Latest news with #scheduling
Arab News
4 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Mauresmo defends French Open schedule and women's primetime snub
PARIS: Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said on Friday it was impossible to 'tick every box' after repeated criticism of the French Open schedule and the absence of any women's matches in the primetime night session. For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport The debate over the lack of women's ties played in the late slot on Court Philippe Chatrier has rumbled on since the session was first added to the French Open schedule in 2021. The first six night sessions of this year's tournament have all involved men's matches. In fact, no women have played in the evening since Aryna Sabalenka beat Sloane Stephens in the fourth round two years ago. Second seed Coco Gauff said she believed women's matches were 'worthy' of the occasion, after three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur again took officials to task over the scheduling. The Tunisian hit out at the same issue last year, and stood by her words this week. 'I hope whoever is making the decision, I don't think they have daughters, because I don't think they want to treat their daughters like this,' said Jabeur, who lost in the first round. Mauresmo, a former world number one who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, said her stance on the matter had not changed — with the night session still consisting of just one match. 'The message has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night,' said Mauresmo. 'I'm talking, and we are talking about potential match lengths. Since men's tennis is played at the best-of-five sets, three sets will be played at a minimum.' The Australian and US Opens both put on two matches in their night sessions, but start earlier and run the risk of finishing in the early hours of the morning. 'If we have two matches in the night session, it doesn't work in terms of how late the players are going to finish. That's my opinion,' said Mauresmo. 'If we start earlier, the stands are going to be empty in most of the first match. So we keep this one match in the evening, it's not ideal. 'We can't tick every box because we have many things to take into account when we are doing these choices.'
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Entrepreneurs Can Automate Their Lives To Save Time
I've personally invested in multiple scheduling apps and automation tools over the years, and what I've consistently realized is that your personal time is one of your greatest assets. Whether it's saving an hour in my day that I could spend teaching my son how to throw a ball, or hitting the gym to prioritize my health, I've learned how impactful it can be to reclaim my time. It's easy for entrepreneurs and leaders to get caught up in using the same strategies that have worked for them in the past, which often makes changing habits difficult. It's also challenging to make an initial investment in the time or resources needed to set up these automations. However, today you can leverage technology more easily than ever before. Thanks to automation becoming more commonly used and its educational resources being readily available, implementing it is a much simpler process than it once was. Here's a simple guide to how entrepreneurs can automate their lives, both professionally and personally, using technology: I admit I'm biased about Zapier—it started from our office during a Missouri Startup Weekend, and I've been friends with its founders since the beginning. Nevertheless, I believe Zapier is one of the most powerful automation tools for entrepreneurs. To save time at work, consider implementing automation for these common tasks. To test how much time I'm spending on tasks, I document a week of work. The following week, I consult with people knowledgeable about automation tools to see if there's a way to implement an automated process for any of those tasks. Once I choose an automation tool, I then document another week of work. To calculate the time saved, I compare how much time I spent using automation to what I previously spent without it. Being able to visualize this saved time is useful because it shows how my initial investment truly pays off. Your time is best spent making decisions, not vacuuming or mowing the lawn. Smart home gadgets have made it easier than ever to outsource personal chores. For example, I started gifting smart vacuums and mops to nonprofits I work with. I remember buying a robot vacuum back when they were first introduced to the market, and I recall how quickly it would fly off my stairs. However, technology has come a long way since then, and it's amazing how these devices can efficiently clean a house or office. After trying a variety of brands, I landed on Yeedi. I wanted a solution that could handle extensive cleaning for a household or office, especially for someone with disabilities. For instance, the M14 Plus not only vacuums and mops, but also self-dumps dirty water and even self-dries. When I saw this, I ended up getting units for a couple of my offices, and now I don't even worry about picking up a broom or a mop. Consider anything that regularly takes time out of your day and see if there's a quality product that could automate that task. Buying back your time with such gadgets