Hodge-Podge of Randomness

As I opened this new post, I noticed my serve told me I have written 221 posts, and I was like, "Yay, I like that number." Now hopefully, my audience is geeky enough to realize why that is a big deal.

But this is not a day to talk about the virtues of the world's favorite highly functioning sociopath because he actually isn't very virtuous. Oh, and it has nothing to do with politics and culture in America today.

In other news, actually relevant to American culture, the sport of legalized violence is starting up in two weeks. AND I AM SUPER EXCITED! Because I like football despite the fact that it really kind of is that whole legalized violence thing. Yeah, whatever. Also, concussions are kinda bad. Really bad. But I refuse to play it for that reason.

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm free from concussions. I have seen a member of my debate team last year who got a concussion while on a debate tournament. Of course, that was because she was recovering from a concussion, and we had an fender-bender. The whiplash did not do her well.

Now if that doesn't float your boat, TV series news seasons should begin pretty shortly, and I think that's pretty swell. It's time for another season of Castle, Doctor Who, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Doctor Who. Oh, I already said that one didn't I? If anyone has any idea on how I could get my hands on the first three episodes of Agent Carter, I would greatly appreciate it.

In a completely different section of the world, the presidential campaign continues to bore its way on. I know, I'm not supposed to have this attitude as the beacon of stay informed at all costs, but it's far too early to know anything that's going on in the race. And I really want to get more involved when I have to worry about fewer candidates.

But there are some interesting tidbits. First, South Carolina is requiring those on the primary ballot to rule out running as a third party. A very good political move for the Republicans; this ensures that Trump must agree to support the GOP nomination if when he doesn't win the candidacy. Of course, one can and maybe should question the legitimacy of keeping someone off the ballot as a form of political manipulation.

Also, why is no one covering the Democratic race yet? It seems that even as Hillary Clinton's credibility with the media consistently gets worse, no one wants to cover any of the better options (admittedly many of those aren't better options, but there are definitely a few) that the Democrats actually have. In a world where liberal media reigns supreme, this is actually quite shocking as it seems disadvantageous to the party's chances next November.

And finally, can we just take time to acknowledge that football season is about to start?

Why the NFL Needs a Lesson in Economics

The past few days, we have been met with a slew of four NFL playoff games. The playoffs are always an exciting time of year for football fans (should their team qualify, that is). Yet this year, 3 teams, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Green Bay struggled to sell out their stadiums for this special occasion.

So why is this the case? It should be noted that Green Bay has sold out 319 consecutive games. So at least for Green Bay, this isn't a lack of commitment from their fans.

Of course, the fans are still being blamed for the lackluster sales, but this is ridiculous. The NFL is a business, like any other. Every other business is required to produce a great product at a reasonable price, and should they not, they will be unable to sell their products. If a business fails to sell their products, we assume that their services aren't worth the price, not that the customer isn't loyal enough. As Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star explains,

"Sports have got to be the only business where the consumer gets blamed for poor sales. Any other business, we'd look at the numbers and say, "Well, their price point is too high,'' or "The service stinks,'' or "They don't carry a good selection of inventory." And it's ridiculous. NFL fans are the most loyal fans we have in this country. If they're not purchasing playoff tickets, that tells me it's an NFL problem, not an Indy/Cincy/Green Bay problem."

This was the consensus as well from the fans down here in Cincinnati, some of whom said that if tickets were just ten dollars cheaper, they would have purchased them liberally. So you may ask why didn't the teams lower the prices of their tickets? They can't as the NFL sets playoff ticket prices "based on each market's ability to pay" and will not let teams discount the tickets. Of course, the NFL is not in these cities and does not know what prices fans of these cities are able to afford. Their estimates are unfortunately over the mark in these three cities.

The NFL should use to learn some economics from this week's poor sales of playoff tickets, and lower their prices to where they can be afforded and are worth the cost. Better yet, perhaps the NFL should let the individual teams set the prices, as they better understand how much the market in their city is able to pay.