League Notes
The NBA taking out a $200M line of credit for use by teams was discussed on Friday's episode of ESPN's "Outside The Lines." The Nation Sports Editor Dave Zirin said, "This does not look good for the NBA because it's an admission that a whole section of the league is in financial peril." NPR's Juan Williams added, "You've got to wonder if it's not time to pullback, if some of these franchises -- if this recession continues -- don't disappear." CNBC's Darren Rovell noted, "I wouldn't say it's as bad as people think where it's a cash call where they need money right now, otherwise they'll go out of business. That being said ... the salary might easily go down." Meanwhile, the issue of whether the number of televised games is hurting the league and member teams was also discussed. Rovell said, "To some extent it is, and that is an issue" ("Outside The Lines," ESPN, 2/27).
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Writer Feels HTA May Have Gone Too Far In
Rejecting NFL's Latest Pro Bowl Proposal |
ALOHA! In Honolulu, Ferd Lewis wrote the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) was "right last month to send back a proposal that didn't spell out which years" the NFL Pro Bowl would be played again in Hawaii. The HTA's actions "paid off: The NFL offered up the 2011 and '12 dates Hawai'i preferred rather than later years deemed less attractive." Under those circumstances, and the economy, the latest proposal was a deal the HTA "could not only live with but be proud of." That is why you "have to wonder if the HTA has gone too far in pressing its latest rejection of NFL terms" (HONOLULU ADVERTISER, 2/28).
CAP-PING IT OFF: Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom said, "At some point, what’s going on in this country does trickle down to these organizations which have to make money. And it raises the issue of a salary cap in baseball like never before." But he added, "Where do you set a salary cap? Do you have to tell the Yankees that you have to dump half of your team in order to fit under this salary cap?” N.Y. Daily News columnist Mike Lupica: "By 2011, there’s going to be a salary cap in baseball” ("The Sports Reporters," ESPN, 3/1).
COMPARE & CONTRACT? In N.Y., Bill Madden wrote events in Oakland and Miami last week, where a new stadium plan for the A's was "pronounced dead and one for the Marlins once again put on life support -- may leave the owners no choice but to revisit [an] ominous 'c' word: contraction." MLB has "run out of places to move struggling franchises and, especially in this economy, who in their right mind would buy either the A's or Marlins with their bleak stadium situations?" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/1).
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