Sports – Page 4 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: Sports

ENCORE: Levi’s® Stadium – SuperBowl Host – ‘Coming Out’ to the World

Posted on January 26, 2016 in Economics, Ethos, Social

This ENCORE is re-distributed on the occasion of SuperBowl 50. The match-up is now set: Carolina Panthers -vs- Denver Broncos on Sunday, February 7, 2016 at the new Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California. (The original commentary was published on December 16, 2014).

Go Lean Commentary

Sports business is big business. But still, even small communities can play in this game.

This is the experience of small Santa Clara, California, the new landlord of the San Francisco Forty-Niners (49-ers) of the National Football League (NFL). The city itself is home to only 116,468 residents, located 45 miles southeast of San Francisco, and yet they are able to leverage the sports entertainment needs for a metropolitan area of 7.44 million people in the San Francisco Bay statistical area^[1].

Where does such a small community get the clout to build a $1.2 Billion stadium? Wall Street. Or better stated one of the biggest, most influential power-brokers on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs Investment Bank. See their promotion VIDEO here of the stadium project.

VIDEO – Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort – https://youtu.be/n7KcF5DEbvs

When the San Francisco 49ers wanted to build a new stadium in Santa Clara, California, Goldman Sachs helped structure an innovative financing plan to make it happen. Levi’s® Stadium, one of the country’s most technologically advanced stadiums, opened in August 2014 and is helping to bring further economic development to the local economy in Santa Clara.

Goldman Sachs, in many quarters, has been portrayed as an “evil empire”. They are reflective of the Big Banks and Wall Street plutocracy. They have even been credited for being one of the “bad actors” causing the 2008 Great Recession financial crisis. And yet, they persist! Good, bad or ugly, Goldman Sachs provides a necessary function in modern society; in the case of the foregoing VIDEO, they facilitate municipal financing. They can contribute to the Greater Good.

This commentary promotes the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This publication serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). While the CU is NOT a sports promotion entity, it does promote the important role of sports in the vision to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. As an expression of this vision, “a mission of the CU is to forge industries and economic drivers around the individual and group activities of sports and culture” (Page 81).

“Build it and they will come” – The Go Lean roadmap encourages solid business plans to develop permanent sports stadia and arenas at CU-owned fairgrounds. This aligns with the Levi’s Stadium in the foregoing VIDEO, where they are now due to host many other events, in addition to being the landlord of the NFL team. This was not automatic; this was a journey (a roadmap), one that started with a solid business plan and community buy-in. This “community ethos” from Santa Clara teaches us so much.

In 2011, Santa Clara voters approved a plan to build the 68,500 seat stadium for the nearby San Francisco 49ers. The groundbreaking for the stadium occurred on April 19, 2012.^[2] The official ribbon cutting took place on Thursday July 17, 2014. The first professional sporting event hosted at the stadium was a Major League Soccer (MLS) match between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders on August 2, 2014. The first professional football event hosted at the stadium was a pre-season game between the 49ers and the Denver Broncos, played on August 17, 2014.

Now the stage is set. The following is a sample of other events (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Stadium) that are scheduled to start the return on Santa Clara’s community investment:

Super Bowl 50
On October 16, 2012, it was announced that Levi’s Stadium was one of two finalists to host Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016 (the other stadium finalist being Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida). On May 21, 2013, it was announced that the San Francisco Bay Area had defeated South Florida in a vote of NFL owners in its bid to host Super Bowl L (50).

College Football Post Season Bowl Game
The stadium will host its first Foster Farms Bowl Game on December 30, 2014 featuring the nearby Stanford University Cardinals and the Maryland Terrapins from the Big Ten Conference.

WrestleMania XXXI
Levi’s Stadium will host WWE’s WrestleMania XXXI on March 29, 2015. This will mark the first time WrestleMania is hosted in Northern California. The area will also host activities throughout the region for the week-long celebration leading up to WrestleMania itself.

Hockey
Levi’s Stadium will host the 2015 NHL Stadium Series’ February 21 game between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.

Soccer
On July 31, 2014, the San Jose Earthquakes agreed to play one match per year for five years at Levi’s Stadium. On September 6, 2014, an international friendly between Mexico and Chile was held.

Concerts

On October 23, 2014, it was announced that international pop group “One Direction” would bring their 2015 “On The Road Again” tour to Levi’s Stadium on July 11, 2015.

On October 30, 2014 Kenny Chesney announced that he would bring his “The Big Revival Tour” to Levi’s Stadium on May 2, 2015 with Jason Aldean co-headlining with Chesney. Jake Owen and Cole Swindell will open for the duo. It’s the first concert announced at the new home of the 49ers.

Taylor Swift set to perform on her fourth upcoming tour, “The 1989 World Tour” in the Levi’s Stadium on 14 & 15 August 2015.

Not every market, especially in the Caribbean, can support these types of high profile events/bookings. So the Go Lean roadmap invites an alternative landlord approach for the occasional or one-time events, that of temporary stadiums; this point was detailed in a previous blog submission.

Whether permanent stadiums or temporary stadiums, the point is echoed that sports entertainment is big business and the Caribbean region must not miss out on the community-building opportunities. This is heavy-lifting; the communities need the technocratic support of a business-mined landlord and creative financing options. This is the role the CU will execute.

The Go Lean vision is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean forming the CU as a proxy organization to do the heavy-lighting of building, funding and maintaining sports venues. The strategy is for the CU to be the landlord, and super-regional regulatory agency, for sports leagues, federations and associations (amateur, collegiate, and professional). The foregoing VIDEO depicts how this strategy relates to a community.

The prime directives of the CU/Go Lean roadmap are described with these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This roadmap commences with the recognition that genius qualifiers can be found in many fields of endeavor, including sports. The roadmap pronounces the need for the region to confederate in order to invest in the facilitations for the Caribbean sports genius to soar. These pronouncements are made in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 13 & 14) as follows:

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including … sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxii. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism…

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from communities like Santa Clara and other sporting venues/administrations. So thusly this subject of the “business of sports” is a familiar topic for Go Lean blogs. The previous blogs were detailed:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1715	Lebronomy – Economic Impact of the Return of the NBA Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	College World Series Time – Lessons from Omaha
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498	Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=334	Bahamians Make Presence Felt In Libyan League
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of all the Caribbean athletic abilities and the world’s thirst for this entertainment. The book details these series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies designed to deliver regional solutions:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

What is the end result for the Go Lean roadmap’s venture into the business of sports? For one … “jobs”; the Go Lean roadmap anticipates 21,000 direct jobs at fairgrounds and sports enterprises throughout the region. In addition there are leisure activities, event marketing, community pride, promotion of Caribbean athletes and cultural activities.

