Ah lads I have terminal wanderlust. Only been working this new job for 4 months and I already want to up and move

I end up working for the scammer who conned my parents.

So, this tale starts twelve years ago in 2007. Both my parents had retired at the same time and had received a large cash lump sum and would have a decent pension income for the rest of their lives. Dad was ex-Army, doing his national service and staying for another 8 years before travelling the world. He served with the Royal Engineers and moved into an engineering/maintenance role when he returned to the civillian life. Mum was a teacher, and with careful savings and multiple pensions they had more money coming in individually than I did in a salary.

The first thing they did was to renovate their house. They got several quotes for new windows, some minor building work, a new kitchen and a block-paved driveway. I helped them with researching the companies involved and with all the information at hand, they settled on a local company that we'll call Bad Company. Bad Company had membership of all the relevant professional bodies, had some good feedback and importantly was not the cheapest but their sales guy explained to my parents why a cheaper quote wasn't always better. They agreed on the £35k work and paid a 10% deposit. Work started, and they weren't asked for a single penny more until it had been completed. There were a couple of minor snags which were easily corrected, and it went £500 over budget due to the bad drainage of the house (something that had been mentioned before) but it looked satisfactory.

As it turned out, the windows had massive gaps in them that leaked water when it rained and you could actually hear the wind whistling through. Heating became expensive. Within a month, weeds and grass started poking through the block paved driveway and the electical work that was done in the new kitchen caused blown fuses if both ovens and the hob were turned on together. If you touched the plate around the light switch, you'd get an electric shock. After three months, water burst through the newly laid kitchen floor and the "Secured By Design" doors could simply be lifted out of their frame even when locked. We also noticed that they keys to the new doors were not the originals, and they were extremely difficult to lock especially as both parents had arthritis. The icing on the cake was that most of the windows were supposed to be argon filled, but the seals had already blown allowing air inside and condensation on the inside was apparent.

Dad asked a friend, Bob, to estimate the extra cost of fixing it. Bob said that to correct the now evident defects would cost nearly £20k as almost everything would have to be ripped out and re-done. Dad immediately contacted Bad Company, and the guy they sent round was rude, arrogant and blamed everything on the builders who had originally constructed the house doing a bad job. He wrote a report stating that none of the defects were down to the work carried out as the work had been done according to current best practices. That evening, one of the window frames fell out.

Dad spent a month after that trying to get Bad Company back to fix the issues, then he called all the regulatory bodies to find that Bad Company wasn't a member but just used the membership logos on their documentation. Around a year after the work was originally completed, Bad Company simply vanished. Phone numbers were disconnected emails bounced back and their office was now a conservatory showroom. Dad had already paid a well estabished window company £3k to fix the immediate window and door issues, and was left to pay another (much better) company £22k to fix the issues. This time we checked everything and made sure they were registered. We even got a warranty.

Cut to 2018, and I'm looking for a new job. Dad passed away quite unexpectedly in 2015 and Mum wasn't too good either (although she's a lot better now) so I needed a job closer to her house than the 2 hour commute to the next city that I currently had. As luck would have it, a local kitchen manufacturing company (lets call them Local Kitchens) was looking to expand and wanted an IT technician/developer. The pay was about £1k more a year than I was currently making, but I didn't have to spend £500 a month travelling to and from work (busses and trains are expensive). I interviewed, liked what I heard, and was accepted for the role. All the time, I thought that I somehow knew the boss of Local Kitchens.

Having worked in factory environments before, I arrived in a hi-viz vest, toecapped boots and with my own ear defenders. No-one else wore any P.P.E. - not even masks and goggles. When all the machinery ran, the factory floor hummed and buzzed along at a noise level of 105dB, well over the required minimum for wearing ear defenders or plugs. The boss, who we'll call John, also attempted to cut corners everywhere. My workstation was barely powerful enough to run the development software let alone the CAD/CAM software required. When the CPU fan died, he said that he couldn't afford to replace the fan. A new computer keyboard took 3 weeks to arrive and although we were paid on the 28th of each month, the pay was often not in the bank until 9pm, well after he had chased people who owed him money.

There were more lies that I uncovered, and bad business practices. It was like John had read a book on running a business then did the exact opposite. I spent the first six months between designing kitchens - something that I knew nothing about but suddenly fell under the remit of IT technician - maintaining the factory machines, driving the forklift (something that requires a specialist license that I don't hold) and doing IT work on his personal home computer equipment and mobile phones of him, his trophy wife, his kids and his parents. I also wrote several small computer programs, wired up the factory network, ensured that machinery could connect to the office computers and re-wrote most of the configuration for the industry specific software he used - which was not only unlicensed but also used on five separate machines despite the single (lapsed) license.

Also working at the company was Dad's friend Bob. Bob was a decade and a half older than me and had served his time "working the tools" making and fitting kitchens, bedrooms, and had spent a good fifteen years as a shopfitter on some very prestigious contracts. Bob was hired originally to do my job but he moved back to the manufacturing side when the expansion started as it was easier to employ an IT tech than it was a shopfitter. Bob had read an eulogy at Dad's funeral and was often round helping mum with bits around the house, so I knew Bob well and he looked after me at work. We got talking one day and I found out that Bob was earning less than me, even though he had a highly skilled and experienced role, and that despite being given more responsibility, John refused to pay Bob what Bob was worth.

Honestly, if Bob wasn't there, most of the knowledge was lost. Bob and I had frequently told John better ways to do key tasks, but John refused simply because there would be a small cash outlay. I should have seen the writing on the wall at that point, but no.

Running up to Christmas, John tells us all that he's giving us all a bonus, and will pay us early for the christmas to new year shutdown period. We soon discover though that the bonus was a £5 tub of sweets - which Bob can't eat because he has type 1 diabeties, and I can't eat because I have this really strange sugar allergy. I was going to mention it to John, but Bob tells me not to as it's Christmas and it will be something for my kids to enjoy. I actually ended up with three boxes of sweets because he over-ordered.

That day, despite being an IT technician, I had to chase an order with a company, order some materials from a supplier, and supervise a fitter as he attempted to install some new showroom units. John is nowhere to be found until just as we're about to leave. He asked Bob for a moment of his time and I go home.

The next day, Bob tells me that he and John talked until 7pm (an extra 3 hours) about the business. Bob was asked to invest £10k for a quick capital injection as winter is always a bad time for people buying kitchens, so income is slow but there are a number of large orders in the pipeline. Bob told him what he thought of the shady business practices and the poor management, and he said that he could walk out of this job today and be earning double before the year is out. He refused to invest. Other things were said, and Bob dropped the first bombshell, explaining that every job they did for a new client was actually making a loss. The new client had been Local Kitchens only revenue stream since mid October. Apparently John was genuinely shocked and didn't realise that it cost him £200 per hour just to run his business, jumping to £300 if the machinery is running.

The day before we're due to finish for Christmas, I get called into the nearly complete new showroom. I thought John was going to show me what needs finishing and which units need designing, but no. He's worked out the finances and states that there's only enough money to keep me on for another couple of months. He even tries to turn it around by saying that he's sorry and that I'm a good employee but the income isn't there, and he wanted to give me enough time to find something else. I felt my entire world crumble. The rest of the day was a daze, but just before I left, I overhear him ordering some materials from a supplier. His exact words were: Yes, it's John from Local Kitchens. You might have us down as Bad Company.

That's when all the pieces fell into place. It finally clicked why I knew his face. He was the one who scammed my parents.

The last day of work before Christmas arrives, and John had taken his family away over the christmas / new year period. We had to ensure that the factory was powered down, locked off and secure. No-one else wanted the responsibility so I volunteered. With only Bob and myself still left in the factory, I set about gathering evidence and investigating his finances. I already know about the losses, but digging deeper I find that the company actually has no cash flow. Everything is done on credit. His house, his wife's Range Rover, his Jaguar and several other assets are registered as company assets but they're all on finance through Local Kitchens. He owed at least £750k in credit, loans and mortgages.

Bob advised me against doing anything rash as it would only come back to me and agreed that John needed to be taught a lesson not just for the way he treated his empolyees, but for conning my parents and several others out of their life savings. Bob had found a set of files from 2005 to 2008 with customer complaints for shoddy work in the name of Bad Company. It was far too late to legally do anything about the complaints, but we could bring down John and his smug attitude. Bob suggested I read up on health and safety over christmas, and perform some observations in the new year.

January and February I spent making notes, taking photographs and researching legislation. By the time the end of February rolled around, I had a thick folder full of breaches of health and safety, environmental issues, data protection (or lack thereof) and the lack of software licensing. John was well aware of the software issue, but he said that "as long as the software keeps running, it'll be ok". I had emals from him to back this up, and requests for purchases of software and hardware that were turned down so he could dine out at fancy restaurants or stay in 4 star hotels.

My last day rolls around. I have a much better development job lined up thanks to some recruiter contacts I have, and as the current day was a Thursday and I didn't start my new job until Monday, I planned on sleeping in on Friday. John is strangely absent all day but arrives just as we're all leaving for the day. HE SAYS NOTHING as he watches me leave. I got the impression immediately that he wanted me to stay until Friday, but he said that my last day was "the end of the month" and not "Friday". Unsuprisingly, the pay is late. It's 10pm before it appears in the account.

I went to see my mum that evening and told her who my boss was, the way he simply cast me aside when he was done with me, and that I wanted to break him as revenge for the bad work and what we have always considered as a scam. Now, my mum is the sweetest lady you could ever meet, and I was completely shocked when she actually said "bury the bastard". She even let me use her garden incinerator to destroy the personal hand-written instructions that Bob and myself had created since I started. The knowledge of how to fix issues with the specialist software now only existed in our memories.

Friday rolls around, and I have no reason to get up early. My phone is ringing constantly becuase John is trying to get hold of me and it's soon evident that things are going south, rapidly. Bob sent me a text telling me that he gave John a final invoice at 8AM and walked out. Now, had this been petty revenge then the tale would have ended here with him not being able to use his business-critical unlicensed software, and hiring new people, but this is Pro revenge and my mother did tell me to "bury the bastard" so despite feeling sorry for the one other genuine employee that I had a lot of respect for, I enacted my totally legal if not a little underhanded plan.

I reported Local Kitchens and John to the Federation against Software Theft for illegal use of licensed software, giving them information regarding which software was illegally used and how. Just to be safe, I also reported them directly to those software companies too. I supplied the emails as evidence where I had explained to John that he was breaking the law by not having the correct and valid licenses.

I then called a friend at the local government Health and Safety team, reporting no fewer than thirty rule breaches, sending him the supporting images and video. One of Local Kitchens professional memberships had lapsed, but John was still using the logo on paperwork, email signatures, website and the company van, in addition to the signage on the building. I reported that to the professional body in question. I honesly considered reporting GDPR breaches, but I don't think that he had done anything that could be considered a breach.

A week later, John sent me a message stating that If I was still looking for work, he would pay me £50 per day to do "IT work" for him. It came across as if he was trying to do me a favour. I told him that I was previously on £90 per day, but as I was now a freelance contractor, the going rate was closer to £200 per day. He didn't send me another message.

Three weeks later, and the showroom saleswoman - who we'll call Jane (the one remaining staff member I respected) called me to tell me that John had closed Local Kitchens and declared bankruptcy owing nearly a million pounds. I asked about fines, and she said that Health and Safety were behind a building closure which stopped production causing the bankruptcy. In the same week, he had legal notices for illegal software.

As this unfolded, I kept Bob in the loop and Jane kept me informed. As of the start of July, the final figure for fines was levied. £932k debts to the business, £876k fines too. On that same day, purely by chance I was helping a friend deliver pizza and John placed an order My friend was driving and doing the shop work, and I was going to the door to hand the food over, so I actually got to deliver his food. He was nice enough to me when he opened the door, and stated that if I had done the extra "IT Work" for him then I wouldn't have to deliver pizza. I told him that it was what it was, and questioned the fact that there was only enough for 1 meal - didn't his wife like pizza? He told me that she'd left him and taken the kids back to her parents, and that he wasn't OK with that but he had no choice. I agreed, an then decided to twist the knife even more.

I told him that it was a good job he got rid of me when he did, because I now had a fantastic well-paid job that I'm good at, and that if I had stayed, then I would have brought myself down as well as him. That's when he realised that I had called in all the agencies that had eventually shut him down. He demanded to know why, as he had "given me everything" and "taught me how to work in the kitchen industry". I simply replied with my parents address and the year 2007. I saw the colour drain from his face as he realised that his past had caught up with him. Then I told him how much he had to pay on his pizza, and he threw £40 at me and snatched the food out of my hands, slamming the door in my face. His food was only £21.50, so I got a nice £18.50 tip from him that night.

