I’ve worked concessions at Giants games since 1978. Back then, a 24-ounce beer cost $3.75 and the average ticket to a game was less than $4.00.
But even though the price of a beer has gone all the way up to $10.25, my co-workers and I have been hit with wage freezes for the past three years. While many of us scrape by with multiple jobs, living paycheck to paycheck in low-income housing, Centerplate and the Giants are raking it in. Every game is sold out, and the lines for garlic fries and hot dogs are longer than ever. The value of the Giants has increased 40% and its revenues have risen 14% while we’ve been rewarded with a Giant Zero.
Our primary dispute is with Centerplate, a South Carolina based company subcontracted by the Giants to run concessions at AT&T Park. Our contract with Centerplate expired in 2010, and we have been unable to reach a new deal. Centerplate’s proposal would severely limit our access to health care and maintain the past three years of wage freezes. That’s why we’ve voted to authorize a strike at AT&T Park.
Centerplate has told us that the Giants take more than 50% of all food and beverage revenues. That means that out of a $10 beer, Centerplate is left with less than $5 to pay for the beer, the delivery of the beer, the workers’ wages and benefits, and still earn a profit.
The giant share that the Giants take is a big part of the problem!
“I would never tell people how to spend their hard earned disposable income but sub 10,000 fans back to back nights to see the hottest team in baseball is not getting it done,” complained Indians reliever Frank Herrmann after a pair of midweek evening games versus Oakland were played to tens of thousands of empty seats at Progressive Field. To his credit, Herrmann set off a minor craze amongst teammates and management by giving away tickets via his Twitter account, though the Plain-Dealer’s Bud Shaw warns it’ll take more than 6 weeks of decent baseball to turn the tide (“It’s just so much easier to narrow it down to bad fans or cheap ownership and cover them up with blame”).
The Indians don’t need a hot month or two. They’ve been 30-15 as recently as two seasons ago after all. They don’t need a Cy Young candidate to attract big crowds. They had two winners in consecutive seasons. They need consecutive playoff appearances, and perhaps another World Series appearance, at the very least to move the needle. That’s the only way they’re going to put Indians’ tickets back on the family Christmas list.
The comparisons between the relatively blind allegiance awarded the Browns versus the tepid following of the Indians is as moot now as it was when closer Chris Perez raised it. This is a football town, which is not the same as saying it’s a terrible baseball town.
I once attended a press conference at Auburn where basketball coach Sonny Smith was announcing his departure, in part because he felt basketball was an afterthought in football-crazed Alabama. Head football coach Pat Dye, who was also the athletic director, made the announcement.
First question: “Sonny, tell us about your decision to leave.”
Second question: “Coach Dye, how’s football recruiting going?”
Cleveland isn’t quite Auburn, Ala. But waking up the sleeping giant in the 1990s required a new ballpark, a robust economy, an exciting team with a Murderer’s Row lineup, a poor division and the sense that October baseball was a given. Oh, and the Browns moving to Baltimore.
While there’s been no shortage of media sneering over the respective efforts of Rob Thomas and Zach Braff to raise funds for new film projects via Kickstarter, I did recently propose the hi-tech begging efforts on behalf of the proposed Dino Costa “documentary” (read : fluff job) as an especially desperate measure. That said, it would take a very, very sad project to out-suck Mr. Costa in the overall scheme of things, and it would appear that such a fundraiser has come to public attention. SF Weekly’s Katy St. Clair chronicles the shakedown attempts on the part of Fight Club, a budding schlock rock combo with a rather fearsome lineage ; the group includes the sons of Neil Schon, Greg Kihn and Sammy Hagar.
The son of tequila entrepreneur and rock star Sammy Hagar, worth an estimated $120 million, was starting a grassroots campaign to get his band off the ground. “Unlike the perception you may expect,” Aaron Hagar wrote on Indiegogo, “We do not share in the lifestyle and success of our parents. We need your help to fulfill this dream.”
The band is trying to raise a whopping $103,562 to cover recording costs. Which, WTF? The concept of raising cash via crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo is au courant, but needing that much money to put out music seems a concept stuck in ’70s stadium rock. All you need now is a good Mac and, better still, good music. Unfortunately, the demos FightClub has released so far sound like something that would play during the credits of Porky’s Revenge, or during the montage from an ’80s teen flick, where a nerd transforms himself into a stud to shock everyone at the prom. It’s hard rock reminiscent of Sammy Hagar, with booty-bass drums, high-pitched vocals, and sah-weeet guitar licks behind lyrics about fast women, all with zero irony.