Overall, with these executions, the Caribbean region can be a better place to live, work and play. There is a lot of economic activity in the “play” element. Everyone, the athletes, promoters and spectators, are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix – Source References:

1. Home to approximately 7.44 million people, the nine-county Bay Area – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma – contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels and commuter rail. Retrieved 12-16-2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:San_Francisco_Bay_Area

2. Video: 49ers’ groundbreaking ceremony for Santa Clara stadium – San Jose Mercury News. Mercurynews.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.

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ENCORE: Concussion – The Movie; The Cause

Posted on December 28, 2015 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Nassau, Bahamas – This is a re-distribution of the blog-commentary published on August 31, 2015, now that the movie has been released on Christmas Day. The movie is in fact all that it purported to be.

Go Lean Commentary

“Are you ready for some football?” – Promotional song by Hank Williams, Jr. for Monday Night Football on ABC & ESPN networks for 22 years (1989 – 2011).

This iconic song (see Appendix) and catch-phrase is reflective of exactly how popular the National Football League (NFL) is in the US:

“They own an entire day of the week”.

So says the new movie ‘Concussions’, starring Will Smith, referring to the media domination of NFL Football on Sundays during the Autumn season. The movie’s script is along a line that resonates well in Hollywood’s Academy Award balloting: “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”.

In the case of the NFL, it is not just about power, it is about money, prestige and protecting the status quo; the NFL is responsible for the livelihood of so many people. The book Go Lean … Caribbean recognized the importance of the NFL in the American lexicon of “live, work and play”; it featured a case study (Page 32) of the NFL and it’s collective bargaining successes (and failures) in 2011. An excerpt from the book is quoted as follows:

Football is big business in the US, $9 billion in revenue, and more than a business; emotions – civic pride, rivalries, and fanaticism – run high on both sides.

Previous Go Lean commentaries presents the socio-economic realities of much of the American football eco-system. Consider a sample here:

Socio-Economic Impact Analysis of [Football] Sports Stadiums

Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Levi’s® NFL Stadium: A Team Effort

Sports Role Model – College Football – Playing For Pride … And More

Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network

Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean – Model of NCAA

10 Things We Want from the US: #10 – Sports Professionalism

10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #10 – ‘Win At All Costs’ Ethos

While football plays a big role in American life, so do movies. Their role is more unique; they are able to change society. In a previous blog / commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

These descriptors actually describe the latest production from Hollywood icon Will Smith (the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). This movie, the film “Concussion”, in the following news article, relates the real life drama of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born medical doctor – a pathologist – who prepared autopsies of former players that suffered from football-related concussions. He did not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo, and now, he is celebrated for forging change in his adopted homeland. This one man made a difference. (The NFL is now credited for a Concussion awareness and prevention protocol so advanced that other levels of the sport – college, high schools and Youth – are being urged to emulate).

See news article here on the release of the movie:

Title: ‘Concussion’: 5 Take-a-ways From Will Smith’s New Film

Will Smith, 46, is definitely going to get a ton of Oscar buzz portraying Dr. Bennet Omalu in the new film “Concussion.” NFL columnist Peter King of Sports Illustrated got an exclusive first peek at the trailer and it has been widely shared on social media since. And it’s very chilling.

Here are five take-aways and background you need to know before checking out the clip:

1 – It’s Based on a True Story

Omalu is the forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players who got hit in the head over and over again, according to the Washington Post.

In the clip, he says repetitive “head trauma chokes the brain.”

Omalu was one of the founding members of the Brain Injury Research Institute in 2002. He conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, played by David Morse in the film, which led to this discovery.

2 – Smith’s Version of Omalu’s Accent Is Spot On

Omalu is from Nigeria and Smith has been known to transform completely for a role. He was nominated for an Oscar for 2011’s “Ali,” playing the legendary Muhammad Ali.

For comparison, here’s Omalu’s PBS interview from 2013.

3 – Smith Is a Reluctant Hero

“If you don’t speak for them, who will,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Prema Mutiso in the film, tells Smith’s character.

He admits he idolized America growing up and “was the wrong person to have discovered this.”

4 – Alec Baldwin and Luke Wilson

“Concussion” brought in some heavyweights for this movie. Baldwin plays Dr. Julian Bailes, who advises Omalu, and Wilson, who will reportedly play NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to IMDB. There’s no official word on this. He’s seen at a podium in the trailer, but doesn’t speak.

5 – “Tell the Truth”

Smith captures Omalu’s passion to have the truth told about this injury and disease.

“I was afraid of letting Mike [Webster] down. I was afraid. I don’t know. I was afraid I was going to fail,” Omalu told PBS a couple years back.

———-

VIDEO Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322364/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Will Smith stars in the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player.

The subject of concussions is serious – life and death. Just a few weeks ago (August 8), an NFL Hall-of-Fame inductee was honored for his play on the field during his 20-year professional career, but his family, his daughter in particular, is the one that made his acceptance / induction speech. He had died, in 2012; he committed suicide after apparently suffering from a brain disorder – chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a type of chronic brain damage that has also been found in other deceased former NFL players^[4] – sustained from his years of brutal head contacts in organized football in high school, college and in his NFL career. This player was Junior Seau.

Why would there be a need for “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”? Is not the actuality of an acclaimed football player committing suicide in this manner – he shot himself in the chest so as to preserve his brain for research – telling enough to drive home the message for reform?

No. Hardly. As previously discussed, there is too much money at stake.

These stakes bring out the Crony-capitalism in American society.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (and subsequent blog/commentaries) relates many examples of cronyism in the American eco-system. There is a lot of money at stake. Those who want to preserve the status quo or not invest in the required mitigations to remediate concussions will fight back against any Advocate promoting the Greater Good. The profit motive is powerful. There are doubters and those who want to spurn doubt. “Concussions in Football” is not the first issue these “actors” have promoted doubt on. The efforts to downplay concussion alarmists are from a familiar playbook, used previously by Climate Change deniers, Big Tobacco, Toxic Waste, Acid Rain, and other dangerous chemicals.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Sports are integral to the Go Lean/CU roadmap. While sports can be good and promote positives in society, even economically, the safety issues must be addressed upfront. This is a matter of community security. Thusly, the prime directives of the CU are described as:

Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs, including sports-related industries with a projection of 21,000 direct jobs at Fairgrounds and sports enterprises.
Establish a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

The CU/Go Lean sports mission is to harness the individual abilities of athletes to not just elevate their performance, but also to harness the economic impact for their communities. So modern sports endeavors cannot be analyzed without considering the impact on “dollars and cents” for stakeholders. This is a fact and should never be ignored. There is therefore the need to carefully assess and be on guard for crony-capitalistic influences entering the decision-making of sports stakeholders. The Go Lean book posits that with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent”. These points were pronounced early in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 &14):

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. …

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interests of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism …

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy – as the landlord of many sports facilities (within the Self-Governing Entities design), and the regulator for inter-state sport federations. The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize sports enterprises in the Caribbean:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices / Incentives	Page 21
Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Light-Up the Dark Places	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Mitigate Suicide Threats	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-States into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Foster Local Economic Engines for Basic Needs	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for Natural Disasters	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Disease Management	Page 86
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs into a Single Market Economy	Page 96
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Sports Stadia	Page 105
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Unified Command & Control	Page 103
Implementation – Industrial Policy for CU Self Governing Entities	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver – Project Management/Accountabilities	Page 109
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact	Page 122
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Arts & Sciences	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from other communities, especially when big money is involved in pursuits like sports. These activities should be beneficial to health, not detrimental. So the admonition is to be “on guard” against the “cronies”; they will always try to sacrifice public policy – the Greater Good – for private gain: profit.