(source) story by (/u/tac-21a)

well, today was hands down one of the scariest days of my life. Yesterday afternoon my Grandmother (who moved in with me about 6 months ago) had just gotten home from Georgia. She was presenting a memorial for my grandad (fun fact: it was at the same place riptide took place in) and she got home and she was sort of sick. Nothing too bad, just congested and had a sore throat. We really didn’t think much of it but my mom decided it would be best to take her to the doctor in the morning

by morning time, my grandma was much worse. She was running a high fever, she was delirious and so weak that she couldn’t even get out of bed without help. I joked around and told my mom they’d probably quarantine her at the doctor’s office since she had been traveling between two international airports. I joked about the coronavirus, but I didn’t actually think it was a possibility.

until it was.

I got a text from my mom telling me to drop everything and take the antibiotics I have on hand for preventative measures (certain bacteria causes my brain inflammation to relapse) and even though I knew that antibiotics won’t help viruses, I took them anyway. I asked her why she wanted me to take them (thinking maybe either mom or grandma tested positive for the bacteria I was avoiding. which my mom did so it wasn’t entirely pointless to take another round) and I shit you not, she sends me a text saying

‘they think grandma may have the coronavirus from traveling’

I. Almost. Shit. My. Pants.

Survival instincts kicked in almost immediately. I remembered that the contractors had just gotten to my house to keep working on my kitchen renovation. At this point, I ran down the stairs faster than lightening and I’m like “guys you gotta get out right now, it’s not safe here. like my grandma just got home from traveling and she’s super sick and the doctors legit think it’s coronavirus, leave now!” and I know in some cases it’d be better to wait until the results came back so I wouldn’t be sending two possibly exposed people out into the world but they hadn’t been at my house long and all I could think was ‘oh my god they need to get to safety or something. they’ll be exposed’. so I hauled these two poor guys out of my house, praying they won’t get sick. at this point, I didn’t even care if I was exposed, it was just like oh shit we need to get everyone out. 

it turns out, the doctors didn’t actually know the protocol on how to handle coronavirus. none of them do. they only find out the protocol after they call it into the CDC and say they have a suspected case — which they had to do since my grandma was showing pretty serious signs that she had the virus. even then, they don’t tell the doctors about the next step of the protocol until the first step is cleared. so like, the CDC told them to gear up and after that, the CDC started to explain to the main doctor how to diagnose it. like, the doctors didn’t just have the knowledge on how to diagnose it or even treat it yet. My mom said that it went from being one nurse to like 4 entirely geared up doctors examining both of them in sort of a makeshift quarantine. 

At this point, I’m full-blown shaking like a leaf in the wind I’m so scared. To see my grandma go from having just a head cold to being beyond sick with a 103° fever and lethargy along with a violent cough, it was horrific. 

Here’s the even weirder part. When the official doctor came in (her name is pam and she’s so cool I love u pam), she never actually said how she knew it wasn’t the coronavirus. They tested for strep (the bacteria I absolutely can’t come in contact with, and my mom’s came up positive later; hence me starting antibiotics again for prevention) and the flu and those were both negative for my grandmother. (my mom’s was originally negative for strep but they called later that night to tell her it ended up becoming positive) but they never actually did do a test to determine whether or not it was the coronavirus. No screening, no labs, nada. We see the list of ‘symptoms’ online a lot, all of which my grandmother was showing. So clearly there’s something missing, something we aren’t being told because despite having all of the symptoms AND having been in 2 different international airports 4 times in the past week, they somehow deciphered that she didn’t have it. That worries me. Not to sound like a total Illuminati conspiracy theorist but like?? what the fuck aren’t we being told?? what changed your mind??

I was deadass waiting for the fucking CDC and Hazmat to come to my house, I thought for sure they’d admit her into a hospital in the city. it was WILD. I was trying to rationalize with myself (and Cait was also trying to rationalize with me lol) but like, how else could I explain it? She just got so sick, so quickly. Never in my life have I ever seen her so ill. 

My point is guys, TAKE THIS VIRUS SERIOUSLY! I know a lot of people are saying it’s nothing. I know there are only 5-6 confirmed cases in the United States but this is a VERY SCARY THING TO GO THROUGH and I swear to you, it’s worth it to wear the mask and wash your hands frequently. I know most flights in and out of China are banned right now but all I could think was like ‘oh my god, how many people are flying in and out of Washington D.C. and Rochester and going to other places.’ like, you never know.

This whole time I was joking around about coronavirus because you think ‘there’s no way it could ever happen to me or someone close to me.’ but IT CAN. IT ALMOST DID. 

and that’s why today was fucking TERRIFYING. 

Ramses Vargas. The lawyer who recovered the Autonomous University of the Caribbean.

A lawyer who dodged the bombs in Kabul and Iraq managed to recover in 3 years the Autonomous University of the Caribbean. The work has been 'pharaonic'.

 Some years ago Barranquilla in Colombia was hurt. A dagger of corruption, embezzlement and paramilitarism had severed the soul and spirit of one of the main centers of higher education in the city, the Autonomous University of the Caribbean. The country still remembers the dark page that the former president wrote during her term between 2003 and 2012.

However, what is worth highlighting today is that Ramsés Vargas, son of one of the founders of the Autonomous, took the reins of the rectory and three years later it had given a 180 degrees turn.  Of course, what he found was anything but a university.

An example among many documented by the Office of the Prosecutor and the authorities: in an effort to take economic advantage of the needs of the students, the chair of English had been delivered to a third party. "The boys had to go to an adjoining building to take very poor English classes and apart from that they were charged for it. In general, they stole a lot of money and gave us the University as a car without wheels, "says the rector, who has studies at Harvard and Oxford.

Some particularities show the crisis that this University was going through, the same one from where illustrious people like the designer Silvia Tcherassi and the chronicler Alberto Salcedo Ramos left. For example, the first time that some students learned about research groups was when the Office of the Prosecutor, in some of its processes, arrived at the university by implicated executives; the talented teachers had in their 'north' go to another institution, especially the other large one in Barranquilla. Not to mention the banks, which did not have in mind to lend any money to an institution that was falling apart and whose bathrooms looked like latrines.

"I found an institution with a fractured soul and spirit. There were financial and academic difficulties. Now the Autonomous is writing the history of how change is managed in a university institution. Not only are there transformations in the infrastructure, there are also academic achievements and a new corporate culture, "explains the rector.

And the achievements today are evident. No civilian paramilitaries circulate in its corridors, but dozens of professors with doctorates and magister (see infographic). English classes are now taught by the same university and by 60 native language teachers. The plan is that in 5 years all students will be bilingual.

The facade of its main headquarters was modernized, the bathrooms were renovated and are now at the height of the best shopping center in the city. The soul began to heal.

But the road has not been easy. Ramsés Vargas had to leave with a briefcase in his hand and knock on the doors of the banks. "Some reminded me of past problems, but we were able to show that we had a successful plan to move the University forward."

This is how the credit and confidence returned from the hand of students eager to live the change and the new Autonomous. "A few years ago I was awarded a scholarship for my talent in karate. I could choose any university in the Caribbean and I came here two years ago because I trusted the new administration, "says a fifth-year engineering student.

But not only with optimism, English and new bathrooms a battered university is arranged. One of the keys of Ramses was to take forward an ambitious curricular reform. In the traditional teaching programs included the training of students in matters related to the daily life of a professional. For example, special emphasis is placed on aspects such as critical thinking, literacy and conflict resolution.

This type of complementary training is the one that cries out for entrepreneurship, not only in Barranquilla but throughout the country, as the new professionals connect with the daily problems they face.

To all this is added the headquarters of the Autonomous University in Miami, United States. In previous years, this teaching center - founded in 1979 - operated in a garage. Vargas gave it a complete turn and is an accredited platform in that country. The Autonomous University uses it to send their students and open their minds to the world. "I want my students to get their passport, travel and know the world," he explains.

The goal of Ramsés Vargas is to locate the Autónoma as one of the best in the country. To do this, it must improve on topics such as research and innovation projects. The road has already begun.

The students

The resurgence of the Autonomous could not come at a better time. Barranquilla experiences a golden age due to the arrival of new companies, foreign investment, improvement of the port, navigability of the river and a couple of successful district administrations. Some graduates already set an example. This is the case of Laila Páez, a barranquillera who being only 23 years old is already an entrepreneur.

Laila - through her firm Hamsa - sells bathing suits and clothes that change color when they receive ultraviolet rays, harmful to health. "That type of fabrics already exists in the market, what we did in Hamsa was to treat those textiles so that the tone of the clothes changes as UV rays increase. If a father sees that his daughter's dress changed color, he already knows that he should remove her from the sun" she explains. Brands such as Gef and Offcorss are negotiating with Hamsa possible alliances for informal and children's clothing.

In Barranquilla, good things are happening. It is already possible to roll by the circumvallation and some streams were channeled, although others are missing. Despite the fact that poverty and lack of infrastructure persist, new entrepreneurs disembark every month and things start to take shape, among them the Autonomous University.

Pharaonic work

Ramses Vargas had to deal with the frequent bombings in the streets of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, when he was representative of the United Nations in 2009. His mission was to recover the devastated economy of that country with productive and viable projects. He did the same in Iraq between 2010 and 2012.

This type of experience served him when he arrived at the Autonomous University and was the object of death threats due to his new management at the University. He has also served as a lawyer, obtained at the Universidad de la Sabana, as well as a specialization in financial management from Javeriana. Vargas also has a master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Oxford. He has also worked at Usaid, the IDB and was executive director of Acopi between 2002 and 2005.

Marcus & Millichap Southern California Multifamily Online Conference 2020 August 11 - 20, 2020

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Marcus & Millichap Southern California Multifamily Online Conference 2020 August 11 - 20, 2020

  Attend the  Marcus & Millichap Multifamily Forum: Southern California beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, August 11 through Thursday, August 20! Join Marcus & Millichap’s Senior Vice President – Multifamily Division, John S. Sebree, on August 11 at the Multifamily State of Market: National vs. Southern California. He will present the current market environment, comparing trends across Southern California with key comparable apartment markets across the country.

Don’t miss the Rent Control: Regulatory Update session on August 13. Hear the latest on the regulatory climate and how it may play out once the public health crisis has passed. Could Prop 10 2.0 be on the ballot this fall?

Be sure to attend the New Exclusive Investment Opportunities Showcase on August 18. We will guide you through our newest exclusive inventory and latest price reductions across the U.S. and Canada. A digital book containing these listings will be available to attendees.

Reasons to Attend:

Find out what top multifamily players are thinking and doing in the SoCal markets

Get the latest information on equity and debt financing for multifamily properties

Learn how the pandemic has affected your peers’ business and what they are doing

Pool your ideas on reopening plans and social amenity usage best practices

Discover the current thinking regarding future distressed buying opportunities

Explore how multifamily value add rehab is changing in light of the public health crisis

Identify new technology that is now suddenly more useful and relevant

Connect directly through one of the group networking discussions or the happy hour

What You Get:

5 panels held on separate days to minimize the disruption to your schedule

Recordings of each session to allow you to view or review when you like

Topical 30-minute group networking sessions following each panel

Closing 60-minute networking session with 8-person breakouts remixed every 12 minutes

Conference Highlights:

Multifamily State of the Market

Keynote Interview with Bob Hart, CEO of TruAmerica

Rent Control: A Regulatory Update

Multifamily Investment & Finance Velocity and Deal Flow

New Exclusive Investment Opportunities Showcase

Special Workshop on New Tax Credits & Ancillary Income Opportunities

  As a friend of

  Use promo code MM100 when you register

      Southern California Multifamily Online Conference 2020 Agenda August 11 – 20, 2020

  August 11 10:00 AM PDT   Multifamily State of Market: National vs. Southern CaliforniaMarcus & Millichap’s Senior Vice President – Multifamily Division, John S. Sebree, will present the current state of the market, comparing and contrasting trends across Southern California with key comparable apartment markets across the country. Learn how supply and demand for apartments interplay for key cities across Southern California and the West Coast, as well as key indicators of how the pandemic is shaping demand, rents and delivery of new units.

  August 11 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Economic, Demographic & Development TrendsJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate key industry trends. Anticipated topics include: Future Demand: Suburban vs Urban, Distressed Investing Outlook, Economic & Demographic Changes.

  August 12 10:00 AM PDT   Hero or Zero? The Future of Apartment Development & Investment Across Southern California

We are in unprecedented times. The state of the market 12 months ago seems like a bygone era. Just a short while ago, the biggest concern was rent control. That seems like a million years ago now. In 2020, we are faced with a global pandemic, social unrest and massive unemployment. And what’s more, California’s plans to reopen have been stymied for the time being. Developers are itching to get their pipelines restarted, while investors sit on the sidelines with piles of cash waiting to see how things will play out. How are these factors impacting the apartment industry across Southern California?

