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The Sports Examiner: News & Views
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Fun & Games for Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
≡ We're on hiatus ≡
Owing to a heavy workload on our sister site, CigarCyclopedia.com as well as our three-times-a-week “Inside the Rings” column on Olympic sports for UniversalSports.com, it’s time to put The Sports Examiner on hiatus as of September 1.
Thanks to all for your support; don’t forget to check us out on both sites!
~ Rich Perelman
≡ Fun & Games ≡
 The $3 billion league! |
= The Top Story =
>> Atlanta, Ga.: The Southeastern Conference has toyed with the idea of starting its own television network, a la the Big Ten, but that’s over now. According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, the SEC has negotiated contracts with CBS and ESPN that will:
Pay the league about $55 million a year for its over-the-air rights (CBS) for football and some basketball for 15 years, a total of $825 million.
Pay the league about $150 million a year for all conference television rights not taken in the CBS deal! This ESPN agreement is also for 15 years for a total of $2.25 billion!
Guarantee that all SEC football games will be televised, home and away, by either CBS or ESPN. Including Mississippi State and Vanderbilt!
Guarantee that all SEC home conference basketball games will be televised, almost all on ESPN’s national and regional channels.
Who needs a network now?
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: Replay has come to baseball in a matter of weeks, demonstrating how quickly things can get done once those in charge decide to do them.
Has anyone made this point to either Barack Obama or John McCain? Just asking . . .
= College Football =
>> Blacksburg, Va.: The best name in college football this season? How about Virginia Tech’s gifted cornerback – and maybe wide receiver – Macho Harris?
Quarterback Sean Glennon welcomed Harris as a part-time wide-out, telling the Roanoke Times that “he’s got a little wiggle and he can make some stuff happen out of nothing.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Honolulu, Hi.: The Warriors are on their way to Gainesville for a season-opener at Florida, but it’s taking a while to get there.
According to a report in Florida Today, Hawaii is flying to Gainesville in legs to save money on airfare. The team flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then on to Atlanta on Tuesday and has practices for two days at Georgia Tech before heading to Gainesville on Friday evening.
On the way back, the route goes to Atlanta and then there’s a 10-hour commercial flight back to Hawaii.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Lubbock, Tx.: Get the super-computers out for Saturday, when 12th-ranked Texas Tech hosts Eastern Washington.
Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Graham Harrell threw for 5,705 yards and 48 touchdowns last season and has All-America wideout Michael Crabtree among his weapons. The Red Raiders averaged 41 points a game last season and have Eastern Washington, at Nevada, rebuilding SMU and Massachusetts as their first four games before a test at Kansas State. It won’t be a surprise if Harrell averages 500 yards a game through the first half of the season.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Stanford, Ca.: The San Francisco Chronicle noted that after a $100 million renovation, Stanford Stadium hasn’t had a sellout yet, even with the capacity reduced from about 86,000 down to 55,500.
Thus, the Stanford folks have instituted a money-back guarantee . . . sort of. With a home schedule that includes Oregon State, San Jose State, Arizona, Washington State and USC, new season-ticket holders or buyers of the Family Plan can get a “Gridiron Guarantee.” Thus, if you’re dissatisfied with the “entertainment value” of the tickets, you can get a refund.
But, as reporter Michelle Smith notes, the refund request must come before the USC game on November 15 and those tickets for the Trojans game must be turned in before the game.
Said 25-year season-ticket holder Bob Kinder, "The thing is, not only do we lose, but sometimes we stink. It's the old Al Davis thing, 'Just win, baby.' "
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Pasadena, Ca.: With his top two quarterbacks out and nationally-ranked Tennessee on the way to the Rose Bowl for Monday’s opener with the Bruins, new UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel is going to have his hands full.
Hopefully, he won’t believe everything he reads on the Internet. In a misprint, SportingNewsToday posted the Vols as a 77 1/2-point favorite over UCLA. 77 1/2!
The actual line is 7 1/2 with an over-under of around 47, so the projected final is Tennessee 27, UCLA 20.
= The NFL =
>> Phoenix, Az.: The latest candidate for law school is Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin.
