I've done some digging into the issue overnight, and I'll have some thoughts on it later. However, for now, I'm going to concentrate on exactly what Milbury said that kicked off the incident, and no doubt has some folks around town a little perturbed.
During the first intermission, after the Penguins had taken a 2-0 lead over Washington on a pair of goals by Sidney Crosby, NBC threw their coverage to the in-arena studio where Pierre McGuire and Milbury were reviewing the highlights from the first period -- a period that was more or less dominated by Pittsburgh thanks to some sloppy defensive play by Washington.
In any case, here's what Milbury said when he was narrating the video from the first period. The following was obtained from a video monitoring service that I subscribe to. After I retrieved the transcript, I checked it against an actual clip, one that I can't share with you because it would violate the terms of service:
What a play. What a move. Quick hands. 1-0, sets the tone. Watch the move there. Good head fake on a great pass by Malkin. Passing, shooting, scoring. He's really matured into what everybody thought he was in the draft year, the complete player. To come here and say, hey, Ovie, I'm still your Daddy here. That's special.
To say that Milbury is operating with a short leash with Caps fans is not an understatement. Given his track record and the role he's asked to play by his bosses at NBC Sports, the above crack is hardly out of the ordinary for him. Still, when you add it all together, it's not hard to understand that a significant slice of the fan base doesn't exactly have warm feelings for Milbury.
Now, does that justify what apparently took place after the game? That's another question entirely. More later.
Anyone who has been paying attention to my Twitter feed this season knows that I've been highly critical of CSNDC and their telecasts of Caps games on CSN+. Well, because that's been the case thus far this season, I only think it's fair to say thanks now that the RSN has decided to flip Friday night's Caps-Panthers game from CSN+ back to CSN-HD with Wizards-Magic.
From a note passed along by Paul Rovnak of Caps PR:
Comcast SportsNet has revised the programming schedule for their live game coverage of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards on Friday, Feb. 5.
The Capitals game against the Atlanta Thrashers at Verizon Center (7pm) – previously scheduled for Comcast SportsNet Plus – will now air on Comcast SportsNet in HD.
The Wizards game against the Magic in Orlando (7pm) will now be available to viewers on Comcast SportsNet Plus.
The folks at Bodog.com just passed along the odds for Men's 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournment in Vancouver. Unsurprisingly, Canada is the favorite to win Group A as well as the gold; Russia and Sweden are also heavily favored to win Groups B and C, respectively.
Remember, we don't dispense gambling advice here at Off Wing. But given the results of previous Olympic tournaments, the Czechs are looking awfully interesting.
Gold Medal Odds
Canada 1/1
Russia 2/1
Sweden 11/2
USA 7/1
Czech Republic 15/1
Finland 16/1
Slovakia 40/1
Switzerland 125/1
Germany 400/1
Belarus 500/1
Latvia 500/1
Norway 500/1
Odds to Win Group A of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Canada 2/9
USA 5/2
Switzerland 50/1
Norway 400/1
Odds to Win Group B of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Russia 1/3
Czech Republic 9/4
Slovakia 18/1
Latvia 400/1
Odds to Win Group C of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
2001 in Colorado: It was like 70 degrees in Denver and the West won 14-12. I think Bill Guerin had 10 goals or something and was the MVP. I also remember Thomas Dolby rehearsing "She Blinded Me With Science" the morning of the game; only the NHL would hire a guy to sing a song in 2001 that was released in 1982.
Unless of course you're NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. After all, he hired The Who, to play the Super Bowl halftime show. And when you take a look at their set list, you'll see that the most recent song there was recorded in 1978.
As for the rest of the column, he's got some pretty good ideas to liven up a moribund All-Star format. Considering how low the television ratings are at this point, I'd be up for just about anything.
Apparently, it's a lot like watching LeBron James play basketball. Here's Bill Simmons musing on the feeling he gets whenever he sees James playing in person:
If you were ever fortunate enough to have season tickets for a memorable athlete in his prime -- Gretzky, Montana, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Pedro, Koufax, whomever -- then you know exactly what this means. It's not just about the winning. It's about heading to the stadium or the park feeling like you won the lottery. It's about the buzz in the crowd, the way everyone seems like they spent just a little more time getting ready. It's about the ceiling being removed for the night. It's about the chance that, 50 years later, your grandkid or your great-grandkid will ask you, "What was it like to see HIM play every night?" ... and you'll have an answer for him. It's about the familiarity of excellence -- constant exposure to someone who's better at his job than you will ever be at anything -- and how that superiority ebbs and flows from night to night.
