QUICK HITS
The Athletic ($) — two stories this week caught our eye:
- Online Gambling: An excellent story about the addictiveness of online gambling. With apps so readily available, it’s worth a read.
- Hoop Dreams turns 30: If you’re of a certain age, you remember this influential documentary. The Athletic caught up with the stars and took a look back.
NFL Flex: The Eagles @ Bengals game on 10/27/24 has been flexed from 4:25pm ET to 1:00pm ET, and the Bears @ Commanders game on 10/27/24 has been flexed from 1:00pm ET to 4:25pm ET. If you’ve made plans to travel to either of those games, you’ll want to take another look at your itinerary. Commanders Field notoriously has one of the worst parking lots in the NFL, so if the game ends at 7:30pm, there’s almost no chance of you catching an evening flight out that night. Meanwhile, you may be able to rebook an earlier flight if you’re heading to Cincinnati that weekend, since the game will now end three hours earlier.
Super Bowl LXII to Atlanta: The 2028 Super Bowl (for the 2027 season) has been awarded to Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home of the Atlanta Falcons. Refundable deposits for premium packages can be placed with OnLocation, the NFL’s official travel provider. The date is not determined, since changes to the NFL schedule could impact the specific weekend that the game takes place. The upcoming Super Bowl locations are the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in 2025, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara in 2026, and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in 2027.
Super Bowl ticket sweepstakes: Interested in winning tickets to this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans or the NCAA championship game in Atlanta? USA Today has a sweepstakes going on. You can check it out here, and you can enter every day until January 5th.
NLCS Update: With the Dodgers winning Game 4 of the NLCS, the series is now 3-1 for LA. Game 5 at Citi Field is still the last assured game as of right now. It will be on Friday 10/18 at 5:08pm ET. If the Mets win that game, the series would shift back to LA for Game 6 on 10/20.
ALCS Update: With the Guardians winning Game 3, the series is now guaranteed through Game 5 in Cleveland on Saturday, 10/19 at 7:08pm.
The State of the Trop: With its roof torn off by Hurricane Milton, Tropicana Field has now become a huge question mark for the Tampa Bay Rays – and Major League Baseball too. After all MLB team sites had their schedules taken down this week, they’re all now back online. We thought that maybe MLB was considering whether it had to redo the entire calendar, but maybe our internet connection was just weak that day. Nevertheless, if you have any plans to visit St. Pete for Rays baseball in 2025, you need to keep an eye on this story.
White Sox for sale?
It appears so. Many seem to be asking if the right time to sell the team is after a historic losing season. We say that makes no difference. The market for sports teams is hot, and very few are for sale at any given time. The bigger story is that the group in discussions to buy the team is led by former MLB player Dave Stewart, who has been actively trying to bring a team to Nashville. If his group is successful in acquiring the Sox, it’s hard to imagine the team doesn’t relocate. The Sox have and always will play second fiddle to the Cubs and Wrigley Field, even if they get a new stadium. A smart new ownership group will see the open opportunity in Nashville and will likely want to fill it. Sorry Sox – we think you may be on the clock in Chicago. For those who have Guaranteed Rate Field on their travel list, it may be time to move it to a higher priority.
