Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:17:39 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Evan Weiner :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Evan+Weiner istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/what-the-wall-st-crisis-means-for-sports/86596/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST While lawmakers refine the Wall Street bailout plan, the American and global sports industries are watching closely. The fallout of Treasury Secretary Paulson's $700 billion bailout plan could determine whether or not baseball teams have the financial wherewithal to be able to pay huge money this winter to free agents such as CC Sabathia and others. One of the more interesting aspects of the federal government's $85 billion loan to save insurance giant AIG is that American taxpayers are now... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/nfl-players-association-finds-itself-at/85175/ Thu, 4 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The NFL season begins tonight, and there is no talk of labor strife or negotiations between the owners and players — even though the owners want a new collective bargaining agreement. There are three years still to go before the owners could lock out the players, or the players can strike. But this much is known: The players are in no rush to fill their association's post of executive director, which was left open after the death of Gene Upshaw. The players are now in season, and there will not... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/europe-provides-players-with-lucrative-second/84308/ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST It has been 33 years since high school, college, and the NBA had a legitimate choice when it came to where they wanted to play professional basketball. In 1975, a high school player could go to college or into the American Basketball Association. A college player could leave school early and have either the NBA or the ABA offer him a huge — by 1975 standards — pro contract. And NBA players could jump over to the ABA, and vice versa. Since the NBA's absorption of four ABA teams in 1976, players... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/for-owners-teams-are-just-part-of-the-portfolio/86124/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST It wasn't surprising when David Howard, the Mets' executive vice president for business, said on a Bloomberg Radio program, "Our vision is not to be just a successful baseball team, but to be a world-class sports and media entertainment company." The owners of the Mets, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, along with Fred's brother-in-law, Saul Katz, are looking to add a Major League Soccer franchise to their portfolio, which already includes the baseball team, the soon-to-be-opened Citi Field, and partial... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/ebersols-experiment-may-radically-change-viewing/86059/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Dick Ebersol has probably changed the way television audiences watch professional football. Earlier this year, Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, along with the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, gave the go-ahead to place the network's Sunday night football package on broadband at the nbcsports.msnbc.com Web site. In the NFL season opener on September 4, those who opted to watch the Washington Redskins play against the Giants on a computer rather than on traditional television... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/feud-brews-between-nhl-russian-khl/83986/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST It is fairly safe to assume that Russian oilman Alexander Medvedev, the founder of the new Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), is not on the NHL's most-favored people list. The KHL is actually the old Russian Super Hockey League that has been rebranded and features 24 teams from not only Russia but other countries that once were part of the Soviet Union. Medvedev's league, which is being backed many wealthy Russians, has signed one prominent NHL star, Jaromir Jagr, who is playing for Avangard Omsk... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/does-a-globalized-nba-need-its-stars-in-beijing/83027/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, has a dilemma on his hands. As commissioner — and in having a close ally in Val Ackerman, who runs USA Basketball and is a former commissioner of the WNBA — Stern probably would like to see America easily win the gold medal in basketball at the Beijing Olympics. It would be good for business, domestically. But Stern cannot get out in front and cheer the Americans on: It's not a tidy move, considering that basketball consumers in Canada, Europe, South... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/off-field-difficulties-loom-for-nfl/82561/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST John Madden once said winning is a great deodorant, as it covers up whatever internal problems a team might be having. On the national level for the NFL, Brett Favre's retirement has quickly turned into a saga; in the New York area, the decision by the ownership of the Giants to implement a personal seat licensing charge has pushed the league's real problems out of the limelight. But NFL owners do face some tough issues as training camp opens. The difficulties include a potential labor action... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/two-local-stadium-projects-face-different-futures/82174/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Now that the city's experience of baseball's All-Star Game has come and gone, is New York in a position to host a future NBA or NHL All-Star Game in Brooklyn or Manhattan? If you take Mayor Bloomberg at his word, a new arena in Brooklyn for Bruce Ratner's Nets is a go. But Cablevision's James Dolan is not playing ball with the city. In March, a spokesman for Madison Square Garden, Barry Watkins, announced that the Garden would undergo a renovation of its existing building — instead of... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/seattle-move-shows-that-fans-just-dont-matter/81593/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST In the aftermath of the deal between Oklahoma City-NBA franchise holder Clayton Bennett and the city of Seattle, which allowed Bennett to break his lease with the city's "financially inadequate" basketball arena, there is one question that needs to be answered: Why didn't fans, the very people who support professional sports, have a seat at the table? Didn't Bennett and Seattle officials consider the loyalty of the SuperSonics fans who have put their hard-earned dollars into the franchise?... