Footing the Bill

The Cleveland Browns essentially are renovating their stadium rather than using the $120 million to clean the streets or hire more of a police force.  The Mayor, Frank Jackson, assured that the money will go to good use as the city will only being paying some of that bill, where the general fund of Cleveland will get the rest.  The explanation for such expenses being taken is that stadiums and teams are usually obligated to. Teams don’t just secure public money for construction, they get promises for upgrades too, and those upgrades have to be substantial to meet terms of the lease.  So teams like the St. Louis Rams ask why don't we get a new stadium that we are in need of? If cities don’t hold their end of the deals, teams can opt out of leases, and opting out of leases means they can ask for new facilities or threaten to move elsewhere. 

All or Nothing

 

Is it financially worth it to add 5,000 seats to a stadium or are teams better off waiting until major changes are in the works?

 

 Stadium subsidies have good and bad implications on the city and the people of that city.  It creates jobs for the projects and infuses money locally, but the costs of the projects can also be costly as explained above.  Therefore the projects must be worth it or the teams are better off either saving  the money or they can opt out of unfavorable deals.  The use of public funds to construct and maintain facilities has been occurring more frequently for a number of years now and with organizations being pressured into constantly staying lavish and state of the art, major renovations or rebuilding are turning over venues sooner than ever before.

Didn't Miss a Tweet

Despite the lavish lives that athletes enjoy, many have come accustom to expressing their off-the-field personalities through their social media accounts.  Some have millions of followers, like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.  Others are fairly tech deficient to the whole social media buzz and choose not to have such accounts on Twitter or Facebook.  There are also players like Julian Edelman, wide receiver for the New England Patriots.  He is up and coming in the "Twittersphere", with some recent success in the NFL, he has acquired a wave of followers in the past few months.  A marketing class at Emerson College in Boston is challenged every fall by their professor, David Gerzof Richard, to get in direct contact through social media with a local athlete or celebrity.  One team of students decided to pursue Edelman after checking out his Twitter activity and seeing his interaction frequency.  After some back and forth they were able to get Edelman to come to their class (below).

Edelman is evidently a hamburger connoisseur.  He openly states that he asks about good places to get a burger from time to time, but people now directly associate him with burgers.  "Do I eat burgers every day? No. But everyone thinks I eat a burger every day. So, you’ve got to be careful what you put on there because people absorb it.”

Burger Time!

Athletes that may not be as publicly recognized as others can now use social media to create an  identity for themselves that was not available ten or more years ago.  Most athletes today are embracing this opportunity to directly interact with fans or even critics.  Social media is the interaction of the future as fans and players alike have taken positively to the technology.  It somewhat eliminates the middle man of marketing and advertising and fans now don't necessarily need to be sitting court side at the game to let the opinion be felt and weigh in on the sport world.  It helps propel athletes into the spotlight faster, sometimes in good or in bad ways.  This also impacts the team in some manner.  Many marketing agencies are now hired to monitor what players put on their social media accounts so as not to deface or embarrass the player or the company they play for. 

Cubs could get beer in plaza

The Chicago Cubs are proposing a new plan to unveil an outdoor plaza that will be connected to Wrigley Field that will allow them to sell alcohol (beer and wine) outside of the field itself.  This will add some competition to the local bars in the area of Wrigleyville. The proposal states that alcohol could be sold in the sports plaza directly adjacent to the stadium from 11:00am until midnight on weekends and until 11:00pm on weeknights. Sales would "be allowed during non game events like the concerts or ice skating programs the Cubs have talked about for the plaza to be built west of the park." The proposal also would "make it legal for fans to carry alcohol out of the ballpark and into the plaza, and into the park from the plaza.  Maybe this will help get some fans through some of those awful performances the Cubbies have. 

Iron Bowl Classic

As college football rivalry weekend came and went, many campuses around the country gathered up as much school colored gear as possible to clearly represent their side of choice.  The classic match up of maize and blue versus scarlet and grey.  Ohio State vs Michigan is always and will always be a classic must see, but this year the south's version, Alabama vs Auburn, took the nation's breath away.  The game was back and forth throughout the entire contest, with the score being tied with :01 remaining in regulation.  Most would think to play safe for a guaranteed full possession in overtime, but head coach for Alabama, Nick Saban, played for the win on the road.  That did not end well as the field goal, which was being attempted by an inexperienced kicker who had only kicked two previous field goals, missed short.  What happened next will live in Iron Bowl infamy. 

Home of the Brave(s)

The Atlanta Braves planned move to Cobb County Stadium outside of the city after the lease on Turner Field expires in 2016 is one of mixed emotions in the city of Atlanta.  Most folks in the urban areas surrounding the city feel the team is abandoning its area and such structures have been cornerstones to rebuilding urban areas in cities like Denver and Minneapolis.  Front office execs of the Braves agreed to keep all of the details fairly quiet and feel the area surrounding Turner, although with a few new lofts and renovations, is time for a newer look.  They never considered the field as a tool for revitalization.  Some places near the stadium are still among the poorest in the city.  The Atlanta Falcons also plan on leaving the Georgia Dome in the near future to relocate into a different home.

All eyes on you

Turner Sports and CBS will be producing three different telecasts for the 2014 Men's Final Four games in Texas.  Each channel, TBS, TNT and truTV will show the same game at the same time with different announcers and different camera angles customized for each specific team.  It is essentially considered 'teamcasts' that Turner Sports is innovating into the layout of the already highly watched NCAA Tournament. 

Hardware coming Home

For most of the Pittsburgh southwestern Pennsylvania area, a true superstar to lean on in baseball has been missing since the early 90's when the infamous Barry Bonds roamed the outfield grounds of Three Rivers Stadium.  Now, with the unveiling of the 2013 NL MVP honors going to Pirates outfielder, Andrew McCutchen, that warm and cozy feeling of security in the Buccos lineup is back.  This is the third year in a row McCutchen has been in the MVP picture and the second straight where his performance has warranted serious consideration.  This year's performance by the Pirates as a whole, reaching he playoffs for the first time since 1992, is what put him over the top of the voting.  McCutchen won by a comfortable margin as he received 28 of the 30 first place votes. 

The Pirates manager, Clint Hurdle, also received a prestigious honor for his efforts in the 2013 baseball season.  Hurdle was named manager of the year, receiving first place votes on 25 of the 30 ballots.  He wins the award for the first time in his career, becoming the only Pirate manager to win the award beside Jim Leyland who won it twice ('90 and '92).

 

 

And last but certainly not least, Pirates starting pitcher, and another candidate in my opinion for MVP of the Pirates clubhouse at least, Francisco Liriano, won NL Comeback player of the Year award for his efforts in the 2013 season.  His 16-8 record and an ERA just over three (3.02) gave the Pirates the ace performance they have been so desperately seeking for over a decade.  Liriano is the first Pirate to ever win the award, which was first implemented into baseball before the 2005 season.