TR EMERITUS

[email protected] Following last week’s theme on the business of sports, TR tours the globe this week to find the top 8 most valuable sports team today. Some names on this list are more familiar than others, but to be honest there will be no surprises. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 100% Statistics – based on data compiled by Forbes and correct as of the summer of 2009 ___________________________________________________________________________________ NB – this ranking is a measure of gross value, thus level of debt is not included in the determination of value. 8 ) New York Giants, American Football, United States (US$1.18 billion) The 2008 Super Bowl Champions come onto this list as number eight. The Giants compete with the New York Jets for fans around the New York metropolitan area and are clearly the more popular of the two. This season, the Giants will also move into a state-of-the-art 82,500 stadium, boasting a 60% increase in attendance from their previous stadium. Also, the waiting list for a Giants’ season ticket is 25 years. 7) Arsenal, Football, England ($1.2bn) The Gunners may have been trophy-less since 2005, but thanks to their 60,000-capactity Emirates Stadium and sky-high ticket prices, they had been increasing in value as a sports team. Arsene Wenger’s tight budget policy had definitely contributed as well, as the Gunners make profit from player sales more often than not. Debt and ownership issues remain pertinent, though. 6) Real Madrid, Football, Spain ($1.29bn) Real Madrid is officially the most successful football club in the last century, though successes had been few and far between in the current one. However, on the back of their history, they had become one of the most valuable teams in the world. Their spending power in the transfer market is second to none, as proven this summer when they broke the transfer record twice in a month. The aim for the next few seasons will be on the pitch though, as they try to usurp the dominance of Barcelona. 5) New York Yankees, Baseball, United States ($1.3bn) By far the world’s best known baseball team, the Yankees rake in multi-million annual revenue from their own cable network, global merchandise sales and sell-out crowd at the new Yankee Stadium. They have a larger payroll than any other sports team in America as they seek to replicate the successes of their early days. For the record, the Yankees have won 27 World Series titles (also the defending champions), almost three times more than any other team. 4) New England Patriots, American Football, United States ($1.32bn) The franchise was founded back in 1959, but the past decade entirely changed the course of history for the team. Four visits to the Super Bowls (winning three of them) since 2001 had tripled the value of the team and made them one of the most supported in the sport. These days, the Patriots sell out every home game at the 69,000 Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. 3) Washington Redskins, American Football, United States ($1.5bn) The Redskins is one franchise which had managed to increase its value without showing equivalent success on the field over the years. They had not won the Super Bowl since 1991, but through heavy marketing and lucrative advertising deals, this franchise is the leading revenue generator in the American Football. 2) Dallas Cowboys, American Football, United States ($1.6bn) Just like the Redskins, the Cowboys have not been ultra-successful on the field. Their last Super Bowl was won back in 1995. The franchise’s high value is largely because it had broken away from a NFL merchandising collaboration scheme years ago and had started a one of their own. And a very successful one too. Last year, they moved into the 80,000 state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium. The naming rights to this stadium has yet to be sold and that deal alone is expected to fetch hundreds of millions more for the franchise. 1) Manchester United, Football, England ($1.8bn) Surprise, surprise. According to Forbes, Manchester United is the most valuable club in the world as of the summer of 2009. Its global reach in terms of fans is second to none these days, with fan clubs set up literally all over the world. The difference in England is that the fans are not interested in this type of commercialisation – being owned by the Glazer family is largely seen as negative in the country. The debt situation is also worrying, with reports stating that the club is paying almost $50m a year to service its debts. Well, at least they are not short of suitors and fans.  Read More →

