2008-09 Utah Jazz season kickoff

by Basketball John on Sep 29, 2008 12:53 PM MDT

Today is the official start of the 2008-09 season for the Utah Jazz. It will kick off at noon MDT with Media Day. Wish I could be there. I'll get some videos up of interviews later tonight. And why isn't this being broadcast on the web live? Someone needs to get with it.

And do you realize that the first pre-season game is just about a week away on the 7th? It's been a long summer, but when you look back, it's really flown. The Jazz get things going against the same team that booted them from the playoffs. While it's just a pre-season game, I'm interested to see how the Jazz come out against the Lakers and see how Bynum adds to their team.

Look for more regular posting now. I'm going to be previewing the Jazz players countdown style. Look for a couple of those a week leading up to the start of the regular season. And my season preview will be coming but it's part of a larger rollout of previews. You'll have previews from across the NBA from the very best bloggers out there.

Here are some pre-season notes and links,

PREMIUM GAMES - The Jazz announced that they are going to charge more for certain premium games. The list included LA, Cleveland, Boston, & New Orleans. But then you have the likes of New Jersey, Dallas & Sacramento. The only reason that they're a "premium" game is that they happen to fall on holiday weekends. According to the head marketing guy, "For some time there has been a growing trend in professional sports toward variable pricing." I know that this is a business, and people will pay the prices, but I don't like this. It prices a lot of people out of good games. Now if that money were going to be used to keep players and maybe even go over the cap, then so be it. But it seems like a money grab.

And if we're using supply and demand, then we should see discounted tickets for the times that OKC, Memphis, and other bottom feeders come to town. But you won't see that happen.

TRAINING CAMP ROSTER - The invitees other than the 15 already on the roster include Kevin Lyde, Britton Johnson, and Gerry McNamara. Lyde has been a mainstay with the Jazz for the past few years in training camp and in the Revue. Johnson is back for another TC. And McNamara keeps getting chances in the league but crack the league as a third string PG. None of these guys has a shot at the Jazz roster, especially since it's full, but they could get some pre-season PT.

OPEN SCRIMMAGE - On Saturday, Oct 4th, the Jazz will hold an open scrimmage at the ESA. Unfortunately that doesn't mean that you can play against the Jazz. They're going to be luring the faithful Latter-day Saints to the ESA instead of to Temple Square. For those that live outside of Utah and may not know, the LDS church holds it's semi-annual conference this same weekend. So we'll have 20,000+ conference goers and a few thousand scrimmage goers to go along with the normal downtown Saturday traffic. Public transit will ease stuff a bit, but it's going to be messy.

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SCHEDULE - Utah Jazz 2008-09 schedule for the upcoming season in a nifty .ics format that you can import into Outlook, Google Calendar, or your favorite scheduling software.

NEW SBN BLOGS - We've had new NBA blogs join SBN over the summer. They've managed to land some of the best bloggers for their respective teams. Here's a list of the new guys,

Peninsula is Mightier (Miami Heat)
Peach Tree Hoops - (Atlanta Hawks)
Fear the Sword - (Cleveland cavaliers)
Coming soon, a Houston Rockets blog.

GOING MOBILE - Finally, when you're on the road and you need your Jazz fix, SLCDunk has gone mobile. Just enter http://mobile.slcdunk.com on your repective mobile devices and see what's going on. It's just started up. They'll be adding new features as the season goes along.

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Comments

I'm excited.

I can’t wait for the season to begin. And, I’m very glad that the site will be going mobile.

P.S. Did you really pay $105 for 1 seat in section 109?? If you did, you need to email me and I’ll hook you up with #’s for guys that can get you a lot better seat for about the same price!!

by DaniellelovesKK on Sep 29, 2008 1:57 PM MDT 0 recs