#is chicago the real winner of the expansion draft?

[trustherkindheart]

Apparently you don't need to make trade deals if you don't have players that anyone wants 🤷‍♀️

[junker-town]

Our picks for the NWSL awards, both real and made up

Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images

Sam Kerr unsurprisingly picks up a couple of them.

Two thrilling semifinals on Sunday means the NWSL final is set, as powerhouse North Carolina Courage will host the Chicago Red Stars for the 2019 title.

Before the big game, it’s time to go over the awards winners from the season that was. SB Nation’s NWSL contributors voted on for our awards, both the same categories as the real thing and a few extras we threw in.

MVP: Sam Kerr, Chicago Red Stars

The perennial Golden Boot winner was the clear winner among our panel. While Kerr went to the World Cup this summer for Australia, she still broke her own single-season scoring record in the NWSL, notching an impressive 18 goals in 21 regular-season appearances. Rumors have increased that Kerr could be ready to make a move to Europe, and if she did, she would be leaving the league at the very top of her game.

Defender of the Year: Casey Short, Chicago Red Stars

Short was one of the final cuts on the U.S. Women’s National Team roster that went on to win the World Cup, and she channeled that ultimate disappointment into a career year for Chicago. At the age of 29 and with a late start to her pro career due to injuries, this could be the peak of Short’s powers, but she could follow in the footsteps of the last player cut late by the USWNT ahead of a World Cup to subsequently raise her game, Crystal Dunn, and find plenty more success for club and country ahead of her, too.

Goalkeeper of the Year: Kailen Sheridan, Sky Blue FC

Sheridan was fortunate to get drafted by Sky Blue in 2017 and start right away, and while the Canadian had to deal with some very, very low times, her quality has shined through anyway. With Sky Blue finally finding some traction and being competitive again, Sheridan continues to show why she was good enough to start right away. She was tied for the league lead in saves, 86, in five fewer games played, and she gave Sky Blue a hope of getting a result in a number of games.

Rookie of the Year: Bethany Balcer, Reign FC and Sam Staab, Washington Spirit

The votes were completely split for Balcer and Staab among our panel, with the duo the likely top two in the real awards voting, too.

Balcer’s story is already the stuff of legend, the Michigan native playing for NAIA college Spring Arbor University and not surprisingly going undrafted. Getting an invitation from Reign FC as they prepared for a World Cup year, she grabbed it with both hands, scoring six goals in her rookie campaign and helping keep Reign FC afloat during an injury-plagued season.

Meanwhile, Staab’s story isn’t an underdog tale, the Clemson product being drafted 4th overall, but the defender slotted into the Spirit lineup right away, playing every game, and is part of an exciting young core that should make Washington a contender in the near future.

Best international player: Sam Kerr, Chicago Red Stars

No surprise, the MVP selection was also the choice to be the top international player, in a league still dominated by American players.

Getting top votes after the Australian was North Carolina Courage midfielder Debinha, formerly considered a top luxury player, capable of both the sublime and ridiculous, who has settled down and added a competent two-way game to her prodigious attacking talents.

Coach of the Year: Vlatko Andonovski, Reign FC

Photo by Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images

Andonovski had previous success in NWSL, leading now-defunct FC Kansas City to back-to-back league titles in 2014 and 2015. But he arguably put together his best season in 2019, leading a Reign side that missed talismanic midfielders Jess Fishlock and Megan Rapinoe for nearly the entire season, and seemingly contended with a season-ending injury every week, while also getting the club into the playoffs. There’s a reason Andonovski is seemingly the consensus pick to become the next USWNT head coach, and if it comes to pass the league will be losing a good one.

Breakout Player: Kristen Hamilton, North Carolina Courage

The deepest team in the league is the Courage, and Hamilton’s emergence this season further proves that point. The forward has been a depth option throughout her career, spent entirely with the organization, and with an opening in the lineup during the World Cup, she came alive, scoring a career-high nine goals, including a hat trick game and a game where she notched four goals. The 27-year-old got a debut call-up to the USWNT this year, and with expansion on the horizon could be in line for more playing time in NWSL, too.

Storyline of the Season: Sky Blue FC raising standards

Photo by Howard Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Sky Blue playing a game at Red Bull Arena in 2019.

Over the last two seasons, Sky Blue reached a nadir, not only being a historically bad team but run so poorly that players had zero facilities to use and were living in housing that literally had holes in the walls. With incompetent GM Tony Novo finally dismissed, Sky Blue installed experienced GM Alyse LaHue, who most importantly worked tirelessly to bring fans to games in ways big and small, with free beer giveaways in parking lots and a couple outstanding showings at Red Bull Arena to close the season. There’s still room for improvement, particularly in finding a stable coaching situation at the club and a new, upgraded permanent home, but the efforts to turn things around in 2019 may very well have saved Sky Blue FC from the brink of extinction.

2019 Best XI

GK: Kailen Sheridan (Sky Blue FC) D: Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars) D: Abby Erceg (North Carolina Courage) D: Lauren Barnes (Reign FC) M: Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit) M: Debinha (North Carolina Courage) M: Yuki Nagasato (Chicago Red Stars) M: Crystal Dunn (North Carolina Courage) F: Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars) F: Christen Press (Utah Royals FC) F: Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage)

[packernet]

New Post has been published on https://www.packernet.com/blog/2019/09/19/the-10-biggest-changes-in-100-years-of-the-nfl/

The 10 biggest changes in 100 years of the NFL

When the NFL first started in 1920, it wasn’t the high-flying spectacle it is now. In fact it was just a bunch of small towns. And now, 100 years later the only small town team left is the Green Bay Packers. And oddly enough, the Packers are the owners of the most championship won with 13.

The Packers are an instrumental part of the league’s history, which was clearly evident when they were chosen to open the NFL’s 100th season against the Chicago Bears. That history has created the largest sports enterprise in the world and the behemoth shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Now that sports betting is legal it could take the league to a whole new level. Betway is a great way to get in on the action and reap the benefits of a sport that seems made for gambling.

But before gambling on the sport became popular, it had a lot of growing to do. Here are the moments that shaped America’s game.

The forward pass

Imagine a more stop-start version of rugby, where a player takes the ball and sprints directly into a scrum before the two teams reset and do it again.

You’ve just imagined an NFL game from the 1920s.

In the early years of the league, quarterbacks could only throw the ball forward from within five yards of the line of scrimmage, so pass plays were rare.

A 1933 rule change, however – inspired by the NFL’s desire to separate itself from the college game – allowed forward passes from anywhere behind the line, a decision that transformed the sport into the high-flying spectacle it is now.

In the 1932 season, no quarterback threw for more than 640 yards or nine touchdowns.

In 2015, Drew Brees threw for 505 yards and seven touchdowns. In one game.

The draft

Parity is everything in the NFL.

That a team can go from bottom dwellers to title winners in just a couple of seasons is a major part of why the league is so exciting.

That volatility is largely thanks to the draft.

Prior to 1936, teams would scramble to sign amateur players in chaotic bidding wars, driving up salaries for unproven college graduates who would hold out for the biggest offer.

So, in a bid to restore competitive balance and take leverage away from the players, the NFL became the first major sports league to hold an annual draft, in which franchises take turns selecting amateur players, with the worst team from the previous season picking first.

Rewarding failure in such a way might seem entirely at odds with what America claims to stand for, but the system caught on.

Every other major sports league followed suit and held their own inaugural draft within the following 30 years.

Racial integration

Segregation wasn’t outlawed in the United States until 1964, so it’s no surprise that the NFL was almost exclusively white for much of its formative years.

While a handful of black players played in the first few NFL seasons, there were none in the league between 1934 and 1946.

Then, Kenny Washington – one of the best collegiate players ever – permanently broke the race barrier by signing for the Los Angeles Rams.

The league very slowly integrated black players from there – helped by a boost from merging with the more tolerant AFL in 1970 – and as of the 2014 season the NFL’s player pool is now approximately 68 percent African American.

The problem is by no means fixed, though.

Despite the NFL introducing the ground-breaking Rooney Rule in 2003 – which requires teams to interview at least one candidate with a minority background for every head-coaching vacancy – just three of the 32 NFL franchises have African-American head coaches as of the start of the 2019 season.

The schedule

The NFL’s early years were chaotic.

With no set schedule, franchises played against anyone they could manage to arrange a game against, including teams from outside of the league.

They effectively made it up as they went along, and the amount of games they played varied wildly as a result.

While some teams played 10 or more, the Muncie Flyers, who finished last, played just one game (which they lost).

There was no championship game back then. The title winners were voted on at a contentious end-of-season meeting of the team owners.

That’s hardly a formula for a successful league, and in 1933 the NFL finally had its inaugural title game, with the Chicago Bears beating the New York Giants.

Three years later, the league reached a point where all nine of its members played 12 games, and since 1978 the regular season has been comprised of 16 games for each team.

The helmets

Looking at NFL helmets from the 1920s is terrifying, and not just because they made some players look like Hannibal Lecter.

No, what’s frightening is imagining helmet-to-helmet hits being dished out with just a layer of soft leather ‘protecting’ the skull.

The NFL gradually moved from leather skull-caps to plastic helmets with face masks in the 1940s, and by the 1950s all players wore the polymer helmets that are universal today.

The move away from leather was intended to improve player safety, but brain injuries – such as CTE – are a stain that the NFL just can’t cover up.

In 2013, around 4,500 former players sued the league for concussion-related injuries.

As a result, the NFL has pushed hard to outlaw helmet-to-helmet collisions, with penalties and fines becoming increasingly penal over the past few years.

The AFL merger

It’s not a great look for a league that likes to call its title winners “world champions” to be competing against an emerging rival with deep pockets, talented players and a more exciting style of play.

That was the case in 1959, though, when a group of wealthy owners formed the AFL and quickly threatened the NFL’s dominance by luring away some of the top college recruits with lucrative contracts.

The NFL initially ignored the younger league but eventually recognised that its talent base and profitability were both at risk and opened talks to merge the two organisations.

In 1966, a deal was agreed and a 24-team league was formed with two conferences – the AFC, featuring the former AFL franchises, and the NFC, featuring the remaining NFL franchises.

At the end of each season, the conference champions would play each other, spawning one of the biggest sporting events in the world…

The Super Bowl

You won’t find many non-basketball fans tuning into the NBA Finals, and only baseball devotees watch the World Series.

The Super Bowl, however, regularly attracts over 100 million viewers worldwide, more than any annual sporting event other than the Champions League final.

That’s impressive, considering American football is a complex game that can be tricky for casual fans to pick up and is almost exclusively played in the US.

The NFL has done a fantastic job of marketing its championship game.

Super Bowl Sunday is now essentially a national holiday, and traditions like Super Bowl parties and prop bets have spread to countries outside of the US.

The halftime show

The Who. Prince. Beyonce.

Some of the biggest musical acts in the world have produced iconic performances at the Super Bowl halftime show.

No other sporting event puts as much focus on its in-game entertainment, and there’s no doubt that part of the Super Bowl’s huge success is down to the popularity of the halftime show.

It wasn’t always the case. Until the early 1990s, the show would typically feature a marching band with a theme like A Salute to the Big Band Era or It’s a Small World.

But Michael Jackson’s iconic 1993 performance changed everything, drawing 91 million viewers and making the halftime show a coveted gig for the world’s biggest artists.

Since then, the halftime show has often been as memorable as the game itself, producing unforgettable moments like Katy Perry’s ‘Left Shark’ dance, Lady Gaga’s leap from the stadium roof and, of course, Nipplegate.

The salary cap

Aside from the draft, the salary cap is the NFL’s greatest leveller.

While sports like baseball and soccer (apologies, football fans) tend to reward the owners with the deepest pockets, the NFL sets a hard limit every year for how much each team can spend.

Following the example set by the NBA a decade earlier, the NFL introduced the cap in 1994, meaning success in the league is now almost entirely dependent on good coaching and talent evaluation.

The NFL doesn’t have a Manchester United or Real Madrid equivalent.

While the New England Patriots have dominated since 2000, their success can largely be attributed to the sustained performance of three-time MVP Tom Brady – the (almost) undisputed quarterback GOAT – and three-time Coach of the Year Bill Belichick, rather than the checkbook of Robert Kraft.

International expansion

The NBA and MLB have both played regular-season games in London in the past year, but it was the NFL that really pioneered international expansion.

Having staged a handful of exhibitions at Wembley in the 1980s and one regular-season game in Mexico in 2005, the league brought the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants over for its first ever meaningful game in the UK in 2007.

The game was truly awful. The Giants slogged to a 13-10 win in the pouring rain (classic London).

Wembley sold out instantly, though, and the huge fan support convinced the league to stage games in London every year.

The Jacksonville Jaguars – owned by Fulham owner Shahid Khan – signed a deal in 2013 to hold a home game in London every year, while the NFL have also agreed to stage at least two fixtures per season at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the next decade.

Everything is in place, then, for the league to take its most ambitious step yet – moving a team to the UK permanently.

Should the league convince the players, it could only be a matter of time until we’re watching the London Jaguars take the field.

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON: WOLF PACK OFF-SEASON VOLUME 3

