Sports News From Elsewhere

    I recently offered you "News From Elsewhere" which gathered stories you may have missed. Now you are presented with sport stats unrelated to the ones you watched this weekend. These activities are more exotic (with the exception of soccer) than the baseball, football and hockey you watched, and the stuff about soccer will at least give you something to talk about when the World Cup starts. As well, learning about these sports will prepare you for the TV future, when the major sports you used to watch have disappeared from the major networks. 

Formula 1

 "Last year’s Mexican Grand Prix attracted three hundred and seventy thousand spectators. The Singapore race runs through the city at night. (Drivers can shed six pounds in stress and sweat.) The average television audience for a Formula I race is around seventy million people – four times that of the typical N.F.L. game – and the best drivers earn around soccer star-salaries and lasting fame. When Ayrton Senna, a three-time world champion was killed in a race, in 1994, the Brazilian government declared three days of mourning. A million people waited in the heat to pay their respects, and many spoke of their saudade – an inexpressible state of longing for  something that is gone."

The above is from this very interesting article: “The Sporting Scene: In Reverse: Driving to Survive at the Top of Formula 1.” Sam Knight, The New Yorker, Oct. 31, 2022.

Cricket

These data are from this piece: “American Money Has Discovered Indian Cricket: Billion-dollar investment funds and N.F.L. ownership groups are among those angling for a foothold in the Indian Premier League. The returns, not the sport, are the draw,” Mike Jakeman, New York Times, Nov. 1, 2022.

“When we first started looking at cricket, we were by no means experts,” Scheiner said. “But the more we studied it, the more we realized it felt like the N.F.L. did 20 years ago.”

That was why, in June 2021, RedBird bought a 15 percent stake in Rajasthan Royals, a team that competes in the Indian Premier League, for $37.5 million. The money that has poured into the league over the past 15 months suggests that RedBird got a bargain.

Four months after that deal closed, an I.P.L. expansion team sold for $940 million. Eight months after that, the league negotiated new television and digital broadcasting rights agreements worth $6.2 billion.

At more than $1 billion a year, that means India’s top cricket competition — a closed league with only 10 teams — now generates annual broadcast revenues on par with top leagues like the N.F.L. ($10 billion a year), England’s Premier League (about $6.9 billion) and the N.B.A. ($2.7 billion).

On a per-match basis, in fact, the I.P.L., whose season lasts only two months, now ranks behind only the N.F.L....

And suddenly a lot of people want in."

The World Cup 2022

"Qatar, the smallest country to ever host the World Cup, has poured more than $220 billion into preparations for the event, erecting miles of highways, a metro system, a new airport, stadiums and high-rises.

Dire working conditions for migrant laborers in Qatar came under fire after scores of them died on World Cup-related construction sites....

The country has produced eight new stadiums with soccer pitches covered in grass flown in from the United States and outdoor air conditioning systems that can lower the temperature by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius). Last month, Qatari officials announced the addition of 30,000 rooms to meet the surge in demand for accommodation, including some on cruise ships and traditional wooden boats known as dhows….

An estimated 1.5 million international visitors — around half of Qatar’s total population — will pour into the country over the month long event, which is typically hosted across multiple, major cities. Qatar is about the size of Connecticut.

Housekeepers in one ritzy hotel in West Bay, one of Doha’s upscale neighborhoods, will be tasked with cleaning 80 rooms a day — up from the usual 20, they say. When asked if he thought the newly minted metro could handle thousands of drunk fans, the station agent at a stop in the neighborhood smiled, shook his head and muttered “no way” between exaggerated coughs.

They have announced entertainment, including beach clubs, carnivals, futuristic light shows and two month long music festivals. One involves D.J.s performing on a 50-foot-tall, flame-flowing mechanical spider borrowed from the Glastonbury Festival in England and reminiscent of a futuristic alien tank from the video game Halo."

The above is from: "The World Cup Is Weeks Away. Will Qatar Be Ready?

As sports fans prepare to flood the tiny Gulf nation, cranes and loaders are still running hard — as is criticism of Qatar’s human rights record and exploitation of workers,"  Christina Goldbaum, New York Times,  Nov. 4, 2022

The Bonus:

   What does F1 mean? Here is the answer: "The “formula” of Formula 1 refers to a set of rules, first enshrined after the Second World War, to bring some order to the urge to race dangerous cars on the asphalt of foreign cities". 

