Dear Loyal Readers,
Here are a few Current Events that might be of interest to you.
First, I’ll be appearing TONIGHT, Thursday, June 26, on the very funny NPR game show Ask Me Another at the University of Michigan’s Power Center, 8 p.m. Here’s more info, and how you get pretty cheap tickets:
http://a2sf.org/event/ask-me-another/
Second, I’ll be on with Ira and Sam on WTKA not on Friday for 20 minutes, as usual, but TODAY, Thursday, for an hour: 9-10. To discuss the game show, and my recent articles.
Last, Yahoosports.com (which, perhaps surprisingly, is bigger than ESPN.com), asked me to combine, condense and revise my last two pieces on Michigan’s season ticket sales drop, and it’s now on Yahoo.com’s front page.
If you haven’t seen it before, here it is, with lots of comments:
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/road-saturday/201406/college-football-fan-stadium-students-business-tv-ncaa-michigan-tickets
New Bacon Blog tomorrow – -promise!
Thanks for all!
-John
Hey John,
Thank you for your columns. I am living in Okinawa, Japan where my bride is working with US military children. I always listened to both you and WTKA when We are back in the states. Unfortunately, what I read here does not make me happy about Michigan sports. I gave up my tickets at the big house and two of my friends gave up eight sets of tickets due to what has happened in the last several years. I started going to the games in 1962 when I could buy a ticket on game day for $2. I earned that money by parking cars in my grandmothers driveway for $0.50 each! Thank you John for always providing a non-biased view of what is going on. The fact that they have pulled your press pass speaks volumes. I hope that they let you continue teach classes.
Will and Mary Ann Schwartz
John,
I have previously commented in agreement with your two most recent blog articles, but I had not heard that the University has pulled your press pass. Not knowing any details on that, I am hesitant to comment much, but I must at least say that, if that is true and it was done because of those articles, I am absolutely SHOCKED and seriously disappointed that any component of the University would stoop to such a childish and repressive tactic in response to legitimate criticism and the expression of free speech! It comes across as just another poor decision compounding other past poor decisions by the University.
As an alumnus of approaching 50 years I can not believe that the school I have held in such high regard my entire life would choose to take such a negative and repressive approach to anything, much less a legitimate expression of opinion!
As an aside, several of my friends and neighbors here in Texas, who are as dedicated alumni of the University of Texas and Texas A&M as I have been of UM, have seen and read your two recent articles and have commented to me that they feel the same concerns about the way their own alma maters have been dealing with those same issues. To a person, they have agreed with your comments!
John, Thank you for your comments on the Michigan football experience, and for standing up for the fan. I realized while reading your blog that many, if not all, of these matters have eroded my enthusiasm for going to games – I just had not fully recognized how much until your blog so incisively articulated what has been bringing me down. Particularly, for me, the TV timeouts and delays! When your blog pointed out that that bothers others besides just me, I remembered an experience I had many years ago: My brother invited me to go with him to the final round of the Buick Open. I looked at the TV coverage time on the channel guide (beginning early in the afternoon,) set my VCR to record the coverage (maybe I might show up on TV!) and drove over to stay with the night before. Thinking we would probably either stay out late getting caught up (over a few scotches,) or possibly only stay up late (over the same,) I was a little confused when he wanted to turn-in before midnight in order to get up by 5am to get to the golf course. As he was the “Brand Advertising Manager for Buick Golf”, I figured he had some job functions to attend to before we watched any golf, and I was just happy he had invited me to attend with him (it was free to me!) We got to the course by 6am, got in (I got to go in to the VIP tent, where I promptly sought out the bar and asked for a Bloody Mary – only to be told by the bartender who was cleaning glassware, that State law prohibits alcohol sales before noon – with a nod toward the long table of Michigan State Troopers having coffees before they went out to provide security on the course.) My brother told me to get a couple of coffees, and hustled us over to the first tee – he wanted to follow his friend Stuart Appleby. We did – I got to meet Stuart’s parents along the way – and at some point in the morning even saw Tiger Woods play a hole (too much of a crowd for me to get immersed in.) Sometime after noon (I think,) and after meeting a couple of professional golf dignitaries my little brother knew, he said he was beat and that, if we wanted to go back to his house we could grab a bite to eat and have a beer and catch a bit of the TV coverage (and maybe a little nap, before I hit the road (I was going to drive out to catch up with my family in NJ.) It was while we were watching the TV coverage in his living room, that it began to dawn on me: TV coverage of golf ISN’T live! The golfers play their rounds. The network cameras record the play. The network then picks out what they want to televise, and puts the television presentation together for the viewers. So, to my idea (finally!): Why not play a football game, say, starting at noon; then, have the TV coverage begin to broadcast at 12:30? The game can be played by the players at “game-pace”, and more importantly, enjoyed by the fans without extraneous TV interruption. I would certainly enjoy attending the game in-person, and be able to get back on the road to home maybe an hour earlier than I do currently. I would think this also has an advantage to Mr. Brandon: the off-set between the live event and the TV coverage might be attractive to fans who would rather “be there” than watching the coverage – the those same fans might even enjoy watching the TV coverage of the game they were at all over again at locations like Pizza House, or Ashley’s (or other places in and around A2 that I have heard exist?) Waddaya think? Should I propose this to Mr. B?
Math on how ridiculous UM Football Ticket Prices are: If my car has 26 mpg, it would be cheaper for me to buy MSU season tickets and travel