Here's some more footage from Saturday's "canal" hockey game. You won't see me in this footage because I'm the one behind the camera this time. More details here from John Keeley.
This kid can't get to Washington fast enough. For more, and there's plenty more, see John Keeley and Brian McNally.
And for those of you who might be keeping score, that's a pair of world titles that the U.S. has won in hockey in the past week when you count the win by the under-17 team. Something tells me that ought to provide some extra incentive in Vancouver in February.
UPDATE: How does Canada feel today. Click here to see. Thanks to the fine folks at PPP for the heads up through Twitter.
If you ever wonder why Washington Capitals fans seem to have a collective chip on their shoulder concerning how the franchise and its players are treated by the rest of the hockey world, you might want to read this passage from Ted Leonsis that appeared this morning on his blog:
Then while the league was gearing up for the wonderful Winter Classic, we went out on a crazy two game West Coast swing over New Year’s break. We were as far away from Boston as possible, weren’t we? And Mike Green was left off the Canadian Olympic team which I think was the wrong decision by their team management. I believe Mike Green is a unique and spectacular talent and one of the top D men in the NHL. We have Mike’s back. We believe in him. I know this snub will motivate Mike for the rest of the season. We as a franchise sometimes don’t get the respect we have earned yet but the only way to right that wrong I believe is to win a Stanley Cup. We get the joke. We have collective chip on our shoulder. And I guess I will be rooting harder now for the USA team and for the Russian team to light up the Canadian team at this year’s Olympic Games.
He's not the only one annoyed by the snubbing of Mike Green. On one level, I can understand that of all the hockey-playing nations in the world, only Canada could afford to leave a player as talented as Green off of their Olympic roster. Then again, it was hard not to notice over the weekend that when Don Cherry talked about the team on Saturday night, he went out of his way to point out that if any Canadian defenseman was injured between now and the start of the Games, that Jay Bouwmeester, and not Green, would be more likely to get a callup.
Over the holidays, I got an email from Mike Shwedick asking for some help from OffWing Photo on a video project he was working on. He was kind enough to give me and OWP's Allen Clark an early look at the video, and we came away incredibly impressed. With that, Allen got to work digging through our photo archive on Flickr and provided some of the images that you see below in The Caps Rap.
Wow. I think this might be a good time to remind everyone that all of the pictures at OffWing Photo are available for use for free by any independent blogger as long as you credit us and link back to the site.
UPDATE: Puck Daddy talks to the man behind the video, Andrew Bowser.
Before the start of the season, the good folks at the D.C. Pro Sports Report asked me to answer a couple of questions about the upcoming season. Now that the Caps have hit the 41-game mark, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at that Q&A to see how those predictions held up against what has transpired thus far. Click here for a look at things at full size.
Here's a better answer: trading Schultz rather than Jurcina would have made this trade a loser for Washington. Instead of Chimera being the best player in what should be looked at as a trade of spare parts, Columbus would have been getting a solid young defenseman who hasn't yet reached his 24th birthday, one whose best years in the NHL are still ahead of him. Worse still, dealing Schultz instead of Jurcina wouldn't have cleared nearly as much cap space ($660,000 less) -- which even Applebaum concluded was the actual object of the deal anyway.
As I said on a bloggers roundtable on 1500-AM a few weeks back, there are few players on this roster outside of Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom who are untouchable. Jeff Schultz certainly isn't, but we shouldn't be fooled into thinking that he is an asset without value. And if Columbus GM Scott Howson asked Caps GM George McPhee to include Schultz in the deal rather than Jurcina, I'm sure McPhee's answer was no, not at the price you're offering.
UPDATE: Lindsay just sent the following email that I thought was important to share:
Hey Eric,
Well, uh, thanks for linking to the Caps chat, though you did spell my first name wrong. Just to clear things up after reading your blog post, I was being entirely sarcastic and jokey about my Jeff Schultz comment. The tone of these chats and our own guidelines for them allows for that. Clearly, it came across as something different and unfunny, which is unfortunate and precisely why I am an editor as opposed to a writer.
Your post was fair and at all not off-base. As long as that stuff isn’t personal – which it often is – I can take it. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I’m reading.
