Recapping 49ers' joint practice with Broncos, Mykel Williams' knee injury
Recapping 49ers' joint practice with Broncos, Mykel Williams' knee injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The $62m question: does a high school really need a professional-style stadium?
When the television cameras pan around the US's newest sporting temple to show the cavernous stands, elegant brick exterior, VIP suites and massive video board, viewers might believe they are looking at a professional venue. Yet the occupants of Phillip Beard Stadium, the Buford Wolves, are not a professioanl team or even a college one. They are high-schoolers. In the exorbitant world of high school football, Buford's $62m, 10,000-capacity arena is not the biggest or most expensive taxpayer-funded student stadium in the US. But it may be the most luxurious. The Wolves host the Milton Eagles on Thursday in the stadium's first regular-season game, which will be broadcast nationally on ESPN. With 13 Georgia state championships from 2001 to 2021 and a long record of players progressing to college scholarships and, eventually, the NFL, Buford is a football powerhouse – and the new stadium is a loud statement of the school's desire to keep it that way. Related: 'The stadium is secondary': how US sports teams became real-estate speculators If it feels like half of Buford is at the big game … they probably are. The Atlanta-area city has roughly 19,000 residents and the well-regarded high school (rebuilt in 2019 for $85m) has about 1,900 students. In 2010, another educational institution in the Atlanta region, Kennesaw State University, built a smart 10,200 capacity multi-use stadium for $16.5m. In the past 15 years, however, construction costs have soared, fan expectations have evolved, streaming and social media have changed how we consume sports and college athletes are now allowed to earn significant sums by monetising their personal brands. The trend is clear: newer, fancier, costlier. Phillip Beard Stadium has the typical uncovered benches familiar to anyone who's seen Friday Night Lights. Yet it also boasts more than 1,500 premium seats, 15 suites, a 3,600 sq ft double-sided video board and a 10,500 sq ft event space with a trophy wall. Buford City manager Bryan Kerlin told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the stadium had been paid for by the city general funds and its funding 'had no impact on teacher salaries, classroom resources, or any educational funding'. Still, there may well be other parts of the city the money could have been diverted to. Besides, blending spartan spaces for students and high-end facilities for corporate clients and rich alumni is increasingly common. It could make financial sense for schools aiming to maximise revenues and claw back some of the construction and operating costs, according to Victor Matheson, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. 'The economics term is price differentiation,' he says. It's long been common in professional sports as teams adopt a strategy beloved of airlines, with their myriad fare classes and options: charging wildly different amounts for the same product based on variations in the customer experience. As the masses in the cheap seats generate the noise, corporate boxes can deliver thousands of dollars in income per event, giant video screens appeal to advertisers, and perhaps former students who've been wined and dined in air-conditioned comfort and enjoyed a perfect view of the action will be inspired to make generous donations to the alma mater. Upscale new arenas are also a way to entice fans off the couch in an era when it seems like almost every sporting contest, no matter how obscure, is streamed. 'Everyone knows their biggest competitor is being able to watch on TV,' Matheson says. Climate-controlled facilities mitigate against extreme weather, and with gargantuan video boards, televisions on concourses, myriad food and drink options and glitzy graphics on LED ribbon displays, fans can go to the stadium, experience the live atmosphere and still gaze at screens. Northwestern University in Illinois is building a privately-funded new stadium guided by the principle of 'premium for everybody,' reports Front Office Sports. At a projected cost of $862m it will be the most expensive college stadium ever, yet with only 35,000 seats it will hold 12,000 fewer people than the venue it is replacing. The theory underpinning the design is that modern fans want a more intimate and luxurious experience, with changing tastes – and a changing climate – rendering even relatively recent venues obsolete. In 2020 Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers quit their open-air 48,000-capacity ballpark, which opened in 1994, for a new 40,000-capacity building with a retractable roof. This season a minor league baseball team, the Salt Lake Bees, moved from Smith's Ballpark, which also opened in 1994, to a new home, hiking ticket prices and halving their seating capacity in the process. The concentration on high-end customers, of course, prices out fans who cannot afford to spend heavily on a night out at the game. 