Ted Leonsis puts on a good fan experience IMO. The team has developed a passionate fan base that frankly did not exist 6 or 7 years ago (at least not at this size). The fans are treated with more respect than they are with other organizations ticket departments (like the Nats). That said the tickets have stopped being a good value. I got my ticket renewal just like many of you did today and the prices are through the roof, those with the cheapest seats, in the Mezzanine Corners are seeing our tickets skyrocket from 29 to 35 dollars. Just four years ago my STH cost was 15 or 16 dollars a ticket. On top of that the price of concessions has also risen. Anyone who has bought Nachos at a Verizon Center knows that while you used to get a decent amount, now you get basically the size you would get at the gas station.

Ted says he wants fans to hold onto their tickets and try and attend as many games as possible. However most of us, especially those in the upper deck have a fixed income we can spend on tickets. Drastic increase in prices over the course of the year means we have to sell more games, which means less of a sense of community and probably more opposing fans. Even the games we can sell are going for considerably less than past seasons. If you want to go see the Islanders play next Tuesday, you can get in at below the STH price by about 2 dollars (27 a ticket). This will probably drop even more as the game approaches.

Ted talks about caring about the fans, and he does give back in a number of ways to the community (via charity and season ticket holder parties. However all his talk about wanting to have an affordable environment for the casual fan is just that. He is continually doing everything he can to squeeze each dollar out of his fan base, be at the concession stand or through the ticket price. The team is in a momentary tailspin, and we may or may not even make the playoffs. However as many individual's budgets are shrinking, If the fan base reverts back to closer to its pre-Ovi size, it will be because Ted cared more about maximizing profits, than allowing the real fans to attend as many games as possible.

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I kept believing that our situation wasn't really that similar to PSU. That this was hopefully going to be a situation where at worst, this was a guy living in "the closet" who was having an affair with a former assistant. Thats no longer a world I can realistically live in. I have loved Syracuse since I went there. However the idea that someone could have been molested so that the basketball team I love wasn't embarrassed is horrifying to think about. I obviously can't speak for any other SU alumni but myself, but as much as I like SU, I would never want this covered up just so I can enjoy a bball season. There isn't any proof this occurred, but as quick as this story is evolving, who knows if its true or not. Regardless of whether the university did or did not cover anything up, if a crime did occur the victims are the people who were abused.

On one hand I really don't know what to say. I'm angry at anyone involved in keeping the tapes quiet.  This is my Matt Millen moment. I probably shouldn't even post anything for 24-48 hours so cooler heads can prevail, but I also want to vent.  In light of the recent stories I can't  blame Syracuse for taking the action they did today. Its also time to stop setting a chair aside until we know the results of the investigation.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/syracuse_university_fires_assi.html

In something I doubt Dana Oniel will write about, it turns out that her company was behind the ACC getting two teams. So all that talk from her about how dishonorable Cuse was, the real finger should be pointed at her employer. I doubt we hear anything about this story, because ESPN has a way of forgetting to cover things that put them in a bad light, but not the real truth is starting to come out.

Gene DeFilippo on the subject of the ACC's decision to poach Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East: "We always keep our television partners close to us. ... TV -- ESPN -- is the one who told us what to do."

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/15715357/did-espn-help-lead-big-easts-demise-you-can-bet-big-east-thinks-so (article could also be called Gary Parrish JR writes first readable article in his life).

It actually gets more damming right after that statement. The reason ESPN did this is because the Big East was possibly going to go to Fox Sports or possibly even more concerning to Versus/ NBC. Removing ESPN's death grip of all things college sports (with the exception of the saturday SEC game).  So ESPN sabatoged the conference in order to hurt NBC/ Fox.

One thing was proven, this is really all about money.

I'm honestly not sure if this is a reason I should make fun of them, or  just pitty the poor smuck who got paid 8 dollars an hour to deal with tourists. From the video, it looks like Spongebob was being his stupid self and two girls got pissed off and decided to start punching him. half way through it goes from funny to actually more of a assualt. The police were even called according to another story.

you stay classy U$C

http://tosh.comedycentral.com/blog/2011/09/15/spongebob-involved-in-a-skirmish/?xrs=synd_facebook

 It’s the day when TV schedules have come out. In past years before the age of internet TV it was pretty simple, if you were awful (like say under Greg Robinson) you were playing at noon if you were on TV at all. However with the invention of ESPN3 those same noon games are subjected to a crueler fate, being stuck on the internet. So while you bought that new LED TV to watch Syracuse rise up to the top of the Big East , you are subjected to crowding around some Laptop monitor with a friend, or at best seeing it on a (probably grainy) projector. This doesn’t get into the bandwith problems you may have from everyone trying to stream the game at the same time. So each Tuesday comes and you pray that the game will be on real TV, but sometimes these dreams are dashed. So whats a person who has to use ESPN3 to do? How can you makes the best of a bad situation?

