Well, the Packers were a pretty big disappointment. The Blackhawks continue to be unable to top the Red Wings, though they have managed to climb back into the top spot in the NHL with 60 points. The Rangers also have 60 points, and Vancouver is nipping on everybody's heels with 59 points. Still, hard to complain too much when you're the top dog. The Pacers continue to show how far they've come. I also found this picture which doesn't have a lot to do with today's post, but I like it, so there. All in all, I can't complain too much. I had the right idea about picking one road team last week in the NFL, but unfortunately, I picked the wrong one. That leaves us with the final four of San Francisco, New York, New England, and Baltimore. Part of me just wants to pick the home teams, but I'm not going to do that. I'm also not going really pick specific scores. Instead, I'm going to go with who I think is the better defense. That's the how the saying goes, right? And that would explain why I shouldn't have put so much faith in the Packers. So, I'm picking a Niners-Ravens Super Bowl. If this comes true (and I feel worse about the Ravens pick than the Niners one), I would be really interested to see the city of Baltimore's reaction to having to play a Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Maybe enough time has passed it doesn't matter. Maybe we'll find out. If you read the big post this week, you might have noticed that the Indy police got a little excited about what having a football team might do for the city. We did get a Super Bowl, but an Olympics seems a little far fetched. Chicago is a different story, and I felt it got more than a little jobbed in its bid last year (or two years ago, whenever that happened). But, just for fun, let's take a look at how the city might make this happen Unrelated, I found this Onion article that lampoons the whole idea. I think we can all admit that Indianapolis is not Rome, Tokyo, Madrid, or Istanbul.* But, Indianapolis really does have some world-class sports facilities. And we don't have to look all that far to get some sort of idea how the city might handle it by looking at the Pan Am Games in 1987. *Not Constantinople. The tenth Pan Am Games used 15 venues. That link will take you to the Wikipedia article for the games, but for convenience's sake, here's a list with the sports hosted using their 1987 names.
-Brown Co. State Park (Biking) -Bush Stadium (Baseball) -Eagle Creek Park (Archery) -Circle Theater (Weightlifting) -Hinkle Fieldhouse (Volleyball) -Hoosier Dome (Gymnastics, Handball, Closing Ceremony) -Indiana Convention Center (Boxing) -IU Natatorium (Swimming) -IU Indianapolis Track and Soccer Stadium (Track & Field) -Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Speed Roller Skating, Opening Ceremony) -Indianapolis Tennis Center (Tennis) -Kuntz Stadium (Soccer) -Lake Michigan (Yachting) -Major Taylor Velodrome (Cycling) -Market Square Arena (Basketball) For some comparison, here are the venues London will be using for the 2012 Olympics, which really shows off that English creative brainpower in the names. The Wiki list is broken down into three zones, so we'll do the same here. I've gone ahead and listed capacities as well, as it will be important later. Olympic Zone -Aquatics Center (Swimming; 17,500) -Basketball Arena (Basketball; 12,000) -BMX Circuit (BMX; 6,000) -Copper Box (Fencing, Handball; 7,000) -London Velodrome (Cycling; 6,000) -Riverbank Arena (Field Hockey; 16,000) -Water Polo Arena (Water Polo; 5,000) -Olympic Stadium (Track & Field, Opening and Closing Ceremonies; 80,000) River Zone -ExCeL (Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling; Up to 10,000) -Greenwich Park (Equestrian; 23,000) -O2 Arena (Gymnastics; 20,000) -Royal Artillery Barracks (Shooting; 7,500) Central Zone -All England Club (Tennis; 30,000) -Earls Court Exhibition Center (Volleyball; 15,000) -Horse Guards Parade (Beach Volleyball; 15,000) -Hyde Park (Triathlon; 3,000) -Lord's Cricket Ground (Archery, 6,000) -Wembly Arena (Badminton, Rhythmic Gymnastics; 12,000) -Wembly Stadium (Soccer; 90,000) There will also be use of different soccer stadiums throughout the UK for that tournament. There are also different water areas outside of London that will be used for those sports that require it. It seems like Indianapolis has many of the standing structures to make this sort of thing happen. Obviously some things would have to be built or improved on, and an Olympic Village would have to be built or at least repurposed. Here's my proposed sites for the sports listed above. -IMS (Opening and Closing Ceremonies; Holds up to 400,000 people, though much of that wouldn't be used for the ceremonies) -Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Basketball, Gymnastics, Possibly Swimming; 18,000) -Indiana Convention Center (Used like ExCeL to host a variety of sports. I know the Indiana Golden Gloves tournament is held there, so there must be at least one space large enough for big events) -Murat Theater (Used in tandem with the Indiana Convention Center) -Lucas Oil Stadium (Soccer, Basketball Finals, Possibly Opening and Closing Ceremonies; 70,000) -IU Natatorium (Swimming, seating would need to be expanded somehow, but it is the largest indoor pool in the