Cavs vs Timberwolves Behind The Box Score: Another Blowout
November 13, 2013Home is Where the Hope Is: On the Cavs’ bizarre inability to win on the road
November 14, 2013Cleveland sports fans are waiting. Thus, while we’re all waiting, the WFNY editors thought you might enjoy reading. Because you never know how long we might be waiting. So here are assorted reading goodies for you to enjoy. Send more good links for tomorrow’s edition to tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“Professionally, I despise the practice of taking advantage of fans. Our time is valuable, and as a professional I know the amount of time invested and what the value is. Most teams either have internal art departments or pay thousands to design and marketing firms to maintain and promote their image. They know the costs associated with it very well. From a business standpoint, I understand it. If you knew you could get something for nothing, most of us would do this as well. Part of me also thinks that if your on-staff professionals cannot develop and come up with better ideas, then you have the wrong people employed.
But I would like to be clear about the Browns use of my illustration. The Browns were very professional in their approach and their request to use my work. I agreed to let them use the image even though I was not compensated for its use. I do not want to mislead anyone to think otherwise and I want it to be clear that it was my decision to allow it to be used. From my standpoint, the free publicity and the ability to have it as part of my professional portfolio is satisfactory. I can honestly say I do not feel the Browns took advantage of me at all. [Moore/Red Right 88]
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“Who’s paying? That’s the question left unanswered from the Cleveland Browns announcement of a proposed $120 million in improvements to the team’s home stadium. The team has qualified for an NFL loan, but the question was asked several times, and directly, if the team will ask the city of Cleveland to foot part of the bill.” [McManamon/AFC North Blog]
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Behind the Akron name change. “There’s a lot of competition for a family’s entertainment dollar, and minor league teams are no exception. Almost every year, teams are forced to consider shuttering their doors. If Major League baseball is Big Business, minor league baseball is decidedly small business. They’re in competition with the local cineplex; the water park down the road. Modern Woodmen Park, home of the Quad Cities River Bandits, added a zipline, a ferris wheel, and other attractionsthis season in an effort to lure families to the park.” [Boyer/Let’s Go Tribe]
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“Some excuses can be made for Dalton, I suppose, since the wind gusts were high and of the crossing variety, which threw off both he and Joe Flacco. Still, that doesn’t excuse the fact that he didn’t make many competent throws the rest of the afternoon either, which I think is more telling of Dalton’s performance and the type of quarterback he is.
Also, how was he bailed out (almost) at the end of regulation? By throwing — and connecting on — another prayer to Green. The Browns only got to Dalton for two sacks the last time these two teams met, but their defense is playing better now. If Joe Haden and Tashaun Gipson can do another fine job taking away those long-distance throws to Green, then the unforced errors that Dalton is bound to make will be there for the taking for Cleveland; hopefully they will be ready to capitalize.” [Pokorny/Dawgs By Nature]
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Finally, what would NFL logos look like if they were European soccer clubs? [Football as Football]
13 Comments
1. Those NFL logos are great, even though I didn’t recognize them all and ours could be a lot better.
2. I noticed this week that a number of publications and broadcasters have refrained from calling Dalton’s game-tying heave a “Hail Mary,” which was the universal description for decades. The Sensitivity Police must have gotten to them.
I like alot of those logos. I especially like that the other teams in our division have some of the worst ones (only Minnesota’s looks worse).
SF, KC, Detroit, and Indy all look really good.
JAX isn’t my favorite, but it’s so much better than what they use now that they should buy it 🙂
It’s disappointing that the Browns, a billion dollar franchise in the highly public-subsidized NFL, wouldn’t compensate a fan for the relatively significant usage of their work (i.e. a graphic to rile up 70,000 paying customers). The “professional portfolio” thing is nice/quaint, but something still seems amiss…
it sounds like they approached him in a professional manner and he preferred the publicity and exposure to the money. there are different ways to compensate (they may be setting him up with other jobs, getting his company in the door with opportunities, et cetera).
or, maybe he really did just want his image on the scoreboard for his favorite team. regardless, he seems happy with the outcome.
Unfortunately, the conflation of NFL logos and European soccer clubs produced in me the image of Randy Lerner wearing an Aston Villa scarf. I thought I’d purged myself of such corrosive mental imagery.
True, but all the forms of compensation you listed would still be present if they had also paid him fairly for his labor/creative product.
He has not been to a game to see his work? Cmon Browns. Pay for him and his family to come up for a game and see it. Drop in the bucket for an NFL team’s rev
it made me think of this image:
http://blogimages.thescore.com/counterattack/files/2011/05/Anti-Glazer-fans1.jpg
I think Eric was pretty clear that everything was on the up and up and the Browns treated him in a manner that he believed was professional and fair. I don’t think there is anything opaque about the situation and it seems like a cool way to work with a fan.
This story is an example of the good side of social media. I never would have known Eric did this work if we didn’t happen to follow each other on Twitter and he mentioned his work one day. I think that connection and sharing a story of another Browns fan is pretty cool.
Thanks for sharing the story, Tom. I agree that it’s a great opportunity for him…but I still think he should’ve been compensated by a franchise worth a billion dollars.
My frame of reference is that I volunteer on the side as the director of a small weekly farmers market at my hospital. We have community members who volunteer all season to provide free children’s programming, chef demos, to schedule local entertainment acts and other volunteers, etc. Even though we are a non-profit, I feel obliged to compensate volunteers in some small (monetary) way for their time/labor. Unlike the Browns, my organization has almost no resources, but I make that happen because it feels exploitative not to.
So I guess it comes down to a “business ethics” issue, and we can all disagree on the Browns conduct while agreeing that it presents a great opportunity to revisit this famous scene from Billy Madison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKGeHuln08A
My first thought: “Man, I hate it when people don’t have lawyers!”
Who will foot the stadium bill? Is this some kind of trick question? It will be hardworking Cleveland area taxpayers. The only hope is that we don’t actually bankrupt the Cleveland Public Schools this time.
Can’t disagree, there. And coming from a family where both my wife and I work at non-profits, good job by you.
I was more concerned that I had made it out to sound like the Browns took advantage of him and Eric was very adamant that was not the case.