Let’s do better. Yes, the Caribbean can be better than the American experiences.

The design of Self-Governing Entities allow for greater protections from Crony-Capitalistic abuses. While this roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of sports and accompanying infrastructure, as demonstrated in the foregoing movie trailer, sport teams and owners can be plutocratic “animals” in their greed. We must learn to mitigate plutocratic abuses. While an optimized eco-system is good, there is always the need for an Advocate, one person to step up, blow the whistle and transform society. The Go Lean roadmap encourages these role models.

Bravo Dr. Bennet Omalu. Thank you for this example … and for being a role model for all of the Caribbean.

RIP Junior Seau.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This roadmap will result in more positive socio-economic changes throughout the region; it will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

Appendix VIDEO: Hank Williams Jr. – Are You Ready for Some Football – https://youtu.be/K8LLKO0-PAE

Uploaded on May 28, 2011 – Official Music Video

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Sports Role Model – ‘WWE Network’

Posted on September 20, 2015 in Economics, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The revolution will be televised.^*

The book Go Lean … Caribbean advocates change for the Caribbean region that is so radical that it might be considered revolutionary!

So be it! The book clearly posits that the region is in crisis, and radical change must now be implemented, but it clearly asserts non-violent, non-military change; see quotation here (Page 8):

… this is not a call for a revolt against the governments, agencies or institutions of the Caribbean region, but rather a petition for a peaceful transition and optimization of the economic, security and governing engines in the region.

This revolution to elevate the Caribbean eco-systems will be executed in the open, with full transparency and accountability. Television cameras are welcome … and encouraged!

The phrase – ‘revolution will ~~not~~ be televised’ – was coined at a time (1970) when television was the dominant visual medium. Today, there is the ubiquity of the internet, with its many video streaming services.

So the new catch-phrase can be: “the revolution will be televised, mobilized and streamed”.

This is better! (Every mobile/smart-phone owner walks around with an advanced digital video camera in their pocket). We are now able to have a network without the “network”. Many models abound on the world-wide-web. Previously, this commentary identified one such network (ESPN-W); now the focus is on another, the WWE Network, associated with the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. This network is delivered via the internet-streaming only (and On-Demand with limited Cable TV systems). See details here, considering the “World” reference in the “WWE” branding:

WWE Network is a subscription-based video streaming service owned by WWE, using the infrastructure of Major League Baseball Advanced Media.^[2] The concept was originally announced in 2011. On January 8, 2014, WWE announced the network would launch on February 24 in the United States. The company stated on July 31 that the service was expected to go live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Spain, Turkey and the Nordics [countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden)], among other countries starting on August 17.^[3] It was unexpectedly made available in the UK and Ireland a week earlier than planned, on January 13, 2015, after a delay from the previous October,^[4] and is also expected to arrive in Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Japan, India, China, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia at a future date.^[5] The WWE Network consists of both a 24-hour linear streaming channel and on-demand programming from WWE’s library.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Network retrieved September 20, 2014).

———

After months of anticipation, WWE Network finally launched today at precisely 9 a.m. ET, becoming the first-ever 24/7 live streaming network. As a part of this historic offering, WWE fans will now have access to all live pay-per-view events, including WrestleMania, as well as groundbreaking original programming, reality shows, documentaries, classic matches and more than 1,500 hours of video on demand. And for a limited time, our fans can get a one-week free trial of this fully immersive WWE experience.

WWE Network is delivered directly to fans through over-the-top digital distribution, and will be available on desktops and laptops, as well as through the WWE App on: Amazon’s Kindle Fire devices; Android devices such as Samsung Galaxy; iOS devices such as Apple iPad and iPhone; Apple TV; Roku streaming devices; Sony PlayStation® 3 and Sony PlayStation® 4; and Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

“Today is a historic day for WWE as we transform and reimagine how we deliver our premium live content and 24/7 programming directly to our fans around the world,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. “WWE Network will provide transformative growth for our company and unprecedented value for our fans.”

WWE Network will also offer fans a revolutionary second screen experience for all original programming and live events via the WWE App, similar to the interactive fan experience currently available for flagship TV programs Raw and SmackDown. Tune in tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET to experience the all-new second screen during the first-ever Raw Pre-Show and RawBackstagePass, following Raw.

Live outside the U.S.? WWE Network is scheduled to launch in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Nordics by the end of 2014/early 2015.
Source: WWE Network – Official Website; posted February 24, 2014; retrieved September 20, 2015 from http://www.wwe.com/inside/wwe-network-launches

Wow, the lesser sports-entertainment activity of wrestling is bigger and more magnanimous than initial appearances. In North America, the major sports are Football, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer and Hockey. Other sport-entertainment higher in profile than wrestling include Auto-Racing (NASCAR & IndyCar), Golf and Tennis. Wrestling is grouped with the these other minor sporting activities: Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Olympic Sports (Track & Field, Gymnastics, Figure-skating, Swimming, etc.), Rodeo, Bowling, and others.

These five major team sports are popular with fans and widely watched on television, have a fully professional league, are played by millions of Americans, enjoy varsity status at many Division 1 colleges, and are played in high schools throughout the country. See chart here from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_the_United_States#Overview:

Sport Favorite Sport^[5] TV viewing
record (mil)
(since 2000)¹ Professional League Participants^[6] Professional Average
Attendance

American football 38.8% 111.5m National Football League 8.9 million 67,604

Basketball 15.3% 39.1m National Basketball Association 24.4 million 17,347

Baseball/Softball 14.8% 35.9m Major League Baseball 23.3 million 30,451

Soccer 8.2% 27.3m Major League Soccer 13.6 million 19,148

Ice Hockey 3.8% 27.6m National Hockey League 3.1 million 17,720

TV viewing record measures the game with the most TV viewers in the U.S. since 2000.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Sport	Favorite Sport^[5]	TV viewing record (mil) (since 2000)¹	Professional League	Participants^[6]	Professional Average Attendance
American football	38.8%	111.5m	National Football League	8.9 million	67,604
Basketball	15.3%	39.1m	National Basketball Association	24.4 million	17,347
Baseball/Softball	14.8%	35.9m	Major League Baseball	23.3 million	30,451
Soccer	8.2%	27.3m	Major League Soccer	13.6 million	19,148
Ice Hockey	3.8%	27.6m	National Hockey League	3.1 million	17,720

In truth, professional wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a spectator sport (even more so back in the 1990s). However, it is a scripted and choreographed show, wholly unrelated to the amateur competitive sport. So there are a lot of lessons from this WWE Network model for us in the Caribbean; these lessons demonstrate how we can elevate our eco-systems of ICT (Internet & Communications Technology), sports, entertainment, television, and economics .

