25 November, 2012
DJ B-Clear's Winter/Holiday Movie Preview - December
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10 November, 2012
The NHL - What a difference a week makes
Since my last post on the NHL lockout, the NHLPA & the owners got together in NYC for several days of ACTUAL negotiations. The interesting thing was that the meetings were held in a "secret location." Why it needed to be secret is beyond me because NO ONE seems to care. To further show that NO ONE cares, reporters could've easily staked out Bettman's office and followed him and no one saw that Donald Fehr or Sidney Crosby were on town in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy? People saw them I'm sure but they just didn't care (granted the hurricane caused major problems in that area but even without those problems no one cared. I just want to say that I hope the people affected by Sandy can rebuild after the tragedy).
So the owners & the players decided on a new tactic after doing nothing in October; sit down across from each other and hammer out their differences. As of now there will be no hockey until after the New Year. There seems to be an agreement on a 50/50 split on the over $3 billion in revenue but the sticking point is the "make whole" aspect. The players want the existing contracts to be honored (seems fair to me). The owners seemed ok with that but a a memo from Donald Fehr to the players may not have included that aspect according to a an article in Yahoo Sports by Harrison Mooney. The owners are accusing Fehr of not having the best interests of the players and that he does not care about hockey. Which I find intriguing because he gets paid regardless. Settlement or no settlement he still collects his paycheck and can walk away (I don't know that this is true but Fehr's the only person to be involved in work stoppages in 2 sports. That's what he does!). Owners saying that a director of a players association not having the players best interest at heart is nothing new, especially to Fehr, but if there's anything coming from the players about Fehr it's not being talked about.
After Thursday's negotiations there was some hope about a settlement but when the dust settled on Friday...nothing. Now things could get ugly.
My personal feeling is that both sides have an overstated sense of value of their product in today's culture. It's clear that outside of Canada, no one is really too worried about the fact that there's no hockey. There's nearly 4 more months of the NFL if you count the playoffs and Superbowl so American sports fans are fine. Just when hockey was starting to gain some momentum over the last 5 years, they decide to throw it all away. More proof that both sides have little interest in "growing the game" as they do in the NBA, NFL and the MLB to a lesser degree.
Let's see what happens now. Quite frankly I have doubts about salvaging a season. Stay tuned.
So the owners & the players decided on a new tactic after doing nothing in October; sit down across from each other and hammer out their differences. As of now there will be no hockey until after the New Year. There seems to be an agreement on a 50/50 split on the over $3 billion in revenue but the sticking point is the "make whole" aspect. The players want the existing contracts to be honored (seems fair to me). The owners seemed ok with that but a a memo from Donald Fehr to the players may not have included that aspect according to a an article in Yahoo Sports by Harrison Mooney. The owners are accusing Fehr of not having the best interests of the players and that he does not care about hockey. Which I find intriguing because he gets paid regardless. Settlement or no settlement he still collects his paycheck and can walk away (I don't know that this is true but Fehr's the only person to be involved in work stoppages in 2 sports. That's what he does!). Owners saying that a director of a players association not having the players best interest at heart is nothing new, especially to Fehr, but if there's anything coming from the players about Fehr it's not being talked about.
After Thursday's negotiations there was some hope about a settlement but when the dust settled on Friday...nothing. Now things could get ugly.
My personal feeling is that both sides have an overstated sense of value of their product in today's culture. It's clear that outside of Canada, no one is really too worried about the fact that there's no hockey. There's nearly 4 more months of the NFL if you count the playoffs and Superbowl so American sports fans are fine. Just when hockey was starting to gain some momentum over the last 5 years, they decide to throw it all away. More proof that both sides have little interest in "growing the game" as they do in the NBA, NFL and the MLB to a lesser degree.
Let's see what happens now. Quite frankly I have doubts about salvaging a season. Stay tuned.
03 November, 2012
The NHL fiasco
The NHLPA has been locked out by the owners for almost 2 months. The powers that be have gone so far to cancel the Winter Classic (Maple Leafs v. Red Wings at the "Big House" in Ann Arbor). Ti be honest, it doesn't look like there will be a 2012-13 season. The weird thing is that NO ONE seems to care!
