Madison Square Garden Chart Topping Venue

Madison Square Garden is consistently a Top Venue for all events. Not only is the Garden the home of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, but home to many other events in the next couple of months.

The Harlem Globetrotters will bring there high flying basketball trickery to the Garden on February 12th. Other February events in 2010 include The Westminster Dog Club Show, Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck, The Black Eyed Peas and John Mayer.

March brings Jay Z, Muse and the Big East Mens basketball tournament. The Big East Mens basketball tournament takes place on March 9 and March 10, 2010. All Sessions Tickets, Session 1 tickets and Session 2 tickets are available today.

Follow the link below to see all available events at MSG!

Madison Square Garden Events

Hall of Fame; Steroids or Hemorrhoids?

What constitutes Hall of Fame status in Major League Baseball?

In the past players have been selected mainly because of the statistics they put up during their extended playing career.

Voting is based upon record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and other contributions. There are no automatic elections for a player based on one performance such as batting .400 for a season or any other amazing performance.

Players must go through a screening committee and any player that receives at least 75% of the votes will be elected into the Hall of Fame.

If one examines the criteria, it is clear that player’s who violate the rules for being inducted into this elite group, should be excluded.

Sorry, Manny Ramirez, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and the rest of the lying morons that decided to partake in the forbidden fruit of steroids. YOU’RE OUT!

How can the world ever know what these players would have done statistically if they had to play by the rules like Larry Doby, Jim Palmer, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and the rest of the heroes we have honored with great respect?

Sorry Pete Rose. Even though every fan enjoyed watching you slide in head first anytime you got the chance and hit a gazillion baseballs into the outfield, we have no room for anyone who violates Major League policy and bets on the game. You gambled and you lost!

Is what Rose did as bad as shooting juice into your behind?

Does it really matter?

At some point someone has to say rules are made to be followed not broken!

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has held his ground to this point and should stay the course.

When people commit crimes they get punished not honored. If they lie on the stand they get further punishment not placed into a Hall of Fame.

Inductee George Brett can relate to these outlaws as he dealt with an ongoing medical condition in the latter part of his career.

The problem Brett had was hemorrhoids, defined as swelling or inflammation of veins in the rectum or anus.

One would have to say the above mentioned violators could be defined the same way.

Use steroids and you become a hemorrhoid!

photo: AP

Kris vs Adam or David vs Goliath?

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone magazine says Adam Lambert single-handedly saved American Idol. “He has the burning “say my name, bitch” thing of Chris Daughtry, the cutthroat vanity of a Carrie Underwood, but also that innocent desire to give pleasure à la Kelly Clarkson. He packs a whole Gong Show of Americana into one pair of striped spandex tights.”

Okay Rob and America, do we even need a final show?

Vegas also favors Adam heavily.

Here are 5 great examples that say yes!

1. 1980 Miracle on Ice

The biggest upset of all-time, sports or otherwise! The magnitude of this victory at a political level was and is unreal. A team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States defeated the Soviet Union considered to be the best international hockey team in the world, 4–3.

2. James “Buster” Douglas over Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson was unbeatable. He was on top of the boxing world. Tyson demolished opponents with ease and had the power and strength of Hercules. Tyson lost his “Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World” title by a KO in round 10 to a 42-to-1 underdog named James “Buster” Douglas on February 11, 1990, in Tokyo.

3. Villanova stuns Georgetown

Villanova Wildcats over Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoyas. Talent-wise, these two basketball teams were at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Wildcats blistered the nets shooting 75% from the field in the game and 90% in the second half. Villanova upset Georgetown in the 1984 NCAA final by a narrow two point margin, 66 to 64.

4. Man O’ War loses only race in 21 starts

And you thought the Kentucky Derby was shocking in 2009 with “Mine That Bird” overcoming 50-to-1 odds to win. The biggest upset in horse racing was 100-to-1 underdog “Upset” beating heavily favored “Man O’ War” in the Sanford Memorial in 1919. Willie Knapp rode “Upset”, the horse whose name has come to mean, “to defeat unexpectedly”.

5. Super Bowl III

Jets Quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed his New York Jets(AFL) a victory over the Baltimore Colts(NFL). The AFL had never won a championship and the victory led to a merger between the two leagues. The NFL had a lack of respect for other league, who had been easily defeated in the prior two Bowls. Namath was named the Super Bowl’s MVP, despite not throwing a touchdown pass in the game or any passes at all in the fourth quarter.