This role model examination is a big deal for the Caribbean, as the region does not currently have an eco-system for sports business for Caribbean participants in the Caribbean – a lot of infrastructure is missing. There is no viable sporting enterprises – other than baseball development/winter leagues in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Communist Cuba, where the hope is to be scouted and signed for Major League Baseball in the US. There is absolutely no intercollegiate athletics arrangements. Only amateur athletics abound in the region.

This commentary asserts that the Caribbean region can emulate this WWE model, and “simply” launch as a streaming option.

According to the foregoing article, “simply” isn’t so simple; there was a lot of heavy-lifting for this innovative move for WWE to launch this endeavor. That fact too, is a lesson for the Caribbean; there is heavy-lifting required to transform society, in general and specifically for sport enterprises.

While so much of the sports business infrastructure is missing in the region, the Caribbean is awash in the underlying assets: the athletes. The Caribbean supplies the world with the best-of-the-best in the sports genres of basketball, track-and-field, soccer-FIFA-football and other endeavors. This athletic supply applies equally to men and women.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. The roadmap recognizes and fosters the genius qualifiers of many Caribbean athletes. The goal now is foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments.

This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the entire region, utilizing all the advantages of cutting edge ICT offerings. The result: an audience of 42 million people across 30 member-states and 4 languages. The WWE Network therefore provides a great role model for the CU‘s execution, facilitating television, cable, satellite and internet streaming wherever economically viable.

At the outset, the roadmap recognizes the value of sports in the roadmap with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

xxvi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

In the Go Lean book and previous blogs, the Go Lean movement asserted that the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits of sports is within reach, with the proper technocracy. The biggest contribution the CU will make is the facilitation of sports venues: arenas and stadia. Sports will then be a big business for the athletes, promoters, vendors and landlords. Still, even fans get great benefits: image, national pride, and entertainment. (Again, the E in WWE means Entertainment – see Appendix VIDEO below). The eco-system of sports is therefore inclusive in the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean to deliver the solutions to elevate the Caribbean region through sports:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Consolidating the Region in to a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (Fairgrounds)	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #5 Four Languages in Unison / #8 Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Reduce Brain Drain	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The Go Lean book asserts that the region can be a better place to live, work and play; that the economy can be grown methodically by embracing progressive strategies in sports and sports broadcasting/streaming at all levels: professional, amateur and intercollegiate. This point was further detailed in these previous blogs:

This cause was detailed in these previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921	Socio-Economic Impact of Sports Arenas & Stadia
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4019	Melding of Sports & Technology; the Business of the Super Bowl
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414	Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1715	Lebronomy – Economic Impact of the Return of the NBA Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	College World Series Time – Lessons from Omaha
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	Landlord of Temporary Stadiums
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498	Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of sports but the roadmap is bigger than just sports; its a concerted effort to elevate all of Caribbean society. The CU is the vehicle for this goal, this is detailed by the following 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs (21,000 direct jobs at fairgrounds and sport venues).
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This roadmap adheres to economic principles and related best-practices; therefore the laws of supply-and-demand are duly respected. Similar to the foregoing WWE Network article, the roadmap looks for the opportunities to foster interest that may exists in specific endeavors, and then explore the business opportunities around servicing that demand. (This roadmap is not specifically advocating wrestling activities for Caribbean stakeholders but rather the business modeling of the WWE).

This is heavy-lifting. This is the quest of Go Lean/CU, to do the heavy-lifting for the Caribbean region, above and beyond what individual member-states maybe able to accomplish on their own. All the stakeholders in the region – athletes, participants, spectators, coaches, promoters, and officials – are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap.

We need to just do it! 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———–

Appendix* – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

This phrase in pop culture originated as a a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron first recorded it for his 1970 album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, on which he recited the lyrics, accompanied by congas and bongo drums. Heron (1949 –2011) was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and 1980s.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised

AUDIO: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – https://youtu.be/QnJFhuOWgXg

This is a sound sample from a song, that is currently copyrighted. The copyright for it may be owned by the author or his designate (heirs, company, etc.).

————

Appendix VIDEO – WWE Network Promo – http://youtu.be/MyeZ16IOz90

The insane leaping ability of Rob Van Dam, Eddie Guerrero and other Superstars and Legends is on display in this spring-loaded edition of WWE Fury. More ACTION on the WWE NETWORK.

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‘Concussions’ – The Movie; The Cause

Posted on August 31, 2015 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Are you ready for some football?” – Promotional song by Hank Williams, Jr. for Monday Night Football on ABC & ESPN networks for 22 years (1989 – 2011). See Appendix below.

This iconic song (see Appendix) and catch-phrase is reflective of exactly how popular the National Football League (NFL) is in the US:

“They own an entire day of the week”.

Football is big business in the US, $9 billion in revenue, and more than a business; emotions – civic pride, rivalries, and fanaticism – run high on both sides.

Previous Go Lean commentaries presents the socio-economic realities of much of the American football eco-system. Consider a sample here:

Socio-Economic Impact Analysis of [Football] Sports Stadiums

Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Levi’s® NFL Stadium: A Team Effort

Sports Role Model – College Football – Playing For Pride … And More

Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network

Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean – Model of NCAA

10 Things We Want from the US: #10 – Sports Professionalism

10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #10 – ‘Win At All Costs’ Ethos

“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

See news article here on the release of the movie:

Title: ‘Concussion’: 5 Take-a-ways From Will Smith’s New Film

Will Smith, 46, is definitely going to get a ton of Oscar buzz portraying Dr. Bennet Omalu in the new film “Concussion.” NFL columnist Peter King of Sports Illustrated got an exclusive first peek at the trailer and it has been widely shared on social media since. And it’s very chilling.

Here are five take-aways and background you need to know before checking out the clip:

1 – It’s Based on a True Story

Omalu is the forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players who got hit in the head over and over again, according to the Washington Post.

In the clip, he says repetitive “head trauma chokes the brain.”

Omalu was one of the founding members of the Brain Injury Research Institute in 2002. He conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, played by David Morse in the film, which led to this discovery.

2 – Smith’s Version of Omalu’s Accent Is Spot On

Omalu is from Nigeria and Smith has been known to transform completely for a role. He was nominated for an Oscar for 2011’s “Ali,” playing the legendary Muhammad Ali.

For comparison, here’s Omalu’s PBS interview from 2013.

3 – Smith Is a Reluctant Hero

“If you don’t speak for them, who will,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Prema Mutiso in the film, tells Smith’s character.

He admits he idolized America growing up and “was the wrong person to have discovered this.”

