Offtopic/fun » in its early stages, meaning that fan

PRO BASKETBALLDALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says his decision to revoke the credentials of two ESPN writers who cover his team was driven partly by concern that automated game reports could eventually replace human-generated content.Cuban said Monday that he banned Marc Stein and Tim MacMahon from Mavericks home games to bring attention to the issue of companies using automation in sports coverage.The Associated Press, in a partnership with Automated Insights, produces automated stories on minor league baseball but does not use the technology for most of its sports coverage. The AP has at least one reporter at all games in the four major professional sports and most major college football and basketball games.The billionaire who made his fortune through internet technology told The Dallas Morning News that ESPN had informed the club that it wouldnt have a reporter at every game and would rely on wire services. Barry Bedlan, APs sports product manager, said ESPN has relied on us for years.BASEBALLNEW YORK -- Slugger Kris Bryant, pitchers Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks, and manager Joe Maddon of the World Series champion Chicago Cubs are among the finalists for baseballs major postseason awards.The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the top three vote-getters in each category.The honors will be announced next week on MLB Network. Voting was completed by the end of the regular season.Bryant, Daniel Murphy of Washington and Corey Seager of the Dodgers are up for NL MVP. Jose Altuve of Houston, Mookie Betts of Boston and Mike Trout of the Angels are on the AL side.The AL Cy Young Award is between Clevelands Corey Kluber, Bostons Rick Porcello and Detroits Justin Verlander. In the NL, its Lester, Hendricks or Washingtons Max Scherzer.Maddon, Washingtons Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers are up for NL Manager of the Year. Clevelands Terry Francona, Texas Jeff Banister and Baltimores Buck Showalter are the AL candidates.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Toronto sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, and New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and second baseman Neil Walker were among 10 players to receive $17.2 million qualifying offers from their teams as general managers gathered for their annual meeting.Chicago Cubs outfielder Dexter Fowler and Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen and third baseman Justin Turner also received offers, as did major league home run leader Mark Trumbo of Baltimore. Texas outfielder Ian Desmond and Philadelphia pitcher Jeremy Hellickson got offers, too.Players have until Nov. 14 to accept. For players who dont and sign elsewhere, their new team loses a high selection in next Junes amateur draft and their old club gets an extra pick after the first round.Twenty players received qualifying offers last year, when the amount was $15.8 million. Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters, Houston outfielder Colby Rasmus and Colorado right-hander Chad Qualls were the only ones to accept.COLLEGE FOOTBALLCLEVELAND -- Kent State has indefinitely suspended star senior safety Nate Holley following his arrest on kidnapping charges.Portage County Sherriff Dave Doak said Holley was arrested on Friday. He posted $50,000 bond Monday and was given a court date.Holleys suspension comes one day before the Golden Flashes host No. 14 Western Michigan. Holley is the teams leading tackler.School spokesman Eric Mansfield confirmed the punishment, but did not provide any details about Holleys arrest.Holley is the Golden Flashes top defensive player, averaging 12.3 tackles per game. He leads the nation with 8.9 solo tackles per game.Holleys twin brother, Nick, took over as Kent States starting quarterback earlier this season following injuries to two other QBs.BAYLOR SEXUAL ASSAULT INVESTIGATIONSome of Baylor Universitys most prominent supporters, including a former Texas governor and the billionaire businessman whose name adorns the football stadium, called for a shakeup of the schools board of regents in the wake of the campus sexual assault scandal.The months of criticism over the response by the nations largest Baptist universitys to sex assault reports led to the firing of school president Ken Starr and popular football coach Art Briles.The Bears for Leadership Reform group says it wants to address regents transparency, appointments, conflicts of interest, structure and authority, as well as demanding more answers from the regents and the schools investigation into how it mishandled reports of sexual assaults for years.The groups leaders include Drayton McLane, whose name is on the $266 million football stadium built at the height of the programs success under Briles, and former Texas Gov. Mark White. White insisted the groups goal is not about defending Briles or the football program.MIXED MARTIAL ARTSUFC interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will serve a doping ban until next July after an arbitration panel denied his appeal of a positive test.Widely considered the worlds best pound-for-pound fighter, Jones was pulled from a July bout against Daniel Cormier shortly after news about the positive drug test.Jones claimed to have taken a sexual-enhancement pill but ended up testing positive for two banned anti-estrogen agents.The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which handles UFC testing, declared Jones ineligible. He took the case to arbitration and that panel delivered the maximum one-year suspension, saying Jones degree of fault verged on the reckless.Jones is eligible again on July 7, 2017.UFC issued a statement saying it was aware of the one-year ban, which began on July 6.Cheap Patriots Jerseys . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. New England Patriots Store . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/ . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout. New England Patriots Shirts . Argentina winger Ezequiel Lavezzi and France midfielder Blaise Matuidi scored, with star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic setting up both despite having a poor game by his high standards. Forward Eduardo gave Ajaccio the lead in the sixth minute after being set up by right winger Benjamin Andre, and the Corsican side looked comfortable in the first half, with the lively Johan Cavalli causing problems with his probing runs from midfield. Patriots Jerseys China . Mickelson barely made the cut but had the best round of the day with nine birdies and an eagle coupled with two bogeys to sit two shots behind leader Craig Lee of Scotland. Lee shot a 69 for a 12-under 204 total. "I just love the fact I am in contention and have an opportunity in my first tournament of the year here in Abu Dhabi," Mickelson said.Durham began 1992 in a state of buoyancy. For a full century, Durham had been a minor county. Now, finally, they were a first-class team. And there was always the sense that Durham were not merely the 18th first-class team, but something more: flag-bearers for the entire north-east, giving a region deprived of professional cricket an identity at last.Twenty-five years on, the club approaches 2017 in trepidation and despair. They will begin the season demoted to Division Two of the County Championship as punishment for having to receive an ECB bail-out of ￡3.8 million, and, as if that was not bad enough, they will start on minus 48 points, as well as with points deductions in the other two formats. Chester-le-Street has also lost its status as a Test match venue.How did it ever come to this?****With hindsight, it was in these heady early days that the roots of Durhams demise can be found. At the start of the countys first-class existence, two decisions were made which, together, would underpin its descent to the brink of insolvency.The first mistake was the ECBs insistence that Durham develop a Test match ground. At huge expense, Chester-le-Street, which opened in 1995, became not just a beautiful ground, but one able to host Tests. The trouble was that in 13 years of hosting Test cricket, Durham was never able to make the games pay, with the glorious exception of the Ashes Test in 2013. The rest of the time Durham were lumbered with hosting unappetising tourists at an unappealing time of year, the attraction of games further undermined by often being scheduled from Friday to Tuesday, and so effectively denying Durham any chance to sell day four tickets in advance.The consequences were dire. For all their investment, Durham only earned an average of ￡300,000 from England matches from 2008 to 2015. The average at other Test grounds was ￡1 million. The fundamental problem is that almost since day one the club has not generated sufficient revenue to cover its fixed overheads, says David Harker, Durhams chief executive. The requirement to have a venue capable of staging international cricket without then earning the required receipts from international cricket is the single biggest cause of the problem. Another county chief executive reflects: They bet the farm and lost.The second mistake was Chester-le-Street itself. The town is simply too small to have a first-class ground, let alone a Test one. Only 25,000 people reside in Chester-le-Street, which is easily the smallest of all the centres of population that are the main hosts of the 18 first-class counties. In an age when counties have to increase their non-cricket income, Chester-le-Street lacks the population to do that. The train from Newcastle to Durham is only 11 minutes. For Durham, those 11 minutes might have been the difference between being stable and almost going out of business. Our out of town situation is certainly a factor, especially for T20, Harker says. When Durham was created, no one appears to have seriously suggested that building the ground in Newcastle would have been preferable. Yet such a ground would be ideally suited not just to packing in T20 crowds on Friday evenings in high-summer, but also - even more importantly - staging corporate events all-year long.The ECBs demands when elevating Durham and the small population around Chester-le-Street were bad enough. But those two factors alone might not have proved disastrous had it not been for a third obstacle, perhaps the most potent of all. The north-easts dire economic reality has made it harder for Durham to sell tickets to fans for Twenty20 or Test matches, and meant that fans who do come are less willing to indulge in the half-dozen pints that many who go to T20s down south regard as par for the course. Lavish spending from corporates is also harder to find. In 2015, Durham brought in just under ￡600,000 in gate receipts and membership income from domestic cricket. Other Test grounds earned another ￡500,000 on top of that; even the first-class counties that dont host internationals earned ￡200,000 more than Durham.Better and more innovative marketing could have helped, but only up to a point. Ultimately, Durhams plight should be seen as part of the wider decline in north-east sport, which is itself inextricably linked to crude economics. In the Premier League in 2014/15, Sunderland had the sixth-highest attendance in the Premier League but only had the 15th-highest revenue. Last year, Sunderland finished 17th in the Premier League, yet were still the leading north-east club. Only in two previous seasons in the 128-year history of English league football has the top north-east club finished lower. Never has it been harder for sporting clubs to fight against regional socio-economic deprivation than it is today.None of this is to deny that Durham have been partly complicit in their downfall. Bidding for Tests they couldnt afford was foolhardy, even if this error highlights the ECBs original mistake in pushing them to develop a Test ground. Durham