bobbartop
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April 8th, 2020 at 11:26:55 PM permalink
This is a big event that was scheduled to go down in New York but was cancelled for obvious reasons. So one of our local California Indian casinos is going to host it, a dozen UFC martial arts fights. There will be no audience and the casino is still closed to gamblers. But there will be a couple dozen fighters, bleeding and sharing their sweat in the ring, and whatever amount of people it will take to support this event.

My opinion? Anything for a buck. This was one of the very last casinos to close here, even as other casinos were closing on their own, this one closed when they were forced to close by the State on March 20. They cite "sovereign nation, sovereign land". But just how sovereign are they? Isn't it our military and our police that protect them?

This is a big casino, and very successful. I know many people there, players and employees. I thought it was kind of chicken sh*t to continue all the way to the end. What if an employee wanted to stay home? Would they have risked losing their good job?

Money talks, coronavirus walks.
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
AZDuffman
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April 9th, 2020 at 3:55:55 AM permalink
Quote: bobbartop

This is a big event that was scheduled to go down in New York but was cancelled for obvious reasons. So one of our local California Indian casinos is going to host it, a dozen UFC martial arts fights. There will be no audience and the casino is still closed to gamblers. But there will be a couple dozen fighters, bleeding and sharing their sweat in the ring, and whatever amount of people it will take to support this event.

My opinion? Anything for a buck. This was one of the very last casinos to close here, even as other casinos were closing on their own, this one closed when they were forced to close by the State on March 20. They cite "sovereign nation, sovereign land". But just how sovereign are they? Isn't it our military and our police that protect them?

This is a big casino, and very successful. I know many people there, players and employees. I thought it was kind of chicken sh*t to continue all the way to the end. What if an employee wanted to stay home? Would they have risked losing their good job?

Money talks, coronavirus walks.



Nobody is forcing anyone to participate.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 4:50:01 AM permalink
Good for them. They seem to be taking reasonable actions to minimize the risk of spread and still maintain commerce.
ThatDonGuy
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April 9th, 2020 at 6:56:48 AM permalink
I just wonder how they're going to get to the casino. Since everybody knows where it is, what stops Governor Newsom from posting, for example, Highway Patrol blockades at every road that enters the tribe's land? In that case, do they fly everybody in by helicopter?
bobbartop
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April 9th, 2020 at 6:57:00 AM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

Good for them. They seem to be taking reasonable actions to minimize the risk of spread and still maintain commerce.




Good for them, they had to be forced to close when all other casinos around them had voluntarily closed weeks earlier. If they hadn't been forced, they probably would not have closed. Never mind the welfare of their employees. Cash is king.
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
AZDuffman
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:20:40 AM permalink
Quote: bobbartop

Good for them, they had to be forced to close when all other casinos around them had voluntarily closed weeks earlier. If they hadn't been forced, they probably would not have closed. Never mind the welfare of their employees. Cash is king.



Employees being able to have a place to go back to work for is indeed caring about their welfare. Do you even know what it is for a business to go weeks without revenue?
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:22:54 AM permalink
Quote: bobbartop

Good for them, they had to be forced to close when all other casinos around them had voluntarily closed weeks earlier. If they hadn't been forced, they probably would not have closed. Never mind the welfare of their employees. Cash is king.



How many of their employees will be needed when there isn't any crowd? Minimal security, no ushers, ticket people, concession workers, etc. etc. etc. IMO, there should be reasonable and risk managed efforts to promote commerce, even in the entertainment industry. Many factors can go into that, but if this area isn't a 'hot spot' (and I have no idea of the location) then I say have at it with reasonable mitigation efforts.
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:38:14 AM permalink
Quote: AZDuffman

Employees being able to have a place to go back to work for is indeed caring about their welfare. Do you even know what it is for a business to go weeks without revenue?



Exactly! Business needs to happen, otherwise people can lose homes, can't eat, or may turn to the bottle, syringe, or pill to deal with it. Homelessness rises, social programs (which is a story for another day) are overrun, crime goes up and so on.

It blows my mind how so many people are willing to give up freedoms so quickly. I'm all for taking reasonable precautions to slow the spread to not overwhelm the healthcare system. But the message around distancing that has been driven home is 100% medical. That's why I expect elected officials and the public, who have the capacity to reason, to weigh the medical message with the need for commerce.
TDVegas
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:44:46 AM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

Exactly! Business needs to happen, otherwise people can lose homes, can't eat, or may turn to the bottle, syringe, or pill to deal with it. Homelessness rises, social programs (which is a story for another day) are overrun, crime goes up and so on.