4 – Alec Baldwin and Luke Wilson

“Concussion” brought in some heavyweights for this movie. Baldwin plays Dr. Julian Bailes, who advises Omalu, and Wilson, who will reportedly play NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to IMDB. There’s no official word on this. He’s seen at a podium in the trailer, but doesn’t speak.

5 – “Tell the Truth”

Smith captures Omalu’s passion to have the truth told about this injury and disease.

“I was afraid of letting Mike [Webster] down. I was afraid. I don’t know. I was afraid I was going to fail,” Omalu told PBS a couple years back.

———-

VIDEO Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322364/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Will Smith stars in the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player.

No. Hardly. As previously discussed, there is too much money at stake.

These stakes bring out the Crony-capitalism in American society.

Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs, including sports-related industries with a projection of 21,000 direct jobs at Fairgrounds and sports enterprises.
Establish a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. …

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interests of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism …

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices / Incentives	Page 21
Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Light-Up the Dark Places	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Mitigate Suicide Threats	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-States into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Foster Local Economic Engines for Basic Needs	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for Natural Disasters	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Disease Management	Page 86
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs into a Single Market Economy	Page 96
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Sports Stadia	Page 105
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Unified Command & Control	Page 103
Implementation – Industrial Policy for CU Self Governing Entities	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver – Project Management/Accountabilities	Page 109
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact	Page 122
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Arts & Sciences	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

Let’s do better. Yes, the Caribbean can be better than the American experiences.

Bravo Dr. Bennet Omalu. Thank you for this example … and for being a role model for all of the Caribbean.

RIP Junior Seau.

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

Appendix VIDEO: Hank Williams Jr. – Are You Ready for Some Football – https://youtu.be/dKPZEMu7Mno

Uploaded on Jan 28, 2019 – Official Music Video

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Socio-Economic Change: Impact Analysis of SGE’s

Posted on July 20, 2015 in Economics, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

This purpose of the book Go Lean … Caribbean is the elevation of the economic engines in the region. The book serves as a 5 year roadmap to foster new developments and empowerments in the region. If successful – this is the likelihood as past performance is the best indicator of future success – there will definitely be socio-economic changes.

Click on photo to download Report!

Mastering socio-economic changes require strenuous effort – it is heavy-lifting. This submission completes the series – 3 of 3 – on this subject; previously, this commentary considered …

1. the manifestation of changes in everyday life – values, habits and nuances, looking across a timeline from the 1960’s versus today;

2. the high suicide rate among the elderly frustrated with acute changes.

This commentary considers that under the Go Lean roadmap, there will be many community investment endeavors; therefore many times there will be the need for “impact analyses”. The roadmap calls for the installation of Self-Governing Entities (SGE) as job-creating engines in many communities; these sites are ideal for technology laboratories, medical campuses, corporate parks, industrial sites, educational facilities and other forms of establishments situated inside bordered facilitates. These types of installations will thrive under the strategies and tactics of the Go Lean roadmap. They allow for an efficient process to launch and manage projects and physical installations in the region, but the SGE concept does require governmental concurrence and maybe even public approvals, as in referendums, at the initiation.

SGE’s are part-and parcel of the prime directives of the Go Lean roadmap, defined by these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion in GDP and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

How are the impact analyses to be conducted in the region? What is the art and science of this socio-economic field of study? Consider the headlines and abstract of this academic study from the University of Wisconsin:

Title: Socio-Economic Impact Analysis
University of Wisconsin – Community Guide to Development Impact Analysis. Posted 05/2/2011; retrieved 07-17-2015
By: Mary Edwards

As Wisconsin communities continue to grow, local officials and community members are constantly challenged by the need to balance fiscal, social, economic, and environmental goals. One aspect of this challenge is deciding how much and what types of new development the community can accommodate without compromising the day-to-day quality of life for residents. Socio-economic impact assessment is designed to assist communities in making decisions that promote long-term sustain-ability, including economic prosperity, a healthy community, and social well-being.

Assessing socio-economic impacts requires both quantitative and qualitative measurements of the impact of a proposed development. For example, a proposed development may increase employment in the community and create demand for more affordable housing. Both effects are easily quantifiable. Also of importance, however, are the perceptions of community members about whether the proposed development is consistent with a commitment to preserving the rural character of the community. Assessing community perceptions about development requires the use of methods capable of revealing often complex and unpredictable community values.

This chapter provides an overview of socio-economic impact assessment, including what it is, why it is important and guidance on how to conduct a socio-economic impact assessment.

WHAT IS SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT?

A socio-economic impact assessment examines how a proposed development will change the lives of current and future residents of a community. The indicators used to measure the potential socio-economic impacts of a development include the following:

• Changes in community demographics;
• Results of retail/service and housing market analyses;
• Demand for public services;
• Changes in employment and income levels; and
• Changes in the aesthetic quality of the community.

Quantitative measurement of such factors is an important component of the socio-economic impact assessment. At the same time, the perceptions of community members about how a proposed development will affect their lives is a critical part of the assessment and should contribute to any decision to move ahead with a project. In fact, gaining an understanding of community values and concerns is an important first step in conducting a socio-economic impact assessment.

The socio-economic impacts of a proposed development on a community may actually begin the day the project is proposed. Changes in social structure and inter-actions among community members may occur once the new development is pro-posed to the community. In addition, real, measurable and often significant effects on the human environment can begin to take place as soon as there are changes in social or economic conditions. From the time of the earliest announcement of a pending policy change or development project, attitudes toward the project are formed, interest groups and other coalitions prepare strategies, speculators may lock up potentially important properties, and politicians can maneuver for position.

WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS?

Because socio-economic impact assessment is designed to estimate the effects of a proposed development on a community’s social and economic welfare, the process should rely heavily on involving community members who may be affected by the development. Others who should be involved in the process include community leaders and others who represent diverse interests in the community such as community service organizations, development and real estate interests, minority and low income groups, and local environmental groups. In addition, local agencies or officials should provide input into the process of assessing changes in the social environment that may occur as a result of the proposed development (e.g., providing estimates and information demographics, employment and service needs).

WHY CONDUCT A SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT?

Conducting a social impact assessment is important for several reasons. In general, it is used to alert the community, including residents and local officials, of the impact and magnitude of the proposed development on the community’s social and economic well-being. The assessment can help communities avoid creating inequities among community groups as well as encourage the positive impacts associated with the development.

HOW TO CONDUCT A SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT

The following section provides a two-step process for conducting a socio-economic impact analysis. The process is designed to establish a framework for evaluating cur-rent and future proposed developments in a community.

