NOT that anyone has money left to throw at Jets or Giants PSLs, but even in good times they’d still be absurdly expensive and worthless. Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk, had a better shot.
Yet the local news and sports media – and politicians, most of whom have no trouble attending the biggest ticket games continue to give this malodorous scheme a look-away pass.
With New York the No. 1 TV market, the Jets and/or Giants merely have to have decent seasons to play lots of late-afternoon and night games the next season.
Then there’s in-season “flexing,” the kind that has changed Nov. 30’s Broncos-Jets from a 1 p.m. game to 4:15 in exchange for CBS money. New York teams are highly susceptible to such flexes. In late November, 4:15 starts are night games.
For whatever tens of thousands one might pay for PSLs (and for crying out loud), the NFL can’t even guarantee what time the games begin, that what’s scheduled for 1 p.m. won’t be switched, a week or two out, to 8:15 for NBC’s Sunday nighters.
Then there’s NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s claim that PSLs are “good investments.” How so? They’re not open-ended; one doesn’t own a PSL for perpetuity. They last only as long as the new stadium does “in its current configuration,” therefore the PSLs are leased, not owned.
As those versed in real estate will tell you, ultimately the value of leased property increases only for the owner of the property, not for the party paying the lease. One can’t sell their PSL at a profit as its expiration grows nearer.
And over the life of your PSL, the team can just keep raising ticket prices, nothing you can do about it – unless you can find a bigger sucker than yourself.
Heck, if PSLs are good investments, NFL owners would be eager to buy them from one another, not to sell them to you.
Kelly Tripucka, scheduled for two MSG Knicks telecasts as Walt Frazier‘s sub, already has worked four. He and Mike Breen work well together, listen to each other, seem to enjoy each other’s company, too. More, please.
There was no such feel when Breen worked with Kenny Smith the last two seasons. Smith often seemed to talk down to Breen and the audience. He didn’t sound prepared, either. While it has been reported that Smith declined to return after a low-ball offer, that offer likely was designed for him to reject.
More MSG Network: “MSG, NY,” the nightly catch-all studio show, as well as “Inside the Rangers” and other shows, will be kaput, as of Jan. 1. All were bleeding bucks while registering no ratings. MSG will expand Knicks and Rangers pre and post-game shows.
Cablevision, as always when it loses expensive programming, will pass some of the savings on to subscribers. Sure it will.
ESPN continues to do anything it takes to appear foolish. ESPN Radio’s 1 p.m. “SportsCenter,” heard here on 1050, Wednesday presented three “Top” stories. 1) Baseball: Don Wakamatsu named Mariners manager. 2) Football: Ball State plays Central Michigan, that night on ESPN2! 3) Soccer: The U.S. men’s team plays Guatemala, that night on ESPN Classic!
Then there was the “Bottom Line” report Monday about ESPN landing the BCS deal, starting in 2011, having out-bid current rights owner, Fox. That crawl ended with, “ESPN has no comment.”
ESPN won’t comment on its own report? But it just did! And shouldn’t it have read, “ESPN’s Chris Mortensen confirms ESPN’s report that it won’t comment on ESPN’s report”?
But year-long poker watchers found nothing funny in The Bottom Line when it revealed the winner of the World Series of Poker, followed by a reminder to watch it later – on ESPN!
Just when you thought we’d hit bottom . . . Brittany Umar, on SNY’s SNY.TV Web cast Wednesday, cleverly reported that “the Celtics had no trouble bitch-slapping the Knicks in Boston, last night.” Good grief.
Steve Hirdt, Elias Sports Bureau VP, next week works his 400th Monday Night Football telecast. Only Frank Gifford, 411, has worked more. From childhood, Hirdt was destined for a career in numbers. On the day his mother said, “How many times have I told you to clean your room?” Steve knew.