Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Why Democratic party candidates should welcome Trump backing their opponents – politicalbetting.com

13

Comments

  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,723
    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Don't hate me.

    But I'm warming to The Hundred.

    I just like Cricket - as long as it is free to air I don't really mind.
    The hundred is a joke game.
    It's T20 with pointless gimmicks, whatever, I'll watch it.
    It is debasing the game. T20 is bad enough. The 100 is woke cricket.

    UNwatchable.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153
    Chart of the day:


  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,723

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    I was always slightly surprised how poorly IPL did on terrestrial tv. That is the worlds best T20 competition with all the superstars and yet it tanked on ITV.
    It tanked because noone inthe UK bar Indians could relate to a team. In.the Hundred...Who the fuck are southern originals or occasionals or whatever they are called. I don't know and I don't care. Simples.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386
    rcs1000 said:

    CDC director: "The vast majority of transmission, severe disease, hospitalization, and death is almost exclusively happening among unvaccinated people"

    Don't tell @contrarian
    What difference would it make if we did?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021
    Sandpit said:

    Matt Pritchett is an f’ing genius, part 23:



    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/30/matt-cartoons-july-2021/

    All other cartoonists need to just pack it in and syndicate Matt to every newspaper...given how poorly the Torygraph does these days, could be a nice money maker.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,094

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Don't hate me.

    But I'm warming to The Hundred.

    I just like Cricket - as long as it is free to air I don't really mind.
    The hundred is a joke game.
    It's T20 with pointless gimmicks, whatever, I'll watch it.
    It is debasing the game. T20 is bad enough. The 100 is woke cricket.

    UNwatchable.
    Hey, I'm more of a Test Cricket man myself, but the world is what it is.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386

    Sandpit said:

    Matt Pritchett is an f’ing genius, part 23:



    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/30/matt-cartoons-july-2021/

    All other cartoonists need to just pack it in and syndicate Matt to every newspaper...given how poorly the Torygraph does these days, could be a nice money maker.
    Wasn’t there a time he was actually banned from entering a political cartoonists’ competition because he’d won it so often?
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,377

    Leon said:

    A comment on The Hundred. Not much of a crowd for the game at Cardiff tonight - looks very disappointing.

    Although the cricket's reasonably entertaining, I suspect that it may flop because it's so hard to identify with the teams and therefore care who wins. Look at the Welsh Fires - I can't see anything remotely Welsh there; a Yorkshire captain, and I don't think there are any Glamorgan players in the side. It's the same for all the other teams - they're a pretty much random mix of county players and overseas stars, with no city or regional identity. It's all a bit bizarre. On the women's side, it may make more of an impression as it's raising the profile of women's cricket.

    I love The Hundred. It's great to see exhilarating live cricket, with multiple boundaries, on live realtime TV

    There really is a huge market here, if they can get it right. I bow to the marketing people who have spotted this

    People like exciting sport, they like to see athletic men whacking the daylights out of a cricket ball , but they need it to be a bit user friendly than a 5 day Test or even a ODI. Personally I love all forms of the game, but I can see why this works

    The crowds will be very weather dependant. On a fine summer evening, why wouldn't you go and see world class sportsmen playing exciting sport at the Oval, Headingley, Edgbaston?

    You will. I would. I'd take a couple of mates and guzzle wine very happily. In the rain or the chill, less so
    Yes, but as I said it's got an identity problem. I couldn't care less about a team called Northern Fucking Superchargers, or Southern Brave, or Werthers' Originals or whatever they're all called. I want to support Yorkshire, or failing that at least Leeds.
    As a YCCC full member and proud Sheffield lad there's no way I could have supported a Dirty Leeds franchise team in the cricket.
    As a proud Sheffield lad, your envy of Bielsa's glorious Leeds is understandable.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,191
    rcs1000 said:

    Chart of the day:


    I feel like I'd lose or break them very quickly. Maybe that's what the revenue model is based on
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,723
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    I predict that viewing will reduce and it will die an unloved death for reasons given above. Whoever chose the ghastly on screen colours needs flogging round whatever fleet we have left.. just ghastly...

    The BBC are desperate for it to succeed. They have nailed their colours to a dud
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,811

    EU halts legal action against UK over NI Protocol 'breaches'

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-57986307

    The EU has paused its legal action against the UK for alleged breaches of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    It said it was doing so to create the "necessary space" to consider UK proposals for reforming the deal.

    I'm almost certain that our resident remainers were saying that the EU would take unspecified punitive action this afternoon. They seemed extremely sure about this too so the EU must be wrong here and there's not a pause, surely they're planning this unspecified punitive action.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,723
    edited July 2021
    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Don't hate me.

    But I'm warming to The Hundred.

    I just like Cricket - as long as it is free to air I don't really mind.
    The hundred is a joke game.
    It's T20 with pointless gimmicks, whatever, I'll watch it.
    It is debasing the game. T20 is bad enough. The 100 is woke cricket.

    UNwatchable.
    Hey, I'm more of a Test Cricket man myself, but the world is what it is.
    It is and we can choose what to read, what films and plays to see, what music to listen to and so on and so forth. The Hundred afaiac is a dud so I shall ignore it.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,377

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Don't hate me.

    But I'm warming to The Hundred.