US right now) -Hinkle Fieldhouse (Volleyball; 10,000) -Pepsi Coliseum (Badminton, Handball, maybe Water Polo; 8,500) That takes care of quite a few of the sports using standing structures. And you could probably use Lucas Oil Stadium for more sports than I have listed here as well. The bulk of the smaller sports in my plan would be held in the convention center or one of the big theaters in the Murat. I also didn't list Victory Field for anything. Surely somebody could figure out some good events there. I would also say that the basketball tournament should be held throughout the state, using Mackey Arena and Assembly Hall and whatever Notre Dame calls their arena. Go ahead and use the Hulman Center and Ball St.'s arena, too. And Evansville's new place, why not. You could probably hold some events on those college campuses, too. Use the football stadiums for the soccer tournament. I know the Chicago Olympic bid was going to use Notre Dame for the equestrian events, so this bid would do that as well. I don't know how the seating would work, but I would recommend using the dunes up on Lake Michigan for the beach volleyball. Now, is any of this going to happen? Not any time soon. But, the Pan Am Games are still around. You might be hearing about them again soon, as the 2015 edition is slated to be held in Toronto, which will probably get a little more attention than games held in South America. Though that might be a fantasy. I don't think I heard a peep in 1999 when they were held in Winnipeg. Still, the games haven't been held in the US since 1987, maybe it's due. And Indianapolis seems like just the place to do it. Last night, DePauw beat Wabash kind of convincingly in Crawfordsville (in basketball). I'm kind of bummed out, because I honestly never really thought DePauw might win that game going into it. To help cheer myself up, here's a video for you. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth about an hour and a half, apparently. Sorry about the lack of a real post yesterday. Between filling out a bear of a job application, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon sorting through the Indianapolis Star microfilm collection at the Wabash library. I was curious what was in the newspaper when the Colts moved to town. Armed with little more than a date,* I was able to track it down pretty quickly. *The move was announced on the afternoon of March 29, 1984. I went ahead and pulled the papers from the 29th and the 30th. I wasn't disappointed. You could (and I'm sure people have) easily write a book from both perspectives of this move. Rather than do that here, I present to you the journalists in their day. First up, here is the front page of the March 29th edition of the Star. There's a little bit trimmed off on both ends, unfortunately, because the camera on the machine didn't quite zoom out far enough to fit the whole thing on one page. As is usually the case, click on the images for a larger version. The story made it seem pretty clear the decision had already been made, as it was known at that point that the Mayflower* trucks had already been spotted and Indianapolis' main competitor, Phoenix, had withdrawn its offer. Here is that story in all its glory. Again, click the images to blow them up for easier reading. *Mayflower was (and probably still is, I haven't checked) headquartered in Indianapolis, which also seemed to give Indy more of a lockdown when the question was still in the air. As I've mentioned, the official announcement came later that day. You can imagine the next day's paper was almost entirely Colts. Here is that front page and the "main" story accompanying the move. The story isn't anything ground breaking, but I did get a smirk out of the Hoosier Dome (later the RCA Dome) being such a pivotal piece of the Colts choosing Indianapolis. Before Lucas Oil Stadium was built, you would have thought the old dome was the worst stadium in the NFL. While that probably wasn't true, it is true the league grew at an astonishing rate between the time the Colts got to town and when the new stadium was built, and with it came other new stadiums that outclassed the once imposing Hoosier Dome. Funnily enough, there is another article that talks about the possibility of the Colts moving to town leading to a Super Bowl or Olympic bid. The Super Bowl will be in Indianapolis in less than a month now, and, while not quite the Olympics, the Pan Am Games were held in 1987. Lest Indy seemed a little too jubilant at Balitmore's loss, though, the Star made sure to run a bit from Baltimore's point of view, by a Baltimore reporter. He really captures what Baltimore thought (and thinks, if we're being honest) about Bob Irsay. You may have caught in the lead story that the Star reporter called Irsay "unpredictable," which doesn't seem to speak too highly of what Indianapolis thought of the elder Irsay. For what it's worth, Jim Irsay seems well enough liked around here. Not so sure about Baltimore. As you can see, there's also a less interesting story about parking for the Dome, which you can continue to read below. But, better than that are a pair of stories talking about suite prices and how the Colts left Baltimore in the middle of the night from the Mayflower perspective. Speaking of suite prices, how much would everybody love to see the return of the ticket prices talked about in this article? On a side note, I really feel like I need to point out that pun. I'm pretty proud of it, I'd hate to see it go unnoticed. Two more before we call it day here in the land of Weebly's AP Baseball.