Why I just went LONG 1000 YHOO in my IRA

Normally I don't invest, but, I saw an opportunity here.

The main factor I attribute to this buy is the education I have received recently, specifically from Ted Leonsis, though not anything to do with YHOO and GOOG.

There is a dynamic currently in place where things with scale, any scale (and especially some kind of scale with people who have and spend money) are increasing in value even as scale is being reduced. Whether it's ABC, NBC or CBS, or MLB, NBA and NHL, it doesn't matter. "Share" may be going down, but valuations are going up.

I take this to mean that YHOO, even as the #2 has so much scale that unless it completely screws up, ultimately (thinking 5 years) it will appreciate in value considerably even as it loses "share".

Think I'm wrong? Maybe I am, but it's a dynamic that's already in place and one way I can show that is the television Networks. ABC, CBS and NBC lost 2/3rds of their "share" during primetime between 1995-2006 seasons. All 3 combined now have the share they each once had. Even adjusting for inflation, and even though I don't know the specific valuations I'm comfortable thinking the values of these networks has…not decreased.

I suspect the same thing to happen w/Yahoo. But if I'm wrong, I won't blame Ted.

update: think "Lowest Rated NBA Finals in History" matters? Not to the NBA or the networks it doesn't, it just got 20% MORE in revenues...I know it's counter-intuitive at first, but, 20% more is 20% more and there's just no getting around that.

NBA announces extensions of TV deals with ESPN/ABC, TNT
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/28/2007 01:50:29 AM MDT

NEW YORK - The NBA's new television contracts with ESPN/ABC and TNT include rights to technologies that have yet to be invented, an indication of the importance the deals place on newer forms of media. The eight-year extensions go through the 2015-16 season.

The current six-year contracts expire at the end of next season. ''I consider this to be a wonderful vote of confidence by our very sophisticated network partners who are making such a substantial and long-term commitment,'' NBA commissioner David Stern said. The number of games televised on the networks won't change much. What's different are the extensive rights for the networks to broadcast games and other content on the Web and mobile phones.

The NBA will receive about $930 million a year for all its broadcast rights, an increase of more than 20 percent from the previous average of $767 million, according to a person familiar with the deal who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release details. The previous contracts, though, did not include the extensive digital media rights. Stern said the traditional TV rights still are worth more than the digital rights. ESPN/ABC and TNT will each be able to simulcast and offer video on-demand for games on its networks. Stern and network executives downplayed the league's declining TV ratings, insisting there is still plenty of demand for NBA-related content through other forms of media.

Bud Selig is a Liar: Why I love Ted Leonsis and Mark Cuban

A little background for those of you who don't know me is in order. I am definitely in the statistically small group of people who knew who Mark Cuban was before he was a billionaire or knew who Ted Leonsis was before he was en route to becoming a billionaire (he's not there yet, but it's on his list of things to do) and owned all or parts of the Washington Capitals (NHL), Washington Wizards (NBA) and Washington Mystics (WNBA). Both Mark and Ted were very good to me going back some 10+ years now. One thing I love in my recent contact with these guys is that fame and success did not seem to change the overall makeup and drive of these two men.

I am grateful to both of them because at a time when I had a little bit of fire in my belly they took the spark and poured some gasoline on it and for me personally that's an extraordinary lovely thing.

Lying goes on all around us. We're lied to constantly. Interestingly as Ted and Mark both own sports franchises… Well think about this, as of a year ago, Mark had been fined $1.6 million dollars (that's probably more money than I have ever had at once)by the NBA. Why? He was fined for what he said, which was, an honest portrayal of how he felt. He was fined $1.6 million dollars for being honest. The league seems to believe that honesty is NOT the best policy for the NBA. I actually don't have strong feelings on David Stern or the NBA, certainly not in the way Cuban or Leonsis probably would.

