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	<title>Sports &#187; Bill Saporito &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Where sports is on the mind</description>
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		<title>Sports &#187; Bill Saporito &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com</link>
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		<title>Why The New York Yankees And Man City Are Buying Into U.S. Soccer</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/23/why-the-new-york-yankees-and-man-city-are-buying-into-u-s-soccer/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/23/why-the-new-york-yankees-and-man-city-are-buying-into-u-s-soccer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2013 16:51:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Soccer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346417</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s not unusual to see people walking around New York City in replica jerseys of English soccer teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. On Saturday mornings in the city, many Irish pubs fill with fans gathered to watch their favorite Premier League teams, and perhaps lift a pint or two for breakfast. By the same token, I’ve seen New York Yankee hats worn by Brits in stadiums in London. So it doesn’t seem odd that the Yankees would partner with a top flight English team, Manchester City, to establish a new Major League Soccer franchise in the five boroughs. New York City FC will be the league’s 20th franchise, and the fee that the Yankees and Man City are reportedly paying, $100 million, is a new standard for MLS. “This is a transformational development that will elevate the league to new heights in this country,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. NYC FC will be majority owned by Man City, which is owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, which is led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan,whose brother rules Abu Dhabi, the biggest of the United Arab Emirates. This is oil money and then some. Mansour, who is worth about $5 billion, spent $315 million five years ago to buy control of Man City and has since plunked more than twice that buying players for City. The spending culminated in a league championship last year. Buying players to win championships. Does that sound familiar, Yankee fans? (MORE: What David Beckham Meant To Soccer, And The World) New York City FC will take the field in 2015, although where that field will be is subject to debate in the always dicey politics of New York real estate development. MLS wants to build a new stadium in a rundown part of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a soccer hotbed in Flushing, Queens. But there has been local resistance to giving up precious park space—New Yorkers love their parks — although not from the thousands of soccer players who descend on Flushing Meadows every<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346417&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Soccer</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/soccer/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxzwoy.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Principles hold New York City FC T-shirts at news conference in New York</media:title>
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		<title>What David Beckham Meant To Soccer, And The World</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/16/what-david-beckham-meant-to-soccer-and-the-world/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/16/what-david-beckham-meant-to-soccer-and-the-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 18:32:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Appreciation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346329</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[David Beckham may be the only athlete who can add glamour to Paris. But after helping to deliver recognition, and the French championship, to Paris St. Germain, soccer&#8216;s most famous global brand is hanging up his boots. They are not leather boots, because Becks doesn’t do leather. But they are well-traveled and brimming with medals. From Manchester United to Real Madrid to the Los Angeles Galaxy and A.C. Milan before landing finally in Paris, the 38-year old sprinkled his football fairy dust everywhere. He earned league titles at Man U, Real, the Galaxy and PSG.  His haul includes FA Cup and Champions League glory. He played 115 times for England, the most by any outfield player, singlehandedly getting that nation into—and out of, famously—the World Cup.  In a statement Beckham said: &#8220;I&#8217;m thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level.&#8221; I can remember Beckham’s first game in New York in 2007 after he joined the Galaxy. The game was at Giants Stadium, where the Red Bulls typically drew 12,000 to 15,000 fans. Becks nearly filled the joint, attracting 66,237 fans, a record, and played superbly in a 5-4 LA loss. But the MLS was the big winner. His signing by MLS Commissioner Don Garber and now-Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis gave the league the kind of caché it sorely needed. And even though Beckham’s management team made a complete mess of his first year in LA, he would deliver to LA and the MLS everything they wanted: global recognition and an endorsement that the league could accommodate world class players. The value of MLS franchises is increasing rapidly, and more top-shelf players are arriving every year, and Beckham deserves some of that credit. (MORE: David Beckham&#8217;s Greatest Bends &#8212; Soccer Icon&#8217;s Five Best Free Kicks) Beckham’s star power, his brand equity, his style leadership, exceeded his playing ability.  His string of deals with the likes of adidas, Sainsbury’s, Samsung, Pepsi, Gillette, H&#38;M and others made him wealthy beyond<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346329&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Appreciation</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/appreciation-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/168622401.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Olympique Lyonnais v Paris Saint-Germain FC - Ligue 1</media:title>
