Jump to content

Horn of Gabriel

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    1034
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Horn of Gabriel

  1. Pretty much what I was saying upthread: https://theathletic.com/5346282/2024/03/16/spurs-regional-team-san-antonio-austin/

    Quote

     

    AUSTIN, Texas — For the second time in as many seasons, the Moody Center on the campus of the University of Texas became the temporary home court of the San Antonio Spurs.

    A standing-room-only crowd of 16,222 treated the Spurs’ Friday night game against the Denver Nuggets as if it were a playoff matchup. And never mind that the Spurs (14-53) were playing the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets (47-20), which are now back atop the Western Conference standings.

    The atmosphere was electric — from start to finish.

    What fun it was, even for the Spurs big men who had to deal with 2023 NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokić, looking lately very much like this season’s most valuable player.

    “Actually, it is (fun),” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said a few days ago of facing Jokić. “He’s something else.”

    “Something else” for Jokić on Friday was 31 points, seven rebounds and five assists without him playing at all in the fourth quarter of Denver’s 117-106 victory. In  the three quarters he played, Jokić gave Victor Wembanyamaanother lesson in what the Spurs rookie called “controlling the pace of the game, never being in a hurry and making his teammates better.”

    Sounds much like the description of an MVP.

    Austin proved a welcoming host to both teams as it neared the conclusion of its 2024 South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival despite Nuggets coach Michael Malone’s bemusement at having to play a game in a “non-NBA” city.

    “I don’t know why we’re here,” Malone said 90 minutes before tipoff. “I’m still trying to figure that out. But, here we are, so you’ve got to embrace it.”

    The game was in Austin because the Spurs organization is committed to embracing its fans in one of the fastest-growing cities in America. They will play a second game there on Sunday against the Brooklyn Nets to finish off what the organization calls “I-35 Series,” recognition of the highway that connects the two cities separated by about 70 miles of the heavily trafficked freeway.

    You also can call it one more intriguing aspect of Austin’s annual SXSW festival, and therein lies much of the reasoning behind the Spurs organization’s outreach to Texas’ capital city.

    What better way to shed the team’s long-standing designation as a small market franchise than to cultivate one of the wealthiest cities in one of the fastest-growing areas in the country during one of its singular events?

    “We have a market that isn’t in the top 10 in the country,” R.C. Buford, CEO of Spurs Sports and Entertainment (SS&E) told The Athletic. “When we connect our San Antonio and Austin markets we become one of the major players in the professional sports community.

    “We’ve got the fastest-growing region in the nation. Between Monterrey (Mexico), south Texas, central Texas and Austin it’s the fastest-growing economic region in North America. So, we want to come meet our fans where they are. We’ve got great fans and have a community in Austin that’s been a part of our team and culture for years.

    “It’s really just being the Bay Area — Oakland, San Jose, Santa Clara, San Francisco — that’s what this is. It’s 60 miles that separates us. How do we connect that?”

    Indeed, Golden State is the NBA’s best example of a regional franchise, one that came to San Francisco in 1963, moved to Oakland in 1971 and returned to San Francisco in 2019 with a brief stop in San Jose during an arena renovation in Oakland in 1996-97.

    The Warriors now stand as the NBA’s most stable model of success over a diverse but connected region.

    The Spurs hope to solidify their regional connection with what may well be annual I-35 week promotions. Those may not always coincide with Austin’s SXSW festival that takes place over two weeks in early March, but the organization won’t mind if they do.

    GettyImages-2079448992-scaled.jpg
     
    Jeremy Sochan of the Spurs arrives at the Moody Center before Friday’s game against the Nuggets. (Michael Gonzales / NBAE via Getty Images)

    “It’s a great opportunity for us to meet the fans where they are and expand our impact work,” Buford said. “The ability to take our Play ATX programming across Austin is an incredibly unique way to connect with our fans. To be a part of South by Southwest is a unique opportunity.

    Play ATX is a multi-year program of the Austin Parks Foundation and Spurs Give, the team’s nonprofit arm, dedicated to renovating parks and basketball courts throughout the city of Austin.

    You won’t find this weekend’s two Spurs games listed among official SXSW events. Nevertheless, the arrival of both teams at Moody Center on Friday was met with the same anticipatory buzz that accompanied SXSW musical performances by the likes of The Black Keys and Armani White, among dozens of others.