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Much is going on in the hockey world. You would think the hockey season is coming to a close with the playoffs in the conference finals, but the hockey world is not slowing down. The hockey hotbed of North America in May of 2019 is actually North Carolina. The red-hot Carolina Hurricanes knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champions Washington Capitals and followed by sweeping the New York Islanders, but have been derailed from their express to the Stanley Cup Finals by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals. The Bruins have won the first three games in the contemporary version of a Hartford Whaler - Bruins, Adams Division rivalry redux some 22 years later. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes AHL farm team, the Charlotte Checkers, who were the league's best team throughout the regular season, have been true to form in the playoffs. They took out the Boston affiliate, the Providence Bruins in four games, and then swept the red-hot Hershey Bears, who ironically enough are the Washington Capitals affiliates. Charlotte scored seven goals in Game 2. That was the first time Hershey has surrendered seven goals in a playoff game since 2012. They scored two late goals in the third period of Game 3 to take a 3-1 win. They won Game 4, 6-2, with Aleksi Saarela, a one time Rangers draft pick, scoring a hat trick. Ex-Pack defenseman, Bobby Sanguinetti picked up two assists. The seven wins in eight games came despite the Checkers losing their leading scorer, Andrew Poturlarksi, for two games to an undisclosed injury. They also had to deal with briefly losing their goalie, Alex Neidljkovic, who was recalled to the big club in Carolina. They lost top defenseman, Jake Bean, for the rest of the playoffs as a result of the Hurricanes Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery on the Hurricanes. Bean got replaced by a sixth-round ‘Canes prospect, Jesper Sellegren, whose Swedish postseason was over. The Checkers will meet up with the Toronto Marlies, another scorching hot and unbeaten playoff team in the Eastern Conference Finals. Without disrespecting the other teams in the race for the Championship, the battle between Charlotte and Toronto is the real Calder Cup final. It will be played starting in Charlotte next Friday and they'll play in a 2-3-2 format. Should Carolina find a way back into the series with Boston, or Charlotte were to win it all, or both squads capture gold, there is one person to thank, former GM Ron Francis who was unceremoniously demoted and let relieved of his position by new Carolina owner, Tom Dundon, last year. Most of the players in Carolina and a vast majority of the Charlotte team became part of the organization under his watch. As if the franchise's success weren't enough with both the NHL and AHL teams in their respective conference finals, the Hurricanes ECHL team, the Florida Everblades, are playing the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers in one of the ECHL semi-finals. In the other two series, each has a big Game 6 on Monday. The Chicago Wolves lead the Iowa Wild three games to two winning Game 5 on Friday 7-4 with a Curtis McKenzie scoring a hat trick. The balanced scoring saw three Wolves players register a goal and assist. The contributors were Stefan Matteau, Gabe Quinney and Daniel Carr. Iowa was led by Ryan Donato, the son of ex-Pack/Sound Tiger, Ted Donato, who tallied his first two AHL playoff goals. In Game 4, Iowa won as Gerald Mayhew scored his AHL playoff best 9th goal and was rewarded the next day with a new, two-year, two-way contract. It will pay him $700K-NHL/$100K-AHL in the first year, and $700K-NHL/$150K-AHL the second year. In the Pacific Division final, two of the AHL's higher scoring teams have been just that with the Gulls up three games to two on Bakersfield Condors. The Gulls newest addition paid off big dividends in the first two games. Maxime Comtois fresh off a seven-game QMJHL series with the Drummondville Voltigeurs scored the game-winner, his first AHL playoff goal in Game 1 ending the 5th longest playoff game in AHL history at 4:20 of the 4th overtime. He scored the game-winner in a 4-1 Game 2 victory the following day for San Diego. Bakersfield Joe Gambardella tallied five points (three goals and two assists) in a wild 7-6 OT win in which Bakersfield scored with 11 seconds left in regulation off the stick of the high scoring, Tyler Benson, who had his first playoff goal. It was also the first time the Condors scored a goal with an extra attacker all season! William Lagesson won it just 33 seconds into overtime for Bakersfield. The Condors won Game 5 in double-overtime 2-1 at 13:02 by Josh Currie. Big news from the top of the AHL mountain. Dave Andrews has informed the AHL Board of Governors that he will step down from his position after the 2019-20 season, his 26th season. Andrews has helped shepherd the AHL through some amazing growth and expansion from the 16-team league he inherited from the late Jake Butterfield. The timing of Andrews retirement It makes sense. It would come after the expected NHL work stoppage that will affect the AHL. The American League will see their respective rosters expand as they have during other labor intense times. They will be flooded with many top prospects and shine a very bright light on the AHL, especially if there is no NHL hockey for a potentially significant period of time. Andrews will be working with Seattle to plant the 32nd AHL flag in a North American city. He will have to help them resolve some team locations such as possible issues in Hartford and Bridgeport because of the unresolved XL Center issues and the expiration of the 20-year lease at the Webster Bank Arena which comes in two years with the building now run by OVG. When Seattle does make its choice it will likely initiate Vancouver switching from having their team in Utica move to out West as part of the final realignment of the AHL and North American minor pro hockey. It will also usher in a whole new era at the top and there will now be a significant search to find his replacement. This signals an end to one era for the AHL and the beginning of a new. It might even include a switch in league headquarters. Looking at the map since Andrews took over the AHL landscape, there is a greater concentration now in more Midwest and Western centered entities as money shifts to those parts of the US. The change in the center of the AHL axis is a potential byproduct in this tectonic plate change in the AHL hemisphere. With Ken Holland leaving the Detroit Red Wings for the Edmonton Oilers, it would seem that Ron Francis would be a perfect fit for the expansion franchise in Seattle with its current hockey advisor, also a former Whaler, Dave Tippett. With Holland’s departure, the newly named Detroit GM is Steve Yzerman, who was a playing legend in the Motor City. He brought in another former Whaler and Ranger great, Pat Verbeek with him from Tampa Bay. Verbeek will be the new assistant GM with the Red Wings, opening the door for Francis out West. In turn, the Lightning promoted former Wolf Pack, Jamie Pushor, to assistant GM/Director of Player Development. Pushor takes Verbeek’s spot and former Choate player and NHL’er, Mathieu Darche, was hired to be the Director of Hockey Operations after not being involved in the pro game at any level for eight years. The Flyers announced the new coaching staff for head coach, and former Ranger coach, Alain Vigneault. He will be assisted by Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo. The team returned former New Haven Nighthawk, Scott Gordon to be Head Coach for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for next season. To nobody’s surprise, well, except for maybe conspiracy theorists, the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed a ten-year renewal of their lease at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Their original twenty-year lease was set to expire at the end of June. Those conspiracy advocates who posted reports the team might move were, at best, ill-informed or at worst, just making stuff up.  There is no way the AHL would ever let Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins leave the AHL orbit. It works out too well for its Northeast Pennsylvania corridor with Hershey and Allentown (Lehigh Valley) and the parent Pittsburgh Penguins and their ECHL affiliate the Wheeling Nailers in West Virginia all a perfect equal distance from each other for recalls. Former UCONN Husky, Max Letunov, might hold the unofficial pro record for being traded while not on a team. He just completed his first full pro season with the San Jose Barracuda, but his KHL rights in Russia were traded from Salavat Yulaev to Traktor Chelyabinsk. He signed a two-year deal initially with San Jose and on July 1st becomes a restricted free agent. While with the UConn Huskies, Letunov saw the St. Louis Blues, who first drafted him, send him, then in his sophomore year, to the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes then traded him to the San Jose Sharks at the 2016 NHL Draft just before his junior season. Salavat drafted him in the 1st round (26th overall) in the 2013 KHL Draft and have held his rights since. In addition, he was drafted by Swift Current (WHL) in the CHL Import Draft in 2015 but was drafted the year before by Youngstown (USHL) and he opted to play there to maintain his NCAA eligibility and go to UCONN after rescinding his commitment to the University of New Hampshire (Hockey East). Arizona State University, presently an NCAA Division I independent program, will become the first NCAA Division I school to play in China in July/August. Read the following story on this inaugural event HERE. WORLD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS The Worlds are officially underway in Slovakia. A few familiar names dot the lineups and benches of the ten participating teams in the final major international hockey tournament of the 2018-19 season. The US squad has ex-Pack and current Rangers, Chris Kreider, and Brady Skeij as well as the team's newest signee, Adam Fox. Hartford GM, Rangers Assistant GM and Trumbull native, Chris Drury, is the team's GM. Ranger GM Jeff Gorton is on the Team USA Advisory panel. Canada has ex-CT Whale, Jonathan Marchessault, as well as, Sean Couturier, the son of ex-Nighthawk Sylvain Couturier, who is currently the GM of Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL). Also, there is a late addition in Pierre-Luc Dubois, the son of ex-Nighthawk Eric Dubois, and current Rangers assistant coach, Lindy Ruff. Russia has current Ranger/Wolf Pack goalie Alexander Georgiev and ex-Wolf Pack/Ranger Artem Anisimov. Sweden has current Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and William Nylander, the son of ex-Whaler/Ranger, Michael Nylander. Finland has Kaapo Kakko, who is expected to be the Rangers first pick, second overall behind the Devils, who will likely take, Jack Hughes (on the US squad) next month at the NHL Draft in Vancouver. The team also has AHL’er s from this season, Juho Lammikko (Springfield) and Niko Mikkola (San Antonio). The Czech Republic has ex-Pack and current Ranger, Filip Chytil, David Musil, nephew of ex-Whaler and Ranger Robert (Bobby) Holik, and the GM is former Ranger Petr Nedved. Ex-Pack defenseman, Petr Zamorsky, was among the last cuts for the Czech squad. Switzerland has ex-Pack, Andres Ambuhl, and Vincent Prapalan from this season’s Springfield Thunderbird (AHL) team. In a big surprise, ex-Pack, and Ranger, Raphael Diaz, was not on the final roster. One of Slovakia’s assistant coaches is ex-Whaler, Robert Petrovicky. Denmark has ex-Pack, Nicklas Jensen up front. Great Britain features goalie Jackson Whistle, the nephew of ex-Nighthawk, Rob Whistle. One of the best stories at the World Hockey Championships is France’s head coach and ex-NHL’er with St. Louis, Philippe Bozon, will be coaching his son, Tim Bozon, who played in Montreal and in the AHL for several before returning to play hockey in Switzerland. Tim Bozon’s only AHL penalty shot goal was scored in Hartford against his former junior teammate Mackenzie Skapski when he played for the St. John’s Ice Caps. MEMORIAL CUP The Memorial Cup Is set to begin on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the four teams are almost set to battle for the Canadian major junior hockey supremacy. The host team gets an automatic bye. In this case, that would be the Halifax Mooseheads, who lost to the QMHL President Cup Final to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in seven games. They have former New Haven Senator, Claude Savoie, on their scouting staff. The two teams will be the QMJHL representatives. The OHL representative will be the Guelph Storm who won the Robertson Cup in the OHL Final over the Ottawa 67’s in six games. Despite being down 2-0 in the series, they reeled off four straight wins and in Game 6 were down 2-0 after one period and ended up winning 8-3. Guelph features two assistant coaches with CT connections. Ex-Pack, Chad Wiseman, and ex-New Haven Senator, Jake Grimes. The WHL saw the Prince Albert Raiders and the Vancouver Giants go to a Game 7 on Monday night to win and become the WHL rep. The Raiders feature two former Springfield players as coaches in Marc Habscheid (Springfield Indians) and Jeff Truitt (head coach with the Springfield Falcons) and have former Whaler, Dalla Guame, as one of their senior scouts. Vancouver has another former Falcon in Assistant coach, Jamie Heward and Bowen Byram, the son of former Springfield Indians, Shawn Byram. The tourney can be seen on the NHL Network picking up the feed from TSN in Canada Game 1 on Friday is at 7 pm EST as Atlantic Canada is an hour ahead of the Eastern US and Quebec province will feature host Halifax playing with Prince Albert or Vancouver to kick off the tournament. PRO PLAYER MOVES No big surprise as we first reported now former Wolf Pack defenseman Julius Bergman’s move to Frolunda HC, the reigning Swedish Hockey League champions was announced officially on Wednesday as a two year deal with the Indians after five seasons in North America. Bergman played just eight games with the Wolf Pack he was traded first by Ottawa to Columbus in the Matt Duchesne deal on February 22nd, then three days later after being assigned to Cleveland, but never played there, He was sent to the Rangers in the Adam McQuaid deal and then assigned to Hartford. Joining him on the AHL Euro list as a member of HV 71 is Emil Johansson of Providence and so is John Ramage, the son of ex-NHL/WHA defenseman, Rob Ramage, goes from Binghamton to Eisbaren Berlin (Germany-DEL). That makes just 12 AHL players, a relatively low number at this point, that have left for Europe. Mathieu Sevigny, the son of former Wolf Pack Pierre Sevigny, after an injury-riddled last season of major junior with the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL), has signed with HC Cholet (France Division-2) for next year. Chris Rumble, the son of ex-New Haven, Darren Rumble, switches German DEL team going from Fischtown to Iserlohn. Alexander Tarnstrom, the nephew of ex-Sound Tiger, Dick Tarnstrom, goes from Trangsund IF (Sweden Division-1) to Segeltorps IF (Sweden Division-1). Another ex-Sound Tiger changes their address. Johan Sundstrom goes back home to Frolunda HC (Sweden-SHL) leaving Kunlun (China-KHL). Five more college players have signed for play in Europe in the fall. Mathias Israelsson from Minnesota State-Mankato (WCHA) heads back home to start his pro career with Hanhala IF (Sweden Division-1). Then a pair of UMASS-Amherst (HE) players, Connor Wilson and Avni Berisha both sign with Mulhouse (France-FREL) for next season plus Madison Dunn Alabama–Huntsville (WCHA) and Mark Logan R.I.T. (AHA) both sign with Nantes (France Division-1). That makes 13 college players that have signed in Europe, a total of 199 college players to have signed pro deals in North America and Europe. FHL HOCKEY RETURNS TO DANBURY The FHL (Federal Hockey League) makes a third try in Danbury with the return of the Danbury Hat Tricks its the fourth time Single-A hockey will call the Danbury Ice Arena home. The previous incarnations were the Danbury Titans, Danbury Whalers and the ill-fated gang of goons called the Danbury Trashers (UHL) run by convicted mobster James Galante. In between, the Trashers and Titans, they had two semi-pro teams in the Danbury Mad Hatters (EPHL) and the New England Stars (NEHL). The team also announced its first GM/Head coach in Bill McCreary, III. McCreary comes to Danbury to take on his first professional Head Coach/General Manager role.  A native of Southampton, Ontario, McCreary is a nine-year (2006-2015) Minor League Hockey veteran as both a player and coach. McCreary’s playing resume includes time spent with the Trenton Titans (ECHL), Huntsville Havoc (SPHL), New Mexico Scorpions (CHL), and the New Jersey Outlaws (FHL).  He was part of championship teams in both Hunstville (2010) and New Jersey (2012) where he served the dual role as player-coach.  Collegiately, McCreary played for both Providence College (Hockey East) & Curry College (ECAC-NE). Most recently, Bill has served as the Hockey Director for the New Jersey Colonials youth program out of Mennen Arena.  In addition, Bill’s other coaching stops include the Watertown Wolves (FHL), East Coast Selects-Q, Portland Junior Pirates (USPHL), North Jersey Avalanche, Seacoast Spartans and the ISS Kings. He was a scout with Victoriaville (QMJHL) in 2017-18. On the youth level, Bill won National, State and International Championships. He played for Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep in Minnesota where he was linemates with current Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise. He played junior hockey for the Texas Tornado (NAHL) and amassed 45 goals and 71 assists in 98 games. For that season, he was named to the All-Rookie team and First Team All-Star. McCreary has a long family history of hockey players, coaches, and General Managers.  His Grandfather Bill McCreary Sr., Great Uncle Keith McCreary, Father Bill McCreary Jr. plus cousins Ron and Bob Attwell played in the National Hockey League (NHL).  He is also related to Bill McCreary, a Hall of Fame inductee as an on-ice official in the NHL and his son Mike McCreary who referees minor league hockey. As an added note, Bill has also been named Hockey & Coaching Director of the Western Colonials Youth Hockey program. (Parts of a team press release were used in this section) Read the full article

[thrashermaxey]

Finding (and fixing) every team’s most painful draft regrets

If​ you’ve been on​ Twitter​ for​ a decade​ or​ so​ like I​ have, you’ve seen​ roughly five or​ maybe​ even six good​​ tweets. The all-time best hockey tweet, we can all agree, is this one. But not far behind is this beauty from the 2015 entry draft, which still resurfaces from time to time:

Oh shit, Boston could get Barzal, Connor, and Kylington here

— Rhys Jessop (@Thats_Offside) June 27, 2015

The Bruins held three straight picks in the first round that year, and they could indeed have used those picks to nab Mathew Barzal and Kyle Connor. (And, uh, Oliver Kylington, but let’s skip that part.) Instead, they picked Jakub Zboril, Jake Debrusk and Zachary Senyshyn. Let’s be charitable and say they went 1-for-3.

If you’re a Boston fan, you may be haunted by visions of Barzal and Connor slotted into today’s Bruins lineup, and thoughts of what might have been. But that’s hardly unusual. In fact, every team has had a draft like the 2015 Bruins, where you wish you could go back and will your team to make different picks.

So today, let’s do that. We’re all scouting geniuses with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, so let’s pretend we’re time traveling hockey fans from the year 2018 who can go back and visit the draft table of each NHL team for one year and convince the GM to change three picks. Which year would you go back to for your favorite team? Or put differently, how painful was your team’s worst missed opportunity?

Two important ground rules here, and I’m even going to break out the bolded text to make sure everyone sees them before they go yell at me in the comments. (They will not.)

– We can only convince teams to take guys who are going to be chosen relatively close to that team’s actual pick. Otherwise, there’s not much fun here – every team wishes they’d taken Dominik Hasek in 1983 or Pavel Datsyuk in 1998, but reading that 30 times wouldn’t be all that interesting. So let’s pretend that no GM is going to listen to a time traveler telling him to reach too far, which we’ll define as more than five picks in the top 10, or more than 10 picks anywhere else.

– In a further attempt to avoid going overboard on the Datsyuk-type picks, only one team can change their pick to any given player. In other worse, no player can be redrafted more than once. And to ratchet up the pain, we’ll give first dibs to whichever team was closest to where that guy was ultimately picked.

With those caveats in mind, let’s find the most painful draft possible for all 30 teams that have been around long enough to know they screwed up. (Sorry, Vegas, you’ll have to sit this one out. Check back in a few years.) For teams that have relocated, we’ll count the previous version too, since some of those players would have made the move to the new market.

This is going to get long, so we recommend CTRL+F’ing your favorite team, crying for a little bit, and then circling back to point and laugh at everyone else. Let’s do this.

Anaheim Ducks: 2007

They could have had: #22 Max Pacioretty, #43 P.K. Subban and #129 Jamie Benn

Instead they picked: #19 Logan MacMillan, #42 Eric Tangradi and #121 Mattias Modig

The Ducks are a nice place to start – thank you, alphabetical order! – because they do a good job of demonstrating the concept we’re going for here. Three all-stars, including an Art Ross and a Norris winner, there for the taking. Instead, the Ducks grabbed two forwards who combined for a total of five NHL goals and a goaltender who never made the NHL. Was the entire Ducks’ front office drunk in 2007? [Remembers how that year’s playoffs went.] Yeah, they were probably drunk.

Arizona Coyotes: 2015

They could have had: #4 Mitch Marner, #35 Sebastian Aho and #37 Brandon Carlo

Instead they picked: #3 Dylan Strome, #30 Nick Merkley and #32 Christian Fischer

It’s a little ironic that it only takes us two teams to get to the 2015 draft that inspired this post. And for extra fun, we’re even stealing one of Boston’s picks in the process.

It’s admittedly a little risky to go back just three years, since 2015 is recent enough that we can’t say for sure how the draft will turn out. Maybe Strome reaches his potential in Chicago, Merkley still makes it and Fischer goes from solid young depth to difference maker. But for right now, the Coyotes with Aho, Carlo and Marner – or Ivan Provorov or Zach Werenski for that matter – would look pretty scary.

Boston Bruins: 1981

They could have had: #15 Al MacInnis, #40 Chris Chelios and #107 Gerard Gallant

Instead they picked: #14 Normand Leveille, #35 Luc Dufour and #98 Joe Mantione

It’s tempting to stay true to the source material and just go with 2015 for the Bruins, maybe swapping in somebody like Thomas Chabot or Brock Boeser for Kylington. But while Barzal and friends are very good young players, they’ve got a long way to go to be first-ballot Hall of Famers like Chelios and MacInnis.

Gallant is the third wheel here, and you could go with somebody like Tom Kurvers or Greg Stefan instead if you wanted, but the key point is that the Bruins could have built their 1980s blueline around Chelios, MacInnis and Ray Bourque. (And if you want to argue that already having Bourque means they wouldn’t have bothered drafting defensemen, remember that they spent the first overall pick in 1982 on Gord Kluzak.)

Buffalo Sabres: 1977

They could have had: #15 Mike Bossy, #33 John Tonelli and #73 Jim Korn

Instead they picked: #14 Ric Seiling, #32 Ron Areshenkoff and #68 Bill Stewart

It’s the context that makes this one sting. Back in 1977, the Sabres and Islanders were both recent expansion teams that had already built contenders. The Sabres had put up three straight 100-point seasons, while the Islanders had just had their second. Both teams felt like they were on the verge of a breakthrough, as if they were just a player or two away from something special. Then the Sabres let Bossy and Tonelli slip through their fingers in favor of two guys who played the same positions, and the final pieces of an eventual Islanders dynasty fell into place.

Korn’s basically an afterthought here; the real question is whether flipping these picks means the Sabres and Islanders flip 1980s destinies too.

Calgary Flames: 1990

They could have had: #19 Keith Tkachuk, #34 Doug Weight and #85 Sergei Zubov

Instead they picked: #11 Trevor Kidd, #32 Vesa Viitakoski and #83 Paul Kruse

For reasons I can’t quite figure out, the Flames are one of the hardest team to find a really regrettable draft for. It’s not that they don’t make bad picks – everyone does – but they seem to spread them out, or at least let a team or two get in between them and their worst misses.