'In all, premium seating makes up one-sixth of seats at the new ballpark, whereas it contributed to just 3% of Smith's Ballpark's capacity,' the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'The seats closest to the action aren't available for sale on a per-ticket basis; instead, those are field-level suites that must be reserved in their entirety.' Sports' growing focus on premium customers mirrors a shift in the American economy as a whole: this year a Moody's Analytics study found that the US economy is now deeply reliant on the richest households, with the top 10% of earners accounting for 50% of consumer spending, a sharp rise from recent decades. Logically, better facilities should breed better players, with victories leading to bigger attendances, swelling civic pride, adding to the appeal of the fast-growing suburbs where large high school stadiums are often located and boosting the prospects of the kids who dream of reaching the NFL. The trickle-down effect from the professional and college ranks to high schools isn't only a matter of swankier facilities. It's also visible in the potential financial incentives. College players have been permitted to make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights since 2021. In June this year a former high school player filed a class-action lawsuit in California challenging restrictions on the ability of the state's high school student-athletes to profit from their NIL rights. It could pave the way for high school stars across the US to earn income and to transfer to other schools for sporting reasons. 'Corporations see a lot of untapped economic value in high school athletics,' Yaman Salahi, an attorney representing the player named in the suit, said in a statement to Front Office Sports, 'and we want to ensure that value is shared equitably with the athletes that create it.' Like teenaged soccer starlets at professional clubs in other countries, 16- and 17-year old American football players might one day be wealthy and famous, with a status to match the grandeur of their home stadiums. 'The difference here is that it's the local public school that's doing the development,' Matheson points out. For now, stadiums as sizeable and expensive as Buford's remain rare outside Texas, the state that is the epicentre of the high school football infrastructure arms race. In 2017 the independent school district in the Houston-area suburb of Katy opened a $70m, 12,000-capacity stadium adjacent to its existing and still operational 9,800-seat venue. According to the website more than a quarter of the 1,267 high school football stadiums in Texas can hold over 5,000 people, with eight seating at least 16,500. The combined capacity of 4.4 million is larger than the populations of 24 states. About a quarter have video scoreboards and 27 high school stadiums have opened in Texas since 2020. A $56m multi-purpose venue in the Houston-area city of La Porte is set to host its inaugural match this month. Texas produces more NFL players than any other state, found a study by the data analysis firm Lineups, with Houston the leading city. On the other hand, Texas is ranked 34th for educational attainment by US News & World Report, is far below the national average for teacher pay and expenditures per student, and according to one study, this year Texas teachers expect to spend on average $1,550 of their own money on classroom supplies. Many would argue there are better things to spend money on than school sports.
Boston Globe
28 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
There's not much positive to look back on from the 2024 Patriots season, except these two Drake Maye highlights
Occasional carelessness with the football aside, Maye was everything Patriots fans could have hoped for after three seasons of gradually realizing Mac Jones was not the next Chad Pennington, but a born backup whose leadership skills were as uninspiring as his wet-noodle arm. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Sure, Maye was a little bit reckless (again: expected) and often, a lot of fun. His arm strength (particularly his touch on deep throws) and mobility (he ran for 421 yards, and is already ninth all-time in rushing among Patriots quarterbacks) suggest he could develop into The Franchise Quarterback. It didn't hurt that Maye has a natural, easy-going charisma, which stood in contrast to Jones's personality, which was about as compelling as an Eggo waffle without syrup. Advertisement When you try to summon positive memories from last season – and I think we agree a full NFL Films recap of the '24 Patriots would run roughly as long as a between-innings commercial break on a NESN Red Sox broadcast — two Maye highlights come to immediately to mind, the kind that make you say, 'Oh, this kid has got it.' Advertisement The first came in the Patriots' Week 9 loss to the Titans, Maye's fourth start, and I suspect you're already replaying this one in your mind. You know the circumstances and the beats, but let's reiterate anyway. With no time left on the clock, the ball on the Tennessee 5, and the Patriots trailing, 17-10, Maye dropped back, patted the ball, scanned the field, scanned some more, bounced left, rolled right, scanned, scanned, scrambled left, eluded one Titan hell-bent on ending the game right then and there, and just as he got crunched by two others, threw the ball across his body to Rhamondre Stevenson for a touchdown, forcing overtime. DRAKE MAYE MAGICCCCCCCCC!!!!!!!!! 📺: FOX — New England Patriots (@Patriots) That cool was evident, too, on a perfectly timed yet almost casual shovel pass for a touchdown to DeMario Douglas during the Patriots' Week 15 loss to the Cardinals. Drake Maye makin' plays for the 📺: 📱: — NFL (@NFL) Of course, highlights are different from achievements. The Patriots won just one of Maye's starts. I'd argue his greatest achievement was looking competent and usually poised with very little help around him. Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper were reliable tight ends. Receivers Kayshon Boutte and Douglas had occasional promising moments. Antonio Gibson gave it his all. But other than that? Let's see. The offensive line was overrun like a busted dam, the best running back kept putting the ball on the ground, the head coach wasn't ready for the job, and the coaching staff was made up mostly of retreads and newbies who were underqualified for their responsibilities. Advertisement I'm not saying Maye came into the most hopeless situation in recent NFL history. That title belongs, perhaps permanently, to David Carr, who got broken by the expansion Texans after being the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft. Getting sacked 76 times in a season will change a man. I am saying the massive disadvantages Maye faced last season have probably been underestimated. And it's going to be fascinating to see how much a leap he can take now that he has a real support system. Related : The upgrade from Mayo to Mike Vrabel is the biggest Patriots head coaching upgrade since Bill Parcells replaced Dick McPherson. (And you know what? I'll hear you on the massive upgrade of going from Pete Carroll — a fine coach now who was way too happy-happy-joy-joy during his three gradually worse years here — to Bill Belichick.) Nearly as important, Vrabel has an experienced, deep, and well-rounded staff, including offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is acclaimed here for his championship collaborations with Tom Brady, but also got the most anyone could have out of Cam Newton and his shot shoulder in 2020 and rookie Eggo Jones a year later. Maye's supporting cast on offense is still a work in progress, one requiring more help in the years ahead. But with Advertisement It's telling that Vrabel has been tough on Maye in preseason, Early returns suggest it's not the relentlessly sarcastic approach that eventually drove Drew Bledsoe to frustration with Parcells, but a sometimes sarcastic approach delivered constructively and often with humor. Vrabel, and McDaniels too, can coach Maye in a way Mayo and Alex Van Pelt could not. It's one more thing Maye needs to become the quarterback his talent, charisma, and highlights from a season worth forgetting, suggest he can be. Chad Finn can be reached at
Boston Globe
28 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Brian Flores can't get an NFL head coaching job, which continues to be to the Vikings' benefit
The Vikings' players are disappointed that Flores, 44, hasn't gained more traction as a head coach candidate. But it also suits them just fine to have him back for a third season as defensive coordinator. 'We would all be happy for him, but it definitely would be a bittersweet moment, losing an important piece like that,' seventh-year linebacker Blake Cashman said after the Vikings held a Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement Flores has the résumé of a coach who should get another opportunity. He won a Super Bowl in New England as defensive play-caller. His Miami tenure looks increasingly better with time — after an 0-7 start with several blowouts, Flores finished 24-18 and built a hard-nosed, tough culture. And now Flores is thriving in Minnesota, building the Vikings into an aggressive, top-five defense. Advertisement Yet Flores, who declined an interview request, knows why he's probably not on the top of most owners' lists for potential head coaches. Brian Flores (left) learned at the side of Bill Belichick before leaving New England to coach the Dolphins. Steven Senne/Associated Press Shortly after being fired by the Dolphins, The lawsuit is slowly grinding its way through the legal system, with a judge in 2023 ruling that Flores's suit against the Dolphins must proceed in arbitration, while the suit against the NFL and other teams can proceed. Related : The lawsuit has made After two years of silence, Related : Advertisement 'I don't think anybody in our game cares if it's fair or not,' said CBS analyst Jason McCourty, who played for Flores in New England and Miami. 'Face it, there was a point where Flores was suing the NFL, so there's all these mitigating factors. But I've got to imagine his body of work he's done the last two seasons, he's every much deserving of a head coaching job.' Flores's tribulations have been to the Vikings' benefit. After spending the 2022 season on the Steelers' staff, he joined the Vikings as defensive coordinator. A defense that ranked 28th in points allowed before he arrived has finished 13th and fifth in two seasons. Flores is the most aggressive defensive coordinator in the NFL, finishing first in blitz percentage two years in a row — 51.5 percent in 2023 and 38.9 percent in 2024. The Vikings led the NFL in takeaways (33), were the only defense last year not to allow more touchdowns than interceptions (they had 24 of each). And Flores's defense was the backbone of a team that went 14-3 last year with backup quarterback Sam Darnold, but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Related : In February, Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell lamented that Flores didn't get another head coaching opportunity, but 'we feel like we've got some unfinished business together.' O'Connell, 34-17 in three seasons as a head coach, said Flores has been an invaluable leader and sounding board. 'He's a big-picture thinker that is incredibly detailed and prepared every single day, and I feel so fortunate to have that type of person to lean on in that role,' O'Connell said. 'Beyond the scheme and the X's and O's, and his ability to lead, teach, and motivate, to have that resource for me has been huge, and our dynamic, our relationship, continues to build.' Advertisement And patience may pay off for Flores. He's still young, and now has a more varied résumé, with 15 years learning under Belichick, plus one year with Mike Tomlin, and three with O'Connell. 'He's a big part of the reason why this organization continues to head in the right direction,' Cashman said. 'My favorite thing about Flo is how he challenges each individual player to continue to improve their football IQ. I almost see it as a requirement to play on this defense, to really have a high knowledge of this game. He just adds a lot of excitement and joy to this game for us, we love him, and we're happy he's here.' Ben Volin can be reached at