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		<title>Appreciation: How Sir Alex Ferguson Ruled The Game</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/08/appreciation-how-sir-alex-ferguson-ruled-the-game/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/05/08/appreciation-how-sir-alex-ferguson-ruled-the-game/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 21:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Soccer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alex Ferguson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Man U]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manchester United]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sir Alex Ferguson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346194</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There’s a great video of clip of Sir Alex Ferguson being interviewed after having won a Scottish cup trophy for Aberdeen early in his coaching career. As his victorious players cavort in the background, Ferguson is telling the interviewer that his team was rubbish but for one or two players.  Congratulations lads. Not much would change in the ensuing decades. Ferguson became more successful and more demanding—of players, referees, reporters, and groundskeepers no doubt—on the way to an astonishing record. The only goal the Manchester United manager seemingly ever failed to achieve was retirement. He tried once in 2002 but made a mess of it. This time, he wants to get the leaving right. Sir Alex, 71, startled the soccer world by announcing he was done as Man U’s manager, as the English season is coming to a close and with his 13th league championship well in hand. His trophy haul can fill a museum including two Champions League titles, the 13 English titles, five FA Cups, and a magical season, 1998-1999, when his Reds won all three. (MORE: Retirement for Alex Ferguson, the World’s Most Successful Football Manager—and a Headache for Manchester United) In soccer as in most sports, coaches are usually classified as man managers or tacticians—either good at evaluating, understanding and motivating players, or devising the right game plans and tactics for a given situation. Ferguson was the former, able to squeeze every ounce of talent and performance out of his men. One of Fergie’s former players, Paul Parker, called him the best man-manager he’s ever worked for, even if others will see him as more or a manhandler for his famous in-your-face rants. But some players need a slap on the butt; others need a swift kick. Fergie could provide either, yet he would always take their side against offending officials or members of the media. That did not mean he played favorites within the team. Although United has had many long serving players such as Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, Ferguson was all business. This season<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346194&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Soccer</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/soccer/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/79037695.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Aberdeen Manager Alex Ferguson holds the Scottish Cup trophy at Scottish Cup Final, at Hampden Park Stadium, Scotland, on May 27, 1982.</media:title>
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		<title>How U.S. Soccer Plowed Through a Blizzard To Beat Cost Rica</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/03/23/how-u-s-soccer-plowed-through-a-blizzard-to-beat-cost-rica/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/03/23/how-u-s-soccer-plowed-through-a-blizzard-to-beat-cost-rica/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:06:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Soccer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2345165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In World Cup qualifying matches, cheating is allowed. That is, when Ecuador plays its home matches, the venue is Quito, which at 9,350 ft. in altitude often leaves visiting teams gasping for air. When the U.S. plays in plays in places such as Honduras, the atmosphere is a steamy tropical cauldron with fans packed on top of a patchy pitch. It’s suffocating. Tough. Deal with it. So when the U.S. faced Costa Rica on Friday in Denver, the temperature was 29 degrees and it was snowing hard in the Mile High City. Welcome to Colorado. At the Honduras vs. Mexico match, played in midafternoon, the temperature was more than 100, a decision that seems to have paid off in that the Mexicans wilted late in the game to surrender a 2-0 lead. The game ended in a draw, 2-2. In other words, a level playing field is the last thing you want if you are the home team. (MORE: A Q&#38;A With Neymar, Brazil&#8217;s Stay-At-Home Soccer Superstar) In Denver, the field kept disappearing under a blizzard. If you are a skier, you are saying: snow, snow, snow! If you are a soccer player, this is less desirable. Nevertheless, the U.S. pressed their luck, and in the 16th minute Clint Dempsey, a Texan, bundled in a rebound for a 1-0 U.S. lead. What happened in the next 74 minutes or so wasn’t quite soccer and it wasn’t quite visible. The field at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park didn’t appear so much as a soccer pitch as a hockey rink. The snow piled up as groundskeepers struggled to clear the sidelines and penalty area—in soccer if you can’t see the lines, the match has to be abandoned. In the 55th minute the referee halted play briefly to have the lines cleared yet again. Although the Costa Ricans were furious after the game—it was robbery, said midfielder Cristian Bolanos— they nevertheless plowed on. In the 70th minute the Ticos apparently crossed a ball to the back post that was headed in to the U.S. net,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2345165&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Soccer</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/soccer/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/164355970.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Costa Rica v United States - FIFA 2014 World Cup Qualifier</media:title>