    I just like Cricket - as long as it is free to air I don't really mind.
    The hundred is a joke game.
    It's T20 with pointless gimmicks, whatever, I'll watch it.
    It is debasing the game. T20 is bad enough. The 100 is woke cricket.

    UNwatchable.
    Woke cricket. Sponsored by Hula Hoops. Something doesn't add up.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    And yet

    "Increased numbers of women and under-25s tuned into to watch the opening matches of The Hundred.

    "According to Nielsen Sports, the opening women’s match saw 36% of its audience made of female viewers, while the opening men’s match had 39% women and 12% under 25-year-olds making up an average audience of 1.215 million - which peaked at two million on the BBC.

    "This is a sharp increase on the average number that watch the average men’s T20 on Sky Sports, which usually draws 27% women and 13% under-25s of a total audience of 180,000. This would mean around 23,000 under-25s usually watch a T20, compared to roughly 145,000 for The Hundred’s first men’s match, and around 48,000 women for T20 compared to over 473,000 for The Hundred.

    "This is another boost for the competition, after the news that last week it drew the largest broadcast audience for a women’s cricket match in the UK - with 1.6 million seeing the opening game of the tournament on the BBC."

    https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-hundred-draws-key-demographics/5161976.article
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    Pulpstar said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Chart of the day:


    I feel like I'd lose or break them very quickly. Maybe that's what the revenue model is based on
    Nah, they are robust, plus they fit in your pockets via the case.

    Never lost Airpods and I've had them in 2016, ditto the PowerBeats Pro.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Sandpit said:

    Matt Pritchett is an f’ing genius, part 23:



    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/30/matt-cartoons-july-2021/

    All other cartoonists need to just pack it in and syndicate Matt to every newspaper...given how poorly the Torygraph does these days, could be a nice money maker.
    I just love that he gets paid 50% more than the editor, and that the publisher has told the editor that losing Matt would be an offence for which he would be expected to resign. Oh, and by the way, he has a standing offer from the Mail, and another from the Sun.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716
    rcs1000 said:

    CDC director: "The vast majority of transmission, severe disease, hospitalization, and death is almost exclusively happening among unvaccinated people"

    Don't tell @contrarian
    https://twitter.com/AllieHBNews/status/1420113507828240385/photo/1
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,405
    Tres said:

    BBC olympic highlights spending more time interviewing the UK swimmers mum than showing any of the actual sport.

    Tbf it has been on all day.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    And yet

    "Increased numbers of women and under-25s tuned into to watch the opening matches of The Hundred.

    "According to Nielsen Sports, the opening women’s match saw 36% of its audience made of female viewers, while the opening men’s match had 39% women and 12% under 25-year-olds making up an average audience of 1.215 million - which peaked at two million on the BBC.

    "This is a sharp increase on the average number that watch the average men’s T20 on Sky Sports, which usually draws 27% women and 13% under-25s of a total audience of 180,000. This would mean around 23,000 under-25s usually watch a T20, compared to roughly 145,000 for The Hundred’s first men’s match, and around 48,000 women for T20 compared to over 473,000 for The Hundred.

    "This is another boost for the competition, after the news that last week it drew the largest broadcast audience for a women’s cricket match in the UK - with 1.6 million seeing the opening game of the tournament on the BBC."

    https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-hundred-draws-key-demographics/5161976.article
    Yes, but that doesn’t make any differences to the finances. People don’t pay to watch free to air broadcasts.

    And the small problem is, if the ECB don’t make a profit on this tournament this year they are likely to be bankrupted.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    rcs1000 said:

    Chart of the day:


    Example #1542 why the plebs shouldn't be given the vote.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,838
    pigeon said:

    algarkirk said:

    SandraMc said:

    Water polo with horses?

    Why are the Nepalese better at elephant polo than Iceland? It's a scandal.
    After the Icelandic elephant polo team finished a disappointing fourth at the 2013 world championships, their lottery funding was cut in half. It's been all downhill since then, sadly.
    OTOH, the Scots have won twice in recent memory.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Best prices - Next Irish GE (February 2025) - Most seats

    Sinn Féin 4/6
    Fine Gael 13/8
    Fianna Fáil 11/1

    Latest three polls:

    Sinn Féin 30 30 29
    Fine Gael 25 25 30
    Fianna Fáil 14 20 13
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    And yet

    "Increased numbers of women and under-25s tuned into to watch the opening matches of The Hundred.

    "According to Nielsen Sports, the opening women’s match saw 36% of its audience made of female viewers, while the opening men’s match had 39% women and 12% under 25-year-olds making up an average audience of 1.215 million - which peaked at two million on the BBC.

    "This is a sharp increase on the average number that watch the average men’s T20 on Sky Sports, which usually draws 27% women and 13% under-25s of a total audience of 180,000. This would mean around 23,000 under-25s usually watch a T20, compared to roughly 145,000 for The Hundred’s first men’s match, and around 48,000 women for T20 compared to over 473,000 for The Hundred.

    "This is another boost for the competition, after the news that last week it drew the largest broadcast audience for a women’s cricket match in the UK - with 1.6 million seeing the opening game of the tournament on the BBC."

    https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-hundred-draws-key-demographics/5161976.article
    Yes, but that doesn’t make any differences to the finances. People don’t pay to watch free to air broadcasts.