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/the-birmingham-games-long-shot-city-makes-bid/81115/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The 2008 Beijing Olympiad is a little more than a month away. But one American city in the Southeast has already caught Olympic fever, and would like to host the Summer Games in 2020: The mayor of Birmingham, Ala., Larry Langford, is ready to throw the city's hat in the ring. Langford has started to put together a plan that is designed to interest the International Olympic Committee: Birmingham officials have been trying to get a football stadium built for years, and would need to construct an... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/new-stadiums-set-high-bar-for-rest-of-the-nfl/80746/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST If St. Louis loses its NFL team after the 2014 season, it can be pinned on the new stadiums being built by the Cowboys and Jets/ Giants. Since these facilities will utilize every sort of revenue-building device available to them, cities such as St. Louis will either have to scramble to find funding to upgrade its football facility or build a new stadium entirely. There are rumors that the owners of the St. Louis Rams are looking at Los Angeles as a destination in about seven years, when an... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/owner-woes-europe-on-bettmans-summer-list/80383/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, apparently isn't too concerned that Tiger Woods said that "I don't think anybody really watches hockey anymore," nor is he worried that hockey critics say the sport is at second- or third-rate levels because of the 2004-05 lockout. (He also did not have a comment yesterday in Ottawa about the ongoing threats of punishment against the Rangers by the league, as covered by Kevin Greenstein in today's paper.) Because of Sidney Crosby... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/women-owners-slowly-gaining-traction/79969/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST If you take a look at the list of the 29 classes of inductees into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, you will find one category of honorees has gone missing, in comparison to Cooperstown and elsewhere: There are no owners, team presidents, or general managers. The answer to this quandary is relatively easy: Very few women have owned sports teams. Joan Payson was a minority owner of the New York Giants baseball team; in 1957, she voted against moving the franchise to San Francisco... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/the-business-of-sport/79569/ Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST In a good many ways, what happens in the days after the Belmont Stakes is far more important to the future of the thoroughbred horse racing industry in New York than whether Big Brown won the Triple Crown. These are busy times for the New York Racing Association (NYRA), the holder of the racing franchises at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga, as the organization finishes emerging from bankruptcy by the end of June. It will also possibly get a partner in building a "racino" at the Aqueduct track... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/after-bumpy-start-nba-season-ends-on-question-mark/79078/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST This was supposed to be a season of ruin for the NBA. When referee Tim Donaghy was being investigated in a betting scandal that involved league games, there was much said and written about how the league was in dire trouble. None of that ever happened. There are still some major issues on the horizon, though. A court case that's scheduled for June in Seattle will determine where Clayton Bennett's SuperSonics basketball team will play next fall; the league is still trying to get an arena built... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/bolstering-nfl-network-top-priority-for-owners/76688/ Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 EST This is a big business week for the NFL: The Lords of the Gridiron — also known as the owners — may decide to opt out of their collective bargaining agreement with their players. At the same time, they plan to go to Washington to beg for federal relief in the form of a Federal Communications Commission ruling that the league hopes will get the NFL Network onto a number of cable systems. In the background of these two major issues is the ongoing Spygate saga — which, for some inexplicable... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/horse-racings-savior-increased-gambling/76234/ Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Before the proliferation of television in American homes back in the late 1940s and early '50s, the American sports landscape was dominated by three sports: baseball, boxing, and horse racing. Decades later, baseball still holds a dominant position in the sports spectrum, but boxing and horse racing have fallen in stature. Still, the Kentucky Derby has retained its status as one of the biggest events in sports: This year's Derby drew big television numbers, with overnights coming in with a 9.5... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/newark-a-good-backup-plan-for-nets/75898/ Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The Nets' ownership still insists it plans to play games at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn sometime in the foreseeable future. But there is now some doubt that Bruce Ratner will actually move the franchise to Brooklyn: Last week, the Newark Star Ledger reported that the owner of the New Jersey Devils, Jeffrey Vanderbeek, and the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, have held preliminary talks with Ratner and his Nets associates about moving the franchise from the Meadowlands to Newark. On Friday... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/draft-contracts-could-offer-clues-to-nfls-future/75266/ Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The contracts handed to the draft class of 2008 may provide details of the battle between owners of high-revenue teams — which include Dallas's Jerry Jones and Philadelphia's Jeffrey Lurie, as well as New York's Mara-Tisch families and Woody Johnson — and the bottom-feeders, such as Cincinnati's Mike Brown and Buffalo's Ralph Wilson, among others. NFL owners can pull out of the present collective bargaining agreement with the players on November 8, and it appears that the owners are heading in... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/olympic-protests-could-have-economic-effect/74985/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST For the chief executive officer of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, these are not good times. GE's first-quarter earnings fell nearly 6% in 2008 when compared to the first quarter of 2007. As well, he should be worried about the global disruptions of the Olympic torch relay by protestors who are voicing their discontent with China's record on human rights and its crackdown in Tibet. For Immelt, the continuing global protests are worrisome, as GE's NBC Universal division is putting up a great... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/seattle-hanging-on-to-sonics-by-thinnest/74560/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Next week, NBA owners will gather in Manhattan and tell one of their own — Seattle's Clayton Bennett — that he has their approval to move his Seattle Super-Sonics to Oklahoma City in time for the 2008–09 season. This will allow Bennett to start selling tickets, and obtain marketing partners and television and radio deals. NBA owners have not stopped a potential franchise shift since 1994, when a group that included boxing promoter Bob Arum tried to purchase the financially strapped Minnesota... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/cards-collapsed-deal-bodes-ill-for-owners/74041/ Wed, 2 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST You can't blame local owners if they did a double take when they learned that the ownership of the St. Louis Cardinals took a huge hit last week when the Centene Corporation refused a deal to become the corporate anchor of the Cardinals' planned ballpark and village project. St. Louis's new ballpark, which opened last April, was built with private funding and was supposed to be part of an urban development project led by the Cardinals' ownership group and its Baltimore development partner, the... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/subprime-crisis-sends-ripples-through-sports-world/73723/ Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST The fallout from the Bear Stearns meltdown and the drop in interest rates have not impacted sports in New York in terms of ticket sales — yet. But that doesn't mean that Mets owner Fred Wilpon; the Steinbrenner, Mara, Tisch, and Dolan families; Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek; Nets owner Bruce Ratner, and Jets owner Woody Johnson are not watching the marketplace. League commissioners, broadcast and cable television executives, and others deeply connected to the sports business also have their... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/everyone-but-the-players-makes-money-off-madness/73225/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST The NCAA men's college basketball tournament is going to generate a lot of money for a lot of people in the next three weeks, from the NCAA, to schools and conferences, to CBS, and to coaches. Seems like everyone will share in the money largess except for one group: the players who perform for fans in the arenas and in front of televisions. The CBS executives sitting at Black Rock on West 51st Street are extremely happy with their multi-billion dollar investment in the NCAA tourney. CBS has... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/to-get-yankee-stadium-game-nbc-must-re-up-nhl/72932/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST There has been much speculation that the Rangers will close out Yankee Stadium with a New Year's Day hockey game against, perhaps, the Boston Bruins, with NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol pushing for the Yankee Stadium grand finale as an NBC showcase event. There is one problem that needs to be overcome, though: NBC's deal with the NHL is done after this June's Stanley Cup playoffs, and based on the weekly ratings the NHL is generating, there is a real possibility that NBC Universal will decide... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/american-sports-may-soon-face-a-foreign-invasion/72504/ Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, had an interesting observation last Friday when he asked on his Web log: When will foreign ownership of American sports teams start? Actually, foreign ownership in American sports started in 1992, when Seattle Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan sold the baseball team to a group of Seattle-area businessmen, led by Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi, in the middle of the 1992 season. Yamauchi put up 60% of the $125 million purchase price, but major league... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/economics-behind-sonics-move-is-inconsistent/72092/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Next Tuesday will be critical, not only for presidential candidates, but also for Seattle SuperSonics owner Clayton Bennett, as Oklahoma City voters will either say yes or no to a tax increase that will provide funding to upgrade the city's 6-year-old arena and bring it to NBA "state of the art" standards. The Oklahoma City vote is the first time this year that the electorate has been asked to approve funding for a sports facility, and could become the fourth municipality to approve spending... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/global-fever-spreads-to-english-premiership/71473/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Has the globalization of big-time sports hit a roadblock? It appears that the English Premier League, one of the top soccer leagues in the world, has drawn the wrath of FIFA and regional soccer associations with its plan to start playing league matches outside of England. The EPL is trying to expand its name recognition much like Major League Baseball, which plans to send the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres to play two exhibition games in Beijing, China, on March 15 and 16; and the... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/move-to-toronto-spying-top-goodells-offseason-list/71080/ Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST This is shaping up to be a spring of discontent for the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, and his 32 owners. At least two senators and one Congressman are monitoring the business activities of the league, and there seems to be some rumbling that some of the owners want to get out of the 2007 Collective Bargaining Agreement, and may decide to opt out of the contract in November. These developments are troubling for an entity that is considered to be the best-run sports league in North... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/super-bowl-arizona-politics/70572/ Fri, 1 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The Super Bowl has returned to the Valley of the Sun but instead of the game being played in Tempe, where it was played in 1996, the contest will take place in Glendale, which is 10 miles from downtown Phoenix. NFL owners would not have rewarded Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill with the Super Bowl if Maricopa County voters hadn't narrowly approved a football stadium-spring training facility referendum in 2000. The football stadium referendum wasn't the first time that politics and the Super... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/giants-jets-helped-make-super-bowl-what-it-is/70229/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST There may have been better football games than the 1958 NFL Championship Game and Super Bowl III. But without the Giants-Baltimore Colts overtime game in 1958, and the Jets' upset of the Colts on January 12, 1969 at Miami's Orange Bowl, there might not be the annual Super Bowl holiday weekend. The Giants-Colts game on December 28, 1958, at Yankee Stadium helped launch professional football to Americans, as people sat in front of their black-and-white television sets and began watching the NFL... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/in-08-new-orleans-tops-sterns-list-of-concerns/69670/ Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST It is that time of year when the State of the Union, State of the State, and State of the City speeches are delivered. In about a month, the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, will be delivering his own assessment of how the league is doing prior to the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans on February 17. But Stern gave a little preview of what he will tell his owners and the press last week during a marketing promotion at the league's Fifth Avenue store. "Well, our finances are good and up,"... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/new-football-league-takes-aim-at-college-fans/69312/ Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The end of college bowl season is a bittersweet time for seniors, as a vast majority of them are done playing football. There are hundreds of colleges that offer football on various levels, and there are thousands of seniors who play. But only a very few of them are good enough to be drafted — and the NFL has just seven rounds in its annual college grab bag, which means only about 225 are guaranteed a glance by the 32 NFL teams. The NFL also limits its training camp roster to just 80 players... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/four-industry-legends-who-belong-in-cooperstown/68926/ Fri, 4 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST All the votes are in and counted, and the Cooperstown Class of 2008 will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 29. While there will be considerable debate on whether the voters were correct in their judgments as to what players, managers, owners and even commissioners should be honored, there are four individuals who changed the baseball industry that do not have plaques citing their contributions to the sport. Without Lou Perini, there is a good chance that Los Angeles and San... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/when-it-comes-to-sports-politicians-are-just-talk/68226/ Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST It doesn't take long for congressmen and women to get involved in sports issues. This December has seen politicians latch onto sports issues, such as steroids in baseball and the lack of widespread availability for the NFL Network on cable television. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell hardly got the words out of his mouth at last Thursday's news conference detailing his 20-month investigation into steroids and other banned performance-enhancing drugs in baseball when Reps. Waxman, a... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/cities-cant-handle-cost-of-the-nfl/67919/ Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Football is arguably the most popular sport in America, but in the past two weeks, the league has been told by both Los Angeles and Anaheim that those cities aren't interested in spending huge sums of money to build stadiums to house franchises. Also, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller have let the owner of the Vikings, Zygi Wilf, and other league officials know that it is unlikely that state legislation will... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/nfl-network-cant-beat-cable-industry/67579/ Thu, 6 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST It must be galling to the money machine that is the National Football League that it has met an opponent that keeps stopping it from gaining any yardage in its quest to get the NFL Network carried on cabble operators such as Comcast, Time Warner, and Cablevision. The NFL generally gets its way because, well, it is the NFL, and people fawn all over the league. But this time, it has run into a tough opponent: the cable TV industry itself. Cable TV's multiple system operators have balked at the... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/steroid-scandal-cant-faze-mlbs-rising-revenues/67115/ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST It is decision time in Bud Selig's office: The commissioner of Major League Baseball, along with his president and chief operating officer, Bob DuPuy, and the rest of the administrative staff, will have to figure out whether the National Football League's move of ignoring a doping trial is a prudent way to deal with the current indictment against Barry Bonds of perjury and obstruction of justice in the BALCO case, or if MLB should get involved in the process. The NFL went through its own major... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/thanksgiving-game-has-deep-roots-in-the-nfl/66835/ Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The National Football League never had any road map that led it to the financial success and status it has today. Instead, the league arrived at its station in life not because of any great planning by Chicago's George Halas, long-time owner and commissioner Bert Bell, Pittsburgh's Art Rooney, Green Bay's Curly Lambeau, the Giants' Tim Mara, or any of the other owners that populated the league from the 1920s to the '50s. In 1934, the idea of the Detroit Lions hosting a Thanksgiving Day game... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/nhl-expansion-rumors-travel-north-and-west/66435/ Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST It is widely assumed that Las Vegas and Kansas City are the next two cities in line for either an NHL expansion team, or as a location for a financially failing franchise, such as the Nashville Predators. But the owner of the Ottawa Senators, Eugene Melnyk, has a different idea. Melnyk, whose Biovail Pharmaceuticals company started in Manitoba, was recently quoted as saying that "Winnipeg could support a team, and it was a shame to see Quebec City have to move. I think there is room for more."... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/final-chapter-begins-in-sonics-vs-seattle/66094/ Thu, 8 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST For the owner of the Sonics, Clayton Bennett, the endgame has begun, as he attempts to land a new arena, funded by mostly taxpayer dollars, somewhere in the Seattle area. Bennett's pronouncement to the world last Friday — that his ownership group intends to relocate the team to Oklahoma City as soon as it can get out of its Seattle lease — was designed to get Seattle, King County, and Washington state officials to understand that Bennett and his partners are serious about getting a new place by... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/cable-deals-la-expansion-on-nfl-owners-plate/65657/ Thu, 1 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The NFL's field trip to London is now done, and while officials clearly enjoyed their venture to Britain, it is time to get back to the business of the NFL in America. This means getting a cable deal set up with the nation's largest multisystems operator, Comcast, so that the NFL Network is back on the cable giant's basic expanded tier in time for the kickoff of an eight-game package beginning on Thanksgiving. League officials are also once again kicking the tires in Los Angeles to see if LA... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/lucrative-possibilities-loom-in-europe-for-the-nfl/65249/ Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The true world series of sports is not being played in baseball this week: It's taking place in London, where the Giants and Miami Dolphins will cap off an invasion of North American sports that started with the NHL presenting two regular season games between the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings at the end of September. Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Boston Celtics went head-to-head in London Town, and as a result of these games, there has been much pushing of the NHL... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/nfls-new-hot-market-is-north-of-the-border/64892/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The owners of the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts want a NFL franchise, according to an article published last week in the Toronto Globe and Mail. With this announcement, David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski have become the third group of potential owners of an NFL team in Toronto. The chief executive officer of the Toronto Blue Jays, Paul Godfrey — who has spent the better of two decades pursuing an NFL team in Toronto — is working in cahoots with Jays' owner Ted Rogers, who also... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/dolans-problems-may-affect-prospects-of-new-msg/64401/ Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The chairman of Madison Square Garden, Jim Dolan, may be the most polarizing owner in sports today, and that could mean big trouble for him in the near future. Dolan wants a new MSG, but he may have tripped himself up by being found guilty of sexual harassment in the Anucha Browne Sanders case; by possibly going to trial in another sexual harassment suit that has been filed by a former captain of the New York Rangers cheerleading squad, and by launching an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL. All... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/nightmare-off-season-leaves-stern-unscathed/64022/ Fri, 5 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST NBA commissioner David Stern's summer of discontent is finally over. Fortunately for him, the memories of a referee scandal, arrests of players and an owner, the Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit, and Seattle's lawsuit against SuperSonics owner Clayton Bennett will not linger long into the 2007–08 basketball season. Under normal circumstances, Stern would be in crisis mode — but neither sports nor the NBA will ever qualify as a normal business venture. Stern seems to be doing fine... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/canada-gains-expansion-value-with-loonie/63509/ Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST People who follow sports don't necessarily look up currency rates. But a significant benchmark was reached last week when the Canadian "loonie" was valued at slightly more than $.99 compared to the American greenback (the loonie is currently valued at $. 99691). It is the first time since November 1976 that the American and Canadian dollars have been virtually on par. Running franchises in Canada became progressively difficult as the Canadian dollar started a free fall, and bottomed out at... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/race-is-on-for-the-2016-olympics/63037/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST It's that time again: Cities around the world have begun the biannual process of promising the greatest show on earth to the voting members of the International Olympic Committee. They'll hope that the pandering and the commitment of spending boatloads of taxpayers' dollars will pay off and they will be selected as the host city for the Olympics. Last Friday, the committee announced that seven cities have submitted an application to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Baku, Azerbaijan; Chicago; Doha... EVAN WEINER http://www.nysun.com/sports/is-a-third-ny-baseball-team-feasible/62559/ Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST Imagine a baseball playoff race involving the Yankees, the Mets, and another team anchored in northern New Jersey. The Mets or Yanks would battle with the third team, sort of like the Dodgers and Giants of the Golden Era of New York baseball a half-century ago. Those two teams played their last New York City home games exactly 50 years ago this month and then departed for California. One present-day owner thinks that it is time for baseball to rectify its mistake and get a third team in the...