TWO PHASES OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT

1. Defining the scope of the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment

2. Identifying and Evaluating Development Impacts

  A. Quantitative Changes

     A.1 DEMOGRAPHIC IMPACTS

     A.2 DATA SOURCES

     A.3 HOUSING MARKET IMPACTS

     A.4 RETAIL MARKET IMPACTS

     A.5 EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME

     A.6 PUBLIC SERVICES

     A.7 AESTHETIC IMPACTS

  B. Community Perceptions

     B.1 QUALITY OF LIFE

…

This is just the headlines; find the full White Paper at: http://www.lic.wisc.edu/shapingdane/facilitation/all_resources/impacts/analysis_socio.htm

i.e. Sample Economic Impact Study

Click on photo to download Report!

The Go Lean roadmap does not ignore the controversies associated with impact analyses. Many times these studies are abused to justify spending public money to benefit private interests. This is another example of Crony-Capitalism; consider the VIDEO here of how public financing of sports stadiums have been abused in the US:

Appendix VIDEO – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Stadiums (HBO) – https://youtu.be/xcwJt4bcnXs

Published on July 12, 2015 – Cities spend massive amounts of public money on privately-owned stadiums. Cities issue tax-exempt municipal bonds that — wait, don’t fall asleep!
Content warning: Some profanity!

According to this VIDEO, there is an obvious potential for socio-economic studies to be abused. The goal of a socio-economic study is generally to bring about socio-economic development, usually by improvements in metrics such as GDP, life expectancy, literacy, levels of employment, etc.

The Go Lean roadmap embraces the practice of socio-economic studies – done right – it provides turn-by-turn directions on how to elevate the Caribbean economy while mitigating any pattern of abuse. As a planning tool, the roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the need for regional integration (Page 11 & 13) to foster the foundation to forge a better future. The declarative statements are as follows:

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … – impacting the region with more jobs.

Change has now come to the Caribbean. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. The Caribbean region cannot only consume the innovations being developed around the world; we must develop and innovate ourselves. The structure of SGE’s are perfectly designed for this endeavor; innovators and developers can create their “own world” so as to foster the best practices for Research & Development (R&D) with no intrusion from municipal authorities. This is a win-win! The bottom-line for the developers may be their “bottom-line”, but for the community, it would be the Greater Good.

The subject of SGE’s has been directly addressed and further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037	How to Train Your ‘Dragon’ – Case Study for Foreign Investments and SGE’s
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473	Haiti to Receive $70 Million Grant to Expand SGE-like ‘Caracol Industrial Park’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3276	A Role Model – Ideal for SGE’s – Shaking Up the World of Cancer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2800	The Geography of Joblessness – The need for SGE’s
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World – Role Model for Self Governing Entities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Where the Jobs Are – Ship-breaking under SGE Structure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	Fairgrounds as SGE and Landlords for Sports Leagues
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=286	Puerto Rico’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – Model of Medical SGE

Sports is also pivotal to the Go Lean roadmap. This was demonstrated in our prior consideration of the economic impact analysis of basketball great LeBron James returning to Cleveland after a 4-year stint in Miami. That consideration summarized that his absence was worth $50 million a season for that metropolitan area.

So thusly this subject of the “business of sports” is a familiar topic for Go Lean blogs as these previous blogs have detailed:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4019	The Business of the Super Bowl … and Commercials
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414	Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort … for the San Francisco Bay
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	College World Series Time – Lessons from Omaha
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	The Art & Science of Temporary Stadiums – No White Elephants
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498	Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=334	Bahamians Make Presence Felt In Libyan League
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

This Go Lean roadmap seeks to implement the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). While the CU/Go Lean effort is to harness the individual abilities of athletes to elevate their performance, the real focus is harnessing the economic impact for the relevant communities. Modern sports engagements cannot be analyzed without considering the impact on “dollars and cents” for the community. The Go Lean book calls for solid business plans to develop sports stadia and arenas at CU-owned Fairgrounds This intent was also pronounced early in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14):

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism …

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy – as the landlord of many sports facilities within the SGE design. The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge Self-Governing Entities and sports enterprises in the Caribbean:

Economic Principles – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 48
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing Economy – New High Multiplier Industries	Page 68
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Self-Governing Entities – i.e. ESA	Page 80
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver – Embrace of Project Management Arts & Sciences	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas	Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from other communities, especially when socio-economic studies have been used (or abused) to justify community investments in infrastructure.

The design of Self-Governing Entities allow for greater protections from Crony-Capitalistic abuses. While this roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of sports and accompanying infrastructure, as demonstrated in the foregoing VIDEO, sport teams and owners can be plutocratic “animals” in their greed. We must learn to mitigate any plutocratic abuses; see the Appendix – Additional Reporting below.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This roadmap will result in positive socio-economic changes throughout the region. Just consider the Fairgrounds SGE model; the end result for these ventures into the business of sports is projected as 21,000 direct jobs at Fairgrounds and sports enterprises.

Overall, with these executions, the Caribbean region can be a better place to live, work and play. As demonstrated by this discussion on sports stadia, there is a lot of economic activity in the “play” element; the same applies even greater with “live and work” elements. The practice of socio-economic studies must therefore be earnestly engaged in the Caribbean region, especially for projects involving community investments. This is not easy; this is part of the process to elevate the Caribbean region. This heavy-lifting – ensuring that investments get the proper return for the applicable stakeholders – is worth the effort; this ensures the Greater Good. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

————-

Appendix – Additional Reporting: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/six-lies-about-the-marlins-stadium-6380692

Title: Six lies about the Marlins stadium

By: Miami New Times Community Newspaper; posted May 5, 2011; Retrieved July 20, 2015

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Is Martinique the Next Caribbean Surfing Capital?

Posted on April 14, 2015 in Economics, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

Sports could be big business; culture is big business. Every now-and-then there is the opportunity to merge sports and culture into a single economic activity. One such expression is the sports/culture of surfing. This focus is a priority for the movement to elevate the Caribbean society, stemming from the book Go Lean…Caribbean.

The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). While the CU is not intended as a sports promotion entity, it does promote the important role of sports in the quest to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

Though surfing activities originated with Polynesian culture (see Appendix below), the sport has assimilated well in other societies – the Caribbean included.

In terms of cultural expressions of surfing in the United States, the most iconic portrayal is the Rock-n-Roll group the Beach Boys; see VIDEO in the Appendix below of a milestone performance in Tokyo, Japan.

Yes surfing is global in its participation and appreciation.

Now a Caribbean community, the French-domain of Martinique is exploring the surfing sub-culture for sport, tourism and sports-tourism.

Cowabonga* Dude!

By: The Caribbean Journal staff

Long an under-the-radar surfing spot, the French Caribbean island will get its place in the spotlight when the surfing world gathers on the island later this month for the first-ever Martinique Surf Pro.

From April 21-26, the Caribbean’s only World Surf League Qualification Series event this year will take place along the shores of Basse-Pointe in Martinique.

The event, which is being organized by Martinique Surfing in partnership with the World Surf League, will bring together 100 world-class surfers from the United States, Japan, Europe, Brazil and the Caribbean.