    And the small problem is, if the ECB don’t make a profit on this tournament this year they are likely to be bankrupted.
    Sponsors pay to be on a million TV screens, investors spot a growing prospect, the BBC is, meanwhile, absolutely desperate to be the very centre of a national sporting spectacle once again - and they are right to be desperate
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,639

    Tres said:

    BBC olympic highlights spending more time interviewing the UK swimmers mum than showing any of the actual sport.

    Tbf it has been on all day.
    True. But people who have been out all work all day and who want to see a highlights package in the evening aren't getting that. In the 'old days' that is what would have been provided.
  • YoungTurkYoungTurk Posts: 158
    Trump is unlikely to run for the GOP nomination in 2024, although it's possible he will if he decides that either Kamala Harris or a Joe Biden less physically well than he is now is a defeatable opponent. I'm not sure how he pivots away from his assertion that he actually won in 2020 and the presidency was only given to Joe Biden and his "crime gang" as a result of the greatest conspiracy in the history of the United States. Louis XVIII referred in 1814 to "the 19th year of our reign". Believing Trump to be insane, I may be biased.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,191
    Leon said:

    Every cricket fan should back The Hundred

    The game needs to be reintroduced to the public. This is the way to do it. The scenes of families with loads of kids all doing the "wobbly hand boundary sign" are superb. Cricket could become THE family friendly sport. No nastiness like football, less classist than rugby (of either code), conducted in the summer (picnics!)

    I reckon it might just be a bit of genius. And even if it isn't, they have really had a go

    I think it should replace the T20 in the UK. Aussies have the big bash, India the IPL
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,994
    My thoughts on the two important debates if the evening.

    1. Equestrian winter sports: I would have thought the answer is obvious. One-horse open sleigh riding would be a fantastic Winter Olympics event. I went in a one-horse open sleigh once, to take our family’s luggage from the car park to our apartment in Avoriaz. No brainer.

    2. Cricket: test cricket is not dead and will increasingly be the only form watched at national level. It’s like the majors in golf (or Ryder cup) and tennis. Longer form, more prestigious. The other formats are like the show events, PGA tour games etc.

    Test matches last a paltry 5 days. Golf majors go on almost as long, Grand Prix are a good 3 days including practice and qualifying, and one round in the Champions league takes a couple of weeks with two legs in different countries.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386

    Heh.


    Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and England aren’t any good at cricket, and England is no good at rugby.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,011
    Camel dressage would give the North African nations a good medal opportunity.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281

    Heh.


    We are, still, the only nation to have won the World Cup in the three greatest sports on earth

    To be fair, we did invent them, but whatevs
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    ydoethur said:

    Heh.


    Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and England aren’t any good at cricket, and England is no good at rugby.
    At the cricket we're the world champions.

    In the rugby we got to the final of the last world cup.

    If that's not any good....
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
  • RH1992RH1992 Posts: 788
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    And yet

    "Increased numbers of women and under-25s tuned into to watch the opening matches of The Hundred.

    "According to Nielsen Sports, the opening women’s match saw 36% of its audience made of female viewers, while the opening men’s match had 39% women and 12% under 25-year-olds making up an average audience of 1.215 million - which peaked at two million on the BBC.

    "This is a sharp increase on the average number that watch the average men’s T20 on Sky Sports, which usually draws 27% women and 13% under-25s of a total audience of 180,000. This would mean around 23,000 under-25s usually watch a T20, compared to roughly 145,000 for The Hundred’s first men’s match, and around 48,000 women for T20 compared to over 473,000 for The Hundred.

    "This is another boost for the competition, after the news that last week it drew the largest broadcast audience for a women’s cricket match in the UK - with 1.6 million seeing the opening game of the tournament on the BBC."

    https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-hundred-draws-key-demographics/5161976.article
    Yes, but that doesn’t make any differences to the finances. People don’t pay to watch free to air broadcasts.

    And the small problem is, if the ECB don’t make a profit on this tournament this year they are likely to be bankrupted.
    I wonder how many of the games will sell out. I'm actually going to the one on 17th August at Headingley (£12 and round the corner so a nice Tuesday evening out) but there were a fair few games sold out when browsing the tickets page. For Headingley there were no cheap tickets for Saturday coming and 12 August was totally sold out.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632

    Camel dressage would give the North African nations a good medal opportunity.

    Might give the hump to some people.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,896

    Leon said:

    Why are African countries so shit at dressage?

    Not a single nation in the top 10. Pathetic

    I've seen Chariots of Fire. Our posh boys once dominated track events before the Africans took over. One day dressage might go the same way.
    They used to say Black people can't swim but if you look carefully at this photo of the American ladies relay team...
    https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1420022104968220672/photo/1
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Tres said:

    BBC olympic highlights spending more time interviewing the UK swimmers mum than showing any of the actual sport.

    Tbf it has been on all day.
    True. But people who have been out all work all day and who want to see a highlights package in the evening aren't getting that. In the 'old days' that is what would have been provided.
    Yeah but the “feelings” of the parents and hangers-on, are now way more important than actually showing highlights in their highlights show.

    My “feelings” go out to the female Aussie swimmer who said the f-word on camera earlier.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Heh.


