-
Posts
8,699 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Posts posted by Maximus Decimus
-
-
10 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
Haha, think we e just seen the end of Joshua though.
He’s had some great nights and fights.
But Dubois manhandled him tonight for 5 rounds.
Yeh I feel sad for AJ, but Dubois did great.
I think AJ wanted to come out and box his head off, but Dubois was just too aggressive and didn't let him. Once he caught him flush it was a case of trying to recover but he's so bad at it.
He should probably retire, but if he doesn't I'd pay to watch the rematch!
-
Been any big fights recently?...
-
Ah running, the joys of it.
In all my years of running I've been pretty lucky with injuries. Once, I was running over a bridge and my calf popped but other than that I've been good.
This summer I seem to be having a succession of minor ailments that are definitely taking away from my joy. Firstly, I dropped a laptop on my toe which set me back a week or two. This coincided with the start of the summer and a weight gain of about 12lbs.
Since then, I've suffered with Plantar Fasciitis in my foot and now that's subsided a lot, I've been getting a stiff back. I wouldn't say it was painful but it's definitely annoying and I've tried to run past it but it isn't getting any better but worse and noticeably so the day after a run. Not only that, but the weight makes the running much more cumbersome. I'm slower and feel like I'm plodding.
Long and short of it, I'm on the verge of stopping running albeit temporarily. The plan is to stop for a month or so while I lose weight and my back recovers and dare I say to get my mojo back a bit.
Only problem is, will I actually start again? It's like breaking a diet to go on holiday, fully intending to start up again. 2 stone later and 2 years later...
-
Jets, Bears, Texans, Saints, Steelers, Buccs, Titans, Browns, Raiders, Seahawks, Cardinals, Ravens, 49ers, Chiefs, Bills, Bengals
-
27 minutes ago, Irish Saint said:
After a high percentage of correct predictions last week...
Wow I'm going to take a huuuuuge hit this week
-
On 09/09/2024 at 10:32, gingerjon said:
In most cases, non league football is doing pretty well for attendances but I've just seen that Rayners Layne v Moneyfields in the Isthmian South Central on Saturday drew a 'crowd' of 30.
The lowest official crowd I've been in is 22 for Amersham Town a while back and I do remember a club called Tokyngton Manor who went a little loopy and ended up drawing an official crowd of 2 one week.
According to one website I saw, last year had the biggest overall average in the Football League's history at 17,000.
-
1 hour ago, Irish Saint said:
With Tua Tagovailoa suffering another concession quite a few ex players stating it is time for him to walk away?
Nice to see a lot of the "Bills Mafia" donating to Tua's foundation after the game.
Yeh it's a tough one to see.
If you're Tua, maybe you don't retire but you start saving your paychecks with a view to it maybe not lasting much longer.
-
This season has been my first since following the game more seriously, and my first with any real expectation as a fan. Being a fan of the Jets and the Bears, expectations have been low. They were sky high last year but it lasted about 4 minutes...
It's been interesting to see just how critical the punditry has been. I think it's even worse than British football.
Yes the Jets first game wasn't great but so many have totally written off their chances based on it. Rodgers is done and their defence is shot.
-
2 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
I don’t know, but the great highlight programmes of the early/mid 80s on C4 were a definite primer for me.
One of my earliest sports memories is seeing my dad watching on a Sunday night. Funnily enough I remember not liking it.
Tbh I don't think many NFL fans are watching through terrestrial TV these days. They claim that there are millions of NFL fans in the UK now and of these 68% are between 18-44. This generation watches terrestrial TV far less.
I got back into NFL through Sky. This is despite it being on terrestrial TV and not having watched it in years.
-
Dolphins, Ravens, Chargers, Cowboys, Lions, Colts, Browns, 49ers, Seahawks, Titans, Giants, Rams, Steelers, Chiefs, Texans, Eagles
-
19 hours ago, Liverpool Rover said:
A good day of NFL. I wouldn’t have thought the Pats would win at the Bengals, the Lions look set to do well again and the Cowboys looked impressive against the Browns.
I’ll be watching my 49ers tonight. This season isn’t their chance but I do feel for this 49ers team the window is beginning to close and the last two seasons with Purdy at QB will see him get a big raise next year that might have an impact on the salary cap.
Safe to say it went well. I'm hoping it was more a case of the 49ers being better than expected rather than it being a false dawn for the Jets.
I thought Rodgers did OK but surprisingly the Jets defense were off, the 49ers ran through them all night.
-
1 hour ago, gingerjon said:
It's the twofold dishonesty of saying *you*, you peasant, can't possibly consider selling your ticket for more than face value.
However, we, your betters, can tell you that a ticket will be an eye watering £150 but that after you've degraded yourself multiple times over, it is now only available at £400. An algorithm we didn't tell you about, nor can you question, is the reason for this.
And you have five minutes to decide.
I not only judge harshly anyone who does this(*) but also anyone who defends it.
