Hawks Board Non-Sports Talk

[macd-gm]

The Athletic launched two years ago with a simple philosophy: People will pay for a quality product they want. See: Netflix, Spotify, HBO.

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

[kg01]

The Athletic launched two years ago with a simple philosophy: People will pay for a quality product they want. See: Netflix, Spotify, HBO.

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

Eggsactly.

I never understood how their concept was sustainable past the initial hype of it. Perhaps that's his plan.

IIUC he's one of these new-money guys so he probably thinks he's got everything all figured out. And, if he doesn't, meh I'm still a kajillionaire anyways so .... whatevs. Oh, everybody's unemployed now? Meh, you guys should've just been a billionaire obv. kthxbye

[macd-gm]

The Athletic launched two years ago with a simple philosophy: People will pay for a quality product they want. See: Netflix, Spotify, HBO.

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

Eggsactly.

I never understood how their concept was sustainable past the initial hype of it. Perhaps that's his plan.

IIUC he's one of these new-money guys so he probably thinks he's got everything all figured out. And, if he doesn't, meh I'm still a kajillionaire anyways so .... whatevs. Oh, everybody's unemployed now? Meh, you guys should've just been a billionaire obv. kthxbye

I'm guessing he thinks he'll steal away 'talent' from the papers and eventually they'll shut down their sports departments entirely and perhaps outsource it to him. I could see that as a possibility.

[Jamaaliver]

I'm guessing he thinks he'll steal away 'talent' from the papers and eventually they'll shut down their sports departments entirely and perhaps outsource it to him. I could see that as a possibility.

15 years ago I had the chance to invest in the Redbox machines. I declined because I couldn't imagine a world where Blockbuster didn't have the edge on market share of video rentals. I also declined to invest or utilize Netflix because I thought for sure they would go bust.


All that to say, I no longer dismiss innovative, aggressive corporate strategies like these as easily as I once did. They have the ability to bunker down with professional beat writers from every market in every sport and provide in depth reporting/analysis at a premium level.

And The Athletic already has a gorowing base in the world of podcasting. There is value there. I agree the subscription model alone likely won't sustain them.

The Athletic has positioned themselves to be a major player in sports reporting moving forward. I'm inetersted to see where they go from here.



NOTE: I could easily them being bought out/merged by Fox or CBS Sports in an effort to compete more intently with ESPN Insider.

Add'l Note: We've already seen ESPN Insider lower their subscription price and offer access to the ESPN+ app in recent weeks. Could these things be related?

[kg01]

I'm guessing he thinks he'll steal away 'talent' from the papers and eventually they'll shut down their sports departments entirely and perhaps outsource it to him. I could see that as a possibility.

15 years ago I had the chance to invest in the Redbox machines. I declined because I couldn't imagine a world where Blockbuster didn't have the edge on market share of video rentals. I also declined to invest or utilize Netflix because I thought for sure they would go bust.


All that to say, I no longer dismiss innovative, aggressive corporate strategies like these as easily as I once did. They have the ability to bunker down with professional beat writers from every market in every sport and provide in depth reporting/analysis at a premium level.

And The Athletic already has a gorowing base in the world of podcasting. There is value there. I agree the subscription model alone likely won't sustain them.

The Athletic has positioned themselves to be a major player in sports reporting moving forward. I'm inetersted to see where they go from here.

NOTE: I could easily them being bought out/merged by Fox or CBS Sports in an effort to compete more intently with ESPN Insider.

Add'l Note: We've already seen ESPN Insider lower their subscription price and offer access to the ESPN+ app in recent weeks. Could these things be related?

Blockbuster went under due to being slow to respond to our laziness. Redbox is facing some of the same issues. "Awww, you tellin' me I gotta return this disc all the way to the stooorrree?"

Folks won't be satisfied until they can stream movies directly into their brains. Hmmmmm ...

On the Athletic, I don't value beat writers insight all that much. I'm certainly not gonna pay for something I can wait a few hours and read all about on twitter. I follow college sports, recruiting and such but I've never paid a penny for it. I don't understand the subscription services. There's nothing there worth paying for. Just wait an hour or a day and it'll be free.

