Pat Croce To Bring Back Slamball!

Hey, remember Slamball? The sport is essentially “basketball with trampolines” and was aired on SpikeTV for two seasons in 2002 and 2003.

As you can tell from the video — is that MTV Sports’ Dan Cortez at one point? — it was billed as extreme and hip and yo yo yo young kids what up with the hip hop. (Teams have names like the Mob and the Bouncers and the two divisions are X and Y.) Ex-76ers prez Pat Croce was a partner in the original Slamball run, and he told some Philly.com video show that won’t load for me on Leap Day that he’s bringing back Slamball!

When I was running the Sixers, we made money three ways. You had sponsorship, ticket sales, and national TV coverage. They were the three revenue sources. The big buckets. And in Slamball, again, we’re gonna be a professional league. These athletes will be paid. We won’t have ticket sales, per say, the first year, because the venue we used three years ago was Universal City Walk. We might use one of IMG Academy’s - it might be the Staples Center in LA, because I think we’re going to film in LA. So we won’t have ticket sales. Sponsorship sales? Yes, we will have. That will be a big one. And TV coverage? Yes, we will have that. And we’re looking at major TV network coverage. It might be cable, but it might be ESPN, it might be NBC. Right now we’re doing the pitches, to see what network wants us. Because we want them to be a strategic partner in the growth of it, so next year, when we air the full franchises, they’ll embrace it like NBC did with the football league. That’s how they do it with arena football.

Wai.. wha… huh? Did Pat Croce just speak for two straight minutes and have all of it go over our heads?

Eh, who cares. Slamball is back, and life is worthwhile again!

Slamball [Wikipedia]
Philadelphia Business Today 2/29 [Philly.com]

Pat Croce Thinks You Care What He Thinks

Pat Croce is a judge on the second season of American Inventor! If you’re wondering, “When was there a first season of American Inventor,” you’re not the only one.

The show has American Idol-style judging, although the premise is pretty much just a copy off of Dr. Fad. (My God, the opening of that show is 1980s style in one 30 second clip.) Croce sees himself as the “everyday man” judge, who will be fair and impartial or whatever.

The Daily News Ellen Gray talked with Croce about the new show.

Croce said thinks viewers will wonder, ” ‘What’s Pat going to say?’”

I really hope nobody is that excited about the opinions of American Inventor judge Pat Croce.

Ellen Gray | Croce on TV again [Daily News]

Leftovers: Plan A: Go Get Plan B

• If you’re planning on having some sweaty, condom-free sex on Tuesday night, then do the five branches Bucks County Planned Parenthood have a deal for you! The ‘Hood will be giving out free Plan B on Wednesday morning, so you can look just as serene as the official model for the drug. [Bucks County Courier Times]

• With Scott Graham gone in the Phillies’ booth next year — who will do Graham Slam commercials? — the Phils have added a new analyst: None other than Gary Matthews! Welcome back, Sarge! (Apparently I’m the only one who will miss Scott Graham, though. I thought he had really improved over the past few seasons.) Wheels is still around, so the Chris Wheeler Glossary will certainly be expanding. [Beerleaguer]

• Jerry Mondesire, head of the NAACP in Philly, says Jonathan Saidel dropped out of the mayor’s race due to Bob Brady. Then again, he also said that Donovan McNabb was a race traitor or something for not running the ball more, so we all know how accurate he is. [KYW 1060]

• Why are men bigger than women? Why, Faye Flam reports, men are violent assholes, that’s why. However, men, be glad you’re not a deep-sea angler fish, where the woman is 500k times heavier than the man. I bet both genders of that fish have issues. [Inquirer]

• A pair of employees — how surprising — have been arrested in a heist of nearly $300,000 from a Wal-Mart yesterday. If Wal-Mart workers aren’t smart enough to pull off a robbery undetected, then who is? [6 ABC]

• Ex-Phillies pitcher Don Carman found a bunch of old fan mail and recently answered it. Yeah, I can’t think of any joke but “Don Carman got fan mail?!” either. [Slate]

• Pat Croce has been named Wing Bowl Commissioner. He’ll be in charge of making sure all the models (”models”) 610 WIP hires are C-cup or better. [Inquirer]

Pat Croce, Wachovia CEO Go For The Gold

As far as major things to happen in Philadelphia, getting the freakin’ Olympics would be pretty huge. Regardless of how one feels about the bid, having the 2016 Olympics in Philadelphia would be a tremendous undertaking for the city.