  August 12 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Apartment Development & InvestmentJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate issues raised in the Apartment Development & Investment panel. Anticipated topics include: Acquisitions & Equity Investment Headaches, Development & Construction Challenges, Construction Costs, Labor & Materials, among others.

  August 13 10:00 AM PDT   Rent Control? Ah, Yes, Those Were the Good Ol’ Days: A Regulatory UpdateRemember 2019 and how the legislature somehow got rent control passed despite it being shot down by the voters of California? Remember what a terrible time that seemed? Welcome to the dystopian future where public health crises, eviction moratoriums and rent strikes are the new normal. Join this special session to hear the latest on the regulatory environment in a mid-pandemic world and how this will likely play out once the public health crisis has passed. What are the governor, the state legislatures, and the local mayors and councils doing, and how will it affect your multifamily business? Specifically, what is on the ballot for this fall? Prop 10 2.0?

  August 13 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Impact of Multifamily RegulationsJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate issues raised in the Multifamily Regulatory Update panel. Anticipated topics include: Rental Rates, Payments & Vacancy Problems, Eviction Moratoriums, Rent Strikes, Rent Cancellation, November 2020 Ballot Initiatives, among others.

  August 14 10:00 AM PDT   Elections, Viruses & Protests, Oh My!: Multifamily Investment, Finance Velocity & Deal Flow in a Topsy-Turvy WorldIn the spring, the pandemic had derailed most deals, with only the most motivated of sellers proceeding to close. Meanwhile, equity sources largely pulled back waiting to see how the pandemic, unemployment and reopenings will affect rent payments, rent levels and occupancy rates, among other key metrics. Now that we’ve seen that rent collections are much better than feared, buyers are re-entering the market, driving new deals forward, some at discounts and some at or above pre-COVID prices. Lenders as well are starting to re-engage at acceptable LTVs. What’s next for multifamily capital markets, and will there be special opportunities created by the pandemic? Join this special online panel to learn more about the state of capital markets, both debt and equity for multifamily deals across Southern California.

  August 14 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Multifamily Debt & Equity SourcingJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate issues raised in the Multifamily Finance panel. Anticipated topics include: Deal Syndication & Equity Fundraising, Fund Formation, Refinancing & Borrowing Challenges, Mortgage Forbearance, among others.

  August 17 10:00 AM PDT   Keynote: Bob Hart, President & CEO, TruAmerica Multifamily

  August 17 11:00 AM PDT   VIP Networking Session: Invitation Required

Reserved for select multifamily principal attendees, speakers and conference sponsors, this special VIP reception allows industry leaders to connect directly.

  August 18 10:00 AM PDT   New Exclusive Investment Opportunities Showcase

Join us for a 1-hour new exclusive investment opportunities presentation. The session will guide you through our inventory across the United States and Canada. These listings have been brought to the market in the last six weeks and include new price reductions! A digital booklet containing these listings will be available to attendees of this session.

  August 18 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Property Management / Multifamily OperationsJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate issues raised in the Multifamily Property Management panel. Anticipated topics include: Reopening Plans & Amenity Usage, Staff & Resident Safety Amid COVID, Touchless Technology & Remote Management, among others.

  August 19 8:30 AM PDT   Private Roundtable for Multifamily Development Leaders (Invitation Required*)

This 90-minute online session is exclusive to multifamily development leaders.

  August 19 10:00 AM PDT   The New Normal: Updated Strategies to Rethink the Rehab GameClass C properties have been hit hardest by unemployment and non-payment of rent, while Class A properties have thus far been unscathed, although a prolonged period of economic depression could change that. The typical Value-Add strategy involves buying up B and C properties and upgrading them, if not to Class A, at least to a higher quality product that attracts higher paying tenants. How has the pandemic changed all that, and what is the outlook for the value-add rehab model?

  August 19 11:00 AM PDT   Group Networking Session: Value Add Investing & Renovation StrategiesJoin this special networking session to discuss and debate issues raised in the Multifamily Value Add panel. Anticipated topics include: Value-Add Business Plan Changes, Changes to Amenities in Light of COVID, Rehabbing Units During the Pandemic, among others.

  August 20 10:00 AM PDT   Get More Now: New Tax Credit & Incremental Ancillary Income Opportunities Workshop

  August 20 11:00 AM PDT   Southern California Multifamily Networking Reception

Join this special closing networking reception to connect with other attendees, meet new folks and reignite existing relationships. Breakout groups of 8 are remixed every 12 minutes to allow for a dynamic and fun way to wind up the conference.

  *Contact Samantha Williams 

([email protected])

 to inquire.

  Get Involved!

      Registration:

Marissa Monroe Registration Coordinator E-mail Me

      Keynote Speaker

  Bob Hart President & CEO TruAmerica Multifamily

  Speakers

  Simon Aftalion Development Director Markwood Barry Altshuler EVP – Investments Equity Residential Tom Bannon Chief Executive Officer California Apartment Association

  Ash Baraghoush Managing Director – Investments Hanover Financial Marshall Boyd Chief Executive Officer Interstate Equities Rachel Davidson Chief Administrative Officer Alliance Residential Company

  Jonathan Epstein Managing Director BentallGreenOak Kevin Kaberna Sr. Managing Director Investment Greystar Paul Kaseburg Chief Investment Officer MG Properties Group

  Paul Keller Chairman Mack Real Estate Development Jim Lapides Vice President National Multifamily Housing Council John Millham President Prometheus Real Estate Group

  Alexa Mizrahi Director of Loan Origination Lone Oak Fund Chad Sanderson Senior Principal Bascom Group Neil Shekhter Chief Executive Officer NMS Properties

  Ryan Somers President & CEO Benedict Canyon Equities Michael Sorochinsky Founder & CEO Cypress Equity Investments Steven Taylor Managing Partner & Founder Ness Holdings

  Nick Vanderboom Chief Operating Officer Related California Keith Wasserman Partner Gelt Mike D’Onofrio Managing Director Engineered Tax Services

  Jim Markel VP & Regional Manager, Encino Marcus & Millichap Scé Pike CEO & Co-Founder IOTAS Mike Rovner CEO Mike Rovner Construction

  John S. Sebree SVP – Multifamily Division Marcus & Millichap Tony Solomon SVP & National Director Marcus & Millichap Capital Corporation

  Conference Chair

  2020 Sponsors

    CONFERENCE ORGANIZER

Like This & Like That

In the not so distant past I was frantically shuffling through nursing school with my eye on a promise that the choice I had made would provide security for my family and a colorful career for myself. I have never put more trust into anything before, and much of it felt entirely blind. It’s very unusual for me to blindly go all in without clear definition of what will be the product. I am historically a control freak.

I came from a very regimented structured program and university that very strongly advocated for its nursing graduates to move into either education, administration, military, or intense hospital nursing. It wasn’t a spoken rule by any measure but certainly that’s what seemed to get everyone all warm and fuzzy. My peers listed off their hopes of working in the Air Force, becoming neonatal intensive care unit nurses, neuro-oncology nurses.. wound care nurses.. the things you probably picture nurses to do with their skills and education. I’ll never forget what a graduating senior said to a group of us new sophomores who hadn’t had clinical experience yet, “if you don’t enjoy your medsurg clinical you probably shouldn’t be a nurse”. Daunting. It crippled my good friend right out of nursing school and normally that’s what would’ve happened to me too.

The pragmatic higher thinking part of my adult brain overrode that silly statement. I think my life experience up to that point was able to see beyond oversimplifications like that. So I continued to trust and invest all the while getting older, deeper into debt, and further involved in existential questions of my my purpose and my abilities as a woman and a creature.

I stand where I am now in awe and disbelief. Since I graduated and passed my boards I haven’t been able to fathom the unveiling of opportunities. People have been coming to me to request I apply to work with or for them including at the Plainfield Health Center, the Vermont Department of Health as a nurse epidemiologist, in multiple areas of multiple different hospitals..

Overwhelming isn’t the word. Joyful? Proud? I don’t know what the word is. I am in awe and amazed at my accomplishment. I truly did not believe I possessed the ability to create a new branch and path in my family’s story.

Nursing isn’t rocket science, but it certainly is rigorous in several ways including what felt like the ultimate test of character. Academically challenging for sure, but it was so much more than that. Prior in my life I’ve gained praise for my demeanor and dedication, not the case in nursing school. I felt, as we all did, that we were not worthy of the title we were after. I craved proving my will to myself. It’s sort of sadistic in a way.

Now that it’s all over and the death of my daughter has broken me down to my core, I feel as though I’ve been granted a new beginning. It really feels like starting all over again. Being reborn only this time I trust myself a little more. I’m reborn with skills and tools and have strong value. I also determined the senior with all of her nursing wisdom was wrong. We are not all cut out for hospital nursing as we all shouldn't be.

Five or so months ago I couldn’t have ever pictured going back to work. I couldn’t picture healing myself let alone others, I couldn’t picture doing my laundry or minimally cleaning my house let alone maintaining infection control protocols in a hospital. If I woke up and Grace ate, the day was a success.

It was around Thanksgiving time that I spoke with my employer and conveyed that very message in a heartfelt monologue. Their response surprised me and left me feeling so not pressured to make up my mind. They kept me on the roster so that I’d still receive benefits (under FMLA) and offered to help me find work in another area of the organization IF that’s what I wanted. Otherwise they expressed a sincere willingness to offer recommendations and write referrals.

At that point I looked into their job openings and thought how impossible it would be to find a match. A match to what? What even was I? I was a brand new nurse, in thick grief, what could I offer? I couldn’t align myself to people around me, conversations felt so foreign and awkward.

The very first day I browsed job postings I saw an opening for a triage nurse at Montpelier Integrative Family Medicine. Well that’s too good to be true, working for a place that is willing to get creative and think outside the box but also be independent of way out there eclectic naturopathy. It is what it’s name implies, it’s integrative. No way. I talked with my liaison from the hospital who made some calls and found that in fact it was too good to be true. Understandably a triage nurse needs prior experience.

Time went on, I applied to a couple of other positions that didn’t appeal to me but felt an obligation to put in some effort. In mid-February another job at Montpelier Integrative opened up. It was full time though and that didn’t sound remotely possible to me. Being away for 9 hours per day, 5 days per week? Couldn’t do it.

Meanwhile I went back to my old position at the hospital. My coworkers were as inviting and welcoming back as they could possibly have been, and the support was all I could ask for. The nature of the work mixed with the crazy hours on the other hand. I just could not set aside the interference of my circumstances playing on a reel through my mind. It kept me from being able to think in any depth and certainly kept me from being able to retain the volumes of details and contexts that I needed in order to even mildly effectively move through my day. Big fat no. Couldn’t do it.

My employer said they would extend my leave again, but this time the resources were sort of exhausted so I would need to be hired into a new position by the end of March or else they’d have to let me go. I decided it was time to dig into Montpelier Integrative a little more. And I thought about my criteria. One of my criteria was to not work crazy hours.. but I also had to weigh being able to walk at lunch time (rather than swallowing lunch whole while trying to chart on my patients), I could have Ashton and Grace come visit for lunch. Another factor that had to be seriously considered was weekends and holidays. The profession I got myself into works around the clock in all elements of weather, to not worry about holidays in an office setting was certainly a perk.

I thought and weighed and rearranged all that I could to try and think up a scenario that would fit the best and what I decided was that I hoped to work no more than part time.

I submitted my application on a Monday, by Thursday HR had contacted the practice to see what the status was. They already had plans to interview me. What?! Don’t get my hopes up, it may not be what I dreamed, in fact it probably is not, and furthermore the position I applied for was full time. My hope was to get an interview and see if there was any flexibility.

They called me for an interview the following week. It’s in a great location, near downtown as opposed to isolated just off the highway with no real great place to walk during a break.

I realized that I don’t get nervous for interviews at all anymore. I don’t know when the shift happened but I don’t get caught up in my head stressing about it, not beforehand or during.

The office has a weird layout but it’s doable. They at least talked emphatically about a plan to renovate soon. Change. I like it.

Two nurses interviewed me, one is an office nurse who would be my partner, she’s been working there for about 8 months. Prior to that she was an ED nurse at CVMC and also worked as a float around the hospital. She was intimidating. But intimidating means something very different to me now. I’m an adult, I have value and skills, I am a mother, I have accomplished a lot, the feeling of being intimidated is only a feeling not a quality or trait of mine. The other nurse is the practice manager. She’s intense but the kind that made me feel she could be trusted to have her nurses backs if push came to shove. She’s very alpha female but with more of the feminine traits- understanding and compassionate- and less of the masculine domineering ones.