Perhaps you're right that he's trying to position it to be bought out. I feel ESPN is a next dinosaur to go down. I'm an avid sports fan and I literally haven't watched BSPN's programming in over 10 years. Only exception is if/when a Hawks or GT game is on their air and nowhere else.

[Jamaaliver]

Blockbuster went under due to being slow to respond to our laziness. Redbox is facing some of the same issues. "Awww, you tellin' me I gotta return this disc all the way to the stooorrree?"

Folks won't be satisfied until they can stream movies directly into their brains. Hmmmmm ...

On the Athletic, I don't value beat writers insight all that much. I'm certainly not gonna pay for something I can wait a few hours and read all about on twitter. I follow college sports, recruiting and such but I've never paid a penny for it. I don't understand the subscription services. There's nothing there worth paying for. Just wait an hour or a day and it'll be free.

Perhaps you're right that he's trying to position it to be bought out. I feel ESPN is a next dinosaur to go down. I'm an avid sports fan and I literally haven't watched BSPN's programming in over 10 years. Only exception is if/when a Hawks or GT game is on their air and nowhere else.

And these things are related. The fall of Blockbuster. The decline of ESPN. There be a ton of similarities as the big fish each failed to adjust to a changing marketplace.

Netflix was in place to takeover the market as Blockbuster declined.

Might The Athletic be setting itself up to do the same? First from local sports pages...and ultimately from the Worldwide Leader in Sports?

[macd-gm]

Blockbuster went under due to being slow to respond to our laziness. Redbox is facing some of the same issues. "Awww, you tellin' me I gotta return this disc all the way to the stooorrree?"

Folks won't be satisfied until they can stream movies directly into their brains. Hmmmmm ...

On the Athletic, I don't value beat writers insight all that much. I'm certainly not gonna pay for something I can wait a few hours and read all about on twitter. I follow college sports, recruiting and such but I've never paid a penny for it. I don't understand the subscription services. There's nothing there worth paying for. Just wait an hour or a day and it'll be free.

Perhaps you're right that he's trying to position it to be bought out. I feel ESPN is a next dinosaur to go down. I'm an avid sports fan and I literally haven't watched BSPN's programming in over 10 years. Only exception is if/when a Hawks or GT game is on their air and nowhere else.

And these things are related. The fall of Blockbuster. The decline of ESPN. There be a ton of similarities as the big fish each failed to adjust to a changing marketplace.

Netflix was in place to takeover the market as Blockbuster declined.

Might The Athletic be setting itself up to do the same? First from local sports pages...and ultimately from the Worldwide Leader in Sports?

On the one hand, i think producing content on the internet is a money making proposition. But i don't think that money is from subscription fees but from advertising and other tie ins.

Blockbuster just had a business that made no sense in the age of the internet. They should have transitioned to be red box, but in reality red box's life span is really short. They only exist because there are still places without good internet. It's been 10 years since i owned a cd or dvd player. At this point, holding media on storage disks in my house just seems like a giant waste of money, space, and resources to produce them.

[Jamaaliver]

On the one hand, i think producing content on the internet is a money making proposition. But i don't think that money is from subscription fees but from advertising and other tie ins.

Blockbuster just had a business that made no sense in the age of the internet. They should have transitioned to be red box, but in reality red box's life span is really short. They only exist because there are still places without good internet. It's been 10 years since i owned a cd or dvd player. At this point, holding media on storage disks in my house just seems like a giant waste of money, space, and resources to produce them.

All of this is correct. The Athletic has to have multiple revenue streams to protect itself from irrelevance and competitors in any single market.


Blockbuster had such a major market share they got fat and lazy. They were more concerned with keeping Hollywood Video off their backs than adjusting to a changing reality in how people consume entertainment. The same can be said for broadcast TV. (I'm honestly not even sure how Fox, NBC and ABC are still around. Can their entire existence really be maintained based on live news, live sports and reality TV?)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One thing about Redbox I didn't consider as a young investor in my 20s, is who they were targeted at.

Rural households and lower income families. That's why they are mostly still in Walmarts and McDonalds. They're targeting poor folks who don't have Wi-Fi for streaming and who can't afford premium cable packages.