So we’ll cheat just a little by going with 1990 here. The three players they miss are all top-tier stars, and despite having a dozen picks the only real NHLers they found were Kruse and Kidd. But as Flames fans know, this draft lives in infamy because the Flames traded up with New Jersey from #20 to #11 to get Kidd, only to see the Devils use that #20 pick on the draft’s second highest-rated goaltender … Martin Brodeur. Whoops. Even on the draft floor, sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers: 1989

They could have had: #53 Nicklas Lidstrom, #74 Sergei Fedorov and #221 Vladimir Konstantinov

Instead they picked: #52 Blair Atcheynum, #73 Jim McKenzie and #220 John Battice

This one almost feels unfair, as the Red Wings have quite possibly the greatest draft in the history of the NHL with the Whalers picking right in front of them the whole way along. Hartford even misses out on a 1,000-game man in #116 Dallas Drake in favor of #115 Jerome Bechard. But at least #136 Scott Daniels ended up being a marginally better pick than #137 Scott Zygulski. Eat that, Detroit!

Chicago Blackhawks: 2004

They could have had: #5 Blake Wheeler, #63 David Krejci and #258 Pekka Rinne

Instead they picked: #3 Cam Barker, #54 Jakub Sindel and #256 Matthew Ford

Chicago fans probably aren’t surprised to see the Cam Barker pick show up here in some form. Missing on Krejci and Rinne hurts too, as does passing up guys like Ryan Callahan and Andrej Sekera. The good news is that the Hawks did find some important depth pieces for their future dynasty in Dave Bolland and Bryan Bickell. But as for the franchise-defining draft finds, those would have to wait a couple of years.

Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques: 1988

They could have had: #8 Jeremy Roenick, #10 Teemu Selanne and either #67 Mark Recchi or #70 Rob Blake

Instead they picked: #3 Curtis Leschyshyn, #5 Daniel Dore and #66 Darren Kimble

The Nordiques whiffed so badly that I have to put Alexander Mogilny in the honorable mentions. He went with the 89th pick, two spots after the Nordiques took Stephane Venne.

The league felt so sorry for Quebec after this draft that they let them have the first overall pick in each of the next three years.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

from All About Sports http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2018/11/finding-and-fixing-every-teams-most.html

[vinayv224]

Amazon has yet to announce the HQ2 locations, but reports suggest the company is coming to both New York City and northern Virginia.

It seems Amazon has finally chosen the two locations for its new headquarters: Queens, New York, and Arlington, Virginia.

The company has yet to formally announce its decision, but news about the HQ2 sites began leaking last week. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that instead of one city, Amazon would split its HQ2 between two locations. A few hours later, the New York Times followed up with a report that the company was “nearing deals” in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens and the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, a suburb of Washington, DC.

More than 200 local and state governments submitted proposals for Amazon’s consideration last year after the company announced it was looking for a North American city to house its $5 billion, 50,000-employee HQ2, a second headquarters outside its home base in Seattle. Some cities promised the company millions of dollars in tax breaks and other incentives.

New York City, for its part, claimed not to have offered Amazon any extra incentives. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, however, offered Amazon a still-undisclosed benefits package. Virginia, meanwhile, reportedly hired McKinsey & Co. to draft its proposal, which has yet to be publicly released.

The road to HQ2

Amazon first asked local and state governments to submit HQ2 proposals in September 2017, noting that municipalities with more than 1 million residents and a “stable, business-friendly environment” would have a leg up, as would those with robust public transit systems and large airports with direct flights to and from Seattle.

“We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters,” CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement at the time. “Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs.”

Hundreds of cities, from New York City to Gary, Indiana, jumped at the opportunity for its potential to boost the local economy and job market. A new Amazon headquarters would create 50,000 new jobs in the chosen city, meaning a larger tax base and opportunities for further economic development. And that’s just jobs at Amazon: Construction crews would be needed to build the company’s new campus or renovate an existing structure, and all those Amazon employees are going to need places to eat and shop.

A total of 238 cities and states ended up submitting proposals. Some, including Detroit, Las Vegas, and Pittsburgh, created videos explaining why they were the right choice. Orlando had more than one.

Amazon announced its 20 finalists in January. The shortlist included some obvious contenders, like New York and Chicago, as well as some less likely options like Indianapolis and Dallas.

Some of those cities tried to lure the company with huge financial incentives.

A letter obtained by the Chicago Tribune revealed that Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and city leaders promised Amazon more than $2 billion in perks, including $1.32 billion in EDGE tax credits — grants for companies that promise to create jobs in the state — as well as $172.5 million in state sales tax and utility exemptions, and $61.4 million in property tax discounts. The largest of those incentives, the EDGE credits, would have been equivalent to 50 percent of employee income tax withholdings, the Tribune reported.

New Jersey offered Amazon $5 billion in incentives, plus an additional $2 billion from Newark — the second-largest publicly available offer the company received, according to CityLab. Maryland made an even larger offer: $8.5 billion in subsidies and infrastructure funding, as reported by the Baltimore Sun, in addition to an undisclosed incentive package from Montgomery County.

“I’m doing everything I can,” Cuomo told reporters when asked about his administration’s efforts to win over Amazon. “I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes. Because it would be a great economic boost.”

Was HQ2’s competitive selection process a highly publicized ruse?

Some experts reasoned that the massively hyped selection process was rigged from the start, and that Amazon knew where it wanted to locate its HQ2 all along. Scott Galloway, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, said as much at Recode’s Code Commerce conference last month when he predicted that Amazon would choose — and has always planned to choose — Washington, DC, as the home for its second location, but allowed cities to compete in order to extract more incentives from both the chosen city and its competitors.

“Amazon has gamified the HQ2 process and basically created a game which will result in a transfer of wealth from municipalities — fire districts, school districts, and police forces — to Amazon’s shareholders,” Galloway said. “I believe it is a [ruse]. I believe they have no intention of being in any of these [other] 18 cities. I believe this game was over before it started.”

CityLab co-founder and University of Toronto professor Richard Florida similarly said in May that Amazon always knew what the location for its second headquarters would be. “Like all corporate site selection, the HQ2 process is a rigged game, where the company knows the answer in advance and sets up a fictitious competition to wrest maximum incentives,” wrote Florida. “What’s going on is something that is bigger than just a search for a second headquarters; it’s about the company’s continued expansion across North America.”

The HQ2 process, he argued, was a way for Amazon to crowdsource information on sites across the country — not a genuine competition for a new headquarters — in order to have intel on where to place new distribution or logistics centers. He called it a “brilliantly cynical exercise in corporate locational strategy,” and he might be right.

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had begun calling up cities whose HQ2 proposals it had rejected to tell them why they hadn’t been chosen — and some of those cities are taking Amazon’s suggestions to heart. Cincinnati, for example, responded to Amazon’s critique that it didn’t have enough local tech talent by refocusing a high school apprenticeship program on information technology. Orlando, which reportedly received a similar critique, considering starting a community development fund to invest in local tech companies. Detroit is looking for ways to beef up its public transit in response to losing out on the Amazon bid.

So what does this mean for the winner?

It’s likely that despite the hoops cities and states jumped through in order to show Amazon they were worthy of being chosen as the home of HQ2, the company knew what it wanted to do all along. In the case of New York and Virginia, all of this could mean that any extra perks officials offered may come at the expense of longtime residents.

In May, Vox’s Matt Yglesias wrote that Amazon’s promise of 50,000 jobs may not be as much of a boon as it may seem. Instead of creating jobs needed by “people who are really in need of help,” i.e., under-paid, low-skilled workers, Amazon’s presence will likely lead to a surge in well-compensated white-collar professionals who will drive up property values even further.

It’s nearly impossible to overstate the effects Amazon’s presence has had on the housing market in Seattle, which is home to more than 45,000 of the company’s employees. Highly paid Amazon employees in the city have contributed to steadily rising real estate prices in the city and its outlying suburbs, causing housing costs to surge and leading to the displacement of low-income families. In 2015, King County declared a homelessness state of emergency; conditions have hardly improved since, and local lawmakers have repeatedly pointed to a lack of affordable housing in the city as a key culprit in its homelessness crisis. House prices in the city have risen 70 percent since 2011, according to a report by the Guardian, and rents have risen along with them. Traffic is also a concern; Seattle is contending with an excessive burden on the city’s public transit system.

What remains to be seen is what kind of effect HQ2 will have on New York and Arlington, and whether the cities will take steps to protect their residents from Amazon’s presence.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2OxBkwg

[365footballorg-blog]

Kick Off: KO Round closing | Nashville hires GM | Will Basti, Ibra return?

Hate missing the Kick Off? Of course, you do. Sign up for The Kick Off e-mail.

October 30, 201811:23AM EDT

Here is everything you need to know about MLS and North American soccer today:

Decision Day winners and losers

Before we move on to the MLS Playoffs, Bobby Warshaw took one last look at Decision Day presented by AT&T to pick who flew highest and who suffered most on the final day of the 2018 regular season. READ MORE

Vela rarin’ to go

Thanks to what he calls his “second preseason,” LAFC star Carlos Vela has declared himself ready for his first taste of the Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs. The veteran attacker says coach Bob Bradley forced him to take some days off after the World Cup sapped his energy, and that mini-break has helped re-charge his batteries for the MLS Cup chase. READ MORE

Don’t forget the D.C. defense

Much has been said about the impact of LuchoRoo in D.C. United’s charge to the postseason, but local blog Black-And-Red United took a moment to give some love to the club’s improved performance at the back. D.C. have experienced a ton of turnover in defense throughout the season, but are now in a stretch where they’ve conceded just twice in six games. READ MORE

Gifted with the sixth seed, RSL focused on LAFC

Backing into the postseason might play on the minds of some, but Real Salt Lake insist they’re fully ready to set aside how they got in and take advantage the opportunity. The idle Claret-and-Cobalt had their ticket punched for a Knockout Round matchup at LAFC when the LA Galaxy blew a two-goal lead to lose at home on MLS Decision Day presented by AT&T. READ MORE

Davies to join Bayern first team

If anyone had wondered where outgoing Vancouver phenom Alphonso Davies would fit in immediately upon arrival at Bayern Munich, manager Niko Kovac cleared that right up on Monday: “One thing is certain,” Kovac said, “when you spend that much money on a player, then you don’t park him at the reserves.” READ MORE

An MLS Playoff “What if… ?”

What started as a conversation around the office blossomed into an impromptu MLS Playoff fantasy draft of a different sort. The Extra Time Radio crew took turns selecting a player to hypothetically join each postseason participant from a club that fell short of the playoffs. How’d they do? READ MORE

Nashville MLS announce GM hire

Nashville MLS owner John Ingram chats with new GM hire Mike Jacobs at training. | NashvilleSC.com

Nashville’s MLS expansion club announced Tuesday morning that current Nashville SC technical director Mike Jacobs will serve as the first general manager for Nashville MLS. In an exclusive interview with MLSsoccer.com, Ian Ayre told Sam Stejskal that it became clear Jacobs was “the best option” after six other interviews. READ MORE | HIRING NEWS

Who will stay, who will go?

Outside the playoff field, thoughts are turning toward 2019, with some league stars staring at cloudy club futures. Over in Chicago, Bastian Schweinsteiger says he and the team will take a little time to think before meeting to discuss whether he’ll return in 2019 or not. READ MORE

Over in Los Angeles, the Galaxy have several squad situations up in the air, chief among them the return status of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. However, club President Chris Klein says he’s confident the strike superstar will be back. READ MORE

It’s also beginning to look like there could be plenty of change in New England. Among those whose returns are in question: Juan Agudelo, Diego Fagundez and Kelyn Rowe. READ MORE

MLSsoccer.com Must-Watch

[embedded content]

Instant Replay: Andrew & Bobby review tough Decision Day calls

Series: 

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .page-node .copy p {margin:0;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download:  App Store  |  Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Kick Off: KO Round closing | Nashville hires GM | Will Basti, Ibra return? was originally published on 365 Football

[rickhorrow]

15 to Watch + 5 Tech + Power of Sports 5 103017

1. This year’s World Series between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers got off to a strong start from an overnight ratings perspective. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Game 1 on Fox drew a 10.2 rating as the Dodgers won 3-1. That figure is lower than last year’s 12.6 that the Indians and Cubs drew, but “was the best for a World Series opener since Phillies-Yankees in 2009.” Despite a cry that games have been taking too long, Game 1 was the shortest World Series game in a quarter century. Game 2 followed up with 16.0 million viewers on Fox, with the Astros pulling out a 7-6 win in 11 innings. That number is down compared to last year, but up 13% from two years ago. Subsequent games have been packed with drama and action as the series seems likely to go the distance. Viewership numbers for the most recent games have not yet been released, but numbers are expected to be strong across two of America’s biggest markets due to the intensity and star power featured in the contests.

2. With the World Series now well underway, MLB baseball has revealed its postseason viewership numbers leading up to the championship round. According to SportsBusiness Journal, playoff games across ESPN, TBS, FS1, Fox and MLB Network averaged 4.8 million viewers – representing the league’s “best pre-Fall Classic figure since 2011 (4.9 million).” The 4.8 million average is up 13% from the 4.24 million viewers that last year’s postseason averaged. One of the biggest jumps from last year is NL viewership on TBS, which has seen a 46% increase from last year. FS1 has been the big winner thus far, as it had the honor of broadcasting the ALCS Game 7 matchup between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees. That game alone averaged 9.9 million viewers, “marking the net’s most-viewed telecast on record.” The 9.9 million average tops last year’s 9.7 million that tuned in to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Game 6 last year. MLB has to be happy with this news, especially considering the NFL’s struggle to keep its viewership numbers up relative to past years.

3. Colin Kaepernick is set to attend a meeting between NFL players and owners, where the two sides plan to talk about the ongoing social activism and protest issues. According to Yahoo Sports, multiple players across the league have voiced their desire to get him in their meetings with team owners and league officials, noting that “he is an important voice in their effort.” This now marks the second time “he has been invited” by members of the players’ coalition to attend a league meeting, after he declined the first offer. League officials have been open to the idea of the former NFLer joining their discussions, though it remains unclear what his exact contribution will be since he is not on a team. Kaepernick recently filed a grievance against the NFL for “allegedly conspiring to freeze him out of a job.” Protesting the national anthem all began with Kaepernick, so it will be interesting to see what – if anything – comes out of his inclusion in the meeting.

4. The San Francisco 49ers are teaming up with multiple police unions in an attempt to “ease national police-community acrimony.” According to the San Jose Mercury News, the current on-field protests by players have since “extended far beyond the field,” prompting the 49ers to work with police unions all across the Pacific Northwest. The team and police unions from San Jose, Oakland, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Long Beach and Portland “plan to solicit participation from other NFL teams and police unions.” One of the key areas of focus in this new partnership is gun control, specifically to outlaw bump stocks, which the shooter in Las Vegas used to boost the killing power of his rifles. “We’re all very interested in progress, and it’s very clear that protesting has brought ample vision, and the opportunity for people to speak loudly,” said 49ers CEO Jed York. This partnership could spur a movement across the league of teams working with police unions in their respective markets. This is a great step in the right direction for the NFL.

5. This week marks the national debut of episode three of "The Power of Sports," a monthly program jointly produced by FOX Sports Southwest, Horrow Sports Ventures, Oklahoma City-based foundation Fields & Futures, and Group One Thousand One. This month, after successful forays into Oklahoma City and Indianapolis looking at public-private partnership ventures, we journey to South Florida with MLB Hall of Famer Cal Ripkin Jr. as he relives his first professional game at Miami Stadium as a Miami Oriole and tour community baseball facilities being developed by his namesake cause Ripken Baseball. We also hear about the good work his father Cal Ripken Sr. is doing with Team Cops and Kids, and go inside Up2Us, which is training everyday coaches to work with vulnerable youth. Check local FOX Sports networks listings to be a part of this truly remarkable journey.

6. The Tampa Bay Rays finally have a site picked out to build a new stadium on, but funding remains up in the air. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the proposed site in the Channel District-Ybor City area presents developers with an opportunity to “build an urban ballpark with, perhaps, waterfront views and access.” Plans and funding for the 14-acre site have yet to be determined. It still remains uncertain how much the new ballpark will cost the Rays, but it is expected to run between $500-650 million. That cost is the cost of the stadium alone, not including the millions it will take to acquire the land, build roads and parking lots, reroute sewer lines in the area and add “new exit ramps off highways or new stops on transit lines.” Sources close to the franchise note that it is unlikely that “ownership will offer to pay” for a new ballpark outright. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman offered to build a new ballpark at a redeveloped Tropicana Field, though the team seems intent on moving elsewhere.

7. Just a year after opening, the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento has already begun to pay dividends in the community. According to the Sacramento Kings, the team’s new $1 billion arena is one of the world’s most technologically advanced and sustainable, making it a staple in the city. Since 2015, “downtown property sales have totaled nearly $885 million,” when construction first began on the Golden 1 Center, while 11 downtown properties worth nearly $360 million were sold in the past year alone. In 2017, the facility was ranked as one of the top 15 venues in the United States and in the top 40 worldwide in ticket sales, “attracting over 1.6 million attendees who spent more than $71.5 million in downtown Sacramento.” Going forward, the Kings want to build on of this momentum to spur more positive economic growth in the city. In just a few short months, the Downtown Commons development will be opening, which is expected to be busy even on non-event nights. Already a staple in the community, the Golden 1 Center continues to drive economic impact in Sacramento. Look for other cities to use this as a case to build their own state-of-the-art facilities.

8. Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will host the 2018 MLS All-Star game. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, expansion side Atlanta United FC’s success, coupled with the city’s affection for soccer, has resulted in announcement that the city, team, and stadium will be hosting the event in the coming year. “I don’t think we have to worry about selling out the stadium for the All-Star game,” commented Atlanta United Owner Arthur Blank. On top of the 2018 MLS All-Star game, the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium is also slated to host the 2018 College Football Playoff, 2019 Super Bowl and 2020 Final Four. In this instance, Atlanta was one of four cities in consideration to win the bid. Up to 30 Atlanta United employees “went to Chicago to observe the different facets” of this year’s all-star game at Soldier Field, where the MLS squad faced off against Real Madrid. This marks yet another mega sporting event that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta has been awarded. The city and venue will use this as a tune-up for the CFP, Super Bowl and Final Four.

9. Detroit professional sports franchises are teaming up in an attempt to bring more marquee events to the city. According to the Detroit Free Press, executives from the city’s four pro sports teams – Red Wings, Pistons, Lions, and Tigers – have formed a new partnership, the Detroit Sports Organizing Corporation, which will “identify, bid, plan and produce major sporting events in Detroit.” Some of the events that the city hopes to attract in the coming years include the NFL Draft and NBA and NHL All-Star Games. Little Caesars Arena just opened in the heart of the city and the DSOC sees the venue as a selling point in winning bids. “The cities that have been really successful in hosting those events on a regular basis have a group like this that is permanently in place so that when an opportunity comes up we’re not starting from scratch,” said Lions President Rod Wood. Detroit now joins the likes of Indianapolis, Atlanta and Phoenix as cities with permanent organizing committees, the latter of which are notorious for hosting some of the country’s biggest sporting events.

10. Charlotte is out of the running to land an MLS expansion club – at least in this round. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, the city’s first round efforts were confirmed to be “dead” by the lead investor for a local team. The city planned on building a soccer-specific stadium for a new team, one of the main criteria for cities hopeful of landing an expansion bid, that would cost $175 million, but “the combination of upcoming elections and a competing bid by Nashville dashed any remaining hopes.” The city and county government disagreed on how the stadium was going to be funded, with some supporting the use of tourism tax while others dissented. SMI President & CEO Marcus Smith leads MLS4CLT and had even “committed to pay” the $150 million fee to acquire a team if Charlotte’s bid succeeded, but it will not get to the point where that is necessary. With numerous cities vying to land an MLS expansion team, a soccer-specific stadium is a must. Funding always presents an issue though, especially for smaller markets.

11. Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long is doing more than just playing football this season, he is making a massive impact in communities around the country. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Long made a splash when he announced his plan to donating his first six game checks to fund academic scholarships in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Long is now expanding his charitable efforts by donating his final 10 game checks of the season “to organizations committed to balancing education inequity.” His new campaign – Pledge 10 For Tomorrow – is geared toward the three markets he has played in throughout his career: St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia. Using social media as his platform to get fans involved, the campaign has already raised around $200,000 in just over a week. “We’re all trying to improve our communities and our country,” said Long. “I think everybody would agree equality is a goal, and a great gateway to that is an education and educational opportunities, educational equity.” A great example of a player using their status as a professional athlete to spur change in communities across the country.

12. As Amazon and Facebook continue their push to stream live sporting events around the world, a potential bid to land the English Premier League’s media rights is expected to cost more than $13 billion. According to the London Times, if either of the two web-based companies wanted to “stand any chance of winning live rights” to the EPL, they would have to pay at least $13.1 billion. The preeminent soccer league’s media rights have been hyper-inflated due to “aggressive competition between BT Sport and Sky” in the United Kingdom. Amazon currently owns the media rights to stream the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games via its Prime subscription model, though it attracted a mere 370,000 viewers for the first game streamed, “compared with 14.6 million on conventional TV, and was hit by glitches.” Sky and BT are working out a deal to pay less for the EPL’s media rights, since sport “now accounts for two-thirds of spending on content but only 8% of viewing.” Amazon and Facebook both have the capital necessary to make a competitive bid here, it just depends if either company is willing to justify such a move.

13. After a few years of unparalleled growth, Under Armour’s sales are beginning to waver. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore-based sportswear company is now considering “exiting some of its smaller sports categories as it works to stem declining sales.” Among those categories under consideration for exit are outdoor gear, fishing, and most-notably tennis, among others. Star British tennis player Andy Murray is currently represented by Under Armour, but his endorsement deal is not expected to be impacted by any potential move. Just this past year, Under Armour “recorded its first losses as a public company,” while its shares hit a record low when the “retailer reported second-quarter earnings in August.” The company’s revenue growth is expected to slow from 11-12% growth down to 9-11% growth. One of the main reasons for these results is the resurgence of Adidas, specifically in America. Now that Under Armour’s growth has plateaued, the long term arms race between them, Nike and Adidas to only continue to heat up going forward.

14. With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia is now less than a year away, significant plans are still being made for the event. According to the London Independent, FIFA President Gianni Infantino want VAR technology in place for all tournament matches. VAR technology was used during the Confederations Cup in Russia this past summer, with positive results coming out of the trial. One of the biggest fears in the sport is that a major tournament or game would ultimately be decided by a refereeing error – hence the need for VAR. “We need it. Every championship needs it,” said Infantino. “That’s being shown in leagues like Portugal and Italy at the moment.” Meanwhile in Russia, the AP reported that hosting the World Cup will cost the country “$600 million more than previously planned,” bringing the total cost up to $11.7 billion. Hidden and rising costs are commonplace for countries tasked with hosting the World Cup and Olympics, despite continual efforts to buck this trend.

15. Merely months ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, ticket sales continue to lag. According to the Wall Street Journal, safety concerns about neighboring North Korea plague the event – a primary reason for the weak sales. Organizers noted that only “about 30% of the tickets they targeted to sell worldwide, and less than 20% of the batch earmarked for South Koreans” have been purchased thus far. South Korean and IOC officials are adamant that the February Games will be “safe and secure,” but that reassurance appears to be doing little to convince people to make the trip to Asia. The “sluggish ticket sales raise questions about the IOC’s strategy of holding three consecutive Games in Asia to capture interest there, though the next two Games” – Tokyo in summer 2020 and Beijing in winter 2022 – will at least be in “larger population centers.” A recent front-page story on the Wall Street Journal, titled “The Winter Olympics Are Close, and So Is North Korea,” did little to calm any nerves about PyeongChang’s proximity to the DMZ (40 miles).

Five Top Tech

1) Amazon has continued to make their way in the steaming services arena. After it was announced that Amazon had acquired the rights to stream Thursday Night Football, many wondered about how successful the new venture would be. This week, we found out. Over the first four TNF games, Amazon compiled 7.1 Million views in over 180 countries around the world. Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky had this to say about the extent of the streaming success: “We’re going to continue to invest in video and increase that investment in 2018. The video business is having great results with our most important customer base, which is our Prime customers. It continues to drive better conversion of free trials, higher membership renewal rates for existing subscribers and higher overall engagement. That will always be an important part of our Prime offer, and we’ll continue to use the data that we have to make better and better decisions about where to invest our dollars in Prime Video.” Clearly, the move for Amazon in the digital streaming space has started to work. Over the remainder of the NFL season, we will see if the viewership increases. If it does, Amazon may have much more competition next season for NFL streaming rights.

2) Simon Wheatcroft, a British runner, will be competing in the New York City Marathon on November 5th. Wheatcroft, who is blind, will be wearing a vibrating device that will help him navigate the course next week.  The vibrations are called “Haptic Feedback” and is worn around his wrist similar to a watch. When asked to detail his upcoming experience, Simon Wheatcroft said: “This will be my third New York marathon, but undoubtedly my greatest challenge and most significant run to date. Technology has enabled me to strive for the impossible. I want to continue using it to push the boundaries of what I am capable of achieving — and to ensure technologies exist that can assist everybody, whether they’re running a marathon or simply walking through their home town.” Wheatcroft is an inspirational athlete who is using technology to the best of his ability in order to compete in one of the most prestigious races in the world. The NYC marathon will include other athletes using other forms of technology to help them complete the race, but Wheatcroft’s use of a Haptic Device is the first of his kind.

3) The NBA may be moving closer to having players wear technology such as wristbands during play. The move would increase the amount of data and information teams, coaches, and fans could have about players while they’re playing. An interesting idea, wearable technology could tell us all about a player’s heart rate during some of the most crucial moments of each game. Executive Vice President of Media Operation and Technology for the NBA, Steve Hellmuth, said this of the recent VR developments: “Once we have motion capture, then we actually know the hands, arms, legs, feet positioning. It’s “kind of the last piece in really allowing a computer to understand the game of basketball. This is the next best experience that we can provide them with,” he said. “You’re under the basket, you’re seeing the collisions, you’re seeing the athleticism, the grace of the players that you just can’t when watching a flat television screen.” With the NBA progressing as one of the most tech-savvy leagues in all of professional sports, it comes as no surprise that the NBA is embracing this collection of tracking data. In MLB, teams and fans have a large amount of access to a variety of on-field measurable stats, and it has only raised interest for more data.

4) Wearable technology continues to make its way into MLB. Garmin has released the “Impact Bat Swing Sensor” that will relay data and information to any player that uses the application. The sensor is a small, watch-like device that fits onto the knob of the bat. Similar to a Zepp sensor, Garmin has decided to try its hand at a new piece of baseball technology. Garmin’s Vice President of World Sales Dan Bartel said: “Garmin has seen great success with our other sports products, like the golf swing sensor, so the addition of the Impact bat swing sensor to the performance training market seemed like a natural fit. Whether playing baseball or softball, or coaching players, the on-device display and auditory cues on the Impact bat swing sensor allow batters to quickly make adjustments so come game time they can step up to the plate with confidence.” While the product is useful, it is a direct copy of Zepp sensor technology. Unless there is a stark difference in price, it doesn’t seem like this product will gain much headway on the market. Time will tell, but Garmin is entering this field very late compared to its main competitor.

5) The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are creating augmented reality experiences for their fans starting next season. The transition began in late September this last season, where Coca Cola handed out interactive cards on which fans could download the BallPark App, and see the card display an animation. Coca-Cola’s Marketing Director for Sports Entertainment had this to say about their new MLB partnerships: We were one of the first partners to do something with Major League Baseball on this, but the team loves this because app downloads were up by 66 percent when we did this activity. That’s a major focus for the team, for Major League Baseball, and a win for us.” The advent of this form of technology could help attract fans who may not be pleased with baseball’s relatively slow pace.  With more interactive features, fans that come to the ballpark could have something else to watch along with the game and stay engaged throughout. Soon, we may see more and more MLB teams adopt this technology in an effort to add to their fan experience.

Power of Sports 5

1. Microsoft Partnering With NFL Stars For Charity Campaign. As part of their “Create Change” campaign, Microsoft has begun backing the charitable organizations of five NFL players. Von Miller, Russell Wilson, Martellus Bennett, Greg Olsen, and Richard Sherman have each started their own charitable organization since entering the league, and this week each player agreed to partner with Microsoft in an effort to spread awareness and raise additional funding for their cause. Under the agreement, Microsoft will be providing each organization with Surface tablets to help increase the efficiency of their work. Additionally, the company will be making a charitable donation to each players’ foundation. Microsoft has also produced videos of each player discussing their foundation and why it is important to them. The videos were debuted this week as part of a contest that Microsoft is running for the Super Bowl, in which fans are encouraged to submit stories of how they have created positive change in their community. The five winners, selected by Microsoft’s NFL partners, will each receive a trip for two to Super Bowl LII.

2. Olympian April Ross Encouraging Schools to Host Match for Breast Cancer Awareness. Professional beach volleyball player April Ross, alongside the Side-Out Foundation, is encouraging high school and college volleyball programs to host a Dig Pink event to help raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. Ross, whose mother Margie battled breast cancer for more than 15 years, has met with multiple college teams over the last year to speak to them about breast cancer awareness and encourage them to support the Dig Pink initiative. DePaul University, one of the schools that Ross was able to visit after her AVP tour stop in Chicago, has been hosting the event annually since 2009 and has been one of the foundation’s biggest supporters over the last eight years. The Side-Out Foundation was founded in 2005 by Rick Dunetz. Through Dig Pink matches and fundraising events across the country, the foundation has been able to raise more than $12 million dollars for breast cancer research and clinical trials. The foundation’s goal is to eventually have every high school and college program host at least one Dig Pink event during the month of October, which is recognized nationwide as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

3. NYCFC and City of New York Open Ten New Soccer Fields Across the City. As part of the New York City Soccer Initiative launched last year by Mayor Bill de Blasio, members of New York City Football Club were present at the openings of ten new soccer pitches across the city this week to cut the ribbon and speak on behalf of the initiative. The New York City Soccer Initiative is being led by NYCFC, the U.S. Soccer Federation, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC, Adidas, and Etihad Airways. The initiative plans to to build and maintain 50 mini-soccer pitches in underserved neighborhoods across the five boroughs of New York over the next five years. Their goal is to expand after school programming for thousands of New York City youth and ensure that New Yorkers of all ages can work, learn, and play in safe neighborhoods.

4. Captain of the Rwandan Cricket Team Teaching the Sport to Young Refugees. Mary Maina, captain of the Rwandan women’s cricket team, has begun teaching a one-hour cricket class for a group of around 200 children refugees at the Mahama Refugee Camp in southeastern Rwanda. The camp is home to approximately 55,000 people, 51 percent of whom are children. The class was started in an effort to help the children forget about the trauma and issues that they have been forced to escape from, while also allowing them to learn a new sport that most of them have never been exposed to in the past. The program was started by the Cricket Builds Hope foundation, a charitable organization focused on delivering social programs for children with an emphasis on the empowerment of young females. The foundation believes that this first class is just the tip of the iceberg for what the organization will be able to achieve, and hopes to spread the program across the country and eventually across the rest of Africa.

5. San Francisco 49ers Partner with Local Police Unions. The San Francisco 49ers have joined together with several major police unions to sign the “Pledge for a More Understanding and Safer America.” The 49ers are contributing $500,000 to the campaign, which aims to improve police and community relationships. The pledge also advocates for legislation banning bump stocks, armor-piercing bullets, and gun silencers, accessories that have been facing heavy scrutiny after the recent shooting in Las Vegas. The 49ers will invite other NFL franchises and police unions to join them in their effort to build bridges of trust and communication between the community and their local police force. Thus far, unions representing the police in Oakland, Sacramento, Portland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Jose have all agreed to sign the pledge.

[junker-town]

MLS mock draft 2018: Tomas Hilliard-Arce goes as top pick

Our group opted to continue recent MLS draft trends.

The 2018 MLS draft is on Friday, and with that comes SB Nation’s annual tradition of bringing bloggers together from all of our MLS blogs and holding a mock draft to get ready for the real thing.

In terms of trends this year among our team experts, the prevailing ideas in recent years of taking Generation Adidas (underclassmen) players high and mostly going for defenders otherwise continued.

Round 1

1. LAFC – Tomas Hilliard-Arce, D (Stanford): By combining the most MLS-ready talent with roster considerations like preferring American players because they won’t take up international slots, the big center back from Stanford was the obvious choice. He would be depth for the expansion team but would likely still see some playing time in 2018. ~ Alicia Rodriguez, Angels on Parade

2. LA Galaxy – Mason Toye, F (Indiana): The talented 6-foot-3 Generation Adidas signing gives the Galaxy a different look up top and doesn’t take up an international slot. ~ Mike Gray, LAG Confidential

3. D.C. United – Chris Mueller, F/M (Wisconsin): Mueller’s actual best position for United is a bit unclear (on the wing, or maybe even as a Luciano Acosta stand-in?), but the shifty, agile Wisconsin assist machine has the chops to immediately contend for a regular role in the gameday 18. ~ Jason Anderson, Black and Red United

4. Montreal Impact – Francis Atuahene, F/W (Michigan): A player that surpassed expectations in the combine, the winger has impressive speed and scoring ability; he is capable of playing in the MLS this season. ~ Emily Santella, Mount Royal Soccer

5. Minnesota United – Jon Bakero, F (Wake Forest): Bakero is originally from Spain, where his father spent almost a decade with FC Barcelona. The MAC Hermann trophy winner this year can play as a forward but also a little further back as a No. 10. Adrian Heath also has a positive track record of developing young forwards, including Cyle Larin and Abu Danladi. ~ Eli Hoff, E Pluribus Loonum

6. Orlando City – Wyatt Omsberg, D (Dartmouth): Omsberg is a defender with good size and is probably as safe a pick as any of the other top defenders given the unpredictability of the MLS SuperDraft at forecasting player careers. He would fill a position of need for the Lions, with an opportunity to learn from a veteran like Jonathan Spector and grow into a starting role over time. ~ Michael Citro, The Mane Land

7. Montreal Impact – Tristan Blackmon, D (Pacific): The Impact is currently lacking depth at the right back position and Blackmon could be a great option to fill this gap; his knack for scoring and creating offensive opportunities could become an interesting asset. ~ Mount Royal Soccer

8. New England Revolution – Joao Moutinho, D/M (Akron): There are questions on which position suits Moutinho best at the MLS level, but this is a Revs team that needs depth across the backline and at holding midfielder and a player of Moutinho’s caliber who can create from defense or midfield means he could see decent minutes as a rookie. ~ Jake Catanese, The Bent Musket

9. New England Revolution – Ema Twumasi, W (Wake Forest): The Revs have had success with guys like Kelyn Rowe, Teal Bunbury and even Juan Agudelo playing out wide, but Twumasi is an true winger. And while he doesn’t fit a need it’s hard to pass up a top five prospect like this, and Twumasi would be another creative piece in an already solid attacking group. ~ The Bent Musket

10. Real Salt Lake – Mohamed Thiaw, F (Louisville): The versatile forward will almost certainly be a depth pick, but with some time with RSL’s USL team, he may become an impact player in a couple years.

