Sykotyk

2 hours ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

I would love the supernovas court to have a star pattern or graphic!

Hopefully Year #2 they can go more creative and spend the money to deck out each venue with their own colors and full graphics. The black surround really draws some of the life from the play. Especially through two games each one had a team in all-black.

On 1/18/2024 at 11:33 AM, Digby said:

Orlando's stadium is being renamed to Inter&Co Stadium. I am losing my mind at how dumb this is. What a time to be alive.

 

https://www.orlandocitysc.com/news/inter-co-naming-rights-orlando-soccer-specific-stadium 

In other news, the Cleveland Browns announce their stadium is being renamed Steelers & Co Stadium.

51 minutes ago, tBBP said:

So...where is/what happens/what happened to Dorian Thompson-Robinson in all of this? I know he was a rookie this season, but from what I remember of what little I saw of him he looked pretty decent.

Third string, probably. PJ is gone. Any other option is probably gone. If you can get Flacco to be backup, great. He's #2.  DTR still has some issues to address, but I also thought he would've done better if not thrown to the wolves the way he was. Stefanski's biggest knock is that he is 'too smart for his own good'. He never goes with the obvious call, and instead will throw a 20 yard pass play out there on a 3rd and 1. Winning a close game? Let's stop running the ball and instead have the QB throw three straight plays.

35 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

You'd have to imagine any weekend games would draw the best potential crowds. Want to believe Omaha would've got 15K in the house the game been on Friday night or Saturday.

kind of surprising they didn't start with an 'opening match' type weekend event with one game starting a week earlier, and put it on a prime day/time. This was a great showing for an opener mid-week. But curious if it keeps high numbers moving into a weekend match. Also curious if maybe the weekday schedule was better for arena availability/pricing.

1 hour ago, Luigi74 said:

But this guy doesn't seem to be a normal/legit media person, he's posting click bait conspiracy theory nonsense. 

If only Twitter had a way to tell the difference. 

8 hours ago, BottomlessPitt said:

Obviously there won't be expansion for next season but maybe for 2026-27.  Option 2: The Coyotes are really relocating (yeah right). 

The grip that the Phoenix market has on the NHL is unparalleled. But if they ever did move, SLC would be a decent city to move to. Has the arena (though another NBA first venues with the one end with obstructed views until a new venue can be built), and the city is big enough to support it. And it's a market where you would think ice hockey would do well.

1 hour ago, Germanshepherd said:

Had to work so unfortunately couldn’t be there, but great opening night for the league. 
 

Nearly a reverse sweep and a fifth set that finished 15-13. Only one uncompetitive set too, that bodes well for competitive balance within in the league.

 

Play was clearly high-level, and the people I know who were there had great things to say about the atmosphere. 
 

Hopefully the 11k is consistent for attendance. Local broadcast was saying a chunk was grade school classes and youth volleyball teams, so I guess we’ll see. 

they said in the broadcast that college students have one section they can get tickets free by showing their student ID to get in. So, curious how many utilize it. But it will definitely help the atmosphere which should help the other ticket sales.

7 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

It will probably take the NFL having their own "Tim Donaghy Scandal" for Congress to do something.  

As with basketball, I think point shaving is going to be the goal of any potential scandal. I don't think they're going to affect winners and losers, too much. They're just going to make sure heavy favorites fail to win by as much as the spread thinks they can win by.

Take a bad team +14, and they don't have to win, but it's easy for some drive-killing holding calls or a DPI by the favorites to put them in scoring range to make a game closer than it is. And if the underdog really is doing well and going to win, no malfeasance needed to keep it going.

5 minutes ago, McCall said:

The A's playing in Salt Lake is not the equivalent of Nashville playing in Memphis. Those two cities have a bitter rivalry and Memphis rejected the "little brother" sentiment of being only a temporary NFL city instead of a full-time one.