(* = I did see someone going, "Oh, so it's fine when the Orange Tree in Richmond does it but not fine when working class northerners do. To which the only response is: when the Orange Tree does it, it essentially raises the price by £10 and they tell you well in advance that that's their model - you take a punt on a play before the reviews in versus buying a ticket knowing you should see something decent that now other people want to see. It's a bit different to tripling an already expensive ticket without warning.)
Don't misread what I'm saying, I went through it and I was very frustrated with the whole process. I also thought it was very hypocritical when they had it made it very clear about resellable tickets being cancelled.
My point was only that had they not done this, it would have very obviously sold out way before I got a chance to get a ticket. There was definitely an element of prolonging the agony by it not selling out within an hour and falsely getting people's hopes up.
I've also heard complaints from many people, including those I work with, who went and paid over the odds. They don't seem to realise that they almost certainly wouldn't have tickets full stop if it hadn't been dynamic pricing.
That's unless of course it was very widespread. I still haven't seen anything about what percentage of tickets was affected. When my brother in law got through in 9000th place, they weren't doing it. He just couldn't select any tickets.
Edit: I've seen it noted as being 10-15% but I'm not sure how reliable the source is.
-
1
-
-
2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:
It works well on the radio when they cut around the games and that's obviously replicated by Soccer Saturday.
"There's been a red card but for who, Chris Kamara?"
One of the greatest moments of British TV.
-
4 minutes ago, Futtocks said:
Surge pricing can be opted out of by the artistes involved.
One of the Gallagher brothers (Noel, I think) has looming alimony payments.
They didn't opt out of surge pricing.
I'm pretty sure they've said that they didn't know about it.
A lot of people were annoyed about the surge pricing and I get it, but I've since thought a bit about this.
The vast majority of people who were offered a surge price ticket only got offered one because other people rejected them. Had there been no surge prices, they wouldn't have even got to that point because they'd have been sold out.
It's not to defend the process, because it's a cash grab, but I think most people who had the option were under the illusion that they could've got tickets for face value but were ripped off.
I was 150,000th in the queue and could've bought surge tickets. The maths is pretty simple. With what 90,000 seats on offer, I wouldn't have got a sniff.
-
5 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:
Unfortunately, the days when you got an actual ticket and either had to queue for it in person or at least ring Janet up at the box office are gone. That was my preference.
But there's a generation of people raised on paying £100 to see ants on stage a mile in the distance and they don't know any other way. What's more, judging by what I see, they actually like it.
I also think Oasis are copping a lot of unfair flack for this. While the situation is rubbish and fans have definitely been ripped off, they didn't create the situation, it's just the way of the world now.
My brother-in-law who was a big Oasis fan made this point.
The point I made was that I've been to a SOO game in Australia, but that from an entertainment perspective I've been to much better Widnes games. It wasn't a dud either, it was a decider where Queensland scored in the last minute to win their first series in a while. However, I was behind the posts and I was far away and the atmosphere wasn't great with it being in a bowl in Melbourne.
When all's said and done though, what will I value more? My one and only SOO Origin game in front of over 50,000 or a number of thrilling Widnes games where I can't quite remember now who we were playing?
That's how I feel about the Oasis gigs. I don't care that they're miles away and I watching them on a screen, it's Oasis reforming. That's essentially what I'd be paying for.
-
1
-
-
I understand the importance of putting points on the board, but Carolina going for 3 when 30-0 has some serious Rugby Union vibes about it.
-
1
-
-
Very interesting to see the new approach from NY Giants, as they've decided to try and emulate Paris St Germain RL circa 1996.
Not working so far though, 14-3 down.
-
3 hours ago, gingerjon said:
Every other sport is too reactive for it to work - you’d be going there after something I’d happened or with no guarantee of the moment reaching a conclusion.
I've often thought how it would work with say a sport like football.
I think they could go to different places to show goal scoring chances, a bit like classic football manager did.
One of the things that works so well with NFL is the fact that they have 32 teams and the vast majority play on Sunday evening our time.
Football could only do Saturday and it would probably need to include all of the football league.
-
England 2-0 up before half an hour.
Grealish and Rice scoring. What are the chances?
-
With the Oasis mini-fiasco last week, there has been a lot of scrutiny over the process of inflating ticket prices to meet demand. As somebody who was there last weekend, only to be faced with £300 minimum for a ticket in the Gods, it was highly frustrating. This has rightly been criticised, but it did make me think, what is actually the best way to do it?
It's always been an issue, but there seems to have been a real rise in both demand to watch live events, and technology making it easier for people to get tickets with little effort. You end up with a situation where I've heard it estimated that 14 million people were trying to get a little over a million tickets.
The first issue is pricing. Many people lament the fact that tickets used to be far cheaper and how for instance Oasis tickets were £22.50 for Knebworth (equivalent to £45 today). I get this, but I also don't think there are many other areas where people would be expected to artificially lower prices in this way. Oasis could probably have sold out if they'd have made every ticket £250. It's an issue of supply and demand. There are subtle factors at play of course: reputation is a big one for a band like Oasis, as well as what it does to the atmosphere if you price out working people (this is a criticism that has been leveled at the Superbowl for instance). For sporting clubs, there is also the issue of longevity, and trying to make sure you create the next generation of fan. Overall though, as much as I'd love tickets to be cheaper, I don't think it's correct for tickets to be kept artificially low because they always have been this price.
