Follow me on Twitter
Alex Debrincat was a nice add for a club desperate for more goals. The day before the transaction I read a “fan mail” bag asking when Debrincat would finally become and Islander (not at all a slanted question). Detroit’s acquisition has some angry fans on the Isle, but I doubt they’ll be throwing any rubber snakes on the ice. It feels like this may be the apex for the summer season, though rumors of other possibilities still float around.
I then saw an op ed that I’m not going to link. It’s one of those frustrating pieces that lacks basic premise. Essentially, the write up called the salary cap the “big winner” of free agency. The salary cap is still based on a high water mark of 5 billion + in revenues and was part of the impetus for the 50/50 split in the CBA. A salary cap that many are calling “stagnant” isn’t really that at all. It’s moving, just in the wrong direction.
Escrow is an easy thermometer for the financial health of the league. Even before shut downs called for the MOU to lock in escrow at 20%, players were paying double digit escrow. Since the 50/50 inception, only one season has seen a refund to the players, and that was partial. They paid 6%, and got just over half of that back. Very close to break even. Now you have players who’ve paid 20% for almost 5 years. Simple math, 20% escrow for 5 years means you have given one year’s salary back to the league.
What if that 5 billion dollar season was “as good as it gets?” Obviously quoted from Jack Nicholson in a movie by the same name. Viewership is down, way below the major sports. Broadcast partners are closing divisions, firing employees and going bankrupt. And, sports journalism just took a major hit. The Hollywood writer’s strike is almost a month old and the actors joined them.
A major component is the use of AI. Actors want none. Unfortunately Luke Skywalker sold his voice and likeness and so did Darth Vader. They can now use those characters long after the actors are gone.
Now the Associated Press has struck a deal to use AI in more and more of its reporting by signing a deal. What many didn’t know (myself included) is that sports summaries and certain types of columns have been written by Artificial Intelligence for the past few years. One proposed business model is a single editor to review up to 500 articles per week to check for “glitches”. That’s a lot of jobs gone.
If you’re in the conversation you know that a 2 year limit on current events has been placed on Chat GPT and others. It can and will be easily removed. Basically like the speed governor on a car, once you know what to look for, you can go as fast as you want to.
I’m just a blogger (thank God). But, there are writers and journalists with degrees and decades of experience who are trying to figure out how much time is left in each industry. Studios are not coming to the table after a month, which indicates a “plan B” is at least floating around. You will notice a choppy nature to some articles but it will get better (remember the first digital cameras? Yeesh they were bad). I worked for a company that made chemicals for film developers. It took 3 years to lose most of the business. That was around 2000. The writers need to get to the table and get whatever they can (sound familiar as far as lockouts and strikes go?) because the pie is shrinking. The Associated Press is a foundation for many (if not most) releases.
At some point we will look back and say (blank) was the best year for writers and it was all downhill after that (VCR, vinyl records, cassette tapes and CDs all have documentaries about it now). I will do this as long as it is available to be done. I love all of the feedback and interaction. It is a sincere hope that digital media can hold on to a human element for as long as possible.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»