NFL Ratings Slump Worsens As ESPN Forced To Slash $80 Million In Salary Costs

As the NFL continues to try to address the ongoing civil war between Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Commissioner Roger Goodell, not to mention the intermittent hostile fire from the White House, viewers are increasingly deciding they"ve had enough and are abandoning professional football viewership altogether.  As the NY Post points out today, the embattled league saw ratings dip 6.3% in Week 11 meaning 1 million fewer people tuned in to see players take a knee during the national anthem versus last year.

The TV audience for NFL games steepened its slide in Week 11, losing 1 million viewers versus last year’s season-to-date average.

 

The 6.3 percent slump — worsening from comparable declines of 5.6 to 5.7 percent during the previous three weeks — plagued a week whose off-the-field drama made gridiron tackling seem almost tame by comparison.

 

After starting 11.8 percent behind last year’s TV audience for NFL games in Week 1, league viewership had either held its own or narrowed the gap through Week 8.

 

The 6.3 percent shortfall in Week 11 reflects an average viewership of 14.9 million for the NFL’s 68 national telecasts this year versus 15.9 million for the season-to-date in 2016.

Meanwhile, the ratings dip, combined with massive subscriber losses (see: ESPN Lost 15,000 Subscribers A Day In October), has taken a huge toll on ESPN which Yahoo News reports will have to cut some $80 million in salary costs to offset their plunging top line. 

ESPN is poised to slash an estimated $80 million in salaries and other costs in coming weeks, sources tell Sporting News.

 

The third round of layoffs in two years at the Disney-owned sports network is expected to come down after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Sporting News broke the news that ESPN planned to lay off up to 60 people in late November and early December. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated followed up with a report that said 100 positions could be impacted.

 

ESPN lost a whopping $1 billion in affiliate revenue after dropping 13 million subscribers in just six years, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. Sports insiders agree ESPN overpaid for the NFL"s "Monday Night Football" ($1.9 billion annually) and the NBA ($1.4 billion a year). During 2016, ESPN"s prime-time viewership fell 19 percent, according to the SBJ. Rather than driving Disney"s profits, ESPN has been dragging them down, spooking Wall Street analysts.

 

Meanwhile, ESPN management threw money at many anchors, analysts and reporters whose contracts were up in recent years to stop them from jumping to FS1 and other competitors. Some lost those high-paid TV gigs this spring. But ESPN is still on the hook to pay their full salaries until they get a new job elsewhere. Not many have over the past six months. Given the length of some of these expensive deals, not many will in the future, according to Awful Announcing.

 

"ESPN is dealing with three simple math problems. They have fewer subscribers than they planned for. They have higher costs than they planned for. They lower ratings than they hoped for," said one source.

Perhaps it"s time for the NFL to admit that while most Americans can agree that professional football is really fun to watch, roughly half of them are going to disagree with whatever political stance its players decide to cram down their throats during games...so maybe best to just stick to football.

The "Safest Home In America" Is Back On The Market

A simmering nuclear crisis, series of devastating natural disasters and a resurgence of drug-fueled crime are inspiring more Americans than ever before to buy up “doomsday prepper” gear – everything from gas masks to fallout shelters – a trend that we’ve observed time and time again.

While most Americans will need to settle for a small backyard bunker stocked with canned goods and water filters because of cost constraints, anybody looking for something slightly more stylish need look no further: A home in the Atlanta suburbs that has been described by architects as “the safest home in America” just hit the market – and it can be yours for the bargain price of $15 million.

The home, known as Rice House, is located inside a gated community in Alpharetta, Georgia, about 30 minutes northeast of central Atlanta.

The cream-colored, colonnaded facade of the Rice House, situated on 3.5 acres just outside Atlanta, hides far more than a private theater, bowling alley, and infinity swimming pool.

