My mom and my brother went to the Pens game last night and my mother was in heaven, although she (and to be honest, I) wonder how people can afford to go every night.
At any rate, go Pens and Go Stillers! If the Steelers lose I’m gonna post them singing Christmas carols every day until they win, so you better root for them.
NobodySpecial
Y’know, as much as I love the idea that hockey is coming back from the dead as far as visibility, what’s Gary Bettman gonna do if he can’t fellate Sid and Ovie on national teevee a dozen times a year?
CynDee
Any news on Ginnie and Guesley? Thread needs doggehs.
MattR
Got this link in an email today. Makes me actually like the Cleveland Browns a very little bit.
JenJen
Yay!!
Trust me, sports fans, the Pens-Caps game is the Pittsburgh game to watch tonight. Thank you, DirecTV, for giving me both NHL and NFL to toggle between, though.
Anyone wanna caption this picture of Ovie and the Caps’ physical therapist from last night’s “24/7” episode?
ETA: Also, oy, Matt Hendricks! Is that a hockey face, or what?
ETA 2: John, I’d go to so many games if I could only afford it. For me, trekking up to Columbus to see the Jackets play a team I love is a real treat, maybe once, if lucky twice, a year. The prices, they are crazy.
Can’t find the link to it, but I jotted down these numbers not too long ago, re: cost of taking a family of four to a pro sporting event:
Family of Four:
MLB: $194.98
NBA: $289.51
NHL: $313.68
NFL: $396.36
MSNBC, Source: Team Marketing Report
Cat Lady
Could it be possible for anyone to have a worse couple of weeks than the Jets organization in general and Rex Ryan in particular, the Steelers game notwithstanding? I can’t wait to see what next week brings.
Redshift
Go Caps!
lamh32
The most powerful woman in entertainment (and big time Michelle and Barack O-bot) when asked whether “the thought of Palin’s running for office scares her, Oprah Winfrey said the following:
With Oprah now going to cable, she is no longer in the hold of network audience, so she does not have to “restrain” herself like she has in the past so as not to offend anyone. She’s got her billions, she’s got her network, and she not beholden to anyone.
Anyway, I wonder if/how Sarah will respond to Oprah. Personally, I think the Quitta is not smart enough to realize that Oprah actually maligned her.
MattR
@Cat Lady: Next week you will find out that Brett Favre and Rex Ryan were trading videos.
JenJen
@Cat Lady: I have so much I wanna say about the whole Rex Ryan thing, but every time I think about it, I just bust out laughing.
It’s so much more funny than it is scandalous. I mean, so, Rex gets his freak on, apparently, but at least it’s with his wife (gasp!), and he sure seems to think his wife has sexy parts. So what, so he’s into that kind of thing, they both are, and they’re crazy about each other. Maybe next time don’t put your home movies on the internet, though?
I feel a little sorry for both of them, just because of the embarrassment, but what I really come away with is, well, I think I dig Rex Ryan even more now.
lamh32
Merry Christmas everyone at BJ. I’m gonna be in bed early today, and then tomorrow I’m off to NOLA for a quick Christmas visit, I’ll be back in DFW Monday, no internet except my Iphone.
Happy Holidays ya’ll!
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
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I give myself a B-plus.
.
.
JenJen
Oh, my, what just happened? A staffer got hit by a puck? Being helped off the ice by Ovechkin and Knuble.
@lamh32: Happy Hollandaise! :-)
danimal
After the Steelers lost to the Jets, harming my Chargers’ playoff chances, fat chance I’ll root for them again.
Go Panthers!
And if you really want to humiliate your favorite team by posting that atrocious Steeler Christmas carol video, go for it.
JPL
@lamh32: Happy Holidays to you also.
Cynicor
Season tickets probably work out to like 1/2 the cost of individual game tickets. And when your “business” buys them, they’re probably deductible. You buy the 41 game home package and then give half of them away to customers as bribes for future business.
JenJen
Fleury = awesome.
@Tom @17: Pens-Caps meet again on New Year’s Day for the Winter Classic. Just good scheduling, that’s all this game is.
Tom
The Winter Classic is tonight? I thought it was always on Jan. 1. Went to the one at Wrigley. Hawks got crushed, but I got drunk. Was a fun day.
Comrade Luke
Wasn’t there supposed to be a redesign of this place rolled out a while back? Did it get postponed due to the holidays?
Chyron HR
@Comrade Luke:
Of course there was a redesign. It’s a special redesign, though–only smart people can tell the difference. Are you sure you don’t see anything different?
Rommie
One of the theories for the NFL’s ratings is that HD televisions are out there in large numbers. I think this is helping the NHL as well, it’s so much easier to watch a hockey game in HD.
If my communist cable company offered just the HD channels as a cheaper package, I’d take it. I barely touch the SD channels anymore.
Bnut
The day Don Cherry dies is the day hockey is also dead, IMHO.
DaveInOz
A merry Antipodean Christmas greeting to the BJ family.
And a Christmas Day weather report from Melbourne. Sunshine, 28 degrees…… centigrade.
Oh, and Go Steelers!
amorphous
I don’t even know what to say about this.
jeffreyw
I like pie.
JenJen
@Rommie: I think HD did the NHL more favors than any other professional league. Hockey was never a sport that was best conveyed through television to begin with, but it’s so much easier, and fun! to watch now.
Do you have an antenna so you can pull in over-the-air channels for free on your HDTV? Depending upon where you live, you can get a lot of free channels, and there are plenty of NFL (not so much NHL) games on the broadcast networks.