When the NFL & NBA had their labor issues, there was a lot of activity. The NFLPA was going to court and getting injunctions. The owners were going to different federal courts trying to undo anything the NFLPA had done. There was also a lot of media coverage as well. You saw players & owners looking forlorn as they walked into a hotel. Hell, baseball took a backseat to the NFL lockout. There was even a story about how Dwayne Wade yelled at David Stern during a NBA Labor negotiation. The NHL & the NHLPA seem to be content with not negotiating at all. The most recent offer was a 50/50 split of the ambiguous hockey related income, which was turned down. There's also very little media coverage about the NHL lockout, which I find even more maddening than the actual lockout itself. It shows me how little everyone seems to care about the NHL. The owners (who were all too happy to let the 2004-05 season be cancelled) don't seem to care, the players are all going over to European leagues, ESPN (who never really cared about hockey even when they used to televise games years ago. On a side note I thought Gary Thorne and Bill Clement were a great pair of announcers) doesn't report anything (of course there's not a lot to report on) and the fans don't seem to care either. About the only person who cover the NHL Lockout is Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports.
Another weird thing is that since the cancelled 2004-05 season, the NHL has enjoyed a solid 5 year run. The Stanley Cup champions have been Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. That's 3 Original Six teams, the team in the 2nd largest TV market and the team with arguably the best player at the time (Sydney Crosby). The league enjoyed record revenues after the 2011-12 season and then disaster. Both sides got out their guns and started shooting themselves in the foot. I won't go into the detail about the issues (they've never really changed since the last labor stoppage), for that you can read Cotsonika's stuff or go here.
Donald Fehr is the head of the NHLPA. If you don't remember him, he was the head of the MLBPA during the 1994 mid-season strike that led to the cancellation of the World Series. Fehr is as hardline as they come and there's a reason why the MLBPA got rid of him. Now he's seeking to ruin hockey the way he nearly ruined baseball. On the other side we have Gary Bettman, a disciple of soon to be retired NBA Commissioner David Stern. Who in his nearly 20 year reign as NHL Commissioner (Bettman came in after the 1992 NHL Strike) has had 1994–95 lockout the which had the season trimmed to 48 games & no inter-conference play. Then there was 2004–05 lockout the which lead to the entire season being cancelled! Now he's in jeopardy of losing another season! He just might be the worst commissioner in the history of professional sports. Make no mistake, there's plenty of blame to go around. The owners always seem to cry poverty and can't control their own spending (this is a key aspect of pro sports where the owners want to control costs but give out ridiculous contracts). The players take the guaranteed money and sometimes have spells of play where their effort may not always be there. Then of course there's 20 years of animosity between the players and the owners (it's true in all professional sports).
The big losers as usual, are the fans. The fans pay high prices for tickets to games (that sometime net uninspired play), they pay high prices for merchandise (yes, I have a Buffalo Sabres pillow cover) and the fans watch the games on tv. But it's the fans that suffer. The owners see the fans as cash registers. The players could probably care less about the fans. Let's not forget Jeremy Roenick's statement from the 2004-05 lockout when said that fans could "kiss his ass" in regards to hockey players being spoiled (with the exception of NFL players, most players of the NHL, NBA and MLB are).
Prior to the lockout there were a lot of things wrong with the NHL; the regular season is too long, there are too many teams (teams in markets that they have no business being in and with too many teams that leads to watered down talent) and they don't have a great television deal (I like Versus which is now the NBCSports Channel but not every cable provider offers it). Plus hockey doesn't seem to have a franchise that can polarize people the way the Yankees do in baseball or the Heat does in basketball (the closest franchise would be the Red Wings but it's not the same thing).
Anyway, the lockout doesn't look like it will end soon and both sides seem content with letting it happen. The powers that be do not seem to understand the the NHL is not the NFL. At best hockey is the 4th sport in the totem pole behind the NHL, MLB and the NBA (NFL football is far and away the best pro team sport. NBA maybe 2nd because it skews to a younger demographic than baseball). I think it's more like 5th if you throw MMA into the mix but for team sports it's 4th and it's indisputable. The NHL is in danger of becoming extinct and both sides are letting it happen. If they do come to an agreement, do they think the fans will just welcome them back with open arms (in Canada they probably will and a few markets in the US)? Doubtful. Both sides overestimated the popularity of the sport unfortunately. It took a few years for the fans to come back after the 2004-05 season was cancelled but I suspect it will take even longer this time. Quite frankly, what's to stop this from happening again when the CBA expires? There have been 2 new CBA's following the 1994-95 lockout between the owners & players and after each one expired, we've had prolonged work stoppages.
If all I have this winter is the NBA (I'm disenfranchised with big time college atheltics and can't get into NCAA hoops until March Madness) then it will be a long, dull and cold winter indeed. I guess I can always read more. Thanks for your time.