Early in the interview she said firmly that the position was full time, I saw no opening or invite for negotiation. So from that point on in the interview I didn’t do much of anything at all to sell myself, I turned it around and wanted to be sold the position. I felt like my sacrifices had to be worth it and wanted proof of it.

They were really into me despite my secret reservations, I could tell they were interested in my experience and my aura. They talked about the position as though it were already mine using phrases like, “this is what you’ll be doing”. They gave me a tour and introduced me to the other nurses and the provider who I would be working for.

I left kind of bummed. How could I reconcile 40 hours per week? I spent a few days minimally thinking about it. I had sort of written it off, especially after one night when I decided there was no way I could part with my counseling visits. I sort of forgot about it.

I went back to the drawing board and was far far less inspired. I just had an interview at the only place I could envision being a nurse at this point in time and have all but turned it away. How was I going to find a fit? Nothing felt right.

I put my thoughts together and finally decided to send the hiring nurse an email. She told me to contact her by email with any questions. I wrote thanking her for her time and for the opportunity but that I didn’t think it were possible for me to walk away from the routines I have developed to help me cope. As I wrote it, I found myself reeeeaaally wanting her to find a way to make it work for me, but for how firm she was in the interview I felt like it was no use. I typed it in there anyway “if there is any adjustment that can be made to fit my life in where I need it…”

I had it all typed and ready to send. Ashton was beside me, and so I started reading it to him for a final check before I sent it off to its doom. Just as I got to the second paragraph my phone rang. It was Gail, the office manager.

I didn’t know what to say, but I did because I had just rehearsed it for the last hour. She was giddy with excitement, she had several ways of describing how much they wanted me to come work with them. She was far more emphatic than she was in the interview. I said, “I just have to be honest, I can’t leave counseling and other commitments that I have made to myself”, she said, “I am a flexible manager and I will make anything you need to work, work. Don’t you worry about that”. I also said we finalized a plan to take a trip to Austin in 3 weeks. Done. She said she’ll list it as a condition of being hired. I accepted the offer. I took a $1.24 pay cut, which was a surprise, I was expecting a more dramatic drop in pay. I don’t lose benefits, I don’t change organizations.. I qualify for short term disability now, I qualify for 28 days off per year..

I don’t know exactly what I need, but I feel like I’m doing the right thing. Grace is in daycare 3 days per week as it is. I asked Ashton if he could bring Grace to me for lunch on her off days. I’ll be able to see her when she wakes up, I’ll be able to have dinner with her, and weekends and holidays, and all the while I’ll be able to establish some financial stability for us. A major major factor was benefits. In the current political climate keeping health insurance means even more to me than income.

Here we go, my life is about to change again. I hope to create a lens or filter that works for me to enjoy all aspects and not feel like any one area of importance to me is negated. Especially Grace. I think the routine will help for me to concentrate my time with her even more than I do now. Sort of like putting the oxygen on myself before others. I can do it. I can find balance, I just have to be willing to see it and know that it won’t always feel the same. I have to be vigilant about planning vacations and using my time off wisely.

I feel that this will anchor me in a way that I need right now. I need mental exhaustion in a different way.

I welcome more change, and am open to growing and learning.

Nothing ever has to be permanent, and it doesn’t ever have to be one or the other.

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 10/9/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Tuesday, September 10th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a DAILY Nation Newspaper (DN).

MINISTER MAY REVISIT HOURS – As the hustle and bustle of the new school term kicked in yesterday, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw said she was willing to reopen talks on staggering school hours. Speaking to THE NATION at Frederick Smith Secondary School in Trents, St James, as part of another tour of some schools which did not reopen yesterday, Bradshaw said she was all for anything to increase the efficiency of the education system. “Communication is a large part of the problem. It should have been a conversation that took place at the level of the Ministry of Education, principals, the Ministry of Transport and Works, where we all sat together and determined how to stagger. And of course you would have to consult the parents and the teachers,” she added. Bradshaw was referring to the failed proposal to change the opening hours of some secondary schools to 8 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. instead of 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., in an effort to ease traffic congestion. While some like The St Michael School, Lodge School and St Leonard’s Boys’ School had already adopted earlier hours, the proposal was vetoed as it did not receive enough buy-in from teachers. (DN)

LATE OPENING AT ST MARY’S - Some parents are upset about the delayed start of teaching at St Mary’s Primary school. At the start of the Michaelmas school term today, scores of parents showed up at the Mason Hall Street school from as early as 7:30 a.m. They however were informed that some areas of the facility were still being cleaned, so the students would have to wait until that process was completed before they could enter the premises. However, just after 9 a.m. some of the students were able to enter the classrooms. The parents however told THE NATION that they felt the work was too last-minute. St Mary’s was not listed as one of the other 20 government schools scheduled to begin next week due to incomplete maintenance work.(DN)

FREDERICK SMITH OPENING PUSHED BACK – The Frederick Smith Secondary School will not be opening on Wednesday as previously indicated. The Trents, St James school will instead open on Monday, September 16.

Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, made this announcement today, after touring a number of schools, including Frederick Smith, to examine their state of readiness. She said the ministry took the decision to stagger the opening of some schools at the start of the new school term because major works being done at those sites were not completed on time. The minister said she was “sensitive” to the issue of teachers and children operating in environments which were not necessarily conducive to their health. The Education Minister noted that they were trying to get the works completed, so as to avoid any disruptions after teachers and children settled into the new term. The schools which will reopen on Wednesday are Alexandra, Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary and Princess Margaret Secondary. (BGIS)

SYBIL STILL AT SCHOOL AT 90 –A school day finds Sybil Leacock in the classroom doing what she has been doing for the last 72 years – teaching. At age 90, nothing can keep her away from Leacock’s Private School Inc., which she founded in 1946.Today, the Farm Road, St Peter institution has a roll of 50, half of its 100 student capacity, and Leacock still approaches the job of shaping young minds with the same passion as when she was first influenced to take on just one student to begin her teaching career at age 17.She continues to do it her way, the “old-time way”, teaching students the basics – “their tables; how to add and subtract”, employing a hands-on approach, and making one-on-one contact with students.For her, education is key to progress and this is the reason she has invested her life in ensuring that countless children from the north and beyond receive a sound educational grounding.Leacock grew up in The Whim, St Peter, with a single mother who worked for five shillings a week as a domestic servant to support her family after the early death of her husband.“When we were in primary school, we went from Infants to Class 4,” she recalled, and school ended for many children at age 14. She was bright and completed that early phase at St Peter’s Girls’ School at age 13. For a period after that she continued her lessons at a desk and chair provided by the head teacher, on the school’s platform, until she was taken in at the Muriel Archer Private School located in the St Peter community.Reflecting on that part of her journey, Leacock said: “My mother, a domestic, could not afford the $23 a month school fees at Alexandra School.” However, the teenaged Leacock went on to sit the Junior Cambridge examinations (the GCE equivalent of the day).In the meantime, she would help teach other children at Muriel Archer Private School and her performance must have impressed because it was soon after unfortunate circumstances forced the closing of that school, that she was asked by a parent to teach their child.In the library across the yard from her school, there sits an old-fashioned wooden table, worn with age and use, and a chair which Leacock has preserved as a reminder of those early days when her classroom was the verandah of a nearby Farm Road house. Word of her teaching skills spread and more and more children came, filling the gallery and forcing a move to more spacious accommodation.(DN)

LIVES ROCKED AGAIN –Everything was mashed up by Matthew. Now Dorian has left them in despair.Four years ago, husband and wife Sherry and Graham Smith had to rebuild from scratch after Hurricane Matthew pounded The Bahamas. Just over a week ago, they were thrown into an even worse state – including losing more than 20 relatives – due to the rampaging Category 5 Hurricane Dorian. The Smiths, who live in the community of Heritage, tucked away in Grand Bahama, operated a seafood restaurant called Shebo’s Fresh Conch Salad. The only thing left standing was its foundation.Only renovated two months ago, it was smashed to pieces by monster winds as the strongest tropical system of the 2019 hurricane season hovered over the island for 48 hours, leaving total devastation behind. Sherry, 45, sitting with her head in her hands in total disbelief, has been barely able to cope with the tragedy.(DN)

HOPING TO CLEAR BACKLOG ON 2 YEARS –With five new judges coming to tackle the backlog of almost 1 000 criminal cases, the island’s Chief Justice is hoping to “wrestle” that backlog to the ground in about two years. In addition, says Sir Marston Gibson, all civil cases will go through mandatory mediation in an attempt to reduce the backlog on the civil side as well. He was delivering remarks at the opening of the 2019-2010 Legal Year in Court No. 1 at the Supreme Court Complex yesterday. Sir Marston noted that even though there had not been a recent count of the number of criminal cases in the backlog, there were between 900 and 1 000 old cases still waiting to be tried. As a result, he said the five new judges were welcomed.(DN)

TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH SHOOTING –Earlier today, police from the Major Crime Unit arrested and charged 26-year-old Raheim Forde, of 10th Avenue, New Orleans, St Michael, in connection with a shooting in the same district. On Friday, August 23, police responded to a report that Sharon Matthews, 57, of Beckles Avenue, New Orleans, received a gunshot injury to her right hand. The report stated that a man pointed a gun through her bedroom window and fired one shot into the room.Forde has been charged with use of firearm, serious bodily harm, and endangering life. He is scheduled to appear in the District ‘A’ Magistrates Court tomorrow.(DN)

DISCOURAGING SIGNS UNDER SKERRITT– Early signs for West Indies’ cricket under the stewardship of new President Ricky Skerritt are far from encouraging, to say the least. The team was swept by India in all formats of the game – T20, 50-over, and Test – in the just-concluded series, following a disappointing 2019 Cricket World Cup in England, where they won only two in nine matches and finished second-from-bottom in the 10-team championship. Only Afghanistan fared worse. And, adding salt to the wounds, is a lawsuit filed by members of the previous West Indies panel of selectors, who were sacked by Skerritt immediately after securing a spectacular 8-4 win ballot over incumbent Dave Cameron, a Jamaican, in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) elections last May. That court procedure, which was announced by their legal counsel on Thursday, September 5, is being channelled by former Windies chief selector Courtney Browne and his counterpart on the selection panel, Eldine Baptiste, both of whom are former Test players. A third member of the selection panel who was sacked, Lockhart Sebastien, has not indicated a challenge. However, Barbadian Vasbert Drakes, the former assistant coach, has also served notice through his lawyers to file a lawsuit. Skerritt’s board had initiated their dismissal as part of a process to revamp the selection criteria, but the former panellists contend that the move was unfair based on high appraisal ratings from the previous director of cricket and head coach of the Windies team, South African Richard Pybus. Pybus himself was also sacked, controversially, on the eve of the World Cup, a move that came in for widespread criticism, including from team captain Jason Holder and former West Indies batting genius Sir Viv Richards, who openly expressed disappointment over Skerritt’s moves thus far. Watching the team has been painstaking, both at the World Cup, where an incapacitated André Russell was allowed to play a number of matches despite being clearly unfit; and in the follow-up series against India, especially in the Tests, where the team was bowled out for 222 and 100 in the first Test, and 117 and 210 in the second. Embarrassingly, there were complaints that Windies had 13 players on the field at one stage. Shamarh Brooks walked out of his crease to give away his wicket after scoring 50, and players appeared largely uninterested in batting on the final day of the second Test. Most disrespectfully, none of the West Indies players even took the field for the post-match presentation, and skipper Jason Holder made an appearance to do a post-match interview then went right back inside the pavilion. Clearly, the cricket is on auto pilot. There appears to be no leadership. Pybus’ dismissal, in particular, was particularly nonsensical and ruinous, based on the timing ahead of the World Cup, with the West Indies having just secured a morale-boosting 2-1 Test series win over highly ranked England. Players, as you would imagine, would have been developing trust, understanding, and a good rapport with the coach at that time for having pulled the team to a point where they were becoming somewhat competitive at world level. The move, however, was part of a greater plan in which Skerritt – a former WI team manager, who was sacked in May, 2001 – was inserted at the 11th hour to unseat Cameron and characterises the complexity and vast number of problems affecting West Indies cricket. Regional prime ministers – Dr Keith Mitchell, of Grenada; and Dr Ralph Gonsalves, St Vincent and the Grenadines – consistently hit out at Cameron’s handling of the WICB affairs, and Skerritt, a politician, who has served in varying roles as minister of tourism, international transport, international trade, industry, commerce and consumer affairs between 2010-13 in his native St Kitts and Nevis, was put up as challenger. The coaching and selection decisions reflected the kind of thinking associated with the dissatisfied lot for greater inclusion of West Indians in the running of the team, including senior players, many of whom were sidelined for primarily choosing international T20 cricket over the domestic game. On the face of it, that decision by the players appeared reasonable, given the huge financial gains from cash-rich leagues such as the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has made the players multimillionaires. Conditions, however, were provided for their participation in Windies’ domestic competitions, on a limited basis, to become eligible for selection. This is key for the development of the local game given the magnitude of benefits for inexperienced first-class players competing against, and gaining greater insight from their regional peers, who rank among the world’s best. That was the case during the glory years when leading regional cricketers such as Sir Viv, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, and many other West Indies legends, were playing professionally in England and also played in regional Shell Shield competition. A major difference then is that those legends played league cricket. That format is the base of cricket, the foundation of the game, and it inculcated habits for doing the right things consistently that were easier to transfer into Test cricket, which calls for significantly greater levels of concentration given its five-day challenge. Measure that against the hit or miss T20 format and the picture becomes much clearer in the application of reasoning surrounding the team’s ongoing failure. To be honest, much of the Windies’ demise was also caused by rulings from the game’s hierarchy, which limited bouncers and such, plus a massive scaling down of West Indian players in the English leagues, which served as great preparation through constant play against the game’s best. Little by little, that door is being opened again, and earlier this week, promising opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite of Barbados was offered a contract to play the final three games of the season for Glamorgan, who are chasing promotion to Division One. Other things have been established for improvements, most notably retainer contracts for regional first-class players that were established between the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) and the previous WICB team led by Cameron. The governors must ensure that the players abide by the stipulations and do what is necessary to elevate their game. Additionally, world-level competition resumed on Thursday night with another edition of the Caribbean Premier League T20. That promises excitement for fans, more money for the players, and some opportunity to learn, however limited, given the nature of the competition. What is really needed are regional competitions over four days with notable international personalities that will really challenge the players’ mental capacity for applying key requisites, batting and bowling, especially, which they can transfer to the Test arena for its arduous five-day fixtures. It will require tremendous marketing support to generate the type of funding needed from governments across the region and private entities across the world, including airlines to subsidise travel among foreign parties. To take a lesson from football, Japan and Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz’s made thier debut at the 1998 World Cup in France, but they have been a constant since, given the way they have ‘internationalised’ their local leagues with players of notable world standard, even some who were over the top or nearing the end. China is doing the same. Skerritt’s West Indies need a revolutionary platform to alter cricket’s sequence. (BT)

