$ports

Corruption in FIFA? That’s "unpossible".

In what was probably the least-surprising sports corruption story in the history of news, FIFA has been clamped down as several higher-level folks were arrested after investigations revealed two decades of corruption, two decades of bribes, two decades of dirty money getting tossed around. The only shocking thing about all this was just how many ridiculous millions were laundered. Although the murmurs have been prevalent for as long as I can remember (even occurring in The Simpsons a year before the arrests were made) now we finally see action being performed to try to stop the corrupt bleeding. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Qatar.

Nothing against Qatar, but the country suffers incredibly awful summers, yet still won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Right then and there, the public started realizing that something was going on. Before you know it, investigations started popping up left and right. Two major investigations remain ongoing; one involving the bribes that have occurred in the last 20+ years, and the other is about potential tampering concerning the upcoming sights of the World Cup, as well as the previous one.

I’ll stop the summarizing and just deliver the truth: money ruins sports. Money is important to run the blood of these leagues, but ultimately poisons and tampers with the beautiful games themselves. Money prevents sports from improving, and sometimes creates ugly incidents. When businesses mixes with art, things like this happen---just look at the current state of Hollywood and its entourage of movies. I’m not shocked, I’m hardly surprised. Unfortunately though, when there is too much money involved, things like the FIFA disaster will occur.

The issue with overwhelming money doesn’t just affect FIFA, but FIFA (and soccer in general) is easily the biggest victim of being too successful. 5 of the 10 highest-revenue sports leagues in the world are soccer leagues. Then of course there’s the World Cup. The World Cup is hands-down, no-questions-asked, the biggest sporting event in the universe. Over a BILLION people were set to watch the Germany/Argentina World Cup final last year, and over 26 million people watched it on the United States alone---and that’s with no dog in the fight. Not even Game 7 of the 2014 World Series drew that high a number. No matter where the World Cup goes, money will most definitely follow. So of course money will slide under the table through hundreds of hands, it’s inevitable. All major successful businesses have their sneaky and corrupt practices---no Top 100 company did it completely the right way.

Money not only affects the potential for corruption and dirty money, it also hampers the quality of sports. We can go sport to sport, league to league and you can see all the examples. Length of seasons are far too long in most of the American leagues. Major League Baseball would be perfect if each season ran 100 games, but the prospect of missing out on 31-55 million dollars after losing 30 home games would send owners into a heart attack frenzy. So even if the league would look and breathe better with a far shorter season, money disallows this from ever happening.

The NBA’s playoffs is a ridiculous 3 months long, which is why it can never truly draw the madness of College Basketball’s March Madness (How chaotic would it be if the 16 teams compete in a series of winner-take-all games? I know, will never happen). It’s already an overdrawn 82 games because of money, when it would do much better as a 60-game league. However, that’s at least 10 million lost with the home games and the food/merchandise/parking sales that follow. NHL falls in the same trap, even though this league has suffered far too many recent lockouts to do anything drastic.







Of course, then there’s the NCAA. We all know about their shenanigans. Wayyyyyy too well…





Boise State’s football team in a memorable stretch (2006-2012) had an 86-8 record. How many championship games did they participate in? None. Why? Because it’s Boise State, not a popular national school. Then there was Ohio State undeservedly finding its way into the Top 4 College Football Playoff in 2014-2015—even though the #5 and maybe even the #6 seed played better. Ohio State is one of the three largest universities in the United States every single year, so of course it’s going to sneak in to the playoffs. The money spoke louder than the talent.

Bottom Line: The FIFA scandal is sad, and will cast a shadow over the Beautiful Game. But truth be told, money casts a shadow above all our favorite sports and the leagues that run them. It’s just a facet of life, money rules all. The $$$ is a necessary evil, because without it, we wouldn’t have sports teams to root for in general. The NFL and MLB, the two most successful leagues in the world, combine for nearly $20 billion in revenue.

Money has wrecked sports for over a century, from the Black Sox Scandal to the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals, to all the lockouts, franchise eliminations/adjustments and strikes in between. But we love these games far too much in order for instances like the FIFA bribes to bring us down—and to be honest as long as it’s not our team/country, the pain will go away rather quickly. We love sports too much to truly be upset over the nonsense that happens in all the sports leagues (Look at the NFL lately for crying out loud).