I don't really know the inner workings of the NBA enough to comment on the inner workings of it or well enough to comment on whether David Stern is a person who acts with both the best interests of the NBA and integrity. It seems to me like he does, but I don't know well enough.

But I know enough about baseball, it's inner workings, psychology, values, etc., to know the following: Bud Selig is a liar. The owners and the management of the San Francisco Giants are…liars. Bud Selig is lying about Steroids. Yes, I said lying about it. And if he wishes to take me to court for slander, fine. All Selig can hope for is that by the time all of the "what did he know and when did he know it" comes out, that he'll be gone. He's playing the game of "musical chairs" and basically what Bud is probably hoping for is that by the time the music stops he's not around even LOOKING for a chair anymore.

This game works this way. The American public is in denial about how much we really like the results of steroids (I am not in denial about this at all, but sometimes I wish I still was!). The truth is, especially given the costs of attending this stuff, we want our professional athletes to be SUPER human. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa AND Barry Bonds delivered. We the fans like the results, the owners liked the results, and Bud Selig liked the results. You could say that there was so much covering of eyes, ears and mouths by Selig and ownership (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil), BUT there was also so much steroid usage that there's no way they got through this period without seeing or at least hearing about someone getting a needle jabbed in their butt. I'm not talking about last year or the year before either. I'm talking 1998-2002 when it was going on, everyone more or less knew it and then looked the other way.

Human nature is that when the stakes are high, people will cheat. This is why Jason Giambi cheated. And why, not only after he got caught (via leaked testimony – and the guy who leaked it is going to JAIL – I'm thrilled about that, probably the biggest smile of the week for me!!!) for steroids, he got caught for amphetamines (greenies) just last year. But Giambi came out with the truth:

I was wrong for doing that stuff. What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said: `We made a mistake.' We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. ... Steroids and all of that was a part of history. But it was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it."

Although Giambi is a confirmed cheater, he is, in my opinion, absolutely correct about this. Here's how Selig is handling this: he's pressuring Giambi to cooperate with the steroids investigation: name some names or I will suspend you (more or less).

If Hank Aaron wants to be upset with Barry Bonds, I don't have any issue with that at all. But Bud Selig? Please. You knew Bud, and you looked the other way and did nothing. But then you're the kind of guy who would say, "Yeah, I'm an owner, but just go ahead and make me the commissioner!" We already knew right there this is a man lacking in integrity. But it made a lot of people a lot of money and produced a product people wanted to pay for. Everyone was really happy about this: the owners (they made tons of money on this), the players (they made tons of money – and much more with performance enhancements) and the fans, who couldn't eat it up fast enough.

But Bud is a lying hypocrite, so are the owners, and really so are most of the fans. Giambi did tell the truth in that quote above, that's exactly how it is. But once again, your kids are subtley getting the message: honesty isn't the best policy and cheating works – whether you're a player, the owner or the commissioner. It's a bad message to send. Giambi told the truth and the negative reinforcing feedback is, "Whoever told you honesty was the best policy, was lying!"

I love that there are guys like Cuban and Leonsis out there: again, they aren't perfect, but they aren't motivated to cheat and lie due to the stakes being high. They aren't perfect, but in a world massively lacking it at times, these two gentleman have some integrity, and that's something I value very much.

As for steroids, I think this ultimately will hit the NFL hardest of all. We haven't anywhere near begun to hear the last of it. Sorry Mr. Goodell.

Homework from Ted Leonsis and No, I don’t Think Roger Goodell is a “Poor Sap”

After a spirited email exchange with about 25 volleys, Mr. Leonsis did convince me not to overvalue the Nielsen Ratings for sporting events when it came to trying to correlate that to anything(other than the number of people who tuned in).

Then he gave me a book recommendation: The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Market Place. He told me he thought that was the kind of stuff I ought to be writing about.
By page 20, I was inclined to agree with him. The book combines so many things I love:


· Capitalism
· Psychology
· Sociology
· Philosophy
· Research/Science
· Fun with Numbers (data)
· and SPORTS!