You can rent a movie from your local Walmart for a $1.50. Or a video game for a few more bucks. (I think.) There is very little overhead.
It's not gonna make any one person rich, but it's a solid tertiary income if you were able to get in on the ground floor.

[ChokeFasncists]

The Athletic launched two years ago with a simple philosophy: People will pay for a quality product they want. See: Netflix, Spotify, HBO.

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

The only way I will pay for the Athletic: they get Woj.

[jayu70]

The Athletic launched two years ago with a simple philosophy: People will pay for a quality product they want. See: Netflix, Spotify, HBO.

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

The only way I will pay for the Athletic: they get Woj.

Woj will still be tweeting breaking news which is his most valuable comodity, other than that.....

[ChokeFasncists]

I think this is a real stretch. They are comparing to things people are willing to pay relative peanuts, $10/month, to view or listen to entertainment products that cost millions of dollars to produce. Products that you would normally pay $10-$20 each for (movies, cds). And you think people will pay a similar price to read a few newspaper articles that give the same info that is available on dozens of other free sites? Or pay for someone's sports opinion? Maybe i'm too old to understand but they aren't going to make it on subscription only. There's no way. They must have another revenue stream figured in somewhere.

The only way I will pay for the Athletic: they get Woj.

Woj will still be tweeting breaking news which is his most valuable comodity, other than that.....

Assuming only paid readers can get that.

[Jamaaliver]

i CAN'T OVERSTATE HOW enjoyable this film is. Good date movie. Good family film.


Also -- Constance Wu is just ...lovely.

The History-Making Success of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

On the verge of yet another weekend of box office dominance, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is cementing itself as one of the biggest breakouts of 2018—and one of the biggest rom-coms in a decade



Heading into Labor Day weekend, Crazy Rich Asians is expected to lead the box office for a third consecutive weekend, with a projected gross between $12 million and $15 million. That might not sound like a huge sum of money, but looking a little deeper—specifically at the film’s relatively meager budget, impressive total gross, and shockingly steady weekend-to-weekend hold—it’s impossible to regard Crazy Rich Asians as anything less than one of the biggest success stories of the year.

Hardly anyone expected Crazy Rich Asians to do as well as it did in its first week—it was projected to make around $25 million—and even fewer people expected it to almost maintain those numbers in its second week. Now with another win lined up heading into a weak Labor Day weekend, Crazy Rich Asians is primed to join Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War as the only 2018 releases to top the box office three weekends in a row.

That the movie has been able to sustain this kind of success in August, a historically lean month at the box office, is proof not only of the film’s warm reception but of a yearning for more stories centered on Asian and Asian American characters. It’s no surprise that Warner Bros. has already announced that a sequel is on the way.

Were Crazy Rich Asians to hit $150 million domestically, it’d fall just short of making the list of the top 10 best-performing films of the year (it already sits at 20 heading into Labor Day weekend). That a romantic comedy—with an almost entirely Asian cast—is even close to achieving that feat in 2018 is an incredible story in and of itself.

The Ringer

[HMFFL]

Thankfully Taco Mac has closed downtown by the arena.
I rarely get downtown since I travel often with my job and have a place in Las Vegas, but I noticed it had closed down tonight, so I hope it doesn't make a comeback. I've only experienced very bad service at that location.

[Jamaaliver]

How to Be Healthier, Happier and More Productive: It’s All in the Timing

When is the best time to exercise or do creative work? Research on the science of timing has answers



We all know that timing matters. But most of our decisions on this front are intuitive and haphazard. Timing, we believe, is an art.

In fact, timing is really a science. For several decades, researchers in dozens of fields—from economics to anesthesiology to social psychology—have been unearthing the hidden science of timing. The day is perhaps the most important way that we divide, configure and evaluate our time. By understanding the science of the day—and by giving more attention to the question of “when”—we can improve the effectiveness and success of our resolutions.

First, our cognitive abilities don’t remain static over the course of a day. During the 16 or so hours we’re awake, they change—often in a regular, foreseeable manner. We are smarter, faster and more creative in some parts of the day than others.

Second, these daily fluctuations can be extreme...research has shown that time-of-day effects can explain 20% of the variance in human performance on cognitive undertakings.

Third, how we do depends on what we’re doing. We’re more effective at some tasks early in the day and at other tasks later in the day.

