Tag: LA

Rams and Chargers Combined Attendance Still Lower than USC Last Week

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Yahoo – The Rams, playing in the cavernous L.A. Coliseum, drew just 56,612 people to their game against Washington. The Chargers meanwhile, playing in the 27,000-seat StubHub Center in nearby Carson, had a measly 25,381 patrons watch their loss against Miami. The combined attendance for the Rams and Chargers was 81,993. These numbers are especially low considering that on Saturday night, the USC-Texas game – also played in the Coliseum – had 84,714 fans.

The famously sports crazed and empathetic city of Los Angeles cannot support two NFL franchises, let alone one. Color me shocked.

When you see it side by side like though its got to be startling for the owners. The Rams are bad, but still they are 1/32, an elite group, and they can’t even fill half the stadium. Sure the Coliseum is 100k seats, but jesus christ just give some tickets away to avoid a picture like this:

Bad optics man. Perception is reality. And the perception here is that no one is showing up to watch the NFL in LA. And granted the Chargers are playing in a goddamn MLS stadium that only holds 27,000 fans, but even that they couldn’t sell out. People should be lining up to watch a game there, if for nothing else than the novelty of seeing a real, live NFL team in a tiny stadium that was designed to host soccer players making $100K a year.

I understand the want and maybe the need for the NFL to be in one of, if not the, biggest TV markets in the country, but sometimes you need to step back and see a bad idea for what it is. I’m sure the owners and the league will make their money back on Super Bowls, concerts, bowl games, and everything else that new LA stadium will hold, but I seriously doubt either team will ever have a ravenous fan base.

Maybe if the team is GREAT, which both are far from being, then the fans will come out. But that is the No. 1 problem with LA as a fan base for a franchise; the majority of the city is transplants. So if the team sucks, then why should I come out and spend my money? Its not really *my* team. Being from Boston obviously the teams are usually pretty good, but even when they’re bad we still show up. Its in our blood. We don’t have any other choice and its what we were raised on. Thats what helps build passion. Not shiny new stadiums.

Something I Didn’t Expect to Write Back in 2013; It Must Suck to Be Doc Rivers Right Now

By on • ( Leave a comment )

This is not something I expected to write back in 2013. We all knew it was time for the Celtics to break up the band when they did, but I’ll never forget drinking a $3 PBR at White Horse as I somberly watched the ESPN news of the trade light up the flat screens around the bar. I knew it was time, but it still sucked to see the best Celtics team of my lifetime finally break up.

Back in 2013 the Celtics were at the end of an era and it was clear. The Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen had dominated from their first tipoff together, starting the 2007-08 season by going 27-2 on the way to an NBA Championship. They were always in the hunt for a title over the course of the next 5 seasons and were a ton of fun to watch as they morphed from the dominant top dog into the aging, wily veterans making one last stand.

Once that all came to an end though, Doc Rivers, who infamously said how he wanted to be a part of the Celtics rebuild, almost immediately changed his mind on being part of said rebuild. With 3 years and $21 million left on Doc’s contract he wanted out. So Danny Ainge made a deal with the Clippers to send Doc out west and got a first round pick in exchange.

Shitty move by Doc, but I don’t hold some massive grudge over it like a lot of fans still do. Doc wanted to leave for greener pastures (and more power) in LA so why pay a coach $7 million dollars a year on a lottery bound team? Doesn’t make sense.

Back then though the Clippers were the place to be with young studs like Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul to bring it all together. They looked like a team poised to do big things while the Celtics looked to be on the brink of a long, slow, and painful rebuild. Except four years later the Celtics are the reigning No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with have the best young coach in the league in Brad Stevens, having recently added three All-Stars (Hayward, Horford, Irving), and picked up a couple of lottery picks to boot in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Meanwhile the Clippers are legitimately falling apart. Doc has been stripped of his role as President of Basketball Operations and is back to just writing “Coach” on his LinkedIn profile. Chris Paul is gone. DeAndre Jordan is suddenly 29 and Blake Griffin is now a 28 year old on bad knees who is aging in dog years.

Ask any executive in the NBA and I would bet the house that I don’t own that every single one of them would rather be the Celtics right now. Who the hell would have guessed that would be the case just 4 years ago? That would have been absurd to suggest, yet here we are.

The best part? The Celtics aren’t done. They still have a potential top 5 pick again next year with the Lakers pick and are only going to get better with Kyrie and Hayward on the team with the young guys continuing to develop.

I wonder if Doc looks back and says, welp I really fucked that one up. Not something I thought I would write just 4 years later from that Allston barstool.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Are Now Just the Los Angeles Angels

By on • ( Leave a comment )

SportsLogos – The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim still the butt of jokes on social media and elsewhere due to their clumsy name have officially changed their name to just “Los Angeles Angels” finally dropping the “of Anaheim” part.

Apparently the Angels quietly made this change awhile ago, but didn’t make any grand announcements about it because, well, its always been a ridiculous name. Los Angeles is a cool 40 mins from Anaheim, which if you’ve ever driven around LA you know is more like 2+ hours.

That would be like Charlie Baker deciding to put a team deep on the South Shore. Might as well be the goddamn Cape League at that point.

This is the FIFTH time the Angels have changed their name and the teams only been around since 1961. Thats fucking bananas. Not to mention they’re going back to a name they already used with LA Angels. They’ve also been the Anaheim Angels and the California Angels, but its hard to top Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I still hold out hope that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will get drunk and green light an NL expansion team in Boston. Then we could really get wild with some team names. Lets just say the Minutemen for now. The Boston Minutemen of New England. The Seaport District Minutemen of Boston. My personal favorite? The Allston Minutemen of Brighton.