Maximus Decimus

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.

One of the greatest moments of British TV.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm guessing it's a case of 'how to say you're a noob without saying you're a noob?'

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

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.

Watched a video yesterday on teams that have tried the three-peat, some have come close but never done it. Great start to the season yesterday, all decided by a toe!

RedZone is awesome. I always say it's like a version of Match of the Day if it was live and had more games.

Sadly, being a big club historically is no longer a guarantee that you'll stay a big club. Realistically, it's been 30 odd years since Everton were truly a big club. Nothing stopping Everton going the way of Leeds or Sunderland.

Next season.... It would be financially terrible for Everton to get relegated apparently. Of course it is for all, but the new stadium is kind of reliant on the PL.

There had always been an air of inevitability about Everton getting relegated just before the new stadium. I'm desperately hoping not but events like yesterday won't help.

Despite not being a huge fan, I've been interested in the Oasis story for quite a while. There's a guy on YouTube called James Hargreaves who does a lot of videos on them. Some of them a bit far-fetched but I think you'd be surprised how calculated Noel can be. He's a big fan of the whole folklore of it all. For instance, Oasis were together for 14 years and 354 days after the release of Definitely Maybe. I don't think it's a coincidence that they announced they were getting back together 14 years and 354 days later. I'm sure the money is a factor, but I doubt it's the only one.

I was watching a random artist I've listened to on and off over the years - Eivor from the Faroe Islands and I decided to look if she has any gigs. She's doing one in October for £22. Think I'll take a look at that instead...

Noel had the idea that the 3rd album was going to be the best, but he himself says that it became bloated and ridiculous and they missed the mark. I can remember watching MTV when the first single was shown and being disappointed. Other than the odd tune that entered the cultural zeitgeist, I stopped listening to them at this point.

Simply not true, some of his recent stuff is very good. Even when Oasis were past it, he could still some decent tunes. Noel has been heavily criticised for borrowing from songs and rightly so at times. There are of course some obvious examples, where the modern term is 'interpolating', but I always think with the examples that are mentioned, the actual songs are completely different. As a rule of thumb, if somebody has to point out the similarity for you to notice it then they've created something completely different. It's not like the infamous Lana Del Ray 'Creep' where everybody can hear it straight away. And I'm writing this when I'm rather p****d off at Oasis . Went through the whole ridiculous charade this morning, only to get through and find out that Ticketmaster were now doing 'In Demand' tickets, which is translation for 'we're going to charge a heck of a lot more than the advertised price because we can.' £300 a ticket for the back of Wembley, erm no thanks. I'd love to say Oasis had nowt to do with it, but I'm pretty sure from reading on Ticketmaster that it's up to the artist and promoter whether they do it or not.

It strikes me as a really quite poor system that is massively over-convoluted and no fairer. If it had been brought in for say the Challenge Cup, it would be seen as an example of how amateurish RL is. However, football being football it will have no effect. Every game will still be a sellout and it will get wall to wall coverage etc with the big games being huge global events.

He didn't make the 53, not even close really. Everybody thought he'd make the practice squad because they have a place for IPP players but a Nigerian player took that meaning he had to move. Luckily for him, the Jaguars have picked him up as their IPP spot. I suspect it's because of the British aspect and having 2 London games. You have to feel for all the people who got his KC jersey, although maybe you don't. There is an outside chance he could feature at the London games, but with having to learn a new playbook it isn't likely. In theory, you'd think spending time on the practice squad would be great to learn the game but I was watching a video from an ex-player who suggested that isn't really what happens. Because you're not in the squad for the upcoming game, you don't get the snaps in practice, the starters do. His best chance seems to be on the new kickoff, and hoping the Jaguars use him because it's in London. If he could take advantage of that you never know but the likelihood is that he'll be back in Union within a couple of years.

I must have misunderstood it. I read it that after all the fixtures were done, the top 8 went into the quarters. This seemed like a real lottery for the top teams. It probably seems preferable to a system where the top 24 go through. Of course football is Teflon but in my experience, diluting the playoffs has negative effects. I always think RL lost out when we went from a top 5/6 to a top 8 and never really recovered. The NRL has the perfect balance for me. Making the 8 is an achievement, without leaving too many teams out of the running.