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		<title>Sunday&#8217;s Daytona 500 Drops the Flag on New NASCAR Gen-6 Car</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/02/22/sundays-daytona-500-drops-the-flag-on-new-nascar-gen-6-car/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/02/22/sundays-daytona-500-drops-the-flag-on-new-nascar-gen-6-car/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Auto Racing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Edwards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Danica Patrick]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daytona]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daytona 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gen 6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASCAR]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2344720</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I ran into Carl Edwards at Daytona this week. So, in fact, have a lot of people—especially other people driving race cars. Edwards has crashed a number of times during practice and qualifying rounds, leaving him behind the wheel of a backup car this weekend at the Daytona 500. “I wrecked a lot of stuff; the guys have been yelling at me,” he says. “I was walking to the gym and someone said, ‘What, are you afraid to drive?&#8217;&#8221; What’s driving Edwards to distraction, and into other cars, is the introduction of NASCAR’s Gen-6 car, new this season. To reconnect with fans, NASCAR decided that its racing machines should more closely resemble the autos driven by the rest of us. But the Ford model, which Edwards drives, has a slightly different aerodynamic profile than the Chevys and Toyotas he races against. In the previous generation of race car, known as the Car of Tomorrow, the aerodynamics were much more aligned, but critics and drivers complained that it limited the driver’s ability to draft and pass other cars and engage in side-by-side racing. Now, the Car of Tomorrow is the car of yesterday. (PHOTOS: A Half-Century of the Daytona 500) Given Edwards’s wrecks, and a few other incidents, drivers turned cautious, avoiding side-by-side duels. “Here at this racetrack the car slides around more,” says Edwards. “It doesn’t get stuck to the racetrack.” There’s another issue, too, says driver/team owner Tony Stewart of Stewart/Haas Racing: because all the cars are new, the supply of parts has been limited. “We didn’t have a spare car if we crashed our cars in the qualifying,” he admitted to TIME. But not all racers have experienced negativity with the updated vehicle. The Gen-6 car has done wonders for one of Stewart’s drivers, Danica Patrick. NASCAR’s only female star captured the pole position last Sunday by driving the fastest qualifying lap, which didn’t require racing in traffic. (MORE: Soon You’ll Be Able to Buy a NASCAR Vehicle—Or at Least One That Looks Like That) Patrick has also captured<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2344720&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Auto Racing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/auto-racing-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/daytona_22.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Speed Demons</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: Why Lance Armstrong Couldn&#8217;t Stop Himself (and Still Can&#8217;t)</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/01/16/viewpoint-why-lance-armstrong-couldnt-stop-himself-and-still-cant/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/01/16/viewpoint-why-lance-armstrong-couldnt-stop-himself-and-still-cant/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:45:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cycling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[admitted doping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[armstrong interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lance armstrong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oprah winfrey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2343816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You could always ask Lance Armstrong anything. About competing in the Tour de France, about living with cancer and his work at Livestrong, about his parenting skills, or about his love life, which at one point was fairly busy. And what you’d get back was quotable and candid. That included, in every interview I’ve done or read about him, the inevitable question about doping. The Associated Press reported that Lance Armstrong has admitted to Oprah Winfrey, in an interview to be aired Thursday and Friday, that he doped while winning Tour de France titles; on Tuesday morning, Winfrey confirmed that Armstrong &#8220;came clean.&#8221; All of this follows the report released in October by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that offered overwhelming evidence that he cheated. Armstrong denied doping to me, although he never seemed to resent being asked about it. He was more angry at being the target of government and anti-doping agency investigation. Sources lie all the time, of course. They call it spin. But Lance&#8217;s lie was remarkable for all the effort he had to put into it. He was as committed to the lie as he was to everything else he did. A lot of athletes, say, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, have a practiced sincerity in responding to questions and absolutely refused to discuss certain subjects. With Jordan, anything having to do with, say, gambling or his private life was not going to be answered. Tiger wouldn’t go near politics broadly, or racial politics in particular, if you put a driver to his head. (MORE: Straight Dope: Is Lance Armstrong Memorabilia Worthless Now?) Armstrong, on the other hand, is a political animal. He helped convince the Texas legislature to invest a $1 billion in cancer research. He has prodded governments around the world to do likewise. A man with that much conviction carries with him a certain amount of implied credibility. And when the credibility came into question, Armstrong turned on his competitive instincts and beat back the doubters like he would someone challenging him on a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2343816&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Cycling</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/cycling-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/lanceoprah.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Oprah Interviews Lance Armstrong</media:title>
