I'm no longer a Black Friday Friend. Really, I never was, but I was just thinking that I almost completely ignore it now. I don't really look up anything and I tune out adverts as if it was a Presidents Day sale or something. Not sure if I'm missing anything or not but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
It's a Friday, and it's a day off, so sign me up!
Funny, I worked retail in college and always needed to be on hand for Black Friday. I opted for the afternoon shifts (if they'd grant the request....) and seeing the shopped out zombies was always a highlight of my holiday season. One year I had the am shift - on site at 5 am for a 7 am opening - and a woman in who'd waited in line since 4 am for a beanie baby gift bag got so agitated with employees trying to enter the store that she punched a coworker in the head. Needless to say she spent the next night in the clink with no beanie baby to show.
I got an email from Seido this morning letting their customers know that they were no longer participating in black Friday, small business Saturday, or Cyber Monday and that they'd be closing their web store until Tuesday. They also asked their customers to question what we are purchasing and examine if we really need the thing we were about to purchase........ I think I became a Seido customer for life today.
this is kind of depressing
Definitely the fault of the Dodgers and not MLB.
Or.... the MLB players association and the MLB?? In the end, the biggest MLB competitive imbalance issue is the disparity in local TV Contract money. From a players perspective, I still see minor league compensation as the biggest issue. From a owners perspective, the luxury tax has been fairly effective in reigning in the big spenders... except the Ohtani bullsh!t type contracts.
While Ohtani's contract is structured very weirdly, it's entirely financial shenanigans to make it a big number and the Dodgers are still on the hook every year for the largest annual value of any player.
Continue to disagree. His structure enables the Dodgers to sign players for more money while effectively having fewer of those dollars taxed as above the luxury limits.
If I give you $20 today and invest another $980 that you can cash out in ten years as $1480, how much did I give you in total? My answer would be $1000, not $20 because I had to fork out a total of $1000, and also not $1500 because that's what you eventually get. The press is reporting it as $1500 which I also have a slight problem with but I get why.
Taxes are an interesting thing to bring up because it's quite possible it's Ohtani benefiting the most from tax avoidance. CPAs and lawyers will have a field day in ten years figuring out how much he owes to the state of California.
Except that the Dodgers didn't have to fork out that other $980 now. There is no evidence they're setting it aside or factoring it into their budget - in fact, the evidence suggests they're spending it on other players.
Even if that means they're mortgaging their future and they won't be as competitive then, that's not a consolation: it means we're further away from true competitive balance in the future too. Deals like this have a distorting effect on competition, and therefore are bad for the sport.
The CBA requires them to set it aside. The CBA has a section on deferred compensation.
2024 is the championship season so "second July 1" would mean the $68 million owed Ohtani in 2034 must be fully funded by July 1, 2026. I doubt they will wait until June 30, 2026 but I wouldn't be surprised if they take the full amount of time to fund it. What distorts the competitive balance isn't a deal like this; Scherzer's deal with the Nationals ($210 million) deferred 50% of the contract back in 2015. It's the TV deal giving the Dodgers nearly $200 million each year combined with being a large market and earning so much outside of that. Or signing Ohtani likely earned back the entire $46 million AAV and will for the entire contract.
Do the Dodgers get to sign separate TV deals to other countries like, say, Japan? If so, that's a few more dollars in the kitty.
It would depend on who owns the international rights. The Dodgers co-own their TV network but MLB might only grant them local, domestic rights and reserve the international market. MLB does make the national deals so it would make sense for them to own the international part as well. But, Japanese companies wouldn't be interested in advertising with all of MLB and instead seek out specific deals with the Dodgers.
The Gophers with a thoroughly dominate win in Madison. In my lifetime? huh