Duck stamp carries phone sex number

All waterfowl hunters must carry a registration card bearing a stamp, commonly called the Duck stamp. There's a misprint on the stamp, creating an incorrect phone number, which is actually the phone number of a phone sex service. It would cost the Federal government too much to reprint the stamp.

Brad Evans

Greg Mankiw is Facebook friendly

Prof. Mankiw is friendly. I'm in.

Brad Evans

Norwich City for sale

I thought Norwich City had been for sale, with Walt Disney among those interested. Here's the latest report from The Political Economy of Football: "NORWICH CITY UP FOR SALE – 3/9/08 Norwich City has effectively been put up for sale by majority shareholders Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones. Their twelve year relationship with the Canaries looked set to come to an end after fellow directors Andrew and Sharon Turner resigned from the board, leaving City with a £1.5m black hole to fill this year. The Turners, who own financial services business Central Trust, which deals in sub-prime mortgages and is valued at £275m, will not be able to immediately recover £2.5m of interest-free loans to the club, which are on long-term repayment schedules. But they will now not be making good their promise to put in another £1.5m this year. It leaves the East Anglian club with a worrying cash shortfall, which could lead to backroom redundancies and a bid to cut the current £10m wage bill for playing staff. Club chairman Roger Munby said there had been no boardroom bust-up and the Turners' reasons for leaving were private. He emphasised that there was 'absolutely no danger' of the club going into administration. The club said that talks were taking place with two prospective investors, but refused to disclose who they were. Delia and her husband are looking for investors of all sizes, including outright ownership. All eyes will now turn to Peter Cullum, the 57-year old executive chairman of the Towergate Partnership and one of the 40 richest men in the country. The former Norwich City youth player and lifelong Canaries fan offered in the summer to spend £20m on players in return for ownership of the club. The offer was rejected. The board argued that the real cost of buying the club and investing £20m in players would be £56m, a figure that Mr Cullum did not accept. Behind-the-scenes diplomacy by new City sponsors Aviva saw the two sides reopen discussions a few days after the initial offer, but the talks ended almost as soon as they had begun with no agreement. John Tilson, chairman of Norwich City Independent Supporters Association, commented, 'There are fans who are pro Delia, those who think her shelf-life is up and those who think she should have gone a long time ago, but the fans have to stick together in this.'"

Brad Evans

Manchester City Sold to Abu Dhabi Group?

Rumor: Thaksin Shinawatra has sold Manchester City to the Abu Dhabi Group, pending due diligence. Rumor: Berbatov to Manchester City for $60 million.

Brad Evans

Borussia Dortmund deal

Jan Koller there to the left. He and his fellow Czech Republic teammate Tomas Rosicky were also together on the Borussia Dortmund. I think Jens Lehmann was also there, so Arsenal may have a connection.

Borussia Dortmund is trying to right their financial ship, which, a couple of years ago, nearly sank. They have a sponsorship deal with Explorer Fernreisen, which from the website looks like a travel company.

Borussia Dortmund's financial website is here.

Brad Evans

Liverpool worried about their finances

Liverpool is worried about their balance sheet and income statement. Arsenal built Emirates stadium; they now struggle under a debt burden but have increased their match-day revenues. Similarly, Manchester United redid Old Trafford and they struggle under the consequent debt burden but have increased revenues. Liverpool Football Club wants to build a new stadium as well, but financing is proving difficult. It's not clear from the article whether Liverpool's owners are having financial problems, whether financing is more difficult in today's economic climate, or whatever is the cause.

Also, Liverpool's current owners are not popular with the fans and there is worry that the owners will damage the long-term future of the club because of their profit motive (I would say that an owner's profit motive should be beneficial to the club's future). Some of the fans have established a club, shareliverpoolfc, wherein one can purchase a share of Liverpool (about $10000/share).

Here is the website of the Football Industry Group at the University of Liverpool. They have an MBA program available.

Brad Evans

Neil Lennon assaulted after Celtic-Glasgow Rangers derby

Neil Lennon was a midfielder for Celtic, in Glasgow. He's now a first-team coach for the club. After a recent derby (football match between two teams located in the same city, or at least close geographically) with Glasgow Rangers, he was assaulted, knocked unconscious and taken to hospital. At hospital, he got stitches and was released. With his red or ginger hair, he is easy to recognize and presumably was attacked because he was Celtic. Not only are Celtic and Glasgow Rangers rivals, they differ in the religion of their typical fan. Celtic is generally Catholic, Glasgow Rangers Protestant. Also, not to be forgotten is that Neil Lennon, once captain for Northern Ireland, received death threats because he came out publicly for a United Ireland team. Lennon quit his international career soon after the threats.

These type of incidents are not uncommon in the football world. Players are verbally abused because of their skin color and religion. It will be interesting to see what the response of the Irn-Bru Scottish Football League will be to this incident.

Brad Evans