You know the feeling: you’re stranded in line at the arena/stadium/field waiting to get a beer and a hot dog while your team is out there kicking butt and taking names. It’s a waste of time that one NBA team is trying to prevent with a new system that takes photos of concession stand lines and directs fans to the shortest queue. [More]
basketball
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Arguments On Possible Pay For NCAA Athletes
By 10.3.16
Nearly exactly a year after a federal appeals court ruled that the NCAA’s amateurs-only requirement violates federal antitrust laws — while simultaneously shutting down a plan to pay certain college athletes for their work — the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to not hear any further appeals in this dispute. [More]
Reminder: Free Tacos At Taco Bell Tomorrow Because The Home Team Lost During NBA Finals
By 6.20.16 — Updated: 6.12.17
Whether you’re a Golden State Warriors fan in need of cheering up or a Cleveland Cavaliers fan looking to celebrate your team’s championship win last night: there will be free tacos at Taco Bell on Tuesday. [More]
Taco Bell Will Give Away Free Tacos If Away Team Wins During NBA Finals
By 5.26.16
If your team loses during the upcoming NBA championship finals it’s going to be painful, but if they lose to the visiting team, it might hurt less if you’re also a fan of free food: Taco Bell will be giving away Doritos Locos Tacos for its “Steal a Game, Steal a Taco” promotion — but only if the away team wins. [More]
NBA Jerseys Will Carry Sponsors’ Badges Starting Next Season
By 4.15.16
Nearly four years after the NBA’s Board of Governors first gave its blessing to the notion of turning their players into dribbling and dunking billboards for advertisers, the league is finally moving forward with the idea. [More]
NCAA Final Four, Championship Game To Be Broadcast In Virtual Reality
By 3.30.16
Not everyone can shell out hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to attend the final three games of this year’s college basketball tournament. But if you have the right gear — specifically a Samsung Gear headset — you can feel like you’re in the arena all from the comfort of your own home. [More]
Timberwolves Fans Suing Over Team’s New Paperless Ticketing System
By 3.4.16
Sometimes, even the biggest sports fans can’t make it to their team’s game, for whatever reason (rain, snow, sleet, in-laws visiting unannounced) and in those cases, they might want to sell their ticket to someone else. That process has been “fundamentally, unlawfully” altered for fans of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, a new class-action lawsuit alleges, after the team instituted a new paperless ticketing system. [More]
Phoenix Suns Trying To Lure Fans By Offering Free Verizon Data With Each Game Ticket
By 2.22.16
When you’ve got seats to fill at a professional sports game and the team isn’t doing so hot, any bit of extra incentive to get fans to buy tickets can help. In an effort to lure tech-focused fans, the Phoenix Suns have partnered with Verizon Wireless to offer free mobile data with every game ticket purchase. [More]
How StubHub’s Policies Let Greedy Ticket Sellers Screw Fans Over
By 1.8.16
If you buy tickets on StubHub, they come with a guarantee, which is great. Additionally, any seller who cancels tickets after they’ve been sold could face a financial penalty for doing so. But that penalty doesn’t seem to be enough to stop the most unsavory sellers from violating the rules. [More]
Federal Appeals Court Won’t Reconsider Plan That Would Pay College Football, Basketball Players
By 12.16.15
If you’re a college athlete hoping to score some cash from your time on the basketball court or on the football field, you’re out of luck: a federal appeals court has decided against reconsidering its ruling striking down a plan to pay some NCAA athletes. [More]
Federal Appeals Court Nixes Plan To Pay College Football, Basketball Stars
By 9.30.15
A federal appeals court has ruled that colleges are violating antitrust laws by profiting from student-athletes’ names and likenesses while these same students are forbidden from receiving any money. However, the same appeals panel struck down the lower court’s plan that would have allowed NCAA member schools to pay certain athletes up to $5,000 a year in deferred compensation. [More]
FedEx Driver Figures He Might As Well Shoot Some Hoops In Home’s Driveway
By 7.16.15
Attention, delivery drivers: Though you might think it’s a good time to work on your basketball skills when customers aren’t home, they could be waiting just behind the curtains, ready to catch you in action and giggle as you miss most of those shots. [More]
Under Armour Pulls “Band Of Ballers” Shirt Amid Criticism That It Echoes Iwo Jima Imagery
By 5.18.15
Under Armour is apologizing and promising to stop selling a T-shirt dubbed “Band of Ballers” after complaints that its image of basketball players raising a hoop closely mirrored the style of the Marine Corps War Memorial. That memorial is based on a famous photograph taken of soldiers raising a U.S. flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II. [More]
PepsiCo Woos NBA Sponsorship Away From Coca-Cola After 29-Year Run
By 4.13.15
After staying married to Coca-Cola for almost 30 years, the National Basketball Association has decided to end the company’s official sponsorship of the league, and is running away with its rival PepsiCo instead. [More]
Guy Using $25K In Savings To Attend Every Knicks Game This Season “Never Thought It’d Be This Bad”
By 1.14.15
The dream of splashing out the big bucks to follow your favorite sports team around might sound like a crazy idea, but one guy managed to make the whole thing crazier by spending $25,000 of his life savings to attend every single one of the New York Knicks’ 82 games this year. The team is currently 5-35 for the season. [More]
Charlotte Hornets Offer Fans Burger With 8 Pounds Of Meat For $70
By 10.29.14
While sports fans might not always get to feast on the delicious joy that comes with winning a hard-fought game, there are always crazy concession items to focus on and take part of that losing pain away. Enter the Charlotte Hornets’ entry into insane food concoctions: A burger featuring eight pounds of meat for the bargain price of $70. [More]
12-Year-Old Girl Writes Letter To Dick’s Sporting Goods Explaining That Women Also Play Basketball
By 10.10.14
While it’s all well and good for us adults to stand up for gender equality in kids’ products, there’s something about kids themselves taking retailers to task for not giving both boys and girls a fair shake. Leading the pack of girls who aren’t about to take a boys-only view of the sports world this week is a 12-year-old who was so disappointed in Dick’s Sporting Goods for not featuring women in a recent basketball catalog, she took the company to task in a scathing, informed and otherwise wonderful letter. [More]
NBA To L.A. Clippers Sponsors: We’ve Banned Donald Sterling… Please Come Back
By 4.29.14
Yesterday, a number of high-profile sponsors cut ties with the NBA’s L.A. Clippers pending a decision from the league on how to handle the pretty awful things team owner Donald Sterling is accused of saying. Now that it’s issued a lifetime ban against Sterling’s involvement in the league, the NBA is asking those advertisers to return to the fold. [More]