* First we have a story about the roller coaster the mayor of Indianapolis went through in trying to bring the Colts to town. It also mentions that he also had to deal with the Pacers thinking about leaving town. Those of a certain age** surely remember the telethon that saved the franchise. Unfortunately, YouTube does not, otherwise there would be a link. In any case, below that we have what I find to be an absolutely charming ad congratulating the mayor on bringing the team in from Maryland.
*I kind of liked that. Sort of how Craig Ferguson starts all of his shows by introducing himself as "TV's Craig Ferguson." **An age greater than mine, but I've heard the story on the radio and from my dad more than once. If you haven't already guessed, no real post today. Let's call it a research day. Tomorrow, I'm posting something big, so be sure to swing back by. The Blackhawks seem to be in a funk again, but we'll over look that for the time being. Instead, Purdue pounded Minnesota, the Pacers bounced back nicely and got a couple pretty easy wins against Charlotte and Boston, and my NFL predictions were pretty good. My scores weren't so great, but that really isn't the important part. I totally missed the Cincinnati-Houston game, and the Giants did a good job blowing out of the Falcons, but I got three of the four winners, including the big upset of the weekend. Look, don't take this as being a Tebow fan. I'm definitely not. Although, I have to admit, maybe he's a better quarterback than I realized, because he made some very good throws in that game. The bigger point is we've seen this story before. I said this on Friday, but I'll say it again. Or write it, more accurately. Yes, the Steelers were, for the last 16 games, the better team. On paper, even with Big Ben's ankle not 100%, they were a better team. But it was wild card weekend, and they were playing a team that got hot playing in a lesser division. This happened when the Colts went out to San Diego a couple years ago, this happened to the Saints when they went to Seattle last year. We've seen this movie before. I don't know why, but these teams just tend to win. Now, if only I can parley these picks to some sort of fame and fortune, I'd be very happy. I think I'm going to go ahead and do next round's picks now. I'll change them on Friday if I feel it's appropriate, but barring major injury, I don't think it will be a problem. The first game of the weekend is one I've been looking forward to. We get to see just how legit San Francisco is. The Saints will take their show on the road to face the 49ers. Now, I like this 49ers team. Is Alex Smith a great quarterback? No, but he's more than serviceable. They have a good defense and a very good running game. The problem is the Saints are very good. If the Packers aren't the ones to win the Super Bowl, I'd have to put money on the Saints being the team. I'll bet this is a good game, but I'm going to go with the Saints on this one. 21-17, Saints. Next up on the slate is Denver and New England. I think this will be a pretty good game, actually. The Broncos already pushed the Patriots in New England once. But, the Tebow Magic can't last forever. The Patriots might be a shaky number one, but they're still the top dog for a reason. 28-17, Patriots. On Sunday, we get to start the day with Houston travelling to Baltimore. Houston looked as good as I've seen them since Schaub went down against Cincinnati. Of course, Cincinnati probably wasn't really that good of a team, as it turned out. They didn't beat a team with a winning record the entire year. Baltimore has really put out some awful games this year, but generally speaking, they're still a very good team. I'll pick them here in a relatively easy one. 27-17, Ravens. Hmm, just noticed I picked 17 for all the losing teams so far. Oh well, like I said earlier, the score isn't really the important thing. I'm definitely not trying to set any sort of line. Anyway, we get to wrap up the weekend with the Giants taking another crack at the Packers in Green Bay. That was an awfully tight game that the Giants probably should have won, but I've got a feeling this one will be different. Maybe not a blow out, but I think the Packers will, to quote Nuke LaLoosh, "announce [their] presence with authority." Besides, the Giants are due for a clunker, given their season. 