Major League Baseball saw attendance decline for the fifth straight year, falling to a mere 28,198 fans per game, the lowest mark since 2003. It’s a trend that has already prompted much public hand-wringing from baseball barons and the sportswriters … Continue reading
Nobody goes to baseball games anymore. That’s the common alarmist wisdom that has become one of the overarching themes of the 2019 season, which had barely gotten underway before USA Today was declaring that MLB’s attendance slide of recent years … Continue reading
The New York Islanders owners’ plans for a new billion-dollar-plus arena complex alongside Belmont Park in Nassau County took a major lurch forward on Monday, as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to build the Long Island Rail Road station … Continue reading
Any self-respecting student of insane Machiavellian gambits should be familiar with the Madman Theory, Richard Nixon’s self-invented strategy for winning the war in Vietnam. The theory, as recounted by Nixon chief of staff H.R. Haldeman after he got out of … Continue reading
The Mets swept the so-hapless-even-their-owner-is-mad-at-whoever-made-them-this-hapless Marlins this weekend to crawl back within a game of a .500 record, but first they unveiled a Friday surprise: an email announcing that starting next Monday, fans will no longer be allowed to bring … Continue reading
Sometime in the next few days, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb—aka the guy who took Mike Pence’s job when Pence ascended to the Old Executive Office Building—is expected to sign a bill extending the Indiana Pacers’ lease in Indianapolis through 2044. … Continue reading
For sports team owners seeking new stadiums or arenas—which is to say, for sports team owners—there are certain tools of the trade at their disposal for convincing fans and politicians to support (and pay for) a new building. They have … Continue reading
The New York Islanders have had one of the odder trajectories of any pro sports franchise. Winners of four straight Stanley Cups within 11 years of arriving on Long Island as the NHL’s protection against WHA incursion into the New … Continue reading
Even as the New York Islanders confuse their fans with plans to play some home playoff games in Nassau County and some in Brooklyn, the team’s ownership has been quietly moving ahead with plans to build a new arena halfway … Continue reading
It’s not like everyone hadn’t been thinking it, but it took Tommy Pham to mention the elephant in the room. The outfielder, who one year earlier had celebrated his 6-WAR season in his first year as a starter at age … Continue reading