While the Nielsen Ratings for NHL games are definitely bleak relative to NFL, MLB and NBA, what’s happening with the NHL is all part of a bigger trend. It may look worse for the NHL ratings wise (at least in terms of the Stanley Cup), but it’s all part of the same overall trend. All kinds of entertainment and “free-time” choices are available, and many of them don’t involve the television at all. The free-time itself is in limited supply.

The NBA, and MLB have certainly seen ratings declines. NBA Finals with scores like 75-72 aren’t helping with the ratings. We like scoring, just like we like home runs (I won’t go off into the steroids rant here) we want to see Lebron score 50 points and even if they lost 127-112, we’d like that better. 75-72 isn’t attractive to the casual fan.

The NFL faces the same challenges. The Super Bowl will probably remain golden for a long, long time though. It’s just a hunch, but the Super Bowl – that’s not about “football”. That’s about a national holiday to have an excuse to get drunk and have a party on a Sunday. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, only better because there’s gambling, square pools, etc. We’re not giving that up any sooner than we’re giving up St. Patrick’s Day.

But here’s the thing. My brain couldn’t really process it at first because it seems so counter intuitive to me. The NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL will continue to experience lower ratings vs. the glory days, and mostly, the ratings aren’t going to come back. I know the NFL will try to squeeze out Brady vs. Manning in primetime wherever it can and it has the challenge of making more of its personalities interesting to the public in ways that don’t involve arrests for possessing 6,000 semi-automatic weapons.

Yesterday I said Tagliabue was a genius for getting out when he did, and that poor sap Roger Goodell was about to not know what hit him. I didn’t really mean that. They say do what you love, and you can’t go wrong, and sometimes I just love being a jackass. I said that the % of the Cincinnati Bengals arrested would be the least of his worries.

In truth, I believe Goodell’s focus is correct. Specifically because at a time when your fan base is bound to erode somewhat no matter what you do – and it will because “free-time” is limited, but the number of choices we have to fill the free-time keeps growing and growing – you absolutely do not want to have your players modeling behavior that risks alienating a fan base that was already bound to erode. It’s like pushing them out the door. I like his focus. And I like that Pacman “make it rain” Jones will not be suiting up for a single game this year.

But here’s the thing that’s counterintuitive. Despite the eroding fan bases and television ratings, the actual value and health of these leagues can continue to grow anyway, provided it’s managed well.

While even the NFL can’t escape the fan erosion, they of ALL the leagues are best positioned to really rake it in despite the erosion. Managed well, the MLB, NBA and NHL (yes, the NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE – there, I said it) can all do the same, albeit on a smaller scale. It was true 20 years ago and it is still true today. Even with record low ratings.

As for “record low Nielsen ratings” – breathe it in! We’re in a trend to hear that phrase applied to many things. Not just NHL, or NBA finals – it’s already hit the evening news. Katie Couric is taking the heat for that, but really, it’s all part of the same game – limited free time, more choices, more record low ratings. For just about everything really.

But for now and the foreseeable future, television will be a very powerful medium, but with fewer and fewer things that have the capability to bring in massive # of people. That makes the NFL worth…more than it has ever been. Even with eroding ratings. I am not worried about Roger Goodell, and he is no poor sap.

I predict a follow up to the book The Elusive Fan. It will be: The Elusive Viewer: Reinventing Television in a Crowded Marketplace. The beauty of it is, they could just do a find and replace to randomly replace all the “sports” terms with television terms and as is – this book would be more valuable to TV executives than anything they’re reading in Variety. Or, they could just read it as is.

The Brave New World Where Everything is Fragmented

Of course complicating things even further, not all the players involved are all that brave. I’ve seen this happen before (think about a newspaper industry that was once booming that can now often not give away free newspapers). We were all talking about that stuff in the mid ‘90s and it has certainly come to pass.

