The North American Coyotes

Posted by Rob Boudreau Categories: Editorial, NHL

The state of Arizona is not short on competition for the sports dollar, which doesn’t help a team like the Phoenix Coyotes, whose chilly brand of entertainment isn’t what most fans in the desert care for. Sharing Glendale with the Coyotes are the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Up the road in the city of Phoenix play the NBA’s Suns, WNBA’s Mercury, and, less straining on the Coyotes woes, MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks. However, to add baseball’s imprint on the Coyotes revenues is the fact that 14 MLB teams bring in their Spring Training clubs in March for the Arizona Cactus Leagues. Throw college football, NASCAR, and golf into the mix throughout the year and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for the failing Coyotes to continue operating.

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Royals Red Hot As They Sweep Tigers

Posted by Milo Taibi Categories: Athletes, MLB, Scoreboard

Prior to the start of the 2008 season, Kansas City Royals manager Trey Hillman said to the media, “I do know this, you cannot win a championship without the expectation of winning it.” When at the time Hillman’s comment may have drawn more laughter than respect, his expectation doesn’t look quite so unrealistic now. His Royals swept the Detroit Tigers with a 4-1 victory on Thursday, thanks in part to home runs from Mark Teahen and Alex Gordon. The Royals’ starting pitcher, Zack Greinke, had a Brian Bannister-esque performance, going 7 innings giving up just 6 hits and 1 run, striking out 3. Recent Royals acquisition Ramon Ramirez held down the fort in the 8th inning en route to Joakim Soria’s 2nd save of the year in the 9th inning.

“Obviously, we’re very pleased by this—especially with our pitching,” Hillman said. “It’s nice to come in here and play this well against a team like that.”

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Green takes less cash to remain starter

Posted by Brendon Lindsey Categories: Athletes, NFL

Trent Green, the two time Pro Bowl quarterback the Kansas City Chiefs recently traded to the Miami Dolphins, has apparently taken a cut in pay to play for the Dolphins, resulting in a contract worth $10 million less than what he received from Kansas City.

Even though the base pay is significantly less than he would have received had he stayed with KC (and had they decided to actually keep him rather than go young), the bonuses and incentives in his Miami ink can help make up for that. In 2007, Green will have a base salary of $1.5 million, with a signing bonus of $1 million and a workout bonus of $100,000. If Green can remain active for the entire season, he’ll net a nice $200,000 a week for an active status. If Green manages to stay healthy all year, that’s a bonus of $3.5 million just for not being hurt.

Assuming Green has a good year (including a decent playoff run [snicker]), he’ll be able to earn up to $2.5 million in bonuses. In 2008, Green’s base pay will be $2.8 million with $600,000 in bonuses, and 2009 will net Green $3.5 million in base pay with another $600,000 in bonuses. Even with bonuses his final two seasons on his contract are far below what he would have earned with Kansas City, but that doesn’t really matter, as there’s no way Kansas would have kept him on long enough to pay for those two years.

Read More | ESPN

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