is well worth the investment. A bonus: it also makes things look more technologically advanced when people visit your house or the office. Smart assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple's Siri can handle countless small tasks that would otherwise interrupt your flow. As simple as it was a year or so ago, I recall an instance where an employee, while looking at a number in an email, asked Siri to call the number and read it off. I've personally lost count of how often I've copied and pasted information, then navigated away from an email, only to discover something doesn't work when a simple voice command could have resolved it. Here are some additional ways to integrate smart assistants into your daily tasks for enhanced productivity. When integrated with other smart devices, these assistants can trigger routines that automate your environment according to your schedule. Managing finances can be a significant time drain. Fortunately, financial apps have evolved considerably, now automating expense categorization and computations that once required manual effort. Whether for personal or business expenses, many of these processes can now be automated. Here are some tools to help with that. Simply reviewing automated data for a few minutes each week, instead of handling everything manually, can save a lot of time. Automation may seem robotic at times, but it offers undeniable benefits in time savings. All too often, leaders wear many hats, but not every task requires their direct attention. By leveraging various automation tools, software, and tactics, you'll gain more freedom to innovate, lead, and grow your business with clarity and focus. Additionally, you can spend more of that redeemed time with the special people in your life.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
First look at Nicolas Cage playing John Madden
How bad teams benefit from consistent scheduling Mike Florio and Chris Simms weigh in on which least-relevant team they think has the best shot at the most primetime games and explain how there's something to be said about having 1 p.m. ET games every week. 1:58 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
NFL continues to navigate scheduling puzzle with every game up for bid and more broadcast windows
NBC Sports President Rick Cordella put it best when summarizing what the NFL 's scheduling department goes through each year. 'I have five kids at home and you never satisfy them all. Just try and do your best, so I think it's a little bit of that,' Cordella said Wednesday afternoon after he had a chance to look at the 'Sunday Night Football' slate for the upcoming season. 'They have really, really hard jobs. I have no doubt. We're all campaigning. We're all leveraging. We all pay a lot of money for these rights and we all want the same thing.' One would think the job has gotten somewhat easier the past couple years as the league has come up with more broadcast windows, including making Christmas Day a permanent fixture. The trade off though is that this is the third year under the league's broadcast deals that all of the games are up for bid for every network. CBS remains the primary home of the AFC, with the NFC on Fox, but if there is a great NFC matchup during a week when CBS has the doubleheader, that game will end up on CBS. That is the case in Week 1 with Minnesota visiting Green Bay in the 4:25 p.m. EDT spot. Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, said this year's rotation of the NFC North facing the AFC North and NFC East created a lot of favorable matchups to divide among all the network's broadcast partners. 'We love every schedule in May. Hopefully we love it in December too,' said Schroeder, who is in his second year leading the league's scheduling team. 'We have a lot of great matchups, and the flexibility of those new TV deals that every game could go into any widow, I think that's the key and to marry that with a team that is relentless in their effort, I think led to a fun and really great schedule.' Down to the wire again Even though the league announced the release date during the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24, the schedule wasn't totally finalized until Tuesday. Because some of the games started to be announced on Monday during network upfront presentations to advertisers, those matchups were locked in on Sunday night. The biggest final-minute decision with the early announced games came with the Fox Week 16 Saturday doubleheader on Dec. 20. The league knew it wanted Packers vs. Bears and Eagles vs. Commanders, but didn't finalize the home teams until Sunday night. Bills vs. Chiefs remains on CBS If ever there was a year where the league could opt to move the Buffalo- Kansas City game from CBS to prime time, this was the one. However, the Week 9 matchup will again be on CBS and is the only 4:25 p.m. game on Nov. 2. Going into this season, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have faced each other nine times, including the playoffs. The first matchup in 2020 was on Fox with the rest being on CBS. 