So, there’s no Braves baseball game today, because Selig. Which means there will be no “game thread” per se today. So, in lieu of that, here’s a link to the inaugural episode of the new Braves podcast that Alan Honeycutt and I are doing. We call it “The Circle Change” and we curse, overhype Evan Gattis and talk about peyote and Dan Uggla’s arms.
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You had me at peyote.
I’m going to the game tomorrow night, and am wondering if anyone’s got anything on the new eats at Turner Field. Specifically them putting out H&F burgers in the CF plaza. Is that actually happening?
“The Braves will be offering 24 tickets that give ticket-holders a fast-pass to the front of the H&F line, and a guaranteed burger. Those game-and-burger combo tickets will cost $32 and seats will be located in sections 148L, 149L, and 151L.”
http://atlantaeats.com/2013/03/28/holman-finch-turner-field/
Listened to the first ten minutes so far — entertaining stuff!
@2
A friend of mine got an H&F burger last night. It looked (and smelled) delicious, but he wasn’t sure it was worth the 40 minute line he had to stand in to get it. But then, all the lines last night were ridiculously long. I plan to try it at a less-attended game sometime this season, for sure.
@4 during 162 game win streak all games will be sold out
@4- Yeah, not surprised about that line, seeing how the burger’s a rarity even within the restaurant itself.
It occurs to me that we don’t do intros for the podcast. So, for the sake of clarity, the first voice you hear is Alan Honeycutt and the second voice, warning you about the cursing, is me.
Solid point, Paul.
Please tell, what is an “H&F”?
Holeman and Finch, a hot spot eatery in ATL.
@9-
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/08/holeman-and-finch-burger-review-atlanta-ga.html
I enjoyed the podcast, are you planning to do the weekly or whenever possible or some such?
Also, a couple points of critique that you’ve probably already gotten. Sam, you need to lean into your/the microphone a little more, and (I’m guessing) Alan should get a styrofoam cup for the coffee when you do the recording.
What Tomas said. Plus, you need to sound like the Sam Hutcheson we all have in our heads, not like you. I realize that will be tough since we all have different ideas what you sound like, but such are the rigors of show business.
“during 162 game win streak”
162-0 Braves would probably still be bounced out in the first round of the playoffs, knowing them.
We’re definitely working out the kinks of the mic situation. As of right now, we have a shared mic. I think I may go purchase a mic for my side of the table/countertop for our next recording sessions. We have enough material for at least two more 30-40 minute episodes in the can. Those are in edit now. Should be up relatively soon.
I’d love to do it weekly, once we get a rhythm going, but it will always be dependent on our personal and work schedules sorting out properly.
Ep 2 will be SS and 3B and maybe the OF, though again, we have material enough to perhaps make those two episodes. Our next recording session will be to do the pitching staff.
The clinking is coffee mugs from either of us. In Ep 2 my coffee mug is replaced by a whiskey tumbler. I’ll work on mimicking the voices in your heads…
Thanks for listening and the feedback. We want to make it worth subscribing to.
Yu Darvish has a perfect game through 7. But it’s against the Astros. This is for what the asterisk was invented.
If I wake up in the morning and any of those assholes at Rutgers still have jobs, I’ll be unpleasantly unsurprised.
Listening to the AD being interviewed by Jeremy Schaap… what a guy.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/9125796/practice-video-shows-rutgers-basketball-coach-mike-rice-berated-pushed-used-slurs-players
lolAstros
Though they have gotten a hit with two outs in the ninth.
One out short. There’ll be plenty more chances for history against the Stros this year.
Jim Kaat, channeling 1975 in his reaction to Darvish’s performance, “I’d take that 40 starts a year.”
#15: Very entertaining. I didn’t mind the glasses clinking so much, as I figured at least you were getting sussed. I do miss the British accent, though, and wish you’d go back to it.
@15 Grab a used RE20 and be done with it. Glad to have another podcast to work into the rotation.
