TicketsThe big news to surface today comes from the breaking news headquarters of Bill Koch at The Enquirer, who reported that the Crosstown Shootout will be moved to US Bank Arena for the next two years. This coming season it will be played on Dec. 18, 19 or 20 and be televised by ESPN (Obviously, and I'm sure they won't touch very often on last year's incident).
The news comes as a bit of a surprise, because there hadn't been much speculation about moving to a neutral site, but the bottom line reiterated by both sides throughtout this process played out in this decision: the culture surrounding the game needs to change. That involves both the players and the fans.
When inside the other team's hostile environment the fans gain power from all being on one side and the opposing players feel the hostility back them into a corner. Not to mention the support emboldens the home team to puff their chest out all that much more.
Plus, moving to a neutral site allows this to come much more of a celebration of basketball in the community. That is the goal of the entire process.
Also, with the revitalized Banks/downtown area, the draw socially creates a huge event for the city.
The only concern with the move would be that now you put the need to for mature, responsible behavior into the hands of fans who will be sitting next to the enemy. Let's hope these adults out there can act as such and avoid any altercations. If they can't, well, there are no guarantees of the series continuing in two years. Again, all this information according to The Enquirer.
Let's eat...
--- Major rivalries being played on neutral sites has been a popular tradition in a few different football rivalries. The most notable being Oklahoma-Texas played at the Texas State Fair every year.
Other big ones are Georgia-Florida in Jacksonville along with Kansas-Missouri in St. Louis.
While talk occasionally would surface about moving these games, they're all very popular in this setup. How will this correlate to being in the same city as the two schools on the basketball side? We'll find out, but it's been a popular model in certain cases.
--- The endless hours of work Derek Wolfe put in officially paid off on Monday. The Denver Broncos second-round pick signed a contract for four years and $5.2 million. It guarantees $3.2 million. Congrats to him and can't wait to see how he pans out on the next level.
Wolfe hasn't joined his teammates at OTAs yet because he is waiting for graduation per NFL rules.
--- The Big East meetings opened up yesterday and football coaches put in discussion over what playoff model they support. Andrea Adelson of ESPN was there and says they backed the four-team playoff model that places the semifinals at bowl sites and a neutral-site national championship.
This quote came from Butch Jones:
"The first thing is preserving the bowl system. So much of it is a reward to our student-athletes and our universities and to our fans and it's embedded in college football. But also it's good having a playoff to crown a national champion. So to be able to have the semifinals in the bowl games, that helps solidify that, but also having a neutral site for the national championship game would be extremely healthy for the world of college football."
--- NBC Sports and Fox made presentations Monday. That's great news for a conference that would love to create a bidding war between those entities and rights-holder ESPN, who owns sole negotiating rights for a month beginning Sept. 1.
--- Andy Staples at SI writes about the unusual atmosphere surrounding the meetings.
--- Yesterday, Phil Steele put out his preseason All-Big East team. Somehow he filled the first team with only two Bearcats (WR Anthony McClung and P Pat O'Donnell). Of course, Steele also placed Derek Wolfe as second team last year, which bangs the credibility a bit.
Point being, Walter Stewart not being on the first team is a travesty. The UC defense owns four players on his second team you could make a first-team argument for (Dan Giordano, Maalik Bomar, Drew Frey, Stewart).
Adelson didn't diss Stewart, however, placing him as the ninth-best player in the conference.
--- Sad news out of Morgantown as former coach Bill Stewart died of a heart attack yesterday. The Times-West Virginian had this great piece about the type of man Stewart was. He always came across in any media sessions as the happiest guy in the room, from my perspective. Whether it be postgame interviews or conference calls, he was happy to be there and loved chatting with people.
--- Randomness...
--- The Jay-Z music festival "Made in America" slated for Labor Day weekend in Philly received a huge boost when they announced Pearl Jam will be a headliner along with the iconic rapper. That's a pretty strong 1-2 punch right there.
--- Is mowing the grass such a dangerous experience that packing heat is necessary?
--- The Real World has devolved into a concoction of drugs, sex, fame and extreme narcissism, but this is the 20th anniversary of when the show broke some serious ground on real social issues. Remember watching those first few seasons and really learned a lot about people. Now, all you learn a lot about is hooking up in hot tubs.
--- You got to love the Thunder and their fans. Good for OKC. Young guns vs. Old guys will be a fun Western Finals.