    “Austin’s a great city, and a lot going on here right now,” Malone somewhat reluctantly acknowledged. “If you like music it’s a good time to be here.”

    A Saturday afternoon game at Moody featuring the G League Austin Spurs against the Capital City Go-Go will be followed by the Sunday evening game between the Spurs and Nets. Meanwhile, various members of the Spurs family, including Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson and David Robinson, were involved in additional SXSX activities all weekend.

    There have been other so-called regional franchises in NBA history: The Kansas City-Omaha Kings, based in Kansas City, Mo., played 15 home games in Omaha, Neb., 185 miles to the northwest, for their first three seasons (1972-75) in Missouri.

    However, it is Golden State that is the true model for what the Spurs seek to become. The Warriors’ 2019 move from Oracle Arena (Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum), where they had played for 48 years, to Chase Center, put them in the geographic heart of a region that stretches from San Jose to Oakland.

    Changes in Spurs ownership over the past four years have alarmed a segment of the San Antonio populace that both envies and resents Austin. Austin’s population is now estimated to be just under a million; its metro area is around 2.4 million.

    San Antonio’s population also has increased rapidly over the past decade, now estimated at just over 1.4 million. Its metro area population, including New Braunfels, is just under 2.5 million.

    When Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Austin-based Dell Technologies, and San Francisco-based Sixth Street Partners, which manages some $50 billion in assets worldwide, bought out 11 of the Spurs’ then-22 investors in 2021, there was considerable gnashing of teeth among a San Antonio fan base concerned about what the change could mean for the long term. Sixth Street reportedly gained 20 percent of the club, Dell 10 percent, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

    Buford points to the team’s $500 million investment in its Victory Capital Performance Center, on the northwest side of San Antonio, to assuage fears.

    “San Antonio is our home,” he said. “We just spent a decade building the most exciting performance campus we could imagine.”

    Such institutional assurances likely will need to be repeated often in a greater Bexar County for which community angst sometimes seems like a way of life, especially when Austin is on the other side of any comparison.

    For proof, look no further than the “Texas Taco Wars” that erupted in 2014when a critic for an Austin food magazine claimed the capital city was home to the state’s best breakfast tacos.

    Outrage in The Alamo City was instantaneous and viral. A San Antonio restaurant worker posted a petition on change.org calling for the writer of the Austin-fawning article to be exiled from the state. Before long, then-Austin mayor Steve Adler “declared war” on San Antonio tacos. That prompted then-San Antonio mayor Ivy Taylor to challenge Adler to a “taste-off.”

    The controversy sizzled like lard on a hot comal, until it didn’t. No taste-off occurred. Both sides smoldered.

    That was then.

    The Spurs I-35 Series is now.

    In terms of connecting its San Antonio and Austin fan bases, the Spurs also have a keen interest in efforts to provide rail service between the two cities. SS&E has kept track of talks between the county judges of both Bexar County and Travis County (encompassing Austin) about revising an old Lone Star Rail District to examine the prospect.

    SS&E also is aware of an ongoing study by Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor, about the overall future of the I-35 corridor, including possible rail lines. Cisneros, who resigned as mayor in 1989 to accept a position as secretary of housing and urban development in President Bill Clinton’s administration, is considered a leading expert on the synergy of the two cities. Members of the Spurs organization already have engaged with the former HUD secretary.

    “We’ve connected with the leaders throughout our communities to do what we can to bring this mega-region together,” Buford said. “We would be thrilled to be a part of a rail system that connects our communities.”

    Remember, the “incredible mega-region” includes Mexico, where the NBA estimates there are no fewer than 30 million NBA fans. The Spurs have visited Mexico City six times, for both preseason and regular-season games.

    Buford would welcome additional Spurs games there, and perhaps a few more in other countries.

    Paris, anyone?

    “Our club has been incredibly international for the history of our club,” said Buford, whose expertise and experience internationally is nonpareil. “Playing where our fans are, meeting them at their level, is everything we’ve ever tried to do for our club.”

     

     

  2. 4 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

    I like these Austin games but I would be beyond pissed if I were still a season ticket holder and they took a game vs the defending champs and Jokic v Wemby out of the package so they can “expand their market”. The nets? Sure. But that was one of the marquee games of the season, even as shitty as the spurs played in it. 