Thanks (no, really),
Lindsay Applebaum
Sports | The Washington Post
First of all, sorry to Lindsay for getting her name wrong, which I've since corrected. And no, this stuff isn't personal, it's opinion. No harm, no foul and thanks for reading.
Perhaps I'm getting too sensitive, but it was hard not to notice that ESPN.com misspelled Chris Clark's name last night when it posted the following link.
Somebody call a copy editor.
And in case you missed it, here's another one that J.P. dug up.
The folks at CSNDC have kindly asked me to host a live chat during tonight's Caps-Devils game. Click here to join the chat at 7. Hope to see you there.
The Washington Capitals just issued the following statement regarding the status of left wing Alex Ovechkin:
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin suffered an upper-body strain in Sunday evening’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and his status is week-to-week, the team determined Monday.
Ovechkin, the NHL leader in points (23) and goals (14) and the league’s Second Star of the Month for October, is expected to miss the fifth game of his five-year career on Wednesday at New Jersey. He has only missed two games due to injury in his first four seasons.
“We have to buckle down,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said earlier Monday. “A goal a game he scores, so we got to play better defense and cannot allow four or five goals a game. You have to win 3-1 and 2-1 and if you get lucky sometimes make it a 4-2 game. I think we have enough character players who understand what we will have to do without Alex.”
Ovechkin played just 7:43 of Sunday’s overtime loss to Columbus and was held without a point for just the third time this year. He was examined and treated by the team’s medical staff and underwent an MRI exam on Monday.
The two-time reigning most valuable player will travel with the Capitals this week to continue to receive medical treatment.
David Donovan, the Redskins' chief operating officer, disputed Powell's analysis, saying that team records show a 12 percent dip in merchandise sales, which he said was understandable in a down economy.
Donovan also said that the team hasn't detected a significant decline in fan loyalty and that the team's attendance figures are accurately gathered by bar-code scanners at the turnstiles.
"I think the relentless negative coverage in The Washington Post is a real difference from previous years," Donovan said. "But in terms of the way our actual fans are behaving, we don't see any difference."
Just a few hours later, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis dispatched the following advice to the Obama Administration concerning their dispute with Fox News. But as I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the Redskins weren't the actual target of his advice:
Can you ever take on the media and blame them for your troubles?
I don’t think so.
Just look. Fox News ratings are way up. The President’s approval ratings are way down. Is it any wonder then that Fox News is hyping their disagreements with the White House? ”Oh woe is me. Watch what we do that has the White House so afraid of us.”
By talking about the media or a specific outlet, it only increases their value. And it diminishes you.
Sports teams that blame the media for their troubles are no different.
So what's the ultimate solution? According to Leonsis, "[J]ust win. The rest will take care of itself."
Theo Fleury Speaks Out on ESPN’s E:60 ESPN's award-winning primetime newsmagazine E:60 will feature a revealing interview with former NHL star Theo Fleury in the episode airing Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. ET. The program, which launched in October 2007, combines investigative reporting, in-depth profiles of intriguing sports personalities and features on emerging star athletes. These stories are presented in a fresh and innovative format that incorporates producer/correspondent meetings.
When he slid in jubilation after scoring an overtime goal in the 1991 Stanley Cup playoffs, Fleury produced an iconic image. Off the ice however, the hockey player careened out of control as he slid deeper into addictions of alcohol, cocaine, gambling and women. With the release of his new book, Fleury reveals the source of his demons: a two-year period of sexual molestation by Graham James, his junior hockey coach, beginning when Fleury was 14. In a U.S. television exclusive, Fleury speaks with E:60’s Jeremy Schaap about the shattering effects of the abuse and hiding the truth for 25 years. Fleury’s revelations come over 12 years after Sheldon Kennedy, who is interviewed by E:60, rocked Canadian hockey by accusing James of being a pedophile. In 1997, James pleaded guilty and began a jail sentence for molesting two players an estimated 350 times.
Normally ESPN provides a preview clip of interviews like this one, but Hall told me that this one was shot too late. "They are scrambling just to get the piece ready to air tomorrow night," said Hall.
Now, take another look at the video clip. If what happened there isn't clipping, I don't really know why the rule is in the book at all.
So how did clipping wind up in the rule book in the first place? You need to go back to the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where Darcy Tucker took aim at Michael Peca during Game Five of the first round series between the Islanders and the Maple Leafs. Though the hit, one that changed the course of Peca's career, was legal at the time, the league later used footage of the incident as a textbook case of what constituted clipping:
So I'll write it again just to make sure I'm clear: If the Scuderi hit can't be considered clipping, why is it even in the rule book?