POLLARD NEW WHITE-BALL SKIPPER, HOLDER AND BRATHWAITE SACKED – Cricket West Indies have sacked both Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite as One-Day and Twenty20 captain respectively, and have appointed experienced batting all-rounder Kieron Pollard to lead the Caribbean side in the white-ball formats. In a media conference in Trinidad today, CWI said they had accepted the recommendation of the selection task force headed by its vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow and including director of cricket, Jimmy Adams, to implement specific red-ball and white-ball captains, and had subsequently ratified the choice of the 32-year-old Pollard. “Kieron Pollard, with immediate effect, has agreed to take up the position of captain of both our T20 and ODI white-ball teams,” CWI president, Ricky Skerritt told the media.(BT)

112days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

Housing Crisis Grips Ireland a Decade After Property Bubble Burst

DUBLIN — For generations, the Irish took for granted that affordable, plentiful housing was the bedrock of their economic security and government policy. Not long ago, Ireland had one of the world’s highest rates of homeownership.

The last several years have torn up those assumptions, leaving the country in the grip of a worsening housing crisis. Homeownership has dropped, evictions and homelessness have climbed sharply, surging demand for rental units has led to a shortage, and soaring rents are fodder for daily conversation, political campaigns and street protests.

In the last few years, Dublin has become one of the world’s 10 most expensive places to rent, ahead of cities like Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore. Deutsche Bank reported in May that typical rent for a midrange, two-bedroom apartment in Dublin was $2,018 a month, 23 percent more than in 2014 — the biggest increase of any city in the top tier.

“Almost everybody I know who is renting has been given notice to quit at some point. It happens so often it’s scary,” said Carly Bailey, who had been homeless twice before she was elected to Dublin City Council this year. “I don’t know where to put my daughter down for school. People like us just don’t know where we are going to be in a few months’ time.”

The crisis has been particularly severe for young adults who see little choice but to spend much of their incomes on rent, and little prospect of being able to save and buy later on.

“You have a generation being locked out of the Irish social contract,” said Rory Hearne, a lecturer in the sociology of housing at Maynooth University. “A lot of young people are now realizing they will never own their own home, and that is a particularly terrible outlook when you live in a country where a house is usually your main asset for retirement.”

The chief executive of Ires Reit, Ireland’s largest private landlord, said in late 2016, “We’ve never seen rental increases like this in any jurisdiction” and “I truly feel badly for the Irish people.” Over the next two years, rents nationwide rose about 14 percent, the government reported.

The Irish division of Savills, an international property company, predicts that rents will increase an additional 17 percent over the next three years.

“The social and political risks are very high,” said Orla Hegarty, a professor of architecture at University College Dublin. “The high cost of housing is now a barrier to inward investment, to emigrants returning with skills, to people hoping to start families and who want to move. We’ll see that soon in lost growth and a falling birthrate.”

For those struggling to pay rents or unable to find homes, the risk is not in the future, but now.

After nine years renting a house in northern County Dublin, Sabrina Farrell and her three children, aged 4 to 16, were evicted in April when their landlord decided to sell. Unable to find a home they could afford, even with public rent assistance, they now share a single hotel room paid for by the local government, with no place to cook or play.

“The kids are living off McDonald’s,” Ms. Farrell said. “A couple of weeks ago, my older boy started self-harming because of the situation we are in.”

“I have to be strong for them, and try my best,” she said, “but when you see your children suffering, it’s hard to cope. I started having panic attacks. I’m on medication now.”

Homelessness in Ireland has nearly quadrupled in the last five years, according to the government. Official figures for May showed 10,253 homeless people, including 1,700 families with 3,749 children. Many more, who emigrate or move in with parents or friends, go uncounted.

Even those who can afford their rents find that they have little security in a rising market. Leases can be for as little as six months, and Irish law allows landlords to evict tenants if they want to sell the property, renovate it or move in a family member.

Much of the anger in Ireland has focused on foreign-owned companies like Ires Reit, whose largest shareholder is a Canadian company, or Kennedy Wilson, a California firm, that have bought or built thousands of units in a few years and are expanding their holdings, while paying little or nothing in Irish taxes.

Such companies, often backed by foreign banks, pension funds and real estate companies, have been dubbed “cuckoo funds,” for birds that lay eggs in the nests of other species and crowd out their young. But they own fewer than 5 percent of the rental homes in the country, concentrated at the high end of the market.

Homeownership was long something of a national obsession in Ireland, where memories run deep of 19th-century tenants suffering at the hands of landlords, many of them British. After the country gained independence in the 1920s, its government went on a building campaign, and later sold many publicly-owned homes to their renters.

But by the last decade, Ireland, like the United States, had a property bubble built on debt, fueled by reckless lending and tax incentives. When the bubble burst in 2008, starting a deep recession, real estate prices plunged, people defaulted on loans, construction came to a halt and Irish banks, deeply indebted to foreign banks, flirted with insolvency.

Homeownership fell from about 80 percent of households to fewer than 70 percent — still ahead of peers like Britain, France and Germany, but lower than it had been in Ireland in four decades.

The government was forced to borrow $77 billion from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, and impose austerity measures on its people. American investment banks bought up mortgage loans at a discount, profiting as the market recovered.

The number of households renting privately owned homes doubled, to almost 20 percent, according to Focus Ireland, an advocacy group that works on homelessness and housing. Adding to the rising demand, Ireland has become a magnet for major international companies, pulling thousands of foreign renters into the market.

It now costs far more to rent than to pay off a mortgage. The property website daft.ie recently reported that the monthly mortgage payment on a two-bedroom house in the city of Cork would be about $700, but the same house would cost almost $1,300 to rent.

Home prices have rebounded since the recession, but homeownership has not, in part because people paying high rents often cannot save for down payments. To curb dangerous lending and borrowing, the Central Bank of Ireland in 2015 capped mortgage loans at about 3.5 times the buyer’s annual income, but the median price is about 5.6 times earnings.

“We are seeing a growing number of people in the private rental market who don’t want to be in it because they would rather buy but can’t afford to,” says John-Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Threshold, a tenants’ rights group.

Despite such high demand for housing, new construction continues to lag, depressed by tight mortgage lending, high building costs and land-hoarding by speculators.

While the government estimates that 30,000 to 35,000 new housing units are needed annually, in June the investment firm Goodbody Stockbrokers predicted that only 21,000 would be completed this year.

To bridge the gap, there is an increasing clamor for the center-right government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to build publicly owned housing. Critics also question policies like offering tax incentives to big corporate landlords and relying heavily on rent subsidies paid to private owners.

The government started a “Rebuilding Ireland” program three years ago, with a goal of ultimately adding 25,000 units a year to the housing supply, but critics say it is not enough, and rents continue to rise. Mr. Varadkar has called for looser mortgage lending rules but has warned that a more aggressive building campaign could repeat the boom-and-bust cycle that led to the 2008 crash.

Lorcan Sirr, a lecturer in planning and housing at the Dublin Institute of Technology, said that if long-term renting was to be commonplace in Ireland, the country would need price controls and new rules making leases more secure.

In May, thousands of people marched through Dublin to demand change, waving signs saying, “It’s our city” and “The rent is too damn high.”

“A private builder is there to make a profit, but the government should be there to provide for the citizens of the country,” said one marcher, Lorna O’Sullivan, 25, a planning student. “This is a rich country, not a poor one.”

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Housing Market Slows, as Rising Prices Outpace Wages

DENVER — By nearly any measure, this city is booming. The unemployment rate is below 3 percent. There is so much construction that a local newspaper started a “crane watch” feature. Seemingly every week brings headlines about companies bringing high-paying jobs to the area.

Yet, Denver’s once-soaring housing market has run into turbulence. Sales and construction activity have slowed in recent months. Houses that would once have drawn a frenzy of offers are sitting on the market for days or weeks. Selling prices are rising more slowly, and asking prices are being slashed to attract buyers.

Similar slowdowns have hit New York, Seattle and even San Francisco, cities that until recently ranked among the nation’s hottest housing markets. The specifics vary, but economists, real estate agents and home builders say the core issue is the same: Home buyers are reaching a breaking point after years of breakneck price increases that far exceeded income gains.

“The local economy is still fantastic, all the fundamentals are there, but obviously wages are not keeping pace,” said Steve Danyliw, a Denver realtor. “As the market continues to move up, buyers are being pushed out.”

Rachel Sandoval is one of them. An elementary schoolteacher in the Denver Public Schools, Ms. Sandoval earns about $50,000 a year, enough to afford a condominium or a modest house in most markets. But not in Denver, where the median sales price for all homes was $410,000 in August, and where even condos routinely top $300,000 — a price Ms. Sandoval calls “not even close to feasible.” She said she was scoping out jobs in Texas, where houses are cheaper and pay is higher, and considering leaving teaching in search of a higher salary.

For now, Ms. Sandoval, 41, is sharing a one-bathroom rental house with two roommates, a nurse and an adjunct professor. The three stick to a strict schedule to make sure they can all get to work on time.

“We are professionals, we have degrees,” Ms. Sandoval said. “This was not the plan.”

Nationwide, sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5 percent in August from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Residential building permits were down 5.5 percent over the past year, according to the Department of Commerce. Many economists say the housing market may have turned into a drag on the gross domestic product.

The recent slowdown, however, is unlikely to give would-be buyers like Ms. Sandoval much relief. Prices in Denver are still up 8 percent over the past year, according to the S&P Case-Shiller index. That’s cool compared to the double-digit gains of a couple years ago, but well ahead of the 6 percent increase in average hourly earnings over the same period. Rising interest rates have also made buying homes more expensive.

Few analysts expect an outright decline in home prices anytime soon. That’s because, unlike the speculative bubble of the mid-2000s, the recent run-up in prices has been driven primarily by economic fundamentals: People are moving to Denver faster than developers can build places to live. The Denver region has added more than 300,000 residents since 2010, making it one of the country’s fastest-growing areas.

Introductory economics textbooks suggest that high prices should attract more supply or suppress demand — or both. Inventories of unsold homes have risen in Denver and other markets in recent months, and the real estate site Zillow found that price cuts have become more common.

Over all, however, the housing market is not behaving as the textbooks say it should. Inventories remain low despite the recent increases, and new construction is slowing, not picking up.

Part of the problem, local real estate agents say, is that the furious pace of price growth has essentially gummed up the market, making homeowners reluctant to sell for fear of being unable to find a new home.

Rising interest rates are compounding the problem because would-be sellers do not want to give up their low interest rates, a phenomenon economists call the lock-in effect.