We will never achieve perfection or pure parity (or pure sanctity) from any of our beloved sports, nor will we be immune to corruptions in the future. Like death and taxes, baseball, soccer, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, boxing and all the hidden mayhem that follows is expected and anticipated even if its not always good news. FIFA is the worst offender but you would be silly in thinking that this could never happen to your favorite sport, your favorite league, or even your favorite team. Even my Tampa Bay Rays have also done some shady things to cut corners.





At the end of the day though, our love for sports triumphs against all-----including money.

Mad Max: Fury Road: 9/10

So this is what happens when you give George Miller a good budget.

Completing a recent trifecta of spectacular world cinema in the action category (The Raid 1 and 2), Mad Max Fury Road not only easily becomes among the top movies of 2015, but arguably amongst the best action movies this century. Two hours of absolute post-apocalyptic mayhem, this is one of the rare sequels that not only stands tall with the originals, but actually surpasses them. What used to slightly restrict the previous Mad Max movies were budget and technical limitations. But in the 21st century, with more money involved, and more resources to tap into, George Miller's decade-in-the-making vision comes to life in the most entertaining and thrilling way.

Fury Road may have the Mad Max tag, but his story is just one of many that roam around. The most impressive amongst the cast (Tom Hardy as Max really didn't have much to do outside participation in the carnage) is definitely Charlize Theron, who plays the tough-as-nails woman that jump-starts the action that will preside over the last 100 minutes of the film. Without mentioning too much, Theron (has there been a quieter action career than Theron?) as Furiosa steals a massive armored rig and raises absolute hell as she tries to make it to her childhood homeland with other prisoners. Crossing paths with her is Max, a loner with recovering from his past who also has been taken prisoner. Even though plot isn't usually a focus point in action movies of this caliber, there is plenty of social commentary and feminist themes to stir the pot.

While the verbal and storyline aspects are nothing to scoff at, the technical details of this movie is the headlining show here. Nearly flawless, from the art direction to the cinematography to the editing, the apocalypse has never looked so beautiful. The colors pop out at you, and the camera-work isn't shy of displaying the miles upon miles of nothingness that surrounds the characters. It truly feels like the end of the world as you see the small shadowy figures of vehicles maneuver through the layers of sand or see dark blue darkness when the sun mercifully comes down. And then you have the wide array of visually unique characters that look straight out of your pulp comic books (Yes, the guitar-playing fiend deserves his own story). It's a hauntingly beautiful ride.

Miller's directing is what makes the movie stand out. The action sequences are intense, relentless, and done with so much precision and attention to detail; you cannot look away from the screen a millisecond as you see the next round of carnage take place. This movie tries excruciatingly hard to separate itself from the pack of normal summer blockbusters, and it succeeds by pacing like a video game; continuously escalating and topping the previous action sequence.

The Raid movies also notoriously saved their best tricks for last. And my friends, even if you might be the slightest bit underwhelmed just wait until the final 30 minutes. Be prepared for some of the tightest and well-choreographed action since the criminally underrated Adventures of Tintin (The "Opera Chase" deserves much more love). The mix of special and practical effects blends in so well you swear you can smell the burning tires. The movie is one big long vehicular chase, and one that never starts feeling stale.

Summer may have peaked extremely early, because it will be very difficult to top the vicious joyride of Fury Road. From start to finish, from the top-tier acting right down to the sound effects, this Mad Max installment is the best hands-down, even though Hardy is no vintage Mel Gibson. Not sure what happened to American action filmmaking, but now Australia and Indonesia own the right to claim their country has produced the finest action flicks this decade. If you are in the mood for a highly entertaining yet original action extravaganza, look no further. By the time 2015 finishes, I can guarantee you that Mad Max Fury Road will remain as one of the best movies in the entire year.

The Perfect Theme Park Counter Punch to Disney

Disney, it’s time to be afraid, slightly afraid.



Let’s be honest: what sounds cooler to transform into a theme park experience: Avatar, Marvel, or Nintendo? Besides Star Wars, there is no major intellectual property in the next five years that sounds as intriguing to make rides and attractions out of then the House of Mario. As a matter of fact, its Nintendo’s stubborn Japanese business practices that for years had been hampering on its potential success and potential earnings. More people know about Mario than Spider-Man. Super Mario isn’t just a video game character, but a global pop culture icon---and Universal claiming the theme park rights is nothing short of brilliant. When it seemed like there would be no way to recover from Disney’s New Fantasyland and expansion ideas, here comes the perfect blend of properties to slowly but surely add to the upcoming theme park battles.