“Martinique has been among the best-kept secrets in Caribbean surfing for some time now,” said Muriel Wiltord, director of the Americas for the Martinique Promotion Bureau. “Such a high-profile event as this cements the island’s position as a prime surfing destination. As one the top watersports competitions being held in the Caribbean in 2015, Martinique Surf Pro also shines a spotlight on the wide range of additional watersports options that Martinique has to offer.”

Martinique’s surfing season typically lasts between November and May along its northern and northeastern Atlantic coasts.

Source retrieved April 13, 2015: http://www.caribjournal.com/2015/04/13/is-martinique-the-next-caribbean-surfing-capital/

Not every coastline is ideal for surfing; thusly many Caribbean residents do not surf; it is not an indigenous activity to this region. But the past-time – and culture for that matter – is adaptable. Why is this? While the Caribbean has been blessed with many natural gifts, the physical conditions for surfing are not everywhere; (based on factual information retrieved from Wikipedia).

There must be a consistent swell. A swell is generated when wind blows consistently over a large area of open water, called the wind’s fetch. The size of a swell is determined by the strength of the wind and the length of its fetch and duration. Because of this, surf tends to be larger and more prevalent on coastlines exposed to large expanses of ocean traversed by intense low pressure systems.

Local wind conditions affect wave quality, since the surface of a wave can become choppy in blustery conditions. Ideal conditions include a light to moderate “offshore” wind, because it blows into the front of the wave, making it a “barrel” or “tube” wave. Waves are Left handed and Right Handed depending upon the breaking formation of the wave.

Waves are generally recognized by the surfaces over which they break.^[7] For example, there are Beach breaks, Reef breaks and Point breaks.

The most important influence on wave shape is the topography of the seabed directly behind and immediately beneath the breaking wave. The contours of the reef or bar front becomes stretched by diffraction. Each break is different, since each location’s underwater topography is unique. At beach breaks, sandbanks change shape from week to week. Surf forecasting is aided by advances in information technology. Mathematical modeling graphically depicts the size and direction of swells around the globe.

So mastering the sport of surfing is now an art and a science.

Despite the fun and joy of surfing, there are a lot of dangers with this activity:

Drowning
Collisions
Marine life – Sharks mistake surfers for their natural prey
Rip currents
Seabed – Injuries from the reefs, fauna and flora of the seabed

This activity is not for the faint of heart.

Not every market, especially in the Caribbean, can support the demands of surfing as a sport and as a cultural event. As depicted in the foregoing article, Martinique uniquely qualifies. This year’s professional tournament is the inaugural event. This Caribbean island makes a very short-list of all locations where this activity is practical. The following is a sample of the competitive/major surfing locations (Surf Cities) around the globe:

1. In Australia

2. In Asia

2.1 Arugam Bay, Ullae (Pottuvil, Sri Lanka)

3. In the South Pacific

3.1 Teahupoʻo (Tahiti)

4. In South Africa

4.1 Jeffreys Bay (Eastern Cape)

5. In North America

5.1 Zicatela Beach (Mexican Pipeline)

6. In Central America

6.1 La Libertad (El Salvador)

7. In South America

7.1 Chicama (La Libertad-Peru)

8. In the USA

9. In Europe

The Martinique effort and initiative to satiate the thirst … and fascination of surfing aligns with the objects of the CU/Go Lean roadmap; especially the mission “to forge industries and economic drivers around the individual and group activities of sports and culture” (Page 81).

The Go Lean vision is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean forming the CU as a proxy organization to do the heavy-lighting of building, funding, maintaining and promoting sports venues. The strategy is for the CU to be the landlord, and super-regional regulatory agency, for sports leagues, federations and associations (amateur, collegiate, and professional). The embrace and promotion of the sport and culture of surfing can contribute to the Greater Good for the Caribbean. This aligns with the prime directives of the CU/Go Lean roadmap; summarized in the book with these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and the participants in activities like surfing.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This roadmap commences with the recognition that genius qualifiers can be found in many fields of endeavor, including sports. The roadmap pronounces the need for the region to confederate in order to invest in elevation of the Caribbean eco-systems in which such athletic geniuses can soar. These pronouncements are made in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 13 & 14) as follows:

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxii. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from Surf City communities and other sporting venues/administrations. So thusly this subject of the “business of sports” is a familiar topic for Go Lean blogs. This cause was detailed in these previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4019	Melding of Sports & Technology; the Business of the Super Bowl
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414	Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1715	Lebronomy – Economic Impact of the Return of the NBA Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	College World Series Time – Lessons from Omaha
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	Landlord of Temporary Stadiums
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498	Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of all the Caribbean sports eco-system to respond to the world’s thirst for surfing. The book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deliver the regional solutions to better harness economic benefits from sports and sports-tourism activities:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds as Sporting Venues	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

What could be the end result for the Go Lean roadmap’s venture into the sport of surfing and the business of sports? Economic growth and “jobs”. The Go Lean roadmap anticipates 21,000 direct jobs at sports enterprises throughout the region.

But surfing is also a leisure amenity, a “play” activity within the Go Lean roadmap. Many participate in this activity with no competitive motives. So the promotion of surfing in the Caribbean region can appeal to many enthusiasts far-and-wide to come visit and enjoy our Caribbean hospitality. This subject therefore relates back to the primary regional economic activity of tourism. This fits into the appeal of the Caribbean sun, sand and surf.

Overall, with these executions, the Caribbean region can be a better place to live, work and play. There is a lot of economic activity in the “play” aspects of society. Everyone, surfers, athletes and spectators alike, are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

Cowabonga Dude!

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix – *Cowabunga: (slang) an expression of surprise or amazement, often followed by “dude”. Popular among California surfers.

———-

Appendix – Encyclopedia of Surfing:

For centuries, surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture. This activity was first observed by Europeans at Tahiti in 1767 by Samuel Wallis and the crew members of the Dolphin; they were the first Europeans to visit the island in June of that year.

Surfing is a surface water sport in which the wave rider, referred to as a surfer, rides on the forward or deep face of a moving wave, which is usually carrying the surfer toward the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found in the ocean, but can also be found in lakes or in rivers in the form of a standing wave or tidal bore. However, surfers can also utilize artificial waves such as those from boat wakes and the waves created in artificial wave pools.

The term surfing refers to the act of riding a wave, regardless of whether the wave is ridden with a board or without a board, and regardless of the stance used. The native peoples of the Pacific, for instance, surfed waves on alaia, paipo, and other such craft, and did so on their belly and knees. The modern-day definition of surfing, however, most often refers to a surfer riding a wave standing up on a surfboard; this is also referred to as stand-up surfing.

George Freeth (8 November 1883 – 7 April 1919) is often credited as being the “Father of Modern Surfing”.