11. FC Dallas – Eddie Opoku, M (Virginia): With a Generation Adidas pick like Opoku still on the boards, FCD takes the best available player to help boost their roster. ~ Drew Epperley, Big D Soccer

12. San Jose Earthquakes – Drew Skundrich, M (Stanford): Back in the day, the Quakes collected this kind of central midfielder by the bushel, but the ranks have thinned out a bit, and the national champion who went to school just up the road could help in the center of the park.

13. Sporting KC – Rafael Andrade Santos, M (VCU): Sporting Kansas City need some new attacking blood with Latif Blessing and Benny Feilhaber headed to LAFC, so a flexible midfielder who can play the attacking midfielder or as a winger is a welcome addition. ~ Ben Gartland, The Blue Testament

14. Atlanta United – Tim Kubel, D (Louisville): The German will help fill a gap on the right side of Atlanta United’s new USL team’s back line. ~ Rob Usry, Dirty South Soccer

15. Chicago Fire – Ken Krolicki, M (Michigan State): A box-to-box midfielder with high energy and high upside, Krolicki could learn a lot under Bastian Schweinsteiger and Dax McCarty. ~ Ruben Tisch, Hot Time in Old Town

16. New York Red Bulls – Brian White, F (Duke): White was the free-scoring standout of RBNY’s 2017 PDL side, and that surely makes him ideally qualified to turn pro with the Red Bulls. ~ Austin Fido, Once a Metro

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

17. Vancouver Whitecaps – Mo Adams, M (Syracuse): I admittedly made this pick forgetting that Mo Adams was an international player, but despite that fact, he would still represent a tremendous value for the ‘Caps. Carl Robinson has never met a defensive midfielder he doesn’t like and Adams is the most talented one in this draft. ~ Andrew Bahl, Eighty Six Forever

18. Sporting KC - Christopher Lema, M (Georgetown): Sporting KC is starting to become thin in the midfielder department. Lema, who can slot into a box-to-box or defensive midfielder role, would bolster the depth in that area. ~ The Blue Testament

19. New York City FC – Alan Winn, F/W (UNC): With NYCFC adding a few defenders in the offseason already, we went into the mock draft with a focus on the offensive side. Winn should be able to provide some much-needed depth and versatility as a forward or winger for Patrick Vieira, potentially opening up an offense that fell flat toward the end of last season. ~ Ben Schleider, Hudson River Blue

20. Houston Dynamo – Ben Lundgaard, GK (VA Tech): The Dynamo currently only have one goalkeeper on their roster and while a rookie goalkeeper would likely spend a lot of time down with the Dynamo’s USL team, it would help fill up a pretty empty position for the team. ~ Alicia Tolar, Dynamo Theory

21. Columbus Crew SC – Jon Gallagher, F (Notre Dame): Gregg Berhalter likes players who can complete a dribble, and Gallagher is the best combination of skill and talent at this spot in the draft.

22. Seattle Sounders – Alex Roldan, M (Seattle): With the Seattle Sounders drafting low and pushing for a third straight appearance in MLS Cup, their draft will be focused on the distant future. In this case they get someone who has already practiced with them and who is comfortable in the area. He probably plays for the Sounders’ USL team down in Tacoma. ~ Dave Clark, Sounder at Heart

23. Toronto FC – Oliver Shannon, M (Clemson): This Clemson midfielder is a defensive stalwart with a penchant for toughness. He could have a future as an apprentice to Michael Bradley. ~ Charlie Clarke, Waking the Red

Round 2

24. LAFC – Justin Fiddes, D (Washington)

25. Colorado Rapids – Daniel Musovski, F (UNLV)

26. Vancouver Whitecaps – Gordon Wild, F (Maryland)

27. Colorado Rapids – Manuel Cordeiro, M (Akron)

28. Minnesota United – Brandon Bye, F/D (Western Michigan)

29. FC Dallas – Mauro Cichero, M (SMU)

30. San Jose Earthquakes – Ricky Lopez-Espin, F/M (Creighton)

31. New York Red Bulls – Markus Fjortoft, D (Duke)

32. Columbus Crew SC – Frantzdy Pierrot, F (Coastal Carolina)

33. Real Salt Lake – Jeff Caldwell, GK (Virginia)

34. FC Dallas – Cory Brown, D (Xavier)

35. San Jose Earthquakes – Jose Carrera-Garcia, M (Cal)

36. Atlanta United – Diego Campos, F (Clemson)

37. Atlanta United – Carter Manley, D (Duke)

38. Chicago Fire – Marcelo Acuna, F (VA Tech)

39. New York Red Bulls – Afonso Pinheiro, F (Albany)

40. LA Galaxy – Eric Dick, GK (Butler)

41. Minnesota United – Mark Segbers, D/F (Wisconsin)

42. NYCFC – Arthur Bosua, F (Columbia)

43. Houston Dynamo – Ben White, D (Gonzaga)

44. Columbus Crew SC – Stuart Holthusen, F (Akron)

45. Seattle Sounders – Paul Christensen, GK (Portland)

46. Toronto FC – Albert Ruiz, F (FGCU)

[koolwebsites]

NHL draft 2017: Winners, losers from a wild week (through Round 1)

NHL draft 2017: Winners, losers from a wild week (through Round 1)

CLOSE The real star of the expansion draft wasn’t Marc-Andre Fleury or James Neal, it was George McPhee. The general manager’s draft has set Vegas up to be contenders sooner rather than later. USA TODAY Sports Derek Stepan will become the Arizona Coyotes’ first-line center.(Photo: Adam Hunger, USA TODAY Sports) CHICAGO — The Arizona Coyotes had no coach, no goalie and no captain heading into the…

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: The absolute best Vegas Golden Knights team

(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.)

Anyone who is still on Team Vegas Will Be Competitive now, after the NHL released every team’s protected lists, needs to check into the hospital immediately.

There has long been an oddly large number of voices saying, “This team can make the playoffs,” despite the fact that Vegas is really only going to have its pick of sixth forwards, fourth defensemen, and backup goaltenders. That is, of course, barring a few free agent signings and maybe a trade or two. And they’d have to be pretty good free agents and judicious trades to get a team with a few good thirds lines and second pairs over the hump.

[Follow Puck Daddy on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]

Look at who will be available to Vegas — even before taking all the “if you don’t pick this guy, we’ll kick you a pick or something” deals George McPhee has been able to cobble together in the past few days — and just try to pick the best possible roster from those players. It’s basically impossible to say they have anything close to the kind of talent you typically need to make a postseason run.

Of course, this is the NHL and things can get weird sometimes. Hell, the Senators just made a conference final. But the amount of high-level PDOing this team would have to do right out of the gate to keep pace with even, say, St. Louis or Calgary (two teams that aren’t exactly on the come-up in the league right now) and you have to say there’s basically an almost-zero chance this team has a postseason in its near future.

So let’s put together a roster, shall we? In doing so, we will have to assume a few things that are not realistic. Including pretending the salary cap isn’t a factor (which it obviously is), that there aren’t deals in place to not-pick guys left exposed (which there definitely are), and that Vegas won’t immediately trade some of the guys it picks (which it for-sure will).

The only condition is I won’t pick guys who will be unrestricted free agents on July 1. RFAs will still be selected.

This is all about trying to build the best possible roster from all the guys made available. And that roster really, truly, honestly isn’t remotely good enough to make the playoffs most of the time.

(Please note that I know Vadim Shipachyov exists. This is strictly based on the expansion draft.)

People are going to quibble with some of these picks. “Oh, so-and-so is better than that guy.” You can see why. Sometimes a guy like Jack Johnson — just to pick someone whose team is bribing Vegas not to take them — gets overrated.

But believe me: This is the best roster you can possibly put together to compete next season, and it’s just not good enough.

Let’s start up front:

This is actually a little better than I expected up front, to be honest, but when Kruger is your No. 1 center, you’re in a lot of trouble. I’m honestly surprised Erik Haula, who was getting time on Minnesota’s top line, was exposed. Same for Jonathan Marchessault, coming off a 30-goal season. One assumes side deals are in place, but it was reported the other day Haula will probably go elsewhere regardless, so who knows.

This is an incredibly deep forward group, as expansion forward groups go, but there’s just not enough high-end talent — or frankly, anything close to it — to get you over the hump. There are a few promising guys on there, like Kerby Rychel, Josh Anderson, and Marko Dano, but if we’re looking at just-for-next-season, there aren’t enough goals here.

This list also shows how effectively teams did the smart thing and protected even pretty-good centers they had locked up. Slim pickings up the middle unless you wanted UFAs.

Now we’re on to the blue line:

Again, good players here. Josh Manson is a legit higher-end defenseman in this league (one assumes a protection deal is in place here, as well as for de Haan). Dan Hamhuis can hold his own even now. But the rest of these guys mostly qualify as “interesting prospects” or “decent-to-good third-pairing guys.” You need guys like that, for sure, but who’s carrying the puck here? Who’s killing penalties? It really goes to show how thin some teams are that, like, Chris Wideman was taken to fill out the right side.

And in net:

I’d be worried carrying only two goalies, and yeah I’m taking three goalies, and Marc-Andre Fleury isn’t one of them. My feeling is Petr Mrazek and Antti Raanta, or Philipp Grubauer if one of them gets hurt (looking at you, Mrazek), probably provides you roughly the same amount of saves as Fleury. Maybe you don’t like the whole goalie-by-committee idea — which, admittedly, doesn’t often work out — but do you want Fleury playing more than 45 games anyway? I’m gonna pass.

Altogether, this is a team that probably ends up costing you somewhere in the neighborhood of $68 million. Right now it’s at a little less than $56.35 million with seven RFAs to re-sign, but none all that likely to be especially costly.

But if you look at this group as a whole, I dunno man. Even with a few surprise exposures, I’m still not convinced this is anything close to a playoff team. Hell, even add in Fleury, take out Grubauer and sub one of the forwards the Caps exposed for Hagelin, you’re not making that kind of a difference unless one of the goalies is inexplicably .925-plus all year.

Stranger things have happened, but c’mon.

I don’t know if it’s a situation where people thought the players available in the expansion draft would be better, or they just really overrated a bunch of players simultaneously, but if you put together a roster like this in, say, an NHL video game, you wouldn’t have much of a chance.

Hopefully this is the end of that whole discussion, so Vegas can focus on what it should have always been focused on: Getting three-plus lottery picks a year for the next few seasons.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: It is very funny to me when stuff like this happens. Ryan Kesler is out three months after hip surgery. Let’s have a look at the calendar. Hmm, that puts us at about “the start of training camp.” Okay.

Arizona Coyotes: The odds that Chad Johnson has a better save percentage than Mike Smith this season seem quite high.

Boston Bruins: Are we really re-litigating a late-first-round pick in a draft from 23 years ago? The Bruins haven’t drafted well the past two years.

Buffalo Sabres: Look, if there’s a sucker at the table, it’s irresponsible not to exploit him.

Calgary Flames: What kind of brain parasite do you need to have to think that trading three assets for a 35-year-old, $4.25-million-AAV goaltender who’s only played 87 games the past two years and had the same save percentage as Mike Condon last season is a good move? These people are unbelievable.

Carolina Hurricanes: The Hurricanes hired Mike Bales as goaltending coach after he was let go by the Penguins. Which seems weird given the whole “Two straight Cups” thing.

Chicago: Well, there go your dreams of a Patrick Sharp return. And if you had any such dreams, please consult a doctor.

Colorado Avalanche: It absolutely does not.

Columbus Blue Jackets: This would normally be a smart bit of business but if you’re asking them not to take Jack Johnson, uhhh, that’s incredibly bad.

Dallas Stars: Obviously they don’t want to buy out a goalie but they have three goalies who are 30-plus and coming off pretty bad seasons. So this isn’t exactly an ideal situation.

Detroit Red Wings: Look at recent Calder Cup winners and tell me if there’s any connection at all between a farm team having success and the big club doing the same. Last year was Colorado. LA before that. Dallas. Detroit. Tampa. Ottawa. Of that group, only Tampa has had any recent real success.

Edmonton Oilers: Any time you can trade a guy for a “lesser, cheaper” player at the same position, you gotta do it.

Florida Panthers: The Panthers’ expansion draft list is incomprehensible. Marchessault exposed? Demers exposed? Petrovic protected? What on earth is going on down there?

Los Angeles Kings: Uhhhhh, yes. Great question.

Minnesota Wild: This seemed to be the prevailing feeling league-wide on Saturday: “We should have made a trade but didn’t.” Who says the NHL is no fun? Oh right, everyone.

Montreal Canadiens: If you’re under 26, a defenseman, and decent, your ass is getting shipped out, baby!

Nashville Predators: Mike Fisher is probably going to retire and that makes sense because he is a million years old.

New Jersey Devils: This was a nice little trade for Ray Shero here. Maybe something shakes out with Mueller.

New York Islanders: Yeah the Islanders have a lot of defensemen to protect but I’m meh on the forward group.

New York Rangers: Oh come on. “Royalty?”

Ottawa Senators: That thing I was saying earlier about overrating players for reasons inexplicable? Cody Ceci being protected is a truly amazing example. The kid is not good.

Philadelphia Flyers: Hey it’s not like the Flyers might need a goaltender soon ha ha ha.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Only a little shocked Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t become the Penguins goalie coach.

San Jose Sharks: This shouldn’t be hard. If it were up to the team exclusively, you re-sign both of them for one last kick at the can. C’mon. Without Thornton this team suddenly looks pretty bad up the middle.

St. Louis Blues: What universe do people live in where they actually argue protecting a player like Ryan Reaves is in any way smart.

Tampa Bay Lightning: It’s always weird to me how stuff like this can happen. How does the team not hit Sergachev before some rando?

Toronto Maple Leafs: Honestly of all the teams in the league a higher cap helps, Toronto ain’t one of ’em. They have 18 guys signed already and about $29 million to spend. I think it’d be fine one way or the other.

Vancouver Canucks: Four days later, still hilarious.

Vegas Golden Knights: No, Vegas should not pursue high-priced free agents. Why do that? They’re going to be picking top-five for a while here. Why tie yourself to some contract for a 30-year-old who wants seven years and $50 million? Think about how little sense that makes.

Washington Capitals: Protecting Tom Wilson is like hiring an armed guard to keep a broken TV on the sidewalk from being stolen. Total waste of time.

Winnipeg Jets: Toby Enstrom’s “Uhh yeah, I uhh, DON’T want to get out of Winnipeg” statement was very believable.

Gold Star Award

I guess another way to look at the expansion draft is that Vegas is gonna get a lot of top-four defensemen, and usually you have to give up Taylor Hall to get even one of those.

Minus of the Weekend

On the other hand, you’re stretching the definition of top-four to its very limits. This is why I am generally against using the term “top four” to mean “No. 4.” It’s technically true, but also…

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Year

User “Canadian Jesus” has an idea.

To Rangers:

Kadri

Rielly

1st round pick 2017

To Leafs:

Stepan McDonagh

3rd round pick 2018

Signoff

Don’t understand lemonade myself. Not my forte.

—

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: Predator Fans, Fan Voting, and Bettman Handoffs

Welcome to Sean McIndoe's weekly grab bag, where he writes on a variety of NHL topics. You can follow him on Twitter. Check out the Biscuits podcast with Sean and Dave Lozo as they discuss the events of the week.

Three stars of comedy

The third star: These two Predator fans – It was fun times all around in Nashville. Good presence of mind to slow down when the helmet almost slipped off.

The second star: The catfish has a hat – He also has a tiny stuffed penguin but we can only focus on so many things at one time.

The first star: Bike Guy – The NHL combine was this week. That's the event where the top draft prospects gather, compete in a bunch of physical tests, and then get made fun of for not doing enough bench press reps by out-of-shape sportswriters like me. The highlight every year is the Wingate bike test, in which prospects cycle furiously while a scary guy yells at them.

It's all quite terrifying. But this year, the Golden Knights decided to put the guy's talent to some use by getting him to yell at random Twitter users to be more productive.

Well, I just cleaned my whole house. For some reason I also just studied for all my exams, of which I have none. The guy is good.

Outrage of the week

The issue: We just had two Stanley Cup final games in Nashville, and all the fans there were really loud and into it and just generally having a great time. The outrage: None, of course. Literally nobody could be mad about this. Is it justified: Phew, dodged a bullet there. OK, on to the next section where we can… The issue: We're tired of hearing about how great Predators fans are. The outrage: Seriously, give it a rest, cheering on your team in the Cup final doesn't make you great fans. Is it justified: Wait, what? Is this actually a thing? Are people actually saying that? (Checks.) Yes, apparently they are. This is a bad take. The issue: Anyone criticizing Nashville as a hockey market is wrong! The outrage: In fact, it's always been a great market, and anyone who ever doubted it sure looks silly now. Is it justified: And then, right on cue, here's comes the backlash to the backlash. Look, can we all enjoy what's happening in Nashville right now while also acknowledging that it really did look dicey for a while there back in the day? That seems fair, right? The issue: The Predators have the greatest fans in the world. The outrage: If you deny this you are a terrible person and also probably Canadian. Is it justified: See there is a middle ground where we could… The issue: Predators fans are front-runners who only support their team when it's playing for the Stanley Cup. The outrage: Real fans are there for their team through good and bad, they don't just hop on the bandwagon when times are good. Is it justified: Well, first of all, that thing about Predators fans only showing up now just isn't true. But yes, they're more excited now because of the playoff run. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? The issue: Nashville had thousands of empty seats back in 2010. The outrage: If you don't sell out the building every night you're a bad fan base. Is it justified: Well, fine, but then you're throwing stones at just about everyone, including places like Chicago and Boston and basically everywhere outside of the really die-hard Canadian markets. But sure, fine, if it will get everyone to stop complaining and hyper-analyzing every hockey market, then we'll agree: Only Canadian fan bases that sell out every game are good fans. Can we all please stop this now? The issue: Canadian fan bases that sell out every game are pathetic sheep and the reason the country never wins the Stanley Cup. The outrage: A real fan base would only support their team when they were in the Stanley Cup final. Probably by being really loud and maybe throwing some kind of fish on the ice. Is it justified: I hate all of you. The issue: Hockey fans can never just let their fellow humans be happy about anything. The outrage: It's tiresome, predictable, and the reason why nobody likes us. Is it justified: Yes.