Well, Pat Croce and Hugh Long (the Wachovia State CEO for Pa. and Del.) really, really, really want the Olympics to be in Philadelphia, and they think it would be perhaps the biggest thing to ever happen:

Where would Philadelphia - indeed the nation - be today if the framers of the Constitution heeded those who said it wouldn’t work, and they were dreamers?

Where would we be today if Ben Franklin listened to those who said Philadelphia didn’t need and couldn’t afford a free library, a hospital, a volunteer fire company, each the first of their kind in the nation?

And you certainly wouldn’t be reading this online if the creators of ENIAC, the world’s first computer, invented at the University of Pennsylvania, paid attention to those who said they were crazy, and the machine, while clever, had little practical application.

And, where, indeed, would we all be if God hadn’t decided to make the world? Certainly not bidding for the Olympics, that’s what!

Also: did the scientists who created ENIAC really have a jeering section while they were making it?

OLYMPIC DREAM: A PHILLY-STYLE CHALLENGE [Daily News]

Pat Croce Finally Gets Angry

Man, look at former 76ers prez Pat Croce. He’s even in a good mood while pillaging. (I guess if you’re a pirate, getting some booty puts you in a good mood. Actually, I guess that puts anyone in a good mood. Where was I again?)

Needless to say, Pat Croce usually feels great. Whether at the helm of the 76ers, hosting that syndicated show or just being a plain old motivational guru, Croce is always happy.

Except when he invests about 100 large in a fake movie. In the Daily News today, Dan Gross reports that Croce had two screenings of a 15-minute short film The Messenger yanked after learning that, well, pretty much everything in it was fake:

The 15-minute-film, by Quincy Perkins, tells the story of how messenger Thomas E. Jones was held up while delivering Japan’s official surrender in WWII from the Swiss Embassy to the White House on Aug. 14, 1945.

Perkins “deceived me into believing that he had interviewed the real 76-year-old Thomas Jones in his hospital bed,” Croce said, adding that Perkins told him that Jones died last December.

Croce says Perkins, 26, called him Sunday night to reveal not only that he’d hired an actor to play Jones, but that Jones was alive in Maryland.

I used to think Croce was a pretty smart businessman, turning an athletic trainer gig into a motivational speaking career into the presidency of the 76ers. Then he sold high on the Sixers, getting out before they became too horrid.

But, dude, $100,000 on a shitty 15-minute film? Come on, man, open an ING Direct account or something.

Croce doesn’t feel great [DN, 2nd item]
Photo via Pirate Soul, Pat Croce’s pirate museum

Slot machine fever!

Despite what you may personally feel about slot machines coming to Pennsylvania, you have to admit one thing: self-help guru Pat Croce investing in slot machines is almost as funny as Bill Cosby telling people to speak correctly. Because there’s nothing that says “self-help” like “throwing your money away into a little box.”

Yesterday was the state-imposed deadline for companies to submit proposals for slots parlors, and there are five companies vying for deals — and none of the places these companies want to put the parlors are at the most logical spot across from the Convention Center. (Sorry, Funk-O-Mart, I love you, but if you have to go, you have to go.)

The five companies who applied for licenses in Philadelphia are:

• Foxwoods Development: Controlled by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the group is partnering with local investors (Ed Snider, Billy King, ex-Phillies centerfielder Garry Maddox) to build a $350 million casino on the Delaware Riverfront between Reed and Tasker streets.
• Pinnacle Entertainment: This Las Vegas-based company wants to build its casino in Fishtown. It’d include 3,000 slot machines, bars and restaurants and a movie theater.
• Donald Trump: This is the Pat Croce-backed plan. To be called TrumpStreet — sigh — it’d be at the former Budd Company location in Nicetown.
• Planet Hollywood: This is the Delaware river casino on the former city incinerator site. They’re going to call it “Riverwalk.”
• Sugar House Gaming: This company wants to build a $450 million casino on the Delaware riverfront.

None of these, with the possible exception of the Fishtown plan, seems all that great. But this is Philadelphia! What did you expect? Two proposals will be approved, in the obvious short turnaround of 12 months.

Placing their bets [Inky]