28-10, Packers. I think there's a field trip in order for tomorrow. See you then, folks. After last night's dual debacle, I'm just going to ignore any of that happened and instead focus on the upcoming NFL playoffs. Now, I haven't watched a ton of NFL this year, but if reading sports articles for practically my entire life has taught me anything, it's that watching a lot of something probably makes you worse at predicting it. So, let's take this match up by match up. In order of when games will be played, we'll start with Cincinnati at Houston. I have to admit I didn't realize the Bengals made the playoffs. I knew they had a better than expected year, but I didn't think they did that well. Houston is a very banged up and, if their loss at Indy says anything, a very undisciplined team. Maybe it's just because I think Andy Dalton's TCU team really got the screws last year, but I'm going to pick the Bengals here. As for a score, I don't know. 17-14, does that sound about right? Sure, why not. 17-14, Cincinnati. Next up, we have the Lions taking on the Saints. The Lions should be a feel good story, just a few years removed from 0-16 with no sense of direction. A couple drafts later, there's direction. The problem is they are a dirty team with an especially dirty defense and a coach who sure comes off as a scum bag. The Saints on the other hand have a coach I really like in Sean Payton, a historically prolific offense, and are led by one of the best Boilermakers to come out of the Cradle of Quarterbacks, Drew Brees. I might have my black-and-gold glasses on, but I think the Saints win fairly easily. Plus, it's in their building this year instead of having to play out in Seattle like last year. 35-10, New Orleans. After we all have a good night's sleep, we now get to feast our eyes on the Falcons going to New Jersey to play the Giants. The Giants, from what I gather, are one of the more schizophrenic* teams in the league, and it starts with Eli Manning not knowing what level of quarterback he really is. The problem is, the Falcons are much the same way. If the Falcons realize they win much more often when they are primarily a running team, they'll take this one, but I've got a sneaking suspicion they won't. Still, it'll be a tight game, I think. 21-17, New York.** *I actually spelled that right the first time. I feel I deserve a ribbon or something. **Normally I'd need to indicate which New York team I meant, but since Rex Ryan's mouth has outgunned his team (again), we all know we're talking Giants on the field. To round out wild card weekend, we get a situation like the Colts going to San Diego a few years ago, or the Saints in Seattle last year. The Broncos get to play host to the Steelers. Now, the Steelers are clearly the better team, but I've seen this situation play out a couple times, and the better team was given and early (and probably unfair) boot out of the playoffs. Plus, as much as he annoys the holy hell out of me, the team starting winning once Tebow took the reigns. I can't explain it, but those are the facts. I'm going to take the Broncos here, even though most of me is telling me it's a bad idea. 13-10, Denver. Just to round things out, that would send the Bengals to New England, the Broncos to Baltimore, the Saints to San Fransico, and the Giants back to Green Bay. I think the Patriots would beat the Bengals fairly handily, and same for the Ravens over the Broncos. I'm going to take the Ravens in a minor upset to make the Super Bowl from the AFC from there. On the NFC side, I'll take the Saints over the 49ers in a somewhat embarrassing game. The Giants gave the Packers a hell of a game in Lambeau earlier this season, but I don't see it happening again. That'll set up the Saints and Packers in one hell of a showdown for the NFC championship that really could go either way. I'll take the Packers, partially for marital harmony, partially because they did win 15 games this year, and the Saints didn't. That would set up the Packers and Ravens for a Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Somehow, that would be seem very poetic for Baltimore to get some sort of revenge by winning that game, moreso for being the underdog and all. But, I don't see anybody beating the Packers outside of possibly the Saints, so I say the Packers become your back-to-back Super Bowl Champions.I'll revisit this as teams inevitably change, but that's my early predictions. I didn't do so badly on the baseball side of things, and put it in record there that the Cardinals had made a believer out of me even thought I stuck with my early predictions mostly for the sake of it. I don't think I'll be happy if my football predictions go better than my baseball ones, but that would be just like life, wouldn't it? Not that I'm giving up on the Pacers or anything, but last night was hard to watch. I don't even know where the final score ended up, but the Pacers were completely blown out by the Heat last night. A Heat team, mind you, that was missing Dwyane Wade. But, even without Wade, you might have heard the Heat have some other players who are pretty darned good, starting with possibly the best athlete of my generation, LeBron James. Even thought last night didn't quite go as planned, the Pacers are still fine. Every team is going to have some bad nights, sometimes against bad teams. The Pacers just so happened to have one of their bad nights against a team that may well win the whole enchilada. I wouldn't read too much into it. I did, though, like what I saw out of late pickup Lou Amundson. You might remember him as the kinda funny looking dude with the ponytail from either the Phoenix Suns or UNLV. He hadn't gotten in too much to start the year, and I don't know how much we'll see him, with the power forward spot kind of locked down between David West and Tyler Hansbrough. But, he gave a very solid contribution, which makes me feel