My favorite upset, which I have only seen on NFL films is the last one. In fact, all I knew about Joe Namath was he wore pantyhose. That intrigued me because he had so many women in love with him. Suzy Kolber was the first woman to turn him down!

Q: Rob, are you convinced we need a final now?

A: The 5 “Upsets” above would indicate we do.

We all know Fox is looking forward to the revenue Idol will bring in from advertising dollars.

Q: Can Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert in the showdown?

A: Well, I don’t think he wants to guarantee a victory, though Adam would be the most likely to later wear pantyhose.

Q: I also have heard the debate, “Is it fair that Adam is even a competitor?”

A: Sure, he has enjoyed a semi-successful Broadway career.

I don’t believe he has ever signed a record contract.

Q: Will Danny Gokey’s fans jump on the Kris Allen bandwagon?

A: Twitter has an amazing amount of Adam bashers.

What has Adam Lambert done to the haters besides according to Rob, “single-handedly save” their dying show?

Not going to go there with the gay thing!

Adam haters shouldn’t be too quick to throw stones.

They may, however, want to hand a sling full of them to Kris!

sources: Espn.Go.com, Wikipedia.org

photo source: AP

Event Ticket Market; Bull or Bare?

Marty Rice owns two small businesses in Mansfield, Ohio and owning a successful company in 2009 is much more difficult than it was even a few short years ago. His corrugated box company, Mr. Box Plus, has seen a dip in sales of about 11% to start the year after posting solid numbers in 2008. Most companies are experiencing similar results as America is faced with one of the toughest economic downturns in history.

Marty owns season tickets to the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers. With the tough economic times, one would think Marty has stopped attending games and sold his tickets to make up for the loss of income.

Or has he?

Marty splits a dugout suite Progressive Field with 6 other guys. He says that everyone of them is back for the 2009 season.  At a cost of $248,000 this year, Marty’s portion of the package is over $41,000. That doesn’t even include food and beverages on game day. No one especially wants to miss the dessert cart. I have personally been in the suite and win or lose; the dessert cart is a highlight of the location! The seats are so close to the field you can even spit on the on deck hitter. I know my kid tried two years ago!

Marty hasn’t given up his Cavs seats either. In fact, Marty or his clients attended all 41 Cavaliers home games in 2008-09. According to ESPN.Go.Com, the Cavaliers averaged 20,010 fans per night this season, slightly down from their 2007-08 showing of 20,465 per night. Marty says he noticed a great turnout at every Cavs game he attended, “the place was pretty much full every time,” he stated.

So, if Marty feels this way, how about the rest of America? Are fans no longer attending events because they can’t afford it? Not according to Harmon Howe, whose job it is to manage ticket partners for the world’s largest secondary market exchange, TicketNetwork Exchange™. “What’s happened is the average price of a transaction has dropped from last year by about 15%,” stated Howe, “the number of transactions has gone up substantially, about 75%.”

“Instead of going to Disney World for a week, parents are taking their children to a kid’s concert,” said Howe. Although, he really feels economic pressure has pushed down the price of a seat, he offered this, “fans don’t want to miss the opportunity to see an artist or musical group that may not tour for several years or never again.” U2 and Aerosmith are two very popular groups that fit this category and have been very profitable in the secondary market.

Carol-Ann Rudy of www.TicketNews.com supports Howe in her article written for the website on April 22, 2009. Rudy cites Broadway sales are up over $26 million versus last year at this time. Wicked continues to hold the top spot in all of secondary market ticket sales. According to the sites ranking system, the popular musical has more market share than the four shows ranked directly below the show combined!

A USA Today poll launched in March asked, “How will the economic downturn affect your sports consumption?” As of April 28th, 48% of responders say they will, “attend fewer events and watch more TV” and 36% of pollsters say the economy will have no effect at all!

So, despite an almost bare economy where company revenue is down, Marty Rice will jump into his 2005 Chrysler 300M, head up I-71 to Quicken Loans Arena and follow the Cavaliers throughout the rest of their playoff run. LeBron James is the favorite to win the MVP award and his team had the best regular season record at home this year in the NBA. According to Marty, it’s worth the money he will spend to sit in Club Section 124. Yep, Marty thinks it would be “bull” to sell his playoff tickets or any other ticket he owns at this point. He feels, “the excitement of the playoffs has overridden the economy.”