...research has shown that we generally experience the day in three acts: a peak, a trough and a rebound. Most of us experience the pattern in that order.

During the peak, our ability to focus is at its best. When we wake up, our body temperature slowly rises. That rising temperature gradually boosts our energy level and alertness—and that, in turn, enhances our executive functioning, our ability to concentrate and our powers of deduction. For most of us, these sharp-minded analytic capacities crest in the late morning or around noon. That makes the peak the best time to tackle work that requires heads-down attention and analysis, such as writing a legal brief or auditing financial statements.

The afternoon trough is the Bermuda Triangle of our days—the place where effectiveness and good intentions disappear. This is the time to do your mindless administrative work, such as answering email, filing papers and filling out expense reports.

Wall Street Journal

[Jamaaliver]

Tagovailoa looking like Brett Favre for the Crimson Tide:

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

Everything this kid has done since leaving High School has been wrong.

Read on Twitter

He should be playing ball/attending school at some mid-major in the midwest. Honing his skills, developing his own brand, making contacts and biding time until the right opportunity comes along. (Two or three years of high level coaching away from his pops, he could have been a very poor man's Kyle Kuzma in college.)

Instead, his pro dreams are pretty much done at 20 years old. I can't imagine even too many international pro clubs want anything to do with the Ball Brothers at this point.

Spoiler:

Of course, the off-court problems might not have anything to do with him being passed over based on early reports.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN shot down any chance of Ball being drafted in December, adding it had nothing to do with the shoplifting incident.

Read on Twitter

In any case, his arrest likely didn't help his cause.

Bleacher Report

[jayu70]

Everything this kid has done since leaving High School has been wrong.

Read on Twitter

He should be playing ball/attending school at some mid-major in the midwest. Honing his skills, developing his own brand, making contacts and biding time until the right opportunity comes along. (Two or three years of high level coaching away from his pops, he could have been a very poor man's Kyle Kuzma in college.)

Instead, his pro dreams are pretty much done at 20 years old. I can't imagine even too many international pro clubs want anything to do with the Ball Brothers at this point.

Spoiler:

Of course, the off-court problems might not have anything to do with him being passed over based on early reports.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN shot down any chance of Ball being drafted in December, adding it had nothing to do with the shoplifting incident.

Read on Twitter

In any case, his arrest likely didn't help his cause.

Bleacher Report

He needs his OWN voice rather than his fathers.
College and NBA players have got into more serious kerfuffles and are currently employed by the NBA. If you can play you'll get your chance despite missteps.
If you can't play and jave Lavar as a father - makes it a lot more difficult.
He forgot his Dad said if LAL don't draft him, Lonzo won't resign...good luck with that.

[Jamaaliver]

He needs his OWN voice rather than his fathers.

If you can't play and have Lavar as a father - makes it a lot more difficult.

Standing up to an overbearing, foolish parent is never easy.

I was kind of hoping either big brother Lonzo or his mother would step in and advise 'Gelo against hiring an agent and forgoing remaining college eligibility. That was the biggest mistake that simply can't be undone.


Is his last hope the G League draft next month? If he goes undrafted there, I wonder if his agent drops him at that point.




Man, that'd be a helluva fall in just 18 months.

I gotta think just attending/playing for a small college somewhere is more desirable than what he's experienced since leaving UCLA.

Spoiler:

There's always this route.

The Erie BayHawks, NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, announced today that the team will hold its only open tryout on Sunday, September 24 at the Georgia State University Sports Arena (125 Decatur Street, Atlanta GA 30303). This will be a one-day tryout and will take place from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. Players interested in participating are required to complete all registration forms found here or at the BayHawks’ front office.

Staff members from both the Erie BayHawks and Atlanta Hawks will be on hand to evaluate all participants. Players will be taken through a series of skill work and live scrimmages. Prospects who participate in the open tryout will compete for an invitation to the BayHawks training camp. NBA.com

[ChokeFasncists]

If he didn't do that theft, played for UCLA, played well, then maybe decide to stay or declare, of course that would have been better for his chances with the NBA.

Why does this happen to him rather than so many of the other NBA players? LaVar should really think about it.

He still has a chance tho, it'd just be much tougher.

[Jamaaliver]

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