🏆 Basketball's Forgotten G.O.A.T.

I’m thinking of starting a new type of PR service. Here’s how it would work:

If you’re a sports team owner in hot water, I can make you some cool new stadium renderings that you can leak to the public.

Nothing turns the tides in favor of a billionaire owner like a nice, futuristic stadium rendering.

Bonus points if that stadium is located in an “up-and-coming downtown area.”

Speaking of…

🗞 The Big Story: The A’s Stadium Bait n’ Switch

📉 Biggest Loser: MLS Has a Ref Problem

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Basketball’s Forgotten GOAT

🚨 New YouTube Video

🗞 The Big Story

The Oakland A’s tricked Las Vegas into giving them $380 million for a stadium that no longer exists.

And now they’re trying to build one of the craziest-looking stadiums in America.

Background: On November 16, 2023, MLB owners approved the A’s move to Las Vegas - which is set to happen in 2028.

Immediately after this decision was announced, the team released stadium renderings which helped them land $380 million in public funding from the state of Nevada.

This version of the stadium featured a retractable roof that was meant to protect fans from the harsh Vegas heat, but now the team’s owner is saying those plans have been thrown in the trash.

Starting From Scratch: In fact, just weeks after landing the funding for the stadium (which is projected to cost over $1.5 billion), the A’s were telling architectural firms that their initial renderings had no basis in the project’s future reality.

Essentially admitting that they just threw together the initial renderings to generate buzz and land millions in taxpayer funding without any intention of actually building that version of the stadium.

New Design: Instead, the team just released new renderings that supposedly mimic the actual design of the stadium.

Apparently, the issue with the first design was that a retractable roof would have never fit on the tight, 9-acre lot right off the Las Vegas Strip.

Instead, this new design includes:

• Fixed roof with five, overlapping layers

• Tiered seating

• World’s largest cable-net glass window

• 33,000 seats (smallest in MLB)

• 18,000 sqft video board (largest in MLB)

The Sydney Opera House-like design maximizes natural light while limiting heat created by direct sunlight.

As of right now, the stadium is expected to begin construction next April and will be finished by 2028.

Homeless (For Now): Until then, the A’s will need to find a place to play since their lease in Oakland is up at the end of this season.

The team has reportedly been kicking around three options:

1. Oakland Coliseum

2. Oracle Park (home of the San Fransico Giants)

3. Las Vegas Ballpark (home of the A’s Triple-A affiliate)

But whatever they choose, they better hope this new stadium gets done on time…

📉 Biggest Loser

What the f*ck is going on in the MLS right now?

Hard to Believe: One referee had to be taken off an upcoming game assignment because he posted himself wearing an Inter Miami jersey on his Facebook page.

He was set to officiate a game between Inter Miami and Orlando City this week.

However, this funny mishap is actually part of a much larger issue for Major League Soccer.

Replacement Refs: The referee pictured above is one of the hundreds of replacement refs that the MLS has had to use to start their season because their normal refs are on strike.

Similar to how the NFL had to use replacement refs in 2012, MLS has had to pull up less experienced officials to ref all of its games so far this season.

And apparently, it’s been going horribly.

Union Demands: The regular refs have been striking since February 18 (MLS season started February 21) and are asking for:

• Salary increase of 25%

• First or business-class plane rides for the playoffs

• Physical therapy

• Some contributions to healthcare

• Increased severance

• Improved injury pay

Keep in mind, the lowest-end refs in the MLS only make $20,000 for a thirty-game season and the league doesn’t even pay for healthcare for everyone on the field.

Meanwhile, the average MLS team is worth almost $700 million.

And as the referee union points out, what they’re asking for would only cost each team an extra $100,000 per year or less than 1/10th of the ticket sales for a single home game.

Don’t Talk About It: However, the MLS is sticking with its replacement refs. The league is even telling broadcasters not to talk too much about them - especially when they make bad calls.

Which, according to MLS fans, has been happening a lot.

Including missing obvious out-of-bounds calls and giving out penalties to the wrong players.

Not a great look for a league that’s trying to establish itself as legitimate.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

Caitlin Clark didn’t actually break the women’s college basketball scoring record.

At least not when we all thought she did, and the reason why reveals one of the NCAAs most disturbing secrets.

Not So Fast: When Clark hit a logo-three against Michigan on February 15th to break Kelsey Plum’s All-Time NCAA Women’s Scoring Record, she wasn’t breaking the “real” women’s scoring record.

At least, not according to her own coach.

It wasn’t until almost two weeks later, after a little-discussed blowout win over Minnesota, that coach Lisa Bluder said “Tonight was the night of the real record.”

But what does she mean by that?

Brief History of Collegiate Women’s Sports: Before 1982, the NCAA didn’t care to oversee Division I Women’s College Basketball.

So in 1971, an organization called the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was formed to organize competitions and championships across dozens of women’s sports, including basketball.

In fact, the AIAW was ahead of its time in a lot of ways, including allowing athletes to transfer freely between schools (something the NCAA didn’t allow until the transfer portal opened almost 40 years later).

At its peak, the AIAW had almost 1,000 member schools (including Kansas), which is where a legend by the name of Lynette Woodard played.

Forgotten Star: Lynette played at KU from 1977-1981, just one year before the NCAA hosted its first-ever DI Woman’s College Basketball Championship.

In her four years, she scored 3,649 points, which was more than anyone not named Pete Maravich up until this year.

But since she scored all of those points in the AIAW, the NCAA doesn’t recognize her record.

In fact, the NCAA keeps all AIAW stats, championships and All-Americans separate from its own even though all of the schools that were members of the AIAW eventually became members of the NCAA.

Dark Past: But that’s about par for the course for an organization that lobbied against Title IX and only started promoting women’s sports once another organization proved they were commercially viable.

In any case, Caitlin Clark broke Lynette Woodard's record too on her way to becoming the best college basketball player in history.

Just leave it to the NCAA to still find a way to screw it up.

⏱ In Other News

• The death of college sports as we know it? Hopefully…

• A NASCAR race at Dodger Stadium?

• The best sports edit of all time.

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