Updating the Juventus situation in the Stadio Olimpico...

If you read last week's post, you're aware of the racism situation in Turin, Italy.  To quickly recap, one of the world's most successful clubs, Juventus, had its fans in a section of their stadium suspended for a game against Roma this past weekend because of racist chants directed at an Inter Milan player.  So, how was that issue covered in the recaps of the Roma-Juventus game?  Eh.  ESPN's Soccernet game report didn't even mention it.  Neither did Goal.com.

Here are some images from the game showing the Curva Sud, the empty section of the stadium:

The easiest job he'll have all year

The empty section behind Roma's goal in the second half

If you're curious, Roma won the game in dramatic fashion.  A goal in the final minutes from defender John Riise gave the visitors a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory in what was one of the biggest games in Italy - on par with the level of NFL playoffs.  That might explain the excitement of Roma's announcer calling the winning goal in the following clip.  Suggestion: turn the volume on your computer down...

I still maintain that the bigger story was the exclusion of fans from an entire quarter of the stadium.

Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara celebrates the game's opening goal.

His team went on the lose the game 2-1 and his job is now in jeopardy.

Either way, the punishment against Juventus and its fans has been extended to tomorrow's (Thursday) game in Milan against Inter in the Italian Cup.  If you recall, the racist chants from the Juventus supporters were directed at Inter Milan's Mario Balotelli, so it is understandable that Milan and Italian soccer officials decided to keep Juventus fans from congregating in the stadium.  Typically, visiting fans get their own security-enforced and quartered-off sections in away stadiums, but instead no tickets have been sold for that portion of Milan's San Siro Stadium.  I'm not sure what it will look like on the visitors side, but the home Curva will likely be packed to the gills looking something like this:

There's nothing quite like a soccer game in Milan.  Thankfully, this time around, Juve fans won't be there to spoil the "beautiful game."  I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Lightning...Bolt? (to Canada?)

Another post, another financially-stricken Florida sports franchise.

According to several news sources, the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning (Forbes' 18th most valuable NHL franchise) had to ask for an advance on the revenue sharing guaranteed to every team at the end of NHL season in order to pay their players on time.  They weren’t just a few pennies short, either, borrowing approximately $2 million. That happened in April of 2009.

I know what you're thinking...these guys own an NHL franchise?

Now, reports are surfacing that there is still more economic uncertainty lingering after the 2008 sale of the team from Palace Sports - owner of the NBA's Pistons - to OK Hockey.  And by economic uncertainty I mean, of course, OK Hockey potential defaulting on their $100 million loan payments to Palace Sports.

Since the team was sold for $208 million and Palace Sports loaned the new group approximately half the money for the purchase, the contract was written with the stipulation that if OK Hockey defaulted on its loan, the team ownership would return to Palace Sports.  The issue has come to the fore since the Pistons and Palace Sports are up for sale and...well, no one wants to buy a property with a defaulting loan hanging around.  That means OK Hockey - and now, the NHL - is scrambling for new investors or new ownership to rescue the hockey franchise.

The Lightning are getting crunched...financially, too

It seems the problem is twofold. First, the NHL’s minimum salary requirement has strained the team's bottom line.  When the Lightning won the Stanley Cup with a small group of stars and relative unknowns in 2004, the squad payroll was in the neighborhood of $32-$34 million.  With this relatively small number, as well as the increased revenue from sold-out home games (including 13 home playoff games), the team easily turned a profit.  In subsequent years, however, NHL requirements have pushed the Lightning’s salary numbers north to a floor of $40 million.

After just 16 games with team to start the 2008 season, 

this man and his mullet are still being paid not to coach the Lightning

Second, combine those financial requirements with a 10% attendance drop this season to an average of just over 15,000 fans.  That number is down 20% from similar figures two years ago and, as a result, things aren't looking too hot for the Lightning.  If the current situation continues, the team could be returned to Palace Sports by as early as February 15th.

Inside the St. Pete Times Forum...plenty of good seats still available

How are the financial issues effecting the team on the ice? While they sit just 3 points out of a playoff spot, the team is in 13th place (out of 15 in their conference) with a rather pedestrian .500 record (21-20-10; W-L-OTL).