    It's good for this Spurs fan living in Austin now ;) 

    I see it more as the Spurs laying claim to the Austin metro area for the future whenever expansion happens again to pre-empt any possibility of a discussion even starting of a new franchise in Austin, regardless of Austin's growth, size, or money.  Kinda surprised that the new arena discussions for S.A. are focused on downtown vs. on the Northside for that reason.  In the next 20 years the Austin/S.A. metro area will be even more contiguous, not quite DFW integration yet but getting there.

    I remember 25 years ago when I would drive from the N. side of S.A. (bitters/blanco area) to my apartment off of Oltorf in Austin it was 50-60 minutes max and it was all fields full of cows.  Now Austin to S.A. is 90 minutes on a good day and it's one gigantic strip mall the entire way...'

    It's kinda a good thing that Austin FC has been solidly established as a franchise in Austin first actually.  Spurs Sports and Entertainment (SSE) feels kinda mafia-esqe in S.A., like any other franchise has to kiss their ring and grant a significant ownership % or SSE will foreclose any chance they have of starting up.

  3. Fun to see Wemby in person last night.  He looked kinda dejected at times thou, some bad body language.  Probably because his team completely missed him wide open several times in a row in the 4th.

    Part of his growth needs to learn more aggression - he's very streaky with being aggressive.  There were several times where he absolutely setup in the paint with a much smaller defender - that's when you just jump and go for it, but he was looking for kick outs, cutters, and cross court passes that would get tipped and stolen.  Abuse the smaller defender when you're that deep, damn!

    Joker abused his lack of physicality several times backing him down: dribble, bump, dribble, bump, layup.  He doesn't have the size to absorb that shoulder bump.  Still you can see a vision of what he can be once he puts on some strength and armor.  My question is his body and game going to evolve like Giannis (more physical) or KD (I wanna shoot fadeaway jumpers a lot and I'm really good at it).  

    He's already a great instinctual defender with regard to his spacing and his length but hopefully Pop can coach him out of one really bad habit: he bites on fakes and jumps.  He does not need to jump hardly ever due to his size.  Especially not when someone is driving the lane and he rotates as a help defender.  So many times Denver faked and Murry/Joker just threw themselves into his chest when he was in the air and got a foul.

    IMG_1872.jpeg

    IMG_1867.jpeg

    IMG_1866.jpeg

    IMG_1868.jpeg

    IMG_1870.jpeg

    • Like 1
  4. 5 hours ago, blacklab said:

    God dammit the renewal website is a beating.

    Kept getting "unable to process your request, click here to continue", clicked on the click here, got sent to a non existent domain.

    Clicked on log out, got the same unable to process message.

    closed window, tried again, didn't work

    closed window, went to incognito mode, got one step further in the process before getting same shit

    closed that window, tried again, got through.

    I'd get fired if I built a piece of shit website like this.

     

    Got the same errors using Safari.  Switched to Chrome and it worked.

  5. On 2/22/2024 at 11:05 AM, jdhorn92 said:

    really glad we had the nuts to fire him, despite his relative success.  4-0 in Bowls, never won less than 7, no losing record, 1 10 win Season.   He was not a good rep for Texas. What an asshole. 

    Herman really was a great example of how we view coaches' results through the lens of how we view them as people.  Sark, while imperfect, bought himself some more time to get to better results this past year by showing humility, growth, and listening.  Herman cut his time short prematurely by acting a fool, being thin skinned, and not listening.

    • Like 1
  6. I'm sure the Groza and such thought that their name is worth $1M+/yr to be in the game...but guess what, nobody cares.  "Best  Defensive Player" "Best Defensive Lineman" "Best QB" etc is fine.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  7. It's coming.  The only real question is how many micro transactions/pay to win are they going to attempt to stuff in there on top of the $75 price of the game.  I'm guessing a lot and they'll push you to sign up for some kind of recurring $14.99/month fee for online play or something too.

  8. 16 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

    Why would the other conferences agree to any of this shit????

    The big 10 and SEC really do think they’re the fucking premiere league. Someone needs to tell them they’re still JV compared to the fucking NFL. 

    You can have a playoff without the Big12.  You can't have one without the SEC or B1G.  That's the leverage.

  9. Just got back.  It's good, very well executed.  It's a lot of plot ground to cover and while it drags a little in the first half the 2nd half makes up for it.  Harkonen planet felt Frank Miller-ish in how they shot it, which was fun/interesting.  Both battles for Arrakeen in part 1 and part 2 felt truncated, coulda done more here.  Austin Butler was great.  They managed to contain Christopher Walken's...Walkenness enough that it wasn't super distracting.  Florence Pugh is hot.