You think SLC fans would flock to an AAA venue to support a team destined for Las Vegas? I know the Memphis argument about 'little brother refusing to support big brother' but this was basically the first/only time this type of 'moving markets' and having a layover in another market was really even tried. Carolina played a year in Clemson. Bears played at U of Illinois for a season but never were 'moving', it was just Bears fans making the drive. Even Packers playing in Milwaukee was still an established team just playing a few games closer to a good portion of their already existing fan base.

But the NFL's attempt in Memphis failed for a lot of reasons. The 'little brother' argument was the easiest to not admit their mistake and instead just blamed Memphis for their problems.

If you survey everyone in the Memphis area and asked them 5 questions of why they didn't support Tennessee, certainly that would be a reason listed. But would it be THE reason it failed? No other reason?  I don't buy it. I think a market just didn't want to support a team that wasn't theirs. Regardless the name slapped on the team to make it palatable.

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

 

This is patently false.  Why on earth would people in LV go to an outdoor game in a non-major-league park in the summer time to watch a horrible team that they've had no previous connection to?  Also, why would they even be fans for any reason other than the city name on the jersey?  A team gets a grace period to endear themselves to a new location.  

 

I don't think people not showing up in Las Vegas in year one means anything about the type of market it will be.  I don't know if it will or won't be any good, but that first year (maybe even two) don't indicate anything.

 

 

Also, comparing a baseball relo to any other sport is not fair.  Baseball has 81 home dates to fill.  Eighty one.  It's going to be rough - I just think it's a good strategy to spare Vegas of that roughness and get off on the right foot in a new park with a (hopefully) decent team.

Why do Las Vegans go to Aviators games and sell out frequently? The stadium sits in the foothills west of town and has good air flow. Also is situated to avoid the sun for evening games. Sure, prices would go up, but they'd be watching major league players. And it would be THEIR team they're supporting. And even then, you'd have the 'visiting fan' effect that LV is counting on anyways. But the whole time you'd have "Las Vegas A's" or whatever the name is to grow support over a few years before your shiny new state of the art facility opens.

50 minutes ago, BBTV said:

If SLC gets a permanent major-league team, I'll hold a contest for the board to pick the most humiliating user name that Infrared will allow, and I'll change to that for a year.  I'll also close every post with "but what do I know, I'm a flaming idiot."

 

It makes sense for them to not play in LV during the interim period.  Being awful isn't a good way to develop a fan base in a new market.  Their best plan would be to settle for the least-uncomfortable out-of-market place, and then overpay and do whatever it takes to put themselves in position to be competitive on day 1 in Vegas.

But they can't possibly make that much money in a back-up city. NFL tried it with Memphis and gave up. At least the Raiders staying in Oakland was because it was Oakland. While the Chargers sat in LA (roughly) at StubHub for a while before Sofi was built.

Plus, this idea that a new team to a city must storm out of the gates is rough. If you can't draw fans without winning year 1, you don't have fans at all.

Saw the Columbus Fury site. Surprised that the cheapest tickets were $25. I know inflation has happened. But, to not have a single ticket for Nationwide arena cheaper than $25 seems like an issue. Unless they plan on a lot of group sales and promotions/discounts. I figured they'd be closer to minor league baseball prices. At least for the worst seats. Meanwhile, the most expensive ticket is courtside, at $150/gm.

4 hours ago, JerseyJimmy said:

 

where is this anti-Ravens sentiment coming from? I'd take them in a heartbeat over KC, even against the Niners (who I also genuinely like). granted, the 2012 season (and by extension SB XLVII) is what made me a serious sports fan in the first place, so there might be a bit of nostalgia bias there.

Browns fan.

49 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

We have just seen a running back, on 3rd Down in a playoff game, get slowed down just enough to be stopped short of a 1st because a defender was able to get a hold of, pull, and tear his extra-long undershirt. So that trend may start fading.

That was one strong undershirt, too.