    England have won none of their last matches against Scotland in each of those haven't they?
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    Alistair said:

    Heh.


    England have won none of their last matches against Scotland in each of those haven't they?
    Yeah, but they really didn't matter.

    #WorldChampions
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,191
    The one change Test cricket needs is for it to be a 450 over match (Less 2 overs per innings change).
    And for 15 overs per hour to be more rigorously enforced. 🌧 forcing poor draws and Stuart Broad bowling at a 🐌 pace are my two gripes
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716
    YoungTurk said:

    Trump is unlikely to run for the GOP nomination in 2024, although it's possible he will if he decides that either Kamala Harris or a Joe Biden less physically well than he is now is a defeatable opponent. I'm not sure how he pivots away from his assertion that he actually won in 2020 and the presidency was only given to Joe Biden and his "crime gang" as a result of the greatest conspiracy in the history of the United States. Louis XVIII referred in 1814 to "the 19th year of our reign". Believing Trump to be insane, I may be biased.

    Why is he unlikely to run?
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
    It would have France right at the heart of that.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    RH1992 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    The test for the Hundred is if they are still getting the tv ratings and big crowds throughout and obviously next season...some of us are old enough to remember GB News was getting 3x the audience of BBC News channel....

    At the moment, after promoting the hell out of it at every opportunity om thr BBC and Sky, they got good numbers for the first couple of games. You literally couldn't watch a footy game at the Euros without the BBC advertising it.

    See the ratings. They're getting good figures for the latest matches, too

    So far they must be happy. A whole new format, for a sport many have forgotten, doing rather nicely

    But still some way to go....
    At the moment they are apparently really miserable because they haven’t sold enough tickets to hit the break even point.

    That may change of course, but if there’s a loss in the first year it won’t be back for a second year.
    I really doubt it's the live tickets that matter? Especially in a pandemic

    It's the TV ratings, surely. Which so far are good
    The business plan was predicated on full houses, because the TV rights money has already been allocated to the counties.

    Insufficient ticket sales and they won’t be covering the cost of player salaries.
    And yet

    "Increased numbers of women and under-25s tuned into to watch the opening matches of The Hundred.

    "According to Nielsen Sports, the opening women’s match saw 36% of its audience made of female viewers, while the opening men’s match had 39% women and 12% under 25-year-olds making up an average audience of 1.215 million - which peaked at two million on the BBC.

    "This is a sharp increase on the average number that watch the average men’s T20 on Sky Sports, which usually draws 27% women and 13% under-25s of a total audience of 180,000. This would mean around 23,000 under-25s usually watch a T20, compared to roughly 145,000 for The Hundred’s first men’s match, and around 48,000 women for T20 compared to over 473,000 for The Hundred.

    "This is another boost for the competition, after the news that last week it drew the largest broadcast audience for a women’s cricket match in the UK - with 1.6 million seeing the opening game of the tournament on the BBC."

    https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-hundred-draws-key-demographics/5161976.article
    Yes, but that doesn’t make any differences to the finances. People don’t pay to watch free to air broadcasts.

    And the small problem is, if the ECB don’t make a profit on this tournament this year they are likely to be bankrupted.
    I wonder how many of the games will sell out. I'm actually going to the one on 17th August at Headingley (£12 and round the corner so a nice Tuesday evening out) but there were a fair few games sold out when browsing the tickets page. For Headingley there were no cheap tickets for Saturday coming and 12 August was totally sold out.
    it's £12??!!!

    Why would you not go on a pleasant evening? That's amazing. Twelve quid for three hours of world class sportsmen doing their thing, live, in front of you

    A crappy ticket and guaranteed Covid in a London cinema costs about £15-20 for piped and predictable entertainment
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,492
    Just noticed that the rate of vaccination in Russia has ramped up a lot recently, now almost a million a day.

    Do we know why?

    I don't think there have been any supply constraints for some time, just people did not what/trust it?

    Is it because of the increase in cases has incentivised more people to get vaccinated?

    Or has the government introduced Vax-passports or something?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021
    BigRich said:

    Just noticed that the rate of vaccination in Russia has ramped up a lot recently, now almost a million a day.

    Do we know why?

    I don't think there have been any supply constraints for some time, just people did not what/trust it?

    Is it because of the increase in cases has incentivised more people to get vaccinated?

    Or has the government introduced Vax-passports or something?

    Cos everybody is dying in Russia.....even by their dodgy numbers, they have had high daily rates for quite a while now.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716
    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois
    ·
    1h
    Vaccine passports would be very costly, both to the government and the hospitality/event sector. A better use of those funds in my views would be to distribute helicopter money (e.g. £1000 to everyone who's been vaccinated). It would increase vaccine uptake and help the economy.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,862
    Police chiefs have condemned Boris Johnson’s high-profile strategy to tackle crime as “weird and gimmicky”, while plans to increase stop-and-search were criticised for ignoring the evidence.

    The crime initiative was supposed to show the Johnson government gripping the agenda. But senior police officers, the rank and file, opposition politicians and even some in business rebuked it.

