Via ESPN

Via the AP:

Jon Gruden has agreed to a multiyear contract to stay at ESPN, suggesting he won’t be returning to coaching anytime soon.

The Super Bowl-winning coach’s name was bound to come up about any job openings after this season. He was fired by the Buccaneers in January, then joined ESPN as a “Monday Night Football” analyst.

That is bad news for football fans everywhere. Not because Gruden won’t be coaching, but because that means we’re stuck with boring game calling on MNF for some time to come (which includes his cohorts).  And that just adds to boring (Al) AND moronic (Cris) Sunday Night Football. Not to mention the joke called the NFL Network (which I do not know a single person in Indianapolis who has that channel anyway because the NFL thinks it’s worth far more than it is).

And what’s up with these guys and the spelling of their names? Did they both get hit one too many times and lost an “h” somewhere?

“ESPN’s second annual College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon — featuring 12 consecutive live college basketball games in 24 hours Tuesday on ESPN — will include extensive coverage across the ESPN platforms to celebrate the beginning of the 2009-10 season. ESPN games will tip off every two hours, starting at midnight ET with Cal State Fullerton at UCLA.”

I somehow missed this one last year, but the idea sounds interesting. I’ll have to pass on those middle of the night games though.

Monday night network television is lackluster, but we have our Monday Night Football on ESPN.  If I hear mention of the “wild cat” I might have to mute the TV.  Or for those of you into eating or drinking games, this might be your perfect opportunity.

House & Heroes look to be your best bets if you’re going to skip the opening kickoff. Also, Food Network has a new episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives which you can record and/or catch later.

8-9pm

1. Heroes (NBC) – 04×05 – Hysterical Blindness
2. House (FOX) – 06×05 – Instant Karma

8:30-11:30pm

1. Monday Night Football: New York Jets at Miami Dolphins (ESPN)

10-10:30pm

1. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Food Network) – 07×08 – Barbequed, Baked, and Brined

There are also MLB playoffs and NHL hockey on tonight as well.

Thursday night, the best night of Network Television, is on it again.  The largest audience will probably be watching The Office hour long wedding episode.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX) – 05×04 – The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
2. Flash Forward (ABC) – 01×03 – 137 Sekunden
3. Community (NBC) – 01×04 – Social Psychology (30 minutes)
4. The Vampire Diaries (The CW) – 01×05 – You’re Undead To Me

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX) – 02×04 – Momentum Deferred
2. Supernatural (The CW) – 05×05 – Fallen Idol
3. The Office (NBC) – 06×04 – Niagara (1) (30 minutes)
4. The Office (NBC) – 06×05 – Niagara (2) (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Nebraska vs. Missouri on ESPN from 9:00PM-midnight (Eastern) and the inaugural UFL (United Football League) game on Versus from 9:00PM-12:30AM (Eastern) featuring California Redwoods (coached by Dennis Green) vs. Las Vegas Locomotives (coached by Jim Fassel).

Monday night network television is lackluster, but we have our Monday Night Football on ESPN.

House & Heroes look to be your best bets if you’re going to skip the opening kickoff. Also, Food Network has a new episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives which you can record and/or catch later.

8-9pm

1. Heroes (NBC) – 04×04 – Acceptance
2. House (FOX) – 06×04 – The Tyrant

8:30-11:30pm

1. Monday Night Football: Green Bay at Minnesota (ESPN)

10-10:30pm

1. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Food Network) – 07×07 – You Can Say That Again

I almost spaced that NHL season kicks off tonight on Versus with a double header featuring the Washington Capitals vs. the Boston Bruins followed by the San Jose Sharks vs. the Colorado Avalanche. Ever since the strike and ESPN ditching hockey coverage (for bowling & poker, both of which are activities, not sports) it’s just been hard to catch games, especially my Avs. It looks like they’re actually showing games twice a week now, which is an improvement. I only wish they still streamed games every night of the week like they did when they picked up the NHL.

Yet another sports related ban of Twitter.

Via ESPN:

Coach Mike Leach said Monday he has banned his players from using Twitter after one of his linebackers noted the coach’s tardiness to a team meeting in a tweet Sunday, one day after the Red Raiders lost 29-28 at No. 12 Houston.

According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, linebacker Marlon Williams asked on his Twitter account why he was still in a meeting room when “the head coach can’t even be on time.” That tweet has been deleted and his page no longer exists.

Leach said players don’t need Twitter or Facebook. He called them “stupid” distractions.

“I think that a guy who plays college football gets enough attention,” he said. It’s “a bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time. We’ll put mirrors in some of their lockers if that’s necessary but they don’t have to Twitter.”