  10. I was right: https://theathletic.com/5306903/2024/02/28/college-football-playoff-expansion-big-ten-sec/

    A person aware of the discussions told The Athletic a 3-3-2-2-1 model would feature three automatic spots each for the Big Ten and SEC (with those leagues’ champions earning the two first-round byes, according to another source briefed on the model), two each for the Big 12 and ACC and one for the Group of 5, along with three at-large spots. Yahoo Sports first reported the specific model being discussed among administrators.

    • Haha 1
    • Rage+1 1
  11. Tapa creates...strong feelings for and against.

    For - it's fast, definitely faster than loading the web/mobile version in safari on your iPhone.  Especially moving back and forth between threads.  If you read multiple forums beyond Surly, it can consolidate them all into a single app.

    Against - it's a pain for the board to keep up with their updates, their app is notorious for bad support/crashing, tapa really wants to monetize you and serve you ads of their own or sell you their ad-free version (not sure how it impacts Surly's ad views).

    Disclosure, I use tapa on my phone and have forever.  Love it.  Don't subscribe to it and the ads don't bug me.  I've tried other solutions at the urging of various admins here and at Shaggy, mainly the web/mobile version and concluded that they all suck - they're too slow, the load time blows, there is latency/lag issues from when you click to an action occurring that doesn't exist in the app, basically everything else I've seen is a downgrade.  But to be fair, everyone says that their HTML5 app is as good as a bespoke iOS/Android app...until they launch their iOS app.

    • Like 2
  12. 19 hours ago, bullet said:

    Kind of a cowards way to do it.  Does the SEC want to look like a bunch of aggys?  Earn your spots.  Get incentive pay based on spots earned.  Maybe average over 2-3 years so it doesn't go way up and down.

    I don't like 3 guaranteed for the Big 10 and SEC at all.  What is even more stupid about that idea is that you have to do all kinds of stupid NFL type tiebreaks to figure out who #3 is.  

    With 12 teams in a 5/7 model, the SEC would average around 4 in the BCS/CFP era.  Big 10 would be about 3.5.  But it goes up and down.

    I don't disagree and don't favor that model either, just predicting what I think they'll go after.  It may be cowardly but it also gets them paid, and that is what matters. 

    We're stuck w/ 5+7 for the next 2 years and we can see how it works, then all bets are off.  But the 5 AQs is problematic.  In down years we're going to get more Liberty-type G5 entrants, or in a weak Big12/ACC when they beat up either other, their champ could be a lower ranked AQ.  I get that they want to keep some kind of stakes in winning the conference, which is why they're doing it, but we have a P2 now, not a P5.  If we want AQ make it 3, the B1G/SEC/G5 (no anti-trust!) and 9 top ranked after.  

  13. 47 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

    You are correct, even more reason to do away with CCG and maybe even drop a non conference regular season game and go back to 11.  

    The only way the CCG ever gets dropped is if the playoff $ is > the CCG $.  And the CCG generates a LOT of money directly into the pocket of the conference vs. getting a cut from the playoff.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  14. 38 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

    I still like 8.

    AQ for SEC, B10, B12, ACC champs. No byes.

    4 at large. If G5 has a team ranked above a certain point they’re in. SEC probably gets 3 bids, Big 10 probably gets 2, everyone else gets 1. Generally speaking.

    We'll never have a system with the same or fewer at large bids than we have now (4), Sankey has been crystal clear on this point.  In your model the ACC and Big12 get a much easier AQ path than the B1G and SEC.  The only way it would work would be to codify 2 bids each for B1G and SEC.  But then you're back to the limited at large spots which screws both the SEC and potentially Big12 if they have a good year.

  15. I predict the SEC/B1G push for a 3+3+3+3 model.  3 auto bids each for the top 3 B1G and SEC teams.  3 auto bids for the next 3 top rated conf champions, typically Big12, ACC, and a G5.  And then 3 at-large bids for the next 3 highest ranked that don't fit one of those first 3 (could be another SEC/B1G, ND, Big12, ACC, G5 whoever).

    That model gives a floor of at least 3 spots to the P2 conferences, with upside to get 4 or even 5 in the playoff in a hot year.  It retains access for the Big12, ACC and G5 to get at least 1 and possibly more, and ND can still enter if they're top 12.  They'll also do a rev split model like the NCAA MBB tournament where the most money goes to the most bids and who goes the furthest into the playoff.  Bottom line, most years the B1G and SEC will walk away with 70% of the revenue from the playoff.