    The criticism of Johnson’s crime plan is the latest in a series of setbacks for the prime minister’s domestic relaunch, after his landmark “levelling up” speech was mocked for being light on detail and his plan to overhaul social care delayed by Treasury wrangling and a Conservative backlash over tax rises.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153

    YoungTurk said:

    Trump is unlikely to run for the GOP nomination in 2024, although it's possible he will if he decides that either Kamala Harris or a Joe Biden less physically well than he is now is a defeatable opponent. I'm not sure how he pivots away from his assertion that he actually won in 2020 and the presidency was only given to Joe Biden and his "crime gang" as a result of the greatest conspiracy in the history of the United States. Louis XVIII referred in 1814 to "the 19th year of our reign". Believing Trump to be insane, I may be biased.

    Why is he unlikely to run?
    Well, he'll be 78 come the Primaries. And he's not the springest of chickens.

    I'd say he's 50% likely to run, and 70% likely to get the nomination if he runs. The really interesting scenario is one where he runs and has to pull out...
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
    Hey, don't knock a winning formula.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821
    Tres said:

    BBC olympic highlights spending more time interviewing the UK swimmers mum than showing any of the actual sport.

    https://inews.co.uk/news/media/bbc-olympics-2020-tokyo-forced-to-defend-coverage-viewers-annoyed-1120039
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,929

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois
    ·
    1h
    Vaccine passports would be very costly, both to the government and the hospitality/event sector. A better use of those funds in my views would be to distribute helicopter money (e.g. £1000 to everyone who's been vaccinated). It would increase vaccine uptake and help the economy.

    Ah, a parody. I was going to say, £1000??
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
    It would have France right at the heart of that.
    Dieu et votre droit

    Boke
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716
    Baptist Medical Center [Florida] has seen its Covid-19 patient numbers multiplying every day, Daniel said. "We can't open up beds fast enough to meet the demand," she said.

    More than 99% of those patients aren't vaccinated and the average age is around 50 years old, said CEO of Baptist Health Michael Mayo.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/26/us/florida-coronavirus-hospital-surge/index.html
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821

    Leon said:

    Why are African countries so shit at dressage?

    Not a single nation in the top 10. Pathetic

    I've seen Chariots of Fire. Our posh boys once dominated track events before the Africans took over. One day dressage might go the same way.
    They used to say Black people can't swim but if you look carefully at this photo of the American ladies relay team...
    https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1420022104968220672/photo/1
    That's their gymnastics team.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Teams from how many countries, compete in the baseball World Series?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    Today's "Strange but True":

    The USA won Gold in the Rugby at the 1924 Olympics.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,647

    rcs1000 said:

    CDC director: "The vast majority of transmission, severe disease, hospitalization, and death is almost exclusively happening among unvaccinated people"

    Don't tell @contrarian
    https://twitter.com/AllieHBNews/status/1420113507828240385/photo/1
    Chatting to one of our ICU staff. Nearly all the covid cases there are unvaxxed, not even single vaxxed, but zero. The pregnant ones have an excuse, but the others 🙄
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Teams from how many countries, compete in the baseball World Series?
    Two...
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    Except for the Super Bowl, which is more about the show than the actual game.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716
    rcs1000 said:

    YoungTurk said:

    Trump is unlikely to run for the GOP nomination in 2024, although it's possible he will if he decides that either Kamala Harris or a Joe Biden less physically well than he is now is a defeatable opponent. I'm not sure how he pivots away from his assertion that he actually won in 2020 and the presidency was only given to Joe Biden and his "crime gang" as a result of the greatest conspiracy in the history of the United States. Louis XVIII referred in 1814 to "the 19th year of our reign". Believing Trump to be insane, I may be biased.

    Why is he unlikely to run?
    Well, he'll be 78 come the Primaries. And he's not the springest of chickens.

    I'd say he's 50% likely to run, and 70% likely to get the nomination if he runs. The really interesting scenario is one where he runs and has to pull out...
    Trump will have to be in a coffin with the top nailed down to stop him running on health grounds.

    I can see he wont be running if he is wearing an orange jump suit but I suspect his lawyers will spin out any of the many circling law suites.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    Contrary thought

    Name a nation that would be brilliant at a sport yet has inexplicably ignored it


    My vote: the Dutch should play rugby

    The Springboks are formidable at rugby, despite many handicaps - remoteness, relative poverty, racial politics. The Dutch are basically the Boers but even bigger in size (the tallest, biggest western nation) they have plenty of money, they love sport, they'd be superb at rugby, plus they'd get to thrash the Germans all the time (which they love)

    LET THE DUTCH PLAY RUGBY. They'd be much better than the Italians, they might be the best in the world within a decade
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021

    Leon said:

    Why are African countries so shit at dressage?

    Not a single nation in the top 10. Pathetic

    I've seen Chariots of Fire. Our posh boys once dominated track events before the Africans took over. One day dressage might go the same way.
    They used to say Black people can't swim but if you look carefully at this photo of the American ladies relay team...
    https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1420022104968220672/photo/1
    If you had been watching the swimming you would find it is still really is the exception to have a black swimmer in the finals, even from powerhouse diverse nations like USA.

    Now gymnastics....USA have several black athletes...
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    edited July 2021

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
    It would have France right at the heart of that.
    Dieu et votre droit

    Boke
    That's Norman, not French.