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		<title>What The Kobe Bryant-Leo Messi Ad Says About The World</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/21/what-the-kobe-bryant-leo-messi-ad-says-about-the-world/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/21/what-the-kobe-bryant-leo-messi-ad-says-about-the-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:33:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sports Biz]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2343485</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It wouldn’t be odd that Los Angeles Lakes star Kobe Bryant and F.C. Barcelona’s goal scoring sensation Lionel Messi would share a commercial endorsement or two. But you would think it would more likely in a category such as athletic gear or soda. It’s not. Kobe’s a Nike and Sprite (Coca-Cola)  guy while Leo shills for adidas and Pepsi. Instead the two have a combined endorsement in the most unlikely of places, the front cabin of a Turkish Airlines jet. In a commercial now running in the U.S. the 6’ 6” Laker guard and the 5’ 6” Barca striker vie for the attention of a young autograph seeker by one-upping each other doing ball tricks in their seat and steadily raising the stakes to balloon animals until the boy drops them both for some ice cream presented by a friendly hostess. “The best fly with Europe&#8217;s best airline” is the tag line. What this has to do with airline service isn’t clear, but this one advertisement &#8212; which has been viewed over 70 million times on YouTube &#8212; can explain the global economy and its two most important sports, basketball and soccer, in a single minute. Start with Messi, the man known as La Pulga (The Flea),  who just set a new scoring record by knocking in 90 goals this year. The notion that an Argentine- born soccer player who earns a living in Spain’s La Liga would be recognizable enough to sell products in the U.S. market underscores the idea that the soccer culture is firmly planted in America. Messi, like David Beckham before him, is an international star who plays for a team whose reach extends well beyond Spain. You see Barca shirts turn up all over the U.S., because both Barca’s and Argentina’s games can be seen regularly, on Fox Soccer, ESPN or Gol TV. And as the last election pointed out to the GOP, the changing demographics and expanding, and young, Hispanic population have Leo written all over it. (MORE: Free Lesson With Kobe Bryant) It would also<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2343485&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Sports Biz</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/sports-biz/</primary_category_link>
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		<title>Why Soccer Threatens the NHL</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/01/why-soccer-threatens-the-nhl/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/01/why-soccer-threatens-the-nhl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:00:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Soccer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hockey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MLS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NHL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2339385</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League crossed paths this week going in opposite directions. Heading into Saturday’s championship game between the Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy, MLS Commissioner Don Garber sounded victorious. The MLS set new attendance records and averaged nearly 19,000 fans a game this season, including 114 sellouts. The improving level of play, made possible by the addition of a new class of international talents such as Robbie Keane and Thierry Henry, has made the game more attractive for fans, who are embracing their teams. “There’s a true supporters culture that is developing in MLS that is providing us a true point of difference,” Garber said. And you can see in places like Seattle, where the games have a distinctly European feel. (Without the drunken louts and fan violence.) The league is strong enough that the pending loss of David Beckham, who since 2007 has single handedly provided MLS with an identity, can be considered a healthy transition. Maybe NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman should hire Becks to juggle a ball wearing ice skates. It’s about the only entertainment his league might provide this season if it doesn’t end the current lockout of players, now in its third month. The players have offered a 50/50 revenue split with the owners, down from the 57% they are currently taking. The owners aren’t satisfied with sharing. Even two days of talks that included the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service failed to move the puck. “We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful,” said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. Disappointed but he couldn’t have been surprised given the league’s intransigence. (MORE: Why Liverpool Fans Are Loving Chelsea&#8217;s New Coach) The NHL’s policy of exclusion—we’re not going to negotiate anything, and we don’t want to honor the player contracts that we’ve already signed—is a sports version of the Republican party. This is the second lockout that Bettman has orchestrated—the entire 2004-2005 season was lost on his watch. It’s a bitter holdout by what seems to be a few<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2339385&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Soccer</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/soccer/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/landon.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Seattle Sounders v Los Angeles Galaxy - Western Conference Championship - Leg 1</media:title>
