According to the New York Times, the city of Industry, Calif., (15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles) may become home to a new 75,000-seat "green", non-taxpayer funded stadium to house an existing NFL franchise in the L.A. television market, perhaps as soon as 2013.
Seven teams were cited as potential targets for a move – San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and St. Louis (the former L.A. Rams) and Buffalo, among others.
It's easy to understand why the NFL wants in a TV market such as Los Angeles. But there's a reason those seven teams are having trouble drawing interest in their product and, thus, a new facility. The teams are simply putrid.
I can't see how a new stadium would fly. The economy is awful, especially in California. And there is no interest in professional football. That wasn't always the case, but it is now.
L.A. had two NFL teams at one time – the Rams and the Raiders. Neither is there now. There is good major college football (UCLA and USC), good high school football. Pro baseball teams (the Dodgers and the Angels), pro basketball teams (the Lakers and the .... well, the Lakers), ice hockey (the L.A. Kings) and horse racing (three tracks in the Southland) dot the landscape, too. And if none of that is appealing, there's always the beach or the mountains close by.
The NFL had its chance in Los Angeles for almost 50 years. The product deteriorated. The teams on the short list to come into the market really wouldn't help.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can huff and puff all he wants. But he can't change the overall apathy towards the NFL. It's quite strong.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Armchair QBs as jury members?
Here’s something to ponder as you drink your coffee this morning.
One of the biggest problems with society’s need for instant news – and, in the case of the wayward balloon flight last week, instant blame – is that the people who want instant prosecution may be sitting in judgment of people accused of a crime some day.
That’s just plain scary.
The balloon – minus the 6-year-old boy thought to be inside – landed less than 24 hours before all of the public pundits and the news pundits started wondering about hoaxes, whether the parents wanted to return to the limelight of television (they had been on a TV reality show at least twice). Some had enough gall to declare that they knew it was a hoax from the minute the balloon landed.
Funny. In the newsroom of MetroWest Newspapers, we wondered what happened to the child, whether he and/or a box he may have been riding in fell off the balloon, whether the child was badly injured. Maybe that’s our softer side. Maybe that’s because most of the people at MetroWest Newspapers are parents themselves.
Part of the reason to find someone at fault, absent facts that could hold up in court is the 24-hour news cycle. Ever noticed what sorts of issues wind up on the cable news each night? It’s not the sort of stuff that keeps people’s attention and offers precious little in the way of information to help us become more educated citizens. It does fill seven-minute segments, which helps the news networks. The debate on health care this summer doesn’t count, unless you are a big fan of yelling, screaming and other forms of bullying.
We use a process for criminal cases in this country that has no room for speed, nor should it. Incidents happen, police investigate to determine if there was a crime, the district attorney decides on charges and then there’s a trial. The Founding Fathers didn’t have CNN or Fox News in mind when they were at work. And while not wishing to discourage free speech, the Founding Fathers probably didn’t have Monday morning quarterbacks in mind either.
Here’s something else to ponder before you opt to ream the parents of the little boy. Assuming the sheriff’s office opted to pursue a criminal complaint, according to the Larimer County sheriff, the worst charge the parents could face is a third-degree misdemeanor count of filing a false report. The sheriff said that was a step up from a petty offense, such as urinating on the sidewalk.
It’s great to see a robust debate in any forum. But it misses a certain something when it becomes armchair quarterbacking and where people who haven’t been criminally charged are guilty until proven innocent.
That’s not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
One of the biggest problems with society’s need for instant news – and, in the case of the wayward balloon flight last week, instant blame – is that the people who want instant prosecution may be sitting in judgment of people accused of a crime some day.
That’s just plain scary.
The balloon – minus the 6-year-old boy thought to be inside – landed less than 24 hours before all of the public pundits and the news pundits started wondering about hoaxes, whether the parents wanted to return to the limelight of television (they had been on a TV reality show at least twice). Some had enough gall to declare that they knew it was a hoax from the minute the balloon landed.
Funny. In the newsroom of MetroWest Newspapers, we wondered what happened to the child, whether he and/or a box he may have been riding in fell off the balloon, whether the child was badly injured. Maybe that’s our softer side. Maybe that’s because most of the people at MetroWest Newspapers are parents themselves.
Part of the reason to find someone at fault, absent facts that could hold up in court is the 24-hour news cycle. Ever noticed what sorts of issues wind up on the cable news each night? It’s not the sort of stuff that keeps people’s attention and offers precious little in the way of information to help us become more educated citizens. It does fill seven-minute segments, which helps the news networks. The debate on health care this summer doesn’t count, unless you are a big fan of yelling, screaming and other forms of bullying.
We use a process for criminal cases in this country that has no room for speed, nor should it. Incidents happen, police investigate to determine if there was a crime, the district attorney decides on charges and then there’s a trial. The Founding Fathers didn’t have CNN or Fox News in mind when they were at work. And while not wishing to discourage free speech, the Founding Fathers probably didn’t have Monday morning quarterbacks in mind either.
Here’s something else to ponder before you opt to ream the parents of the little boy. Assuming the sheriff’s office opted to pursue a criminal complaint, according to the Larimer County sheriff, the worst charge the parents could face is a third-degree misdemeanor count of filing a false report. The sheriff said that was a step up from a petty offense, such as urinating on the sidewalk.
It’s great to see a robust debate in any forum. But it misses a certain something when it becomes armchair quarterbacking and where people who haven’t been criminally charged are guilty until proven innocent.
That’s not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Language? We don't need no stinkin' language
Once upon a time, announcers covering sporting events and the highlights thereof used to speak in English.
There were clear indications of such punctuation marks as periods, commas, semi-colons. And there was some intent for the commentators to make sense, even when trying to motormouth through 50 bazillion highlights before the next 50 bazillion minutes of commercials.