It blows my mind how so many people are willing to give up freedoms so quickly. I'm all for taking reasonable precautions to slow the spread to not overwhelm the healthcare system. But the message around distancing that has been driven home is 100% medical. That's why I expect elected officials and the public, who have the capacity to reason, to weigh the medical message with the need for commerce.


I would agree. The contagion is not going away until there is a vaccine. We cannot shut commerce down until late 2021 when we might see a vaccine or credible treatment.

In the meantime, homes are lost, financial destruction ensues...not to mention everything else associated with loss of income.

Stress
Crime
Spousal abuse
Heart attacks
Strokes
Depression to suicide
Financial ruin

We have to find a away, even with risk...to get the economics moving again. In Vegas, the financial tentacles of casino and resort shutdowns reaches just about every damn business here in some way or another.

I’m hearing very little about the fallout beyond the direct issue of the virus. As each day goes by that fallout grows exponentially as well.

I thought Dana White said he was securing an island off the California coast...not a reservation to conduct UFC events.
AZDuffman
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:55:09 AM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

Exactly! Business needs to happen, otherwise people can lose homes, can't eat, or may turn to the bottle, syringe, or pill to deal with it. Homelessness rises, social programs (which is a story for another day) are overrun, crime goes up and so on.

It blows my mind how so many people are willing to give up freedoms so quickly. I'm all for taking reasonable precautions to slow the spread to not overwhelm the healthcare system. But the message around distancing that has been driven home is 100% medical. That's why I expect elected officials and the public, who have the capacity to reason, to weigh the medical message with the need for commerce.



There is an early episode of "Sliders" where they slide into a world without antibiotics and a disease rages. Life is dystopian, fast food is awful and served in shrink wrapped bags. If you cough in public you are hauled away to a sick camp. I fear we are headed in that general direction with all kinds of overreaction to what will be "normal" after lockdown ends. As if getting sick from anything will be a 100% unacceptable risk.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
SOOPOO
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April 9th, 2020 at 7:59:59 AM permalink
Quote: bobbartop

This is a big event that was scheduled to go down in New York but was cancelled for obvious reasons. So one of our local California Indian casinos is going to host it, a dozen UFC martial arts fights. There will be no audience and the casino is still closed to gamblers. But there will be a couple dozen fighters, bleeding and sharing their sweat in the ring, and whatever amount of people it will take to support this event.

My opinion? Anything for a buck. This was one of the very last casinos to close here, even as other casinos were closing on their own, this one closed when they were forced to close by the State on March 20. They cite "sovereign nation, sovereign land". But just how sovereign are they? Isn't it our military and our police that protect them?

This is a big casino, and very successful. I know many people there, players and employees. I thought it was kind of chicken sh*t to continue all the way to the end. What if an employee wanted to stay home? Would they have risked losing their good job?

Money talks, coronavirus walks.



As usual, more complicated than it seems. I think everyone is aware that in Florida, somehow the WWE got an exemption of some sort and put on Wrestlemania, probably the exact same risk as the UFC fights. A few dozen people probably at risk at each event. I am in favor of these events being allowed to go on, as it is probably less dangerous than the conglomeration of people waiting for their take out pizza at local pizzeria. Before they go to their 'essential' construction job finishing a football stadium. Before they pick up their dry cleaning.

I am pretty sure all the sovereign Indian reservations have treaties with the states that surround them, and you would have to know the details of the contracts to figure out what the governor could legally do. I am surmising that in the treaty it says something like "cannot interfere with passage in and out of the reservation..."

Out of all the sports I watch, I think UFC fights without fans will be ok to watch. The way the lighting is, when watching at home, you don't notice the fans like you do at a football game, baseball game, etc....
If it goes off, I'll be watching.....
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 8:52:06 AM permalink
Quote: SOOPOO

As usual, more complicated than it seems. I think everyone is aware that in Florida, somehow the WWE got an exemption of some sort and put on Wrestlemania, probably the exact same risk as the UFC fights. A few dozen people probably at risk at each event. I am in favor of these events being allowed to go on, as it is probably less dangerous than the conglomeration of people waiting for their take out pizza at local pizzeria. Before they go to their 'essential' construction job finishing a football stadium. Before they pick up their dry cleaning.

I am pretty sure all the sovereign Indian reservations have treaties with the states that surround them, and you would have to know the details of the contracts to figure out what the governor could legally do. I am surmising that in the treaty it says something like "cannot interfere with passage in and out of the reservation..."