UPDATE: Aaron Brenner from Kings Vision has put together an extended highlight reel of the hit and the postgame reaction:
Here's the moment everyone in the NHL is going to be talking about in the morning: Willie Mitchell's clean, but devastating hit on Jonathan Toews in Chicago on Wednesday night as the Blackhawks hosted the Canucks.
The hit, which came with the Canucks trailing 2-1 in a game that they eventually won 3-2, has already been talked about as the turning point in on NHL On The Fly: Final, especially as the hit came straight out of a shorthanded situation for Vancovuer, with Mitchell making the hit right after coming out of the penalty box. Certainly, the hit was textbook clean, despite the fact that it left Toews stunned and stumbling. Mitchell led with his shoulder, didn't target his opponent's head and his skates never left the ice. Toews head was down and he was skating on train tracks. I know in the past others have commented on hits like this one with the admonition that you, "need to keep your head on a swivel." In this case, truer words were never spoken.
UPDATE: It's important to point out that the Blackhawks retaliated against Mitchell in the immediate aftermath of the hit and the refs stopped play, something which resulted in wiping out a Vancouver scoring chance. Though the Canucks would get a power play out of that fracas (a Kris Versteeg double minor was served by him and Patrick Kane), Mitchell, who never committed a penalty, was sent to the box for roughing. Go figure.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I recorded this game to DVR, but I'm only getting to it now. On the ensuing power play after the Mitchell hit, Dave Bolland delivered a very nasty slash to Henrik Sedin's wrists. It was easy to tell it hurt, because Sedin let out a yelp that was picked up by TSN's microphones. I shouldn't have, but I laughed when I heard it. Now I feel shame.
Via Twitter, Andy Sorensen of Minnesota passed along the following question in the early morning hours: "Am I a bad bf for sitting the gf down on our anniversary Sat night and having her watch her 1st hockey game (Canucks/Leafs on HNIC)?"
Dear Andy,
Introducing your significant other to one of your passions is a lot like shooting the puck on net: it's always a good idea, it's just that depending on the situation, it might not always be your best option. With that in mind, I still need to know some other information in order to fully answer your question. Did you ask her to watch the game as part of a number of activities that you could enjoy as a couple? If so, and watching the game serves as a way to wind down from a special evening together, the request is perfectly reasonable. After all, if you're going to have a future together, she'll be watching many hockey games with you, just as you will be sharing many of her favorite activities as well.
If however, as I suspect from the tenor of your tweet, you gave your significant other no choice but to watch the hockey game, I'm afraid that trouble may be brewing. Though this anniversary might not mean much to you, it may very well mean quite a bit to your girlfriend. If that's the case, "sitting her down" to watch the game could be interpreted as a sign that your relationship isn't all that important to you, or, alternately, that your wants and needs will always come first.
If so, while this was a mistake, it need not be fatal. Simply sound out your girlfriend, give her a chance to express her anger/disappointment/untrammeled rage, apologize and find a way to make amends by making more appropriate plans.
Sincerely,
Captain Off Wing
P.S. The Canucks and the Leafs play twice this year. If you really need to see them play one another, get a DVR, or just wait it out until January 30, 2010 when the Maple Leafs host the visiting Canucks on Hockey Night in Canada. Alternately, you could just ignore my advice, in which case you just might be watching that second game alone.
UPDATE: Andy sends along the following note: "Thanks. Upon further debate (and after a nite of sleep), I'm retracting the idea. Leafs suck, and besides, apple picking's more romantic." Bravo.
No matter how much money the league is getting from Versus, shutting out a good chunk of the country from seeing games like last night's shootout in Chicago isn't helping the league grow the game. One more time: the NHL needs to work a little harder to get these parties back to the negotiating table.
Those of you who were able to watch the Philadelphia Flyers defeat the Washington Capitals 6-5 in overtime earlier this evening know that you were treated to one barn burner of a hockey game. When we look back at this season next Spring, there's little doubt in my mind that tonight's game will be considered one of the most exciting matches of the 2009-10 NHL regular season.
It's just too bad that millions of NHL hockey fans in the U.S. -- and potential fans for that matter -- didn't get a chance to see the game because it wasn't carried by DirecTV.