 

The master and guest bedrooms have ballistic doors that can withstand fire from an AK-47 assault rifle. The car vault is large enough to hold 30 vehicles and has an entrance designed to be concealed by a waterfall. Secret doors lead to a 15,000-square-foot bunker  in which an embattled owner could conceivably hole up for years, with off-grid power and water drawn from three artesian wells drilled 1,000 feet into the ground. The house had its own security architect who spent two decades designing secure buildings for the DOJ.

 

Listing materials boast that it is “one of, if not the, safest home in America.”

 

“This is a home where you could put a $20 million painting on the wall and sleep comfortably at night,” said listing broker Paul Wegener, of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty. “The same goes for your family.”

The unnamed entrepreneur who owns Rice House spent six years and some $30 million to build the 36,000-square-foot fortress – a project that Bloomberg claims was “mostly for kicks.”

“He said to me, ‘If anyone wants to get me, they can find me at Chick-fil-A,’” the real-estate agent tasked with selling the home said. “It was something of an intellectual exercise to create an impenetrable home, a personal Batcave that the owner could peel his Bugatti Veyron out of.”

The home was just relisted for $14.7 million, a drop from the original $17.5 million. The estate also needs to be finished, a project that cost an additional $3 million to $5 million. The owner planned the Rice House as a family legacy, but decided to sell when he learned his son didn’t want to live there. The main house has been completely built, with eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, three kitchens, a private museum, a wine cellar, an indoor shooting range, and commercial-grade elevators.

“The mandate was the best of everything,” Wegener said. To construct the foundation, workers dug down to bedrock and then bored down into it. The walls are made from extra-strength concrete reinforced with rebar. The car vault originally was designed with 18 columns, but the owner pushed back until engineers figured out a way to use custom-made bridge beams, so no pillars would be needed to support the ceiling. The Rice House is highly energy-efficient, with geothermal heating and cooling and a solar energy system.

Though it’s not included in the listing—to maintain that hush-hush feel—the Rice House is in Country Club of the South, a location popular among athletes and other famous individuals. Retired Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine, Usher, Whitney Houston, and NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson have all lived there. The neighborhood has 19 tennis courts, an 18-hole, golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, basketball courts, a concert venue—and, of course, 24-hour security.

The NFL Is Now The Least Popular Professional Sports League In America

While mainstream media outlets like the New York Times have continued to assert that the dip in NFL ratings that began last season is in no way connected to the controversy surrounding players kneeling during the National Anthem, yet another poll has reaffirmed what many football fans have suspected for weeks: The protests have transformed the NFL into the least popular professional sports league in America.

From the end of August to the end of September, the favorable ratings for the NFL have dropped from 57% to 44%, and it has the highest unfavorable rating – 40 percent – of any big sport, according to the Winston Group survey provided exclusively to Secrets.

Worse for football, which was already seeing lower TV ratings and empty stadium seats, the month of protests and calls from President Trump for fans to boycott the league or “walk out” of games if they see players taking a knee has apparently turned off men aged 34-54 – one of the league’s most important demographics and a troubling sign that the league isn’t in touch with its fans. The Winston Poll from the Washington-based Winston Group found that the attitude of those fans went from an August rating of 73 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable to 42 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable, a remarkable turn against the sport.

According to analysis of the poll cited by the Washington Examiner, the "more critically for the NFL, the fall off in favorables occurred among important audiences. Among males, NFL favorables fell 23 percent, going from 68 percent to 45 percent. In looking at a more specific audience, males 34-54, NFL favorables fell 31 percent, going from 73 percent to 42 percent. Among this group the NFL has a surprising negative image, as it went from +54 percent in August to -5 percent in September."

The Winston Poll was of brand images for the NFL, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and college football and basketball. It was of 1,000 registered voters and taken August 29-30 and then again Sept. 28 to Sept. 29.

September Winston Poll

• MLB/63 percent favorable to 16 percent unfavorable.


• College football/51 percent favorable to 21 percent unfavorable.