Blue Microphones makes a lotta affordable podcast/mic solutions as well.
http://bluemic.com/
Check this out — American and French soldiers commandeered Hitler Youth stadium in 1945 and played a (somewhat) integrated “world series”. Great story:
http://tinyurl.com/d7murd7
On discussion of the lines at Turner for food, it was really hard to gauge the lines for H&F because every line was ridiculous. Like someone mentioned yesterday, with the lack of street vendors currently, I’m guessing more people came to the park hungry.
Also, because of how bad the traffic was to Turner, I’m guessing a lot of people (like me) ended up eatting a late lunch at the park. I ended up having to start with Dippin Dots and work my way back to real food just to get something to eat in a decent amount of time.
Concessions are always an issue at sporting events. Trying to accommodate 50k plus isn’t an easy task. I’m far more displeased with the traffic getting to the park over waiting in lines for food.
We went to Chippers ceremony game last year and we have a spot to park that’s usually easy to access and its a short walk to the stadium. The police had traffic rerouted in numerous directions. It took us over 2 hours to get from the interstate to a parking spot. We made it just in time for the first pitch but missed all of the pregame. Very disappointing
I definitely agree that concessions are always some sort of issue, but I had never seen it that bad before. Of course, you aren’t going to get a packed house at the Ted every game, so I’m sure it won’t be a persistent issue.
Random thing: I’ve got two tickets to the Friday 12 April Nats/Braves game (here in DC) that I’m not able to use. They’re down the 1st base line in the corner, ~30 rows up. I’m happy to part with them for face if anyone here wants them. Saves me the trouble/fees of StubHub. I got them as part of a ticket plan, so by “face” I mean what I paid not what the price at the gate would be.
matthewravery AT gmail DOT com if you’re interested.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/baseball/gattis-baseball-saga-gets-really-interesting-now/nW96Q/
First taste of the new subscriber wall. I’m amazed that a paper as mediocre as the AJC thinks they can get away with a paywall.
Unfortunately, the lack of revenue occasions much of the mediocrity. They have to try something.
As someone who’s worked at a web firm specializing in editorial sites, I think if you have a paywall you have to have content that goes above and beyond, and I’m not seeing that from the AJC. Like, that Gattis piece. I’d love to read it, but it sure as hell isn’t worth any kind of money to me, and certainly not $15 a month. Most likely the paywall will result in a dramatic drop in readership and the ads they currently have on the site will be worth less and they’ll be in some trouble. Now, perhaps the spike of money from the paywall lets them do some nice features or some exclusive content with the braves, etc.
I would wager that this results is slightly better content to a much, much smaller audience, and I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.
@26
I agree, to a point. I mean, all they do there is play baseball and sell stuff. It shouldn’t be a crazy as it is.
If putting it behind a paywall means I never have to read prose like “a regular Jo”, then I am allllll for it.
@31
They are probably trying to keep actual paper subscibers as well. Why buy the paper if you can just read it for free on line?
@34 One of the biggest problems newspapers have is no one is smart enough to figure out that printed papers are dead and they have to figure out a way to be profitable online. They are propping up the old tech at the expense of the future.
@31
That’s an entirely valid perspective, and I’m sure you’re right. I can only think of it from a J-school perspective, which means a desperate search for revenue to finance the stuff that’s important but not necessarily profitable, like their coverage of the APS scandal (which I think has been exemplary).
If you think the AJC is mediocre, never, ever look at anything from the Tennessean — which has been doing the paywall thing for over a year, now.
I am lucky where I live. The Chattanooga Times-Free Press is a great newspaper. We also have a few on line publicaitons (Nooga.com) that are also very well done.
The AJC and the Tennessean blow.
If the content-rich/content-exclusive NY Times has trouble making money online, and it does, every other daily will have trouble as well.
But if you absolutely must have it, you’ll pay, and (for NY Times) I do via iOS app, which also allows you to read the paper online with a password.
We actually don’t have a paywall at the paper for which I write. Of course, we’re a small town of about 4,000 and our website isn’t overly interactive. We post one story in its entirety followed by teasers which say “For more information, see this week’s edition of our newspaper.” People still look for the news in the paper in small towns but the Big Metro Dailies are losing money.
@39 After NYtimes finishes that redesign, I might be paying for it too.
