Overstock Paid JUST $7 Million For Oakland Coliseum Naming Rights

The Oakland Coliseum is continuing a tradition of bad naming rights deals that goes all the way back to when it was called Network Associates Coliseum for just $6 million in 1998.

This time, over a decade later, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum authority approved a deal for Overstock.com to place its name on the stadium where the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics play for just $7 million for six years.

Let's see, just a million bucks more over that time?

Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said, "Overstock.com is thrilled to become a part of Oakland and Alameda County, and to be associated with the Raiders and the A’s—two globally-recognized championship teams"

What Byrne should have said is "I'm so happy to deal with an organization that routinely gives so much globally-recognized value away for so little money." Overstock gets to put its name on stadium signage, internet, television, radio and print promotion, and all for just $7 million.

This penchant for bad deals is something this blogger has railed about for years, and one reason why I've asked Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby to look at what's going on with the Oakland Coliseum. This is terrible. And before I continue on my angry rant, I'll show you why.

While the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority was giving away the store, again, Farmers Insurance signed a 30-year, $700 million naming rights deal for a football stadium in Los Angeles that hasn't been built, in a media market that hasn't seen football in 15 years!

And The University of Louisville even tops the Oakland Coliseum with a 10-year 13.5 million deal with Yum Brands, that was done in 2010.   

Yeah.  For The University of Louisville! 

That news, right there, should be enough to make any Oaklander's blood boil. But folks, this crap has been going on for years. Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, who should not be surprised that this blogger's raising hell about this, should be flogged for even speaking highly of this deal, let alone approving it. Ignacio should have said "You know, I'm not going to sign off on this deal, because Zennie's going to be on my butt - again - if I do."

Damn right.

What the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority should have done is execute the plan I laid out when I worked to try and bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland: name both the stadium and the field, which includes the parking lot. The Oracle Arena, (which was the focus of a price that was not named, but we can guess it was somewhere in the area of what Overstock.com paid) would not be hampered by the plan.

But the idea is to offer the true stadium complex and its overall value. When I crafted that plan, and the argument for it, I asserted that if we landed a Super Bowl, we could afford an "ask" of $200 million, and Sports Business Journal at that time, estimated that the value of a stadium naming rights deal for the SF Bay Area could be as much as $80 million.

That's right: $80 million.

The problem is that Oakland thinks small of itself, and therefore is just happy for what it gets.  And this goes for the Oakland Raiders, who get part of the $1.2 million annual payment.  How else to explain the continuation of such crappy stadium naming rights deals in Oakland?   Plus, what really bothers me, is the Coliseum people only seek local businesses to name the Coliseum, which gets "global" exposure.

Overstock is well aware they got off with a bargain, else Byrne would not have mentioned that the facility, because of the teams, was "globally recognized." 

This is an outrage, and I'm not done outraging about it!

Let's see now. Oakland's crying about a deficit, and asking people to share the pain, and we can't even get our stadium act together. And to think that I wanted to run the Oakland Coliseum way back in 1998, and guess who rejected then-Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris' recommendation?

Ignacio De La Fuente.

If I were running the Coliseum, this would not have happened.  Heads would roll.  

I like drinking with Ignacio, but I've got to hammer him on this one. It's not personal. It's only business.  This crap has to stop. 

Julio Jones WR, Atlanta Falcons 2011 NFL Draft Pick

Of all the picks not Cam Newton, Julio Jones just may be the most electrifying one. Jones, the Alabama wide receiver who wowed the NFL Combine with an amazing performance and 4.39 40-yard-dash speed while participating with a broken foot, is The Atlanta Falcons 2011 First Round Pick in the NFL Draft.

The Falcons traded up to get Jones, getting the Cleveland Browns' sixth pick, and trading five picks to get there, moving up 21 spots in the process. And Jones, who's from Foley, Alabama and not far from Atlanta, could not have been happier. "I'm excited," he said in the Media Interview Room at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, "I'm excited. It's not far from home, and I can go to a winning program. I can go in and play. I'm looking forward to it."

