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Line Up:
8 PM to 10 PM - Fox Game Time Live
with Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez
10 PM to 2 AM - Fox Game Time React
with JT "The Brick"
2 AM to 6 AM - The Third Shift on Fox
with Ben Maller
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Today on WNST:
6p.m. - 8p.m. The Bud Light Purple and Black Attack Live at High-Topps
-Hosted by Brent Harris (CSN) & Brad Jackson (Former Ravens LB)
-Special Guests Matt Stover & Bob Ehrlich
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2008
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY'S
JOHN STEADMAN MEMORIAL
TOURNAMENT OF HOPE
Hillendale Country Club
13700 Blenheim Rd, Phoenix
For further information or to volunteer contact Mark McElrath at 410-933-5172 or mark.mcelrath@cancer.org.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2008
1ST ANNUAL FIOFEST
CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT
Turf Valley Golf Resort
2700 Turf Valley Road, Ellicott City
Enjoy a spectacular day of golf followed by a Jimmy Buffet style dinner reception to benefit The Michael A. Fiorelli Foundation for Esophageal Cancer. For details go to fiofoundation.org or call Cindy Henson at 410-538-4555.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2008
RAVENS AT MIAMI VIEWING PARTY
Shucker's of Fells Point
1629 Thames Street, Fells Point
410-522-5820
1 p.m. kick-off
Join WNST for a Ravens away game viewing party. Enjoy $6.00 24 oz. Corona bombers plus giveaways during the game.
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Location: Blogs BlogsDarren Rudham's Blog, Brought to you by Slainte Irish Pub |
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| Posted by: Darren Rudham |
4/3/2008 9:00 PM |
 Baltimoreans understand poor management. It is part of daily bread. The once soaring Orioles have been under the control of a self-styled autocrat for quite some time now and the current owner of the beleaguered birds next door is making some ill-advised press appearances and capricious judgments.
But the owners of Liverpool FC are to be commended on trying to put themselves in the running for “worst franchise owners of the millennium."
George Gillett and Tom Hicks have built a crumbling empire on broken promises and half-truths. Which in itself is not uncommon amongst the unscrupulous owners of yore, but they have been caught and outed every time. And in the most public way.
This continuing saga of misfiring public relations has been dragged onto the front page of every newspaper in England. They have trampled rough shod on what was the gold standard for stability in the footballing boardroom.
So let’s take it from the top. First, there was the promise of a new, state-of-the-art 75,000-seat stadium, which they maintained would not lumber the club with any debt – and then promptly saddle the club, and its fans, with the interest payments.
Now as this debacle is happening over the better part of a year, they really cement their place as the typical overbearing, uninformed American boutique owners by telling the manager that there will be no money for new signings at the trade deadline and to focus on what he already has. In fact, the only thing they didn’t say was “get stuffed.”
But wait there’s more. As if alienating the manager by publicly humiliating him over player transfers wasn’t enough, they then have a clandestine meeting with a potential replacement for him. Only it turned out to be not all that secret, and in the interest of full disclosure they admit to said meeting in the media.
Now I’m a huge fan of the policy of truth, but when you are stuck square in the middle of a Public Relations nightmare that is already negatively effecting what is happening on the park, it is probably most prudent to not say anything. Let the plebs gnash and the journos speculate.
As expected, this also blows up in their already well-egged faces. As a result of this admission the fans get into the mix and 2000 or so of them march on behalf of the manager in question, Rafael Benitez.
A few fans then take umbrage with one of the owner’s sons as he comes in to do his own rendition of the “hearts and minds” campaign at a local watering hole, and douse him with a beer. This singular act does more than anything previously to prove just how besides themselves the average Liverpool FC supporter is. Because no one in Liverpool, and I repeat no one, wastes beer.
Then comes the expected spate of blaming and finger pointing. On cue one head guy stops getting along with the other head guy and eventually they stop talking.
In the meantime, a foreign investment group, one whom the angry mob has already identified as the club’s saviour expresses an even stronger interest in buying either one or both of the beleaguered duo’s shares.
One says yes, the other, in what is becoming quite the show of puerile obstinacy, says he will block this sale as he has rights to first refusal. This drags on for a couple of weeks all the while the American dollar weakens and with it the likelihood of one being able to raise the capital to buy the other one out. And there it stands still.
So as the swirly that represents their tenure as the most despised owners in Liverpool FC history drags them inexorably towards their porcelain grave you’d think they might try and send themselves off with a touch of Tidy Bowl class.
Nope. Not so much.
In the wake of the parry and thrust of this proposed takeover, they air more dirty laundry about a relationship that is totally in tatters. They then draw up interpersonal rules of engagement that are better suited to the sand box.
For example, at yesterday’s Champions League match up against Arsenal, Hicks (3) insists that he gets 14 of the 20 box seats while Gillett (2), who has already refused to sit next to him, only get 6. It also means that the club’s chairman, David Moores, and CEO, Rick Parry, will have to seek the services of a reputable scalper. These guys should be in kindergarten not in charge of one of football’s most storied franchises.
It is bad enough that the capricious sporting gods have kept us from domestic bliss for 17 years, but now we must be led through the wilderness by dallying troubadours who couldn’t locate the eternally shady spot with both hands.
The season is almost over. Hopefully this debacle will be, too, and a team renowned for its on-field exploits can get back to making headlines for these and not the ones happening of it.
So Baltimore fans everywhere can smile compassionately and think “that ain’t nothin’.” After all this is only a year old in Liverpool. In Baltimore the School of Bad Management is now offering college courses. But spare a thought for those forced to sit by as a magnificent franchise suffers under the tyranny of disinterested leadership.
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