He has a contract that pays him $4 million per season and has three seasons left to run. But he’s upset because Phoenix gave fellow receiver Larry Fitzgerald a four-year, $40 million contract, so Boldin is being out-earned 2 1/2:1.
So, naturally, Boldin wants to be traded. However, his value to the Cardinals may depend on who the quarterback is? SportingNewsToday showed that with Matt Leinart at QB over the last two seasons, Boldin has 70 catches to Fitzgerald’s 57. But with Kurt Warner under center, Fitzgerald has 112 receptions to Boldin’s 84.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Jacksonville, Fl.: Despite being arrested in July in Fayetteville, Arkansas on possession of cocaine, receiver Matt Jones has been showing a “sense of urgency” in practice and on the field in the pre-season. That may be good enough to make the team, even though he pled “not guilty” to the drug charge and will face trial later this year.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Chicago, Il.: Even though basketball star Allen Iverson derided the importance of practice some years back, it looks like it’s becoming increasingly important in the NFL.
The Bears just cut veteran cornerback Ricky Manning, Jr. after he had asked to be traded or released and some reports cited his “practice habits” from last season as part of the reason. More important for the Bears, his cousin Danieal Manning has improved considerably and costs a lot less.
Manning Jr. told the Chicago Tribune that “Getting released was more emotional for my wife than me.” He is already looking for a new team with Detroit, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Cleveland seeming to be the best possibilities.
= Golf =
>> Orlando, Fl.: Wait until the ACLU gets ahold of this one!
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) will require all of its member golfers to speak English beginning in 2009! The rule is effective immediately for new players and any player who fails an “oral evaluation of English skills” can be suspended.
According to a report from the Associated Press, there are 121 non-U.S. players on the LPGA Tour, with the largest number from South Korea (45). But Seon-Hwa Lee, the only Korean player with more than one win on the Tour this season, said that “Everybody understands. The conomy is bad and we are losing sponsors.”
Said Kate Peters, the tournament director of the LPGA State Farm Classic, “This is an American tour. It is important for sponsors to be able to interact with players and have a positive experience.
If that’s the case, shouldn’t the American players on tour have to pass the same exam?
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Olympic Committee’s bankers are carefully watching the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and other currencies. That’s because they need to know which kind of payment to ask the Chinese national broadcaster for this fall.
Thanks to its exploding economy and the success of the 2008 Olympic Games – in which China Central Television (CCTV) said that 96% of all Chinese households watched at least some of the Beijing Games – the days of paying about $18 million for the Games are over.
The IOC expects to get into the nine figures – $100 million-plus – for the 2010 Winter and 2012 Olympic Games from CCTV. If the IOC’s negotiators follow the formula originally used in Los Angeles in 1984 that pushed rights fees for the U.S. from $80 million for 1980 to $225 million for 1984, CCTV’s rights fee should go to about $300 million, based on its reported revenues of $400 million for the 2008 Games. That leaves $100 million for production costs and profits; after all, it’s only the IOC that is supposed to make a big profit on the Games, right?
Even so, the Chinese will be getting off cheaply. At $1 per person, the Chinese rights fee would be $1.3 billion for 2012 alone. For NBC, which is paying $1.181 billion for the American rights for 2012, the cost is about $3.94 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
On the vastness of China: CCTV reported that the broadcast of the women’s gold-medal match in table tennis drew an audience of 330 million! The opening basketball game for the men’s Chinese team, against the U.S., drew 170 million. The record viewership for the 2008 Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots was a comparatively paltry 97.5 million!
≡ ¶ ≡
>> New York, N.Y.: U.S. broadcast executives are already starting to work on their ad-sales spreadsheets to try to figure out how much to offer the IOC for rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and the 2016 Games in a city to be announced next October.
NBC’s smashing rating success in Beijing will raise the ante considerably. NBC is already on the hook for $2.001 billion in rights fees for Vancouver and London, not including a $200 million sponsorship from parent General Electric.