Jones, who said he loved the atmosphere of The Georgia Dome, the Falcons' home, will be paired with Falcons star Wide Receiver Roddy White, making what will become the most dangerous receiving duo in the NFC South. "I'm going to call him," he said. "I'm going to learn the game from him."

In the video interview, Jones said that the fact the Falcons traded up to get him means that they know he's a hard worker, and then said "A lot of people don't see how hard I work."

I don't know where he got that from, because all the talk, especially on the NFL Network, was about his work ethic. Anyone who could come into the NFL Combine on a broken foot and do that well is a wonder.

And now that he's heeled, the prediction here is for Julio Jones to make the 2012 Pro Bowl squad in his rookie year.

Stay tuned.

Ad Age Blogger Anti-Twitter Post On Osama Bin Laden Is Wrong

Tweets per second., a photo by @Twitter on Flickr.

The chart shows the number of Twitter tweets per second during the events leading up to President Barack Obama's announcement Sunday nght that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals. At it's highest point, the chart shows about 5,200 tweets per second. What this also shows is how many people use Twitter to share information.

An Ad Age Blogger named Simon Dumenco, writing in a way that contained a nasty tone which invites disagreement, was trying to say that the story of Bin Laden's demise was not broke by Twitter.

He gives reasons that are shaky, claiming that because Keith Urbahn, former chief of staff for ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn" and then asked for the tweet to be verified, it was not the breaking news.

Then the Ad Age Blogger insisted that because Urbann got the information from a TV News Producer, it means "mainstream media" was the source.

That's wrong.

The Ad Age Blogger confuses titles with actions. The "TV News Producer" wasn't in the act of being a TV news producer at the time, just a person spreading information. Now, if the source was on some media outlet, then we're not talking about Twitter as the source, but television - that's not the conversation here.

The bottom line is that Twitter and everyone else recognizes that Twitter was the source and that journalists played a role that Hearst Newspapers Executive Vice President of Content Development and legend Phil Bronstein said they would play in our interview last year about the changing face of media: as fact checker.

The bottom line is that media today is multi-media, and you'd fast better adjust to this new world or be harmed by it.

Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - Rush Limbaugh Thanks God For Obama

P050111PS-0210, a photo by The White House on Flickr.

Today, "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" was the dominant search term, as Americans and people around the World absorbed as much online content as possible related to the news of the death of the most hated leader since Adolf Hitler. And all because of the deft decision making of President Barack Obama.

In fact, Obama's choice to send Navy Seal teams in to get Bin Laden, rather than just bomb the neighborhood he was found in, caused conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to say "Thank God for President Obama" on his show today.



Indeed, people normally knee-jerk opposed to Obama, came out to thank the young President. Even GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who failed to do so on Twitter, made up for it later when he did include a congratulatory remark about President Obama.

And while congrats were coming in, the White House was releasing photos from moments leading up to the demise of Bin Laden, including this one with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden (in blue shirt), and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as other members of the National Security Team.

One look at the President's face shows how determined he and they were to get this job done, and they did.

Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden’s Death will NOT Save Incumbents

OsamaBin Laden’s death will NOT save incumbents in Washington DC from the wrath of America’s Unemployed voting masses, at least according to a recent U-Cubed poll.

The poll conducted last month offers great insight into how poorly unemployed America views the job being done by our elected officials. To view the total results of this poll go to http://tinyurl.com/4x4232r and PLEASE TWEET this link out to all media and political contacts.

Some of the most important and revealing poll questions and responses were:

Overall, would you say things are on the right or wrong track in America today? To which 88.4% responded WRONG TRACK.

How would you rate the job being done by President Barack Obama -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 37.4% responded NO SO GOOD and another 31% felt Obama is doing a POOR job.

How would you rate the job being done by the United States Senate -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 53.3% said POOR and another 34.6% thought NOT SO GOOD.

