Peter King on WEEI: "Games will be missed this year - if no CBA by March 4"

[shmessy]

Re: Peter King on WEEI - " Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA

Yes, I've had trouble sleeping lately, so a "red hot" baseball season help me out.

Yes, I snarked at that too.

This year's Super Bowl illustrates as never before why Baseball is 1,000 miles behind the NFL and fighting with the crumbling and crooked NBA for distant second place.

The two SB teams were from a dead coal-mining city and a village of 98,000 residents. This would usually be thought of as a television ratings stink bomb. It only turned out to be the most watched TV program in American history.........beating last year's Super Bowl.

Now, ask any American to name one ballplayer from last year's World Series Champion SF Giants. What would be the success rate there? 1.5%? 1.7%? I used to be a pretty big baseball fan (until the Sox got the monkey off their backs in 2004). Now, I couldn't name that one player from the Giants. All I remember is the pitcher with the funny black beard.

The "red hot baseball" season trumps C-Span.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Re: Peter King on WEEI - " Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA

Yes, I snarked at that too.

This year's Super Bowl illustrates as never before why Baseball is 1,000 miles behind the NFL and fighting with the crumbling and crooked NBA for distant second place.

The two SB teams were from a dead coal-mining city and a village of 98,000 residents. This would usually be thought of as a television ratings stink bomb. It only turned out to be the most watched TV program in American history.........beating last year's Super Bowl.

Now, ask any American to name one ballplayer from last year's World Series Champion SF Giants. What would be the success rate there? 1.5%? 1.7%? I used to be a pretty big baseball fan (until the Sox got the monkey off their backs in 2004). Now, I couldn't name that one player from the Giants. All I remember is the pitcher with the funny black beard.

The "red hot baseball" season trumps C-Span.

Not in Boston, but everywhere else by a mile.

Love the dead coal mining city and village analogies. So true. If the Pirates could play the Brewers in a WS C-Span might top that in overnight ratings...

That's why owners and the league deserve some credit. Everyone loves talent, but it's largely fungible. The world doesn't end when a Favre or Bus or Rice retires. The stage owners have built to showcase this league is bigger than the players. A work stoppage will will hurt owners in the short term, and fans will lash out in the short term as well. But over the long run those who stand to be hurt the most are the guys playing in 5-10 year windows. And the casinos. The owners and the fans and the television networks will be around long after they're gone.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

I remember the same BS remarks coming from King during the last set of negotiations.. And what happened??? The games started on time. What was shortened was free agency..

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

I see this dragging out into the summer. Question is how long it drags out from there. No way anything gets done by early March.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

I see this dragging out into the summer. Question is how long it drags out from there. No way anything gets done by early March.

Normally I'd agree but the pressure of 500 UFA's unraveling as their shot at the brass ring contract fades could be all it takes to tip the balance. The union may be forced to decertify and the owners can then impose their last best offer due to a labor impasse so the league can continue to function. It's not a great scenario for either side, but it does keep the cash cow churning out the benjamins.

The little snippet Florio uncovered about Judge David Doty being off the league's back in the event this CBA can't be extended before March 4 tends to make me think the union will lose altogether too much by not coming to some sort of agreement by then. They haven't fared too well in courts he doesn't preside over lately losing both the TV revenue case and their suit to force the owners to maintain benefits in the event of a lockout. Coupled with the fact that the uncapped season they touted for two years as a player panacea and their ace in the whole turned out to be a big fat crock, I think player resolve to just get a deal done and skip all the hollow union rhetoric about being at war will drive them to concede enough of what the owners need to get a viable deal done at least before the draft.

 

[upstater1]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

The latest has Panthers owner Richardson mocking Peyton Manning at the meeting he and Brees had with owners. Now, as much as I like to mock Peyton, I just think the owners are full of it here. What's happened is their franchise values have become inflated like the housing market, but then the credit markets went kablooey, and it cratered their team values, so now they feel they've lost some $$$ because the previous CBA was based on their inflated sense of their inflated worth.

The more I hear, the more I'm with the players.

I think they should dig in and threaten the owners with playing in another league.

And another thing: why do businesses get a business entertainment tax break? Companies have put money into these luxury boxes because they know it's a tax break. Why are we subsidizing these bajillionaires? If it weren't for that, then there'd be less of a difference between having a team in Jacksonville and Atlanta. The average football fan in Atlanta is quite similar to the average fan in Jax, but Atlanta has 20x the number of top companies. That's what drives up tix and salaries.

