5 weeks ago
Friday Flashback...
Friday, November 13, 2009
I was meandering around YouTube and found the video below. I totally remember sitting in my living room watching this on MTV. So, here's a little flashback for your viewing pleasure.
For Sale: The AFL?
All that’s left of AFL on the block
Print This Story By JOHN LOMBARDO
Staff writer
Print This Story By JOHN LOMBARDO
Staff writer
The AFL’s Philadelphia Soul had to fight to win 17 games and the right to hoist the Jim Foster ArenaBowl trophy in 2008. Now, anyone with a checkbook will likely be able to buy the championship hardware as part of a bankruptcy auction set for Nov. 25.
If the 60-pound silver trophy isn’t attractive enough, how about the authentic playing field from the Grand Rapids Rampage franchise? The field is listed as an asset of the shuttered league, which is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Northern District of Illinois U.S. Bankruptcy Court has appointed a trustee to sell the AFL’s assets.
As a result, the AFL’s intellectual property, including the name and logo for the league and all of its teams’ names and logos, is on the block along with myriad other items, such a 25 boxes of AFL equipment stashed in an O’Hare Airport storage facility, 40 boxes of AFL merchandise, and two flat-screen televisions still attached to a wall in the league’s Chicago office.
It is unclear what the sale means for any future iteration of the league, or whether a buyer of the AFL assets will resurrect it. A group led by Jerry Kurz, a co-investor in the AFL, already has created arenafootbal1, a new startup indoor league based in Tulsa, Okla.
There is no minimum bid or value listed for the assets and all proceeds are earmarked for a wide-ranging list of AFL creditors, including Fifth Third Bank, the largest secured creditor, which is owed $7.7 million. Other nonsecured creditors include former rights holder NBC, which is owed $1.59 million. Former AFL Commissioner David Baker is owed $985,000.
Baker said he is “saddened and disappointed” by what has happened to the league, adding that in 2008, the AFL had a $1 million gate for the ArenaBowl, record expansion fees and record attendance. “I sincerely believed the league was never stronger,” he said.
Former TV rights holder and minority investor ESPN is owed $540,000 and the AFL Philadelphia Soul franchise, co-owned by Jon Bon Jovi, is due $219,250. Full disclosure: Street & Smith’s Sports Group, publisher of SportsBusiness Journal, is owed $6,250 as an unsecured creditor.
“The real value is in the intellectual property,” said Alex Moglia of Moglia Advisors, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based corporate restructuring firm that was appointed on Oct. 20 to serve as the trustee to sell the AFL’s assets. As for the Foster Trophy, it’s likely to be sold after Moglia determines that it is AFL property.
“We preliminarily conclude that the trophy is included,” said John Collen, a partner at Tressler, which is representing Moglia Associates.
The AFL successfully filed in late August to move from a forced Chapter 7 bankruptcy to Chapter 11 protection in late August, the latest twist in the league’s demise. Jim Renacci, owner of the Columbus Destroyers, is listed as acting chief executive officer of the AFL. He did not return calls for comment.
“A Chapter 11 takes the bankruptcy into a public forum and creates a fair and thorough sale process,” said Richard Lauter, an attorney in the Chicago office of the law firm Freeborn & Peters, which has been retained to represent the creditors committee made up of the largest unsecured creditors. “In any bankruptcy, the value of any asset is what someone is willing to pay for it. That’s the hallmark of the bankruptcy sales process.”
The deadline to submit a bid on the AFL is Nov. 20, with the auction set for Nov. 25. There is no requirement that a bid must include all assets listed. It is also possible that a “stalking horse” bid will already be filed by the auction date, a process that could drive up the value of the sale.
“In the sales process, you can have what is known as a stalking horse bid, and it is an initial bid that is out as the baseline for other bidders to exceed,” Lauter said.
source Read more...
More from The Today Show...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Videos right from the MSNBC Today Show website!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Bon Jovi on the Today Show...
Here are a few pictures from the Today Show this morning! No video yet, but I am sure when it hits YouTube, Hath will have it up on her site.
getting ready to hit the stage...
sound check anyone?
and here we go...
Looking good guys, looking good!
Jon Bon with Brian Williams - NBC Nightly News
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I managed to remember that Jon was going to be on with Brian Williams last night. If you didn't, here's the link to where you can watch the full 11 minute interview, not just the short snippet they showed last night.
