
Dad, Husband, Minnesotan, Poli sci prof @DePaulU. I study US politics, pol comm, media, APD & REP. Fan of MN sports, nice people, podcasts & Twizzlers. He/Him
Los Angeles, CA
Joined October 2008
- Tweets22.2K
- Following3.5K
- Followers1.9K
- Likes47.2K
Ben Epstein retweeted
Welp, time for an Andrew rant because I’m incensed by this finals situation.
To be clear, I have no sourcing on this, and these are my opinions on a situation of two teams(GS,ATL) that I don’t cover.
So let’s get this all out in one spot, the WNBA are choosing to play a game at 12:30PM(9:30AM pacific) so that they can sell 14,000 more tickets at State Farm arena… then in almost every press release mention they “had to” because the Hawks play the second game of a back to back…
To be clear
-The Dream have their own arena, which according to the arena schedule had nothing going on Thursday evening.
-The NBA schedule and WNBA playoff schedule have been out for months and this could have been figured out in September.
-This isn’t a Hawks problem to solve, they don’t share venues or owners.
Because of this the game will be on USA, SyFy, and E competing with day-time soap operas.
The League is choosing to have a close out game 6 for the first championship in Valkyries history to be played at 9:30AM for their fans, and to have Angel Reese defend the Dream home court at 12:30PM…
To pull the curtain back all the TV contracts for playoffs are already set in stone, the league technically doesn’t make any extra money based off the ratings, so financially, the league isn’t going to be hurt by this decision.
In fact they are likely going to make 250,00 extra bucks from ticket sales for the extra 14,000 seats.
The primary owner of the Atlanta Dream has an estimated net worth of 8 billion dollars.
————
For the Valkyries fans, and the Dream fans, and all WNBA fans… they get to use a sick day or their PTO to watch the game in person, or sneak it on their lunch break, play it back on replay, or just miss the game.
The bars get to lose the revenue from a hometown team being in the finals.
The reporters get to be rushed out of an arena post game and likely lose a ton of access
The Valkeryies players get to celebrate on a practice court if they win the championship
All for what, 250,000k….
It’s literally insulting to all the players, fans, reporters, team employees, and people that pour so much time and effort into growing a game for a league and a team to value 250k in ticket rev over offering a prime time game and growing the game.
What is the rest of the league going to do when the Wolves start to make free throws? #WolvesBack
Ben Epstein retweeted
One of the better Ant quotes. And there's been a lot of them.
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards on if he hopes for a title: “I don’t really have hope. I just got will. I’m just all will. It’s like, ‘I don’t think he’s better than me. I don’t think that they can beat me and my team.’ It’s just that simple.”
AP story:
apnews.com/article/nba-antho…
Ben Epstein retweeted
Please help Jake, an essential part of the Wolves media experience
Replying to @TeamYouTube
@TeamYouTube URGENT HELP NEEDED
My YouTube account, email account, and adsense account has been hacked and deleted.
Please help me recover my account.
Ben Epstein retweeted
A man is running the Twin Cities Marathon carrying a canoe to protest a federal push to allow mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. Here he is at Mile 18.
Big shout out to all the awesome people at APSA this year in Boston. It’s the first yearly conference I have missed in many years and while there is a lot to do here, I am mainly missing the chance to reconnect with so many great people. Hope it’s a wicked awesome conference!
Ben Epstein retweeted
I remember the first time I saw Bolt, the way he took off and left everyone I knew I had witnessed Greatness! Here he is getting the Baton. Pure Fire. 🔥
Turns out the kids these days don’t ‘Google’ things anymore. They ‘search it up’.
this is my newest Substack post on why the words we use for power and the lack of it keep changing and why we should pay attention. open.substack.com/pub/politi…
Ben Epstein retweeted
Say whatever you want about LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. To me, the biggest take-away is this: This organization is always going for it. No matter what.
Ben Epstein retweeted
congrats, @nyknicks 🏆
Ben Epstein retweeted
I hope @KarlTowns knows the whole city of Minnesota is rooting for him























