Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Wednesday Odds and Ends


William Safire once wrote that you should never trust a writer that doesn't stick to one theme for an article. He's right. Before writing this I slashed his tires. Anyway random thoughts on a Wednesday

And we've reached a new low
. At least that's how I'm interpreting their latest attempt to get fans to pay attention to them.
Their latest promotion will be unveiled Friday, when the Nets play the Orlando Magic. New Jersey residents 18 or older who attend the game will get a coupon that they can redeem at a Roni Deutch Tax Center to get their state income tax done free.
Yes, assuming you survive watching the Nets play, you can get your taxes done for free. Apparently Keyon Dooling bobblehead day wasn't sufficient to entice people to their urine soaked hell hole they call an arena.


The Meat Market Known as the Combine - Came and went. Do people watch this? I can think of lot's of things I'd rather watch than the NFL Combine. Well just about anything. That said the combine does hold some magic. I mean you have event that can make Jevan Snead look good. I was convinced that James Cameron, 400 billion dollars, and life size replica of the Roman Coliseum couldn't make this on field wash out look good.

3-Way. With tOSU's victory over the Fighting Alumni of Illinois the Buckeyes clinched the 3-way trophy of winning the Big 10 in football, basketball, and women's basketball in the same year. This has only been done once before but I think it was in the 1970s, coke was involved, and all parties afterwords agreed it was "a huge mistake"

96 Team Pile-Up Stewart Mandel does a very thorough analysis of the economic incentives for expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 teams. I'm with 80% of Americans that thinks it is a stupid idea. I can tell you exactly a better way to improve tv viewership for the NCAA tournament. The return of quad vision - i.e. showing 4 games simultaneously on the same screen. They used to do this (and occasionally dual vision) and yes a few people had sensory overloads and ended up thinking they were petunas but I think it's a small price for the beauty of 4 games going on at once. Bring back quad vision!

3 comments:

MJ said...

1) It's hard to tell if the Nets are promoting the tax preparation company or if the tax preparation company paid the Nets in order to get greater exposure in the New Jersey market for their business. Eitehr way, it's a silly and ill-conceived promotion that will completely fail both ends of the test. Deutch Tax Center is trying to affiliate itself with a poor brand that won't be in New Jersey much longer and the Nets are offering a promotion that has very little value beyond the next few weeks of tax season. Will Nets fans ever make the association that Deutsch was the official tax preparation partner of the basketball team? It's just a waste of money on both ends.

2) I know the NFL Network televises the combine and I'm sure that, to some NFL junkies, it was appointment television. If I had the NFL Network, I'd probably tune in for a few minutes to see what the event looked like but it's clearly not interesting enough stuff to watch on a prolonged basis. This is what the NFL Network was invented for and there's obviously no harm in the NFL trying to sell this specialized product to its core fans. I am clearly not one of them, however. Watching people do 30 reps on a bench press sounds pretty damn dull.

3) Congrats to the Buckeyes!

4) What is more American than trying to do the "New and Improved" version of every consumer product on the market, even if it's perfect already? Hollywood remade "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and is now remaking "The Karate Kid." It doesn't surprise me that some asshole wants to remake March Madness. It's idiotic and annoying but that's exactly what I'd expect from our culture.

Gutsy Goldberg said...

1) I can't believe i'm saying this... but I would go to one nets game if i lived in the area. I can't blame people for not going, but I enjoy seeing really random players. I would also be entertained to watch what kiki v. does during the games. does he ever yawn? does he ever break out a nintendo DS? does he ever start eating nachos? does he ever yell at his players with any kind of response by the players?
2) the tax promotion is indeed a waste of money.
3) i wouldn't be able to watch the combine. that's insane. maybe a results show of the combine?
4)go buckeyes!
5) i don't want 96 teams. 64 is perfect. of course the ncaa will make more money, so it is inevitable. honestly, if they go to 96, i think you mine as well just go to 128 and not have any byes. there would be some interesting cinderella stories each year. also... would this mean the brackets come out sunday, and you have to have them done by tuesday? i don't know how i'd get my bracket done if that were true.

Hitman said...

1. "Watching people do 30 reps on a bench press sounds pretty damn dull."

Depends who we're talking about. Random offensive linemen from the SEC - yeah, I agree with you. Scarlett Johannsen and Eva Longoria? Different story.

2. The four-way split screen is one of the three greatest inventions ever, along with the wheel and grilled cheese sandwiches.