Fast forward. Players "lay the boom" on each other. Yes, it's a sentence. No, it makes no sense. A boom is a large noise from an explosion, and it also a device from which to hang apparatus for making movies.
Someone takes the ball to the house (hopefully, not mine. Mine looks like a pigpen). Someone else "housed" a touchdown (not sure what that means, though it's not in reference to personal pigpens). People house stray pets. Not sure how one houses a touchdown.
A "pick-6" is more sensible (well, not really). But to me, it still means a bet at a race track and has nothing to do with a football game. According to awfulannouncing.com, one major network announcer said "'stop' is a four-letter word tonight." Perhaps it morphed into three letters the following night.
Basketball players take it to the rack (of ribs?). Baseball players go yard (mine is inhabited by trash and squirrels. But if a baseball player wants to go into my yard, fine by me). Hockey players aim for the top shelf (apparently not the prepackaged dinners in the store) or the five-hole (golf course, right?).
It's very hard to speak off the cuff for 3 1/2 hours at a time. Vin Scully can do it with ease. But he's also the best at his trade and is far more experienced than a lot of the announcers on TV today. Gus Johnson of CBS thinks a 2-yard gain is the most unbelievable thing he's seen since the last 2-yard gain. In most cases, the announcers who infiltrate our ear drums are trying to sound more intelligent than they really are. Or (gads, no!) they are lending more importance to a particular situation (the two-minute warning? The next Viagara commercial?) than is really necessary.
The "up" side is there's less time to hear athletes' interviews, you know.
My hope is people will try to use the king's English, try to keep their booms away from my ears, stop pick-6ing my house and stay out of my yard. Otherwise, I'll have to get my rack (of antlers) off the top shelf and get really unpleasant.
There were clear indications of such punctuation marks as periods, commas, semi-colons. And there was some intent for the commentators to make sense, even when trying to motormouth through 50 bazillion highlights before the next 50 bazillion minutes of commercials.
Fast forward. Players "lay the boom" on each other. Yes, it's a sentence. No, it makes no sense. A boom is a large noise from an explosion, and it also a device from which to hang apparatus for making movies.
Someone takes the ball to the house (hopefully, not mine. Mine looks like a pigpen). Someone else "housed" a touchdown (not sure what that means, though it's not in reference to personal pigpens). People house stray pets. Not sure how one houses a touchdown.
A "pick-6" is more sensible (well, not really). But to me, it still means a bet at a race track and has nothing to do with a football game. According to awfulannouncing.com, one major network announcer said "'stop' is a four-letter word tonight." Perhaps it morphed into three letters the following night.
Basketball players take it to the rack (of ribs?). Baseball players go yard (mine is inhabited by trash and squirrels. But if a baseball player wants to go into my yard, fine by me). Hockey players aim for the top shelf (apparently not the prepackaged dinners in the store) or the five-hole (golf course, right?).
It's very hard to speak off the cuff for 3 1/2 hours at a time. Vin Scully can do it with ease. But he's also the best at his trade and is far more experienced than a lot of the announcers on TV today. Gus Johnson of CBS thinks a 2-yard gain is the most unbelievable thing he's seen since the last 2-yard gain. In most cases, the announcers who infiltrate our ear drums are trying to sound more intelligent than they really are. Or (gads, no!) they are lending more importance to a particular situation (the two-minute warning? The next Viagara commercial?) than is really necessary.
The "up" side is there's less time to hear athletes' interviews, you know.
My hope is people will try to use the king's English, try to keep their booms away from my ears, stop pick-6ing my house and stay out of my yard. Otherwise, I'll have to get my rack (of antlers) off the top shelf and get really unpleasant.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Potpourri
* The Broncos might be legitimate after all. I'm not sure beating Dallas is all it's cracked up to be. After all, the Dallas writers say the 'Boys will finish 9-7. And Kansas City almost beat the "Boys the other day.
Denver, though, rallied in the fourth quarter/overtime to beat New England, which is head and shoulders above Dallas.
* The Rockies are legitimate, even after falling in four games in the division series.
* Who's the new Rockies' radio announcer? Jeff Kingery retired after the end of the playoff run for the Rockies. For a lot of younger fans in these parts, he's the only voice associated with the team.
* Jim Tracy is legitimate. He should see the "interim" removed from his name tag on the door of his office and be given several years worth of time to continue to manager Colorado.
Denver, though, rallied in the fourth quarter/overtime to beat New England, which is head and shoulders above Dallas.
* The Rockies are legitimate, even after falling in four games in the division series.
* Who's the new Rockies' radio announcer? Jeff Kingery retired after the end of the playoff run for the Rockies. For a lot of younger fans in these parts, he's the only voice associated with the team.
* Jim Tracy is legitimate. He should see the "interim" removed from his name tag on the door of his office and be given several years worth of time to continue to manager Colorado.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Amazing
After finding more ways to stay warm during Friday night's Brighton homecoming football game – even to the point of camping out in the press box – imagine my surprise to read more than 200 comments about the weather on someone else's Web site.
Some were legit ... road closures, how many birds were around the feeder, etc.
Someone managed to bring up the subject of condoms.
For those who don't know ... and as a refresher for those who do ... yes, it snows in Colorado. Yes, it gets cold in Colorado. And no, it's not worth getting bent out of shape.
And in closing, please tell me why condoms have anything to do with the weather.
Some were legit ... road closures, how many birds were around the feeder, etc.
Someone managed to bring up the subject of condoms.
For those who don't know ... and as a refresher for those who do ... yes, it snows in Colorado. Yes, it gets cold in Colorado. And no, it's not worth getting bent out of shape.
And in closing, please tell me why condoms have anything to do with the weather.
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