Out of all the sports I watch, I think UFC fights without fans will be ok to watch. The way the lighting is, when watching at home, you don't notice the fans like you do at a football game, baseball game, etc....
If it goes off, I'll be watching.....



All good points.

I was surprised, probably shouldn't have been, the golf shut down too. Golf by it's nature, can easily accommodate social distancing if you remove the crowds/gallery (or patrons as they are know in Augusta). The only real contact there is the player and his caddy who are often times close anyhow. If you don't have crowds, there isn't a need for anybody else other than a scorer with the group, and limited media who can maintain an acceptable distance from each other. I think it would have been entertaining to watch professional level golf without crowds and stands to hit into and then get favorable drops.

I'm disappointed the PGA, green coats at Augusta, the USGA, and the R&A postponed or cancelled events. I feel they did it only to maintain a positive PR image. Anyway, I'm just griping because today would have been the first round of the Masters, which I know most people don't care about that much, but the next four days would have been pure sports bliss for me!
SOOPOO
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April 9th, 2020 at 9:21:37 AM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

All good points.

I was surprised, probably shouldn't have been, the golf shut down too. Golf by it's nature, can easily accommodate social distancing if you remove the crowds/gallery (or patrons as they are know in Augusta). The only real contact there is the player and his caddy who are often times close anyhow. If you don't have crowds, there isn't a need for anybody else other than a scorer with the group, and limited media who can maintain an acceptable distance from each other. I think it would have been entertaining to watch professional level golf without crowds and stands to hit into and then get favorable drops.

I'm disappointed the PGA, green coats at Augusta, the USGA, and the R&A postponed or cancelled events. I feel they did it only to maintain a positive PR image. Anyway, I'm just griping because today would have been the first round of the Masters, which I know most people don't care about that much, but the next four days would have been pure sports bliss for me!



Professional golf is shut down in part because of the travel needed between events. And they get a lot of their money from ticket sales, corporate tents, etc....

Golf is NOT shut down!

wivb.com

There is an interview with a woV member (me!) about playing using social distancing rules. It was on 4/7/2020.


As I was typing above, Cuomo just added golf courses to non-essential business list, thus crushing another small business for no rational reason. It was an easy example of a business that could be adapted to acceptable social distancing.
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 10:04:15 AM permalink
Quote: SOOPOO

Professional golf is shut down in part because of the travel needed between events. And they get a lot of their money from ticket sales, corporate tents, etc....

Golf is NOT shut down!

wivb.com

There is an interview with a woV member (me!) about playing using social distancing rules. It was on 4/7/2020.


As I was typing above, Cuomo just added golf courses to non-essential business list, thus crushing another small business for no rational reason. It was an easy example of a business that could be adapted to acceptable social distancing.



I didn't mean to imply that golf itself was shut down, just that the major tours were shut down.

Luckily courses here in Iowa are still open with virus mitigating rules in place. Hopefully we won't go into full shutdown of the courses.
bobbartop
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April 9th, 2020 at 10:27:13 AM permalink
Quote: AZDuffman

Employees being able to have a place to go back to work for is indeed caring about their welfare. Do you even know what it is for a business to go weeks without revenue?



I don't think you are reading me. I'm not saying I don't want them to go back to work, I'm saying that this casino had to be forced to close when all the other casinos here had voluntarily closed a couple weeks earlier and nobody knew wtf was going to happen. At that point, everyone could have died, they didn't know what was going to happen. Please don't talk to me like I'm a child. You know me, and I am not "anti-business".
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
SanchoPanza
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April 9th, 2020 at 10:35:10 AM permalink
Quote: SOOPOO

I am in favor of these events being allowed to go on, as it is probably less dangerous than the conglomeration of people waiting for their take out pizza at local pizzeria. Before they go to their 'essential' construction job finishing a football stadium. Before they pick up their dry cleaning.

You have dry cleaners? Where?
MidwestAP
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April 9th, 2020 at 11:39:36 AM permalink
Quote: bobbartop

I don't think you are reading me. I'm not saying I don't want them to go back to work, I'm saying that this casino had to be forced to close when all the other casinos here had voluntarily closed a couple weeks earlier and nobody knew wtf was going to happen. At that point, everyone could have died, they didn't know what was going to happen. Please don't talk to me like I'm a child. You know me, and I am not "anti-business".



How could "everyone have died" when there is what will probably turn out to be a 0.5% to 1.5% mortality rate? I mean I guess, but I think assuming a 1% mortality rate, that would be calculate to a VERY small chance. Specifically 0.01^(number of employees + guests). And even that is presuming that everybody picks up the virus. It's even less if you calculate that many wouldn't even get it.

