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SPORTSBIZ -- JOEL HAMMOND
Dan Gilbert would love it if the Pistons moved into downtown Detroit

Blog entry: August 7, 2012, 11:36 am     |     Author: JOEL HAMMOND

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is a smart man, so his comments a couple weeks back in Detroit shouldn't surprise you. At an event celebrating the move of 1,500 Title Source workers into the First National Building downtown, Gilbert noted Detroit's peculiar place in pro sports: The Pistons are one of two NBA teams that don't play in a downtown.

Why smart? Because Gilbert continues to push the revitalization of downtown Detroit, with investments in land in the center city. It certainly would behoove Gilbert if the Pistons were to move into downtown, as long has been rumored in a package deal with the Detroit Red Wings; the latter, of the National Hockey League, play at Joe Louis Arena.

Speaking of Gilbert, new Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was asked Friday at his introductory news conference in Berea about whether, a la Gilbert, his Pilot Corp. would consider moving

He responded by saying the company already has 32 stores in Ohio, and is adding four more, which would give the company 1,800 employees in Ohio. He continued by saying he didn't envision the company moving Pilot corporate employees to Ohio en masse, like Gilbert has done with Quicken Loans.

Ah yes, the Steeler way; in other words, winning

From Pittsburgh this morning, a column from The Tribune-Review on how Haslam plans to bring the Steeler Way to Cleveland. As long as that means, y'know, winning, and not terrible towels, here's figuring Browns fans will be a-OK by that.

From the column:

It could mean Haslam wooing front office talent such as Steelers director of football and business administration Omar Khan, who wants to be an NFL general manager but is stuck behind general manager Kevin Colbert.

With former Philadelphia Eagles president Joe Banner set to join Haslam's group … the future of current Browns president Mike Holmgren could be in question, along with the job security of Browns general manager Tom Heckert.

The Browns are Haslam's team, and he's going to want to bring some of his people into key positions. Who better than Khan, a Steelers guy doing things the Steelers way?


Speaking of Haslam, I was listening to the radio this morning and heard, for the first time, I'm 99% certain, a commercial for Pilot/Flying J. The spot was promoting an expanded and enhanced loyalty program the company is rolling out; no telling if that will include, locally, say, a discount at the Browns' team shop.

Good, bad and ugly of MLB

By golly, I'm a sucker for “good and bad contracts” stories — especially ones that aren't Bleacher Report-style slideshows. And Yahoo! doesn't disappoint with its baseball rankings, both good and bad. (The latter includes Joe Mauer, a cautionary tale and is something I wrote about a few weeks back.)

No Indians are on the bad contract list, though none are on the good one, either. That's mainly because the team doesn't have many players signed to long-term deals; in that regard, you'd argue that all of their contracts are decent, because it gives them flexibility. Of course, surely they'd like to have Shin-Soo Choo signed to a long-term deal, as he and his notoriously stubborn agent, Scott Boras, will force the Indians' hand at next season's trade deadline.




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