‘The Sun’ sets on iconic scoreboard ad

The Golf War heightens and bye, bye A’s?

Good morning, all! I hope your week is off to a terrific start.

When fans attend a Baltimore Orioles baseball game at Camden Yards this season, they will notice something missing from the big scoreboard in right field. The iconic “The Sun” sign, an advertisement for the Baltimore Sun newspaper, has been removed.

According to Peter Abraham, baseball columnist for the Boston Globe, Orioles management ordered the sign removed, because The Sun was not paying its bills to the club. Ouch! A newspaper not paying its bills (The Sun is owned by the Tribune Publishing Company, which is owned by Alden Global Capital.) is a reminder of the declining newspaper industry. Tribune also owns the Hartford Courant in my home state, by the way, and that paper is but a shell of itself.

I don’t know what it is like in your state, but in Connecticut, there is a bill before the state legislature being pushed by municipalities that would end the printing of legal notices in newspapers. Municipal leaders say these same notices can be printed on a town’s website at a sizeable savings for taxpayers. If the bill becomes law, the newspaper industry across the state would lose in total $5M to $6M annually. That’s a big chunk of change for an industry desperate for every cent.

Said the first selectman of one town:

"Newspapers unfortunately are a dying breed in the state and nation, and their circulation has diminished to the point most residents get their news online from town websites, emails and social media."

Ouch, again!

The same bill was not passed last year and representatives of the newspaper industry are lobbying hard for its defeat this session. They are giving every reason in the book why the bill should not see the light of day, except the most obvious; it would be another major revenue hit for this “dying breed.”

I still maintain many daily newspapers will follow the model of some others; printing once a week with daily updates on the website. In my hometown the once vibrant Torrington Register, which later merged with The Winsted Citizen to become The Register-Citizen, barely exists. In its heyday its circulation in a city of 35,000 was nearly 30,000. After several ownership changes, the paper is currently owned by Hearst Media. It is now published once a week with daily website updates. When Hearst announced it was switching to a once-per-week publication, there was no public outcry. Readers had long abandoned the paper, too busy getting their local news on Facebook.

The building where the paper was once produced and published was abandoned years ago and is now in decay. There is no local presence for the local newspaper. One lone reporter works from home. (Having once worked for this paper, it pains me no end to witness its death.)

The same can be said of the aforementioned Courant. There is no more physical presence for the paper in Hartford. Alden long ago left the imposing brick building on Broad St. The paper’s slimmed down editorial staff works from home. The actual paper is published out of state. How ironic, I suppose, that a paper whose editorial stance has long advocated for big government, must now be published in Massachusetts. The cost of a business to operate in Connecticut, with taxes and regulations, has become nearly prohibitive for many. But it is those fees that are needed to underwrite the big government the paper supports. Go figure.

The current, archiac newspaper model is financially unsustainable. The Sun may have set on the Orioles scoreboard, but the sun is also setting on a once, vibrant industry.

The Golf War heightens

The Arnold Palmer Invitational was held this past weekend in Orlando, FL and the NBC/Golf Channel hype machine was in full swing. Broadcast anchors Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger repeatedly reminded us we were watching the best field this tournament has ever produced. Forty-three of the world’s top 50 ranked golfers were in the event, we were constantly reminded. Hicks kept dropping the word “superstars” so much, you wondered if the PGA was giving him a bonus for everytime he used the word.

We were never told why so many top-ranked golfers were in the field for obvious reasons. Many of golf’s big names: Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia, just to name a few, have fled the tour for the rival Saudi-backed LIV Tour. LIV players do not qualify for world rankings. No mention of that by Hicks or Azinger, I am sure, on orders from the NBC and PGA censors. Hicks and Azinger are paid handsomely and when the suits tell you to hype the product at the expense of the truth, you follow orders.

Hicks and Azinger were quick to remind us how the prize money has increased substantially on the tour, again without putting the comments into context. Prize money on the PGA Tour has skyrocketed since LIV started doling out money like candy, blowing away what the tour was paying its players. It is the reason many players jumped to LIV. Now the PGA is trying to scramble by offering increased prize money to prevent furthur defections.

The PGA Tour also announced last week it will hold several tournaments next season where there will be no cut line. LIV, which already has such a policy, Twitter-bombed the announcement with several “Imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery” tweets.

The Golf War is in full swing and any attempt at negotiating a peace settlement seems years away. Just don’t expect honest coverage from the TV folk. They are cognizant of who pays the bills.

Are the Oakland Athletics Vegas bound?

I have written about this before, but it is appearing more likely the Oakland Athletics are moving to Las Vegas. The Howard Terminal Project, which would include a new stadium for the A’s, has apparently stalled. A’s braintrust recently paid another visit to Vegas, where their AAA club is located and over the weekend Oakland played exhibition games there against Cincinnati. Former big leaguer Jason Giambi, who lives in Las Vegas, says the city is ready to welcome big league baseball the way it has rolled out the red carpet for the NFL and NHL.

Now Brodie Brazil, a sportscaster for NBC Sports in the Bay area, and co-host of the A’s pre-and-post game shows on TV, seems to be less optimistic about the club getting that new ballpark in Oakland.

More than just the pitch clock is ticking in baseball. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wanted the Oakland and Tampa stadium issues settled yesterday. A $4B windfall awaits owners, who want to expand by two more teams but cannot, until the Oakland and Tampa sagas are resolved. Decision time nears.

That is it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for subscribing and have a terrific week.

SPORTSCASTER DAN