Last year, the Arizona Diamondbacks introduced the world to the D-Bat Dog, a $25, 18-inch corn dog stuffed with cheese and bacon. This year the baseball team has decided to go a more sugary route, introducing the Churro Dog, which is essentially, a churro wrapped in a doughnut. [More]
sports
Dallas Bar Owner Won’t Show NFL Games In Protest Of League’s Domestic Violence Policy
By 9.17.14
Like a unicorn kissing noses with a flying dragon, a bar in Texas that refuses to show football was, until this point, a fantastical thing that we never thought could become reality. But one Dallas bar owner is willing to risk out on all that football money to protest the NFL’s stance on domestic violence. He says he won’t show any NFL games this season until something changes in the league. [More]
Korean Baseball Team Replaces Human Fans With Terrifying Remote-Control Robots
By 7.25.14
I’ve made no attempt over the years to hide my affection for the Philadelphia Phillies. I’ve even been known to attend a few dozen games a year, but sometimes I can’t always make it to the game, or — especially when the Phils don’t have much phight in them — it’s just too depressing to slog down to Citizens Bank Park and wonder why I masochistically pay to witness brutal, almost nightly beatings. If only I were a fan of the Hanwha Eagles. [More]
Regional Sports Channels Highlight Problem With Comcast/TWC Merger
By 4.29.14
When Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal questioned Comcast and Time Warner Cable execs about how the merger of these companies would impact regional sports programming, the two cable operators shrugged it off as a silly question. But it’s not, and here’s why. [More]
20 Years Ago, Only 1 Baseball Stadium Had A Corporate Sponsor; Now All But 9 Do
By 2.6.14
When the 1994 baseball season started, there was only a single MLB stadium whose name could be considered a result of corporate sponsorship (and the company owned the team at the time, so even that is up for debate). When the 2014 season kicks off this spring, fewer than one-third of the stadiums are without a corporate name over the gates. [More]
Should Season Ticket Holder Seniority Be A Factor In Super Bowl Lotteries?
By 1.23.14
For many sports fans, having season tickets is like a marriage. It’s expensive in the beginning and maybe gets even pricier, but you know when you commit at the start that it’s a relationship meant to last a long time. And heck, maybe you’ll get to go the Super Bowl if you put enough time in and stay loyal. The marriage metaphor falls apart there, but that’s how one disappointed family felt after 50 years of having season tickets. [More]
Bitcoin Can Now Buy You Basketball And Beer
By 1.16.14
Got a bitcoin or two burning a hole in your virtual, digital pocket? There’s now one more thing you can go spend them on: it’s time to go take in a basketball game. In California. [More]
FCC Wants To Let You Watch Your Home Team’s Games At Home
By 12.19.13
Sports broadcasting: it’s both lucrative and confusing. Sometimes you can turn on the TV and watch a game that’s taking place in your own hometown, and sometimes you can’t. When you can’t, you’re part of a broadcast blackout. [More]
Minor League Baseball Team’s Funeral Giveaway Less Hilarious When Fan With ALS Wins
By 8.21.13
Minor league baseball teams will try all sorts of stunts to get attention, mostly because blogs and news outlets like to write about these wacky stunts. (Guilty as charged.) One team recently gave away a prepaid funeral to one lucky fan. That’s nice and all, but the winner was a man diagnosed a few months ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was chosen by essay contest. Essay contest? [More]
Companies Profit Off College Football Players’ Names Without Having To Mention Players’ Names
By 8.6.13
Manufacturers of licensed NCAA jerseys are not allowed to produce items with players’ names on the back, allegedly to maintain the “amateur” image of college athletics and allow apparel companies to claim they aren’t making truckloads of cash on the shoulders of scholar/athletes who receive no direct money for all the tickets and merchandise sold each year. But search results on the NCAA’s own e-commerce site shows that the organization and apparel companies make money off players’ names without having to actually mention those names. [More]
New England Patriots Offering Exchanges For Some Aaron Hernandez Jerseys Next Weekend
By 6.28.13
With NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez arrested on murder charges, some New England Patriots fans aren’t exactly happy they spent a lot of money buying an official Hernandez jersey. Thus, the team says it will allow people who purchased their jerseys through the official team store or website to refund their jersey next weekend. [More]
Cable Customers Who Don’t Like Sports File Class Action Lawsuit
By 6.20.13
Time Warner Cable in southern California has paid a lot of money for the rights to Dodgers baseball and Lakers basketball games in the last few years: $8 billion and $3 billion respectively. Exclusive sports channels that let cable subscribers watch more games are a great idea, unless you’re a customer who isn’t interested in watching sports, but who is awfully tired of watching your bill go up. [More]
Female Athletes Beware: Your Boobs Are Your Own Worst Enemy
By 3.4.13 — Updated: 3.5.13
You don’t need to tell me twice––or even once, really––that for many women who are “blessed” with a lot of mammary tissue, finding a good sports bra is a challenge. I’ve been on that hunt since approximately 1994. This ad campaign from UK lingerie retailer Nod & Wink sets out to be a saucy and funny ad for sports bras, but ultimately ends up haunting and sort of sad. [More]
NBA Opens The Door To Ads On Jerseys
By 7.20.12
While fans of sports like soccer, golf, tennis and NASCAR are used to the sight of corporate logos on competitors’ uniforms, the major professional team sports in the U.S. — baseball, football, hockey, and basketball — have generally resisted allowing sponsors to slap their brand on a players’ uniform. But that could all change with a decision announced last night by the NBA. [More]
Mend Your Busted Balls
By 2.13.12
That flat basketball or soccer ball that’s been sitting in your closet for the past few years won’t help you get back into shape in its current state. You always knew you’d repair it one day, and although today may not be that day you go through with it, at least it’s the one in which you find out how to do it. [More]
Jacksonville Jaguars Owner: If You Don't Have Season Tickets, You're Not A Fan
By 1.13.12
The Jacksonville Jaguars have traditionally had difficulty selling out home games, and the franchise is apparently so frustrated that it has resorted to insulting those who don’t buy tickets. While introducing the team’s new head coach, new owner Shahid Kahn said he’s only interested in hearing criticism from ticket buyers. [More]
NBA And Roku Wrecked My Dad's Great Christmas Present
By 1.12.12
John bought a really thoughtful Christmas present for his dad, a basketball fan: an NBA League Pass subscription, and a Roku so he could watch games on his TV instead of huddling in front of the computer. At least, this gift seemed like a really great idea until the League Pass app just stopped working. John and his dad aren’t the only ones who have this problem, but no one at Roku or at the NBA seems to care about the poor, game-less customers. They’ve already got fans’ money, after all. [More]
NBA Lockout Forces Hundreds Of Non-Millionaires Out Of Jobs
By 10.25.11
When a business entity the size of the NBA grinds to a halt, it’s the infrastructure workers who pay the greatest price. One estimate says that as many as 400 workers in the league have lost their jobs since owners started the lockout. [More]