FightClub has promo videos of the project on the Indiegogo site, along with exuberant messages from Aaron. Goal: $103,562. Raised as of press time: $21,006. “I’m speechless,” says Aaron in a YouTube post. “We’re not even a week into this thing and we’ve reached over $10,000.” Judging from the comments, most of the early contributions seemed to be from friends, which might explain why they soon fell off. (The campaign began at the end of April and will go until May 9.)
Not that the boys aren’t trying to sweeten the pot. A $25 donation gets contributors two digital song downloads, but $2,500 gets you dinner with FightClub: “Imagine the stories we have to tell?” the pitch goes. “All travel and accommodation expenses to L.A. need to be paid by yourself in about a 45-day window while we are recording. Limited to 4 guests per day. We cover dinner bro.” But wait, there’s more! If you throw in an additional $2,500 and bring your donation up to $5,000, you get dinner with the band plus a day in the studio. Mas tequila!
I just started helping out on the community side for an NYC startup called TradeSports and was hoping to get some advice from you as we try to find our sea legs. Can’t Stop the Bleeding is pretty sweet and it looks like you’re getting pretty good engagement on your posts.
We’re a mobile second-screen sports app in the fantasy genre that’s premised around a team’s real-time win probability during the game. That chance to win is constantly changing, and we seed that number based on a proprietary algorithm as well as users’ in-app actions.
We think that a crowdsourced and statistically driven win probability that updates during the game is fairly interesting from a content standpoint. But we’re trying to find the most useful and compelling application of this data outside of our game.
Since you understand content and the average sports fan, I was hoping you could offer some advice! Ideally, we’d like to create a community around our blog as well as our game and would love to hear your thoughts on how we might do that. If you’ve got some time and are willing, I’d love to hear your pointers!
Appreciate it.
All the best, Pat benmarket.com
Dear Pat,
whenever I’m presented with a question regarding a mobile second-screen sports app in the fantasy genre, there’s really only one course of action I can recommend. Have you ever thought about trepenation?
(Editor’s Note : Earlier this month, we received word from Yelp.com that sometime CSTB contributor, baseball exec and tireless consumer advocate Randy L. of the Bronx, had been banned from the site for a second time, with his most recent reviews of NYC restaurants and merchants lost to the digital ether. However, with the assistance of a team of forensic specialists from M.I.T, we have successfully recovered one of Randy’s most recent essays, a March 30, 2013 critique of the elite NYC gym, Peak Performance – GC)
I’ll start this review by making it clear that I have never personally made use of Peak Performance’s facilities. Between my important work in the Bronx and my charitable efforts on behalf of Teach A Labrador To Read, I don’t have a lot of time for primping and preening in front of mirrors like some desperate male hustler. Don’t get me wrong, physical fitness is great — I wish someone would explain the concept to CC Sabathia — but much of what passes for self-improvement is really an all-too-predictable manifestation of terrified male insecurity.
All of that said, I have sincere respect and appreciation for the ownership and management of this gymnasium ; if any of them would like to try their hand at an internship with America’s Premier Sports Franchise, I’d certainly keep an open mind. Why am I so bullish on Peak Performance? I’d be violating a confidence (and possibly some right to privacy laws) if I told you the full story, so instead contemplate the following, purely hypothetical scenario (if you’ll humor me for a moment) :
Let’s imagine there’s a fabulously successful professional sports franchise, and despite cosmetic appearances that suggest a pair of genetic lottery winners are the club’s brain trust, the operation is actually being run by a man with the initials “R.L.” (an executive, I should stress, of the highest intellect and capacity for caring). This baseball executive has long suspected one of his most highly paid employees of dabbling in illegal performance enhancing substances, and with the assistance of a towel boy at an exclusive Manhattan health spa, has obtained crude, hidden-camera footage of said employee being injected in the buttocks.