The A.C. Nielsen Company reported that NBC drew 211 million viewers for the 2008 Games, better than the 209 million that watched the Atlanta Games in 1996. The primetime average was 27.7, which cooled off considerably after the first week’s coverage that featured Michael Phelps and the U.S. gymnastics teams. It’s average rating for all Olympics shows was 16.2 and 86% of all American households watched at least some of the Games.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Havana, Cuba: The Beijing Games was a disappointment for Cuba, which won only two gold medals in 2008 compared to nine in Athens. But no one was more upset than 82-year-old former ruler Fidel Castro!
In an article published under his name, Castro wrote that a “serious review of every discipline, every human and material resource that we dedicate to sport” must be undertaken and that the 2012 Games will be even more difficult. “There will be European chauvinism, judge corruption, buying or brawn and brains . . . and a strong dose of racism.”
Naturally, Castro defended the outrageous action of Tae Kwon Do competitor Angel Matos, who was disqualified for taking too long coming out of an injury time-out and then smashed the referee with a vicious kick to the face. Castro expressed his “total solidarity” with Matos, who “could not contain himself.”
Castro also railed against the judges in the boxing competition, stating “I saw when the judges blatantly stole fights from two Cuban boxers in the semi-finals. Our fighters had hopes of winning, despite the judges, but it was useless. They were condemned beforehand.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Beijing, China: One sidelight to the bleating about the U.S. gold-medal performance in Beijing is how well the U.S. did in sports which have some meaning in this country.
In swimming, the U.S. dominated. In track & field, the U.S. led the medal count again, but disappointed in the number of victories, only seven compared to 12 at the 2007 World Championships. In gymnastics, the U.S. won 10 medals to China’s 14, noteworthy as both of the Hamm brothers were injured and did not compete. In the team sports, the Americans were sensational:
Baseball: a men’s bronze after losing to Cuba in the semifinals.
Basketball: two golds and two of the most memorable teams in Olympic history.
Soccer: a women’s gold and the men . . . well, they weren’t so good.
Softball: a silver in a loss that may save the sport’s place in future Games.
Volleyball: two beach golds, a men’s indoor gold and women’s indoor silver.
Water Polo: two silvers, with the women coming into the tournament as one of the favorites and the men coming from nowhere.
The women tied for seventh in field hockey (hardly a marquee sport here) and neither the men’s or women’s teams in team handball qualified for the Games. That’s eight team sports and 16 events in total and the U.S. won 11 medals, including six golds. That’s domination.
In the big three of track, swimming and gymnastics, the U.S. won 64 medals and with the team sports, the total is 75 medals of the 110 overall. Pretty good for just eight of the 28 sports on the program (water polo counts with swimming as part of “aquatics”).
Time to get to work on the other 20 . . .
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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The Sports Examiner: Out Loud!
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Out Loud! for Friday, August 29, 2008 |
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TSX Tip Sheet
Fun & Games: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Top Story: The SEC . . . call it the $3 billion league!
Baseball: Replay is here; amazing how fast things work when someone wants to move!
College Football: Is the best name in college football the Virginia Tech cornerback called Macho?
College Football: So much for luxury; Hawaii saving airfare with five hops to and from Gainesville!
College Football: Get out the super-computers: Texas Tech ready to pile up the yards in the first half of the season!
College Football: Stanford hasn’t sold out its remodeled stadium yet, so it’s offering a money-back guarantee!
College Football: Rick Neuheuisel’s opener will be tough, but as a 77-point underdog?
NFL: Bears like Ricky Manning, Jr.’s cousin better than him, so they cut him!
NFL: Cardinal receiver Boldin doesn’t like his contract . . . so why did he sign it?
Golf: Has the ACLU heard about this? All players on the LPGA Tour must speak English!
Olympics: China’s sensational ratings will result in a much bigger rights fee for 2010/2012!
Olympics: NBC, ABC/ESPN and Fox will have to adjust their bids higher after big ratings for the 2008 Games!
Olympics: Cuba’s Fidel Castro rants about unfair judging in 2008 and racism to come in 2012!
Olympics: U.S. won the medal count, but they really dominated the sports that matter in this country!
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TSX Quick Fax
The no. 1 moment in Los Angeles sports history? The Los Angeles Sports Council, in its 1995 book, “The 100 Greatest Moments in Los Angeles Sports History” named Kirk Gibson’s dramatic walk-off home run for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series as the best ever.
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