Obscure former player of the week

Penguins' goalie Matt Murray is trying to win his second Stanley Cup as a rookie, which doesn't sound like it should be possible. But it is — a player's status is determined by his regular season play, so it's possible to have two or even more postseason runs as a "rookie".

The list of goalies who've actually done it isn't all that long, but Murray's certainly not alone. It's been done by Ken Dryden and Jacques Plante (who I wrote about earlier in the week), as well as fellow Hall-of-Famers Ed Belfour and Martin Brodeur. Jake Allen did it three years apart, with appearances in 2012 and 2015, and Corey Crawford and John Gibson are also in the club.

As you might expect, the list also includes a few less well-known players. That includes this week's Obscure Player, Daniel "The Bandit" Berthiaume.

You may remember him from the Bob Miller tribute a few months ago, in which we all learned we'd been pronouncing his name wrong all along. But his career began when the Jets made him the 60th pick in the 1985 entry draft, a few picks behind future Conn Smythe winner Bill Ranford. He debuted in Winnipeg a year later, seeing his first action in the 1986 playoffs before he'd ever even played a regular season game.

He followed that up by earning regular duty the following season and splitting time with Pokey Reddick, who I just realized has never been an Obscure Player and we will damn well fix that over the summer. Berthiaume joined the rookie two-timer club in 1987, playing eight games as the Jets won a playoff round for the second (and last) time in Winnipeg NHL history.

From there, Berthiaume began a tour of the NHL; he was traded twice in 1990, first to the North Stars and then to the Kings. He spent a few years backing up Kelly Hrudey in Los Angeles before being dealt to Boston, where he had a falling out with the team during the 1992 playoffs. He was later traded back to Winnipeg, but never earned a roster spot, and by the start of the 1992-93 season he was plying his trade in Europe.

But the expansion Senators came calling, and Berthiaume signed with Ottawa to back up Peter Sidorkiewicz. He wasn't very good, winning just two of 25 games, but nobody on that year's Senators was. Here's a fun clip of Berthiaume trying to pretend he's not miserable in Ottawa. Berthiaume closed out his career with one of the sadder season stat lines in NHL history. In 1993-94, he appeared in one game, played exactly thirty-nine seconds, faced two shots and allowed two goals.

That made him the only goalie since the save stat's been recorded to give up goals in a season in which he never stopped a single puck. Even in the high-flying early 90s, a save percentage of ".000" was considered bad, and Berthiaume's NHL days were done.

He'd kick around the minor leagues (as well as some professional roller hockey) for another decade before hanging up the skates in 2005. He was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame last year.

The NHL fans actually got something (kind of) right

As part of their 100-year anniversary celebration, the NHL unveiled a fan vote to determine the all-time 10 greatest teams. And everyone immediately went "Oh no, this will be terrible."

After all, the league made a minor mess of its Top 100 players list, and that was an unranked list put together by experts. This was a ranked list, and it would be determined by fan vote. If the last year has taught us anything, it's that nobody should ever be trusted to vote for anything. And that's especially true for hockey fans, who'd no doubt cast their ballots for the 2015 Blackhawks or 2016 Penguins or a write-in vote for "Whoever just beat the Leafs, lol they suck".

This week, the final list was unveiled, and the winner is: the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers. That's… well that's not terrible, is it? You can defend that pick. That team had 109 points, scored over 400 goals and lost just three games in the playoffs, never facing elimination. It was the Gretzky/Messier/Kurri/Coffey core at the height of its powers.

It's not a perfect pick — you could make a case for one of the late-70s Canadiens teams or maybe one of Al Arbour's Islanders Cup winners, and the 84-85 team might not even have been the best Oilers teams of the era (it was the only one between 1984 and 1987 that didn't finish first overall). But still, it's not a cringeworthy pick. As far as fan voting goes, that's progress.

So let's focus on the positive and take our wins where we can get them. And let's definitely not look at the rest of the list, which is like half Oilers teams and ranked an 87-point team as the second greatest ever. They got the winner reasonably close to right. We'll take it.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Win their win last night, the Penguins are now just one win away from a championship. That means the Stanley Cup will be in the building on Sunday night in Nashville. And that means Gary Bettman will also be in the building, ready to do his annual awkward Cu handoff while being booed.

A few years ago, I celebrated Bettman's 20th anniversary on the job by ranking every one of his handoffs so far. Today, let's take a look back at the handoff that ranked number one on that list, and remains to this day the most awkward Bettman Cup moment of all-time.

It's June 19, 2006 and the Carolina Hurricanes have just defeated the Oilers in game seven to capture the Stanley Cup on home ice. The crowd is roaring, friends and family have poured onto the ice, and emotions are running high. Who wants to hear a corporate executive deliver a rambling speech?

We actually start off with Cam Ward being interviewed by Ron MacLean. Ward's just been named the Conn Smythe winner, but he informs us that the honor is "completely irrelevant". He then adds "Unless I'm mediocre at best for the next ten years but keep getting huge contracts, in which case I guess it will turn out to be pretty relevant after all".

As Ward talks, we get a shot of Rod Brind'Amour talking to somebody, who starts laughing. Presumably, Brind'Amour has just told him what he's about to do.

The Cup is ready to make its way to the ice, so Ward has to get back to his teammates. Sadly, MacLean does not end the interview by poking him in the tummy.

And here comes the Stanley Cup, carried as always by its two longtime keepers: Phil Pritchard, and the other guy who apparently doesn't have a PR agent and almost definitely secretly hates Phil Pritchard.

Something to note: With this being the year after the lockout, the NHL broke with tradition and didn't introduce Bettman or have him announce the Conn Smythe. Instead, they introduce the Cup, and then Bettman slips in while everyone's cheering. Whoever it was at the NHL office who came up with this plan was immediately fired for making a good decision.

I think having an ominous thunder and lightning sound effect right as Bettman begins speaking is a little on-the-nose there, guys.

Oh good, it's the legendary "Peter Karmanos had a dream" speech we all learned about in grade school.

At this point, Brind'Amour has had enough and decides to just skate over and interrupt Bettman, because Rod Brind'Amour IS A FREAKING HERO. But Bettman hilariously shoes him away, admonishing him with an annoyed "I'm almost done" into a live microphone. This causes Brind'Amour to have to stand there awkwardly, and causes me to laugh so hard my lungs hurt every single time I see it.

That face where you're ready to go but your partner wants to talk for a while first.

Brind'Amour gets bored and decides to start randomly pointing. Bettman speeds through his last few mentions, and gets ready for his very favorite moment of the year: The handoff. Seriously, Bettman lives for this. He knows fans hate it and wish he'd give the job to someone else, but he doesn't care. Once a year, he gets to pick up the Stanley Cup and hand it over to the winning captain. And he always milks the moment for all its worth, mugging for photos and refusing to let the Cup go for as long as humanly possible. I honestly think this moment might be the only joy Bettman gets out of his job. He lives for it.

NOT THIS YEAR GARY.

In a moment that should absolutely have resulted in his instant induction into the Hall of Fame, Brind'Amour grabs the Cup off the table before Bettman can get to it. You can tell that Bettman realizes what's happening, but speeding through his speech has thrown him off and now he's caught still holding the microphone in his trophy-grabbing hand. It's a small delay, but it's all Brind'Amour needs, and he just straight up jacks the Cup before Bettman can do anything.

This may be the greatest moment in Stanley Cup history. They should have the kids in that bank commercial act it out for the next chapter.

Also, Brind'Amour proceeds to kiss the Cup on the neck instead of the main body, which always seemed weird but that sentence is already making me feel uncomfortable so let's just move on.

The rest of this clip is just the Hurricanes skating around the ice with the Cup, occasionally pausing to step over a sobbing Fernando Pisani or the remnants of Dwayne Roloson's knee ligament. Glen Wesley gets the OGWAC first handoff honors, Ray Whitney swears on live TV, and the whole thing is one long exercise in going "Wait, that was the 2005-06 Hurricanes roster? They really won a Cup with those guys?" I don't recommend any of it.

As an epilogue, I highly recommend watching Bettman's handoff with Scott Niedermayer one year later. Niedermayer tries the Brind'Amour yank move, but this time Bettman is ready for him and holds on. You know he worked on that all year long. Defending Cup yanks is basically Bettman's version of having to shake hands with Donald Trump.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com .

DGB Grab Bag: Predator Fans, Fan Voting, and Bettman Handoffs published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[cover32-yahoopartner-blog]

Buffalo Bills: Things we know this week

Last off season you, yes you, were very close to a tumultuous celebration. We were winning the offseason so far according to the head coach Rex Ryan. I know I had a difficult time containing my excitement with the hiring of brother Rob Ryan last year by Rex. After I looked up the results of his more recent defenses that he coordinated I suddenly somehow was able to control my desire for jollification. It was not just his good looks that ‘had me at hello.’

Now seriously, I did not really care one way or another about the hire. If more coaches being an extra set of eyes and ears was what Rex needed, sign me up. It did not matter to me how poorly things went in New Orleans because at the end of the day, it was Rex who made decisions on the defense. That would be one of the reasons that many average Bills fans did not even know who Dennis Thurman was and those who did wondered what he did.

I was not aware until recent insiders let it be known that Rex was the kind of leader that was one of the last ones in come morning and the first one out the door come afternoon. He was not Jon Gruden sleeping at the office studying film and having anxiety about the next offense they were to face.

Some good things happened last offseason even though it felt like things were starting to implode when first round pick Shaq Lawson announced his surgery followed by Sammy Watkins health related question marks. All of this was added into the fact that multiple players including Marcell Dareus would be serving suspensions before the season began.

Then it was announced that he was checking himself into rehab upon departing the team facilities for his suspension only to catch a shot of him on the local news hanging out with the ladies in the Buffalo party district known as Chippewa Street. I guess he did not go straight to rehab. What do I know?

I did not realize when they announced the signing of Lorenzo Alexander that they had just signed a 12 plus sack machine who not only would go to his first Pro Bowl, but win the Defensive MVP for that all important game down in luminous Orlando. They also signed a guy you may have heard of named Zach Brown. Pro Bowler! Give Doug Whaley a raise for finding those two keepers. Oh wait, they are both free agents shortly. He nailed it with those two findings.

Sarcasm aside, he did provide enough talent on the roster to at least qualify for a wild card position last season. Injuries to rookies and veteran players alike in addition to the team just not being ready for their opponent on certain weeks were not forecasted. So both sides have a good argument if presented well were this a college debate on the job performance of Doug Whaley.

Since he still is the general manager and knowing how many free agents the Bills have, how many holes they already have, the unfriendly salary cap situation the Bills are in and the career altering decision he has to make on the quarterback situation, we do not need to worry about if we loved his performance the past several seasons or if we are still upset how much he gave up for Sammy Watkins.

He will be held accountable for this offseason’s results including the hiring of the new head coach. I hope everything Whaley touches turns to gold and this embarrassing playoff drought comes to an end. The problem is if Whaley does what is needed to win right now and maybe squeak out a playoff spot, we will be suffering for years after that in salary cap prison.

On the opposite side, if Whaley does what he thinks is best for the long haul we probably look at either Cardale Jones or a rookie starting quarterback with no depth at the backup position. Doug Whaley going this direction would be a rebuild at least at a certain level. The problem with that is the Bills could be then looking at a new GM because Whaley is not surviving another failed quarterback and head coach he hired personally.

AROUND COVER32

QB Rankings: Ranking all 32 NFL QB committees

Daily Dime: The NFL’s quarterback carousel

C32 Exclusive: Interview with Arizona LB Magloire Jr.

Bills News: Buffalo’s potential first round draft picks

Follow us on Twitter here

Things we know about the Buffalo Bills this Week:

V = Vacillating about the number of Victories

The Bills new coaching staff does have various levels of experience — but some are extremely seasoned at their trade — but do have the win now approach from how they come across verbally. I do not see a head coach or experienced coordinators coming in and going through a bottom out rebuild or to wait for a rookie quarterback, not Andrew Luck ready, to develop.

They can’t afford the time it takes to do that without jobs being on the line. Rex was not producing 2-14 seasons justifying his termination. He was basically .500. So unless you come in Bill Parcells style with total control over the 53 man roster as a head coach, your test run as head coach these days could be as short as one season, but two seems average for a non-winner. Victories are what the Bills need. A variety of close game victories and vast amounts of one sided blowout victories would be adequate to this guy!

W = Win Baby Win!

Doug Whaley could have hired Bill Cowher or dragged in Joe Gibbs, if of course they agreed to come here. That being said,if they miss the playoffs with that head coach or they convince Tony Romo to come here, it really comes down to winning at this point of such a long absence from postseason play. Signing Stephon Gilmore or letting him walk similar to bringing back Tyrod for all of that bread or sending him elsewhere really gets immediate positive or negative reactions, but Whaley only becomes a real success at his position or a hero in the Queen City by getting the Bills to play meaningful games in January.

If Tyrod stays and improves slightly and the running game dominates again while the defense improves to above average, you are looking at 11 wins and postseason football. The same thing goes for the head coaching hire. Win, become the next big thing at the head coach position like others have many times on different teams over the years.

Continue mediocrity or worse and the next coach becomes a bust and Whaley works at Sonic Burgers. So many times the perfect coach does not work out. Mike Shanahan in Washington comes to mind as does Mike Ditka down in “The Big Easy” and George Seifert for the Panthers. It is not always the one person that everyone thinks as they may have been in a totally different culture where they had success.

I always think of Scotty Bowman in the NHL. He coached a newly expansion St. Louis Blues to the Stanley Cup Finals, actually won many Stanley Cups with Montreal at his second opportunity as the main guy. He then goes to Buffalo and after a couple playoff runs cut short and some trades and draft picks possibly pointing out being coach and general manager was too much for one person to handle.

After he was fired — YES FIRED — by the Buffalo Sabres, he proceeded to win Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh and then Detroit. Yes he had talent in place with those teams — something he lacked in Buffalo — but he still won cups in three stops, almost won a cup in the fourth stop and was not real close in Buffalo, so that’s success at 4 out of 5 stops.

It just was not lined up in Buffalo and he could not change the entire culture, talent and staff perfect by himself. Every time he stepped down from coaching to focus on the general manager duties, he eventually fired the coach and went back temporarily behind the bench because no one could do it quite like him and he knew it and could not watch someone else make mistakes or have limited success.

It goes back to the last couple of playoff games the Bills made it to in the late 90’s.  Everyone was so excited about this big tall athletic quarterback that the Bills traded a first round pick to Jacksonville for — resulting in Fred Taylor — named Rob Johnson. He was going to be that next big thing in Buffalo because he was so talented but could not start in Florida being they had their starting quarterback in Mark Brunel.

Rob Johnson comes in and is mediocre, not horrible like Todd Collins before him, and gets injured. Running off the bench is the short guy who was run out of the NFL a decade earlier where he learned to read defenses and take total control of a huddle doing all of the intangible things a good professional experienced quarterback does, things he did not do when he was fresh out of college playing in Chicago and New England.

He came in and immediately showed leadership and the ability to move the ball. He ran a last minute winning drive against Rob Johnson’s old team in Jacksonville. Even though Wade Phillips said numerous times that you do not lose your starting job to an injury, he was forced to go back on that statement because he could not go back to an unproven Rob Johnson when a Mr. Doug Flutie really took ownership of the team’s offense and results were in the win column even if you did not like the actual stats that got the wins. So Joe Montana can come and play for Buffalo and get run out of town if we do not win and some no name seveth rounder could step in and be the next big deal.

I guess all of this comes down to one thing and it is really not about Whaley. After all, who needs a Big Johnson when you have a little Flutie?

READ MORE: Under the radar free agents for Buffalo to pursue

The post Buffalo Bills: Things we know this week appeared first on Cover32.

[ccablog]

A Game of Monopoly: Mobility Fund II & Infrastructure

By Tim Donovan, SVP of Legislative Affairs, CCA and Rebecca Murphy Thompson, EVP & General Counsel, CCA 

February 24, 2017 - In a game of Monopoly, whatever the dice roll, eventually someone picks up that fateful card: “Do not pass Go.  Do not collect $200.” Although some carriers treat the United States like the Monopoly game board - seeking to control as many properties as possible to “win” the game - the mobile ecosystem works best when there are many players competing within one “square.”  Competitive carriers often must contend with some element of chance in the broadband marketplace but ultimately look to the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) to provide certainty. Yesterday, at the FCC’s Open Meeting, the Commission provided opportunity to advance their tokens across the board.  Thanks to a Mobility Fund II item adopted during the Open Meeting, we are hopeful that competitive carriers are able to continue deploying, maintaining and improving networks throughout the United States.  Dominant carriers may have already scooped up Park Place and Boardwalk, but competitive carriers have made investments to build innovative, far-reaching networks serving Indiana Avenue, Kentucky Avenue, Tennessee Avenue, and Pennsylvania Railroad. With the help of Universal Service funding and smart infrastructure policies, carriers can continue to expand to areas where the business case for doing so is absent, either because private investment does not suffice or a dominant carrier has asserted their market power to lock other players in “jail.”   

