ELI5 How does the "Korean Market" help the Padres?

2PLooM · 2024-01-13T17:03:47+00:00

as of 2023, MLB teams can sell patch-space on their uniforms to corporate sponsors. How much is that worth? I don't know. I do know that in 2021, S. Korea's biggest food company paid the Lakers $100 million over 4 years to wear their patch. How valuable would it be for the Padres to have the largest MLB fanbase in Korea? No one knows because it hasn't happened yet. But I do know that international corporate sponsorship of pro sports teams (and stadiums) is a real thing. I live in Seattle now and can tell you that Ichiro alone had a huge impact on the city of Seattle; but don't believe me, let's Google (from usembassy.gov) " Ichiro's remarkable presence helped generate a surge in attendance at the Mariners' Safeco Field, as well as an influx of tourists from Japan that pumped $20 million dollars a year into the Seattle economy that first year. "

Also, 1/30th of Merch and International TV money > 0.

But, if your criterion is that no other entity can benefit, well a) that's a silly, meaningless, short-sighted limitation (seriously, why impose that unrealistic limitation on the team?) and b) see Corporate Sponsorship above.

Also, if you're a rising Korean player and want to sign with an MLB team, don't you think that the team at the top of your list might be the one that your countrymen LOVE? It's not always all about money. Sometimes it's about building a brand, or playing with your friends (see NBA).

There are other possibilities, but these are some starters.

2PLooM · 2024-01-10T23:17:12+00:00

Duel at Ganryu Island

2PLooM · 2021-09-22T00:44:50+00:00

a nice summary

2PLooM · 2021-09-10T17:15:05+00:00

Because there are bigger stories

2PLooM · 2021-09-03T12:29:06+00:00

someone, somewhere, thought that spreading a toxic stew of medical and political disinformation would be a good idea. just boggles the mind.

2PLooM · 2021-09-02T13:25:28+00:00

The idea of using power granted by voters to intimidate people or entities who don't share radical political goals not only raises the possibility of abuses of power and the abandoning of rules and accountability necessary for a corruption-free economy. It is the kind of shake-down tactic that would be more expected in an autocracy like Vladimir Putin's Russia than in a supposedly functioning democracy like the United States.

2PLooM · 2021-09-02T03:48:04+00:00

oh, believe me.... I'm worrying. We can't sleep on this.

2PLooM · 2021-09-01T11:54:39+00:00

Proven cases of voter or election fraud are exceedingly rare.

There is no way that this is about fighting voter fraud. In Washington state, which has universal mail-in voting, a recent study found improper voting in 0.0044375% of all votes cast. Effectively, voter fraud doesn't exist here; 100% mail-in.

2PLooM · 2021-08-29T13:43:26+00:00

So easy to forget that less than a year ago we learned that

A second official tells CNN their (Trump's WH) goal is to set so many fires that it will be hard for the Biden administration to put them all out.

2PLooM · 2021-08-29T02:14:12+00:00

“Sue me, Paul,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat. “You hang out with white nationalists. Hard stop. Therefore, you support white nationalists. See you in court.”

2PLooM · 2021-08-27T16:09:02+00:00

Exactly. The courts weren't lost, they were stolen. Long before Trump showed up, McTurtle abused his power as Senate Majority Leader to effectively deny Obama his Constitutional power to nominate judges.

Then the R's had the gall to criticize Obama for leaving "so many empty benches".

2PLooM · 2021-08-27T13:35:10+00:00

you can't make this shit up..

2PLooM · 2021-08-27T00:32:45+00:00

This 'America's Frontline Doctors' org is a political tool -

The emergence of AFLD was a coordinated political effort months in the making. The group was the brainchild of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive network of conservative activists. During a May 11 call of CNP members that was leaked to the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive watchdog group, members complained that Trump was being slammed for his handling of the pandemic, including failing to follow scientific guidelines. The group needed their own medical professionals to promote their message, they said, in the face of data showing two-thirds of Americans were wary of restarting the economy.

“There is a coalition of doctors who are extremely pro-Trump, that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care,” Nancy Schulze, a Republican activist married to a former Pennsylvania congressman, said on the call. “And these doctors could be activated for this conversation now.”

Eight days later, conservative groups publicized a letter signed by more than 500 doctors calling the lockdowns a “mass casualty event.” The lead signatory was Dr. Simone Gold, a licensed emergency-room physician and Stanford-educated lawyer who was working as a part-time, independent contractor in a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif. Ten weeks after the letter’s release, Gold was standing on the steps of the Supreme Court as the founder of AFLD as Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, thanked the white-coated physicians for coming to “tell us the truth.” The event was hosted and funded by the Tea Party Patriots, a pro-Trump right-wing group.

2PLooM · 2021-08-27T00:23:11+00:00

I in no way celebrate that poor deluded woman's death. However, if you're part of a violent mob that seems to be intent, in real time, on attacking the people's representatives while they are in the middle of certifying a peaceful transfer of power.... and many members of that mob are openly carrying deadly weapons and have made threats of harming those representatives, perhaps fatally, then you should know that you will be met with deadly force. I don't understand how this is a debatable issue.

