Sykotyk

Seems quite excited stroking the star.

ESPN suffered one fatal flaw. Once they wound up with 5 channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, and ESPN Classic), they had huge rights fees to a lot of major properties.... they couldn't show more than one at a time. They couldn't put an NBA game and an MLB game on at the same time on competing channels. So, the extra channels became pointless most of the time. Other than college basketball or football, the additional channels meant a lot of dead space to fill with WSOP or Gymnastics. Or anything else. The additional channels was more about extracting more money from cable providers than it was actually filling those channels with viable content. So, aside from airing those sports, they had to focus on them to such an extent, that the rest of the time was nothing but putrid crap and the talking-head shows. Yeah, PTI was great when it first started, but it died a quick death and it's corpse has been propped up on the network for the last decade or more. But, that nearly $10/mo rights fees paid by cable providers for the Disney Sports Cartel package was charged to all subscribers. And it's those cord-cutters they're hemorrhaging is the problem. ESPN has nothing they can do to entice them to stay. And their carriage agreements stop the concept of 'a la carte' from ever happening. ESPN is on the basic tier, or not at all. The poison pill cable providers can't risk swallowing. But where the network brass has failed their carriage partners, the leagues are going to really feel the brunt of it. Sports relies heavily on random, casual fans tuning into the random big game but otherwise ignore the sport, league, or team the rest of the time. The Super Bowl is the most notable relic of this idea. But, March Mardness, the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA playoffs, World Series, the All-Star games, even things like Sunday Night Baseball or MOnday Night Football rely heavily on casual channel-flippers lingering on the game long enough to register and hopefully long enough to count for most of the game. As cord-cutting continues, and it will, the problem will be those cord-cutters will have fewer and fewer opportunities to randomly watch those sporting events. Children who may vaguely watch and one day become fans won't have access to something that may, in a true a la carte nature, be far too costly. Tightly packaged away with the 'basic cable' package, that sports tier would be the first thing axed by non-diehard fans. And that would up rights fees for everyone who IS a fan. And make their price-to-say-no that much more attainable. It kills future viewership in exchange for milking the most money out of the fan base today. It's short-sighted. MLB saw this in the 80s and 90s where it seemed to focus so much on older, aging fans, instead of cultivating the next wave of fans. Available viewership does that, too.

Given that the AHL is much more a junior circuit than ECHL being a bus league, is there any possibility an AHL team would/could work in Alaska? Or is the market too tapped out to afford it with the added cost of travel? Traveling to San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc is probably much cheaper than ECHL travel. But, tickets/attendance probably requires a bit more than they can support. NAHL is probably the route to take for Anchorage to get a team. With two other NAHL teams in the state, it makes the most sense.

Has any minor league team utilized 'wavy' pinstripes? Not criss-cross or overlap. Evenly spaced, but just zig-zag down the uniform?

It's actually cheaper/easier for Alaska to fly to major cities than the little dots on the map that are ECHL markets traditionally. The reason NAHL teams in Alaska were in the division with Texas teams was because flying to Dallas was actually cheaper. So, sticking them with sporadically placed western teams wasn't as ideal. Not sure if that's still the case. But, other than Seattle (the primary destination of almost all Alaskan flights), you're taking other flights to continue your trip in most cases.

There's two teams in the NAHL in Alaska. Fairbanks and in Soldotna. It would make more sense to switch over to NAHL. With three Alaskan teams, the ability to let the league favor scheduling Alaskan teams, would greatly cut down on travel. And road teams could travel to all three in one trip to get in as many games as possible.

STD Pigs is all I get from that logo.

Orlando Solar Bears, Houston ThunderBears, Knoxville Ice Bears,... there's something wrong with bears according to sports marketers.

I'm definitely in the "Redbirds hit a homerun" camp.

Indoor Football team in Evansville, Indiana were the "Evansville BlueCats". It's a decent name and imagery. Though it's clear the Waco BlueCats did it much better. And I really like the hook W, nice touch.

Salt Lake City Golden Eagles Have at it.

And San Fran Cis Co For Ty Nin Ers is better?

If a school wanted out, I don't see how the ACC could enforce this. Especially with public universities. They wouldn't sign away their rights without some sort of out clause. Every contract has some sort of out for both parties. To not would be utterly foolish and could be argued it wasn't negotiated in good faith by both sides.

Considering it was a name the team contest, I doubt they had logo mock-ups before settling on Chihuahuas. So, to slap together something simple for one game wasn't going to really have their A-game.

I'd only agree because the conferences are geographically divided. MLB and NFL have both overlapped with E/W, E/C/W, and E/N/S/W. But their conferences are nationwide.

If I were betting, UCF gets in just to try to tap into the Florida market. Both for television and for recruits. Much easier to tell a Florida kid that if you play in Kansas you'll be in Florida once or twice in a four year career where it's easy for friends or family to see you play as a bargaining chip. I seriously doubt Houston unless that's something Texas wants to keep an in-state rival in the league and help tap into the Houston market with their Longhorn network if there's little coverage there.

From my home, it's roughly 1 hour to the nearest NHL team. 1.5 hours to the nearest AHL team. 1.75 hours to the nearest ECHL team. 1.75 hours to the nearest OHL team. And 5 minutes to the nearest USHL team. I have no desire to pay NHL prices (nor see the Pens) and the team in the NHL I do like (Blue Jackets) are too far away. AHL is a bit of a haul. As are the ECHL team and OHL team. Closest is USHL and worth the money and time to travel. I've seen ECHL games, and for the price, there isn't much of a step down to USHL. They're just younger trying to get to the professional ranks. Instead of seeing struggling ECHLers, I get to see a player like Kyle Connor who is now with the Winnipeg Jets. I much prefer the lower levels of hockey. I love watching NHL on TV, but have no desire to pay the price to see it in person. Teams reference above in order: Pittsburgh Penguins NHL, Lake Erie Monsters AHL, Wheeling Nailers ECHL, Erie Otters OHL, and Youngstown Phantoms USHL.

Now that's awesome brand identity. Is that all tickets or just the season tickets? Either way, I like it.

The problem with Texas is they don't realize they're the problem.

Please just stay away from the SouthEast Louisiana MetroDawggzz or something horrific like that. New Orleans Jazz. Now, that I would be okay with. A nice little F-U to the NBA at the same time.

NFL Cleveland Browns MLS Columbus Crew SC MLB Cleveland Indians NHL Columbus Blue Jackets USHL Youngstown Phantoms PL Butler BlueSox NYPL Mahoning Valley Scrappers NCAA D-1 Ohio State NCAA D-1 Youngstown State NCAA D-3 Thiel Others: AFL Cleveland Gladiators AHL Lake Erie Monsters ECHL Wheeling Nailers EL Erie SeaWolves* NBA Cleveland Cavaliers NCAA D2 Slippery Rock *-Follow the Indians farm teams, but really cheer for Erie to do well. Went to a lot of their games. Jerry Uht Park is one of the best small minor league stadiums. Even if they are a Tigers affiliate.

I think they captured the 'happy drunk' look with that logo so well.

That's what I was going to post. It just stands out so much. So little white used elsewhere. I like the logo. A little 'too much' for logos for me. But, i do like the alternate winter/summer loons.