News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by mmanfrin on Thursday November 09, 2023 @11:10AM (#38206843)
It was open for 2 days of the fiscal quarter. The CFO quit after being yelled at by the notoriously combative CEO. The news has been running with this headline because it's drawing clicks but it's not really painting an accurate picture.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by erulabs on Thursday November 09, 2023 @11:55AM (#38207484)
Isn’t “not screaming your executive into quitting” kind of a leaders main jobs?
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by sgt on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:39PM (#38208133)
Many feel the opposite. How can you ensure people are working, unless they truly fear you? Make a mistake and you are in deep, deep trouble, buddy. Straight to the pit!
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by stcredzero on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:43PM (#38208189)
History has shown that it's a graceful balancing of carrot and stick that works the best with intelligent biological organisms. The field of psychology generally corroborates this, I think.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by meroes on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:48PM (#38208245)
What were Einstein’s or Newton’s stick?
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by jareklupinski on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:31PM (#38208863)
the shame of letting a good mind go to waste
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by I_Am_Nous on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:41PM (#38209027)
The rage of failing to talk to someone about the beautiful thoughts you have because the math to describe it doesn't exist yet so you invent calculus
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by BOOTRACER on Thursday November 09, 2023 @02:08PM (#38209445)
*re-invent
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by plagiarist on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:59PM (#38209301)
The CEO's job is only to secure the straps on the golden parachute before they start hammering on the engine in mid-flight. Once the parachute is on, screaming at people is actually a pretty good hammer.

Sources: Yahoo, Tumblr, Twitter, and so on.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by AnimalMuppet on Thursday November 09, 2023 @11:55AM (#38207494)
If the CFO would rather leave than have to deal with the CEO, I would say that is in fact painting an accurate picture.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by 4death4 on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:15PM (#38207811)
The picture painted by the headline seems to indicate the CFO’s departure is related to the fiscal loss. That’s not accurate.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by tootie on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:33PM (#38208051)
It's entirely possible these are related. It's not a stretch to think he was yelling because there was a $100M loss.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:45PM (#38208215)
> notoriously combative CEO

Understatement of the year. Dolan successfully destroyed 2 major sports franchises (Knicks and Rangers) he spent millions on acquiring and managing.

He is also using facial recognition to ban all employees of law firms suing MSG (his company) from going to any of their properties, and NY State is considering pulling his liquor license as a result.

The only reason he's solvent is because the Madison Square Garden is basically el dorado (financially speaking) and he inherited a bunch of money from his father (the founder of HBO and Cablevision)

Imagine if GOB Bluth became CEO. That's Dolan.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by userinanother on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:39PM (#38209001)
Sounds like he might be an excellent presidential contender
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by distortedsignal on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:48PM (#38208250)
Eh - the Rangers are doing ok this year. There's a question about if they were going in the right direction a few years ago, but they rebounded.

The Knicks are a smoking crater, from what I understand, tho.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by whycome on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:04PM (#38208461)
I had to look up "which rangers sports team" because the one from Texas just won the world series in baseball and Rangers FC doesn't seem to be doing too bad.

Do sports teams really have a limit on available names?

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by distortedsignal on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:11PM (#38208530)
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by whycome on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:20PM (#38208688)
Yeah, but it must have been a giant league with lots of teams. ...Right? (9 teams...) Now, their name is simple "the red-blacks" and is for the colors of their uniforms.

Toronto's soccer team in Major League Soccer is called "Toronto FC" or "Toronto Football Club". Calgary: "Cavalry FC" which seems extra confusing when spoken.

Sports naming is so weird.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by brewdad on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:33PM (#38208895)
Speaking of weird names, I've always been fascinated about how the football (soccer) team the Young Boys decided to go with that. I'm not about to just Google that though. I don't need my browser history polluted with the types of wrong results that would come up.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by robjwells on Thursday November 09, 2023 @04:49PM (#38211835)
Named in contrast to Basel Old Boys, apparently. (“Old Boys” as in former pupils of a school.)
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by inemesitaffia on Saturday November 11, 2023 @03:54AM (#38228617)
It's the same name as Juventus and Al Shabab
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by thazework on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:36PM (#38208944)
It's all fun and games till you're at a Sheffield pub talking about 'United'
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @02:56PM (#38210248)
I think being in Sheffield is punishment enough /s
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by jonathankoren on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:43PM (#38209077)
MLS naming is the worst!

Originally, it was perfectly normal North American naming convention, $PLACE $NOUN. Then sometime in the aughts, they started bringing in boring European names, and worse yet, just aping them for no reason. Only the pretentious call soccer “football” in North America, and no one calls themselves a “sports club”. Even the Baseball Club of Seattle, doesn’t call themselves “Seattle BC”. They’re the Mariners. Half of the league’s names are an insult to North American sports culture.

