion?

There's no value for expansion fees IF there's a team on the market for relocation.

As for where Milwaukee could go: Nashville, Las Vegas (haha), Charlotte/Raleigh, San Antonio, Salt Lake City... not really many other options at this point. Portland will never happen now after they went all in with soccer. Every other major market has a team and probably won't let another squeeze in. Other big markets (Memphis, Birmingham, OKC, Orlando, Jacksonville, Sacramento, Norfolk area, Columbus, Buffalo, Indianapolis, etc)  probably don't have the excess fan dollar to support an MLB team for 81 home games a year. They're saturated with what they do have already. MLB is a huge commitment financially. 20k-30k at today's prices for 81 games? There's a reason MLB is the one league without the 'fringe cities'.

NBA has teams like Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Memphis. NHL has American markets such as Raleigh, Columbus, Northern NJ (by identity, if not by playing location) and San Jose. NFL has Jacksonville, Buffalo, and you can kind of say Green Bay even though that's Milwaukee in absentia. Meanwhile, MLB's only market to themselves among Big 4 teams is San Diego. And that's only because the NFL left. MLB is so bad, that they have, currently, four markets with two teams (soon to be 3) because they need a ton of people with a ton of money to remain solvent.

And of those options I listed, i don't think any of them can really afford to support MLB today. MLB is hanging on to the aging/dying fanbase they have with the pockets to support them. The boomer class is their bread and butter. Younger sports fans were priced out of MLB years ago, and many young sports fans missed World Series games in their youth due to the late starts on the East coast to the point that MLB is an afterthought for fan support. It's why MLB is struggling to try to adjust the game to what they think will attract young fans (i.e., 18-35) range.

*(are the Sabres really a professional team?)*

13 minutes ago, Chromatic said:

I think people would cheer against Vegas regardless. I find it amazing how quickly the Knights changed from being the darling upstarts of the league to hated villains. 

Most fans have been years since a sniff of the Stanley Cup Finals, and to see an upstart new teams just practically walk right to the precipice, not going to have a lot of neutral fan support. This time, also, Florida isn't the 'newer' team. Plus, their finals with Colorado as noted above, they were the loveable good guys. Colorado was the villain having just moved from Quebec in their first season going for the title.

It's only 3-1. But going down 28-13, 9 minutes into Game 5... gotta imagine Miami is sweating already. Not a great start. They'd head back to Miami with Boston on fire with two straight, the pressure Miami would be under in Game 6 would be worse than Game 7 of the Finals. There's no way they'd win Game 7 in Boston. They'd have to win Game 6.

13 hours ago, SCMODS said:

 

Welcome to Roller Hockey International 

Las Vegas Flash v. Florida Hammerheads

vs.