--- Only a couple of weeks until RHCP at US Bank (June 6). Reminding everyone, this is a fantastic live show if you are at all a Peppers fan.
The news comes as a bit of a surprise, because there hadn't been much speculation about moving to a neutral site, but the bottom line reiterated by both sides throughtout this process played out in this decision: the culture surrounding the game needs to change. That involves both the players and the fans.
When inside the other team's hostile environment the fans gain power from all being on one side and the opposing players feel the hostility back them into a corner. Not to mention the support emboldens the home team to puff their chest out all that much more.
Plus, moving to a neutral site allows this to come much more of a celebration of basketball in the community. That is the goal of the entire process.
Also, with the revitalized Banks/downtown area, the draw socially creates a huge event for the city.
The only concern with the move would be that now you put the need to for mature, responsible behavior into the hands of fans who will be sitting next to the enemy. Let's hope these adults out there can act as such and avoid any altercations. If they can't, well, there are no guarantees of the series continuing in two years. Again, all this information according to The Enquirer.
Let's eat...
--- Major rivalries being played on neutral sites has been a popular tradition in a few different football rivalries. The most notable being Oklahoma-Texas played at the Texas State Fair every year.
Other big ones are Georgia-Florida in Jacksonville along with Kansas-Missouri in St. Louis.
While talk occasionally would surface about moving these games, they're all very popular in this setup. How will this correlate to being in the same city as the two schools on the basketball side? We'll find out, but it's been a popular model in certain cases.
--- The endless hours of work Derek Wolfe put in officially paid off on Monday. The Denver Broncos second-round pick signed a contract for four years and $5.2 million. It guarantees $3.2 million. Congrats to him and can't wait to see how he pans out on the next level.
Wolfe hasn't joined his teammates at OTAs yet because he is waiting for graduation per NFL rules.
--- The Big East meetings opened up yesterday and football coaches put in discussion over what playoff model they support. Andrea Adelson of ESPN was there and says they backed the four-team playoff model that places the semifinals at bowl sites and a neutral-site national championship.
This quote came from Butch Jones:
"The first thing is preserving the bowl system. So much of it is a reward to our student-athletes and our universities and to our fans and it's embedded in college football. But also it's good having a playoff to crown a national champion. So to be able to have the semifinals in the bowl games, that helps solidify that, but also having a neutral site for the national championship game would be extremely healthy for the world of college football."
--- NBC Sports and Fox made presentations Monday. That's great news for a conference that would love to create a bidding war between those entities and rights-holder ESPN, who owns sole negotiating rights for a month beginning Sept. 1.
--- Andy Staples at SI writes about the unusual atmosphere surrounding the meetings.
--- Yesterday, Phil Steele put out his preseason All-Big East team. Somehow he filled the first team with only two Bearcats (WR Anthony McClung and P Pat O'Donnell). Of course, Steele also placed Derek Wolfe as second team last year, which bangs the credibility a bit.
Point being, Walter Stewart not being on the first team is a travesty. The UC defense owns four players on his second team you could make a first-team argument for (Dan Giordano, Maalik Bomar, Drew Frey, Stewart).
Adelson didn't diss Stewart, however, placing him as the ninth-best player in the conference.
--- Sad news out of Morgantown as former coach Bill Stewart died of a heart attack yesterday. The Times-West Virginian had this great piece about the type of man Stewart was. He always came across in any media sessions as the happiest guy in the room, from my perspective. Whether it be postgame interviews or conference calls, he was happy to be there and loved chatting with people.
--- Randomness...
--- The Jay-Z music festival "Made in America" slated for Labor Day weekend in Philly received a huge boost when they announced Pearl Jam will be a headliner along with the iconic rapper. That's a pretty strong 1-2 punch right there.
--- Is mowing the grass such a dangerous experience that packing heat is necessary?
--- The Real World has devolved into a concoction of drugs, sex, fame and extreme narcissism, but this is the 20th anniversary of when the show broke some serious ground on real social issues. Remember watching those first few seasons and really learned a lot about people. Now, all you learn a lot about is hooking up in hot tubs.
--- You got to love the Thunder and their fans. Good for OKC. Young guns vs. Old guys will be a fun Western Finals.
--- Only a couple of weeks until RHCP at US Bank (June 6). Reminding everyone, this is a fantastic live show if you are at all a Peppers fan.