While I agree that Twitter & Facebook are often distracting, the sports worlds’ take on it is quite paranoid if you ask me.  But of course, according to Coach Leach, I’m one of the most  narcissistic people on the planet. I blog, I podcast, I tweet & apparently I even peddle narcissism by encouraging and enabling others to do so as well.  I guess if nothing else I can add another title to my repertoire.

Thursday night, the best night of Network Television, is on it again.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX) – 05×03 – The Plain in the Prodigy
2. Flash Forward (ABC) – 01×02 – White to Play
3. The Vampire Diaries (The CW) – 01×04 – Family Ties

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX) – 02×03 – Fracture
2. Supernatural (The CW) – 05×04 – The End
3. The Office (NBC) – 06×03 – The Promotion (30 minutes)
4. Community (NBC) – 01×03 – Introduction To Film (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Colorado vs. West Virginia on ESPN from 7:30-10:30PM (Eastern) and the NHL season kicks off on Versus with a double header featuring Washington vs. Boston followed by San Jose vs. Colorado.

Via ESPN:

Officials from what will be known as Arena Football 1 said Monday they will have 16 teams ready to play in 2010, including three in former Arena Football League markets: Chicago, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. The Arizona Rattlers and Orlando Predators played in the old AFL, but the Chicago team will be new to Arena Football 1.

The league will also have teams from the AFL spinoff, arenafootball2, as well as at least one team from another indoor league.

Commissioner Jerry Kurz said it would be a “brand-new league” not connected with the AFL or af2.

“There has been arena football before,” said Kurz, a former af2 commissioner. “It’s been done well but not as good as it’s going to be done this time.”

The few years that we had the Indiana Firebirds here in Indy I absolutely loved it. I was sad when the franchise went belly up and am disappointed that we’re not in the running for a team at the moment. While it’s not the NFL by any means, it is still football and is very entertaining.

I do have one complaint about the new version, and that would be the name.  With the “1″ slapped on the end it just sounds silly. Sort of like how I always get a chuckle when I see “First Baptist Church”, “Second Baptist Church”, “First First Baptist Church”, etc.  If you can’t secure the old name and/or want to differentiate it, rename the baby.

And I do have one concern.  If the old model failed, I’m not sure how they’re going to pull it off this time around.  The argument seems quite similar to what has happened to minor league hockey in recent years.

Here in Indy we had the major league Indianapolis Racers (WHA) in the 1970′s (the first professional team of Wayne Gretzky) which soon went belly up. Then through the years we just kept going down a rung (Indianapolis Checkers (CHL), Indianapolis Checkers (IHL), Indianapolis Ice (IHL), Indianapolis Ice (CHL) & the Indiana Ice(USHL)) to the point we’re left with inferior Junior Hockey which they charge minor league prices for.  Average attendance last year was 3,364.  The average attendance for the recent CHL years was 4,700. And going further back, I don’t have exact numbers in front off me, but I recall the IHL attendance averaging somewhere around 6,000 with many sellouts when we played the Fort Wayne Komets (who have an amazing fan base as far as attendance goes).

All of that hockey history to say, the further down the talent ladder you go, history goes to shows (at least in this city) that attendance suffers.  Which makes perfect sense and can even be said of our professional teams.  While the USHL doesn’t have to worry about that quite as much since they charge the same prices as minor league but don’t pay the players, the same cannot be said of Arena Football (in any form).

And for comparisons sake, the four year attendance average for the Indiana Firebirds was 10,833.  And the Indiana Fever’s average attendance was under 8,000 via the last numbers that I saw.  And of course the Indiana Pacers attendance is higher than both of these, but down in recent years.  And guess what? All three have claimed to be losing money at some point (as have the various minor league hockey teams).  The Pacers losing money makes perfect sense due to poor player decisions (including horrendous buyouts) and fans boycotting them by not buying tickets and merchandise.  But for the others to be losing money would lead me to believe that there are other factors involved since player expenses are far less.  Sure, the draw would have something to do with it, but an average attendance of close to 11,000 sounds pretty darn good to me (if the average ticket price was $15, which is a low figure, that would equate to $165,000 per home game).  After expenses that might not be much, but throw in a good turn of merchandise and refreshments on top of your sponsorships and you should be doing pretty good.  But then again, I’ve lived in Indianapolis my entire life and can say we’re a fickle bunch overall, so maybe things are different elsewhere.

With all of that said, I do wish the new Area Football League luck and sincerely hope you’ve come up with a good business model that can make money while delivering a solid product.