Up until this point, the cost of the dispute between DirecTV and Versus wasn't completely evident. But the fact of the matter is that the NHL has structured its contract with the fledgling sports network to give it a series of marquee matchups over the course of the season in order to boost its ratings. It's a schedule that's loaded with the league's best teams and biggest stars, and the NHL has done its level best to make sure that -- at least in the lower 48 -- there aren't any other games competing with the Versus schedule.
On opening night, when the Caps easily handled the Bruins in a 4-1 victory, it didn't seem like we were missing much. That's over now, and the cost the game is paying for this ridiculous dispute has become all the clearer.
As much as the league might not want to step into a dispute between two of its broadcast partners, I don't think it has much choice anymore. They need to broker a deal, and they need to get it done sooner rather than later.
Olie Kolzig snags one of his 18,233 saves. Photo by Allen Clark.
I'm not sure anyone was shocked to hear the news yesterday that former Washington Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig had decided to retire after 14 seasons in the NHL. As Kolzig admitted in an interview with Comcast SportsNet's Russ Thaler yesterday, his body had begun to betray him, and it was simply time to face facts and move on to the next phase in his life.
So now, after 19 years, a good relationship has finally gone bad. And like a lot of relationships, it was really over well before any official announcement. Did Kolzig deserve better? Was ownership insensitive? Did Kolzig, who is still one of the most respected professionals in the NHL, take the low road in the middle of the season when he should have sucked it up and been a team player? Is he letting his ego get in the way of him taking on a reduced role with the team just as it begins to enjoy the fruits of its rebuilding program? That same ego, mind you, helped him become a Vezina Trophy winner in the first place.
You could make any of those arguments and find a way to make them right. But in the end, only a few players get to say goodbye the way Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman bid farewell to the game.
And like a lot of relationships, I'm sure one day the resentment Kolzig feels for management will fade. There's little doubt the night will come when Kolzig will stride to center ice with his family in tow to hear the Washington fans cheer for him one last time as his sweater is raised to the rafters beside Dale Hunter, Yvon Labre and Rod Langway.
But that day is not today. Today isn't right or wrong. Today is just bad.
That sad day is now firmly in the rear view mirror for both Kolzig and Caps management, which means we're that much closer to the night where Kolzig will get that one final ovation. In the meantime, here's hoping Godzilla enjoys the statr of a well-deserved retirement.
The fine folks at the DC Pro Sports Report asked me to fill out a questionnaire on the upcoming Washington Capitals season, and I was happy to oblige.
1. Will the Capitals three-peat as Southeast Division Champs? If not, will they make the NHL playoffs?
Barring significant injuries, the team will repeat as SE Division champs.
2. Do you foresee a Washington Capitals Stanley Cup appearance this season?
The potential is there. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will be the major roadblocks.
3. If and when will youngster Semyon Varlamov wrestle the starting goalie spot from Jose Theodore?
Since he became head coach, Bruce Boudreau has always gone with the hot hand in net. At the same time, he's not just going to hand this job to Varlamov, the kid is going to have to win it. If Theodore manages to keep the job out of camp, I can't see Boudreau letting him have two bad games in a row before going back to Varlamov. Theodore will have to play the best hockey since his MVP/Vezina season in Montreal to keep the job.
4. Seems each year there is a surprise offensive player? Who would you project to be that player this season for the Caps?
If I already knew it wouldn't be a surprise, would it? Then again, it would be nice to see Eric Fehr break out and justify the high pick that was spent on him. Some of the stats I've seen on him based on production/ice time seem to indicate that the potential is there.
5. What player or type of player do you think the Caps need to make the push to win the Stanley Cup?
A lot of folks have bemoaned the loss of Donald Brashear, but every team in the NHL could use some more sandpaper along the boards and in front of the net. Washington is no different.
6. What impact do you think 2008 first rounder John Carlson will make this season with the Caps?
Washington is playing the long game in terms of player development. They didn't rush Karl Alzner last year, and they won't rush Carlson this year. He'll see some time with the big club, show plenty of promise, but will probably top out somewhere around 25-30 games.
7. Finally, predict the Southeast Division in order from top to bottom.
The rest of the teams in the division have show some incremental improvement, but not enough to upset the top two:
1. Washington
2. Carolina
3. Atlanta
4. Florida
5. Tampa Bay
I don't doubt Botta's sources and I don't doubt his enthusiasm for the Lighthouse Project, the redevelopment plan that Islanders owner Charles Wang believes is necessary for the team to stay on Long Island.