Bnut
@amorphous: How the fuck does someone just come across this kind of thing????
Suffern ACE
@amorphous: The fundoshi looks too much like a thong. Also, they wear addidas. It’s hard for me to believe that the artist has actually seen a unicorn before and is just making stuff up.
amorphous
@amorphous: OMFG, there’s more.
@Bnut: I don’t know. And it scares me.
M. Bouffant
@MattR:
Bear in mind that the Cleveland Browns who typed that are now the Bawlmer Ravens.
And thanks, it forced audible amusement noises from me.
John - A Motley Moose
Meh. I’ve got the Red Wings to watch. We don’t need no steeeinking Pens/Stillers.
M. Bouffant
@Bnut:
Been a while (15 yrs.) , but hockey’s still breathing.
M. Bouffant
@Rommie:
Dunno about that. Didn’t watch much hoops when I had a 14″ telebision, but w/ a 19-incher I could actually see the ball, get a better idea of plays, yada. Surfed by some hockey a few days ago on the 40″ HD, & I could still barely see the puck.
MattR
@JenJen: I agree. Hockey and soccer are the two sports that are most improved by the widescreen format of HDTV. And hockey also gets a boost from the increased resolution making it easier to follow the puck.
@M. Bouffant: Heh. I have no idea why I typed that. I am a Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens extremist. Despite the NFL’s efforts, I refuse to concede that the team currently in Cleveland is the same franchise as the one that Jim Brown played for. As far as I am concerned, the team currently named the Cleveland Browns has never won a playoff game
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@JenJen:
Except that it’s not the cost to take a family of four to a pro sporting event. It’s the cost of taking a family of four to a sporting event, sitting in good seats, and buying a lot of stuff while you’re there. Eat before you go to the game, and don’t get overpriced, crummy food and ridiculously overpriced beer. If you want souvenirs, like caps or something, you can buy them cheaper somewhere else.
The actual cost to go to the games is a lot lower than this. For instance, the Minnesota Wild have $10 seats, which are still pretty good. I can park there for $7 bucks. Wham, family of four costs $47.
JenJen
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal: Fair enough, but it really is about the seat cost.
I’m a long-time Bengals part-season ticket holder (I know, be nice), and I also go to as many Reds games a year as I can. Reds games always seem like a better bang for the buck; the concessions are totally comparable in all pro sports but the seats are just cheaper, and the good seats are plentiful, at least in my baseball market.
I’d love to go to more NHL games, but the only game I’ve been to this year was Habs at Blue Jackets, and that was only because they had a buy one, get one deal. It still cost me $93.50 just for the two seats. Yes, they were great seats, lower level, about 20 rows up, between the blues, wouldn’t have sprung for center ice were it not for the BOGO special. But, even with the BOGO, which applied to all seating for that game, the barn felt totally empty.
It’s too much damned money per seat, in a non-hockey town to watch a non-contender. I’d compare it to my Bengals seats, but the NHL plays so many more games. At one point or another, you just have to bring the seat prices down, or contract the league, if you ask me.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@JenJen: I agree that there are a bunch of teams in a bunch of sports who currently have their ticket pricing screwed up.
MattR
@JenJen: @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal: I took great pleasure in watching the Jets run commercials after the season had started trying to sell their remaining season tickets. This is a team that used to sell its entire stadium out to season ticket holders with a 20+ year waiting list, but then they decided to add PSL’s when they opened their new stadium. It was kinda impressive watching them ruin a good thing. (And the Giants situation was not much better. They just have a bigger fan base so they were able to eventually sell out. IIRC, the Giants had actually stopped accepting names for the season ticket waiting list for the old stadium because the anticipated time to reach the front of the list was longer than human life expectancy.)
CynDee
@jeffreyw: A really good thing to like. And make. The way you do.
The world would be better if everyone had lots and lots of beautiful pie. Like Jeffrey makes.
Everybody: Make pie and give some away!
(Jeffrey, could you send some of yours to Florida? If not, the picture looks good enough to eat. Boy, have you lifted my spirits. I’m ready to BAKE.)
JenJen
Am I the only fool actually watching this Pens-Caps game in OT? I mean, sure, the Stillers are leading the #1 Draft Pickers 17-0, but still.
Helluva hockey game right here, is what I’m trying to say.
@MattR: It’s a year or so old, but this ESPN piece about the new Yankees Stadium is pretty damned enlightening.
MattR
@JenJen: I saw the replays and I am still not quite sure how Mike Green didn’t end it already. Remarkable save from Fleury.
JenJen
And Pens beat Caps in shootout. Next week’s “24/7” on HBO should be epic!
Nice job Pascal Dupuis. Go Pens!
fucen tarmal
compare the cost of a pro sporting event to the cost of going to a geezy wheezy boomer nostalgia music act. i don’t mind paying to the pens play, a couple few times a year…ain’t gonna touch many big concerts at big venues….
though at the other end of the night out spectrum, why parents pay that much for hannah miley or the jonas brothers is beyond me, except for the competition of saying your kids are going, which some folks live for, i guess.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Here’s a tip on how to afford season tickets: become a business executive.
Step 1: Become a business executive
Step 2: Purchase season tickets through the company you work with the intention* of giving them to clients, vendors and high performing employees
Step 3: Wait for ticket delivery
Step 4: Take all the premium games for yourself and family/friends and give the remaining tickets to clients, vendors and high performing employees
Step 5: Enjoy your tickets to the big games!
-*- Remember, it’s the thought that counts