better about times when West or Hansbrough get into foul trouble, which both are wont to do. My attention will be on Purdue taking on Penn St. tonight. It shouldn't be too much of a game, but we'll see how it goes. I sure hope I'm right about it. I'll probably check in on the Blackhawks after Purdue is done. They're in Philly, which is the Flyers first game since the Winter Classic. Based on what I saw at that game, the Blackhawks ought to feel pretty good about themselves, but that was only one game and all. As most are no doubt aware, the Colts let Bill Polian and his son Chris go on Monday. Bill Polian has made quite the name for himself in building very good teams with Buffalo, Carolina, and Indianapolis. None of those teams were very good when he came in, and they all did pretty well while he was there. A rebuilding specialist, more than one column has called him. And Chris, well, it looked like he was going to be able to ride the old man's coattails into a cushy career. This might have been Bill Polian's downfall. Bill let Chris take over much of the scouting and draft decisions, and things have gone decidedly down since. We all knew the Colts would not be successful if Peyton ever went down. Nobody knew the foundation was quite as sandy as it has turned out to be. There had to be a scapegoat, and it was pretty easy to find one. If anybody had missed the signs, Bob Kravitz with the Indianapolis Star* made sure it wasn't unnoticed. *Kravie is, generally speaking, an idiot who says a lot of outlandish things, which is probably why if the Indy Star makes it on ESPN, it's usually for something Kravie has written or said. But, he was spot on with this one. Unfortunately, it looks like the Star is still finding ways to make some money, so you might be out of luck. If I get ambitious (and I was up early today, so maybe I will), I'll dig in Wabash's archives and find and print the microfilm version of that particular article. Did I see this move coming? Not particularly, but I'm not upset about it, nor do I get the sense that many other fans are, either. The Colts had built a team that was totally engineered to play one way, which led to many playoff disappointments. When Peyton Manning was removed, who was the main cog driving the way the team was built to play, it became painfully obvious that the machine wouldn't work in the NFL. It's just far too fragile for success beyond what a truly transcendent quarterback can give you. And without good drafts, which Polian the Younger had proven all but incompetent at, the cupboards will not be stocked with enough talent to make it work in the post-Manning era. I wasn't in the room, so I don't know this, but I get the feeling that Jim Irsay said Chris had to go, but Bill could say. Bill, as loyalty would dictate, declined to fire his son. This left Irsay with no real decision, and both Polians were removed from the office. Jim Caldwell stays on for now, but I wouldn't get too comfortable if I were in his shoes. As soon as a "superstar" coach decides he'd like to see what he could do with Peyton Manning, I think Caldwell is gone. I've heard rumblings (including Kravitz) that Jeff Fisher might be that coach. Which would be fine and good, I suppose. I don't think it too much matters, to be honest. As far as the upcoming draft is concerned, the Colts won't have to do too much evaluating up front. They get the first pick, and they better use it. And the way the league is headed, they might as well get a quarterback. Andrew Luck said the textbook politically correct thing last night after his bowl game. I'm not convinced there's anything really sincere when he says he would be happy doing it, but I do believe he would do it. As a side note, I don't think Peyton is going anywhere, period. The other option in the draft would be the Baylor quarterback, Robert Griffin III. Of those two choices, I would probably prefer the Colts draft Luck. He seems to be more in the Manning mold, which the Colts have shown they can do something with. I'm sure Griffin will do fine,* I just don't know if the Colts can really do much with a running quarterback. We've seen the Peyton mold work, so let's keep the quarterback style in place and do what we can to rebuild the O-Line and the defense in the meantime. And that, as they say, is all I have to say about that. Of course, when I said the world was "ending today" yesterday, I meant this year. I wouldn't want to jump the gun on that. I think it's supposed to be sometime in December, so we can all look forward to that. Now, in spite of some surprising Colts news and the Pacers getting back to their winning ways, we're going to stay on plan and talk hockey today. The Blackhawks lost last night's game, though I missed most of it. No matter. There's still plenty of time to lock down the President's Trophy. No, instead I just wanted to talk about how crazy it is that as little as four years ago, the Blackhawks weren't regularly on TV. Now, true, the NHL seems to be in much healthier shape than it was during the late 90's and most of the 2000's.