When the NFL & NBA had their labor issues, there was a lot of activity. The NFLPA was going to court and getting injunctions. The owners were going to different federal courts trying to undo anything the NFLPA had done. There was also a lot of media coverage as well. You saw players & owners looking forlorn as they walked into a hotel. Hell, baseball took a backseat to the NFL lockout. There was even a story about how Dwayne Wade yelled at David Stern during a NBA Labor negotiation. The NHL & the NHLPA seem to be content with not negotiating at all. The most recent offer was a 50/50 split of the ambiguous hockey related income, which was turned down. There's also very little media coverage about the NHL lockout, which I find even more maddening than the actual lockout itself. It shows me how little everyone seems to care about the NHL. The owners (who were all too happy to let the 2004-05 season be cancelled) don't seem to care, the players are all going over to European leagues, ESPN (who never really cared about hockey even when they used to televise games years ago. On a side note I thought Gary Thorne and Bill Clement were a great pair of announcers) doesn't report anything (of course there's not a lot to report on) and the fans don't seem to care either. About the only person who cover the NHL Lockout is Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports.
Another weird thing is that since the cancelled 2004-05 season, the NHL has enjoyed a solid 5 year run. The Stanley Cup champions have been Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. That's 3 Original Six teams, the team in the 2nd largest TV market and the team with arguably the best player at the time (Sydney Crosby). The league enjoyed record revenues after the 2011-12 season and then disaster. Both sides got out their guns and started shooting themselves in the foot. I won't go into the detail about the issues (they've never really changed since the last labor stoppage), for that you can read Cotsonika's stuff or go here.
Donald Fehr is the head of the NHLPA. If you don't remember him, he was the head of the MLBPA during the 1994 mid-season strike that led to the cancellation of the World Series. Fehr is as hardline as they come and there's a reason why the MLBPA got rid of him. Now he's seeking to ruin hockey the way he nearly ruined baseball. On the other side we have Gary Bettman, a disciple of soon to be retired NBA Commissioner David Stern. Who in his nearly 20 year reign as NHL Commissioner (Bettman came in after the 1992 NHL Strike) has had 1994–95 lockout the which had the season trimmed to 48 games & no inter-conference play. Then there was 2004–05 lockout the which lead to the entire season being cancelled! Now he's in jeopardy of losing another season! He just might be the worst commissioner in the history of professional sports. Make no mistake, there's plenty of blame to go around. The owners always seem to cry poverty and can't control their own spending (this is a key aspect of pro sports where the owners want to control costs but give out ridiculous contracts). The players take the guaranteed money and sometimes have spells of play where their effort may not always be there. Then of course there's 20 years of animosity between the players and the owners (it's true in all professional sports).
The big losers as usual, are the fans. The fans pay high prices for tickets to games (that sometime net uninspired play), they pay high prices for merchandise (yes, I have a Buffalo Sabres pillow cover) and the fans watch the games on tv. But it's the fans that suffer. The owners see the fans as cash registers. The players could probably care less about the fans. Let's not forget Jeremy Roenick's statement from the 2004-05 lockout when said that fans could "kiss his ass" in regards to hockey players being spoiled (with the exception of NFL players, most players of the NHL, NBA and MLB are).
Prior to the lockout there were a lot of things wrong with the NHL; the regular season is too long, there are too many teams (teams in markets that they have no business being in and with too many teams that leads to watered down talent) and they don't have a great television deal (I like Versus which is now the NBCSports Channel but not every cable provider offers it). Plus hockey doesn't seem to have a franchise that can polarize people the way the Yankees do in baseball or the Heat does in basketball (the closest franchise would be the Red Wings but it's not the same thing).
Anyway, the lockout doesn't look like it will end soon and both sides seem content with letting it happen. The powers that be do not seem to understand the the NHL is not the NFL. At best hockey is the 4th sport in the totem pole behind the NHL, MLB and the NBA (NFL football is far and away the best pro team sport. NBA maybe 2nd because it skews to a younger demographic than baseball). I think it's more like 5th if you throw MMA into the mix but for team sports it's 4th and it's indisputable. The NHL is in danger of becoming extinct and both sides are letting it happen. If they do come to an agreement, do they think the fans will just welcome them back with open arms (in Canada they probably will and a few markets in the US)? Doubtful. Both sides overestimated the popularity of the sport unfortunately. It took a few years for the fans to come back after the 2004-05 season was cancelled but I suspect it will take even longer this time. Quite frankly, what's to stop this from happening again when the CBA expires? There have been 2 new CBA's following the 1994-95 lockout between the owners & players and after each one expired, we've had prolonged work stoppages.
If all I have this winter is the NBA (I'm disenfranchised with big time college atheltics and can't get into NCAA hoops until March Madness) then it will be a long, dull and cold winter indeed. I guess I can always read more. Thanks for your time.
Star Wars: The Saga...goes to Disney?
