How desperate were the folks at Rogers Centre to fill seats for tonight’s Buffalo Bills exhibition game? Mike Zeisberger of the TORONTO SUN reports free tickets to tonight’s game “have been handed out to organizations such as The Hospital for Sick Children and The United Way, an act the naysayers claim is a desperate effort to make the 53,000-seat stadium appear full.”
Rogers Media Senior Director of Marketing Anthony Antonelli denied the claim, saying “We have sponsorship agreements or relationships with Sick Kids and The United Way.”
But Zeisberger then asked, “at one point, it was alleged that there were 180,000 names on the waiting list … If that is the case, why can fans suddenly buy single-game tickets for tonight?”
Garth Woolsey of the TORONTO STAR takes a wild guess: “No doubt there are NFL fans in our midst. Plenty of them. But it is still worth noting that only the cheapest seats are sold out (for tonight’s game, and) at $70 a pop ‘cheapest’ is relative.”
The average ticket price for the game was reportedly into the triple digits. If those tickets could’ve be sold, do you think all those sick kids would’ve been gifted?
*Note to self: don’t hire Vincent Askew as a lifeguard*
Paul Farhi of the WASHINGTON POST reports Tony Kornheiser’s talk radio contract will not be renewed by DC’s WWWT-AM “after his program’s ratings declined substantially this spring.”
That leaves Kornheiser as a free agent in the DC radio marketplace, and causes Mike Stern of MEDIAWEEK to speculate that Kornheiser’s talk host services “may be very appealing” to Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder.
(Will Tony K. saddle up Snyder’s Red Zebra?)
Why Snyder? Well the NFL’s very own Napoleon also runs something called Red Zebra Broadcasting, which recently acquired DC sports talker WTEM-AM and owns a “portfolio of [DC] area stations.”
That would be rather interesting, Snyder signing Tony K.’s checks - especially with Kornheiser’s on-air role on “Monday Night Football.” Though it could be considered a conflict of interest, Kornheiser would surely bend over backwards to call off viewer thoughts of impropriety.
STUFF in New Zealand reports on Rachel Hunter’s latest shining knight. Make that (Los Angeles) King. 26-year-old Jarrett Stoll is engaged to the 38-year-old Hunter, who calls him “my first love since Rod.”
(She looks great! And so does Rachel)
I assume she means her former husband, Stewart.
Mary Schmitt Boyer of the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER has my favorite story of the day (see buried lead). NBAer Damon Jones guested on ESPN’s “First Take” this morning and talked about the Cleveland Cavaliers’ lack of offseason player moves with co-host Skip Bayless.
Jones was a member of the Cavaliers at the time of the discussion. Moments later, he was being chaffeured to the airport when his limo driver informed him he’d been traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Boyer’s note end there, but it turns out the limo driver was the father of an ESPN producer, who called his dad to inform him of the deal.
As a Laker fan, I’d like to lodge a personal request that someone in Bristol fly in Vlad Rad for some astute offseason Lakers analysis.
Sad news about ESPN’s once-mainstay Bill Pidto.
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