The bigger issue for me is the distribution question. There are essentially 4 main ways I can think of: first come first serve, a ballot system or a free market system.
1) First come, first serve - this is of course traditionally the way tickets were sold. The idea of only having physical tickets and making people queue does seem appealing. After all, you have to be really committed, and you can camp out if you're a desperate mega fan. The electronic version we saw last Saturday is a nightmare. You can't get there earlier, the server can't cope and it's basically luck. They opened at 8am, my brother in law was 8,000 in the queue, I was 100,000 and my wife was 250,000.
2) Ballot system - this is seen as the fairest system and was utilised in the Olympics. Basically you enter the ballot and get allocated if you win. Something about this feels deeply unsatisfying to me. In the Oasis example, 13 million lose out with no legal way of getting around it. You're only likely to get 2 tickets, so the chances of going with friends is greatly reduced etc.
3) Free market - People get tickets usually through first come, first serve and then are free to resell them at whatever price they like. This has obvious problems like touting and it makes me think of a Simpsons sketch where the guy at the front of the queue turns up and says '20,000 tickets.' I suspect this is a very unpopular way, but I don't actually mind it that much. I follow quite a lot of American sport, and with regards to the NFL for instance if you want to go to any game this weekend, you can with a minimum of fuss. You will pay depending on the profile of the game, but after a couple of weeks you'll be able to get a ticket to a game for face value. Similarly, I was watching the tennis with my wife at the US Open and if we'd wanted to go the semi-final we could got about $200 a ticket. I like having that option.
I compare this to the situation with the PL where I wanted to get Everton tickets for my son a while back and it was ridiculously hard and required signing up for paid memberships etc with no guarantee of getting one. Legally, they can only resell at face value so there is little incentive for people to sell them on.
I think a mixture of them is the best way. The way tickets are distributed initially might be better if it is a ballot system, but then some form of an official ticket reselling system for those who want to have an option to buy. This way people get an equal chance to get tickets, but for those willing to pay to go they can. With the official reselling system, there could even be limits on how often you can resell if this was feasible.
-
12 hours ago, MattSantos said:
You picked Mahommes with the 1st pick in a draft. Wow. That genuinely quite funny. Sorry.
I'm in 3 leagues. Scott Hanson often mentions one of them on RedZone as its called the Scottish Cup and been going around 15 years now. I've won the league leaders shield a few times, but never got to the final dance.
I'm guessing it's a case of 'how to say you're a noob without saying you're a noob?'
-
1
-
-
Late to the show I know! As I've missed a game, I've automatically picked the losers, hopefully I'm not invalidated.
Week 1: Ravens, Eagles, Bills, Saints, Colts, Dolphins, Vikings, Bengals, Steelers, Bears, Seahawks, Chargers, Browns, Tampa Bay, Lions, 49ers
AFC: Ravens, Jaguars, Dolphins, Kansas City, Chargers, Jets, Bengals
NFC: 49ers, Lions, Eagles, Cowboys, Bears, Falcons, Rams
-
2
-
-
28 minutes ago, Irish Saint said:
Strangely, for some reasons unknown NFL fantasy games I have never bothered with as I say stange as after Rugby League the NFL is the game I follow most.
NRL supercoach is highly addictive. The super league I tend to pick a team for week 1 and then forget about it
I also forgot to mention that my friend's nephew Bem Sinnott signed a rookie contract with the Commanders.
I do NRL Supercoach and this year managed to keep it up for ages. Despite initially cheating, I still didn't win
.
I'd heard from people in work who'd done it and thought I'd look it up. They make leagues of 10 and then the draft starts. I was first pick and thought Mahomes was a good shout - turns out he wasn't in the top 10 QBs somehow...
It's exciting, when the app announces 'you're on the clock'
-
Anyone else do a fantasy NFL draft.
Did one yesterday and must say I really enjoyed the process, much more than a traditional fantasy league.
Boxing
in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Posted
Some fighters can get sparked out and it not scare them. Look at say Fury in the Wilder rematch, even though he'd been rendered unconscious, he came out without fear of what he could do.
AJ clearly isn't like that as evidenced by the last few years.
I can see him trying again against Dubois but whether it'll a good idea is another thing. If he can convince himself that he just got the approach wrong he might go for redemption. The fact that he seriously hurt him in round 5 might be enough to cling on to.
It had shades of Haye-Bellew for me, although Haye was way more past it, and I suspect that the rematch would be the same. There is a recent example where a fighter flipped the outcome in a fight like this: Chris Eubank Jnr.
Legacy wise, even if he did beat Dubois in a rematch, he will always now have the reputation of being chinny. The first Ruiz fight could've been a fluke equilibrium incident but now there's no doubt. He's only a step up from Khan at this point.