Statements like "everyone could have died" are alarmist and what is fueling so much of the reaction to close everything, to shelter in place, to stay home. Almost as if the virus is camped around your house or apartment just ready to jump on you.

It is serious, I'm not saying it isn't, but if some fighters want to fight, and some people want to get paid to make it happen, good on them.
ThatDonGuy
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April 9th, 2020 at 2:43:09 PM permalink
Quote: SOOPOO

As usual, more complicated than it seems. I think everyone is aware that in Florida, somehow the WWE got an exemption of some sort and put on Wrestlemania, probably the exact same risk as the UFC fights. A few dozen people probably at risk at each event. I am in favor of these events being allowed to go on, as it is probably less dangerous than the conglomeration of people waiting for their take out pizza at local pizzeria. Before they go to their 'essential' construction job finishing a football stadium. Before they pick up their dry cleaning.


WrestleMania was pre-taped - not just the Undertaker/Styles and Cena/Wyatt matches, but all of them. All matches were taped before the Florida lockdown went into effect.
SOOPOO
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April 9th, 2020 at 2:51:39 PM permalink
Quote: SanchoPanza

You have dry cleaners? Where?



Suburban Buffalo (Williamsville).

I'd say more but not interested in a politics related ban today....
SOOPOO
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April 9th, 2020 at 2:53:28 PM permalink
Quote: ThatDonGuy

WrestleMania was pre-taped - not just the Undertaker/Styles and Cena/Wyatt matches, but all of them. All matches were taped before the Florida lockdown went into effect.



I was under the impression that they are still working at the 'performance center'. Even after Wrestlemania... (Raw and Smackdown)
Am I wrong?
bobbartop
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April 9th, 2020 at 2:56:21 PM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

How could "everyone have died" when there is what will probably turn out to be a 0.5% to 1.5% mortality rate? I mean I guess, but I think assuming a 1% mortality rate, that would be calculate to a VERY small chance. Specifically 0.01^(number of employees + guests). And even that is presuming that everybody picks up the virus. It's even less if you calculate that many wouldn't even get it.




They didn't know squat a month ago, and neither did you. All we knew a month ago was that they were welding peoples' apartments shut in Wuhan. Go ahead and have the fights, I don't gaf. This casino was very slow to take any measures a month ago, that's what I'm saying, not going to sit here arguing with you.
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
DRich
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April 9th, 2020 at 2:59:29 PM permalink
Quote: MidwestAP

I didn't mean to imply that golf itself was shut down, just that the major tours were shut down.

Luckily courses here in Iowa are still open with virus mitigating rules in place. Hopefully we won't go into full shutdown of the courses.



They just shut down all golf courses in Las Vegas. Those were the only two times that I have left the house in the last week.
At my age, a "Life In Prison" sentence is not much of a deterrent.
SOOPOO
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April 9th, 2020 at 3:08:16 PM permalink
Quote: DRich

They just shut down all golf courses in Las Vegas. Those were the only two times that I have left the house in the last week.



I think it is a foolish idea. If they have identified a non-essential business as safe with new guidelines, they should of course allow it to be open. That is what a golf course is. Golf course owners are classic small business owners. Here in Buffalo have a 'factory' worth maybe $3-4 million, with 15 or so employees. A lot of fixed costs as well. They would have been losing a little money at half capacity, but staying afloat. Now forced closure... still have to pay real estate taxes, fertilizer, water, etc.... So foolish.
tringlomane
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April 9th, 2020 at 3:41:37 PM permalink
It's off now. ESPN told UFC not to do it.

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/29018339/dana-white-says-ufc-249-not-happen-april-18
billryan
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April 9th, 2020 at 4:00:20 PM permalink
I've never been backstage at a UFC event, but a typical wrestling pay per view has an army of technicians, sound engineers, roadies, truck drivers, ect, ect. Last I heard both California and Nevada are under Stay At Home orders. It's also impossible to train properly while observing social distancing. White has mishandled this from the start. So if the fight is off, does the former champ get back the title White stripped from him?
The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction is supposed to make sense.
ThatDonGuy
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April 9th, 2020 at 5:39:28 PM permalink
Quote: SOOPOO

I was under the impression that they are still working at the 'performance center'. Even after Wrestlemania... (Raw and Smackdown)
Am I wrong?


Raw was already taped.

I had heard that there would be no further "new" shows after that, but the WWE website makes it sound like Smackdown will be a new show. If it is, then where it took place is unknown, although there are a handful of states that don't have shelter-in-place orders yet.
Last edited by: ThatDonGuy on Apr 9, 2020
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