Business entertainment tax deductions should be ended. Let the owners deal with that!

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

And another thing: why do businesses get a business entertainment tax break? Companies have put money into these luxury boxes because they know it's a tax break. Why are we subsidizing these bajillionaires? If it weren't for that, then there'd be less of a difference between having a team in Jacksonville and Atlanta. The average football fan in Atlanta is quite similar to the average fan in Jax, but Atlanta has 20x the number of top companies. That's what drives up tix and salaries.

Business entertainment tax deductions should be ended. Let the owners deal with that!

Fine with me if all tax deductions are ended. Every deduction in the thousands of pages of IRS regs is the result of special interest lobbyists and attempts at social engineering for favored voting interests. Let everyone pay the freight and today's dissatisfaction with what gets pissed away in tax revenue will be mild in comparison.

 

[jmt57]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

King's waffles a bit in regard to his original comment on WEEI ("games will be missed this year if no CBA by March 5") in his column today:

Pro Football Hall of Fame committee under attack, per usual - Peter King - SI.com

1. Sports negotiations are deadline deals filled with both sides shooting at each other. The March 3 deadline is fairly meaningless, when you think about it. What happens in March that's vital to the regular season? Think of that word -- vital. Nothing. Is free agency vital to a season? No.

Granted the main point of emphasis in that column was that the season as a whole will not be lost if that 3/5 deadline passes - he points to shortened season in 1982 and 1987 as examples - but still, it does seem like a bit of flip flopping.

 

[Wolfpack]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

I think they should dig in and threaten the owners with playing in another league.

Won't work in a million years. The NFL is too entrenched with logos and team names and communities.

 

[Wolfpack]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

King's waffles a bit in regard to his original comment on WEEI ("games will be missed this year if no CBA by March 5") in his column today:

Pro Football Hall of Fame committee under attack, per usual - Peter King - SI.com



Granted the main point of emphasis in that column was that the season as a whole will not be lost if that 3/5 deadline passes - he points to shortened season in 1982 and 1987 as examples - but still, it does seem like a bit of flip flopping.

That's one of the things I have been saying. The March 4th "deadline" isn't really much of a deadline.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

Re: Peter King on WEEI - " Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA

No way a deal gets done until mid-September. Remember that there are ambulance-chasers involved. Nothing is going to happen until players start losing paychecks and cannot make payments on their purchases and owners start to lose serious revenue.

 

[Tunescribe]

Re: Peter King on WEEI - " Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA

Yes, I snarked at that too.

This year's Super Bowl illustrates as never before why Baseball is 1,000 miles behind the NFL and fighting with the crumbling and crooked NBA for distant second place.

The two SB teams were from a dead coal-mining city and a village of 98,000 residents. This would usually be thought of as a television ratings stink bomb. It only turned out to be the most watched TV program in American history.........beating last year's Super Bowl.

Now, ask any American to name one ballplayer from last year's World Series Champion SF Giants. What would be the success rate there? 1.5%? 1.7%? I used to be a pretty big baseball fan (until the Sox got the monkey off their backs in 2004). Now, I couldn't name that one player from the Giants. All I remember is the pitcher with the funny black beard.

The "red hot baseball" season trumps C-Span.

Given the choice between watching baseball, watching grass grow and watching paint dry, I'd have to think long and hard.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Re: Peter King on WEEI: "Games will be missed this year ... if no CBA By March 4"

I dont think games will be lost, but I'm starting to wonder if they will get this done before the draft now. I would hate to see this thing go into the summer, but there seems to be some acrimony building.

 

[upstater1]

Re: P. King on WEEI -" Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA By 3

Won't work in a million years. The NFL is too entrenched with logos and team names and communities.

The USFL was a threat, it really was. Don't forget about Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly and Steve Young.

 

[upstater1]

Re: Peter King on WEEI - " Games will be missed this year".[Mod Edit: "....if No CBA

Given the choice between watching baseball, watching grass grow and watching paint dry, I'd have to think long and hard.

Tim Lincecum's face was everywhere, and there was that whole thing about smoking pot during the WS.

That was a pretty colorful story that a lot of people were following.