Easy to say that the Lions are the neutral fans choice to support. And no, if you like Taylor Swift, you're not a neutral fan choosing to support Kansas City.

Bills-Lions is THE first choice for Super Bowl matchups.

DET-BUF

DET-KC

DET-BAL

SF-BUF

SF-KC

SF-BAL

In that order.

3 minutes ago, Germanshepherd said:

It was a first down with two timeouts and 50 seconds left. 
 

At that point chuck it out of bounds and live to fight another down. 

And he had open space to his right to buy time. Run it out of bounds, etc. He panicked. It's really that simple.

Sports Illustrated as an institution struggled in the digital world. They were one of the first sports reporting entities with a very thorough and working website. I remember using it back in the late 90s. But, as ESPN and other sites advanced, SI never really moved en masse to digital. Trying desperately to keep the magazine business their primary focus. This led to a slow death, but  a death nonetheless.

SI had a TV channel and seemed like they'd be a player in that regard. This was back before a real competitor to ESPN as a national entity was even a thing. You had the regional sports nets, but not a national sports network. But that never got the sports properties to make it big. They had National Lacrosse League games as one of the primary things on the network. I remember watching them back then. I knew that cnnsi.com had become the default web address for SI for years after the network failed.

I just don't understand why they wouldn't, if they were faced with an AAA stadium hosting the team, get them into Las Vegas Ballpark, deal with the small crowd, but start growing the fanbase asap. Move the Aviators for a few years if needed to avoid competing directly for dates or ticket sales. You'd at least have the fans of the city have the team branded Las Vegas playing in, proverbially, Las Vegas, and though the threshold to get in to see a game would be quite high with ticket prices, at least they'd be there. In Sacramento, or three years with triple-digit fan support in Oakland is not the way.

2 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

They don't like being wrong. I don't think it's any more than that.

That's why the crew on the field should not be doing the replay. They're incredibly biased. 

1 hour ago, infrared41 said:

 

Find me someone who can go outside and be able to tell the difference between -30 and -59.

Really the only difference is how quickly frostbite or death can happen. You're not really gonna be able to tell the difference. 

3 hours ago, dont care said:

To be fair having QB’s hit 4,000 yards wasn’t an every day occurrence 20 years ago

It wasn't too long ago that 3000 yards was an accomplishment to brag about. 

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

That's what I'm hearing in regards to Anthony Becht discussing some of the rule book last week. The USFL version required less explanation on how it was to be conducted to the referees than the XFL version. 

Thing is, if the NFL keeps kickoffs over the next decade-plus... they're gonna look like the XFL kickoffs did. Far less 'full speed' impacts but the excitement of a possible return. I doubt they'd go the AAF 4th and 15/4th and 12 route.

On 1/5/2024 at 6:31 PM, Red Comet said:

If I’m in charge of a new league, I can’t afford to stubbornly stick to “tradition” because there isn’t any sort of tradition yet. Tabula rasa and all that. How does a league last long enough to make traditions? By getting the most eyeballs on my product. And how do I get the most eyeballs on my product? By having the best matchups possible. It’s great Arlington won, but, they never should have made it in the first place. 

Week 1 they needed these teams to host:

DC, Michigan, St. Louis and Birmingham. 

DC v. Houston game 1 in prime time. 

Birmingham v. Arlington the next day in the afternoon game 1

Michigan v. San Antonio middle of the day, game 3

St. Louis v. Memphis prime time regional rivalry with huge crowd. 

I get what they're trying to do but the XFL already tried to make Arlington happen in game 1 last time and it was a moderate flop. It's a baseball stadium that struggles to have atmosphere. 

Happy to see a different *o*th Dakota State team win back to back titles. 

2 minutes ago, Dynasty said:

I'm half convinced that the refs know when a penalty is a penalty, but just simply choose not to call it to control the game. That was a delayed hit on Fields there.

How else can officials miss that? It's not like the ball carrier isn't being watched at all times.