• NBA/46 percent favorable to 28 percent unfavorable.


• College basketball/45 percent favorable to 25 percent unfavorable.


• NFL/44 percent favorable to 40 percent unfavorable

And for anybody who believes the controversy is confined to a red state vs. blue state issue, data shows that NFL is equally well-liked among Republicans and Democrats – suggesting that both liberals and conservatives are outraged over what Trump characterized as "disrespecting our heritage."

The survey isn’t the first to document this phenomenon: A J.D. Power survey showed that NFL fans did in fact tune out in droves because of the disrespect and protest of the National Anthem before games.

The pollster said it asked more than 9,200 people who attended either one football, basketball or hockey game whether they tuned into fewer games and why. Twenty-six percent of those who watched fewer games last season said they were put off by the anthem protests.

NBA Orders Players To Stand For The National Anthem

With the NFL finding itself trapped in a vise of sliding viewership on one hand, and a sudden plunge in its favorability as a result of the ongoing "kneeling" feud with President Trump, which according to a just released POLITICO/Morning Consult poll has plunged from 30% on September 21 to just 17% on September 28, the most unfavorable in history...

... other sports franchises are desperate to avoid the backlash that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appears to have unleashed upon his league.

As a result, the NBA which has seen a similar steep drop in viewership in recent years is taking emergency proactive measures, and according to the Associated Press, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he expected players would stand for the anthem, followed up by a memo in which the NBA "recommended teams address fans or show videos expressing themes of unity before their first home games," while again reminding them of the rule that players must stand for the national anthem.

In the memo, obtained by the Associated Press, Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum suggested teams use their opening games “to demonstrate your commitment to the NBA’s core values of equality, diversity, inclusion and serve as a unifying force in the community.” He recommended an address by a player or coach to fans before the anthem, or a video featuring players or community leaders speaking about important issues and showing photos from past community events.

Tatum said the league supports and encourages players to express their views on matters that are important to them, while reminding of the rule that players, coaches and trainers stand respectfully for the anthem.

"The league office will determine how to deal with any possible instance in which a player, coach or trainer does not stand for the anthem. (Teams do not have the discretion to waive this rule)," the memo says.

The memo comes as the NBA"s preseason schedule is set to begin on Saturday with two games, including the NBA champion Golden State Warriors hosting Denver. As a reminder, the feud between Trump and certain sport players escalated last Saturday when Trump withdrew an invitation to Warriors" Stephen Curry: 

Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017

This in turn prompted the entire Warriors team to announce that "while we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House," the statement read, "we accept President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited."

As the AP adds, the memo builds on discussions held by the NBA"s Board of Governors this week, and follows up on one Silver and players association executive director Michele Roberts sent to players recently. It recommends that teams organize internal discussions to hear the players" perspectives, if they haven"t already, and to start or expand programs within their communities.

"The players have embraced their roles in those efforts and we are proud of the work they do in our communities," Tatum wrote.

While the NFL never made an explicit demand of players to stand for the national anthem, prompting many teams to do the opposite, or simply not leave the locker room, now that the NBA has taken the extra step of reminding players of what the rules are and that they "do not have the discretion to waive this rule", it will be especially interesting to observe how many players will flaunt the commissioner"s demand, what the NBA"s response to said rule violation will be, and whether the NBA"s viewership and ad revenues will see a similar sharp decline which ultimately will have an adverse impact on the players" own bank accounts.

LeBron Calls Trump "Bum" For Withdrawing Steph Curry's White House Invite

Update: As one might have imagined, the responses to Trump"s comments have been far-ranging and explosive but perhaps the best known and most stunning was from LeBron James who called the president a "bum" for rescinding Curry"s invite (after Curry had he wouldn"t go)...

U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain"t going! So therefore ain"t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!

— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017

*  *  *

As we detailed earlier, The Golden State Warriors won another NBA Championship in June - their second in three years - defeating perennial rivals the Cleveland Cavaliers and cementing the team"s legacy as the best professional NBA franchise in recent memory. But since clinching the championship trophy, a dark cloud has been hanging over the Warriors: The traditional visit to the White House. Since June, it"s been unclear if the team would accept the invitation because of Curry and Co"s well-publicized distaste for the president. Finally, the ambiguity was put to rest on Friday, when Curry revealed that he would like the team to decline their invitation, saying he"d like to "inspire some change in terms of what we can tolerate in this country" by standing up to the Trump Administration. 

Needless to say, President Trump was displeased, and in a classic Donald Trump Saturday morning tweetstorm, the president blasted the star point guard for "hesitating" to accept the White House"s invitation, before adding that Curry"s invite had been "withdrawn":

"Being invited to the White House is considered a great honor," Trump tweeted. "Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn." As the Associated Press pointed out, it isn"t immediately clear if Trump rescinded the invitation to Curry, or the entire team.

Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017

Trump also ripped into another Bay Area athlete, former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, last night, implying that the free agent QB is a "son of a bitch" for protesting the National Anthem. Trump"s impromptu attack came during a campaign rally for Alabama Senator Luther Strange, who is running in a closely contested special election to keep his seat, to which he was temporarily appointed after Jeff Sessions left the Senate to become the attorney general. During a rant in which he blasted NFL owners and players, Trump said any player who refuses to stand for the anthem "should be fired" for "disrespecting our heritage." He added that the first owner to fire an athlete for protesting would become "the most popular person in this country - for a week."  He urged fans to leave the stadium if they see players protesting, before declaring that American Football "is not the same game anymore, anyway."

Trump"s remarks elicited a response from the NFL player"s association, which said "We will never back down" from standing up to Trump. Predictably, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fired back at President Trump in a statement issued Saturday morning. In the statement, he criticized Trump’s “divisive comments” about team owners firing player for protesting, saying they showed "an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL." Of course, the hypocrisy in Goodell"s response to Trump is painfully obvious: After all, Kaepernick has effectively been blackballed from the league for his decision to protest.

Circling back to the Warriors, the question now is, if the White House clarifies that the withdrawal of the invite applies only to Curry, will the rest of the team back their star player and stay home? Or will a few decide to continue with the longstanding tradition of White House visits, potentially creating a rift.

Charles Barkley Labeled "White Supremacist" For Telling Black People To Stop Killing Each Other

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson,

According to left-wing website The Root, Charles Barkley is a “white supremacist” because he says black people should stop getting angry over old statues and instead concentrate on not killing each other and getting an education.

“Why won’t Charles Barkley shut the fuck up?” asks a clearly triggered Michael Harriot, whose story is filed under the category “Stupid Negroes”.

“Is there anyone who thinks that Barkley’s statements about race reveal anything other than his repeated willingness to throw black people under the bus for our stupid unwillingness to assimilate into whiteness?” he rants.

Barkley’s thought crime was to encourage black people to concentrate less on getting angry over historical monuments and more on getting an education, working hard and being successful. He also said black people “need to stop killing each other.”

#ConfederateStatues A unique take from #CharlesBarkley pic.twitter.com/l9Dz43sLp3

— Rick Karle (@RickKarle) August 17, 2017

“I think if you ask most black people to be honest, they ain’t thought a day in their life about those stupid statues. What we as black people need to do: we need to worry about getting our education, we need to stop killing each other, we need to try to find a way to have more economic opportunity and things like that,” said the former NBA star.

The rest of the Root article is a rambling, angry screed about how Barkley is siding with the “oppressors of black America” because he is regurgitating “white-people solutions” to black problems.

“He is a true believer in the infallibility and superiority of whiteness. Because Charles Barkley is a white supremacist,” Harriot’s unhinged rant concludes.

Given that this is how the left reacts to a successful black person telling other black people to escape from the ghetto of grievance culture and permanent victimhood, is it any wonder that the black community continues to be stuck in a cycle of dependence and self-pity?