Think about this: the Sopranos, the most influential drama (especially considering it wasn’t on a broadcast network) probably of the last 20 years. It drew about 11.9 million viewers on Sunday, making it only the 4th most watched episode ever. Number one was the 2002 season premier (13.4 million).

I’m still not quite sure that the NHL is really in better shape just because franchise values are up. It’s true that the multiple is the multiple (and right now that multiple seems to be 3.5x revenue). But it’s also true that: the multiple is the multiple, until it isn’t.

But what’s going on with the NHL, the NBA and the Sopranos is the EXACT same problem: limited free time in a world of burgeoning choice. It wasn’t that the Sopranos got significantly worse since 2002 (it was already starting to wane by then in my estimation), it’s that momentum for the fragmented world is accelerating and getting more and more fragmented all the time.

So let me be the first person I know to say this: (I’m not sure anyone else hasn’t, and I ‘fess up, I didn’t google it, because I didn’t want to know):

Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is a GENIUS. Like Mark Cuban genius in terms of timing. He got out when the going was good. This poor sap Roger Goodell is about to not know what hit him. He’s worried about the Cincinnati Bengals % arrested – and while I don’t blame him, that’s going to be the least of his worries. The one thing that’s held on pretty steady is the NFL’s ratings clout. But their ratings too are eroding and it’s going to get worse, not better. And this is regardless of anything the NFL and the networks are doing in terms of packaging the product itself. It’s just math. It’s inevitable because of that math (limited free time, more choices, with choice escalating constantly).

I think of at least three things the NFL could or should be doing to stave this off (they can’t stop it, but they can optimize for the fact it is occurring), but don’t appear to be doing at all yet. This doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about it, but I believe they probably are not thinking about it enough. Mr. Goodell, I may be reached at robert dot seidman @ gmail dot com. I’ll give you the three ideas for um… $3.8 million.

How I got Schooled By Ted Leonsis ( Why the NHL ain’t dead, even though the Ratings Suck!)

Robert Seidman ©June 7, 2007

Many people ask me about my confrontational style and approach and while I primarily attribute this to genetics, it’s an approach I embrace very much because it’s quite often the best way for me to learn.

We live in a wonderful world where Robert Seidman – an out of work blogger – can actually “confront” a guy like Ted Leonsis (a man with a net worth after taxes of over $100 million, who owns an NHL franchise and part of an NBA franchise).

Fortunately, Ted doesn’t have any problem with the confrontation and so for me, the out of work blogger, there is a great opportunity to think and learn. And learn I did. Because I was wrong and Ted was right.

Yesterday at about 2:45pm PDT when I was watching ESPN’s PTI and listening to Kornheiser absolutely rail on the NHL about its abysmal ratings (“if Bettman looks at these ratings and says. ‘we’re fine, everything’s good, the league’s healthy…he’s whistling past the graveyard!” If you had asked me yesterday at 2:46pm if I’d ever get around to disagreeing with Kornheiser, I’d have said, “No way, Mr. Tony is my boy!” Mr. Tony is my boy, but he’s wrong just like I was.

There is absolutely NO correlation between the VALUE of the NHL franchises (which are going up) and the national ratings for the Stanley Cup (which are going down). I am convinced of this now in the way that I am convinced that at some point this morning Apple stock (AAPL) was at around $126.50 even though not a single iPhone has yet been sold. Still, the value at that moment was the value, and does not correlate in any way to the # of iPhones sold.

While I do not believe the NHL will be in better shape 2 years from now if the national ratings for the Stanley Cup are where they are now (or worse), I do believe that “right now” the ratings are not actually indicative either of franchise values or the health of the league, and that right now things are actually much better for the NHL than they were a few years ago. More on this later...

Influencer of the Influencers

I don't care about this Web 2.0 notion of "respect my authority". I have no authority because nobody is reading my blog. Nonetheless, I was able to influence Mr. Leonsis (it may all be subconscious to him, and I'm fine with that!).