If you don’t follow the NHL very closely, this is the second time in the past year that an NHL team has been beset by financial issues.  In May of 2009, the Phoenix Coyotes declared bankruptcy and were purchased by the NHL (interestingly, the Coyotes also required an advance from the NHL revenue sharing deal in 2009).

When Canadian entrepreneur Jim Balsillie stepped up to buy the team, his plans included relocating to Canada.  Quickly, the NHL moved in to stop the sale and the team was eventually sold to a group of investors willing to keep the team in suburban Phoenix.

Currently, the Coyotes face the same attendance issues as the Lightning, drawing a scant 10,000 per game, but at least their marketing team has put in some creative efforts to bring fans into the JOBing.com Arena, including:

• Free shuttle service to the game in Glendale on the "Coyotes Express" from a variety of Phoenix locations
• Selling tickets in the lower bowl for just $25 (the same seat in other arenas cost over $200)
• "We Win, You Win" Promotion nights where, if you buy a ticket and the team wins the game, you get a free ticket to another game
• "Recession Buster" Promotion where, if you buy tickets for three games, you get the fourth game free
• All-you-can-eat ticket packages

Still, the only tonic for poor attendance is winning and unlike the Lightning, the Coyotes are doing that. Currently, the team - a mix of grizzled veterans and exuberant youth - is defying pre-season expectations and holds the fifth-best record in the Western Conference, good for a playoff spot. Furthermore, even with just 10,000 fans on average in the stands, the team has the 7th best home record in the entire league.

He can't fill JOBing.com Arena, 

but he can get you a discount on any Acme purchases

Overall, are the financial difficulties for these teams a referendum on southern hockey franchises? I’m not sure why there are teams in Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Fort Lauderdale, or Atlanta, but I’m not NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Or am I putting too much blame on hockey since it is merely a fact that teams in areas of the country hit hardest by the recession will, by default, struggle with attendance issues?

I think it remains to be seen whether the Lightning and Coyotes can financially rebound over time. Still, given the passionate fans of hockey north of the border, it seems strange that there are only six Canadian teams (Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa), when cities like Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Quebec City seem desperate for NHL franchises.  This is not to say that there are no hockey fans in Phoenix or Tampa Bay, but these teams had better find them and soon.

WWJD: What Will (the) Jaguars Do? Draft Tebow?

When’s the last time your governor petitioned an NFL team to draft the state university superstar? When’s the last time that superstar was a guy like Tim Tebow? (For a discussion of Tebow's NFL debut in a Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad, look here).

Monday saw the beginning of practices for the Senior Bowl, a college all-star game that offers NFL scouts the opportunity to scrutinize and rank potential draft picks.  One of these potential picks is Tim Tebow, who surprised some this week when he insisted he is practicing to be drafted as an NFL quarterback.

Tebow, long considered to lack the offensive skill set to succeed as an NFL QB, flourished in the University of Florida offensive system, setting records, winning two BCS titles, and exhibiting a leadership so fierce that the athletic department saw fit to canonize a nine month-old post-game Tebow speech and put it on a plaque next to the entrance of the football facility in Gainesville.  No joke.

If you like it then you shoulda put a plaque on it

Whether Tebow will succeed as an NFL QB is pure speculation, left to the scouts and experts like Todd McShay and Mel Kiper.  Yet, his draft status is inexorably tied to the attendance-plagued Jacksonville Jaguars franchise, located just seventy miles from Gainesville.  Rumors even have it that there is a standing, unspoken agreement among NFL owners to let such a scenario happen.

See you in September 2010?

Considering that the Jaguars lost 17,000 season ticket holders after the 2008 season and averaged around  74% stadium capacity for home games, of which all but one was blacked out, Florida governor Charlie Crist - and others - has campaigned for the Jaguars to do the economically savvy thing and draft Tebow, regardless of his actual fit to the team’s needs.  The organization seems to be in step with that notion, albeit inconspicuously. Owner Wayne Weaver is on record saying that the "iconic" Tebow is "compelling" and "would be an asset to any football organization."