US Urges All Nationals In North Korea To "Depart Immediately", Bans Tourists From Visiting

Dennis Rodman will be disappointed to learn that the US is set to ban all citizens from traveling to North Korea, according to two agencies that operate tours there. Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours said the ban would be announced on 27 July to come into effect 30 days later, the BBC reported. "After the 30-day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government." The ban comes one month after US student Otto Warmbier died following his imprisonment by the Kim regime.

China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which had taken Warmbier to North Korea, and Koryo Tours said the ban will come into force on July 27 - the anniversary of the end of the Korean War - with a 30-day grace period. Koryo Tours added that the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular affairs for the United States in the North, informed it of the ban, but did not say how long it would last. The U.S. embassy in the South Korean capital, Seoul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rowan Beard said that the 30-day grace period would "give leeway for any [Americans] currently in the country as tourists or on humanitarian work". Simon Cockerill, of Koryo Tours, said: "It remains to be seen what the exact text is, but the indication is it"s just a straight up ban on Americans going." Mr Cockerill told the BBC the agency would still conduct tours and take Americans until the ban came into effect.

Additionally, Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours, told the BBC the embassy was urging all US nationals to depart immediately. He said the embassy was trying to check on the number of US tourists left in the country.

For now there has been no official confirmation from the US: the state department continues to have an alert dated 9 May strongly warning US citizens not to travel to North Korea.

As the BBC adds, there has been movement towards a ban for a while in the US, which increased with the Warmbier death.

In May, two congressmen introduced the North Korea Travel Control bill to cut off the foreign currency the country earns from American tourists. The House foreign affairs subcommittee is scheduled to take up the draft legislation on 27 July but it would still have to go to the Senate. So there could be an executive order. Last month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: "We have been evaluating whether we should put some type of travel visa restriction to North Korea. We have not come to a final conclusion, but we are considering it." Apart from the treatment of Americans in North Korea, tension has been increasing over Pyongyang"s nuclear programme.

Some are suggesting the US is using the date the ban is set to be announced - 27 July - to cloud North Korea"s Victory Day on the same day. It was not clear if the urge to clear out US citizens from North Korea is a precursor to more "aggressive" (or kinetic) action by the US government.

Turkish NBA Player Has Passport Revoked By "Hitler Of Our Century"

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Enes Kanter is a Turkish citizen who plays center for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.

Like many professional athletes, Kanter has a couple of charities in his name.

His education fund provides first-year college scholarships to support selected US students – including a family’s first female child and children of law enforcement and firefighters who lost their lives on duty.

Kanter’s other charity is the Light Foundation. This one has an international bent, providing meals and clothes to needy families.

A global tour with the Light Foundation stirred up Friday’s troubles.

After traveling to a few countries, Kanter and his team flew from Indonesia to Romania. But upon landing in Romania, Kanter found his passport cancelled by the Turkish embassy.

Kanter’s crime? His political views.

Enes Kanter has long been a vocal critic of Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, calling him the Hitler of our century.

Although not a Hitler, Erdogan is far from an angel.

In July 2016 when facing a coup, he ordered his forces to open fire on his own people, killing 270. He had another 50,000 arrested.

Last month in the country’s constitutional referendum, Erdogan consolidated greater power by the slimmest majority – 51% of the votes, if the vote count is to be believed.

With that victory, Erdogan has near dictatorial powers, which is why he was able to unilaterally suspend Kanter’s passport.

Last week, I wrote about Venezuela. There, government-sanctioned snipers scan the streets. Its starving, desperate citizens are trapped inside the country’s borders with no way out.

To Europeans and Americans, Turkey’s crackdown and Venezuela’s hell on earth are a world away from their comfortable lives.

But in the West, symptoms of government overreach that adversely impact its citizens’ futures are everywhere.

The war on cash continues unabated.