(Also, there’s a video clip of him taking human growth hormone, too)
Most establishments upon learning of such nefarious video taping measures, would be susceptible to a bribe rather than destroying the evidence and having the towel boy deported. But not the spa in this story. Those guys know how to stand up for their customers, even the ones who have personal “trainers” that look like Wendi Richter with a zucchini in her pants (not that you were staring).
Though I am sure the executive (who must remain as nameless as he is brilliant and handsome) regrets being unable to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement with this gym (or shall we say, “wellness center?) at least there’s someone in this G-d forsaken world with an ounce of integrity left.
Liverpool F.C.’s planned expansion to longtime home Anfield comes after the club scrapped plans to build a new stadium on Stanley Park ; Liverpool City Council is currently attempting to purchase neighboring homes, but as the Guardian’s David Conn explains, many locals are “filled with anger and heartbreak at the area’s dreadful decline and at the club for deepening the blight by buying up houses since the mid-1990s then leaving them empty” (“their resentment is compounded by the fact that they are being forced to move so that Liverpool, and their relatively new US owner, Fenway Sports Group, can make more money)”.
Residents’ bitterness derives from when the club started buying houses in Lothair Road, without saying they were doing so or making their intentions clear. The club used an agency to approach some residents, while some houses were bought by third parties then sold on quickly to the club. That left residents with the belief, which has endured ever since, that Liverpool were buying up houses by stealth, to keep prices low.
The club have never publicly explained in detail what they did, and declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about their historic behaviour and current plans. Neighbours, many of whom have lived in Anfield for decades, remembering a vibrant, flourishing area, believe Liverpool bought and left houses empty to deliberately blight the area, intending it would prompt people to leave and drive house prices down.
Fenway Sport Group’s current plan envisages expanding the Main and Anfield Road stands, with both sides of Lothair Road, and one side of Alroy Road, demolished. A hotel is proposed behind the enlarged Main Stand on the footprint of Lothair Road’s even side and Alroy, because a commercial property does not have the same right to light as homes. A development, probably bars and restaurants, with training promised for young people, is proposed opposite the corner of the Kop and Centenary Stand. With Liverpool having purchased a whole row on Anfield Road, they have already knocked those houses down, so there is no obstacle to enlarging that stand.
James McKenna, chair of the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ union, says the fans have sympathy for the club’s neighbours. “The stadium expansion is all about the club making more money, and fans will have to pay more for tickets,” McKenna says. “To do that, Liverpool have played a part in derelict houses, streets boarded up. It’s a blot on LFC’s record.”
OK, that’s not really what former NY Times’ columnist Murray Chass has to say to baseball historian/collector and former half of 3rd Bass, Peter Nash, but there is considerable irony in the former’s tarring the latter as a mere blogger who “has no and needs no accountability…free to write whatever he wants and the object of his viciousness has no recourse”, especially given Murray’s impossible to avoid boner for Mike Piazza.
The biggest mystery about Nash’s operation is how he has eluded criminal charges. Obviously, no one who might have had reason or grounds to file a complaint has chosen to do so. The Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney didn’t even initiate charges against Nash’s father after a 2008 audit found that he had helped himself to $52,551 from a development fund at Brooklyn’s Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School
Ray Nash, who had been president of the school since 2001, resigned in June 2012, ending a 48-year association with the school. The D.A. said his investigation found no evidence of criminal intent, as if secretly taking someone else’s money without permission doesn’t represent criminal intent.
What was the elder Nash’s intent in taking the money? He took it to give to his son so he could avoid foreclosure on his Cooperstown, N.Y., home.
People have gone to jail for taking less than $50,000 that didn’t belong to them. It’s called theft or embezzlement, but Ray Nash very likely escaped prosecution because of his prominence in the community. Had the father been prosecuted, it was likely that the son also would have been as the recipient of the appropriated money.
“When they got caught taking money unauthorized, Nash took memorabilia and got a loan against the memorabilia,” Robert Lifson, owner of Robert Edward Auctions related. “He sold or pawned this memorabilia, and the school took the proceeds of the memorabilia.”
However, Lifson said, the memorabilia belonged not to Nash but to him, and Lifson sued the school for the money. “We settled,” he said. “They gave me all the money, $53,000.”
If you’re wondering why a beef jerky manufacturer would turn to Bret Boone as their celebrity spokesperson, the answer is pretty simple. Tom Candiotti was indisposed.