Last time I checked, their starting QB, David Garrard, was headed to the NFL Pro-Bowl (as a reserve, but still). Nevertheless, drafting Tebow could be Jacksonville’s last chance at keeping the Jaguars from fleeing to California or Toronto or elsewhere. The situation has become so grave that Jacksonville mayor John Peyton recently said that losing the Jaguars franchise "could devastate our recovery efforts and set Jacksonville back decades."  For the state of Florida, this could be the equivalent of the Cavaliers drafting Lebron James - a revitalizing shot in the arm for a flailing franchise.

Say hello to 49,000 of your closest friends

And while it’s no guarantee that Tebow would start, or even have success for the Jaguars, wouldn't he at least put fans in the seats?  The last four times a Tebow-led Florida team has played in Jacksonville’s Municipal Stadium, temporary seats have been added to accommodate upwards of 84,000 fans.

The idea of the local team drafting the local kid also makes for an interesting what-if, as in, what if there was some system in place for professional teams to get dibs on drafting local/regional college/amateur players.  Certainly, it restricts the open market, but if Tebow goes to the Jaguars and does well, consider the impact he will have had on the people of north Florida.

For the Gators and, maybe, the Jaguars...truly a savior.

Understanding sports data...visually

As far as I know, these "infographs" from Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Fly Ball are to scale (click on the images to enlarge)...

It is certainly interesting to see new ways of understanding just how much money athletes (or anybody, for that matter) make.  Contrast that, of course, with how much tickets cost at Major League Baseball parks...

The bottom five of that spectrum: Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Cubs, and (shockingly) the Nationals.  Go figure.  Make your own conclusions on the two graphs juxtaposed above.

In general, drawings like these are wonderful ways of grasping visual data.  Take, for instance, the following infograph:

Using this colored bar graph, Robinson gives us the opportunity to engage the home run debate with perspective.  Should we purge the player numbers represented by the pink, rose, and orange bars from the record books?  The best solution is probably somewhere between erasing the steroid era from history and allowing Bonds, et al. to stand as the legitimate home run leader.  I'm not sure asterisks are necessary, but what about a graph like the one above in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown?

College Hockey mascot, destroying the Universe...again!

I know college hockey is probably not on the front of anyone's mind either, especially college hockey in Alaska. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I should assure you that this post only addresses a very minute element of college hockey.  Perhaps it's more about Alaska than it is about hockey. It is, either way, just plain funny.

However, the following video clips might encourage you to think otherwise.  Taken from the opening montages presented at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks' - the Nanooks - Carlson Center, these are a couple of intro videos that would put the vintage-Jordan-era Chicago Bulls entrance theme to shame...

First, from a matchup in 2006 against the Miami of Ohio Redhawks.  Not only do we get interplanetary Nanook/Polar bear intimidation, but pay special attention to the bird vs. bear beatdown at the 1:15 mark and, of course, the part where the Nanook mascot rips a hole in the Carlson Center ceiling and crashes onto the ice below:



Then, from the 2007-2008 season, our angry bear is at it again.  The roar from Ursa Major destroys half the galaxy and sends our friend, now accompanied by a hockey stick, hurdling through a time-space vortex/wormhole, destroying planets, suns, and even satellites (with a beautiful slapshot, I might add) in its path:



And now, the Bear returns in a montage from the current season.  In perhaps his best performance yet, the hibernating bear is first awoken by and later smashes an ice-breaking ship with his stick. He then calls up two of his buddies to be his wingman as the three pilot some F-14s and bomb Michigan State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and then the entire planet into oblivion, leaving only a floating Carlson Center island to hover in space:



Suffice it to say, the UAF Nanooks are now my favorite CCHA hockey team.

Who Cares?!!?

I'm holding off copying the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show's "Who Cares Hindenburg" bit because, let's face it...36 people died in that air disaster.  Although I will admit the show is entertaining - if nothing else - and the following post is similar to the aforementioned LNJF bit.

Therefore, instead of being morbid, let's do a weekly sports-related "Who Cares?!!?" poll that will allow us to decide which recent sports-related story is the one we care the absolute least about?  Is it...