A special place in sports hell is set for the dude that named Real Salt Lake. He explicitly aped Real Madrid because he’s such a fan. Dude. We literally fought a war to overthrow a monarchy.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @02:14PM (#38209535)
> they started bringing in boring European names

Those European style names are because international clubs began investing in MLS.

The Abu Dhabi royal family's fund that owns Man City has 80% ownership of NYCFC, who started the "FC" naming trend in MLS, and plenty of other MLS clubs are owned by people who also own European clubs.

> Half of the league’s names are an insult to North American sports culture

What the hell is "North American sports culture".

Naming conventions in Soccer/Football have always been European based because it is the primary region for prestige Soccer.

It's like complaining about Israeli or Chinese Basketball leagues using NBA style names and jerseys or Mexican College Football (yes that is a very popular thing there, and the Big10 is considering adding them to the conference) using Big10 style branding and stadiums despite soccer being more popular in those places

The aesthetic matters from a branding perspective.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by dragonwriter on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:48PM (#38209145)
> Only the pretentious call soccer “football” in North America,

Lots of people whose cultural origin isn't in the US or Canada do, and that overlaps a lot with the people who care about soccer at all.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @02:21PM (#38209620)
FC naming was added as a brand management technique.

When you watch soccer, you expect Tier 1 soccer aesthetics and branding - especially as an owner trying to recoup your investment.

It was Abu Dhabi that started the FC/SC naming conventions in MLS after they were the first international investor in MLS with NYCFC.

After that, the door was opened for plenty of investors who didn't see an RoI or have to ability to invest in Tier 1 European Soccer.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by adamomada on Thursday November 09, 2023 @06:47PM (#38213005)
Toronto FC aka TFC were playing their ninth* season when NYCFC joined the league

x FC is just a common way to name football clubs around the world, adopted by MLS clubs

Edit: Announced during their seventh season; joined in their ninth

Edit; Chicago, Dallas, Houston Vancouver and Toronto had FC In their name before NYC FC existed

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @08:16PM (#38213760)
Doh your right. I totally forgot about Toronto FC and Vancouver FC. The early 2010s are a haze for me. I still stand by the brand management argument though.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by j_0 on Thursday November 09, 2023 @03:19PM (#38210637)
The Rangers hockey team joined their current league in 1925, almost 50 years before the Texas Ranger baseball team but 50 years after Rangers FC. Eventually a team in need of a name in new league adopts a classic.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by alephnerd on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:52PM (#38208307)
> the Rangers are doing ok this year

True, but isn't he much more hands-off now compared to a couple years ago?

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by distortedsignal on Thursday November 09, 2023 @01:08PM (#38208497)
I think you'd have to be an NHL insider to know that.

Dolan's Wikipedia page blames him for the post-94 dip, which may be fair, but if that's the case, then he's seen them through two rebuilds, one of which culminated with a Stanley Cup Finals appearance (2014, if I recall). I'll never forgive him for not getting Hank a Cup, but sometimes these things can't be helped. Hockey is fickle.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by FFP999 on Thursday November 09, 2023 @05:23PM (#38212226)
Maybe the funniest and most pathetic thing about Dolan is that his true love would appear to be his band (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_%26_The_Straight_Shot). It's basically the best session musicians inherited money can buy backing a frontman whose singing has been described as "karaoke-grade" and "like he's trying not to cough".

And his employees are expected to attend his shows. And he checks on this.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by AustinDev on Thursday November 09, 2023 @06:45PM (#38212994)
This if fucking hilarious. What a clown. I knew of him before, but I didn't know the full depth of the delusion and megalomania. He rivals Zuck in later which is an impressive achievement.
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by FFP999 on Friday November 10, 2023 @01:43PM (#38222768)
I kind of think it's to our benefit to have a handful of guys like this around--they remind the rest of us that money isn't everything.

(To be clear, speaking from experience, poverty isn't so fun either.)

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by anigbrowl on Thursday November 09, 2023 @10:33PM (#38214764)
Imagine if GOB Bluth became CEO. That's Dolan.

Come on...

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by supertimor on Friday November 10, 2023 @05:44PM (#38225569)
What? So you’re just going to blame the guy in the $5000 suit? COME ON!
Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by nerdjon on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:46PM (#38208225)
This was my confusion seeing the headline, there is no way the people building this did not realize that this was an "investment" and would take time to make money?!?

Even once it's built you have some logistical things to figure out to start making profit day by day before taking into account the investment.

The real story is apparently the asshole CEO, not the loss.

Re:Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4M loss; CFO quits by mike503 on Thursday November 09, 2023 @04:30PM (#38211639)
Exactly. It posted millions of revenue from just two nights of U2. I've seen both shows there. It's a neat venue. Everyone agrees and would go back. The sky is the limit. This is a garbage headline.