    Edit - Not the boke, that's Scottish.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153
    edited July 2021
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    Ice hockey is an incredible live sport. The air vibrates when players are body checked at 25 miles an hour into the perspex sides. And it's so very, very fast.

    One of the best sporting events I've ever been to was Calgary vs Edmonton, albeit the amount of impromptu fan violence afterwards was a little off puttiing.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,862
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    Except for the Super Bowl, which is more about the show than the actual game.
    So is baseball.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Teams from how many countries, compete in the baseball World Series?
    Two...
    That was my answer too. There’s a couple of Canadian teams.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,647
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    I would agree on Basketball, but at least it has the advantage of being playable in an urban ghetto.

    Ice Hockey is great to watch, as is High School American Football (as there are no ad breaks but it is taken very seriously), with cheerleaders, drill team and marching bands. It is like being in a teen flick.

    Baseball is actually quite an enjoyable game to play as well as watch.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,811

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois
    ·
    1h
    Vaccine passports would be very costly, both to the government and the hospitality/event sector. A better use of those funds in my views would be to distribute helicopter money (e.g. £1000 to everyone who's been vaccinated). It would increase vaccine uptake and help the economy.

    That's £48bn. Not realistic at all.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    Leon said:

    Contrary thought

    Name a nation that would be brilliant at a sport yet has inexplicably ignored it


    My vote: the Dutch should play rugby

    The Springboks are formidable at rugby, despite many handicaps - remoteness, relative poverty, racial politics. The Dutch are basically the Boers but even bigger in size (the tallest, biggest western nation) they have plenty of money, they love sport, they'd be superb at rugby, plus they'd get to thrash the Germans all the time (which they love)

    LET THE DUTCH PLAY RUGBY. They'd be much better than the Italians, they might be the best in the world within a decade

    The Netherlands play rugby union.

    I've seen them play, I saw England absolutely hump them in 1998 in a world cup qualifier.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Leon said:

    Why are African countries so shit at dressage?

    Not a single nation in the top 10. Pathetic

    I've seen Chariots of Fire. Our posh boys once dominated track events before the Africans took over. One day dressage might go the same way.
    They used to say Black people can't swim but if you look carefully at this photo of the American ladies relay team...
    https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1420022104968220672/photo/1
    If you had been watching the swimming you would find it is still really is the exception to have a black swimmer in the finals, even from powerhouse diverse nations like USA.

    Now gymnastics....USA have several black athletes...
    And their biggest medal chance, appears to have had a breakdown and withdrawn. Simone Biles.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    Ice hockey is an incredible live sport. The air vibrates when players are body checked at 25 miles an hour into the perspex sides. And it's so very, very fast.

    One of the best sporting events I've ever been to was Calgary vs Edmonton, albeit the amount of impromptu fan violence afterwards was a little off puttiing.
    Ice hockey on tv is meh... ice hockey live is great. Pre covid, i used to go on a semi-regular basis to UK games and its a good fun night out. Best one I have been to, Cardiff, the crowd are totally nuts. Its like a rock concert.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    How’s your six pack Sean?

    Your online persona screams impotent wreck.
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,492

    BigRich said:

    Just noticed that the rate of vaccination in Russia has ramped up a lot recently, now almost a million a day.

    Do we know why?

    I don't think there have been any supply constraints for some time, just people did not what/trust it?

    Is it because of the increase in cases has incentivised more people to get vaccinated?

    Or has the government introduced Vax-passports or something?

    Cos everybody is dying in Russia.....even by their dodgy numbers, they have had high daily rates for quite a while now.
    Yes, maybe, but cases there started rising 7 weeks ago and peeked 3 weeks ago, vaccinations only started rising 2 weeks ago.

    So while the may be one factor, the timings don't quite work? maybe it took some time for photos of over run hospitals to leek out and be noticed?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021
    BigRich said:

    BigRich said:

    Just noticed that the rate of vaccination in Russia has ramped up a lot recently, now almost a million a day.

    Do we know why?

    I don't think there have been any supply constraints for some time, just people did not what/trust it?

    Is it because of the increase in cases has incentivised more people to get vaccinated?

    Or has the government introduced Vax-passports or something?

    Cos everybody is dying in Russia.....even by their dodgy numbers, they have had high daily rates for quite a while now.
    Yes, maybe, but cases there started rising 7 weeks ago and peeked 3 weeks ago, vaccinations only started rising 2 weeks ago.

    So while the may be one factor, the timings don't quite work? maybe it took some time for photos of over run hospitals to leek out and be noticed?
    Remember Russians are maasively anti-vax and don't trust the state. From memory, Vlad has also proposed vaccine passport type approach.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,241

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    CDC director: "The vast majority of transmission, severe disease, hospitalization, and death is almost exclusively happening among unvaccinated people"

    Don't tell @contrarian
    https://twitter.com/AllieHBNews/status/1420113507828240385/photo/1
    Chatting to one of our ICU staff. Nearly all the covid cases there are unvaxxed, not even single vaxxed, but zero. The pregnant ones have an excuse, but the others 🙄
    It is all very sad. Steady stream of stories now of people about to be put on the old ventilator begging to change their minds and have the jab.
    One of my running buddies, who is an A&E consultant, told me the same story this evening.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,871
    Leon said:

    A comment on The Hundred. Not much of a crowd for the game at Cardiff tonight - looks very disappointing.