1) That top level hockey leagues in Europe have begun to place advertisements on hockey goalie sticks, as seen in this ad-laden photo below of Ari Ahonen, playing in Finland for KalPa (although I'm sure you knew that).

Gloria Steakhouse, getting their money's worth

2) That this week is the start of the 2010 professional cycling season at the Tour Down Under in Australia.  Not only is the race the season debut for Lance Armstrong, but a display of some of cycling's new teams - including Armstrong's Team Radio Shack/Livestrong and the Rupert Murdoch-backed Team Sky.

Team Sky at the front

The TDU is a warm-up race for LA

3) Finally, that former MLB player turned manager of the Dominican league's Licey Tigers Jose Offerman was kicked out of the Dominican league permanently for throwing (but not connecting) a punch at an umpire during a game last weekend.

Offerman, in 2007, using his bat as a weapon in the minor leagues

It's up to you, dedicated reader, to tell me...who cares?

There's something new in (North) Miami...

It seemed strange to me that the first time I laid eyes upon the stadium home to the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes (as well as home to the Florida Marlins), I was actually no where near Miami.  Hardly downtown, the stadium (B) is actually located about 15 miles north of the city (A):

That pet peeve aside (the NFL Giants/Jets and Redskins are just a few more teams who don't play in the geographical space their name attests), the stadium formerly known as Joe Robbie Stadium has a new corporate partner and, thus, a new name for the upcoming NFL Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.  That means that, tomorrow, this facility will be christened with its 7th name change in just 22 years.

T.I. says you could call it whatever you like

Those names?  Ok, here's the rundown:

• Joe Robbie Stadium (1987-1996)
• Pro Player Park (1996)
• Pro Player Stadium (1996-2005)
• Dolphins Stadium (2005-2006)
• Dolphin Stadium (2006-2009)
• LandShark Stadium (2009)
• Dolphin Stadium (Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 19, 2010)
• Sun Life Stadium (Jan. 20, 2010-2015)

Such turnover makes the abstinence from selling naming rights by the Cleveland Browns (Cleveland Browns Stadium), Cincinnati Bengals (Paul Brown Stadium), Kansas City Chiefs (Arrowhead), Buffalo Bills (Ralph Wilson Stadium), New Orleans Saints (Superdome), Atlanta Falcons (Georgia Dome), Green Bay Packers (Lambeau), and Chicago Bears (Soldier Field) seem noble.

It does draw attention, however, about the possibility of a naming rights agreement for the new Cowboys Stadium or New Meadowlands Stadium.  With Dallas set to host the Super Bowl next year (and the NCAA Men's Final Four in 2014), Jerry Jones could maximize the price of an agreement for that kind of premium visibility.  The same goes for the new stadium in the Meadowlands, with a slew of events to take place in the next year.  In an interview with Sports Business Daily, Randy Bernstein with Premier Partnerships, an agency that matches bidders and stadiums for naming rights contracts, said it is only a matter of time before these large stadiums (including nearby Rutgers University's updated football stadium) get new names: "The marketplace is very active again...and you will see some of the largest facilities do deals this year."

In the meantime, Sun Life Financial will pay the Dolphins $7.5 million a year for the next five years.  What are embattled Dolphins fans to do?  I suggest they join the underground swell of the Naming Wrongs Movement.

That t-shirt is available at NoMas-NYC.  The Naming Wrongs movement is a brilliant idea that came to fruition when the venerable Shea Stadium closed and the Mets opened Citi Field.  The idea of the original shirt "I'm Calling It Shea," has since spread to Mile High Stadium (now known as Invesco Field at Mile High), Jacobs Field (Progressive Field), and Comiskey Park (U.S. Cellular Field).  Part of the proceeds go to a local (NYC) food bank.

If it looks like a Joe Robbie, smells like a Joe Robbie...

Since fans are mere pawns in the financial games of far-richer men and women (J-Lo and the Williams sisters became part owners recently), I side with the Naming Wrongs movement and suggest a resistance to accept the name.  Let's just call it what it should be.  Like the shirt above, I'm calling it Joe Robbie.