Now, rural America is one-step closer to passing “Go.”  CCA is pleased that the adopted Mobility Fund II item is significantly improved from our understanding of previous drafts.  The FCC has rightly chosen to implement a program that will offer predictable support for the preservation and deployment of wireless networks.  Wireless carriers, and more importantly their consumers, depend on USF in addition to carriers’ own capital resources to provide comparable mobile broadband service in rural areas.  If the FCC got it right, the Mobility Fund II program will provide carriers the certainty needed to make future business decisions, including budgeting for operations, upgrades, and expansion of the latest mobile technologies for consumers over the next several years.   

CCA congratulates Chairman Pai on completing the first initiative to promote his Digital Empowerment Agenda.  CCA likewise thanks Commissioner Clyburn for continuing to champion issues that affect competitive carriers, and Commissioner O’Rielly for the important work on Universal Service policy. Specifically, CCA applauds the FCC’s plan to revise its Mobility Fund II program to account for overstated coverage data, which will determine the areas where support is most needed and ultimately benefit the consumers for which these funds are intended.  Even more laudable, the FCC has recognized that rural areas are some of the most difficult to serve, and has adopted what we hope is an equitable and predictable phase-down for legacy funds.  

CCA likewise recognizes Congress’ efforts, including Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and their colleagues, for encouraging the Commission to adopt a Mobility Fund II program that provides sufficient and predictable support for carriers.  Yesterday’s vote supports Chairman Blackburn’s (R-TN) focus on expanding rural broadband.  CCA also thanks Congress for providing certainty of USF support for wireless carriers through language in the current FCC Appropriations, which prevents a phase-out of legacy support until there is an operational Mobility Fund II program in place, and applauds the FCC’s work to align the current item with this mandate.  While all parties involved should be pleased with yesterday’s actions, consumers are the real winners, as the FCC has aided competitive carriers’ abilities to expand their service portfolios across myriad areas of the United States.  This means economic growth, new jobs and better educational opportunities for rural areas and economically challenged consumers.  

But work to bridge the digital divide is not over.  After all, you can’t play the game without the board, just as carriers can’t make promises about 5G and next-generation services - even with the best spectrum - without streamlined infrastructure processes and procedures.  While critical to our 5G future, these challenges also impact carriers working to provide today’s mobile services.  Deploying broadband infrastructure is a necessary, yet resource-heavy endeavor: the fruitful cross-section of engineering expertise, capital investment and strategic spectrum acquisition.  Unfortunately, the siting process is mummified in red tape.  Competitive carriers, whether siting the smallest antenna or the tallest tower, must secure permission from:

state and local government authorities;

the FCC, which is responsible for implementing the National Environmental Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act;

State Historic Preservation Offices or Tribal Historic Preservation Offices; and

Federally-recognized Tribes. 

Not to mention, if the siting project is on federally-owned land or property, additional federal agency permissions are needed.  It takes an infinite amount of time and resources to complete, and much like the game of Monopoly, it involves risks, many of which are unnecessary. 

To check all these boxes, competitive carriers must navigate kaleidoscopic federal, state, and local law and policy as well as informal practices that can vary dramatically from county to county, and state to state.  Uncertainty regarding timing and cost reigns.  For example, under current practices, there is no limit on what Tribes can charge a carrier for a given siting project, even outside Tribal lands, and no limit on the areas within which a Tribe can assert an historic or cultural interest.  If the carrier pays those fees, a Tribe is still empowered to stall a project without justification.  And Tribal fees have dramatically increased in recent years.  One CCA member reports that rooftop macrocell collocations in Chicago have generated between $11,000 -12,000 per site in Tribal fees, and that does not even account for the necessary expenses to collocate on a site.  While we have a duty to protect Tribal ancestral lands and properties, we must work collaboratively with Tribes to more clearly define the pre-consultation process and cost.  Local governments and federal agencies, too, can delay projects for years without penalty, and charge exorbitant fees rendering siting projects uneconomic.  With these types of unreasonable policies in place, it will be a long, hard road to 5G, and the digital divide will become an even wider chasm across America’s heartland.  

The FCC and Congress can and should introduce commonsense solutions to these problems.  The MOBILE NOW Act, currently under consideration in the Senate, contains several provisions that will improve the siting process if enacted, and Congress should move forward on MOBILE NOW and similar legislation as part of continued work to streamline these processes with reasonable solutions.  Project delays will decrease if the Commission or Congress shortens application review “shot clocks,” and musters the regulatory or legal grit to create a “deemed granted” provision where state and local authorities fail to timely complete review.  By clarifying the definition of practices that “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting” broadband service, the Commission can ensure major siting roadblocks - like endless moratorium, or arbitrarily costly application requirements - are preempted from the start.  As the Commission has acknowledged, it’s impossible to ignore the astronomical uptick in consumer demand for mobile data services, and that future 4G and 5G services will require “significant densification of small wireless facilities, including small cells and DAS.”  It makes sense, then, to revisit overarching federally-sponsored siting agreements to more roundly exclude small wireless facilities from the rigors and expenses of federal statutory review.  The Commission or Congress also could explore redefining a “federal undertaking” to exclude small wireless facilities entirely.  Some of these ideas appear in Chairman Pai’s Digital Empowerment Agenda and are discussed in a recent Public Notice, signaling to competitive carriers that the Commission is ready to tackle these infrastructure problems.  CCA urges the Commission to act sooner rather than later. 

The Mobility Fund II item is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card by any means. Rather, it’s an important federal program ensuring hard-to-reach consumers have the ability to participate in modern-day, constantly-connected life with advanced mobile services.  While yesterday’s actions move competitive carriers one step closer to passing “Go,” the FCC must continue to revise its strategy for administering the rules when it comes to allocation and contribution of funds and infrastructure deployment.  Scarce USF dollars go further when costs associated with unnecessary regulatory burdens to deploy are minimized.  At the end of the day, the FCC has done its job correctly if consumers win the game.  And consumers win when they have a choice between competing wireless providers offering next-generation service, no matter where they reside.

[365footballorg-blog]

This Week in MLS - April 16, 2018

USA Today Sports Images

April 16, 20183:41PM EDT

This Week in MLS – April 16, 2018

Toronto FC is two games away from the FIFA Club World Cup

LAFC to unveil Banc of California Stadium on Wednesday

Belgian defender Ciman returns to Montreal to face former side

Ibrahimović, Galaxy host league’s top offense in Atlanta

Two most recent MVPs clash as Portland hosts league leading New York City FC

MLS Week 8: Match Notes

Toronto FC is two games away from the FIFA Club World Cup

History is on the line Tuesday night at BMO Field for the first game in a series that TFC President Bill Manning speculated could be the most important in MLS history.

Win the two-leg aggregate-goal series and Toronto FC will become the first MLS club to book a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup to compete against the top clubs from around the world like Real Madrid, Liverpool, A.S. Roma or Bayern Munich. Goalkeeper Alex Bono could face the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo. Sebastian Giovinco could go toe-to-toe in a scoring duel against Mohammed Salah or Robert Lewandowski.

But first, Toronto FC must defeat Mexico’s all-time winningest team in Chivas de Guadalajara.

Toronto defeated defending Mexican champion Tigres UANL with a 2-1 victory at BMO Field in Leg 1 of the quarterfinals before scoring twice in a 3-2 second leg at El Volcán to advance to the semifinals on away goals. The Reds once again flexed their muscle at home defeating Club América 3-1 in Leg 1 of the semifinals before a strong defensive outing at Estadio Azteca for a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

A tournament title would be Toronto’s fourth trophy in the past year, solidifying its spot atop MLS history books. Sebastian Giovinco and Homegrown midfielder Jonathan Osorio are both tied for the Golden Boot lead with three goals scored in this tournament, helping Toronto become the first team in league history to defeat two Mexican clubs in multi-leg series. Complementing the outstanding home goalscoring, Toronto will need its defense to come up strong once again as a shutout at BMO could put Chivas in a hole without any away goals entering the second leg.

Soundbytes from Toronto FC press conference can be found here

How to Watch:

Toronto FC vs. Chivas de Guadalajara (Tuesday, April 17, 8:15 p.m. ET) – Watch live on UDN or TSN2, or live stream via go90.com or the go90 app.

Chivas de Guadalajaravs. Toronto FC (Wednesday, April 25, 9:30 p.m. ET) – Watch live on UDN or TSN, or live stream via go90.com or the go90 app.

LAFC to unveil Banc of California Stadium on Wednesday

Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) will officially unveil the 22,000-seat, $ 350 million Banc of California Stadium during a star-studded ribbon cutting ceremony this Wednesday. Celebrity owners, including Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra, and Tom Penn alongside MLS Commissioner Don Garber and local elected officials will participate in the ceremony at 11 a.m. PT before the LAFC players take the field for their first training session at the new facility. Throughout the afternoon, attending media will have the opportunity to work from the press box that features striking views of downtown.

Below is a timeline of events for Wednesday, April 18 at Banc of California Stadium. Media wishing to attend should RSVP to LAFCPR@lafc.com, as credentialed media access will be required for this event.

11 a.m.            LAFC Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

                        (Select owners available to speak with media immediately following ceremony)

1:00 p.m.         LAFC Training Session begins

2:00 p.m.         LAFC head coach Bob Bradley and players available to media

Belgian star defender Ciman returns to Montreal to face former side

Los Angeles Football Club and Belgium national team defender Laurent Ciman heads back to Montreal for the first time to face his former Impact side on Saturday at Stade Saputo (1 p.m. ET / TVA Sports, ESPN+). The 2015 MLS Defender of the Year, who will likely represent Belgium in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, spent the three previous seasons in Montreal.

Ciman was an integral part of the Impact, leading the club to the Concacaf Champions League final during his first MLS season in 2015. Now, he anchors an exciting expansion campaign with LAFC, which won its first two games to open the 2018 and enters this week fourth in the Western Conference. This match will be LAFC’s sixth straight on the road, before the club moves into its state-of-the-art new home, Banc of California Stadium, to host Seattle Sounders FC on April 29.

LAFC’s acquisition of Ciman was the first trade in organization history; the club sent their fourth- and fifth-round MLS Expansion Draft selections – former Columbus Crew SC defender Jukka Raitala and former Toronto FC forward Raheem Edwards, respectively – to Montreal.

One of the Impact’s brightest spots this season has been Chilean midfielder Jeisson Vargas, who is among a number of young South American talents who joined MLS this season. The 20-year-old leads Montreal with three goals, two of which were game-winners in March against defending MLS Cup champions Toronto FC and 2017 MLS Cup runners-up Seattle Sounders FC.

Ibrahimović, Galaxy host league’s top offense in Atlanta

The LA Galaxy’s show master, Sweden great Zlatan Ibrahimović, returns to StubHub Center this Saturday for a bout against the league’s top-scoring offense, Atlanta United (10:30 p.m. ET / ESPN+). For fans seeking goal-scoring prowess, this matchup of the Western Conference’s and Eastern Conference’s second-place teams has all the ingredients.

Atlanta (4-1-1, 13 points) leads MLS with 2.5 goals per game, led by 24-year-old Venezuelan Josef Martínez who owns the distinction of scoring more goals in his first 25 MLS games (24 tallies) than any other player in league history. Martínez is tied for the league lead with five goals alongside Sporting Kansas City’s Felipe Gutiérrez. This past week for Atlanta also featured the long-awaited debut of 19-year-old Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Barco, who has worked his way back from an early-season quad injury. The offseason acquisition played the final 20 minutes during Atlanta’s 2-2 draw against New York City FC on Saturday.

For the Galaxy (3-2-1, 10 points), the 2018 spotlight continues to shine on Ibrahimović, who has now scored three goals in three games, tallying the lone score during their 1-0 victory against the Chicago Fire on Saturday. LA is hoping for a substantial turnaround from the only other previous meeting between the two sides, a dominant 4-0 Atlanta victory on Sept. 20, 2017, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Two most recent MVPs clash as Portland hosts league leading New York City FC

Two of the most electrifying players in MLS history and the last two winners of the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award will square off on Sunday when the Portland Timbers host league-leading New York City FC at Providence Park (6 p.m. ET, FS1 / TSN2). Portland midfielder Diego Valeri captured the 2017 MVP award, holding off a repeat effort from 2016 MVP David Villa, with both players off to strong individual starts in 2018. Valeri has three goals and two assists in six starts for the Timbers, while Villa has two goals and two assists despite starting in only two matches this season.

NYCFC currently sits atop the league standings with 17 points (5-0-2 record) and is one of two undefeated teams in MLS. Depth has been a strong suit of the club this season as 20-year-old Paraguay National Team midfielder Jesús Medina leads the league with five assists, while Maxi Moralez and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi are tied for third in the league with four goals scored. Portland will look to build off last week’s home opening 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC with another strong performance at Providence Park. Costa Rica National Team midfielder and World Cup hopeful Sebastián Blanco is off to a strong start in his second season with the Timbers with three goals and one assist and will play a pivotal role in Sunday’s matchup.

MLS Week 8: Match Notes

Friday, April 20, 2018

Sporting Kansas City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 9 p.m. ET (TSN, ESPN+)

Sporting extended their undefeated streak to six games, getting a late goal from Graham Zusi to come back for a 2-2 draw with Seattle Sounders FC at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday evening.

Whitecaps FC suffered a second consecutive defeat, their league home undefeated streak put to an end after nine games in a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Football Club at BC Place on Friday evening.

The teams met twice a season ago, and Whitecaps FC won both – a 2-0 victory on May 20 at BC Place, and a 1-0 win on Sept. 30 at Children’s Mercy Park.

The Whitecaps FC win at Children’s Mercy Park was their first ever in Kansas City in league play. Sporting had won four of the first five meetings there in MLS play (with one draw) – though Vancouver did win there in group play in the Concacaf Champions League in 2016.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Montreal Impact vs. Los Angeles Football Club, 1 p.m. ET (TVA Sports, ESPN+)

Jeisson Vargas scored his third goal of the season, but the Impact dropped a second consecutive decision, falling 3-1 to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena on Saturday afternoon. Vargas has scored each of the Impact’s past three goals, over the last four matches (since March 17).

LAFC put an end to a two-game losing skid, defeating Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2-0 at BC Place on Friday evening.

Diego Rossi scored his fourth goal and added his fourth assist – the only player in MLS this season with at least four goals and four assists – and Carlos Vela also added his fourth goal. The pair have combined for eight of LAFC’s 11 goals on the season.

The Impact have defeated an incoming expansion team in their first league meeting just once in their MLS history – a 2-1 win against Atlanta United last April 15 at Stade Saputo.

New York Red Bulls vs. Chicago Fire, 2 p.m. ET (Univisión, UDN)

The Red Bulls won their third game in a row in league play at Red Bull Arena, defeating the Montréal Impact 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Bradley Wright-Phillips scored a goal and added an assist – he now has 90 goals in his MLS regular-season career, passing Carlos Ruiz for No. 11 on the all-time list.

The Fire saw their brief two-game undefeated run at Toyota Park put to an end, falling 1-0 to the LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Bulls have a six-game undefeated streak alive in the series, winning four of those, coming away with points in both meetings a year ago. The Red Bulls won 2-1 at Red Bull Arena on April 29, their third consecutive win in the series at Red Bull Arena. The teams played to a 1-1 draw at Toyota Park on Sept. 9.

The Red Bulls have come away with a result on their past three trips to Toyota Park (one win, two draws). When the Red Bulls won on Oct. 25, 2015 at Toyota Park, it was their first win ever in Bridgeview. The Red Bulls’ last away win against Chicago had come May 14, 2005, a 3-0 victory at Soldier Field; in between, the Fire were unbeaten in 14 home games in the league series (9-0-5).

Houston Dynamo vs. Toronto FC, 3 p.m. ET (CTV, TSN, ESPN+)

The Dynamo saw their winless slide extended to four games with a second draw in that time, reaching a 2-2 result with the San Jose Earthquakes at Avaya Stadium on Saturday evening. Tomás Martínez and Mauro Manotas scored for the Dynamo, with Manotas netting his third of the year.

TFC headed into their massive Concacaf Champions League final first-leg match with a 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, their third loss in four league outings.

Toronto FC won the lone meeting between the teams last year, a 2-0 victory at BMO Field on April 28. The TFC win ended a four-game winless streak in the series; their last win vs. the Dynamo had come July 12, 2014, a 4-2 victory at BMO Field.

The teams have played to five consecutive draws in Houston, all at BBVA Compass Stadium. The last win for either team there came in 2011, a 2-0 Dynamo victory at Robertson Stadium.

Columbus Crew SC vs. New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Crew SC suffered their third consecutive defeat, conceding the opening goal after just 43 seconds and then seeing D.C. United hold out for a 1-0 victory in Annapolis, Md. It was the third-longest in MLS history a team held out for a win by the game’s only goal.

The Revolution saw their two-game winning run put to an end, dropping a 1-0 decision to FC Dallas at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening.

The teams met twice a season ago, each winning on their own ground. Crew SC claimed a 2-0 win on May 6 at Mapfre Stadium, before the Revolution took a 2-1 win on May 21 at Gillette Stadium, which ended a three-game Crew SC winning streak in the series.

Crew SC have won the past four league meetings in Columbus, since 2014, though the Revolution won the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series in 2014, as well as both matches in Columbus during the 2013 regular season.