The potential is ridiculous. Although it would serve much, much, much better as a theme park all by itself, having at the most a section or two in the Universal parks is not a bad gig at all. Mario can have his slow ride(s) for the kids, Donkey Kong can have his massive water ride, Pokemon can have an immersive experience (A Pokemon Stadium, despite being impossible in limited space, would be nothing short of jaw-dropping), and then we can see Kirby and Star Fox with roller coasters. Let’s not forget potentially giving Metroid a killer indoor horror coaster/experience and F-Zero/Mario Kart go-kart or racing attractions. Let’s not forget Luigi’s Mansion, Wario, Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus, Earthbound, Pilotwings, among others.

Unlike the gamble of AvatarLand (which let’s be honest has been losing momentum for years), there is absolutely nothing risky about claiming Nintendo. Despite the WiiU failing miserably, the software from Nintendo always does extremely well, and let’s not forget the great numbers being put out by the 3DS. And here’s this fun fact: in each of the last five years at least one of Nintendo’s main franchises has a game in the top 5 on global sales---Pokemon being the top franchise in recent years.

So Universal has revved up its competitive edge in recent years by taking The Simpsons, Transformers, Harry Potter, Despicable Me, and now Nintendo. As for Disney there is….um…Avatar…and…New Fantasyland. Disney is looking more and more dated and more and more lost as the properties are piling up in Universal and they are doing an awesome job fanning the flames after seeing Marvel become a purely Disney entity. And although Universal will require at least two decades before it ever has even an outside shot at gunning for Magic Kingdom success, I am sure they will be more than happy settling for aiming at surpassing Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom in the coming years---which is entirely and wholly possible.

The fact that Nintendo had not become a theme park before is absolutely silly, especially when the Wii was ruling the entertainment universe. But better late than never I suppose, as Nintendo can definitely use some American exposure and can use some good marketing. Despite the limited scope, theme parks are perfect marketing ploys. 90 million people visit Florida from all over the world. If we can get just half of that population to say something nice about a certain movie or game that was first unveiled in one of the theme parks, that’s at least 225 million people getting involved in the conversation (assuming that one individual talks to five people).

Although none of this is set in stone, I can see Marvel getting replaced in Islands of Adventure. I can see Spider-Man being the most painful departure, but the other rides getting makeovers and a few crucial changes. Hulk can easily become repainted and transformed into a Star Fox ride for example. I can see all the Marvel character interactions become Nintendo character interactions. I can see Nintendo-themed restaurants, gift shops, and can even see an entourage of Nintendo arcade games in the near future. As long as Nintendo doesn’t butt heads with Universal the way the Harry Potter crew battled Disney, then I can see both companies making fantastic money off of this partnership. Long gone are the days when Nintendo screwed over so many companies they accidentally created their own worst enemy----the Playstation from the disgruntled and vengeful company of Sony.

But what about Disney? How can Disney possibly counter this? Star Wars needs to be announced excruciatingly soon, because that’s the only thing out there by Disney that has a chance at ruining the momentum of Nintendo becoming part of Universal Studios. New Fantasyland has been a hit (slightly, nobody talks about The Little Mermaid to be honest), but Epcot hasn’t gotten anything worthy of mention, Hollywood Studios is a dismal disaster, and Animal Kingdom’s expansion hasn’t exactly been tuning heads. Star Wars and Indiana Jones needs to expand, and very soon. Not just in Orlando either, Disneyland should probably look into transforming a little more of their Tomorrowland into a bigger Star Wars presence.

Bottom Line: It will take potentially a century before Universal can boast better numbers than Disney---that is how badly Disney World owns the theme park industry. Magic Kingdom has more than double the attendance of Islands of Adventure, and if you combine the people visiting the original Universal park it STILL won’t match Magic Kingdom’s 18 million (and climbing). Nonetheless, the other parks in the Disney catalog have been weakening, and it’s only a matter of time before Universal Islands of Adventure can potentially sneak in to the 5 most-visited American parks. Sometimes the slowest defeats are the most painful---just ask Sea World what happened to them.

Disney should not be scared at the news, but they should be worried. There’s blood in the water, and Nintendo becoming a Universal staple feels like a missed opportunity in the part of Disney and feels like a major step forward in Universal’s recently incessant efforts to combat the pixie dust. No part of this deal feels hollow, as Nintendo has dozens of memorable and recognizable characters that can be a part of wonderful upcoming (and preexisting) experiences. Universal hasn’t disappointed in any of their recent updates, and I don’t see them fumbling Nintendo either.



At the end of the day: Nintendo wins, Universal wins, Nintendo fans wins, Orlando definitely wins, and Disney loses---despite being far in the lead.