The whole problem with revenue on the internet is centered on what online ads cost. Why on earth does a full page ad in the printed NYtimes cost more than a banner ad that’s seen by millions more people AND can be specifically targeted to certain demographics? It’s mind boggling.
For banner ads, specifically, the problem is sociological. No one looks at banner ads. Many people may have ignored newspaper advertising, but I would be shocked if anyone on this blog had ever clicked a banner ad, except by accident. I don’t even see banner ads any more, because of Adblock. Banner ads are pretty much literally worthless, no matter how targeted.
The problem with advertising on the internet more generally is that inventory is basically infinite on the supply side and there are really only one or two buyers who matter on the demand side, Google and Facebook. It’s basically monopsony, which means that they can just push prices lower and lower and lower and lower. Think about how many $0.01 wires and cables you can buy from Taiwan on Amazon.com. Internet advertising is cheaper.
Pablo Sandoval distracted by cake.
RJ in KS, that’s really fascinating. I have a professor who thinks that more papers should do that — use their website to tease stories in the print newspaper, which everyone has to pay for.
Paywalls are often used to bolster print circulation. Yes, print is dying, but it’s dying relatively slowly, all things considered, because print advertising is still way more lucrative than web advertising. There are a lot of bad incentives for investment, obviously — it’s hard to invest in your digital product which isn’t giving you much revenue. On the other hand, it’s easy to disinvest in your print product and hope that old people just won’t cancel the credit card subscription.
There just are very few web revenue models that aren’t based on massive volume. Google and Facebook are entirely volume strategies. Kickstarter is very different, but crowdfunding really only works well for one-off projects. It doesn’t work nearly as well for ongoing concerns, like running an organization. For that, you have to go with an NPR model, where you cultivate a specific base of donors and potential donors, rather than trying to rely on the crowd. The crowd’s attention is easily turned.
So what can newspapers do? Frankly, I think they need to sell their content. Free doesn’t bring in enough money. A paywall is one way to do it, but only one way. I think that reader revenue is really the only way to go. I just don’t trust the golden goose of advertising any more.
@44 But there’s no reason print advertising should be more lucrative. None of us has probably ever clicked on a banner ad, but I imagine the percentage of revenue coming from a newspaper ad is just as low. Web ads can be more finely targeted to the viewer and are seen by a lot more eyes, so why aren’t they more expensive? Internet advertising shouldn’t be cheaper.
I would think that at some point you’ll get subscriptions to premium internet content sites bundled with your internet ISP pricing. That’s the only revenue model that makes sense to me. Online ads are mostly useless.
@44 and 45
Print advertising is still much better than on the web. It works really well in small town papers.
The Sunday paper is a huge money maker.
I don’t think print news paers will die. You will just see a lot more small town/ local papers.
There was a time in America where people in the south would read their local paper, the paper of the largest city in there area and the Ny Times/ USA Today. Soon it will just be their local papers to read the Obits, local weather, local sports and local news.
If I won’t pay for Espn insider I surely wouldn’t cough up cash just for some post game quotes from the AJC. Just tune in to the post game show and you will get all of that information.
The problem with the AJC’s new paywall is, like all Grand Decisions forced upon the underlings by upper newspaper brass, there’s little testing period and time to adjust. I’d throw money at an AJC paywall if it meant I was getting true insider information, or some nice long-form stuff, but the brains up in Dunwoody are still on we-must-get-page-hits/troll-or-die-hard mode. Do I really want to pay a sum of money to read that Jeff Schultz thinks that Mark Richt has lost control of his players? No I do not.
Though the AJC is not up to the “world-class” standards of some other Big Metro Dailies, it still is one of the few places to find stories on the ATL metro area provided by professional journalists. There are other sources, but to some degree the AJC is still a one-stop shop for local news of a lot of different flavors, and the AJC does still do some good investigative journalism (like, for instance, the APS scandal). I understand that many folks who use the AJC for Braves coverage won’t pay for the paper, but as an ATL local I probably will pay.
If the AJC had a pay wall like Rivals, 24/7 Sports and DOB gave informatmion Bowman didn’t…
Well, I would come here and wait on one of you to copy and paste it.
New thread.