'To be documenting the story of these franchises and star quarterbacks, we're thrilled to keep telling it,' CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson said. CBS also got what could be the most-watched game during the regular season with Kansas City visiting Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The most-watched Thanksgiving game was in 2022 when the New York Giants win over Dallas averaged 42.06 million on Fox. The Chiefs and Bills are both slated to have nine games on CBS. Hello again It is rare that a Super Bowl rematch airs on the network that carried the game, but Fox gets Kansas City visiting Philadelphia on Week 2 in the 4:25 p.m. EDT window. Getting the rematch satisfied a couple of requests that Fox made to the league. The network wants more variety in its late afternoon window, and is also getting more quality matchups when the top AFC teams play on their network. 'We didn't want to be so reliant on the Dallas Cowboys. I think we hear complaints sometimes that fans feel like it gets a little bit monotonous that our 4:25 window is dominated by one team,' said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics. 'We're certainly still going to have our share of Dallas games, but we're going to have some Philly in there too. We're also going to have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington. I think it is pretty different than what you're used to seeing on Fox, and I think it's actually going to be a little bit better.' Under the lights NBC not only has the Kickoff game between Dallas and Philadelphia on Sept. 4, it has the matchup between the last two NFL MVPs when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Allen and Buffalo on Sept. 7 on 'Sunday Night Football'. ABC will have 13 'Monday Night Football' games — 11 simulcasts with ESPN and two exclusive games. There will also be two MNF doubleheaders on Sept. 15 and Oct. 20. The Week 7 doubleheader will have the late game between Houston and Seattle streamed on ESPN+. 'Thursday Night Football on Prime Video' features all 14 playoff teams from last year as well as 10 divisional matchups. Prime Video concludes its regular-season slate with Denver at Kansas City on Christmas night. No late surprises Derek Carr's retirement did not have any impact on New Orleans' schedule. The Saints were already in a rebuilding mode under new coach Kellen Moore and join Cleveland and Tennessee as the only teams not slated to make a prime time appearance. Pittsburgh is already a national brand, so the waiting game on if Aaron Rodgers suits up in black and yellow or who will be Mike Tomlin's quarterback also didn't have much of a factor. The Steelers — along with AFC North rivals Baltimore and Cincinnati — have four prime time games. However, in case Rodgers decides to sign with Pittsburgh, his Week 1 opponent will be at the New York Jets and former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields. ___
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Meet the man behind the NFL schedule, on the verge of his retirement
Howard Katz had just finished his presentation to NFL coaches and general managers, explaining how he and his team make the league's schedule. 'Have you ever done that presentation before?' a coach asked him. 'Yes, but not to this audience,' Katz replied. 'You should never do it again.' 'Seriously? … Why?' Advertisement 'I always thought the scheduling process was completely random,' the coach said. 'It bothers me to know there's a small group of people who have that much control over destiny.' For two decades, Katz has been at the center of each year's NFL schedule. Coaches and networks lobby him for perks and complain about grievances. He's the unknown planner behind every NFL fan's fall Sundays. The schedule-making process spans from January to May, refining endless possibilities in an infinite pattern of give-and-take. 'The same thing over and over again, expecting a different result,' Katz said during a recent phone call. 'That's what we do for months.' After the 2025 schedule is unveiled Wednesday, Katz, 75, will retire from being the league's senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. Sports were always a part of Katz's life, but he never pictured a career in the industry. At Colgate University, Katz was the sports editor of the school newspaper and sports director at the radio station, where he did play-by-play for the football, basketball and baseball teams. After graduating in 1971, Katz was offered a job as a production assistant at ABC Sports. 'I didn't know what it entailed, but it seemed pretty cool,' he said. For the next year, he worked for various sporting events, including 'Monday Night Football' and the 1972 Munich Olympics. 'I figured I'd do that for a year or so, and then I'd go to law school,' Katz said. 'But I never got to law school.' Various production opportunities followed, including stops at ESPN, where he helped launch ESPN2, among other initiatives, and a return to ABC Sports as president. In 2003, Katz landed with the NFL. Within a year, his role running the business side of NFL Films merged into leading the league's broadcast department. Advertisement Katz's background in the television business brought a new perspective to the scheduling process, particularly as the NFL grew into one of the country's most lucrative television products. In 2023, the league began an 11-season media rights agreement with Amazon Prime Video, ESPN, NBC, Fox and CBS worth $110 billion, nearly double the value of its previous contracts. Partnerships with Netflix for Christmas Day games and Peacock, the streaming service of NBC, followed. And, as reported last week by The Athletic, Google's YouTube has emerged as a favorite to stream its first NFL game on Friday of opening week. In the schedule-making room, Katz's biggest impact was meshing team needs with broadcast desires, vice president of broadcast planning Mike North said. '(Katz was) really the one that pulled everything together. He was the right guy at the right time as we transitioned from a couple of guys in a room with a pegboard to managing what ended up being $100 billion worth of media,' North said. 