Last night I wrote this piece on the growing irrelevancy of the NHL in pop culture, singling OUT my favorite show in the world, "Pardon the Interruption". i note though, I was incorrect that they didn't give ANY time to the Stanley Cup -- it did get about 2 seconds worth in the "Big Finish" (you can see "Ducks" if you click the picture).

Today, Leonsis wrote an entry singing the praises of Washington Post columnist and PTI co-host Michael Wilbon. That's exactly the kind of thing I think Ted ought to be doing: a.) because WILBON ROCKS! (and so does Mr. Tony!) and b.) it would be good for the NHL if the PTI boys felt like talking about the Stanley Cup while it was actually in progress.

i don't care if there's 140,000 people reading this or 14. I'm solutions and results oriented and the results are in: me and and you (all 14 readers) are already making a difference. God bless America.

TV and the Steadfast Leonsis

Even though he didn't link back to this summary of all our e-mail back and forth I'm sure his TV. TV. TV. TV post was specially crafted on my behalf.

I might have to agree he's right about the "growth stock" -- ultimately. But right now, if it was a stock in the Pop Culture market it would be so close to $0 you couldn't short it anyway. How low did it go?

One staple of my life is ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption”. PTI has been on one DVR or another for over 4 years. I love Kornheiser and Wilbon together. My day is kind of thrown off when there’s some BS like golf or tennis or college baseball that cancels PTI for the day. I read Kornheiser religiously as a young man and as much as anyone I blame him for my curmudgeonly style. Thank you Mr. Tony.

On Today’s PTI – they didn’t talk about the Stanley Cup at all. Not at ALL. And yet, they spent “5 Good Minutes” with someone I’d never really heard of “Dan Wheldon”. He was on TV only because Danica Patrick shoved him after last Sunday’s race. Mr. Wheldon is a great TV personality and was very entertaining. The IRL got 5 GOOD minutes, the NHL’s Stanley Cup got no air time at all.

Interestingly one thing that was obvious, Wheldon doesn’t probably have any love for Danica Patrick, but he understands the only reason he is on TV is because of her, and the only reason anyone even cares about the IRL at all is because of her. So even though she can’t win a race, as long as people care about her she can pretty much do what she wants. And the IRL must be most pleased by THIS shove. Way happier than Roger Goodell is going to be if Randy Moss shoves one of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

All of this does raise one question: does hockey have some women down in the minors who can skate a little bit?

Do a Google search on : Female Hockey Players. Then think about how PTI gave the IRL 5 minutes, and the NHL Stanley Cup 0 minutes, and then tell me if it really seems that crazy.

Is The NHL Really In Better Shape Now?

My brother says that in business/negotiations, “he who cares the most usually loses.” Under this theory I thought I could probably win an argument with Ted Leonsis about the NHL because I figured as the owner of the Washington Capitals NHL franchise (and he is a minority owner of the Washington Wizards NBA franchise as well) he is bound to care more than me. I felt like I was in a good position.

But I do not have my sea legs yet, and came out of the communication exchange feeling a little bit worn down and in need of a glass of wine. I give Ted many points for stamina. I also give him a tremendous amount of credit for making himself so accessible to the NHL fan-base (and everyone else, for that matter). I think guys like Leonsis and Cuban making themselves so accessible IS one of the most outstanding aspects of the internet. It’s possible to get guys like this engaged in very interesting conversations. Extremely engaged at times. So I will tip my hat to Ted on that, it’s a great thing.

In fact that’s the reason that I wrote him. I really think the NHL has a great opportunity because while it has lost 50% of its viewers for the Stanley Cup finals in the last 5 years, they were there as recently as 5 years ago. I do worry that more people read Ted’s blog in one month than watched the NHL finals and while that’s great for Ted, I don’t see it as so good for the NHL.