Orlando City SC vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Orlando City made it three wins on the trot, winning on the road for the first time since last September in a 2-0 defeat of the Philadelphia Union at Talen Energy Stadium on Friday evening.

Dom Dwyer netted for a third game in a row, with four goals over that span. He now has goals in each of his past four league appearances dating back to the end of last season, matching the longest goalscoring streak of his MLS career.

The Quakes reached a second consecutive draw but saw their winless streak stretched to four matches, playing to a 2-2 result with the Houston Dynamo at Avaya Stadium on Saturday evening. Magnus Eriksson scored for a second consecutive game.

The teams have played to draws in each of their three meetings all-time. The teams reached a 1-1 draw last May 17 at Avaya Stadium, the second 1-1 they have played to in San Jose (also in 2015).

The teams played to a 2-2 draw in their lone encounter in Orlando on June 18, 2016, at the Citrus Bowl.

FC Dallas vs. Philadelphia Union, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

FC Dallas remained undefeated on the new season with a second victory in five matches, defeating the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening, FCD’s first game outside of Frisco. Jacori Hayes scored his first professional goal for the game’s lone tally.

The Union had their winless streak extended to four games with a second loss in that span, falling 2-0 to Orlando City SC at Talen Energy Stadium on Friday evening.

The Union defeated FC Dallas for the first time in their history last year, a 3-1 win at Talen Energy Stadium on Aug. 5. Over the first nine meetings between the clubs in league play, FCD had won five, with four draws, including three wins in a row before last year’s Union victory.

FC Dallas have won four of the five all-time meetings in Frisco, with one draw, including each of the past two encounters at Toyota Stadium.

Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

RSL were shut out at the attacking end for first time this season, falling 4-0 to New York City FC at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday evening.

The Rapids stretched their undefeated streak to four games with a second win in that time, defeating Toronto FC 2-0 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday afternoon.

The teams met three times a season ago, and Real won twice. RSL took wins on both grounds, a 2-1 victory on April 15 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, then a 4-1 victory on Aug. 26 at Rio Tinto Stadium. The Rapids claimed a 1-0 win in Commerce City, Colo., on Oct. 15.

Real have a 15-game home undefeated streak alive vs. Colorado. Since the Rapids’ last win in Utah, a 2-0 victory on April 30, 2007, at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Real have won 11 games with four draws. Colorado has never won at Rio Tinto Stadium (0-9-4 all-time in league play). Real Salt Lake have won three of the past six visits to Commerce City, over the last four seasons.

The rivals play for the Rocky Mountain Cup, a trophy awarded by the supporters’ groups of both teams.

LA Galaxy vs. Atlanta United, 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Zlatan Ibrahimović scored his third goal since coming to MLS in making his first start for the Galaxy, his new club winning for the third time this season in a 1-0 defeat of the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park on Saturday afternoon.

Atlanta United saw their club-record four-game winning streak put to an end but still extended their undefeated run, reaching a 2-2 draw with New York City FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The teams met once in Atlanta United’s inaugural MLS campaign, a 4-0 win for Atlanta on Sept. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Seattle Sounders FC vs. Minnesota United FC, 4 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Sounders FC scored their first goal of the 2018 league campaign, but still remained winless on the new season, reaching a 2-2 draw with Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday afternoon.

MNUFC suffered their third consecutive defeat, falling 3-2 to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Saturday evening.

Darwin Quintero made his MLS debut, starting in the midfield and scoring his first league goal.

The teams met twice in Minnesota United FC’s inaugural MLS campaign, and Sounders FC won both. Seattle took a 4-0 win when the teams first met, Aug. 5 at TCF Bank Stadium, then claimed a 2-1 victory just 15 days later at CenturyLink Field.

Portland Timbers vs. New York City FC, 6 p.m. ET (FS1)

The Timbers won for the first time in 2018 in their first home match of the season after five away contests, defeating Minnesota United FC 3-2 at Providence Park on Saturday evening.

Diego Valeri scored his third goal of the season, now with goals in the last three matches – last year he set the all-time MLS record with goals in nine consecutive matches July 29-Sept 24.

NYCFC remained undefeated on the new season with their second draw in seven outings, reaching a 2-2 result with Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

David Villa scored his second goal of the season and added his second assist – already the 15th time in his MLS career he’s had at least one goal and one assist in the same game.

The teams have met three times all-time – and the visiting team has won each. The Timbers have won twice at Yankee Stadium, both by 1-0 scorelines, the first in the inaugural meeting between the clubs in 2015, and the second in last year’s lone meeting, Sept. 9.

NYCFC took a 2-1 win in the only encounter between the teams in Portland, May 15, 2016, at Providence Park.

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

This Week in MLS – April 16, 2018 was originally published on 365 Football

[rickhorrow]

15 TO WATCH: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BUSINESS/ MARKETING/ENDORSEMENT ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 6

with Jamie Swimmer

    This week, over 300 of the world’s best tennis players, including seven former tournament champions, descend on Indian Wells, CA to compete for more than $14 million in front of 400,000+ fans at tennis’ “Fifth Major.” Every top-10 player from the ATP World Tour and WTA is entered for the 2017 BNP Paribas Open. This includes 22-time Grand Slam Singles Champion Serena Williams, seeking to become the first WTA player to win three singles titles at Indian Wells. She joins 17-time Grand Slam Singles Champion and four time BNP Paribas Open singles winner Roger Federer. The tournament also showcases ongoing Indian Wells Tennis Garden renovations, designed to enhance the experience for players and fans alike. Upgrades include top restaurants like Spago; a new year-round hospitality space holding up to 200; satellite broadcast studio; fitness center; and club pro shop. Owner Larry Ellison and staff have truly created a desert tennis oasis, ensuring the game’s top players (and their thousands of adoring fans) return to the Coachella Valley year after year and creating an enviable benchmark for every other tournament worldwide.

  Coming off their first World Series title in over 100 years, the Chicago Cubs are now submitting a bid to host the 2020 MLB All-Star Game. According to the Chicago Tribune, Cubs Chair Tom Ricketts is working with city officials to put together an “attractive bid” to bring the event to Wrigley Field. Logistics are still being worked out, for the entire weekend spans “essentially five days of festivals and events.” Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney said that the team has “been in contact” with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office and MLB “regarding efforts to fulfill requirements to host the game.” The last time Wrigley played host to the All-Star Game was 1990, so the team hopes that its recent on-field success and ballpark renovations will lure the game back to the Windy City. Baseball’s major “event leverage” comes with the All-Star Game annually.  They award new ballparks, renovations, civic accomplishments, and (in the Cubs’ case) the end of monumental frustration. The game goes to South Florida this year amid rumors of an impending Marlins sale.

  The NFL’s first outdoor draft is being hyped up weeks ahead of the selection show. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia is “expecting 200,000 football fans” to show up to the outdoor theatre being constructed in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The theatre will only seat around 3,000 people, and tickets are limited, yet the event should bring hundreds of thousands to the city center. To keep fans engaged, standing room on the Parkway will be “transformed into a festival the size of 25 football fields, open free to the public before and during the draft.” Staging the three-day event is said to cost around $20-25 million, though most of that will be covered by the NFL. The Draft joins the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl as the NFL’s “rotating mega-events.” Each year it is expected to outdraw, outhustle, and outperform the predecessor – leading to more leverage, better public support, and more choices for NFL public/private partnerships.

    MLS is off and running as it opens its 2017 season bookended by two new expansion franchises. Newcomer Atlanta United has sold more than 30,000 season tickets, appealing to millennials and Hispanic fans alike. Atlanta United will host eight games at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium before moving into Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 30. In Minneapolis, Minnesota United is "confident the club’s first home match" as a MLS franchise will "exceed 30,000 tickets sold," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. United has "sold out the lower bowl" at TCF Bank Stadium for the March 12 match against Atlanta United, and is "closing in on 11,000 season tickets sold, with a team-imposed limit of 11,842 (tied to state’s lake total)." Elsewhere in the league, Orlando City SC moved in to its new home as it hosted NYCFC for its 2017 MLS season opener. The game at Orlando City Stadium was "sold out for weeks" and was broadcast nationally on ESPN. In front of MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Real Salt Lake drew 19,519 fans for its match against Toronto FC. And a would-be expansion franchise in San Diego announced Landon Donovan as a new member of its ownership group. San Diego could well be a test case – is soccer chipping away at the NFL’s American sports dominance?

  Fortress Investment Group is not giving up on its goal to keep the Raiders in Oakland. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the investment group sent “the NFL and the Raiders a proposal to build a new stadium for the team next to their existing venue.” The team is currently committed to relocating to Las Vegas, but league owners still need to meet and vote on the potential move “as soon as the end of March.” “It is unclear how different the proposal Fortress sent in is from the model it agreed to with Oakland in December, which the NFL has rejected.” Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL declined to comment on the proposal or the previously rejected bid, but those close to the matter note that under the last proposal, “Fortress would have developed the land and kept key revenue streams.” To many, this proposal is viewed as the last effort to keep the Raiders in the Bay Area. The Las Vegas deal has a much stronger financial foundation – public support and NFL/Raiders equity. What Oakland has is a tradition of fan support and the presumption that the process be given “one last best chance” to work.

  With the 2024 Olympic bid down to only two cities, LA 2024 is ramping up its promotion efforts overseas after signing PR firm Weber Shandwick. According to Ad Age, the PR firm is tasked with providing the bid group with communications support in international markets “where Olympic stakeholders live and work, as well as providing strategic insight into the entire process.” Weber Shandwick “helped support winning Olympic bids for the 2022 Beijing Games, the 2020 Tokyo Games and the 2014 Sochi Games.” Unlike past projects, this firm will not have to roll out a domestic campaign in Los Angeles to win over public support because 88% of the city already supports the bid. This move to hire an international PR agency marks another significant step for LA 2024 to land the Olympics after Budapest recently withdrew its bid; Paris is the only other competing city. While we all know that the Olympic selection process is inherently political, the PR message will focus on legacy, infrastructure support, and an “expectation” that the U.S. should participate in a Summer Games sooner than later. Look for drama in the boardroom between now and the end of the summer.

  UCLA guard Lonzo Ball’s father made a bold prediction: his son will be the first player drafted with his own brand. According to ESPN, Lonzo’s father, LaVar Ball, said in a radio interview that if the UCLA star “doesn’t sign with adidas, Nike or Under Armour, whoever…I’ll sign the Big Baller Brand.” The “Triple B” brand is already an active apparel company that was started by the Ball family; it is the brand that Lonzo could be touting upon Draft Day later this year. While this move is still up in the air, LaVar boldly stated his view on the situation, “I’m not looking for no endorsement deal. I’m looking for a marketing and distribution deal.” LaVar has received a great deal of criticism this past season for making outlandish and egotistical comments on behalf of his son, such as Lonzo is “better than Steph Curry” and that “Lonzo would only play for the Lakers.” It is that time of year for hype – family, or otherwise. The astronomical NBA salary cap increase this next year will give this year’s rookie class a significant bounty.

  What is already the wealthiest soccer league in the world, the EPL is still finding new ways to bring in millions of dollars annually. According to the London Daily Mail, Premier League clubs are now “set to earn up to $12.4 million more from sponsorships after talks” to add sleeve sponsorships for next season opened up between league and team executives. Sleeve sponsorships are valued at around one-fifth of a main kit sponsor, which means that clubs such as Manchester United, which receives “$58.3 million-a-year from Chevrolet to be on its shirts, could see a further $11 million invested in the club” on a yearly basis. Contract stipulations with main kit sponsors for a couple of the EPL’s best teams mean that a few notable clubs “will not be able to participate in the deal for next season,” though they will be able to sign a secondary sponsor in following years. Purists beware – the EPL is looking more like NASCAR every day. Why wouldn’t it? Especially if an unused square inch of clothing should now command over $12 million annually for each club.

  As online streaming becomes an increasingly popular way to watch TV, Google has entered the race to win over sports fans. According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube, whose parent company is Google, is now offering a web-TV service that packages over 40 broadcast and cable channels for $35 a month. YouTube TV will “have all the major broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, as well as several dozen well-known cable channels, such as ESPN, FX, USA, MSNBC and Fox News.” YouTube TV is set to offer an expansive list of sports channels as well: Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, NBC Sports, Comcast SportsNet, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, Big Ten Network, SEC Network, and Golf Channel will all be available for subscribers. A start date has not yet been announced, but YouTube did confirm that it will “roll out the service first in markets where it had secured rights from local affiliates.” The next round of sports rights bids should be one for the ages:  the traditionalists (networks) vs. the “newcomers” (YouTube, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.). Impact:  more money for teams, leagues, and players.

With the goal of turning their arena into a “12-month destination,” the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks have unveiled the newly-renovated east side of the United Center. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, renovations include a new office building, fan atrium, restaurants, and a team store. They also provide an “indoor, climate-controlled space for fans to visit the Michael Jordan statue, and to use the ticket windows.” The new atrium is 190,000 square feet and will be open every day from 10:00am-6:00pm, year round. The Bulls and Blackhawks never have much trouble filling seats at the United Center for home games, but this marks a great step for the premier Chicago sports franchises to engage with their fans outside of just game days. Adding the store and restaurants should create a significant amount of buzz around the United Center, as well as a nice bit of extra revenue for the teams. Facility renovations all over the country enter new phases:  lease renegotiations; financial creativity; high-tech tweaks; and new space for merchandise and concessions. Obviously, better for the fans.

  Professional golf may soon experience one of the “biggest shake-ups” in recent history with rule changes looming. According to the BBC, the R&A and USGA are in talks to “make golf quicker and played under more simple, consistent and fair rules.” The new rulebook will be drawn up in “a modern, plain style” that will be written from a “player's perspective.” Some of the most significant changes being considered include removing a penalty for accidentally moving your ball, reducing ball search time from five to three minutes, and relaxing the protocols for “taking free or penalty drops, with the ball dropped from only an inch above the ground, rather than shoulder height.” This comes as the first “substantial review” of the rules in professional golf since 1984. The two governing bodies want to see a simpler game with less contention over some of the nuances affiliated with the game today. Even the most traditional and historical of games undergoes substantial tinkering from time to time. First, baseball’s quest to shorten its game. Is golf close behind?

  Following a poor year of ratings, the NFL is looking to win over a few more fans this coming season. According to SportsBusiness Journal, one key way the NFL is trying to garner more public support is by possibly relaxing its laughable touchdown celebration rules. The Competition Committee is in talks to let players “have fun again” after scoring touchdowns – an area they have cracked down on in recent years following the likes of Chad Ocho Cinco and Terrell Owens. The league’s reputation and ratings plummeted this past season following a series of events. “You think of concussions, you think of serious injuries, you think of domestic violence, you think of people protesting the flag and other things,” noted EPSN’s Israel Gutierrez. “Maybe if you introduce some fun into this and not maintain yourselves as the ‘No Fun League,’ then maybe there are different ways to get your product a little more desirable.” While the NFL aspires to $25 billion per year in revenue, there is always the need to generate new fan support – diverse demographics, superstar promotion, and fan enthusiasm.

On the heels of the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, an economic impact study from the league’s International Series game in Mexico City revealed an “incremental increase” in the city’s GDP. According to the Sports Industry group at EY, the Mexico City game this past season between the Texans and Raiders supported “2,840 jobs in the city” and contributed toward $43 million of total domestic and international tourist spending; the overall economic impact was $45 million. The sellout crowd at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium consisted mainly of domestic fans, though over 9,500 international fans attended and 21,500 fans traveled from other parts of Mexico to get in on the action. These numbers come as great news for the NFL, which has tried to expand its international footprint in all directions. The league currently has more games planned in Mexico and throughout Europe in the coming years. Most recent news about Mexico has not been good. However, the combination of the WGC Golf Championship and the long-term interest for the NFL in Mexico is welcome news for our southern neighbor.

  With March Madness right around the corner, Pizza Hut is “stepping up its game with high-top sneakers that allow their wearers to order pizza with a push of a button…” According to Ad Age, Pizza Hut is handing out 64 pairs of their “Pie Tops” to honor the 64 teams that annually compete in March Madness. The shoes are Bluetooth-enabled, making ordering pizza as easy as can be. To promote the release of the shoes, Pizza Hut also released a promotional commercial featuring Grant Hill playing basketball in the shoes before sitting down, pressing the button on the tongue of the shoes, and having a two-topping pizza delivered moments after. Pizza Hut Vice President/Media & Advertising David Daniels said, “We're planning to feature the pie tops with on-air talent.” However, Pizza Hut has not announced yet which people will “wear and interact with the shoes during the broadcasts.” Never too early for basketball promotion, especially with ongoing streaming, constant hype and promotion, and the inevitable appeal to young demographics.

  The Las Vegas Golden Knights are officially an NHL team. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Owner Bill Foley made the third and final $500 million expansion payment on behalf of the franchise. “This is the most extensive transaction I've ever done, and I've made $5 billion deals. Even my wife had to sign 20 documents,” noted Foley. Other NHL team owners and Commissioner Gary Bettman were quick to congratulate Foley on officially joining the league. The Knights are the most recent expansion team in the NHL, bringing the total team count up to 31 for next season. The teams’ final expansion payment was not supposed to be completed and processed until April 5, but the league expedited and finalized the transaction five weeks ahead of time. Team General Manager George McPhee was thankful for the quick response on behalf of the league, meaning that the Golden Knights can now participate in transactions before the trade deadline. Las Vegas went from being “radioactive” as a franchise location to the home of one (and maybe two) in the not-too-distant future. Fan orientation, significant public money, and tourism infrastructure all add to the possibilities for success.