Brant and Annie Wiedel spent more than a year trying to get a foothold in Denver’s housing market — and they are reluctant to give it up. The couple estimate that they looked at 160 houses before finally closing on a three-bedroom ranch house in Lakewood, a suburb, three years ago.

With two children and a third due in January, the Wiedels would like to trade up. With the rise in home prices some renovations, the house they bought for $350,000 could be worth more than $500,000.

But the family borrowed at about 3.5 percent three years ago. Today, they would pay closer to 5 percent. “Even if we just saw houses at the same price, we’d have to pay more” every month, he said.

Ultimately, the key to breaking the logjam is to build more homes. Downtown Denver is crawling with cranes, many of them erecting amenity-filled apartment complexes aimed at young professionals. A drive in almost any direction from downtown reveals freshly built subdivisions with names like Tallgrass, The Enclave and Green Gables Reserve.

Most of those new homes, however, will list for more than $400,000. And hardly any builders are selling properties for under $300,000 without government subsidies. Even many home builders worry they are pricing themselves out of the market.

“I see the biggest threat to our business as the affordability challenge, that we are building houses that people can’t afford,” said Gene Myers, chief executive of Thrive Home Builders.

The problem, Mr. Myers and other local builders say, is cost. The price of land, building permits and other fees can run close to $150,000 for a single-family lot — before construction.

Some of the challenges are specific to Colorado. Quirks in state law, for example, make it easy for condominium buyers to collectively sue builders over construction defects, making developers reluctant to build condos.

But other issues are common to many cities. Building materials have become more expensive, in part because of tariffs on lumber and other products that President Trump imposed this year. Labor costs are rising, too, especially for skilled trade workers. Restrictive zoning makes it hard to build denser developments that make cheaper homes profitable for builders.

“They’re producing what they can produce,” said Sam Khater, chief economist for Freddie Mac, the government housing-finance company. “The problem is, it’s uneconomic for them to produce affordable.”

This big-city conundrum is spreading. People priced out of San Francisco moved to Seattle and Portland, driving up prices and displacing people who moved to Denver and Austin. Next on the list: Boise, Nashville and other cities offering some of the same attractions at lower prices.

Sure enough, the online real estate site Redfin this spring found that Denver had joined Seattle and San Francisco as cities with a “net outflow” of users — that is, there were more people on the site looking to leave Denver than to move there.

“City after city is going to face this,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. “At some point, the buyers step back and say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

More people are moving to Denver than leaving it, but migration has tapered off in recent years. J. J. Ament, chief executive of Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, said he had seen no sign that rising home prices were making the region less attractive. Last month, VF Corporation, an apparel maker that owns brands like The North Face and Vans, announced it would move its headquarters to Denver from North Carolina, partly because of the area’s reputation for outdoor activities. The state also offered $27 million in incentives.

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘crisis,’” Mr. Ament said. “The work force is still willing to move here.”

Plenty of people in Denver do use the word “crisis,” however. A January report from Shift Research Lab, a local research group, concluded that years of under-building have left the region with a shortfall of tens of thousands of housing units.

That shortfall could threaten Denver’s growth, said Phyllis Resnick, a Colorado State University economist and one of the report’s authors. The skilled workers moving to the area, who have been so important to attracting companies and jobs, want to be able to eat out at restaurants, drop off their dry cleaning and send their children to school, all of which require lower and middle income workers. If they cannot afford to live in the area, Ms. Resnick said, Denver will not retain its allure — and the economy will not keep growing.

“My concern is, at some point it sort of breaks because we can’t house the folks that we need to fill out all the economic activity in the region,” she said. “I’m not convinced that in the near term it will correct itself just through market forces, unless that’s through people moving out.”

Local governments and charities are trying to address the problem. The Denver City Council last month voted to double, to $30 million per year, the city’s affordable housing fund, which is used to build and preserve homes for low-income residents. Late last year, nonprofit groups announced they had raised $24 million to start the Elevation Community Land Trust, which will buy land to create permanently affordable housing. Another new program aims to help public schoolteachers come up with down payments.

To have a big impact, economists say Denver and other cities have to build more homes affordable to middle-class families. That will require persuading communities accustomed to single-family homes to accept condos and townhomes.

“The only way to solve the riddle is through density,” said Dave Lemnah, co-owner of Lokal Homes, a Denver builder.

That’s why he is building projects like the Villas at Wheatlands, a 94-unit development in Aurora, east of Denver. Each lot has three attached units arranged like a jigsaw puzzle. Lokal sells the homes for less than $400,000; some go for close to $300,000.

One buyer, Angela Kirkland-Vandecar, an aesthetician and a single mother, has spent two years searching for a home she could afford on her roughly $50,000 income.

When Ms. Kirkland-Vandecar began her search, she did not want to move to Aurora or to a condo.

“I’ve now done everything that in the beginning I said I was not going to do,” she said.

But Ms. Kirkland-Vandecar feels good about her decision. Her monthly mortgage payment will be less than her $1,900 monthly rent, and she is happy not to have a lawn to mow. Her daughters, 11 and 13, will have their own rooms, and she will no longer have to store food in the laundry room, as she did in the cramped apartment she had been renting.

Walking through her nearly ready house recently, looking for defects, Ms. Kirkland-Vandecar opened a door in the kitchen and paused. A Lokal Homes worker asked if she had found a problem. She shook her head.

“I’m just enjoying my pantry,” she said.

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15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 11

with Jamie Swimmer & Jesse Leeds Grant

The Washington Capitals are the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions, beating the Las Vegas Golden Knights in five games. A team that has been on the cusp of greatness yet unable to get over the hump for so long has finally come out on top, giving Washington, D.C. its first professional sports championship since the Redskins won the Super Bowl in 1992. Caps Owner Ted Leonsis was quick to state that the team’s parade is going to be huge. “I think it’s going to be a lot bigger than everyone is expecting,” said Leonsis. “My goal is to create something that elevates and unites all of the people in our community, so people think happy thoughts about Washington, D.C.” While Alexander Ovechkin and the Caps get to celebrate their triumph, the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals was nothing short of spectacular. The expansion franchise came into the season at 500-1 odds of winning the Cup, and they almost did. Had the team won, Vegas sportsbooks would have had to pay out around $5 or $6 million in wagers. Despite the loss, the Golden Knights cemented themselves in their new city, gave people in the desert a reason to like hockey, and gave the popular destination yet another tourist draw. For Washington, the “happy thoughts” generated by the Caps’ win will also smile on regionally-based businesses like Edelman Financial and EVERFI, who stand to benefit from the positive publicity.

Team shops at Oracle Arena sold 10,000 NBA Championship gear items in the first hour after the Warriors' NBA Finals sweep. According to Rank + Rally, which operates Warriors Team Stores, team shops sold 5,500 New Era hats, 3,500 Nike men’s T-shirts, and 1,000 Nike women’s T-shirts with NBA title themes. The Warriors hosted a Game 4 watch party at the arena, and fans were able to buy championship gear immediately after the game. Rank + Rally is the retail arm of Levy Restaurants. It reported per cap retail sales were 76% higher for the Warriors' sweep of the Cavaliers than they were for the watch party when the Warriors beat the Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. After the title was secured, the shoe companies also got in on the congratulations. Under Armour "released a new ad to celebrate" Stephen Curry, a brand endorser. Meanwhile, Nike spotlighted Kevin Durant with a video that "celebrates Durant’s journey, from his childhood in Texas to his second consecutive championship." Now, of course, the NBA spotlight returns to LeBron James and where he may take his free agent talents this summer. Stay tuned. (As if you'll have a choice.)

Even before the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals yet again, both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Warriors publicly stated that they would not visit the White House were they to win the series. According to the Akron Beacon, players from both teams have continually voiced their disapproval of the current president since he came into office, with star players LeBron James and Kevin Durant and Warriors Coach Steve Kerr being some of the most politically outspoken people on the topic. “The president has made it pretty clear he’s going to try to divide us, all of us in this country, for political gain,” said Kerr. “So it’s just the way it is.” As opposed to the situation with the Philadelphia Eagles, where President Trump canceled their celebratory visit within 24 hours of the event, the Warriors and Cavs made their respective stances clear before the title was even awarded. Warriors guard Stephen Curry said that he had “no interest in going” a year ago when they won; the Cavaliers pushed up their White House date two years ago to visit before Barack Obama left office. As long as the president continues his divisive dialogue, the obligatory White House visit for champion teams, once considered an honor, will just be a burden for many.

Heavyweight contenders are expected to shine at this week’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. According to Golf Channel, heading into the week, FedEx St. Jude Classic champion Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth sit as the title favorites, with Justin Thomas and Jason Day not far behind. Patrick Reed is attempting to become the first player since Spieth to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year, while for Tiger Woods, this June marks the 10-year anniversary of his most recent Major win. With the USGA receiving over 9,000 entries to the 2018 U.S. Open, the competitiveness of the field is expected to be up, with fans around the world eagerly awaiting the four days of action on Long Island. Coverage of the tournament will reach more than 150 countries and territories through both domestic and international broadcasts, showing how big this Major has become all across the globe. It’s also testament to how truly global the game of golf has become.

This year’s rendition of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills is estimated to provide a positive economic impact of around $120 million to Long Island. According to the USGA, the $120 million expected will be primarily driven from the 200,000-plus attendees expected and 8,000 hotel room nights booked in the area during the week of June 11. This year’s tournament should turn out similar impact numbers to past U.S. Open’s – Erin Hills in 2017 delivered $120 million for Wisconsin, Oakmont in 2016 provided $120-135 million to Pittsburgh, and Chambers Bay in 2015 resulted in a $140 million boost for Washington. As a whole, these impressive numbers have been driven by the golf industry’s continued growth. The $84 billion industry is up an impressive 22% in the last five years and impacts nearly two million jobs across the country, “supporting $58.7 billion in annual wage income.” Many people forget that this “country club sport” is actually a major economic driver nationwide, and significant source of jobs, consumer spending, and tax revenue.

Justify won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown, becoming the 13th horse to pull off the feat. According to Newsday, a crowd of 90,327 "rocked Belmont as jockey Mike Smith and trainer Bob Baffert tried to let the ultimate New York moment sink in." Just before post time, Burger King "announced another partnership with Baffert," just as it had done in 2015 with American Pharoah. Total betting on the Belmont this year was $79.7 million, according to the Daily Racing Form, a 68% "gain on handle for the race last year but short of the amount of money bet three years ago" when American Pharoah won the Triple Crown. However, total handle of $137.48 million on the 13-race card was "slightly better" than the 2015 card and a 46.6% "gain on the total handle for last year's 13-race Belmont Stakes card." The $79.7 million figure this year was the "third-best of all time for the race." Handle on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness "set records this year." Justify’s Triple Crown win at the Belmont Stakes also drew an 8.1 overnight rating for NBC, down 34% from a 12.3 from 2015, when American Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. The big question now is not when America will have another Triple Crown winner, but how racetracks nationwide might be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize sports betting.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize sports betting last month, Delaware has become the first state outside of Nevada to launch a full-scale sports betting operation. According to the Wilmington News Journal, Delaware’s casino industry has struggled to stay profitable in recent years, prompting the state to move quickly and efficiently to make sports betting accessible across the state. The state is holding onto hope that the legalization of such activity could provide a lifeline to its three casinos – Delaware Park, Dover Downs, and Harrington Raceway. Within the first three hours of allowing sports betting, the three casinos combined for nearly $170,000 in wagers. While such a number might be “routine” in Las Vegas, it was a very big deal on the East Coast. The casinos now have the flexibility to extend their hours to bring in more business, hoping that the legalization of sports betting will not only help their personal business, but will bring an economic boost to the entire state. Next up, presumably, is New Jersey – which could have begun taking sports bets as early as this weekend if its governor hadn’t balked like a spooked horse in the gate.

Sports injury leader Embody awarded $800,000 Catalyst grant. Michael Francis, PhD, Embody Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder, led the Norfolk-based company’s effort to compete for a Virginia Bioscience Healthcare Research Corporation "Catalyst" grant. There were over 25 applicants and the top 10 scored proposals were invited to present in March. Francis gave the top ranked presentation along with his collaborators Dr. Anna Bulysheva of Old Dominion University and Dr. George Christ of the University of Virginia.  In April, Embody was awarded an $800,000 grant to advance development and animal testing of their microfluidics extrusion platform for collagen fiber production. In addition, the company will be able to develop an Internal Brace 100% collagen suture and advance the product through animal testing under this work.  This is an incredible opportunity to fund and fast-track a new product which will be the first resorbable collagen internal brace on the market. As the NBA and NHL enter the offseason and the NFL revs up for camp, this could mark a huge step forward for the recoveries of athletes and others suffering traumatic injuries alike.