    Although the cricket's reasonably entertaining, I suspect that it may flop because it's so hard to identify with the teams and therefore care who wins. Look at the Welsh Fires - I can't see anything remotely Welsh there; a Yorkshire captain, and I don't think there are any Glamorgan players in the side. It's the same for all the other teams - they're a pretty much random mix of county players and overseas stars, with no city or regional identity. It's all a bit bizarre. On the women's side, it may make more of an impression as it's raising the profile of women's cricket.

    I love The Hundred. It's great to see exhilarating live cricket, with multiple boundaries, on live realtime TV

    There really is a huge market here, if they can get it right. I bow to the marketing people who have spotted this

    People like exciting sport, they like to see athletic men whacking the daylights out of a cricket ball , but they need it to be a bit user friendly than a 5 day Test or even a ODI. Personally I love all forms of the game, but I can see why this works

    The crowds will be very weather dependant. On a fine summer evening, why wouldn't you go and see world class sportsmen playing exciting sport at the Oval, Headingley, Edgbaston?

    You will. I would. I'd take a couple of mates and guzzle wine very happily. In the rain or the chill, less so
    Because I have about 49999 better things to do which even includes cleaning fungus out of my spigot valve. Seriously cricket, if there was a sport played in hell and damned souls forced to watch that would be the sport. Hell hardened psychopaths would mend their ways and become like lambs if the bibles said "He who sinneth shall be damned to hell to watch cricket forever after"
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021
    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL) - both are great for slightly different reasons.

    Ice Hockey - especially if you get two teams with big "enforcers", who turn it into an boxing match at regular intervals.

    Baseball - only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns

    Basketball - strangely dull and repeative until the last minute, and the crowd react as such.

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,716

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    CDC director: "The vast majority of transmission, severe disease, hospitalization, and death is almost exclusively happening among unvaccinated people"

    Don't tell @contrarian
    https://twitter.com/AllieHBNews/status/1420113507828240385/photo/1
    Chatting to one of our ICU staff. Nearly all the covid cases there are unvaxxed, not even single vaxxed, but zero. The pregnant ones have an excuse, but the others 🙄
    It is all very sad. Steady stream of stories now of people about to be put on the old ventilator begging to change their minds and have the jab.
    One of my running buddies, who is an A&E consultant, told me the same story this evening.
    Must be very tough for the medics. Just ten minutes and one little needle and these patients would almost certainly not be there.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,191
    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    I would agree on Basketball, but at least it has the advantage of being playable in an urban ghetto.

    Ice Hockey is great to watch, as is High School American Football (as there are no ad breaks but it is taken very seriously), with cheerleaders, drill team and marching bands. It is like being in a teen flick.

    Baseball is actually quite an enjoyable game to play as well as watch.
    Never been able to get into baseball tbh, American football otoh is great
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,281
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    Ice hockey is an incredible live sport. The air vibrates when players are body checked at 25 miles an hour into the perspex sides. And it's so very, very fast.

    One of the best sporting events I've ever been to was Calgary vs Edmonton, albeit the amount of impromptu fan violence afterwards was a little off puttiing.
    My brother, then living in Ontario, took me to a Canadian pro ice hockey game. A fierce local rivalry with about 20,000 fans?

    It was... OK, the atmos was good

    But it was still shit, basically. As a sport. I liked the anthropology, but..... no. Nah. Not really

    It is odd, the badness of American sports. They once conquered the world with their movies and music, but not sports. The utter shitness of American football is actually quite something to behold, when you remember the time, money and passion that goes into it. To end up with a product that mediocre is amazing
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    edited July 2021

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL)
    Ice Hockey
    Baseball (only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns)
    Basketball (strangely dull and repeative until the last minute).

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    The thing has genuinely shocked me was just how big the stadia are for college American football and just how often they get packed out (pretty much all the time.)

    Had quite the experience in Ann Arbor.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,647

    Leon said:

    Contrary thought

    Name a nation that would be brilliant at a sport yet has inexplicably ignored it


    My vote: the Dutch should play rugby

    The Springboks are formidable at rugby, despite many handicaps - remoteness, relative poverty, racial politics. The Dutch are basically the Boers but even bigger in size (the tallest, biggest western nation) they have plenty of money, they love sport, they'd be superb at rugby, plus they'd get to thrash the Germans all the time (which they love)

    LET THE DUTCH PLAY RUGBY. They'd be much better than the Italians, they might be the best in the world within a decade

    The Netherlands play rugby union.

    I've seen them play, I saw England absolutely hump them in 1998 in a world cup qualifier.
    Perhaps the strangest one that has close to zero UK profile is handball. It is quite exciting to watch, very physical and popular throughout Europe. I guess we didn't invent it though.
  • glwglw Posts: 9,906

    BigRich said:

    BigRich said:

    Just noticed that the rate of vaccination in Russia has ramped up a lot recently, now almost a million a day.

    Do we know why?

    I don't think there have been any supply constraints for some time, just people did not what/trust it?

    Is it because of the increase in cases has incentivised more people to get vaccinated?

    Or has the government introduced Vax-passports or something?