    Does anyone know on the NCAA MBB tournament how the rev split works today exactly?  If Texas makes the final 4 they make more than if they get to the sweet 16 but do they keep all of it or is there a % to the conference?  I assume the conference takes some and the school takes some?

    • Hook 'Em 2
  16. Certainly our "endowment" at UT is more than just the Permanent University Fund (PUF) but the PUF is always going to be a massive part of it.  And the PUF money can't be spent on just anything, constitutionally it is bound to:

    Quote

    PUF bonds may be issued for the benefit of all 14 institutions of the UT System, but may only be used to finance capital expenditures – generally speaking, that means the construction or acquisition of new buildings or land, or the purchase of long term durable equipment (an MRI, for example).

    https://www.utsystem.edu/offices/chancellor/blog/understanding-puf-what-permanent-university-fund-2016-08-22#:~:text=PUF bonds may be issued,an MRI%2C for example).

  17. 1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

    Really need the ninth SEC game and for them to rebalance the A&M and Arkansas home/away years. The home schedule this year is Georgia and the six dwarves.

    I aint complaining because 1) it's worlds better than the Big12 slate we've been getting and 2) we're set up nicely to contend for the SEC championship with our first schedule.

    I really hope that we don't give up on scheduling the marquee OOC game.  Bobby was talking about how when we go to the 9 game SEC schedule we should only schedule creampuffs OOC.  Meh, I really like have the opportunity to play another helmet school home and home and go check out some new venues.  I think the first few years of the 12 team CFP will be informative.  If a P2 team can lose 2 in conference and 1 marquee OOC and still get in as 9-3 with credit for SOS, we'll get the good OOC matchups.  If that team is left out for the first two or three years for a Big12 or ACC non-champ, I think we'll see ADs schedule creampuffs to eternity. :( 

    • Hook 'Em 2
  18. On 2/11/2024 at 10:38 PM, markstanco said:


    No! I like his energy. But if you want a bunch of old people running CGD, it will die fast. Maybe the CW channel game day with andy griffin and leave it to beaver will be the bookends on your hopeful programming.

    LOL I'm in my 40's, so I guess I am an old now.  I don't care about the age of the people on CGD, I care about how stupid they are, and McAfee is 100% an idiot.  Don't care if it's an act or genuine stupidity, or if ESPN has decided that turning on dumb-mode is how to attract a majority dumb audience.  Not for me, or many others.  But I guess the WWE crowd enjoys it.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  19. 32 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:


    It was their model T. Lots of Germans put deposits on them and never got a car. The Beetle was integral to rebuilding post war Germany.

    I never got the love of VW vans. Shitty fucking vehicles. A school buddy his dad drove one. My dad thought he was likely a communist which he also categorized Plymouth owners. Anyway it was hot as shit and went about 26 mph.

    LOL why Plymouth?  1970 Cuda is commie now?

  20. 18 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

    It’s funny- there’s a lot of “weaker elements to Sarkisians regime,” and yet program trajectory looks to be at its absolute apex since what- 2004 after beating Michigan in the rose bowl?

    Pretty sure our program apex was roughly 1 year after we beat Michigan in the rose bowl in '04, and we haven't surpassed it yet.

  21. 6 hours ago, 59 Burst said:

    I’m an old guy so it’s not hate. But, as iconic as he is on GameDay, Corso should have politely retired some years ago. Give him his victory lap season and move on. 

    Watching Reese, Desmond and Herb try to prop him up when he struggles is one of the reasons I flip the channel when he gets air time. Maybe it’s my own mortality, but it is difficult to watch.

    Same, and I love Corso.  It's hard to watch and it's been hard to watch for several years.  On one hand I want the best for him and empathize, because my lived experience with my father is that once someone stop working and "loses their purpose," they can degrade very, very rapidly.  It's probably healthy for him mentally and physically to put on the suit and do all the prep even if he can't express himself verbally as he once did.  

    I'm kinda surprised that they haven't transitioned him into a Tom Rinaldi type and do packaged pre-recorded video hits of him; live shots play to his weakness.  But OTOH his strength is his chemistry with the team.  Aging sucks.

    • Hook 'Em 1
×
×
  • Create New...