  Qatar may not be a welcoming place for some. From my earlier post about the Olympics in Rio, I learned this: "Qatar: Sharia law in Qatar applies only to Muslims, who can be put to death for extramarital sex, regardless of sexual orientation." For attitudes about such things in other countries see: "Rainbow Flags and Olympic Ones." 

   While covering sports for you, I ran across another example of an aptronym from the wonderful world of boxing.

The headline: "Former Heavyweight Boxer Charged With Trafficking $1 Billion of Cocaine," New York Times, Nov. 2, 2022.

Spot the aptronym:

"Goran Gogic helped move vast amounts of cocaine from Colombia to Europe using U.S. ports, prosecutors said. One haul was among the largest cocaine seizures in U.S. history, they said.

Lawrence A. Hashish, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who said he represented Mr. Gogic, said that the charges “came as a surprise.” Mr. Hashish said his client had traveled for a boxing convention in Puerto Rico and that there hadn’t been an outstanding arrest warrant before his arrival in the United States."

Sources: 

  They have been provided above, but if  you don’t know what a GOOGLY or LOLLY is, or the difference between a JAFFA and a PERHAPSER, see: “15 Corker Cricket Terms, Deciphered," Angela Tung, mentalfloss.com, May, 5, 2016.

  If you have forgotten what "aptronyms" are see: "Aptronyms" 

Rainbow Flags and Olympic Ones

Report from Rio

Given all the camaraderie on display among the countries currently assembled in Rio, perhaps one can excuse the reporter who attempted to report about all the fun some of the gay athletes are having. According to the New York Times today, the Daily Beast thought it best to pull the story since it might not be a good idea if the citizens in some of the countries learned of the gayness of those who are representing them. Here is a list of some of the nations that are somewhat less liberal than ours should you be making travel plans.  The list is not exhaustive, by the way, since the story in the Times mentions that homosexuality is illegal in Tonga as well.

Yemen: According to the 1994 penal code, married men can be sentenced to death by stoning for homosexual intercourse. Unmarried men face whipping or one year in prison. Women face up to seven years in prison.

Iran: In accordance with sharia law, homosexual intercourse between men can be punished by death, and men can be flogged for lesser acts such as kissing. Women may be flogged.

Iraq: The penal code does not expressly prohibit homosexual acts, but people have been killed by militias and sentenced to death by judges citing sharia law.

Mauritania: Muslim men engaging in homosexual sex can be stoned to death, according to a 1984 law. Women face prison.

Nigeria: Federal law classifies homosexual behavior as a felony punishable by imprisonment, but several states have adopted sharia law and imposed a death penalty for men. A law signed in early January makes it illegal for gay people countrywide to hold a meeting or form clubs.

Qatar: Sharia law in Qatar applies only to Muslims, who can be put to death for extramarital sex, regardless of sexual orientation.

Saudi Arabia: Under the country’s interpretation of sharia law, a married man engaging in sodomy or any non-Muslim who commits sodomy with a Muslim can be stoned to death. All sex outside of marriage is illegal.

Somalia: The penal code stipulates prison, but in some southern regions, Islamic courts have imposed Sharia law and the death penalty.

Sudan: Three-time offenders under the sodomy law can be put to death; first and second convictions result in flogging and imprisonment. Southern parts of the country have adopted more lenient laws.

United Arab Emirates: Lawyers in the country and other experts disagree on whether federal law prescribes the death penalty for consensual homosexual sex or only for rape. In a recent Amnesty International report, the organization said it was not aware of any death sentences for homosexual acts. All sexual acts outside of marriage are banned. (The source for this information: ““Here Are the 10 Countries Where Homosexuality May be Punished by Death”, By Max Bearak and Darla Cameron, Washington Post, June 16, 2016.)

The Situation in Canada

Luckily for me, the subject came up just today in “Canada’s Newspaper of Record" which contains the following editorial: “Gay Canadians, and an Apology Due,” Globe and Mail, Aug. 12, 2016. Within it one finds this paragraph:

“The Globe reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will soon apologize to the many Canadians who were prosecuted, imprisoned, fired from jobs or otherwise persecuted because of their sexuality. The list ranges from those criminally charged prior to 1967, when justice minister Pierre Trudeau introduced legislation decriminalizing homosexual acts, to people expelled from the military, which until relatively recently did not allow homosexuals.”