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http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2011/08/big_east_releases_slate_of_nat.html

Via syracuse.com

Not loving that Gtown is on a weekday. Also a little bummed about Nova on a weekday, wanted to go up to Philly for the game.

Fri., Dec. 2 vs. Florida, 6:30 p.m. ESPN
Sat., Dec. 17 at N.C. State, 6:30 p.m. ESPN2

Wed., Jan. 11 at Villanova, 7 p.m. ESPN2
Mon., Jan. 16 vs. Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. ESPN
Sat., Jan. 21 at Notre Dame, 6 p.m. ESPN
Mon., Jan 23 at Cincinnati, 7 p.m. ESPN
Sat., Jan. 28 vs. West Virginia, 1 p.m. ESPNU

Sat., Feb. 4 at St. John's, noon ESPN/ESPN2
Wed., Feb. 8 vs. Georgetown, 7 p.m. ESPN/ESPN2
Sat., Feb. 11 vs. Connecticut, 1 p.m. CBS
Mon., Feb. 13 at Louisville, 7 p.m. ESPN
Sun., Feb. 19 at Rutgers, 1 p.m. ESPN
Sat., Feb. 25 at Connecticut, 9 p.m. ESPN

Sat., Mar. 3 vs. Louisville, 4 p.m. CBS

via i52.tinypic.com

This is another entry in the Get To Know Your Local Syracuse Watering Hole series. If you would like to claim a local SU bar of your own, simply email the site and get to writing.

Approximately three years ago, the Syracuse Alumni Club of Washington, D.C., switched to Sign of the Whale, branding it as the place for Syracuse Alumni events. At the time of the switch, the bar was owned by the same individual who owned Rhino Pumphouse in Georgetown. The problem with the old location was that it was not Metro accessible and that we could not watch football games at it due to it being the gamewatching spot for Penn State and THE improper benefits university (aka OSU). The owner and GM of Rhino ensured we got great specials and could continue raising money for our scholarship at his other location. With Syracuse flags adorning the bar all year long, D.C. alumni have deemed Sign of the Whale as their official hangout for SU games and special events.

Most memorable event: Three way tie between staying open late for the six OT game , Getting Marvin Graves to come for a basketball game as a guest bartender and the fundraiser for the former general manager of Sign of the Whale child who unexpectedly passed away a little over a year ago.

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With all due respect to Knuble, who is a great clubhouse leader the team could really use a top notch in front of the net big body that just can't get moved. We don't really have that with our current group of shifty forwards and when we do have that (Fehr),  they are often injured. Our playoffs series losses have often been defined by not being able to get the dirty goal and our power play has reached anemic levels in the post season.

So since Atlanta is moving away, we should take a shot at getting Byfuglien , depending on the cost and moving him back to forward. His role in the Hawks cup victory was pretty substantial.  We could also just use him up front on the PP and use him @ defense the other times.  Its rare to see people trade in division, but now that the thrashers are moving this could be a good chance to get him from a team looking for a fresh start.

Another angle, and while this isn't a reason to trade for him, is a nice cherry on the sundae is that he is one of the leading African-American players in the NHL.  DC obviously has a pretty large minority community and he could be a great ambassador to bring in a demographic that frankly pretty much ignores hockey.

The questions:

What if anything would you want to trade for him?

Would you trade Mike  Green for the recent all star. I think it would be a worthwhile trade, and it makes another player that we have locked up through the prime years of their career.

Go Caps

Hey guys,

I know a number of are from DC. A number of us are probably working for the government in one way or another, myself included. A number of us are about to get reamed in the ass by a bunch of tea-baggers who are barely lucky to be able to spell their own name (to be honest this is partially the Dems fault too for not passing a budget when they could).