Roland Garros is planning to add a new retractable roof to the Court Philippe Chatrier by 2020. According to the New York Times, the planned $414 million renovation goes beyond a roof – the majority of the existing structure will be demolished and rebuilt before a roof s put in place. Demolition work is set to get underway next month following the conclusion of this year’s competition. The reconstruction work, which will be “extensive on three of the four grandstands, must be completed in time” for the French Open to begin on May 26 of next year. The roof itself – “made up of 11 wings of canvas-bound steel – will be put in place” between the 2019 and 2020 editions of the tournament, with the first-ever night sessions coming during the 2021 French Open. The eventual goal is to insert LED lights on retractable poles around all the courts at Roland Garros, rising at night to light up the courts and sinking back into the earth during the day. While it becomes a more daunting task as he ages, it’s not inconceivable that now 11-time champion Rafael Nadal will celebrate his 13th French Open win beneath the new roof.

As FC Cincinnati prepares to join MLS in 2019 as the league’s 26th franchise, team owners are getting ready to write some massive checks to finance the transition. According to JohnWallStreet, the club will privately finance the majority of the proposed $212.5 million, 21,000-seat soccer-specific stadium in downtown Cincinnati. The city and state have committed $34.8 million and $4 million, respectively, to help cover infrastructure costs for the project. Goldman Sachs could loan Managing Owner Carl Linder III and co. the necessary capital to build the stadium, as the New York-based investment bank has provided funding to four MLS clubs that have built new stadiums in recent years (LAFC – $180 million, Orlando City – $120 million, D.C. United – $100 million, fourth is undisclosed). On top of the cost to build a new stadium, FC Cincinnati will have to pay a $150 million expansion fee – a number that continues to increase by $10 million per year. The rising cost is not expected to plateau anytime soon, a sign that bodes well for a growing league.

11.Less than 24 hours before the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles were scheduled to take a trip to the White House, President Donald Trump canceled their visit. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, President Trump cited the team’s intent on sending a smaller delegation of players as one of the reasons for canceling the visit. A source close to the team noted that “fewer than 10 players planned to attend” the celebration of their Super Bowl LII victory over the New England Patriots at the White House. Trump also reignited the national anthem debate in cancelling the visit. “They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country,” said Trump in a statement. “The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better.” Trump failed to note, however, that the Eagles had no players kneel for the National Anthem this past season.

12.Discovery has signed a massive 12-year, $2 billion deal for the TV and online rights to the PGA Tour beginning next year. According to SportsPro Media, the U.S. media giant is planning to develop a Netflix-style video service to deliver the coverage to consumers across the globe while also showing tournaments on its regular list of TV channels. In signing the deal, Discovery will now control the rights to more than 140 tournaments annually, including about 40 PGA Tour events. This marks the latest step in Discovery’s push to become a major player in global sports broadcasting, coming three years after it agreed to pay $1.5 billion for the European rights to the 2018 and 2024 Winter Olympics. Discovery could look to sublicense select tournament rights in certain markets, allowing various major broadcasters to hold onto their current PGA Tour rights. The deal excites the PGA Tour, which recently opened offices in London, Tokyo, and Beijing and is looking to expand its brand internationally.

13.The reboot of the XFL just gained some serious credibility with the addition of Oliver Luck. According to SportsBusiness Journal, after serving as a key figure in the NCAA over the past few years, Luck will become the CEO and Commissioner of Vince McMahon’s XFL. “I love college sports, but this is a special opportunity,” said Luck. “I have a real passion for football and the opportunity to collaborate with Vince is awesome.” The new XFL is planning to begin play in early 2020 with eight teams competing in a 10-week regular season. Though host cities for franchises have not yet been selected, the league recently sent out RFPs to 30 cities. Luck has extensive experience working in entrepreneurial roles within sports, having been the first President and General Manager of the MLS expansion club Houston Dynamo before playing an instrumental role with the World League of American Football, serving as Frankfurt GM in 1991 before pivoting to serve as the NFL Europe President. Boosting the fledgling league even more than Luck’s experience, however, is his sterling reputation and the widespread respect he’s earned.

14.Cleveland Browns quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield was speculated to have a tough time signing endorsers due to his on- and off-field incidents in college, but that has not proven to be the case thus far. According to Crain’s Cleveland Business, before playing a single game with the Browns, Mayfield already has endorsement deals signed with Nike, Panini America, Leaf Trading Cards, Bose, New Era, PSD, and H&H Sports. Mayfield has been building his brand since leaving Oklahoma, from convincing the Browns that his antics are a thing of the past to starring in “Behind Baker,” a 10-episode series on Facebook Watch that followed the quarterback leading up to the NFL Draft. Mayfield is represented by a team at Waterhouse Hayes, Los Angele; they have taken a proactive approach to getting their client a list of sponsors before the season kicks off, as opposed to the “wait-and-see” approach that other brands are taking with him. Mayfield will clearly be front and center in the Brown’s just-announced edition of “Hard Knocks,” if the trailers HBO released over the last few days mirror the upcoming show.

15.New York Yankees minority shareholder Peter B. Freund is preparing to expand his stake in professional sports with his $100.6 million offer to buy League Championship side Aston Villa. According to the London Times, Aston Villa fell into “financial turmoil” following their playoff loss to Fulham, which would have seen the side promoted to the EPL had they won. Club CEO Keith Wyness was recently suspended after a disagreement with owner Tony Xia, “who is understood to have taken umbrage at his most senior employee’s advice to settle a $5.6 million tax bill owed to U.K. tax authority HMRC to avoid a winding-up order.” Freund has been looking to purchase an English soccer club for some time now, adding to his already-lucrative portfolio at Trinity Sports Holdings. The company also has a deal in place with the U.S. Soccer League “to enter new club Memphis City in the league next year.”  The cross-pollination continues – albeit with more zeros attached.

Tech Top 5

Syracuse partners with Twitch on esports class. Syracuse University is teaming up with Twitch to launch a new course focused on the rapidly evolving world of esports. The class, called Esports & Media, will trace the historical roots of competitive video gaming to the current multibillion-dollar industry. Offered through the university’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse will debut the class in the fall. “With the growing interest in and popularity of competitive gaming—not just in terms of participation, but also broadcasting and marketing—we made it a priority to offer our students a holistic look at esports and media,” says Olivia Stomski, director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center and a professor of practice in television, radio and film. Twitch is the world’s leading social video service and community for gamers where 15 million community members gather each day to watch, talk, and chat about shared interests. Twitch’s video service is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem, as well as adjacent interests including the creative arts, vlogging (IRL), traditional sports, and more.

SportsCastr unveils cryptocurrency. SportsCastr, a livestreaming platform that enables fans to act as sportscasters during live sporting events, is launching a cryptocurrency. FanChain will power a decentralized sports entertainment ecosystem and reward fans for producing content. Backed by former NBA Commissioner David Stern, NFL Washington Redskins tight end Vernon Davis, and Syracuse University men’s NCAA basketball coach Jim Boeheim, NBA All-Star Steve Smith and more, SportsCastr’s FanChain will create a decentralized sports entertainment ecosystem to connect a fragmented landscape, aligning the interests of fans, athletes, teams, leagues, and media entities. Fans rely on social media for authentic reactions during sporting events, and market research shows that younger demographics prefer receiving commentary directly from other fans versus on traditional broadcasts. The shift toward digital-first distribution platforms allows for commentary from fans to be integrated directly into sports live streams through SportsCastr, opening the door for cryptocurrency-based incentives and solutions.

Catapult launches wearable technology with AI. Catapult has announced the launch of PLAYR, the innovative new wearable designed to enable amateur footballers to prepare, perform, and recover like the world’s best. As the game’s premier provider of athlete monitoring technology, Catapult has worked with the leading names in football – including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Leicester City – for more than 12 years. Consisting of a SmartPod, SmartVest, and the SmartCoach app, PLAYR gives users the ability to track key performance metrics, access advice from real Premier League coaches, and benchmark themselves against peers and pros. Combining performance data and sports science insights, PLAYR is set to transform the way aspiring footballers understand and improve their performance. The hero of PLAYR is SmartCoach, an extension of the sports science knowledge Catapult has brought to the professional game for the past twelve years.

Univision to deliver tech-infused World Cup coverage. Univision Deportes will infuse its coverage of this year’s World Cup in Russia with technology ranging from augmented reality to teleportation. With tech, the sports network is promising to “own the Spanish-language conversation.” Incorporating teleportation technology, Univision will be bringing prominent players and coaches into the studio, virtually, for in-depth interviews. Univision began doing this for last year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Spanish-language sports network will also be making use of augmented reality, an increasingly popular tool for many broadcasters and leagues. Univision will use AR to enhance game breakdowns and analyst predictions. “Univision is the ‘Home of Soccer’ in the U.S., bringing the beautiful game to fans with passion and expertise that no one in America can match,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, President of Univision Deportes. “We’re excited to deliver award-wining commentary and super-serve fans with around-the-clock insight and entertainment—making Univision Deportes the home of ‘the game around the game’ throughout the tournament.”

Sportradar strikes U.S. gambling deal with Sportech. Sportradar, a global sports data company that has partnerships with the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL, has teamed up with U.K.-based betting house Sportech to deliver commercial sports betting solutions in the U.S. The deal comes less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could make their own decisions on the legalization of sports gambling. The agreement will allow Sportech to offer Sportradar’s sports betting product portfolio – including pre-match and in-play betting services, content, trading tools, and risk management services – to its network of 90 licensed operators in states where sports betting is declared legal. In addition, Sportech said it has plans to deploy Sportradar’s turnkey sports betting platform in Connecticut should the state pass legislation.

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Bucs General Manager raises $130,000 for cancer research. Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht shaved his head for a good cause, raising more than $100,000 during the team’s annual “Cut for a Cure” fundraiser. Licht challenged Bucs coaches, players, and staffers in the fundraiser, and they topped his goal with $123,000 in donations for pediatric cancer research. Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, saying he didn’t like odd numbers, then added $7,000 to the total. “Cut for a Cure” benefits children and families affected by pediatric cancer. Participants included Buccaneers players and front office staff who either shaved their heads, or cut or color their hair, as a way to solicit donations for the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Licht put forth a challenge for the Bucs to raise $100,000. When they did, he decided to get a on the ‘buzz’ and shave his head. This is the sixth year the Bucs hosted the event.

Indiana Pacers hold 10th annual charity softball game. The Indiana Pacers held the Annual Caroline Symmes Memorial Celebrity Softball Challenge for the 10th straight year this week, and Pacers Forward Myles Turner helped bring about a win for the Pacers in his first year as a team captain. The charity event, which has become a staple of summer in Indianapolis, pits the Pacers against the Colts, with a large contingent of local media taking the field as well. This year's teams, Team Turner and Team Mathis, each brought impressive rosters to the table for the event, which benefits the Indiana Children's Wish Fund, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses in Indiana. "It was something that I wanted to do," said Myles Turner when asked about taking the reins as one of the faces of the event. "It's something that really goes on for a great cause, I work really closely with the Make a Wish Foundation and they work very closely with the Indiana Children's Wish Fund, so I'm happy they work hand-in-hand together."

ECHL teams donate over $3.6 million. The ECHL has announced that its member teams donated more than $3.6 million to charitable and non-profit organizations during the 2017-18 season. The Premier “AA” hockey league and its teams have contributed over $30 million to charity in the last seven years and more than $49 million in the last 13 seasons. “Once again this season, the ECHL’s 27 teams made a significant impact in their market,” said ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna. “These efforts are driven by our commitment to the ‘Declaration of Principles.’ In short, we believe in our ability to improve lives and strengthen communities globally through hockey. We believe that living by these Principles will provide a healthy, balanced and enjoyable experience for all and inspire impactful service beyond the rink.” The financial contributions are in addition to the thousands of appearances by players, coaches, team personnel, and mascots at schools, hospitals, libraries, and charity functions throughout the year. The total includes over $228,000 for cancer awareness and prevention raising the total raised through “Pink in the Rink” and similar events the last 11 seasons to more than $3.6 million.

Carson Wentz launches food truck. Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson Wentz has announced the launch of a charity food truck in Philadelphia. The truck, named Thy Kingdom Crumb, which is green and features a crown and bible scriptures, will operate through the AO1 Foundation. Wentz founded AO1 in 2017 with the mission of “uplifting individuals and communities around the world by demonstrating God’s love for His people,” according to its website. Wentz also has plans to launch an outdoor camp for youth and a sports complex in Haiti through AO1. In a promo video, Wentz said, “The longer I’ve been in the city of Philadelphia, the more I’ve seen and the more connection I’ve felt with this city. I wanted to find a way to make a difference in this area and the community. What better way than to provide free food?”