From my perceptive if you had three million homes tuned in 5 years ago and less than half that many are tuned in now, your prospects are worse now than they were before, not better. However…

The world is a wacky place and linear math like that doesn’t always work. As Leonsis himself notes there are now 2000 billionaires. That’s about 10 times as many billionaires as there are sports franchises worth buying. Because of the concentration of capital and the limited supply of sports franchises, we do live in a crazy world where because of the “limited amount of real-estate” property values are going up, up, up, even in cases where the neighborhood is having severe problems (losing half your viewers is a bad day in the neighborhood).

Leonsis points out that from a financial perspective the league is in much better shape now because although ratings were down 50% in 2006 from the 2002 numbers, the league actually broke even in 2006 and lost a significant chunk of change in 2002 when the ratings were much better.

Despite escalation of the underlying value regardless of performance (because of the 2000 billionaires and limited # of franchises), at some point performance still matters. While I agree that breaking even is better than losing money – and I do see that as both an improvement to the business model and improved financial performance, I still am not quite comfortable with the prospects, but I’m focusing on just the problem of the national ratings. Leonsis notes there have been positive improvements and that ticket revenues and actual attendance are both up, as were local ratings for regular season broadcasts.

Despite these improvements, Leonsis agrees that the national ratings remain a big issue. Current deals that have some of the finals on the Versus network really limit exposure (availability to only about 20M of the 100+M tv universe) and hampers both ratings and cross-promotional opportunities.

Though I confess Ted’s explanations do leave me feeling less panicked, I can’t see how the prospects of a league that 1.5 million homes tune in to the finals are truly better than the prospects of something with twice as many homes tuned in. Also, it seems to me that since those folks were watching as recently as 5 years ago, they’re the first people I would focus on winning back. I believe Ted has an opportunity compared to other figures in the NHL because he is out there in the popular culture with a link to his blog from Engadget and everything.

Other than the stars of the NHL themselves doing everything in their power to get face time with the American public (with the leagues assistance), Ted should somehow use his position to do his part to get the 50% back simply because he’s in a better position than most affiliated with the league to have an impact with that.

Is the NHL “really” in better shape now? Ted thinks so, but I’m still not there yet and this year’s ratings (Saturday’s game 3 did a .8 rating with a 2 share during its highest ½ hourly period on Saturday night) of less than a million homes even when the game was on NBC during primetime is not leaving me feel like the NHL is *really* in better shape, even if the franchise values are increasing and the financial performance is better than it was 5 years ago when the average rating was about 3x Saturday night’s results.

I know Paris is in jail, but maybe that’s the best time to approach her with some sort of deal to save the NHL. One thing I think Leonsis is in a better position than most involved with the NHL is really helping put a focus on how to effectively market the stars of the NHL, in fact, I believe marketing its stars is the only way to win back viewers. I see Leonsis as a very determined guy, and if he was determined, really determined to help the NHL market its stars, I think he’d succeed with it.

My E-Mail to Ted Leonsis

Ted,

It seems like comments aren't working at ted.aol.com the last few days and I wanted to take a moment to respond to:

Hardest Thing to Do in Business.

I like that you're a man of the people, both for the Washington, DC area and your NHL Franchise. But I think I'd encourage you to change your focus from championships to improving the abysmal television ratings for the NHL. I know I am always harping on YOU to do this, and I'll tell you why. It's because you probably have a higher Q-rating than any of your stars, including Alex O. Does Alex O have a link to his Web site from the Engadget Blog? No. But Ted Leonsis does. You sir, are more in the pop culture than the NHL. It wouldn't shock me (at all) to find more households read your blog in a month than watched any of the Stanley Cup finals.

For the NHL, I fear the hardest thing to do may be to stay in business.

