Off Topic — Cool story IMO

[Zurvan]

It's a pretty cool story. I think being a sports writer would be awesome, but only if I got to be a beat writer for the Leafs, Raps or Jays. Otherwise, blah.

[antidan444]

Zurvan,

Start a blog on those teams. I'm not kidding, if you start a blog and show it to those teams, they might let you cover them for your blog. It's not a guarantee but I know of quite a few people who do this for other pro/college teams.

[Zurvan]

[ QUOTE ]
Zurvan,

Start a blog on those teams. I'm not kidding, if you start a blog and show it to those teams, they might let you cover them for your blog. It's not a guarantee but I know of quite a few people who do this for other pro/college teams.

[/ QUOTE ]

You may not be familiar with the Toronto sports media... we have 4 daily newspapers, 3 full time sports channels, 3 national networks, and a sports radio station. All of them have beat reporters for each team. I think one of the National networks has hooked up with a sports channel, so there's now only 10. Plus Canadian Press. And the Hockey News for the Leafs. And columnists from the papers often travel with the Leafs as well, less often with the Raps & Jays.

I don't want to say that the Toronto sports media market is oversaturated, but I know what kind of car Tie Domi drives, and who he's having sex with, and he doesn't even play for the Leafs anymore. The cover story of the Toronto Sun last week was one of the Leafs having nude pictures released on the internet.

Nice idea, but I have a better chance of being elected to parliament.

Holy crap, I can't believe I forgot: We also have Leafs TV & Raptors TV - channels devoted, 24/7, to the teams.

[antidan444]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to say that the Toronto sports media market is oversaturated, but I know what kind of car Tie Domi drives, and who he's having sex with, and he doesn't even play for the Leafs anymore. The cover story of the Toronto Sun last week was one of the Leafs having nude pictures released on the internet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jesus. See, this is a small reason why I like covering high school sports more than pro/(major) college sports.

Just think, if you lived in, say, Tampa Bay, and liked baseball ... DING DING DING!

[fmxda]

[ QUOTE ]
Zurvan,

Start a blog on those teams. I'm not kidding, if you start a blog and show it to those teams, they might let you cover them for your blog. It's not a guarantee but I know of quite a few people who do this for other pro/college teams.

[/ QUOTE ]
What teams? What does the right to "cover them" imply?

I don't really want press access or anything (well maybe to games [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) but I was thinking of making a sports blog

[Zurvan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to say that the Toronto sports media market is oversaturated, but I know what kind of car Tie Domi drives, and who he's having sex with, and he doesn't even play for the Leafs anymore. The cover story of the Toronto Sun last week was one of the Leafs having nude pictures released on the internet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jesus. See, this is a small reason why I like covering high school sports more than pro/(major) college sports.

Just think, if you lived in, say, Tampa Bay, and liked baseball ... DING DING DING!

[/ QUOTE ]

If I lived in Tampa Bay, I don't think I could like baseball.

[antidan444]

OK, disclaimer: I don't really know the people that well, but I've met several people over the last 3-4 years who have said they've gone to Orioles/Capitals/Wizards/Maryland games and been allowed into the clubhouse/locker rooms to do interviews for stories on their (what were probably pretty well-established) blogs. I guess I can't really vouch for the validity of their claims, but I do know sports blogs are becoming more prominent and there are a few that are highly regarded. And teams like publicity.

In other words, starting a sports blog is far from a sure thing to media access -- you'd probably have to get it going for a while, and you'd then have to go through the proper team channels to try to get credentials. But it's certainly a possible path if you are interested in doing pseudo-sports journalism. New-media forms of communication are becoming huge.

As for the "right to cover them", I hit on this before, but with all pro teams (at least the major four sports, plus NASCAR) and most major college teams (football and basketball for sure), in order for any media outlet to have access to the press area/interview area/locker room etc., it has to write to the team/college asking for credentials to be granted access. I can't just go to Maryland with my rinky-dinky Herald-Mail press pass (with an 18-year-old me with all my hair in the 9-year-old photo, huge LOL!) and expect to get access, I'd need the press pass Maryland sends to all the outlets that it has agreed to allow in.

(Ninja-edit! for a terrible there/their mistake.)

[antidan444]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't want to say that the Toronto sports media market is oversaturated, but I know what kind of car Tie Domi drives, and who he's having sex with, and he doesn't even play for the Leafs anymore. The cover story of the Toronto Sun last week was one of the Leafs having nude pictures released on the internet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jesus. See, this is a small reason why I like covering high school sports more than pro/(major) college sports.

Just think, if you lived in, say, Tampa Bay, and liked baseball ... DING DING DING!

[/ QUOTE ]

If I lived in Tampa Bay, I don't think I could like baseball.

[/ QUOTE ]

They're not as bad as you think.

Really, the big issue to me is they built a HORRENDOUS stadium for that team. It's dull, it's dreary, it's unexciting, it's probably the worst new stadium built in the last 20 years. When Camden Yards opened it was a HUGE event, people wanted to go to games just to see the stadium. When Tropicana opened, people looked at it and said, "Where's the goddamn wrecking ball?"