Newsday's Alan Hahn has an email exchange with Mark Cuban on the NHL lockout. And he asks the same sort of questions I asked of Cuban -- last March.
FWIW, Hahn, whose Islanders coverage for Newsday is great otherwise, is the same reporter who publishes an endless and tedious mailbag column once per month -- a feature where Hahn will address questions from readers weeks after they get resolved.
I brought the issue up with Hahn in his mailbag from February 2003:
Q: Alan, Love the mailbag, just one comment. Answering the mail only once a month means that it really piles up. That means it takes forever for you to get through it, and it takes forever for us to read it. If you answered the mail once a week, or maybe just every other week, the column would be of a more manageable length. Other than that, I love your work. Keep it up.A: Talk to the webmaster. I am a slave to his schedule. Sorry.
Since then, Newsday published a Yankees playoff blog in 2003 by beat writer Bob Herzog -- a lead that Hahn ought to follow. Not only would make his content easier to read, it would drive traffic back to Newsday's Web site every day of the week.
You'd think the paper's advertisers, who are used to getting the shaft from Newsday in other areas might be interested in that. You'd think.
Is Mark Cuban shilling for NHL owners, now? As a businessman — and more importantly, a sports major-league team owner — he knows better than anyone else that ticket prices are set to what the market will bear: “what is the maximum $$$ we can charge and still expect to fill our arena?” ….. likewise for player salaries: “what is the minimum $$$ we can pay in salaries and still keep (most of) the world’s best talent playing in our league?”