Sports 4 Life grants $450,000 to boost girls’ sport participation. The Women's Sports Foundation and espnW announced that at least $450,000 has been awarded to 64 organizations across 18 states through Sports 4 Life, an initiative to increase the participation and retention of African-American and Hispanic girls in youth sports programs. The grants are expected to serve about 14,000 middle and high school girls. "Even more than we believe in the power of sports, the Women's Sports Foundation believes that all girls -- regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ability, zip code or family income deserve equitable access to the lifelong benefits of sports,” Deborah Antoine, CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, said in a statement. Since Sports 4 Life was co-founded by the Women's Sports Foundation and espnW in 2014, it has awarded 200 grants totaling more than $1.1 million and reaching more than 50,000 girls nationally.

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For the third time in seven years, the NBA toppled the NFL for the No. 1 position, with the top ten positions overall revealing a remarkable balance of power among athletes from a range of sports. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (No. 1), Matt Ryan (No. 2), and LeBron James (No. 3) top the Horrow Sports Ventures 2016-17 POWER 100 proprietary annual ranking of the world’s most powerful athletes. In its seventh consecutive installment, The POWER 100 uses a complex statistical model to accurately compare performance and influence through on-field and off-field attributes. This metric is collectively known as POWER, and enables equitable comparison across otherwise incomparable sports. The 2016-17 POWER 100 focuses on long-established sports and the U.S. market specifically. Key indicator statistics were used as predictors of performance per sport. On-field attributes comprise 50% of the athletes’ POWER. The other 50% is based on off-field components like social media presence as measured by MVPindex. Combining on-field (50%) and off-field (50%) attributes yields the POWER score. Athletes are then ranked based on POWER to find the Top 100. The POWER 100 continues to generate discussion as an invaluable tool to evaluate an athlete’s brand.

Phoenix Raceway is engaged in naming-rights talks as the ISC-owned track is in the midst of a $178 million renovation that is slated for completion late next year. Track President Bryan Sperber in a statement said, "From the moment we announced the project in January, we've had tremendous response from new and existing partners. This transformation of our venue into a world class entertainment facility has unlocked a myriad of opportunities, including unique branding platforms, new events, breakthrough technology, and even naming rights for the facility." If PIR sells the naming rights, the move would make the raceway just the second track that hosts a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race to have a brand attached to the facility’s name, with the other being fellow ISC venue Auto Club Speedway. One brand that has already closely associated itself Phoenix Raceway's renovations is California-based clean energy company DC Solar. PIR hosts two Cup races a year, as well as a Verizon IndyCar Series race, and under Sperber’s enlightened guidance, a naming rights deal is likely eminent

Months after the original opening date was set, the roof at the Atlanta Falcons’ new Mercedes-Benz Stadium continues to have issues. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the roof is now facing another delay, with speculation that it will be open “at some point” during the team’s 2017 season. When the stadium is opened officially, the roof will remain closed, and will remain that way for an “undetermined period of time beyond that,” as confirmed by AMB Group CEO Steve Cannon. When functional, the sunflower-shaped roof is supposed to open and close in 12 minutes with all eight swiveling panels moving in unison. Cannon said that it “typically takes 40 days to ‘mechanize’ such a roof after its last ‘[construction] move.’” Since three such moves are “scheduled in the coming weeks, the 40-day clock won’t even begin until after those moves.” Even with a rigid roof, the NFL and Atlanta welcome that city’s new football icon, and eagerly anticipate the upcoming season.

The majority stake of the Brooklyn Nets may be up for sale in the near future. According to the New York Post, current Owner Mikhail Prokhorov has been focused on selling a minority stake in the NBA franchise recently, trying to a find a buyer for 49% of the Nets for nearly a year. But Prokhorov has “warmed” to the possibility of offering up a controlling stake in the team. A source said that the “change of heart comes after the initial reaction to the minority stake sale was weak” – and with interest in the Rockets sale “heating up.” Sources said that the Nets “believe some of the suitors who look at the Rockets will also take an interest in them.” The Russian billionaire just recently was granted approval to split the corporate ownership of the Nets and their home arena, the Barclays Center, from the NBA Finance Committee. Clearly, the anticipated demand for the Rockets will resonate throughout the NBA, and potentially influence dozens if not hundreds of would-be investors.

The English Premier League is truly global, as exemplified by its list of jersey sponsors for this coming season. According to the London Daily Mail, only four of the 20 teams in the EPL will have British-based companies as their title sponsor for the 2017-2018 season. Those four clubs and their sponsors are Liverpool with Standard Charter, Southampton with Virgin Media, Stoke City with bet365, and Watford with FxPro. The sponsorship roster of the 20 teams in England’s top league also reveals the “continued significance of gambling firms in the game,” with nine clubs remaining tied to gambling and the industry. Clubs will also command additional sponsorship worth an “expected $26.1 million” by selling separate sponsored sleeve patches for 2017-2018 – “shirt space freed up by Barclays no longer being the Premier League sponsor.” Companies from countries such as Japan, Thailand, the UAE, Malta, Kenya, and the United States are kit sponsors, among others, and with good reason – the EPL remains a sound investment.

The Detroit Pistons are now the latest NBA team to sign a jersey patch sponsor for this coming season after inking a multiyear deal with a local bank. According to the Detroit News, Flagstar Bank will be represented on the left breast of the Pistons’ jerseys, opposite the newly-sported Nike logo placed on the right. The duration of the deal was not specified, but the deal also includes signage inside the brand new Little Caesars Arena as well as “spots on Pistons’ television and radio broadcasts.” Flagstar has been a corporate sponsor of the franchise over the past few years, and the Pistons wanted to sign a Michigan-based company as their jersey patch sponsor, which made it a relatively easy decision for Flagstar to win the bid. Flagstar President & CEO Allessandro DiNello said, “There's no bigger fan of the Pistons. I had season tickets when my kids were growing up, and it's great to have the team back downtown.” Local sponsorship wins the day on an emotional level, and if the price tag matches what a team could get from a global brand, all’s the better.

Ochsner Health System is expanding its footprint across professional sports in Louisiana with its new eight-year deal with both the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the deal will include naming rights for the combined practice facility the two teams share in Metairie, Louisiana. The newly-named Ochsner Sports Performance Center “is the only training complex in pro sports that houses both NFL and NBA teams, plus administrative offices.” The healthcare system already has an existing deal in place with both teams, but this deal piggybacks on those. Financial terms have not yet been disclosed. About 10 years ago was the first time Ochsner starting sponsoring professional sports, and “around six months ago, the Saints and Pelicans approached Ochsner about extending its deal to include naming rights.” This deal is expected to help spread cancer awareness and overall fitness messaging among the greater New Orleans marketplace.

The Denver Broncos still do not have a new stadium naming rights partner despite an ongoing search that has lasted months. According to the Denver Post, team President and CEO Joe Ellis is “a little disappointed” that the team has not signed a new partner, but remains optimistic because some of these deals “take longer periods of time than others.” Since the team has not found anyone to replace Sports Authority, current signage will stay on the stadium until a new agreement is in place, meaning the Broncos will be playing their home games at Sports Authority Field at Mile High again. Ellis defended his point of not rebranding the stadium without a new naming rights partner yet: “We’re not going to do that. If we’re going to spend money to do those kinds of things, or take the time, we’re going to do it to make the game-day experience better for the fans.” A brand as strong as the Broncos, only one season removed from its last Super Bowl win, should demand only strong brands as partners, even if developing that relationship requires more time.

Coming off of a season where the average length of a football game was a record 3 hours and 24 minutes, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott is taking measures into his own hands to shorten game lengths. The Power 5 conference is set to launch a pilot program during select nonconference games that will “experiment with game-shortening measures.” Some of the biggest changes include fewer commercials and shortening halftime from 20 minutes to 15 minutes. Scott, speaking at the start of the conference's media days, said that research from ESPN and the Pac-12 Networks “found as much as 30% of viewers tuned out after the first half.” One way of keeping advertising time without losing as much fan engagement and interest is to split the screen between the live action and an advertisement, a tactic that is starting to be adopted more widely across all sports and networks. This tactic won high marks from golf fans during the Open Championship broadcast in the U.S. on NBC – expect other broadcasters to adapt it as well.

The English Premier League and other English soccer leagues have welcomed an influx of foreign investments from such countries as the United States, Russia, and China. But the leagues have yet to welcome any investments from the Korean Peninsula. According to the London Daily Mail, that trend may be changing soon with Seoul-based sports marketing firm Sportizen ramping up talks to acquire National League side Woking. Current majority shareholder Peter Jordan would have to agree to give up control of the fifth-tier club, which finished a dismal 18th in the National League this past season. Chankoo Shim is the leader of the group to buy Woking; his “business ethos” has earned him the nickname “the Jerry Maguire of Korea.” Shim wants to bring more young Korean soccer players to compete and play in Europe, and if the purchase of Woking goes through, this could provide a major pipeline for him.

In a special promotion to honor Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final race at Phoenix International Raceway, the track will allow fans to sponsor a lap in November’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race. According to SportsBusiness Journal, two packages will be available for purchase soon, depending on how much one wants to pay and what kind of access a fan wants. The bronze package will be sold for $188, while the gold package will be priced at $3,288. Both packages “include getting a commemorative certificate plus name recognition in the race program and ISM Vision video screens around the lap to fan sponsors.” With both packages, fans have the chance to sponsor any lap from Lap No. 1 through 312. The gold package also includes “two pace car rides, two garage-access passes for the weekend “and two passes to Curve, which the track is touting as a new all-inclusive hospitality club with a capacity of 300 and a birds-eye view of the track above Turn One.” Top-tier fan amenities, plus the naming rights effort, are the kind of initiatives that will ensure PIR maintains its status as one of motor sports’ top venues, all under the watchful eye of track president Bryan Sperber.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is back going toe-to-toe with the Chicago Cubs. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Emanuel “flatly rejected” a request by Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney to allow the team to play more night games at Wrigley Field. Emanuel defended his stance, saying the defending World Series champions had the choice of staging concerts for profit or playing more night games, and the team picked the former option. “They could have used it for night games. But then, they would have to share it with Major League Baseball,” said Manuel. “The concerts they keep all for themselves…They made those choices. Now, they want to change the consequences of the choices they made.” The Cubs are currently allowed 46 night events at Wrigley, which comes close to the 54 that Kenney requested the team be granted. Compromises are a fact of life in all public-private partnerships, and it appears this one remains a work in progress.

Baltimore Ravens Center and mathematician John Urschel has retired from professional football in wake of an alarming CTE study just released. According to ESPN.com, Urschel “abruptly announced his retirement” at the age of 26, despite previously saying that his passion for football outweighed the risk of CTE. Urschel is widely considered one of – if not the smartest – player in football, as he is pursuing his doctorate at MIT in the offseason, “focusing on spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra and machine learning.” This new CTE report paints the clearest picture yet of the stark connection between football and brain damage. Researchers who published the report studied the brain of 202 dead football players, and among the 111 “former NFLers whose brains were donated for the study, all but one was found to have the disease.” Urschel is just one of many players who routinely retire before the season starts, but that number appears to be rising.

NASCAR driver Paul Menard and his family’s company are switching over to Wood Brothers Racing for next season. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Menard is in this seventh season of driving with Richard Childress Racing, but the switch will see Menard driving the Woods’ No. 21 Ford “with the Menards home-improvement chain serving as primary sponsor for 22 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Another change in the NASCAR world comes with Team Penske announcing that it will enter a third car in next year’s Cup Series with Ryan Blaney as the driver. Blaney is widely recognized as one of the up-and-coming stars in NASCAR, so Team Penske is excited about this new entrant into the field. Sponsorships for the new car have yet to be announced, through NASCAR team owner Gene Haas recently noted that “it typically costs about $20 million annually to run a top-level car.” Kudos to Wood Brothers for this strong alliance in an ever-competitive world.

Coming off a hot debut, the BIG3 has seen a sharp drop in TV audience. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the upstart three-on-three basketball series drew in 400,000 viewers for the first event at the Barclays Center, but that number dropped all the way down to 129,000 for the third event at the BOK Center. “The four telecasts to date have averaged 228,000 viewers, with the most recent broadcast July 17 down 63% from the debut.” The telecasts on FS1 have been shown a week apart, though that has not been enough to keep viewership numbers consistently high. The second week’s event in Charlotte, North Carolina, saw around 235,000 viewers tune in, though that number dropped by over 100,000 a week later. “The average of 228,000 viewers is above what FS1 averaged for its Big East men’s conference tournament games this year (212,000 viewers).” Comparatively, viewer and attendance numbers for the NBA’s Las Vegas summer league have never been higher than they were this summer. Sometimes the new, new thing (up and coming NBA talent) beats the new, old thing (NBA legends).