The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, watching football is a pastime embedded into American culture. Even people who don’t care for the sport much still tune in to watch the annual “big game.”
Continue reading 3 Reasons Why Watching the Super Bowl Is Good for You
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Inglewood Ca, with the Super Bowl only 10 days away, the game is currently tracking to be the most expensive one ever, in terms of median ticket price on the secondary markets. The data is according to Gametime (Gametime.co), the leading app/site for last minute tickets.
Continue reading Super Bowl on Track to Have Highest Priced Tickets Ever
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Governor Phil Murphy today signed Executive Order No. 219, which increases indoor capacity limits from 25 percent to 35 percent for several businesses, including food and beverage establishments and entertainment and recreational businesses, effective Friday, February 5 at 8:00 a.m. The Executive Order also lifts the 10:00 p.m. curfew for in-person indoor restaurant service, however local officials may continue to regulate the hours of operation of indoor restaurant service and indoor operations of other non-essential businesses after 8:00 p.m., as they have been able to since November 12. The prohibition on seating at indoor bar areas remains in effect.
Continue reading Governor Lifts 10:00 p.m. Curfew In Time for Super Bowl
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Senator Declan O’Scanlon and Senator Anthony M. Bucco launched an online petition urging Governor Phil Murphy to lift his 10 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants for the Super Bowl.
BY JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
John Mara, a co-owner of the Giants, and Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, said this week that they are interested in bringing another Super Bowl to the metropolitan area, touting what they described as the success of the event that MetLife Stadium hosted in February 2014.
“I’ve spoken to Woody Johnson about it, and yeah, we think it would make sense to try to bring it back,” Mara told reporters at the NFL meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., on Sunday. “We think it was very successful, it was great for the region, so why not have it back?”
But many North Jersey officials are far less enthusiastic about the idea, saying that the previous game did little to stimulate the economy in the Meadowlands.
Asked if he would like to see another Super Bowl in his borough, Mayor James Cassella of East Rutherford replied: “If things were going to be run the same way as last time, then no. If they made some changes, I’d have to see.”
Michael Gonnelli, the mayor of Secaucus, was equally blasé on Wednesday.
“I have to tell you, it was a non-event for us in more ways than one,” Gonnelli said. “We didn’t see a lot of increased business for hotels and restaurants, and we didn’t see an impact on traffic. The problem was that it was billed as a New York Super Bowl, not New Jersey. We didn’t see benefits.”
The two mayors, along with state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, and Jim Kirkos, the chief executive of the Meadowlands Regional Chamber, all pointed to the necessity of avoiding a repeat of the massive delays that hindered fans who took trains to and from Secaucus Junction and MetLife Stadium on game day. The league’s estimate that 10,000 fans would take NJ Transit trains to the 82,500-seat stadium fell more than 20,000 short of the actual number who used the service, creating departure delays of up to two hours after the game ended.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/a-super-return-to-metlife-1.1532780
February 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewoood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Valley Hospital Sports Institute will host a free concussion awareness seminar for coaches, parents, and recreation/athletic directors on Wednesday, February 24 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the The Valley Hospital Auditorium.
Signs and symptoms of a concussion can show up right after the injury, or may not appear or be noticed until days or weeks after the injury. Concussion severity varies widely, and the number of signs and symptoms vary as well – serious injuries sometimes show few symptoms.
The event will be hosted by a panel of certified athletic trainers on staff at Valley’s Sports Institute:
· Don Tomaszewski, MS, ATC, Director, The Valley Hospital Sports Institute
· Karen Karosy, M.Ed., ATC, Athletic Trainer at Indian Hills High School
· Sarah Edge, MS, ATC, Athletic Trainer, Ramapo High School
· Rich Raiani, MS, ATC, Athletic Trainer, Mahwah High School
Guest speakers will include:
· Thomas Bottiglieri, D.O. ,Family and Sports Medicine
· Stephen Kanter, ATC, PT, DPT, Director, Athcare Consulting and Education Services
Some of the topics that will be covered include the communication and roles of people in caring for an athlete with concussion, what is known about concussions today and guidelines for returning to play following a concussion. Participants will learn all about the Concussion Management Program at The Valley Hospital Sports Institute and the ImPACT Concussion Management Test. There will be a Q&A session and information and resources available on concussion awareness and management. Attendees will receive a certificate of participation.
Space is limited. To register for the free seminar, please call 1-800-VALLEY-1 (1-800-825-5391).
The Valley Hospital Sports Institute is an ImPACT testing provider. The ImPACT Concussion Management Test is an innovative computerized evaluation system that assesses the effects and severity of a concussion and helps determine when it is safe for an athlete to return to contact sports following a concussion. For more information about ImPACT testing, please call the Sports Institute at 201-447-8133.
Nation Magazine: If You Want The Patriots To Win The Super Bowl, You’re Racist
Even as the final days before the Super Bowl draw to a close, the liberal media refuses to quit its slanderous campaign against the 2015 AFC Champion New England Patriots.
