The Heat and the Shine

That UFC 205: McGREGOR vs. ALVAREZ would be a hot ticket is no surprise.  It is the first mixed martial arts event in New York since UFC exploded in popularity a decade ago, and it features Conor McGregor, UFC's top box office attraction.  An attempt at a box office record -- beating the $12 million in tickets sold at Toronto's SkyDome in 2011 -- was expected by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, a close watcher of UFC's business since the promotion's inception. Still, the box office level that UFC management has Madison Square Garden scaled for is eye-popping: $18 million.  In an arena with under 18,000 available seats*, the math is simple: UFC is hoping for an average ticket above $1,000. Standard UFC 205 tickets sold through Ticketmaster were at seven standard price levels: $106, $256, $456, $606, $806, $1,006 and $1,506.  As of the time of publication of this article, standard price levels below $1,506 are all unavailable on Ticketmaster. Once UFC 205 ti

How do you know you're addicted to pro wrestling?  Because you care about WWE Extreme Rules, that's how. And, it's the low form of addiction.  The ugly form.  Not the 'addiction' of passion and focus.  The addiction of need; the loss of control.  The addiction that public service announcements warn you about. There is no other rational cause for an adult to care about the current WWE product.  All that makes the art form of pro wrestling is absent from Extreme Rules.  Suspense, empathetic characters, irreconcilable conflict; all absent.  In their place are false drama, cartoonish caricatures and easy choices. To rebuild WWE will take a massive effort and it is not clear when that will come; or If.  The promotion has been in decline for nearly a decade and a half.  Spurts of creative power -- as with Nexus or Daniel Bryan -- have provided false hope.  Nostalgia acts like The Rock have delivered fleeting peaks of interest.  Yet the core continues to erode.  

American college basketball drew some impressive viewership this year, and nowhere was the viewership more impressive than in Kentucky.  Not only did the state’s two marquee teams (University of Kentucky Wildcats and University of Louisville Cardinals) draw superb viewership throughout the entire season, but a full one-third of the population of Louisville — Kentucky’s largest city — tuned into a national championship game that did not even feature a local team.  (University of Wisconsin Badgers vs. Duke University Blue Devils was the matchup, in case you missed it.) Conventional wisdom’s explanation for the rapt attention Kentuckians give to college basketball is that the area is mad for the sport.  For decades, the theory goes, Kentucky college basketball teams have been successful and have made the sport bigger in the Bluegrass State than other American pastimes like the NFL and Major League Baseball. As anyone who grew up watching college basketball in the 1980’s can attest to