were also guilty of negligent planning over player contracts during the run of three Championships titles in six years from 2008. The club was ill-prepared for how to react when England players, including Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett, lost their central contracts. And, with hindsight, the club made poor decisions to award sizeable long-term contracts to Harmison and Ian Blackwell when they were past their peaks. For these reasons, Durham mislaid their prudence. And so, in 2012, Durham speent over ￡2 million on salaries.dddddddddddd It remains the only time that any county has breached the salary cap.Among the counties there is no little sympathy for what has happened to Durham, and a belief that the punishments meted out to them fall well beyond reasonable. Even before the ECB bail-out, Durhams ￡8 million debt was about half the average at other Test match grounds outside London. The difference is that, partly because of their revenue potential from internationals and the underlying land value of the grounds which are located in the city centre, other counties venues have been able to raise larger amounts from public bodies, in the case of Glamorgan and Warwickshire, or private benefactors, in the case of Hampshire and Yorkshire. While those counties found men - Rod Bransgrove for Hampshire, and Colin Graves for Yorkshire - to bail them out, Durham did not. The only consortium that showed an interest in buying Durham was backed by a man who the ECB privately admitted would not pass their fit and proper person test.Durham have received further sympathy due to their not-inconsiderable efforts to turn things around. By 2015 the club had shaved ￡800,000 off their 2012 wage bill. Their total player remuneration was just over ￡1.3 million - ￡200,000 less than the average for all first-class counties, and ￡350,000 less than the average in Division One of the County Championship. Given these constraints, coming fourth in Division One this year was a remarkable achievement; Durham estimate that they would have needed to reduce player salaries by a further ￡500,000 a year over the past four seasons, rendering fielding a competitive team impossible. Back-office staff costs fell almost ￡200,000 from 2013 to 2015 when Durhams total spending, just in excess of ￡400,000, was half that of the other Test match grounds. It is not as if Durham were blasé about the need to rein in spending before the ECBs bailout and sanctions.The ECB have helped counties before, of course. But, as they stressed in the press release revealing Durhams fate, the financial support given to Durham was unprecedented. The determination not to be seen as the lender of last resort underpinned the severity of the ECBs sanctions. To chief executives of a slightly conspiratorial bent - though they preferred not to go on the record - such sanctions also highlighted the counties financial dependence upon the ECB, and served to weaken their opposition to a new eight-team domestic T20 competition, from which the 18 first-class counties would stand to gain about ￡1.5 million each. The relegation was certainly avoidable, says one chief executive. This sanction was particularly bizarre. It was also pre-planned, as rumours have been circling since August. Punishing the players and supporters of Durham for the commercial failure of international cricket seems very wrong.****At this juncture, it seems unlikely that Durhams fate will be the start of a new trend. Most counties are in a far better financial position than five years ago. Even unfashionable counties have innovated - Northants regularly stage concerts, including Elton John; Derbyshires press box also acts as a university lecture theatre - to ensure their financial viability. The notion that the smallest counties are lumbered with the most debt is also fundamentally untrue. It is actually the Test-staging counties - Durham, Hampshire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire - that are in worse financial positions. Too late for Durham, the ECB has also sanitised the bidding process for international cricket, stopping counties outbidding each other, and sometimes paying far more than they could afford, to stage the most appealing fixtures. The ECB also believes that a new domestic T20 competition would raise extra cash and help shore up the financial positions of the counties. Still, the underlying irony of Durhams plight remains. Hampshire, who benefit the most from Durhams fate by retaining their Division One status despite finishing in the bottom two, are the most indebted county in the country. Without Rod Bransgroves financial backing they would face a situation every bit as perilous as Durhams.As for Durham, the club are confident that the threat to their future has now passed. But years of grim austerity loom and, perversely, in some ways the ECB have made it even harder for Durham to generate funds. Their punishment in T20 cricket, which appears insignificant set against that in the County Championship, threatens to be financially debilitating. Durham need two wins just to eradicate their points deduction; in practice this could see them knocked out of the competition in its early stages, meaning that fans will be less likely to attend knowing that chances of progress to the quarter-finals are remote.For years Durham were county crickets feel-good story. Just 22 seasons into their first-class existence, they had already won three Championships titles and the homegrown talent that underpinned the team, and is the countys raison dêtre, was at the heart of Englands success, too. Now, despite all these achievements, there appears little to feel good about for cricket in the north-east. Ultimately that is just very sad.This article first appeared in All Out Cricket magazine, which this month features an exclusive interview with Joe Root. To order a years subscription for just ￡39.99 - in time for Christmas, if thats your thing, click here . ' ' '