    Cos everybody is dying in Russia.....even by their dodgy numbers, they have had high daily rates for quite a while now.
    Yes, maybe, but cases there started rising 7 weeks ago and peeked 3 weeks ago, vaccinations only started rising 2 weeks ago.

    So while the may be one factor, the timings don't quite work? maybe it took some time for photos of over run hospitals to leek out and be noticed?
    Remember Russians are maasively anti-vax and don't trust the state. From memory, Vlad has also proposed vaccine passport type approach.
    Yes there are a lot of categories of workers where vaccination is being mandated, and in Russia when the state says you do something you do it or else.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,370

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL)
    Ice Hockey
    Baseball (only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns)
    Basketball (strangely dull and repeative until the last minute).

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    The thing has genuinely shocked me was just how big the stadia are for college American football and just how often they get packed out (pretty much all the time.)

    Had quite the experience in Ann Arbor.
    What else is there to do - it's basically the sole local highlight of the fortnight
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632
    Pulpstar said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    I would agree on Basketball, but at least it has the advantage of being playable in an urban ghetto.

    Ice Hockey is great to watch, as is High School American Football (as there are no ad breaks but it is taken very seriously), with cheerleaders, drill team and marching bands. It is like being in a teen flick.

    Baseball is actually quite an enjoyable game to play as well as watch.
    Never been able to get into baseball tbh, American football otoh is great
    As a rugby fan I cannot get into American football, all that padding and helmets.
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 3,705

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL)
    Ice Hockey
    Baseball (only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns)
    Basketball (strangely dull and repeative until the last minute).

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    I've been to the baseball at Yankee Stadium.

    I didn't really understand it, but they put on a good show around it. A very redneck couple also had a classic big screen zoom in wedding proposal moment.

    Got some decent tickets for the US Open tennis at Flushing Meadow though, which was much more up my avenue.

    In terms of sheer scale, a day at a full Indy 500 looks fairly insane, although I'd probably prefer to see Indycar at one of the classic road courses.
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,206
    edited July 2021

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois
    ·
    1h
    Vaccine passports would be very costly, both to the government and the hospitality/event sector. A better use of those funds in my views would be to distribute helicopter money (e.g. £1000 to everyone who's been vaccinated). It would increase vaccine uptake and help the economy.

    On the basis of that we're already going to hit about 90% coverage, if this scheme was so successful it got us to 100% coverage, it would effectively cost us £10k per extra jab. If it only got us to 95% its nearly £20k a jab.

    There are probably better uses for the cash than preventing 20 year olds from getting immunity via a fairly mild infection.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,003
    edited July 2021

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL)
    Ice Hockey
    Baseball (only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns)
    Basketball (strangely dull and repeative until the last minute).

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    The thing has genuinely shocked me was just how big the stadia are for college American football and just how often they get packed out (pretty much all the time.)

    Had quite the experience in Ann Arbor.
    And all those drunk college kids going mental...its a competition who has the best entrances.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,647
    Pulpstar said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Heh.


    In the US, they have a similar venn diagram with baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey on it.
    Baseball. Shit sport. No one plays it except countries nuked by America or basically nuked

    Basketball, meaningless goals all the time, you have to be 9 foot tall

    American football, so bad the Canadians play a slightly better version, no one else plays it

    Ice hockey, lol
    I've tried to get into baseball because the mighty Liverpool are owned by the people who own the Boston Red Sox and let us face facts, baseball is rounders, a game played by British schoolchildren.
    American sports are weirdly shit, without exception. And I have tried to like them
    I would agree on Basketball, but at least it has the advantage of being playable in an urban ghetto.

    Ice Hockey is great to watch, as is High School American Football (as there are no ad breaks but it is taken very seriously), with cheerleaders, drill team and marching bands. It is like being in a teen flick.

    Baseball is actually quite an enjoyable game to play as well as watch.
    Never been able to get into baseball tbh, American football otoh is great
    I played both at high school. Each can be quite subtle and tactical. Pro games are dull though, too many time outs for the TV adverts.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,153

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL) - both are great for slightly different reasons.

    Ice Hockey - especially if you get two teams with big "enforcers", who turn it into an boxing match at regular intervals.

    Baseball - only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns

    Basketball - strangely dull and repeative until the last minute, and the crowd react as such.

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    LAFC is more fun than Arsenal. The football isn't as good, but (a) you're allowed to drink and (b) the atmosphere is great. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKAyfwcHHw0
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,632

    Having been to all the US major sports in the US, I would say as a day out ranked in following order

    College American Football (better than NFL)
    Ice Hockey
    Baseball (only with good seats, otherwise its like sitting side on at the cricket, minus the 20 lads ona stag dressed as nuns)
    Basketball (strangely dull and repeative until the last minute).

    I have not been to MLS, so can't comment on that.

    The thing has genuinely shocked me was just how big the stadia are for college American football and just how often they get packed out (pretty much all the time.)

    Had quite the experience in Ann Arbor.
    And all those drunk college kids going mental...its a competition who has the best entrances.
    No segregation of fans either.

    One day that's going to become a problem.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,871

    Heh.


    Try a Venn diagram of entitlement, arrogance and delusion.
    They dont have a circle for left wing voters
This discussion has been closed.