As VP & Chief Counsel/Sports Programming for Time Warner Cable, ALEX VERMEYCHUK truly lives the jet-set life. He often spends his weekends traveling back and forth between offices in N.Y. and L.A. This year has been especially busy with TWC’s launch of SportsNet LA in February. This weekend is starting a little early on Friday with a trip to Las Vegas for a Lakers preseason event at the MGM Garden Arena, followed by a quick turnaround flight on Saturday back to his home in N.Y.’s East Village for dinner with some old friends. Vermeychuk: “Given that weekend, I’ll be lucky if my girlfriend even comes over and cooks for me.”
FULL ARSENAL: The one thing I always try and watch is my favorite Premier League team Arsenal. Whether or not I sleep in on weekends kind of depends on when Arsenal plays. They are over in the U.K., so if they have a game with a 7:45am ET kickoff, I will be up to watch it. If they don’t, I can’t generally wean myself off of getting up much later than 9:00am. Once basketball season starts, if the Lakers are playing over the weekend, I will try to catch them. Arsenal usually plays in the morning, so I will sometimes have a drink before noon if I am watching them. And if they are not playing well, sometimes it may be two.
MOVIN’ ON UP: I am pretty terrible on the weekend when it comes to working out. So if I can get in some push-ups and crunches before I start my day, I consider it a success. I always make time for laundry, stock up on food, and make time to keep the apartment tidy. I used to live in a place that had a garden, so I did a little grilling. But I recently moved, and pretty much the best thing I can do now is make some fancy Ramen noodles. I am not much of a cook. Not that I dislike it, just not very good at it. I am a big sushi lover and there is a place right across the street from where I moved to called Kanoyama. It has this great omakase.
FOOD & DRINK: I generally try to keep up with the news and anything happening in the sports world. The New Yorker is my favorite magazine, but if I don’t have a big chunk of time to read it, I’ll try to get one of those articles in. I also tend to get a decent number of e-mails over the weekend, so I try to keep up on them. I try to make some time for friends. I like to eat out at a nice place in the Village or downtown once every weekend if I am not traveling because there are so many openings. Other than that, I will try to grab a drink with some friends. In N.Y., there always seems to be an old friend in town. It will be a low-key Sunday. I am going on a proper vacation next week, so on Sunday I will probably spend some time packing.
LET ME TAKE YOU TO RIO: My most memorable weekend within the last year was when I went with Univision to the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro. It is kind of hard to top that one. Although I was also at the NBA All-Star Game earlier in the year, and that was fun, too. In the summer, I go to Montauk on the weekends. I have a share out there with a couple of buddies. And during the winter, it is anywhere warm. I do most of my traveling for work or personal in L.A., so I would say Neptune’s Net in Malibu is my favorite place to visit after visiting my sister in Ventura. When traveling, if I am not sort of reading for fun, I try to catch up on personal correspondence. I am not a big worker on planes; I find it difficult to focus. I catch up on all the personal e-mails to relatives and friends.