I don't doubt that keeping the Islanders where they are is what NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wants too. After all, despite the team's woes on the ice -- they haven't won a playoff series since 1993 -- this is a franchise that won four Stanley Cups, won 19 straight playoff series and put five players, a head coach and a team executive in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Moving a franchise with that sort of pedigree is not a headache Bettman wants, especially if he wants to avoid larger questions about the financial viability of the NHL and other franchises.
And, finally, I don't doubt that losing the Islanders would be a tremendous blow to Long Island's civic pride. I should know, as I grew up about a 10-minute car ride from the Nassau Coliseum and rooted for that team as a child. When it comes to big media in New York City, they had little reason to report on anything going on in the suburbs on Long Island, but even the big shots in Manhattan had to pay attention to the region when the Isles were piling up Stanley Cups while the Rangers were well into their fourth decade of playoff futility.
But the question I haven't seen too many people ask is whether or not the Lighthouse deal is a good one for the taxpayers of Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and New York state. Yes, I've read plenty about how the project will create construction jobs and become a magnet for ancillary economic development. But as Will Leitch pointed out in his excellent piece over at New York about how there isn't any reason to get rid of the Meadowlands, we always hear those arguments:
Giants Stadium cost just over $70 million (financed by bonds backed by state racetrack proceeds) in 1976. Many new stadiums are publicly financed by selling the myth—and it is a myth—of utility and profitability down the line.
The reality, on the other hand, is that building arenas and stadiums to support sports franchises are a luxury -- and it isn't obstructionist to ask whether or not it's a luxury that municipalities can afford, especially in light of competing priorities during a serious economic downturn that has pushed government budgets at all levels to the absolute limit.
That's not an idle question for me, as my entire immediate family still lives in my hometown on Long Island. While I was growing up there, it was impossible to go a few weeks without hearing my parents, neighbors and parents of my friends complain about the tax burden there, one that's always been among the highest in the nation.
I'll admit one thing: I don't know the answer to that question, which is properly up to the local officials and taxpayers on Long Island. In my heart, I hope they can get a deal done. Unfortunately, my head suspects that paying the price to keep the NHL on Long Island might come at the expense of other public priorities. Keep your fingers crossed.
Over the weekend, I was sorry to read the news at the New York Times that NYI Point Blank, the operation started by former Islanders PR head Chris Botta with the support of the team, was facing an uncertain future. While I was never a fan of Botta's blog box, his achievements at Point Blank were undeniable, and I was happy to cast my vote for him for the Unsung Hero Award given earlier this year by the Hockey Barn Writers Association.
To make a long story short, after a year, the team has decieded to scale back its financial support, and Botta told the NYT he has yet to secure the sort of sponsorship he'll need in order to continue. As most free agent bloggers already know, the work most of us do is a labor of love, one where the returns are mostly intangible, even though there are notable exceptions like David Pinto at Baseball Musings who have managed to make it a business on their own.
But it isn't just independent bloggers who are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to make a profit in the online content business. On the same day Jeff Klein's piece on Botta and Point Blank ran in the NYT, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was passing along the following story at Blog Maverick:
This summer, in response to the changing sports media landscape, I wanted to create a “media pool” for the Mavs. I wanted to assemble a group of unpaid interns that would acquire video, write game reports, track unique stats, do interviews, interact with fans, and then compile all of this incremental media and provide it free to any and every outlet we could think of. If a middle school newspaper or website wanted up to the minute Mavs reports, check. We had em. Social networks ? All the content you need. Of course we would update our Mavs.com, mavswiki.com, friends.mavs.com websites and offer the content to any and every blogger out there.
The good news is that we would create fresh content and make it available in realtime. Call it “Event Driven” media. The bad news is that there was no way we were going to be able to charge for it. Nor was there any assurances that we could generate enough traffic for the content that we could reasonably believe that we could earn any advertising revenue. In fact, it probably would have cost us more to try to sell advertising via ad networks (contracts, monitoring, reports) than we could recoup in ad revenues.
Given we were lightyears from this being a self sustaining business, and that with the economy in the shitter we didnt have excess financial resources to subsidize this effort, I decided to use unapid interns.
Ouch. If the owner of a team can't make it work financially, it's hard to think of who might actually be able to make a go of it.
