This might be the worst blunder in the history of sports. Your team is one of the favorites to win your conference, and you send a contract to the WWE five weeks before the show begins to finalize the deal. You now have a wrestling promotion signed on to use your home arena smack in the middle of a date that was previously set aside for the Western Conference Finals.
And you thought Vince McMahon and his traveling circus was crazy?
No Vince is right in this one. The WWE isn’t an organization that can just up and move and event with a weeks notice. You see Sunday they are doing a non-televised show in Loveland, Colorado…only to turn Monday to Denver, and finish the trip with a stop in Colorado Springs. You think the WWE set those Sunday and Tuesday dates because they are going to make some cash in Loveland and Colorado Springs? Instead they are now scrambling to figure out what on Earth they can do to not only find a venue for their Monday night show, but to also make sure they can get to their next night’s show without much of a problem.
A contract is a contract. Especially when signed while your team was the #2 seed going into the playoffs. ESPN set aside the potential dates for the Western Conference Finals. The Nuggets organization knew those dates and the potential conflict. If the Lakers had finished the Rockets off earlier it would have started on Sunday, May 17 and gone every other night for the 1st four games.
Fear not, the Nuggets aren’t the only organization to have these problems. The Pittsburgh Penguins (who don’t own their facility) had conflicts with a Yanni concert, forcing them to play a Semifinal game on back to back nights. Not kicking them out.
That being said the NHL doesn’t have the TV contract the NBA has and demands. TNT and ESPN split the Conference Finals, playing two games on one night could overlap and/or cost one network some big ratings. The NBA’s take? It’s your problem Denver…Fix it.
So there is a signed contract. A legally binding contract, and according to Sports Business Daily, the Nuggets really have no out. Yet they are kicking Vince and his promotion to the curb. Leaving him with only a lawsuit to help fix the damage the Nuggets ineptitude caused…refunds…rescheduling…selling new tickets…gas prices…
I’m sure the lawsuit will make sure that NO professional sports team will make that mistake again. Who am I kidding.
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F the Nuggets. Vince will for sure have an impersonator of Nuggets CEO get Samoan Spiked by Umaga.
Vince in a way is loving this though, the free pub WWE is getting is enormous, and they actually look good for a change.
Tuesday they are doing Smackdown tapings in Colorado Springs, but they have a 2 hour committment to USA for RAW on Monday. Not to mention they have a PPV in a few weeks and the TV shows are built to promote that PPV, cancelling for them isn’t an option.
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Mentioned it in the Seventh Inning Stretch comments last night, but I’ll repeat it here. It was funny as all hell watching RAW last night and hearing the announcers just lighting up Stan Kroenke on this one.
Let’s ask the next logical question – what would have happened if it was the Avalanche and not the WWE that had the arena first? Would the Nuggets cave then? or if was any other organization other than the WWE?
I would absolutely love to see the WWE stage a protest at the arena, maybe hold RAW in the parking lots or something. Or buy all the seats in the first three rows and leave them empty for the cameras. That would be classic McMahon pettiness, and I’d pay to see it happen.
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McMahon will exploit this, no doubt, and it will be great.
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Hold RAW at Mile High. Why not?
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Well they offered the Denver Coliseum, which holds 10,000
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Rowdy Roddy Piper is on his way to mediate. It won’t end well for Kroenke.
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I was hoping for the Brooklyn Brawler.
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trey – you going somewhere to watch the game tomorrow night or you gonna catch it at home?
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I dunno yet. Depends on the wife, we’ve watched the last game at home. Shoot me an email and let me know if you are up to anything. As I said, it’s as the wife turns.
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trey – want me to use your offline address or do you have a s&f address?
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if we meet up, I’ll bring a copy of Jen’s gravatar so we can talk smack to it (her) during the game (I hope we get to talk a LOT of smack)
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Go Wizards, win the draft lottery!
/Go Magic, f Cleveland
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either is fine, both go to the same spot.
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The Nuggets should have to play their “home” game at Staples Center.
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Denver will buy out the WWE for a price. McMahon knows he is getting bumped and will still have the event there and make just as much money plus he will get the Nuggets buyout. They are just squabbling about price now.
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The secondary Denver Coliseum is a problem because it is believed the advance is more tickets than the Coliseum would hold for a taping. Plus, the whole conversion of tickets is a disaster.
See above for why moving to the Coliseum is a problem.
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Looks like Raw will be held in Colorado Springs.
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For as long as it lasts before YouTube has to pull it down, enjoy this interview with Vince. Love the irony of Coachman being the ESPN “personality” that has the interview.
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