So ladies and gentleman, I remind you of Rob Murphy's shut it down video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQyvHRIC3e0

This may be a little overkill for a fanpost, but me and my father have two extra seats. We bought them through the university and our current seats are in the lower level (behind the basket about row 25 or 30). We plan on selling the worse seats (ie if the Cuse seats are lower level, we may just keep those).

We are not looking to make a profit on the seats, just face and if the university added any fees, that too. We 100% have the seats confirmed, but the university told us last night we can't pick them up until 630 tomorrow. Seats would also be available for the Sunday game. Leave a reply with how to get in touch if your interested.

I will be there Thursday night. I plan on making east fourth street my home away from home, but I don't know exactly where I will be visiting. Probably someplace on the list Sean posted earlier:

I currently have seats behind the basket around row 30, but this may be changing. Ill post the seat location once I know for sure.

I am staying @ the Crown Plaza @ City Center. We almost made the move to the Hyatt (closer to arena/ 4th street but its only minimal). This was just a lot cheaper. The holiday in express also had rooms and those rooms were basically pretty dam cheap.

So all I got to say is who is coming with me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIKNZi35AA

So I am definitely going to be there, probably around 6 ish, but maybe a little sooner. I have also been told that our local fox station (from DC)  will probably be there to interview a random fan or two about the ticket situation. I'll be wearing a Syracuse Melo jersey, so I should be easy to find and say hi too. Who else is going to swing by for some cheap beer and to meet up?

Jon

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=135695983163859

Joe Lunardi is the latest sportswriter to be 100% in the bag for Duke. I wrote him today on his chat about why on earth Duke should be a 1 seed. His response was, because they are Duke. Not because I believe they deserve to be there. It goes against a number of the NCAA bracket rules. IE last year standing do not have an outcome on seeding. The polls are not supposed to be used. Its supposed to be solely about who you play and who you beat. Right now Duke has played no one, and beaten no one. They certainly can't compare their record to Syracuse, OSU and Kansas.  The exact quote is below.

How is Duke a 1 seed in the east? They have beaten no one in the top 20 of the RPI. Syracuse shares a win over MSU at a neutral site and has a much stronger RPI. The NCAA has said in the past that previous year's performance have no relevance on the seeding. Duke probably doesn't even deserve a 1 seed considering they have not played anyone tough, and will not play anyone tough for the remainder of the season. The body of work just isn't there for Duke this year. This isn't the BCS, getting ranked high in the preseason shouldn't determine your seeding in march.

I'm hardly an apologist for Duke, Jon, but you need to take off those anti-Blue Devil glasses. Duke is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country by acclamation. They are going to be the No. 1 seed in the East barring hugely unexpected developments, so you'd better get used to the idea.

So basically if you give money to Gtown, they give you a horribly bad youtube video. I think the goal is to create something so awful, that you immediately forget you just wasted 25 dollars on such a horrible place so you can buy Cuse tickets, and focus at their awful their video production. Its like a mix of Jim the Hammer Shapiro and a AL-Qaeda video.

So I am reaching out to our board that someone can come up with a better thank you video from us to Gtown (mainly looking at you HoyaSuxa). We should thank them for having a pathetic and fickle  fanbase. We can thank their students for being more concerned about making illegal drugs than cheering on their Bball team. Most importantly we should thank them for choking at the most oppertune times, like the first round of the NCAA tourney. For letting us continually run them out of their own arena.

Watch if you dare:

http://advancement.georgetown.edu/thankyou/

Jon Stewart Daily Show went through a list of famous Orange Americans (or as the politically correct term, Americans or Orange descent).- Otto has made the list. Its a proud day for Syracuse grads everywhere.

Check around the 4:20 to 4:50 mark for the mention of Otto. http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/11/03/indecision-2010-jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-air-live-election-specials/

This is my first FanPost where I tried to put in a video, so if the embed function didn't work right, then just check the link below

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/11/03/indecision-2010-jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-air-live-election-specials/

We all know Gtown students are extremely easy to trick. Its basically like playing with a 5 year old. No one is really all that impressed when your practical joke tricks them because they have the common sense of an average lab rat. What is surprising when your students are so stupid that the create a national incident covered by all the major media and leading to the US Supreme Court putting out a press release denying the event.

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A number of people have asked for Doug lasted POS article, here is what he wrote. Basically UNC isn't all that good and Syracuse may be the best team in the Big East, but all the other schools are down.

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