- That,
NBA fans, is the sound of inevitability. Sooner or later, the Association was
going to make use of the most prime real estate it has to wring even more money
out of its product and its owners don’t give a damn how tacky it looks. In
other words, make room in the club alongside professional soccer, MMA and
NASCAR…because the NBA is about to slam ads on its
jerseys for the 2017-18 season. NBA owners are putting the finishing touches on
a new policy that will allow ads to be placed in a 2.5-by-2.5-inch patch on the
left shoulder. A few teams have already begun testing the market to sell the
potentially lucrative ads, getting a head start on a proposal that was
presented to the owners in February during a meeting at the All-Star Game in
Toronto. Under the terms of the initial proposal, teams would keep 50 percent
of the sponsorship money from the jersey ads and for 50 percent to be added to
the revenue-sharing pool for all teams. It’s a huge relief because so many
owners are about to go broke on account of being down to their last few hundred million dollars in spare cash, so this could not come at a
better time. This process has been lurching forward for at least five years,
led by Adam Silver, who’s a couple years into his tenure and clearly wanted to
see this one through. "It's manifest destiny," Silver said. "So
let's begin by saying this isn't going to affect the competition. What we're
talking about is a patch on the jersey. And one of the reasons we want to do it
is that it creates an additional investment in those companies in the league.”
Not affecting the competition? By that standard, you could replace the team
logo with a giant ad, drop three or four more on the back of the uniform and a
few more on the shorts and be fine. But baby steps, NBA, baby steps…….
- Hoboes,
hit the road. The city of Mobile, Alabama has heard the voice of the people -
the ones with enough money to afford a place to live, that is - and due to
complaints from property owners near the downtown area about the homeless population
is getting out of hand, the city government is posting “Get out - that means
YOU!” signs in areas where indigent people make their temporary homes. The
homeless community now has 30 days to vamoose, otherwise the city will press
criminal charges against them. Despite protestations from the great unwashed
that they haven't done anything wrong, the government is moving ahead with its
plans. The Mobile Police Department has identified 30 homeless people and given
them a 30-day notice to move out of the area. Some live in the woods, others in
more conventional areas, but all have been ordered to vacate the premises even
though many claim they haven’t been given an explanation. "We are hoping that they will participate
in some of the programs that are offered to them and maybe we won't have quite
so many homeless in our area," Mobile Police Sgt. Ernest Woodard said.
He’s alluding to programs such as 15 Place, which work to help local homeless
people get their lives together. According to local officials, the last count
of homeless people in Mobile was around 480, but organizations such as 15 Place
and Housing First are striving to reduce that number to zero by 2020. It’s a
noble goal, but given the demons many homeless individuals deal with, keeping
them off the streets completely is the sort of pie-in-the-sky dream that is
never attained………
- He
may not win New York, but Democratic presidential candidate and everyone’s
favorite irascible grandpa Bernie Sanders is going to destroy rival Hilary
Clinton when it comes to securing the New York City hipster vote next week. Sanders
is maximizing his indie rock credibility ahead of next week’s primary election
in the Empire State, trotting out indie rock luminaries Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio to perform at a rally
this coming weekend. The rally, which will take place in New York City, will
also feature Spike Lee, Rosario Dawson, Shailene Woodley, Tim Robbins, Danny
DeVito, Danny Glover and more. Sanders continues to excel with young
voters and bringing out bands that resonate with the young, cooler-than-thou
hipsters who call places like the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn home is a big
part of the reason why. Vampire Weekend has been on the Sanders train for
months, including performing at a Sanders rally in
Iowa with the likes of Killer Mike, Jenny Lewis, Best Coast, and Bon Iver also
taking the stage. Additionally, famous faces Ed Droste, Woodley, Kal Pen and
others visited Columbia University and NYU to raise awareness for Sanders among
the über-wealthy who can actually afford to attend either of those fine
institutions of higher learning. The great news for anyone who’s been wanting
to see Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio live but doesn’t have
the money to go to a show is that both the Saturday and Sunday events are free
to the public and are set to take place Manhattan's Washington Square Park and
Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Now, if only Sanders can bribe the masses with fake,
stylish glasses, flannel shirts, knit beanies and skinny jeans, he’ll get every
hipster in all five boroughs to cast a vote for him……..
- Welcome
to the party, Israel. Most other countries long ago clued into the hazards
posed by the cholesterol-laced, calorie-chocked grub on the McDonald’s menu,
but apparently you Middle Eastern fatties can't figure if out and so Israeli
Health Minister Yakov Litzman has called on his
country to downsize its consumption of junk food and boycott McDonald's.
Litzman told a cardiologists' conference that McDonald's is "out” and
expounded on that by explaining that - for some reason - there is so much good,
healthy food in Israel that such fatty food is unnecessary. "There is no
need to eat junk food. Not in our country,” Litzman said. He went on to plead
with the conference to better educate children about not eating junk food and sweets and stressed that the health
ministry will focus on "prevention" medicine this year to curb
disease. The irony is that Israeli cuisine is generally healthy with its
traditional ingredients similar to the Mediterranean diet, but the McDonald’s
mentality can corrupt just about any country’s culinary world. Litzman’s
remarks went out nationwide on television and he called out the fast food chain
by name even though it has made healthy changes to its menu in Israel. Angry
McDonald’s officials quickly fired back with a statement condemning Litzman's
remarks, but if America can teach the world anything, it’s that an addiction to
Big Mac’s is nearly as hard to kick as an addiction to lung darts or the
Bolivian marching powder……..
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