Given that Ike Davis has now hit .180 or lower in two consecutive Aprils, perhaps the Mets would be better served denying he came out of their organization? Still, if they’re trying to sell tickets for a not-so-appealing midweek interleague contest, the above shirt is slightly more appealing than one reading “OUR OUTFIELD IS A MONUMENTAL EMBARRASSMENT” on the front, and “I WISH I WAS DEAD” on the back.
(the late Larry Miller, shown during a rare moment when he wasn’t encouraging his players to come out of the closet)
In the past day and a half since Jason Collins announced to the world that he buys dogs from Mike Miller is gay, those who’ve found fault with the story have mostly centered on issues of sexuality and morality. Writing for The Guardian on Tuesday, columnist Jason Farago took an altogether different tact, alternately bemoaning the media diss of Martina Navratilova and Brittney Greiner (“It’s slightly embarrassing to see how many adjectives were required to assign the requisite significance to Collins’s coming out: the first active (1) male (2), openly (3) gay player in a major (4) American (5) team (6) sport..none of those, somehow, mattered to Sports Illustrated, which had the gall to headline its cover story on Collins as ‘The Gay Athlete’ – complete with definite article, as if he was the only one”) and what he considers to be a cynical cash-grab.
Why has the coming out of one talented but not tremendously distinguished player, a free agent for goodness’ sake, mattered so much more than those of gold medalists and World Cup champions? Well, why does anything matter in America? The NBA and the other American pro leagues are where the money is, and far from discouraging disclosures like Collins’, teams and advertisers are now practically begging athletes to come out – salivating at the marketing potential of a gay man in the pros. Brendon Ayanbadejo, an advocate for gay equality in football, told a reporter this month that studios already have movie scripts ready to go. Asked about the prospects of a gay player in the NBA, the unctuous Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said, “It would be a marketing goldmine for all involved.”
Even the homophobes are starting to get that. Tim Hardaway, who “let it be known” that he hates gays, got banished from the NBA’s all-star game and saw his endorsements evaporate. This week, Brittney Griner, probably the highest-profile gay athlete in America, disclosed that she had inked a major endorsement deal with Nike. She wouldn’t say how much it was worth, only that it was “big time”. Jason Collins, now at the tail end of his career, probably won’t enjoy the same golden benefits, but somebody in the NBA or the NFL will very soon. Is that something to celebrate? Of course it is, on one level: sport is more than just a spectacle, and every action that makes gay life more visible is worth taking.
But while Collins has done something right and brave, the PR flood that’s accompanied it should remind us that sport is not some pure land of athletic contests, but a multibillion-dollar industry whose motivations are not exactly altruistic. We should all respect and celebrate gay achievements – but I fear the real desire for openly gay athletes comes from a hunger to sell sneakers.
I’m gonna presume that despite bragging he has “no special interest in the glossy corporate spectacle of American sport”, Farago has some inside sources in the front offices of NBA franchises. Otherwise, I’d be slightly surprised to learn the Utah Jazz are breathing down players’ necks, “practically begging” them to come out.
Former Colts/Ravens DT Tony Siragusa appeared on Sirius/XM’s Howard Stern show last autumn and discussed a passage from his recently published autobiography in which he contends with a bout of in-game incontinence. Perhaps with Sirgausa’s Walker Prize-winner in mind, the makers of Depends brand adult diapers have sought his pitchman skills for an advertisement Business Insider’s Laura Stampler calls, “heavy on the machismo”.
The state of Siragusa’s bladder control is currently unknown given that he never refers to suffering from the problem in the Ogilvy-created ad. He merely acts as a leakage coach. This is a different tactic from Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s strategy for a Poise ad campaign three years ago in which Whoopi Goldberg admitted to suffering from a little “spritz” every now and then. K-C Corp owns Depend and Poise.
Other underwear protector celebrity spokespeople include Lisa Rinna, from “Days of our Lives,” and Kirstie Alley, who played the Poise Light Bladder Leakage Fairy.
“Men entering the category are pretty confused,” Depend brand director Liz Metz told Ad Age, continuing that Siragusa was chosen because of “the masculinity and normalcy of the condition and making men know they’re not alone in this journey.”
