🎟️ Tubz 🛀 Unfiltered - Volume 57
Swifties Are Big Mad; CFB + NFL Recap; Sportz Betting Craze
Happy Monday, y’all!
The temps down here in Dallas have been frigid as of late (in the mid to upper 40s), so have I been turning my heat on? Nope. In fact, I am currently wearing a light jacket and a winter hat inside my apartment. Christmas is coming up, meaning that I have to save money to pay for Christmas presents, and y’all know money does not grow on trees.
🛁 EXTRA BUBBLES 🛁
People REALLY want to see Taylor Swift live in concert.
Taylor Swift is one of the most popular artists in the country, if not the most popular, and has the most rabid fanbase known to mankind. So, when it was announced that Ticketmaster would have a pre-sale for the 2023 Eras Tour — which begins March 18 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and ends August 5 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles — the Swifties pounced on the opportunity to secure tickets like spider monkeys.
(Keep in mind: she has not gone on tour since her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, which yielded $345.7 million in gross revenue.)
Chaos, of course, broke out in similar, if not worse, fashion than a disagreement at a Waffle House.
~3.5 million
craziespeople signed up for Ticketmaster’s “Verified Fan” program in order to be eligible for a presale, beginning on Tuesday. That is the most amount of people that have signed up for that program in the history of Ticketmaster. Swift also utilized that program for her 2018 tour. Capital One credit and debit card users were also eligible to get in on the presale action.According to Ticketmaster, ~1.5 million people were sent a code to join the presale, and the remaining 2 million “were placed on a waiting list on the small chance that tickets might still be available after those who received codes had shopped.” Over 2 million tickets were sold on Tuesday.
The droves of people that wanted to buy tickets essentially crashed the site, as Ticketmaster received 3.5 billion system requests on the site, which was four times the site’s previous peak. Ticketmaster estimated that “about 15% of interactions across the site experienced issues.” (Ticketmaster might be full of sh*t as to that number, but that is a discussion for a different day.) Presumably one person included in that 15% was a female that was charged 14 (!) times for tickets she never received, resulting in nearly $9k in overdraft fees.
Ticketmaster cancelled the release of general public tickets on Thursday, which was set for the following day, “due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand.”
Swift released a “blah blah blah” statement on Friday.
Interestingly enough, Ticketmaster instituted dynamic pricing, which adjusted tickets based on demand. According to the Wall Street Journal, “the feature frustrated fans as it pushed prices higher.”
Politicians torched Ticketmaster as a result of the snafu and alleged that they are a monopoly.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chair of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, wrote a letter Wednesday to Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino, saying she has serious concerns about the reports that Ticketmaster had been crashing and increasing fees.
“Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate,” she said. “That can result in dramatic service failures, where consumers are the ones that pay the price,” she added.
Ms. Klobuchar, a Democrat, said Ticketmaster’s woes were an example of why the U.S. needs strong antitrust enforcement. She asked Mr. Rapino to address by next week whether the company had improved its technology and complied with federal antitrust requirements.
Politicians including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and White House chief of staff Ron Klain responded to the Ticketmaster situation this week.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet earlier this week. “Break them up.”
You have to admit, the comments/reviews left on the Ticketmaster site are pretty funny (click on “Reviews” under “Taylor Swift Tickets” at the top). While there are many users that left one-star reviews, one recent five-star review wrote as follows: “Just get over it. Just get over it. Just get over it.”
For the people that did not secure tickets through the presale, they are going to have to pay an arm and leg in order to see Swift in concert. As of Sunday night, below is a sampling of the cheapest tickets (for two because who wants to be Steven Glansberg?) after estimated fees available in select locations on StubHub. Sweet Knights of Columbus, they are steep.
Friday, March 24 in Las Vegas (Allegiant Stadium): $575 each. Saturday: $546 each.
Thursday, April 13 in Tampa (Raymond James Stadium): $575 each. Friday: $518 each.
Friday, April 21 in Houston (NRG Stadium): $575 each. Saturday: $632 each. Sunday: $546 each.
Friday, May 12 in Philly (Lincoln Financial Field): $919 each. Saturday: $1,081 each. Sunday: $909 each.
Friday, June 4 in Chicago (Soldier Field): $862 each. Saturday: $920 each. Sunday: $851 each.
Friday, June 30 in Cincinnati (Paycor Stadium): $748 each. Saturday: $834 each.
Friday, July 14 in Denver (Empower Field at Mile High): $546 each. Saturday: $550 each.
If you want to check out more about Ticketmaster and its general overall sh*ttiness 👇
🏆 SPORTZ 🏆
TCU 29 Baylor 28: TCU was down by 2 with ~20 seconds left and had zero timeouts remaining. Facing a third down, you would think the Horned Frogs would run a pass play to the sidelines to stop the clock. You would think wrong because they ran the ball like big ole dumb-dumbs.