'The reason (broadcasters) pay the money now, quite honestly, is because Howard showed them they're going to have an opportunity to get their priorities met as well as taking care of our teams.' When Katz started, he and his team used one or two computers to assist the scheduling process. Now, there are anywhere from 200 to 300 computers at their disposal. The team trains the computers to think the way they do, inputting rules to reflect their wants. For example, they input a rule to avoid three-game road trips, and the computers formulate schedules that follow the criteria as closely as possible. Each morning, Katz evaluates the computers' suggestions, highlights the positives, inputs new rules to correct the negatives and begins the process again. But it still boils down to human input. Advertisement There's no shortage of factors that impact each year's schedule. There are international and holiday games. Schedule-making begins in earnest after the Super Bowl, but notable trades and selections in the NFL Draft can result in last-minute adjustments. They receive personal requests, like teams asking to schedule around weddings, bar mitzvahs or previously planned vacations. There are situational hurdles like avoiding overlap with certain cities' MLB home games or concerts, which is probably the most difficult, Katz said. There are special circumstances, too. Katz remembers, in 2015, having to avoid an Eagles home game on the same weekend the Pope visited Philadelphia. Or, in 2020, spending the entire summer planning for every what-if amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if it required moving a Ravens-Steelers game to a Wednesday, the league finished that season with zero cancellations, which Katz considers his most remarkable accomplishment. 'It's funny, usually at the March annual meeting, coaches, general managers, owners, will all be lobbying for something, whether it's more prime-time games, 'Don't send me here after this game,'' Katz said. 'And then by the May meeting, after the schedules come out, I'm hearing from everybody about what they liked or what they didn't like. 'People aren't bashful about that.' Listening to requests and balancing them against what's best for the NFL is at the core of Katz's work. He has seen the DNA of the schedule change. At one point, he and his team felt strongly about putting more division games late in the season. In 2010, the league began drawing up only divisional games in the final week of the regular season. 'That was a central moment in the scheduling process,' Katz said. 'Once we did it, we said, 'This really works. We should never go back.'' Advertisement More changes could be on the way, too. Commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed interest in expanding to an 18-game season, which would further complicate the scheduling puzzle. 'As a fan, I love it. If I can swap out a preseason weekend for another regular-season weekend, and if we do end up adding a second bye for every team, you're talking 20 weeks of NFL football instead of 18,' North said. 'As a member of the scheduling team, it's daunting.' Katz's work earned him induction into the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame in 2014, and he was the 2022 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. At this year's annual league meeting, Goodell recognized Katz in front of team executives, who gave him a standing ovation. 'It really means a lot to me, because I put my heart and soul into this,' Katz said. 'To know that whatever I did was appreciated goes a long way.' The future for Katz is still being decided. He grew up a New York Giants fan but has spent the last 23 years impartial. He took his grandchild to Super Bowl LIX, which made the 9-year-old an Eagles fan, but most of his other grandchildren took on the family's Giants fandom, with one New York Jets rebel. Katz plans to find another hobby soon. His retirement wasn't sudden, and the scheduling team has slowly been preparing for this transition over the past few years. Executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder now leads the scheduling team. Nonetheless, North feels confident that if they have to call Katz up with questions, he'll answer. But first, it's time for Katz's final reveal. 'There are an incredible number of really strong games (on the 2025 schedule); games that Howard would say 'Sounds like a football game,'' North said. 'And so we've got an opportunity here. Yes, we're spreading ourselves a little more thin, adding in streaming partners, more days of the week, Christmas, Black Friday, Friday night in Week 1 and more international games. 'There are definitely more mouths to feed, but it feels like we've got a real buffet on our hands for the 272 (matchups) this year.' (Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; photo: Bobby Bank / Getty Images)