How would you rate the job being done by the United States House of Representatives -- excellent, good, not so good, or poor? 78.5% Said POOR

How would you rate the job President Barack Obama is doing -- excellent, good, not so good or poor -- when it comes to:

Protecting American workers from the loss of jobs due to outsourcing and imports of cheap foreign goods? 67.5% said POOR

Having the kind of strong and aggressive jobs program to get people back to work? 67.0% said POOR.

Are you inclined to support your member of Congress for re-election or not? 49.7% answered No, not inclined to support.

Which of the two parties in Congress -- the Democrats or Republicans -- do you think is doing a better job in dealing with the following issues?

Standing up for the interests of working people - 53.4% said Neither!

Ending this recession by stimulating the economy - 64.4% said Neither!

Standing up forcefully to the big banks, investment firms and Insurance companies - 76.2% said Neither!

Pushing a strong jobs program to get people back to work immediately - 80% said Neither!

81.9% of those polled believe that the United States needs an industrial policy that will promote manufacturing and improve our transportation systems.

86.8% Strongly disagreed with the statement: Since Wall Street has rebounded and the gross national product has grown, the recession is all but over for most Americans.

But 68.6% strongly agreed that our country needs strong and enforceable "Buy American" legislation so more American-made products are purchased by the federal, state and local governments -- as well as U.S. government funded contractors.

79.2% feel that: The federal government should hire jobless Americans to renovate factories, install new equipment and improve global competitiveness and job opportunities for unemployed persons in depressed local economies.

Over 90% strongly agreed that US Tax policies should discourage the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries.

72.2% believe that Trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA should be renegotiated and 81.6% strongly agree that America needs a strong, Roosevelt-Kennedy style jobs program to get Americans who want to work back to work immediately.

70.3% stated they agree with the statement: In recent years, neither major political party has strongly represented the interests of working people and 67.2 believe that The Democratic Party doesn't represent working people as strongly as they used to.

However, if either party came out strongly in favor of a FDR-JFK styled jobs program to get people back to work as soon as possible, that's the party 61.1% would support ... and maybe not just for the next election.

In addition, nearly 66% would be inclined to support either party if they simply stood up strongly for the interests of ordinary working people. (Heads up GOPers!)

So you see, although significant, the death of Osama Bin Laden is not likely to effect the results of the 2012 election anywhere close to soothing the anger of unemployed American voters would. (Especially since it took nearly 6,000 deaths of American service personnel to get this one man and his death DOES NOT MEAN the USA will immediately withdraw from the war in Afghanistan).

Obama may indeed get a bump in his approval rating for a brief moment in time, but unless Washington DC immediately gets going on fixing America’s REAL issues on the home front - there will be new blood on the hands of the US Government - this time due to starving, homeless and suicidal long term jobless American Citizens, and those who do survive will want BLOOD in the form an entirely new regime in DC come the next election!

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead - How It Was Done, Part One

As the enormous tide of blog posts and Twitter tweets about the end of Osama Bin Laden, and the search for content under "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" continues at a "volcanic" level according to Google Trends, an email came in from an old friend who was a US Army Captain.

It reads that the operation to get Bin Laden was...

..carried out by combined force of Navy Seals from Seal team 7 & US Army SOC (Special Operations Command) Joint Force including Squadron from 1st Special Forces Detachment (Delta Force) US Army 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment- My old Unit-Lost one Aircraft and Crew...) and USAF Special Operations Wing (combat observation and Support).....

In the days ahead it will come out that the seal team were the ground observers, the Delta team was the reaction force, the SOAR moved Delta into position for the Mission and Flew Close Combat Air support, and the AF ran the Predator Drones and flew the AC-130 combat support Plane....It's a Mission operation template that has worked(with only one exception - Somalia) since 1983.....

the 4 Helos: 2 CH-47 Heavy Lifters and 2 MH-60 Blackhawks......the 47's moved the troops and the 60's provide fire support(I flew the 60's...)


