PAC-10 Expansion is Closer than you think

Here is why I think PAC-10 expansion is coming.

Check out this quote:

Quote:

Revenue from the Pac-10’s primary football contract with ABC/ESPN, its secondary football deal with Fox Sports Net and its basketball deal with FSN place the conference fifth in total revenue behind the Big Ten, the Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12, said Kevin O’Malley, a television industry consultant. He said the conference was geographically well situated to create its own network the way the Big Ten has.

“It has universities from contiguous states, mostly land-grant schools that dominate the state,” he said. “That’s a lot of marketing power among alumni and fans when you consider the distribution.”

Scott said he was aware of the television-deal issues.

“I’ve picked up on the sense that some people feel that the Pac-10 may not be boxing at their appropriate weight, so to speak,” Scott said of the league’s television deal. “One of the skill sets that I bring is dealing with television for 15 years and dealing with all of the major networks over that time.”

Yep... its not going to be long until you see the PAC-10 Network. If the link is to be believed the PAC 10 gets 100 million in Revenue each year (half of the Big 10's 200). So what do you do if you are the pac 10? You add two more teams and get a championship game for 15 million a year. You then start the PAC-10 Network. You need someone to play on that Network so you make a stipulation that the new network will have an unbalanced amount of games for the additional 2 teams.

You then get two more bowl games and you build the Network. Soon with the championship game, extra bowl revenue and the new network you get that that extra 100 million.

Instead of 10 million (100 million / 10) per team. You Now have 200 Million divided by 12 which is 17 million per school.

That's a pretty good incentive.

Fixing the World Baseball Classic

Interesting article on ESPN about the WBC and how to make it better. My plan would be a little bit different.

Take the All Star week off (WBC in lieu of All star game) in July and play a 16 team tournament in single elimination style.
1. Do it in a either Chicago, New York or LA (Multi stadium towns)
2. Limit Pitch counts to 100 (or 90)
3. Add 6 extra slots for pitchers

The week would look like this in Chicago.

Monday - Home Run Derby and other All Star Festivites - Wrigley
Tuesday - 8 Games (3 at wrigley), 3 at Comiskey, 2 At Milwaukee
Wednesday - 4 games - 2 at Wrigley - 2 at Comiskey
Thursday - 2 games - 1 at Wrigley - 1 at Comiskey
Friday - Championship game at Wrigley.

MLB resumes the next Monday.

Obama's Health Plan

Here is the New York Times piece on it.

Socialist idiiots will think its a great idea because they don't understand economics. I never thought National Health Insurance would happen but its looking more and more likely now.

Doctors and Hospitals... get ready to have your pay cut by 30%.

Here's my prediction of the order of events.

1. Obama's plan passes.
2. We go a couple years side by side and more and more companies move to the National program because its cheaper.
3. Most Health Insurers go out of business. Only those that offer premium services and premium prices (IE only PAC, SU and Creekster can afford) are left.
4. Some doctors decide only to accept cash or premium insurance leaving a logjam for those who can't afford the premium services
5. Even if the government doesnt change their current price structure for Medicare its still 30% Less than what hospitals get from BCBS or Humana. With more people on the plan they spend need to spend more to keep the structure secure.
6. Our 1.9% tax for Medicare double or triples to meet the new demand for services
7. To cut costs the government starts to ration health care like in Canada
8. Incentive for New procedures and drugs are cut so medical tech progress is stifled.
9. People get used to the "right" to government subsidized health care and will not change systems without being fear mongered by socialist idiots.

Unions have destroyed Detroit

At one time the Unions were a good thing. They fought child labor and forced overtime. They served a purpose. That time was 60 years ago. Now the UAW has effectively destroyed Detroit. I've ran across some depressing and interesting articles about Detroit the last couple of days.

This feature in Rolling Stone was sombering.

This photo essay in time was eye opening.

How did the Unions destroy Detroit? Their greed and always pushing for more concessions. Its estimated that the Big 3 have 100 Billion dollars in Liability for Healthcare for Current and retired workers. Many workers can retire with a full pension after 30 years of work. That means a worker who started at 18 gets to retire at full pension at 48. Not to mention they don't pay a dime for healthcare (ok maybe a measily $10 for co pays)

Here is great article about what GM should do.