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		<title>Winter Classic Shutdown: Why It Will Hurt the NHL</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/11/06/hed-tk-nhl-cancels-its-highest-profile-game-as-lockout-drags-on/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/11/06/hed-tk-nhl-cancels-its-highest-profile-game-as-lockout-drags-on/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hockey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bridgestone Classic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lockout]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NHL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2342596</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The National Hockey League, on its way to setting a new standard for labor-management incompetence, just canceled its highest-profile game: the 2013 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, which this year was scheduled to be played at the University of Michigan&#8217;s stadium, known as The Big House. So instead of more than 100,000 people watching the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs duke it out in the outdoors on Jan. 1, the NHL owners are giving up the league’s highest-profile game. Don Fehr, the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA) executive director called the cancellation “unnecessary and unfortunate, as was the owners’ implementation of the lockout itself.” Let’s add: vituperative and self-defeating, not to mention stupid. People who wouldn’t spend five minutes watching hockey the rest of the year tune in to the Winter Classic; it is the greatest advertisement for ice hockey extant. Even if you’ve never laced up skates you can imagine what fun it is to be outside on a crisp winter’s day knocking the puck around. But the NHL’s owners seem to prefer burning the furniture to keep warm this season rather than make an agreement with the lumberjacks. The cancellation did light a fire under some of the negotiators, as the players’ union special counsel Steve Fehr met with the NHL’s deputy commissioner Bill Daly to try to get the talks moving again. (MORE: NHL Fans, Miss Hockey? Time to Follow the KHL) Following the path created by the NFL, where the owners now get 53% of revenue, the NHL owners have been relentlessly trying to increase their share of the league’s total revenue. The players were getting about 57% of revenue. The owners demanded 54%, which is eminently fair if you believe people go to ice-hockey games to watch owners. You could see why a lockout ensued. On Oct. 18 the players agreed to a 50-50 split — a pay cut, in other words — and a couple of ways to get there. It took NHL commissioner Gary Bettman minutes to reject them, breathlessly improving his<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2342596&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Hockey</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/hockey-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1310_136342602.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic - New York Rangers v Philadelphia Flyers</media:title>
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		<title>Manchester United: The Team is Better Than The Stock</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/09/19/manchester-united-the-team-is-better-than-the-stock/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/09/19/manchester-united-the-team-is-better-than-the-stock/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:06:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Football]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Soccer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sports Biz]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2341752</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This may be mixing football metaphors, but Manchester United was thrown for a loss in the fourth quarter. The American-controlled, English soccer team, which now trades on the New York Stock Exchange after going public earlier this year, reported a loss about of about $25 million on revenue of $121 million in its final quarter ending in June. Revenue was down 25%, reflecting United’s failure on the field. The team played fewer games as a result of being knocked out of the big money UEFA Champions League tournament, which was won by rival Chelsea, as well as getting dumped in England’s FA Cup, its top domestic tournament. Man U currently sits in second place in the Barclays Premiership. For the year, Man U. had revenues of $519 million, a decrease of 3.3%; the team showed a profit of $38 million, but that was mostly the result of a tax credit. Man U did much better selling sponsorship and souvenirs, including a $559 million agreement with Chevrolet that makes the car brand the team’s exclusive shirt sponsor beginning next season. (Buy a Chevy, they’ll throw in the Man U kit.) “We are one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world, playing one of the most popular spectator sports on Earth,” notes Man U.’s corporate website. The response from American investors seems to be, Who Cares? They have treated Man U. as though it were Blackburn Rovers. Its shares have fallen more than 10% since the team’s $14 a share IPO in August, meaning that Man U has lost more than $240 million of value—that’s more than most teams in England are worth. Among the losers at this point is George Soros, an all-star investor who now owns a minority stake.. Some of Man U.’s fans aren’t happy either.  The Manchester United Supporters Trust, (MUST) an independent fan group, has been harshly critical of the team’s majority owner, the Glazer family  (also owners of the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers). The Glazers control all of the voting stock.  MUST<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2341752&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Sports Biz</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/sports-biz/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/manu.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Manchester United v Galatasaray - UEFA Champions League</media:title>
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