My Old Unit-The 160th SOAR(SPECIAL OPERATIONS AVIATION REGIMENT)
Motto: Night Stalkers Don't Quit(NSDQ)
HQ Base Ft. Campbell Ky
Officially formed: 10/16/1981

Stay tuned.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead: Politics In The Post-Bin Laden World

Now that Al Qaeda Head Osama Bin Laden has been laid to rest at sea after the successful excursion to Pakistan by US, Navy Seals, it's time to consider how both American and World politics will be reshaped in the wake of this event of fantastic proportions.

Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Consider that since September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda-directed airplane hijacks resulted in four crashes and the destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center, America's perceived standing in the World fell both from an economic and from a militaristic perspective. President George W. Bush, who vowed to get Bin Laden "Dead or Alive" seemed more intent on using the fact that he was alive as political fuel for his two terms as President.

Now that President Barack Obama successfully went after and got Bin Laden, there's no longer that political card to play - but thankfully, Obama never did so.

By following through on a campaign promise to go to Pakistan and get Bin Laden, and get out of Iraq, President Obama has firmly cemented his place in World History. He will forever be known as the man who helped bring an end to a reign of terror exacted by Al Qaeda and operatives in the Mid East and bring in a new, more democratic and free way of life.

Obama didn't do this by force, but by pushing along Arab Cultural forces already active. And indeed, the people involved in the formation of the "New Mid East," are certainly no friends of Bin Laden. When Obama saw an opening to take out Osama Bin Laden, he gave the order to do so.

His timing, just right in the middle of the greatest upheaval of Arab regimes in Mid East History, was perfect. While there will always be terrorists and terrorism, the Arab desire for freedom is overtaking those Arabs who would want to destroy any chance for it. And this is great for America.

No, it doesn't mean an end to security lines at airports, and it should not. But it - the changing of regimes and the death of Bin Laden - does mean that we in America can all look at the Mid East with pride and not with trepidation. And hopefully it means better opportunities for American business, particularly in tech, which means more jobs here and in the Mid East, too.

This moment, really this combination of many events happening close together, may also be the catalyst for the easing of credit and the restoration of the American and the World economy. Overnight the Japanese stock index increased after the announcement that Bin Laden was dead. And U.S. Markets, from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the S&P 500, were all up today.

The bet here is that's just the shape of more good news to come.ma Bin Laden has been laid to rest at sea after the successful excursion to Pakistan by US, Navy Seals, it's time to consider how both American and World politics will be reshaped in the wake of this event of fantastic proportions.

Consider that since September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda-directed airplane hijacks resulted in four crashes and the destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center, America's perceived standing in the World fell both from an economic and from a militaristic perspective. President George W. Bush, who vowed to get Bin Laden "Dead or Alive" seemed more intent on using the fact that he was alive as political fuel for his two terms as President.

Now that President Barack Obama successfully went after and got Bin Laden, there's no longer that political card to play - but thankfully, Obama never did so.

By following through on a campaign promise to go to Pakistan and get Bin Laden, and get out of Iraq, President Obama has firmly cemented his place in World History. He will forever be known as the man who helped bring an end to a reign of terror exacted by Al Qaeda and operatives in the Mid East and bring in a new, more democratic and free way of life.

Obama didn't do this by force, but by pushing along Arab Cultural forces already active. And indeed, the people involved in the formation of the "New Mid East," are certainly no friends of Bin Laden. When Obama saw an opening to take out Osama Bin Laden, he gave the order to do so.

His timing, just right in the middle of the greatest upheaval of Arab regimes in Mid East History, was perfect. While there will always be terrorists and terrorism, the Arab desire for freedom is overtaking those Arabs who would want to destroy any chance for it. And this is great for America.

No, it doesn't mean an end to security lines at airports, and it should not. But it - the changing of regimes and the death of Bin Laden - does mean that we in America can all look at the Mid East with pride and not with trepidation. And hopefully it means better opportunities for American business, particularly in tech, which means more jobs here and in the Mid East, too.

This moment, really this combination of many events happening close together, may also be the catalyst for the easing of credit and the restoration of the American and the World economy. Overnight the Japanese stock index increased after the announcement that Bin Laden was dead. And U.S. Markets, from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the S&P 500, were all up today.

The bet here is that's just the shape of more good news to come.