…though perhaps “desperate” or “pathetic” would be a better adjective in this case than “confusing”. I realize there’s some folks who want to keep print media alive, but this probably isn’t what they have in mind.
Perhaps “dubious” or “ill-fated” would be a better word. Perhaps there is an individual willing to shell out $30 or more for a Nashville Pussy belt buckle in the year 2013, and if that is indeed the case, that’s all the more reason for eBay to keep details of these transactions VERY secret.
Greeting, Dipshits, drones and other followers of the sexless, directionless existence that seems to consume this blog’s readers (if not its contributors, advertisers and web hosting companies). Under normal circumstances, a 1-4 start for The World’s Premier Professional Sporting Franchise would be of major concern, especially in the Tri-State area where the daily travails of the New York Yankees tend to dominate the waking thoughts of media and easily manipulated consumers alike.
Not this week, however. The abusive acts of Rutgers’ Mike Rice have rightfully maintained center stage, and I think I speak for the entire Yankee Universe when I ask, “why couldn’t the tape have been leaked on Opening Day?” Not only would we have been spared nearly as many shots of a near-empty New Yankee Stadium on the evening highlights shows, but hours devoted to Rice firing basketballs at the heads and crotches of his young charges would’ve left little time to showcase quotes from a useless fraud who isn’t fit to wear the Yankee uniform.
There is no question in my mind that Rice had to go, and if the school president continues to insist he was thoroughly unaware of what was going on, well, it wouldn’t be the first time that a brilliant young executive had to take the heat for the incompetency of his bosses. Sure, I could well be describing a regular occurrence in offices that look very similar to mine, but I’m also talking about Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti falling on his sword in a manner that strikes me as unnecessary as it is noble.
The brief hit to Rutgers’ reputation is nothing compared to the vast sums of money at stake with the school’s TV deals and move to the Big Ten, none of which could’ve been achieved without Pernetti’s leadership and real-world expertise. So he initially mishandled the Rice situation —- why punish future generations of New Jersey student athletes by removing a visionary department head?
I realize that amateur athletics and professional sports aren’t always analogous. For starters, the former are far more exploitative (though we’re trying very hard to catch up!), but there are some lessons that can be learned from the professional ranks. Let’s say, hypothetically, there’s a world class baseball franchise, one far more decorated than their pathetic, creatively and financially bankrupt crosstown rivals (not to mention their alleged divisional foe some 200 miles north). What if that franchise had a general manager who made national headlines when cheating on his wife with some mentally insane librarian, leaving him with almost zero credibility within the organization? What if the same general manager suffered a serious injury shortly afterwards when jumping out of an airplane, the very sort of foolhardy stunt that would cause us to void the contract of one of our players (if we could get away with it)?
Would that GM’s immediate superior be within his rights to demand a resignation? Would the team president accept said resignation and subsequently pull the plug on his own glittering career to save face for a pair of siblings whose combined IQ probably isn’t even half of that of Robert L. Barchi? You’re telling me because one jackass has brought unwanted attention to his institution, the person chiefly responsible for keeping the lights on needs to suffer the same fate? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS?
Within days, someone will have done something so monumentally stupid, Pernetti’s transgressions (if not those of Rice) will be long forgotten (my money’s on Doug Gottlieb). Meanwhile, someone of far lesser qualifications will swoop in and the reap the spoils for all of Pernetti’s hard work. Thank fucking G-d a certain 27 Time World Champion baseball team isn’t run that way, right?
Tim, if you’re reading this (and I know you are), I firmly believe that one error in judgement (ie. your failure to lower the boom on Rice ages ago) doesn’t call for another (your gutless decision to leave Rutgers). That said, I also believe that persons with your skill-set deserve a second chance in the sports industry, and if you’re interested in a position as Michael Kay‘s Personal Taster, I’m pretty sure we can work something out.
“Gucci engages with our clients across many passion points,” said Robert Triefus, chief marketing officer at Gucci, adding that each season a select group of consumers like Mr. Bissinger is invited to attend runway shows, visit the company’s birthplace in Florence and tour the workshops where the magic is made. “These engagements allow our loyal clients to understand the history, tradition, quality and passion behind our products.” As for the rest of the article: No comment.