Good for Sonny Dykes and Co. that decision did not come back to royally bite them in the ass, as they executed a perfect fire drill to get the special teams unit on the field to execute a game-winning field goal.
USC 48 UCLA 45: Offensive fireworks galore in this one, particularly in the second half. After UCLA fumbled with ~7:30 left in the third quarter, touchdowns were scored on six consecutive possessions. The Bruins had the ball last after forcing a punt, but the Trojans’ defense picked off the UCLA QB that has too long of a name to type out because my fingers are cold, securing the dub for USC.
USC QB Caleb Williams is the real deal holyfield, my goodness gracious. The sophomore gunslinger threw for 470 yards and 2 TDs and added another touchdown on the ground to go along with 33 rushing yards. As a result, he should be in the driver’s seat to win the Heisman.
South Carolina 63 Tennessee 38: It is no longer feeling like ‘98. All the Volunteers had to do was win their remaining two games — vs. South Carolina (6-4 before Saturday) and vs. Vanderbilt (4-6 before Saturday) — and they were all but guaranteed a spot in the College Football Playoff. Well, they laid a dinosaur-sized egg on Saturday, and to add insult to injury, the team announced on Sunday that star QB Hendon Hooker tore his ACL.
South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler absolutely cooked Tennessee’s defense as the weirdo-lookin’ youngster completed 81.1% of his passes and threw for 438 yards and 6 TDs.
Now that Rocky Top is eliminated from contention, the CFB Playoff picture is not exactly crystal clear. If Georgia wins out, they are in. If Ohio State or Michigan win out, they are in. If TCU wins out, they are also in. The fourth spot, at least for now, is up for grabs.
Does the loser of Michigan-Ohio State get in?
If USC beats No. 13 (in the AP poll) Notre Dame this week and then goes on to win the Pac-12 title game (versus either Oregon or Washington), will the Trojans make the playoff for the first time?
What about if LSU miraculously beats Georgia in the SEC championship game? Will that catapult them to the fourth and final spot?
If Clemson ends up winning the ACC, can the Tigers return to the CFB Playoff?
If USC wins out (plus Georgia, TCU, and Michigan or OSU all win out), my money is on Lincoln Riley’s squad to secure the No. 4 seed simply because of their resume, which would include ranked wins against Oregon State, UCLA, Notre Dame, and either Oregon or Washington.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: If TCU loses to Iowa State next week or loses in the Big 12 title game, then complete pandemonium will ensue.
NFL RECAP
Patriots 10 Jets 3: This game was the definition of an offensive snooze fest — the fans should have received a years supply of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for attending — as the second half alone consisted of a turnover on downs and missed field goal by the Pats in the third quarter to go along with 11 combined punts throughout.
But with under 30 seconds left, we finally had some fireworks — New England defensive back Marcus Jones returned a punt 84 yards en route to a walk-off touchdown. According to ESPN Stats & Info, it “is the second-latest go-ahead punt return in the final minute of regulation since the merger.” (For what it is worth, it looked like the refs missed a block in the back near the goal line on the return, but the league office said after the game that the Jets player was pushed from the side. Okie dokie smokie.)
The Pats have now beat the Jets in 14 straight games. If this game does not motivate the Jets to move on from Zach Wilson (9-of-22, 77 yards, 0 TDs, 50.8 passer rating), then I do not know what will. That dude STINKS more than burnt hair.
Cowboys 40 Vikings 3: A week removed from securing a victory against the Bills in what many dubbed as the “Game of the Year” in the NFL thus far, the Vikings got hog-tied and pistol-whipped by the Cowboys AT HOME.
Dallas racked up seven sacks, including two by All-World edge rusher Micah Parsons, and 13 quarterback hits against Kirk Cousins. Dallas also limited wide receiver Justin Jefferson to three catches for 33 yards. Offensively, running back Tony Pollard, who is on track to secure a big ole sum of money in the offseason, had 21 touches for 189 yards and two touchdowns.
One key stat: The Cowboys were 12-of-17 on 3rd down while the Vikings were 1-of-11.
Does this game represent who these teams will be going forward? In other words, are the Cowboys legit NFC contenders and are the Vikings NFC pretenders? I hope so, because I have much disdain for Minnesota and that gotdamn horn.
🤓 BATH TIME READING 🤓
New York Times: Cigars, Booze, Money: How a Lobbying Blitz Made Sports Betting Ubiquitous
It’s already been a longer-than-usual volume, so I will not recap the above piece but feel free to check it out if you are interested. All I will write is this, which is pretty obvious: sports betting has infiltrated the sports industry and will continue to be a huge presence going forward.
If you chuckled and/or enjoyed, make sure to forward to others and/or share on social. Any corrections, omissions, suggestions, etc., send 'em my way. Much love. -Tubz