George Lucas sold Lucasfilm, LTD to Disney for a whopping $4.05 BILLION!This is pretty staggering news in Hollywood. When Lucas came out with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope in 1977 it changed Hollywood forever (some may say for the better some say for worse). The short story is the Lucas shopped the idea of the film to all the studios and they all told him to get lost. Alan Ladd, Jr took a chance on the young director and 20th Century Fox would release the film. Suffice to say that after Star Wars became a big hit, all the studio execs who told Lucas to get lost soon found themselves in the unemployment line. Lucas also got the merchandising rights (at the time there wasn't a lot of movie merchandise other than shirts and posters) and it's this that would go on to fund Lucas' film empire and also got Alan Ladd, Jr fired eventually as well because the studio got ZERO dollars from the sale of all the Star Wars merchandise (believe me you when I say there was a lot of it. Since I was kid during those days I had may share of stuff for sure). Now every film that comes out has merchandising opportunities. Even a bloodthirsty killing machine like Alien for crying out loud!
Lucas stopped directing after Star Wars and would go on to become a top notch producer and innovator in film technology. In 1999 Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I won't go into a review of the film but let's just say that his 22 year hiatus from directing showed. Say what you want about the prequels, they were not as good as the first 3 films but they were entertaining and they made a pile of money.
So now Disney owns Star Wars. That means more sequels. I have mixed feelings about this. Sure I'm intrigued by the idea of how the "New Republic" does after the destruction of the Empire but without Lucas' vision, I have my doubts. On a side note there have been several post Episode VI stories in print form that are very good (I read Timothy Zahn's "Dark Force Rising" trilogy and thought it was excellent) and you can't do anything Star Wars without the blessing of Lucas. Will Disney cheapen the franchise? It can be argued that Lucas has cheapened Star Wars with the digital enhancement mid-90's re-releases and the different DVD sets but Lucas has always reinvested in his company that has brought new filming technology and better sound quality in movie theaters.
That answer that question is...it's very possible. It's Hollywood dogma to turn a successful film into a franchise and milk it for every cent it's got in it. Did we really need a Pirates of the Caribbean 4? Absolutely not, but Disney thought it could wring another few hundred million out of it. Episode Seven is scheduled for a 2015 release. Lucas will also be turning over the producer reigns to Kathleen Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy is charged with keeping Lucas' vision as the franchise heads into the future. Allegedly, Lucas has up to 12 chapters of the franchise that's he's worked on. Lucas himself said, "It's now time for me to pass 'Star Wars' on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that 'Star Wars' could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime."
I'm curious to say the least about life in the galaxy after the demise of the Galactic Empire. Does Leia get into politics? What will Luke do as the last Jedi? Does Han Solo's life get boring? Though I worry that Lucas won't be hands on. It's his vision. It didn't work out so well when Spielberg finished Kubrick's vision in AI after Kubrick died during filming. Rest assured I will give anything Star Wars a chance.
Lucas stopped directing after Star Wars and would go on to become a top notch producer and innovator in film technology. In 1999 Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I won't go into a review of the film but let's just say that his 22 year hiatus from directing showed. Say what you want about the prequels, they were not as good as the first 3 films but they were entertaining and they made a pile of money.
So now Disney owns Star Wars. That means more sequels. I have mixed feelings about this. Sure I'm intrigued by the idea of how the "New Republic" does after the destruction of the Empire but without Lucas' vision, I have my doubts. On a side note there have been several post Episode VI stories in print form that are very good (I read Timothy Zahn's "Dark Force Rising" trilogy and thought it was excellent) and you can't do anything Star Wars without the blessing of Lucas. Will Disney cheapen the franchise? It can be argued that Lucas has cheapened Star Wars with the digital enhancement mid-90's re-releases and the different DVD sets but Lucas has always reinvested in his company that has brought new filming technology and better sound quality in movie theaters.
That answer that question is...it's very possible. It's Hollywood dogma to turn a successful film into a franchise and milk it for every cent it's got in it. Did we really need a Pirates of the Caribbean 4? Absolutely not, but Disney thought it could wring another few hundred million out of it. Episode Seven is scheduled for a 2015 release. Lucas will also be turning over the producer reigns to Kathleen Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy is charged with keeping Lucas' vision as the franchise heads into the future. Allegedly, Lucas has up to 12 chapters of the franchise that's he's worked on. Lucas himself said, "It's now time for me to pass 'Star Wars' on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that 'Star Wars' could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime."
I'm curious to say the least about life in the galaxy after the demise of the Galactic Empire. Does Leia get into politics? What will Luke do as the last Jedi? Does Han Solo's life get boring? Though I worry that Lucas won't be hands on. It's his vision. It didn't work out so well when Spielberg finished Kubrick's vision in AI after Kubrick died during filming. Rest assured I will give anything Star Wars a chance.
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