The Bissinger shopping jones may have been “an extreme case, but it is only in terms of amount,” according to April Lane Benson, the author of “To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop” and an expert on compulsive shopping disorder. “It’s called the smiled-upon disorder,” Dr. Benson added of a psychological malady thought to affect as many as 18 million Americans.
Certainly it was smiled upon by Gucci, cast in Mr. Bissinger’s account as a willing enabler of his need to shake off a repressive upbringing, the stylistic puritanism foisted on heterosexual white men, and the creep of middle age.
“The ‘whales’ thing was a little shocking,” said the editor of one men’s magazine, speaking anonymously for fear of offending Gucci, a major advertiser, and referring to the standard casino practice of pampering its biggest gamblers. “It’s not like Milan is Vegas.”
“That is the No. 1 thing that makes me the sorriest and the saddest,” Samson said. “That means someone is not going to make a memory with their parent or child or client just because of me or Jeffrey. I think about it every day and it ruins my day every day. Try to look past that. Jeffrey cares. He really cares. He’s misunderstood. What he cares about is winning.”
Samson plows forward, unable to hear how he sounds, unable to hear that his conciliatory words are incongruous, and drowned out by the scoffs of distrusting fans who feel betrayed.
“I and we are amazingly and incredibly and heartfelt-sorry for how it all went down,” he said. “I just want people to come to games and enjoy baseball again. People are upset and angry and rightfully so, but I hope they will try to look past that and just enjoy a baseball game.”
It’s as if it is a pure coincidence that people are upset and angry directly related to what Loria has done. Samson and Loria advising fans to look past their anger and “enjoy baseball again” is something like the man who robbed your house telling you to enjoy your safety and peace of mind again.
Might Gioncarlo Stanton even be traded this season?
“I don’t know,” Samson said. The pause grew, and grew awkward. “I would say very unlikely,” he filled it in.
(above : noted superfan William “Major” Ligue, shown with trusted advisers, contemplating moving AL allegiances from Chicago to Boston)
It’s only right and natural fair that if I’m gonna mock the Miami Marlins for their inability to pack their garish eyesore of a stadium for Opening Day, Boston’s plans to address poor 2013 ticket sales receive equal coverage. On Tuesday, the Boston Globe’s Amalie Benjamin reported the Red Sox are slashing prices on beer ($5, reduced from $7.50 for a 12 ounce cup), offering a free hot dog with each dog purchased, and providing free grub for kids under 14 for all games in April. “Why just April?” asks Over The Monster’s Marc Normandin, before answering his own question (“Presumably, the hope right now is that only April needs to be promised”)
If the Sox are doing well in April, and tickets are flying into the hands of fans once more, cheaper concessions aren’t as much of a priority. If the Sox start slow once more, though, then maybe the deal ends up leaking into May in order to keep people coming and bring back some of the idea that Fenway is a place you can take the family to see a game without breaking the bank. There’s no need, from a business perspective, to show that hand before you need to, though. And, as much as people like to forget this sometimes, a business perspective is just what a Major League Baseball team like the Red Sox have.
The Red Sox don’t expect Fenway to be a ghost town, but a look at a ticket resale site like Ace Ticket gives you an idea of how much easier it might be to get to games than it normally is. While seats are available for the home opener at a starting price of $95, the second home game of the season starts at $9 — the only game over $30 for a starting price is on April 15, the 11:05 am game against the Rays on Patriots’ Day.Five of April’s 17 home games have tickets starting at $9 at Ace, and even weekends are much cheaper than you’d expect them to be if you’ve been paying attention to the secondary market the last few years.
“These games are sure to make a huge splash,” exclaimed IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes. “Our fans are always looking for the next big thing and these ‘X-Stream games’ are another example of our commitment to providing an unparalleled entertainment experience in all aspects of Coca-Cola Park, including our restrooms.”
When a user approaches the urinal, the video console flips into gaming mode, using patented technology that detects both his presence and stream. Algorithms then allow the user to engage with the screen by aiming in different directions to test their agility and knowledge. The games are 100% intuitive and custom-built to provide a unique user interface along with an easy and seamless experience. The Urinal Gaming System was created and developed by United Kingdom-based Captive Media. For more information on Captive Media, or to see a video of the p-controlled video games, visit www.captive-media.co.uk.