* I'm sure that has something to do with it. I think, though, the bigger problem was having older ownership. Of course you didn't put your games on TV to Bill Wirtz. You made money by putting butts in the seats, and those butts weren't going to come if they could just sit at home and watch the game. He said it was unfair to season ticket holders, but I think he was just worried there wouldn't be season ticket holders if they were on TV. *Have we as a society figured out the best way to say that decade? The two thousands? The aughts? Nobody warned me of this dilemma in elementary or middle school before it happened. What doesn't seem to have penetrated Bill Wirtz's mind was that you drum up more interest in the team with TV. If people see your product (assuming it's a good product, which the Blackhawks weren't always), they're going to be interested and want to see it for themselves. This has been the Blackhawks to a T. They went from practically invisible in Chicago to possibly the most popular team in the city. Being the last one to win a championship helps with that, sure. But I think there's something to be said for people seeing the games on TV, seeing how good this team is, seeing the amazing atmosphere in the arena, and wanting to be a part of it, even if most of their part of it is buying a shirt or a hat. And that can almost entirely be put on the shoulders of Bill Wirtz's kid, Rocky, when he took over the team. As amazing as TV feeds have gotten, if the atmosphere is good (and it is in the United Center), the fans will come. You will get the exposure and the buzz in the city, and the money will come not only in the form of ticket sales, but in merchandise and TV contracts, too. And when you've got a group like the current Blackhawks, who are not only super talented but willing to look like speed skating fools in the name of entertainment,* you will draw fans. And they have. And if you read that story, it kind of blows up one of ESPN's favorite sayings as of a few years ago that nobody can find Versus.** They can sure find it (and CSN Chicago) in Chicago, and I've never had any trouble finding it. 603 on DirecTV. 151 on Dish. 590 on Verizon FiOS. 1640 on AT&T U-Verse. It's not that hard. Don't get bitter because you gave up on hockey, ESPN. *Apparently special thanks to Patrick Kane and Brian Campbell (USA and Canada, respectively) for taking the Blackhawks Mini-Olympics super serious during the Vancouver games. I don't know how I missed that at the time, and I am very sorry for missing it. **Now NBC Sports as of yesterday. My DirecTV guide was on top of it. Now, I know I just talked up the national broadcast a bit there, but this is supposed to be about the local feed, the CSN Chicago games. And I can't stress how good a job they do on CSN. During the playoffs, I usually watch that feed as opposed to the Versus feed. And as big as the Blackhawks have gotten, they do some things on the broadcast that seem to be charmingly small. Making sure to show the anthem and highlighting the tradition of the crowd cheering through it. Emphasizing the giveaway of the day and the upcoming promotions. And have I mentioned how much I absolutely love that they televise the "Shoot the Puck" competition during the second intermission? Pure genius to make sure that's on TV every game. If you aren't familiar, here's what happens. For the prize of a free round-trip flight anywhere in the 48 contiguous states from Southwest, the shooter gets three chances to put a puck into any of three small openings on the net from center ice. If you make it the first time around, you will then get a second round to win $10,000.* They'll typically interview one of the shooters either before their turn or right after they've shot. The entertainment value is just absurd. Pure brilliance to whoever decided that should be a staple of the local broadcast. *Much like the big wheel on The Price is Right. And I'm going off memory here, I might be off on the second round prize, but I think I'm right. Another very good idea was the idea to give away four tickets to any Blackhawks away game. The winner gets an all-expenses paid trip to watch their (presumably) favorite team, and the Blackhawks aren't really out any money.* The Blackhawks I'm sure are just giving the tickets out of their allotment from road games anyway and the hotel the winner stays in is the same one as the team. So all their out is some plane tickets and some spending money, which for all the money the team is making these days is chump change. All that, and they don't miss out on the paying customers at home. *At least I hope the Blackhawks aren't asking for a lot of money out of Goodwill. That just wouldn't feel right. One last bit before I sign off for the day about the Winter Classic. Good, if not great, game. The ice seemed less than arena quality, but not enough to take away from the enjoyment of the game. Now, the officiating at the end, that's a different story. I don't seem to be alone in this, either. The officials seemed to be trying their damnedest to let Philly push it to overtime with some very highly questionable calls. Even my mom thought it was suspect, and she only watches hockey when she's with my brother or myself watching TV. If it's that obvious to somebody who's not even a casual fan, there's a problem. I don't know who has the blood on their hands, but somebody needs to get into some trouble over this. |
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