The most recent salvo of Pats-hate comes from noted liberal-weekly, The Nation, which decided to abandon any and all shreds of journalistic bias in favor of declaring the Seattle Seahawks as America’s chosen team. The Deflate-Gate scandal has been revealed as a smoke and mirrors effort to undermine the house that Belichick built, and at this point in the game, these last futile proclamations from the self-proclaimed “flagship of the left” are not only easy to see through, but just flat-out repetitive.
For starters, the article’s main argument is basically as follows: “The NFL is part of a changing, more socially-conscious America, and if you aren’t pulling for the Seahawks, it’s probably because you’re a racist.”
Seriously. It’s all in there.
When I started writing about the intersection of sports and politics in 2003, a countless number of sentences started with two words: “if only”. “If only” star athletes used their hyper-exalted-brought-to-you-by Nike platform to actually say something about the world instead of just trying to sell us more crap. If only they stood up to tired sports media that for decades had treated outspoken athletes with a sneering and, in the case of black players, transparently racist contempt…
This is a team that has had players speak out for the Black Lives Matter movement and a team that has felt no compunction against calling out a commissioner in Roger Goodell who cares more about public relations than the players and the families of players that the league employs…
To have Marshawn Lynch consciously try to control his own labor and by doing so, dredge up the worst impulses in the sports media aristocracy was, intentionally or not, a national service. Thanks to Lynch, we have seen a layer of sports writers regurgitate all of their suppressed bile against young black athletes—tweeting things like their desire for an “English to Marshawn dictionary”—and exposing the long-standing resentments older and mostly whiter sportswriters have towards the people they cover…
The NFL—a brutal, damnable sports league—is now intimately connected to how we discuss issues ranging from violence against women, to workplace safety, to the movement against police brutality. But as long as that is the truth, we should want the people who hold that platform to be the most conscious possible participants in this discussion. This is reason enough, if you aren’t from the Maine-to-Connecticut-corridor, to pull for the Seattle Seahawks.
Resale sites renege on tickets
By Darren Rovell | ESPN.com
PHOENIX — Hundreds of fans won’t be going to Super Bowl XLIX after brokers and resale sites reneged on tickets that they already sold.
In most cases, those selling tickets never had them to begin with. The practice, called short selling, has become common for big games over the years. Brokers sell tickets and buy them cheaper closer to the event to make their profits. But the idea of selling before having anything in hand became more commonplace as the returns consistently came in for previous Super Bowls.
That was until this year, when too many brokers sold tickets they didn’t have and for lower prices than in previous years, making it impossible to get the real ticket for a price that was affordable when it came time to pull the trigger. By last Sunday, brokers were buying the worst seats for $5,000 just to save their company. Five days later, finding a ticket even for $10,000 was a challenge.
It’s unknown exactly how many were affected, but many stories have heartbreak.
https://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12255886/hundreds-super-bowl-tickets-fall-through
In Ridgewood, frenzied fans savor the Super Bowl
January 30, 2015 Last updated: Friday, January 30, 2015, 3:03 PM
By Darius Amos
Staff Writer | The Ridgewood News
North Jersey doesn’t have much skin in this weekend’s big game, but Ridgewood is still finding plenty of reasons to focus its attention on Super Bowl Sunday.
And most of those reasons revolve around parties and celebrating with family and friends – though supporting either the New England Patriots or the Seattle Seahawks might also have something to do with it.
“Football’s replaced baseball as America’s game so you naturally want to watch and enjoy the game with others,” said Midland Park resident Mark Livingston, 45, as he nestled onto his perch inside Mac Murphy’s bar in Ridgewood late Wednesday afternoon. “The Super Bowl is the last game of the year, and the biggest game of the year. Even if the local teams aren’t playing, fans will still watch. They’ll watch any football game.”
Indeed, the Jets and Giants failed to reach this year’s NFL playoffs, but Bergen County still has a slight connection to the game. The Patriots’ Devin McCourty played his high school football at nearby St. Joseph Regional, but that local angle isn’t enough to win the favor of some fans in this area.
Livingston, a Giants fan, will be pulling for a Seahawks’ victory since he always roots for the team representing the Big Blue’s conference. His brother, Eric, said he’ll be cheering for Seattle simply because of his disdain for the Patriots.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/in-ridgewood-frenzied-fans-savor-the-super-bowl-1.1261985
N.J.’s $7M Super Bowl tax rebate to NFL stirs anger
MAY 8, 2014, 3:58 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014, 11:01 PM
BY JOHN REITMEYER AND JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
Lawmakers coming to grips with an $807 million budget shortfall faced another head-scratcher Thursday: New Jersey’s tax giveback to the NFL, one of several big-ticket public costs to hosting the Super Bowl in the Meadowlands.
In the run-up to the game, Governor Christie highlighted the impact the Super Bowl would have on New Jersey, calling it “a major win for the state, its tourism and economic development.” The NFL has also argued the economic benefits of the game far outweigh the costs for the host state.