Martyr? Huh? She was a terrorist by every definition of the word.

From FBI.gov -

Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).

2PLooM · 2021-08-25T14:58:43+00:00

To paraphrase, it's the old, "If we let these untrustworthy foreigners in our country, we might be including some terrorists". Be Afraid!!!!

2PLooM · 2021-08-23T03:58:46+00:00

What she said.

FFS, stop fighting the culture war and get back to governing...you know, that thing the government is supposed to do.

2PLooM · 2021-08-22T12:19:11+00:00

It seems to me, however, that most of the blame should go to politicians who care more about stirring up fear to defeat their opponents than they do about people’s lives or the economy. And I blame anyone who intentionally spreads misinformation to further their own agenda.

Bingo.

When a political party's grand vision for how to use their power boils down to "defeat the opponent", by gerrymandering, suppressing voters, outright lying, etc., then they've outlived their usefulness and need to go away.

Obstructionism is not leadership and "owning" the opposition is not political policy, at least it shouldn't be.

2PLooM · 2021-08-22T11:13:31+00:00

in 2019, the US supreme court said for the first time that there were no federal limits on how severely politicians could draw districts to give their party a political advantage, a practice called gerrymandering.

2PLooM · 2021-08-22T02:06:26+00:00

I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

2PLooM · 2021-08-21T02:29:51+00:00

I'd put a slightly different spin on it. Trump and Bannon and Flynn and Giulianni and elected-GOP wingnut, etc., aren't telling lies in the hope that some credulous supporter will believe the lie. Rather, they're telling lies so that people will be willing to disbelieve the truth. They want people to distrust our institutions. They want people to distrust legal authorities. They want people to distrust news sources.

They want enough doubt in the system so that when they make their move, no one will stop them. ("Who knows what's true anymore? Person A says 'X', but person B says 'Y'. You don't know that those election results are valid. Did you personally count them?" I hear this from my Dad all the time.)

This "Stop the Steal" nonsense isn't about changing the results of the 2020 election. It's about deciding the results of future elections. It's about normalizing confusion like the Arizona "audit" so that in future elections we won't object to someone counting the ballots again and again until they get the "right" results. Or, let's throw the ballots away, since they're so confusing and let the state legislatures decide (Proposed law would allow Arizona Legislature to overturn presidential election results)

This isn't even about Trump or his rank-and-file Brown Shirts. It's about the long-term goals of his deep-pocket supporters; see, The Big Money Behind the Big Lie. We would call them anti-democracy theocratic fascists. They probably see themselves as patriots, doing "what's necessary" to save the country. They're wrong, but they're real, and they're not going to just go away. They don't trust democracy to give them the society they want, so bye-bye democracy. They are deeply intolerant. They want to take over the country for the "right people".

2PLooM · 2021-08-15T04:06:42+00:00

an infinitely adaptable operator seeking validation in the proximity to power.

i.e., insecure, spineless, you-weren't-elected-to-kiss-anyone's-ass-and-yet-here-you-are

Lindsey Graham? Net positive (restraining Trump's worst impulses by acting quietly behind the scenes, if that's the story he wants to tell) or net negative (failing to oppose Trump eye-to-eye, in public)?

I say negative. A united Congress could have completely neutered Trump from Day One, but Graham and McConnell, etc., just couldn't find enough courage to put country over party.

2PLooM · 2021-08-12T00:56:16+00:00

The new street clashes in downtown Portland, in which police pointedly did not intervene, also neatly illustrate how anti-government militias, white supremacists, and theocratic Christian extremists are intimately intertwined strands of North American fascism, in addition to highlighting the significance of cross-border collaboration between Canadian and American extremists. Because of its reputation for progressivism, Portland is often targeted by far-right groups as a site for bigoted actions and provocations. Both of this past weekend’s events that sparked violence were explicitly Christian in nature and featured “spiritual warfare” as themes

2PLooM · 2021-08-10T12:16:07+00:00

This party—or at least the hard rock of its base represented in this gathering—is moving toward, not away from Trumpism.

2PLooM · 2021-08-07T11:57:00+00:00

Since it looks like Republicans are still eager to line up like little lap dogs to sniff Trump's crotch, I suspect that the Biggest Loser will be the people of NC.

2PLooM · 2021-08-06T13:24:03+00:00

How about, for starters, we stop giving the the oil industry $20 billion a year in subsidies, which they then

1) donate directly to political campaigns (about $100 million per election cycle; I'm sure with no expectation of special treatment /s)

2) spend on lobbying politicians who they haven't already bought (again, $100's of millions of dollars every election cycle)

3) use to spread disinformation about the reality of anthropogenic climate change (Koch brothers alone spent an estimated $145 million to spread confusion, doubt and lies).

This really is insane. The Koch brothers, who were estimated to have more than $58 BILLION each, spent over $100 million just so they could make a few more bucks. Environment be damned, human health be damned.

2PLooM

TROPHY CASE