Upon completion (an average of over 55 seconds according to published research), users will receive their score and a code to enter. They can then view their position on the leader board or check the website to see how they stack up with the rest of that night’s competition! High scores will be displayed in real-time across various videoboard displays within Coca-Cola Park.
“Instead of Groupons why don’t they just go ahead and open the gates and eventually just let people come in free and see what happens,” a caller to Andy Slater’s 64o AM show said.
“A home opener in Major League Baseball is supposed to be a special day where you barely have to promote it. It promotes itself. Its a home opener. People go,” Slater said.
When asked about the offer, the Marlins issued a statement saying, “It is our priority to ensure that the excitement and energy of Major League Baseball and of the award-winning Marlins Park, remain cost-effective and accessible to all families throughout the South Florida community. The Marlins, along with many sports teams throughout the country, have used and will continue to use Groupon along with other social marketing sites to help accomplish that goal. In addition, as usual, fans may also benefit from special promotions and deals available at http://www.marlins.com.”
While Slater suggests showing the NCAA hoops title game on the Marlins Park Jumbotron Opening Night (especially if the University Of Miami advances that far), perhaps there’s a way for the club to work out a cross-marketing arrangement with another local business that’s under siege. Is no one answering the phone at Biogenesis?
(Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs – eager to learn more about this public-donations-towards-payroll business)
Whether it’s a vehicle to raise funds for an important documentary film or just a neat way for Ume to hire Creed’s engineer, Kickstarter.com has been an unrivaled success in the burgeoning electronic shakedown crowdsourcing field. After producers of a proposed “Veronica Mars” movie raised $2 million in half a day, The Hockey Writers’ Jameson Cooper suggests, “based on how Kickstarter is taking off in Hollywood, I wouldn’t be surprised if rumblings began to circulate around the front offices of many pro (hockey) teams in the future.”
If the Florida Panthers continue to remain unable to collect the money needed for a new scoreboard, then perhaps a platform like Kickstarter could be used to expedite the process. If the organization were to start a fund to help pay for the renovation either partially or in full, I have no doubt that even the Panthers’ medium sized fan base would be able to help raise the money needed to complete the project.
As I write this, there are 8 teams in the NHL whose payroll is roughly $15 million under the league’s salary cap. While the numbers may be a bit funky this season due to next year’s impending lower cap, the fact remains that many teams fail to come within reach of the league’s cap even though they are given the option. This has nothing to do with a team’s desire to win or build the best team, but rather their inability to go on spending sprees due to the limitations of their market. This is where Kickstarter could potentially come into play.
Kickstarter could not have saved the Atlanta Thrashers from moving to Winnipeg, but it could have helped improve the Nassau Colosseum enough for the Islanders to not flee to Brooklyn. I for one, would relish the opportunity to kick a few bucks toward my favored team if the return meant that my team would be in a better position than it is now.
Unless you believe the value of the Chicago Cubs franchise is inextricably tied to the iconic status of Wrigley Field — and that’s not the craziest assumption given the on-field product most years — club chairman Tom Ricketts received something resembling a bargaining chip in his negotiations with the city Monday. Rosemount, IL Mayor Brad Stephens is offering the Cubs a 25 acre parcel of land and what sounds like zero restrictions on night games and ballpark signage ; presumably, Stephens will have few qualms, personal or political, with any future attempts by Ricketts to torpedo Rahm Emmanuel’s old boss. From CSN.com’s Dave Kaplan :
“The Chicago Cubs are being held hostage by the neighborhood as they look to run their business. We are willing to offer them a tremendous opportunity if they are interested. Bring the bricks and the ivy and we can get a deal done, ” Stephens told me this morning.
“Rosemont is very pro-development and we have a long history of experience dealing with big business. From my position, you have a wealthy family willing to pay all of the costs of a major renovation project, which will bring a tremendous number of jobs to the community,” Stephens said.
“However, they are not getting cooperation from the neighborhood,” Stephens added. “Even if the Cubs get a deal done now what will happen when they need something else a year or two years down the road? This will not be the last time the community or the alderman will be difficult to deal with. The Cubs will never have those kinds of problems if they move to Rosemont.”
“Everyone involved with RetiredArtists was in a band that was signed and toured extensively, on labels ranging from Victory Records to Bridge 9 Records. “