One of those costs for the host state this year was a $7.5 million sales tax rebate paid to the league. It’s a standard NFL requirement for hosting the Super Bowl – game tickets and parking must be exempted from state sales tax.
“Wow,” said Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, when he heard the state treasurer’s explanation for the payback.
Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, called the reimbursement “ludicrous,” saying the treasurers of every state should band together and all refuse to abide by the NFL’s tax requirement.
“Have the Super Bowl in the Ukraine next year,” Bucco said.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-s-7m-super-bowl-tax-rebate-to-nfl-stirs-anger-1.1012503#sthash.qxmuHPsV.dpuf
STAN FISCHLER COLUMN: Nothing positive to say about this ‘Stupid Bowl’
With a week’s worth of 20-20 hindsight, we can unequivocally label last Sunday night’s vaudeville show in East Rutherford, New Jersey what it was, The Stupid Bowl.
Except if you are a fanatical Seahawks fan, everything about the event ranked from ill-planned to just plain dumb.
Start with the zany promise that New Jersey Transit could even come close to handling the 33,000 fans leaving MetLife Stadium.
Belated memo to NJ Transit dreamers: this was not a bar mitzvah.
Let’s face it, the idea of tossing what should have been a purely New York City event in a relatively small New Jersey town was as colossal a mistake as the Broncos game plan.
Forget about the fact that New Jersey never should have allowed the Giants and Jets to camp at MetLife Stadium unless the Jints and Jets changed their name to New Jersey Giants and New Jersey Jets.
How much phony can geography get when a team calls the Garden State its home but puts another state’s name on its logo? Stupid as in Stupid Bowl.
Boy did these promoters sell New Jersey hoteliers, restaurateurs and other businessmen a bill of goods.
They promised sold out hotels, booming eateries and tangential bonanzas that were as fictitious as
Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Sit back and enjoy: This Super Bowl could be epic
Sunday February 2, 2014, 10:54 AM
BY ART STAPLETON
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The two best teams in football will step inside MetLife Stadium tonight for Super Bowl XLVIII in what promises to be a historic setting in East Rutherford.
They have dreams of bathing in team-colored confetti, a championship parade and taking turns hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The Broncos have them. The Seahawks do, too.
No one ever contemplates what coming up short will feel like until it happens.
The top team in one conference will win. The top team in the other will not.
That’s as rock-solid a Super Bowl guarantee as any made by Joe Namath.
“I don’t think we envision ourselves losing. We wouldn’t play the game if we did,” Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said. “We would just forfeit it and not waste our time doing this media [availability]. We could be home with our families, at Disney World or maybe Turks and Caicos or something like that.
“We don’t envision ourselves losing at all.”
Added Broncos safety and Paterson native Mike Adams: “Nobody remembers who finishes as Super Bowl runner-up, so nobody thinks that way.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/pro_sports/243168091_Sit_back_and_enjoy__This_one_could_be_epic.html#sthash.ooF4Ynpu.dpuf
Why doesn’t MetLife Stadium have a roof? ‘They’ have the answer
Sunday, February 2, 2014 Last updated: Sunday February 2, 2014, 10:27 AM
BY JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The question has been asked around North Jersey for years, and no doubt visitors from Denver and Seattle today will ask the same thing: “If they wanted to have a Super Bowl so badly, why didn’t they put a retractable roof on MetLife Stadium?”
The answer ultimately comes down to who “they” are.
Had leaders of the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority at the time had their way, the 4-year-old stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex would be capped against inclement weather, a feature that would have turned it into all-year venue.
But owners of the Giants and Jets, the two NFL franchises that built and paid for the new $1.6 billion stadium, would have none of it.
First, they said, they saw an added advantage for their teams in playing late-season games outdoors against opponents less accustomed to harsh weather.
And then, of course, there was the added expense.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/243168731_Why_doesn_t_MetLife_Stadium_have_a_roof___They__have_the_answer.html#sthash.AHsZewAj.dpuf
called the ugliest building ever built Xanadu
Xanadu : A monument to NJ greedy self serving politicians ?
Empty shell of American Dream, MetLife Stadium’s ugly neighbor, still awaits makeover
Saturday February 1, 2014, 11:36 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER
The Record
When Marianne Krause goes to a concert in another city, she keeps an eye out for beautiful buildings nearby. But when millions of people look to East Rutherford this weekend to watch the Super Bowl, Krause hopes they keep their eyes locked firmly on the game.
That’s because right next door to MetLife Stadium sits a gigantic, empty, multicolored mall once known as Xanadu, the long-dormant retail and entertainment project that Governor Christie once called one of the ugliest buildings in America.
The fewer people who notice it, Krause figures, the better.
“I’m embarrassed by it, and I think the state will be embarrassed by it,” said Krause, 29, of East Rutherford. “It’s really ugly.”
When developers originally proposed building a megamall in the Meadowlands in 2003, they envisioned a completion date sometime in 2006. In the years since, the project now called American Dream has blown through two developers, one name change and $2 billion. Across the parking lot, one stadium was razed and a new one was built.