Jon Bon Jovi Making a Difference
Bon Jovi in Germany...
A video from last night at the German Fest celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall...
Bon Jovi... Getting down to Business...
Monday, November 9, 2009
From the USA Today...
NEW YORK — These self-made Jersey guys, they know the deal. Just look at The Boss. And Tony, of course. And especially this Jon Bon Jovi out of Middletown, by way of Perth Amboy, Metuchen and Sayreville. Here he is, in a new documentary about him and his mega-successful rock band, pitching himself to a rep from a group of potential NFL franchise-buyers: "I'm the CEO of a major corporation who has been running a brand for 25 years."
Here he is recently at his manager's office in Manhattan, explaining to an interviewer how that band and brand have survived in the entertainment world's fool-filled fountain:"By the time you're 47, if you haven't learned how to run it as a
business, you're not going to make it."
REVIEW: 'Full Circle' delivers on all counts
And here he is just before that, brightening at a mention of his charitable foundation's Hurricane Katrina home-building efforts in Houma, La.: "The thing I'm proudest of, by the one-year anniversary, those 28 people were in their homes. By cracking the whip, yelling, finger-pointing – we got it done."
Now, the suburbanites' heartthrob/philanthropist/family man/slightly graying rock star is trying to get it done again, corralling his sometimes wayward but ultimately loyal bandmates into another grueling and gratifying round of international brand extension. At the center is the release today of Bon Jovi's 11th studio album, The Circle, a work full of arena-friendly rock anthems stylistically different from its platinum-plus predecessor, 2007's country-inflected Lost Highway. Producer John Shanks (Lost Highway, Have a Nice Day) returns
Some of the songs were inspired by news events that occurred just before and after the election of President Obama, for whom Jon campaigned, and reflect the despair and determination of working-class Americans. It's a social stratum to which he and co-writer/guitarist/New Jerseyite Richie Sambora, despite their wealth and success, have always related.
"I'm not on that (unemployment) line, and I do have a different lifestyle," Bon Jovi says. "But I'm not too young or too naive to understand what's going on now. ... Those people's voices are in the songs."
Says Sambora: "You never forget where you came from. You just don't."
Other songs aim for a universal message, particularly the current single, We Weren't Born to Follow. It has found its mark: On Monday night, the band performed it at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, staged at the Brandenburg Gate.
click here for the rest of the article and band answered questions. Read more...
Something New!
I've posted a brand new short! After the Show is up and ready for your reading pleasure.
AP Review of The Circle...
Wayne Parry of the Associated Press had this to say about The Circle:
Bon Jovi circles back to Jersey stadium rock
Bon Jovi, "The Circle" (Island)Read more...
The fiddles and banjos have been packed away and the steel guitars, presumably, stolen. In their place are angry electric guitars, catchy choruses that demand to be shouted out in a football stadium, and a return to the unflappable optimism that has made these Jersey guys legends in the rock biz.
In short, Bon Jovi is back!
"The Circle" is the followup to 2007's wildly successful but country-fried "Lost Highway," which was a jarring sonic detour for the heroes of the New Jersey Turnpike. Thankfully, Jon Bon Jovi & Co. are keeping the faith with the still-developing but oh-so-recognizable sound that has been the band's trademark.
"We Weren't Born To Follow," the fist-pumping anthem that kicks off the disc, could have been right at home on "Slippery When Wet" or "New Jersey," with its timeless hooks and punchy beat.
They really do come full circle on "Work For The Working Man," which just as easily could have been titled "Livin' On A Prayer II," from the foundation bass riff that's almost identical to that of Bon Jovi's biggest-ever hit, to the dignified struggle of the little guy against tremendous odds. (At least they didn't bring back Tommy and Gina again.)
"Bullet" has a little of the "Hey God" anger and angst, asking the Almighty if he has "just given up" in the face of so much evil in the world.
A rejuvenated Richie Sambora makes his presence known here more strongly than on his last few albums, with more intricate and longer solos.
Throughout it all, "Hell yeah!" has replaced "Hee Haw." And as they say in New Jersey, that's a good thing, capece?
CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "When We Were Beautiful" is about trying to regain lost innocence and simplicity. It sounds like it can apply to the world, or to the band itself.
Jon and Richie on This Morning...
Here is the video of the guys on This Morning! Nice to see Richie answering a bunch of the questions this time. The hosts even asked about the tickets for the O2!
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