Near-zero interest rates return nothing on retirees’ life savings.

Easy credit ensures that any entrepreneur with a bozo idea receives funding. And it fuels both our insane stock market valuations and consumer debt to all-time highs.

US regulators crank out 150, 200, sometimes 300+ pages daily.

And then there’s the ballooning national debts of the Eurozone and the US.

It would be foolish to place all your faith and confidence in only one such government.

Enes Kanter’s experience with Turkey is the latest example. It shows how susceptible citizens are to an out of control government, even when traveling beyond its borders.

Whether locked inside borders like Venezuelans or locked out of travel like Kanter, these cases highlight the importance of having a Plan B.

A savings account in a well-capitalized foreign jurisdiction, investments outside the ridiculously valued stock market (e.g. Peer to Peer lending backed by real collateral), a second residence and yes, a second passport…these are steps to ensure that no matter what, you’ll be okay.

You’re not going to be worse off because you’re holding a significant amount of, say, Hong Kong dollars.

You’re not going to curse the fact that you receive steady and safe investment returns.

And you’re not going to worry about your ability to freely travel around the world.

Oh, and if what happened to Kanter seems impossible, consider this:

On December 30, 2015 when no one was looking, the US government passed H.R. 22 (The FAST Act), which authorizes them to revoke your passport if they believe, in their sole discretion, that you owe $50,000 in taxes.

It’s important to note that they don’t actually have to prove any wrongdoing.

They can make a simple allegation. It could even be a clerical error. Then, poof, no more passport.

It’s important to have a hedge against this to ensure that your entire life and livelihood isn’t held in the hands of a single government.

Do you have a Plan B?

Navy Punishes "Special Warfare Unit" For Flying Trump Flag In Military Convoy

About a month ago the Naval Special Warfare Group 2 of Virginia Beach set the Twittersphere ablaze after video surfaced of their military convoy flying a Trump flag on their lead vehicle.

Photos and videos of the "event" quickly spread around the internet and prompted a full Navy investigation into the incident.  Here"s a photo of the convoy:

And here is the original video that made the rounds, complete with the full commentary of an obviously emotionally scarred Hillary voter.

Navy SEAL convoy flies Commander-in-Chief Trump flag.. #USA #quote #socialmedia #fb #nfl #nba #tcot #breaking #newspic.twitter.com/CrEOpjz1Au

— People"s Digest (@dinrout) February 3, 2017

Now, fast forward a month and Lt. Jacqui Maxwell has just announced that the world can go on spinning again because some of America"s finest soldiers have been appropriately disciplined for their "heinous" crime.  Per the Washington Post:

Lt. Jacqui Maxwell, a spokeswoman for Naval Special Warfare Group 2, said in a statement to The Washington Post that punitive actions were taken but declined to comment on the precise nature of the punishment or how many individuals were affected.

“The inquiry was completed between the unit’s commanders and service members,” Maxwell’s statement said. “It has been determined that those service members have violated the spirit and intent of applicable DoD regulations concerning the flying of flags and the apparent endorsement of political activities. Administrative corrective measures were taken with each individual based on their respective responsibility.”

“Department of Defense and Navy regulations prescribe flags and pennants that may be displayed as well as the manner of display,” Maxwell said last month.

“Naval Special Warfare strives to maintain the highest level of readiness, effectiveness, discipline, efficiency, integrity, and public confidence,” her statement continued. “To this end, Naval Special Warfare leaders are committed to thoroughly and impartially investigating all non-frivolous allegations of misconduct. Where misconduct is present, the Naval Special Warfare commander responsible for ensuring good order and discipline within his unit will make a disposition decision as to the appropriate administrative and/or disciplinary action, if any.”

We don"t know about you but we"re ever so thankful for this special snowflake who helped to expose the hateful and insensitive actions of these soldiers.  Imagine if they behaved this way during a deployment...they might offend some terrorists and start an international crisis.