You know the ratings lines, you have seen these #'s (courtesy of Nielsen Media):

2006 *	**NBC/OLN	7	1.8	3	1,994,000	2,834,000	Carolina vs, Edmonton
2002	ABC	3	3.6	7	3,815,000	5,768,000	Detroit Red Wings vs. Atlanta Thrashers

In four years, the NHL lost half its households and viewers. HALF. In only 4 years. This year's #'s seem to be WORSE so far. Hockey isn't in the popular culture and as nice as ted.aol.com is, it did absolutely nothing to improve NHL television ratings. I'd encourage you to think about this: "why not". My best guess is: "that wasn't really what Ted was going for here," to which I must also ask, "why not?"

Sincerely,

Robert Seidman

Seidman’s Law: You Should’ve Never Trusted Hollywood

Actually that isn't "Seidman's Law".

Seidman's Law is simply this: if the truth hurts, it's because you're doing something that you know (consciously or subconsciously) that you shouldn't be doing, but you're doing it anyway.

I bring it up here only because Mark Cuban's solution to "save the National Hockey League" which pretty much jibed with my own solution does wind up hurting me on some level. The beauty of this law, if you care in the littlest bit about improving your own self awareness is that if the truth hurts you, but you don't know why, that correlates 100% with you (or in this case, me) being in denial about it. So the truth hurts me because I'm in denial in some way about being such a hypocrite. And knowing the truth hurts, but not why means: denial and that is an awareness opportunity for me.

For those who care, Cubes solution to save the NHL was for the stars of the NHL to basically get involved with the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and wind up showing up in People magazine (or at least the National Enquirer).

I agree it would probably work, but something about this truth – hurt me, so I listened to System of Down's "Lost in Hollywood" about 30 times and it came to me.

Lindsay and Paris are pretty foul people. I mean they are famous and attractive, but really, they are pretty vile. They have the whole world by the balls and yet, they still need to be showing up skanky and drunk all the time. To the tune of they are both going to jail for being the skanky, out-of-control drunks that they are.

You wouldn't want your kids going out with girls (or their male equivalents) like this, but even though Lindsay and Paris both act horribly vile, regularly, and in public to the point of J-A-I-L they still have enough value that they could save the NHL.

Where's my hypocrisy? Well…

Writing about Cuban, Paris and Lindsay is the only thing that wound up automatically feeding my blog postings into the "world". In this case the small world of people who care about the NHL, but I'm not against capitalizing on the value of Lindsay and Paris' skankyness, or cashing in on Cuban's cred either.

The hypocrisy on my part? I'm SO over it.

I'm totally down, just like the NHL should be, to use Paris and Lindsay to get attention. Damn if it doesn't seem to work.

-
Update, I'm not alone: Media in frenzy over jail-bound Paris Hilton

How Mark Cuban Would Save the NHL

Around the beginning of the year my friend Bill G. pointed me to former AOL executive and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis’ blog. On the blog Leonsis was bemoaning the lack of season holders who actually lived in DC where the arena is and that most of the season ticket holders were from the surrounding wealthy Virginia and Maryland suburbs. With DC having a huge African American population and with hockey not being especially popular with ANY Americans, let alone African Americans, I thought what he wrote was ridiculous.

I wrote him to say basically that they should be thrilled to have season ticket holders period, regardless of where they lived and that I’d be more worried about the fact that in the popular culture, Hockey isn’t really a part of that. I got especially annoyed with him and was rather hard on him but my reasons were he was talking to me like I was a total dope, “We’re in good shape, the tv stuff will be fine…” etc. I told him I thought he was crazy and that what he really needed to do was make sure Paris and Britney showed up in the stands on TV.

Recently I wrote Cuban asking him for his quick thoughts on saving hockey, and whether it was dead, dead, dead like the 8-Track player of my youth or whether it could be saved. Here’s his response:

"It needs personalities. There is no one in popular culture. Sid the kid and Ovechkin need to get drunk w Paris and Lindsay."

And this is why he’s a billionaire and I’m some guy writing a blog that presently nobody is reading. That last little bit is critical. Showing up on TV isn’t enough. The alcohol IS necessary...for the sex tape that will save the NHL!

Come on Paris, turn your sites to a good cause. Save the NHL!