作者:冀居·谢 我不谅解中文报为什么一直要把“astroturfing”翻译成“人工草皮”而不是它真正的意思。 根据维基百科，astroturf和astroturfing是严格区分的，前者是指货真价实的“人工草皮”，后者是指“假造民意运动”。就好比 pampers是纸尿片的品牌，结果很多人把pampers认定是“纸尿片”这个意思，这是商业社会给现代人造成的混淆；就好比astroturf、 xerox、yo-yo、kerosene都正式或非正式地成为通用商标（genericized trademark）了。 照我看这是一种愚民手段，让“人工草皮”继续保持神秘感，而不是大家都熟悉的“造假民意”。因为在本地，谁不知道以“民意、基层、草根、公民咨询、社区”为名是哪些组织、后面的操手是谁、自诩深知heartlander之意的政党是哪一家？ “前资深”吴俊刚的这篇《真假草皮》我还真爱不释手，因为近年来“早报言论”几乎成为“中国言论”，难得见到这么一篇讨论本地事物的文章。 早报吴俊刚引用早报林方伟对astroturfing的定义： 『它指的是一种网上的造假现象，是一种由广告、公关公司、政治团体所发起或操纵，但在过程中却技巧性地掩盖真正的幕后源头，让社会大众错以为是民众或社会草根基层所发起，反映民间心声和意见的假草根现象』 ——最主要是咬定幕后必有主使，有个惊天大阴谋，所以不可能是一种人同此心心同此理的有感而发现象。 加上他自己对互联网的描述： 『互联网开创了一个无垠的新媒体世界。这个虚拟世界无奇不有，既给人方便，也制造了很多令人混淆、真假难辨的信息。网上有浩瀚的信息资源，也充满了各种各样的 信息垃圾。……网上的论坛一大堆，为网络使用者提供了几乎是没有边际的讨论空间，由于随时随地可以上网，人们也很容易发表一些随兴的意见，由于不必用真实 姓名，人们可以隐藏身份。许多别有用心者也就趁虚而入，肆无忌惮地发表各种不负责任的言论，虚假的、冒犯性的、毁谤性的，不一而足。因此，网络上言论垃圾 充斥泛滥。这一切均假言论自由之名以行。这是网络时代令人无可奈何的现实。』 在吴的笔下，互联网就好像下水道那样黝暗污秽，虽然他没咬定不会找到钻石或者珍珠，但是身历其境的人必须和水中那些暧昧的块状浮游物不期而遇，就足以令你退避三舍了。 然而吴的笔锋一转，在文章的下半部倒批评起“我方”来了，主要有三点： 『【1】因此，个人觉得，要遏制人工草皮的进一步泛滥和混淆视听，除了提醒网民必须练就一对金睛火眼和培养独立思考的能力，还是得从广开言路和确保言路畅通着手，鼓励人们走正道，提倡正面的、负责的、有依有据、无私无惧和光明正大的言论，鼓励人们积极通过主流媒体和正常反馈渠道发表心声，传达意见，既能正确地反映民 情，谈论国是，批评政策，也能给民选政府提出各种利国利民的建设性意见。 【2】而政府部门则必须切切实实做到认真对待各种反馈，并及时妥善处理，不能只是马虎应付，把处理民众的反馈和意见，纯然当作聊备一格的公关活动，一概只作三言两语和公式化的答复，给人留下没诚意和打官腔的恶劣印象。 【3】在一些国家（包括民主国度），主流媒体被民众视为官方喉舌，也因此失去了为民喉舌的信誉。在这种情形下，主流媒体不受民众信任或被唾弃并不奇怪。不信任也会 导致言路的阻塞，人们在信不过主流媒体的情形下，自然就会更多地转向新媒体。这是我们应该竭力避免的。为此，维护主流媒体的独立性和专业性是非常重要的。 主流媒体如果能够让真草皮有广阔的生长和呼吸空间，假草皮的“用武之地”自会相应缩小。』 这样一来，他前面的逻辑就开始“矛盾”起来了，“假草皮”的那些言论，如果“积极通过主流媒体和正常反馈渠道发表心声，传达意见”，它就变成没有主儿了，而且也不plastic，成了真草？ 政府如果有诚意、不打官腔，假草就倏然变成真草，有主也会变成没主。 主流媒体如果不再“御用”，那些“绿塑胶”换个舞台亮相就“直八”了。 这样的文章不止“龟笑鳖无尾”，而且有点酸葡萄心理，“前资深”是妒忌“够力”的言论都在新媒体出现吗？ 来源：大马论坛  Read More →

The 24 year old lady who was the victim of YPAP member Mark Chow in his second molest case has written about her traumatic experience on her blog. Calling herself as "Shirley Zhuang", she described Mark as an "asshole" who should be locked away in prison, if not a mental hospital for good. According to information posted on his blog, Mark is a YPAP member of Pasir Ris-Punggol South and was nominated for Spirit of Enterprise Awards. Mark’s YPAP membership was not reported in the press. The case occurred in 2006 when Mark Shirley for an interview as the owner of a model agency. He then told her that he had to “examine” her body as a “standard” protocol. When Shirley stripped to her underwear inside a unisex toilet, Mark put his left hand into her bra and caressed her breast. Below is an excerpt of what Shirley wrote on her blog: "On the first day I made contact to join his agency, he asked me to be his gf in the first 5 minute after i see his stupid face on this earth. In year 2006, Mark Chow is already obese and distorted. Which girl in the right mind wouldn't get a nasty shock. He kept pinching my backside like a horny Kopitiam 60 year old Ti Ko Pek. Then he told me it was mandatory in the modeling industry to check out my bod. I already thought it was fishy. He got me to strip down to my lingerie for a make believe FHM assignment and he caressed my breast inside my brassieur! I pushed his hands away. He even tested the water and ask me to strip naked. I rejected him OUTRIGHT and I was already angry but I did not know what to do, I was so young! When I left the stupid pub, he pestered me like a horny prick to give him a farewell kiss or else he wouldn't let me go home. He wanted me to go to his place. I did not want to make a scene. So I relented reluctantly to just a 'kiss' and almost threw myself into a taxi to escape this slimy cockroach. Yuck!" Mark was earlier fined $6,000 for molesting a woman by touching her breasts, buttocks and calves. District Judge Sarjit Singh said in his verdict that since the touch of the chest was a “fleeting” one, a “stiff” fine would do. Read rest of Shirley's blog posting here.   Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans.   Related articles: >> Mark Chow admits to second molest charge >> Mark Chow escapes jail term >> Mark Chow convicted of molest  Read More →