In 1907, the eclectic interests of the land baron Henry Huntington (of whom the City of Huntington Beach is named after) brought the ancient art of surfing to the California coast. While on vacation, Huntington had seen Hawaiian boys surfing the island waves. Looking for a way to entice visitors to the area of Redondo Beach, where he had heavily invested in real estate, he hired the young Hawaiian George Freeth to come to California and ride surfboards to the delight of visitors; Mr. Freeth exhibited his surfing skills twice a day in front of the Hotel Redondo.

In 1975, professional contests started.^[6]

Today, the Surfing Hall of Fame is located in the city of Huntington Beach, California. The city brands itself as Surf City USA.

(Source retrieved April 14 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfing)

———-

Appendix – VIDEO – The Beach Boys: Surfin’ Safari~Surf City~Surfin’ U.S.A – https://youtu.be/qpSwdQMn8xs

Uploaded on Jul 29, 2011 – Live at Budokan in Japan November 2, 1991

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Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Posted on January 29, 2015 in Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean encourages you to watch the Big Game on Sunday (February 1, 2015), Super Bowl XLIX from Phoenix –area, Arizona, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Pull for your favorite team and enjoy the half-time show (Katy Perry). It’s all free! It’s being paid for by the advertisers.

So as to complete the full economic cycle, be sure to watch the commercials; because this is Big Money; Big Stakes and a Big Deal. The 2014 version, Super Bowl XLVIII on FOX Broadcast Network was the most watched television program in US history with 111.5 million viewers.^[15][16] The Super Bowl half-time show featuring Bruno Mars was the most watched ever with 115.3 million viewers.^[15][16] Now, it’s not just TV, but “second- screen” (computers, tablets & mobile devices) as well; this is now tweet-along-with-us programming; notice the #BestBuds Twitter identifier in the following Ad:

VIDEO – http://youtu.be/EIUSkKTUftU – 2015 Budweiser Clydesdale Beer Run

Published on Jan 23, 2015 – It’s time for your Super Bowl beer run. Don’t disappoint a Clydesdale. Choose Budweiser for you and your #BestBuds on epic Super Bowl weekend!

For $4.5 million per 30 second ad, an advertiser had better get the “maximum bang for the buck”; but 30 seconds is still only 30 seconds. Enter the “second-screen”; now advertisers can stretch the attention of their audience by directing them to internet websites, Twitter followings and even YouTube videos and Facebook videos.

See these related stories, (sourced mostly from Variety.com – Hollywood & Entertainment Business Magazine; (retrieved 01-29-2015):

1. WATCH: Super Bowl 2015 Commercials

Audiences no longer need to wait until the Big Game to watch Super Bowl commercials, with an increasing number of marketers opting to release their spots days before kickoff. This year is no different, with Budweiser, Budweiser, Bud Light, Kia, Mercedes-Benz USA, T-Mobile, Victoria’s Secret, BMW, even Paramount with “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” among those having already posted their ads online [on sites like YouTube].

The reason? The high cost to play the Super Bowl promo blitz is one. At around $4.5 million per 30 second ad, buying time during the match up between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is at record levels. NBC is airing the game February 1.

2. Super Bowl Ads: NBC Turns to Tumblr to Post Spots After They Air on TV

NBC Sports has launched a new Super Bowl page on Yahoo’s [social media site] Tumblr that the programmer will use to feature Super Bowl XLIX’s TV ads immediately after they air on NBC on Sunday, February 1.

The new NBC Sports Tumblr page, accessible via NBCSports.com/Ads, will be populated with original content ahead of Super Bowl Sunday created by the NBC Sports’ marketing media team, as well as from re-blogging NFL-related Tumblr posts. On game day, the page will convert into a hub for Super Bowl TV ads.

3. NBCU Will Use Super Bowl XLIX Free Live-Stream to Promote Pay-TV Online Services

NBCUniversal will launch an 11-hour free digital video stream — centered around live coverage of this year’s Super Bowl — in a bid to get users to log in to its “TV Everywhere” (TVE) services across its broadcast and cable portfolio the rest of the year.

The Peacock’s “Super Stream Sunday” event will include NBC’s presentation of the Super Bowl, as well as the halftime show toplined by Katy Perry. The live-stream will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on Feb. 1 with NBC’s pregame coverage and concludes with an airing of a new episode of primetime drama “The Blacklist” at approximately 10 p.m. ET.

Ordinarily, access to the NBC Sports Live Extra and NBC.com content requires users to log in using credentials from participating [Pay] TV providers. The free promo is aimed at driving usage of TVE, to ensure those subscribers keep paying for television service.

“We are leveraging the massive digital reach of the Super Bowl to help raise overall awareness of TV Everywhere by allowing consumers to explore our vast TVE offering with this special one-day-only access,” said Alison Moore, GM and Exec VP of TV Everywhere for NBCU.

NBC does not have NFL live-streaming rights on smartphone devices, which the league has granted exclusively to Verizon Wireless. As such, the “Super Stream Sunday” content will be available on tablets and desktop computers.

4. Facebook may be the big winner of this year’s Super Bowl

For retailer Freshpet, a new ad campaign video was released to both YouTube and Facebook this past December. It quickly went viral. That wasn’t that surprising. The surprising part was the disparity between views on YouTube compared to Facebook. On YouTube, the video has racked up around 7.5 million views so far. On Facebook, the figure is 20 million. “It was fairly eye-opening,” he says. “Things are evolving really quickly.”

With stats like that, this might be the first year in which views of Super Bowl ads on Facebook eclipse those of YouTube.

No wonder then that many advertisers in the big game are looking to go Facebook native.

Show-business has changed. Sports has changed. TV has changed…

… there is now time-shifted viewing (DVR) and on-demand platforms offering an alphabetical menu of shows.

These changes are where this commentary relates to the Caribbean. The changing TV landscape affects the Caribbean region as well, or at least it should. This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap has 3 prime directives:

Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and marshal against economic crimes.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The roadmap recognizes and fosters more sports business in the region. The genius qualifiers – athletic talent – of many Caribbean men and women are already heightened. The goal now is foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments. This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the entire region, utilizing all the advantages of cutting edge ICT offerings. The result: an audience of 42 million people across 30 member-states and 4 languages, facilitating television, cable, satellite and internet streaming wherever economically viable.

Early in the book, the benefits of sports and technology empowerment is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14), with these opening statements:

xiii.      Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xiv.      Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xv.      Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxxi.      Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The region has the eco-system of free broadcast television, and the infrastructure for internet streaming. So the issues being tracked for this year’s Super Bowl have bearing in the execution of this roadmap.

The Go Lean roadmap was developed with the community ethos in mind to forge change and build up the communities around the sports world, plus the execution of related strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to make the change permanent. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Consolidating the Region in to a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Fairgrounds	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #5 Four Languages in Unison / #8 Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Sports Academies to Foster Talent	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

This commentary previously featured subjects related to developing the eco-systems of the sports business, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3999	Breaking New Ground in the Changing Show-business Eco-System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City on ‘ …Show-business
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414	Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort for the Big Business of Sports
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – Broadcasting / Internet Streaming: espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	Sports Role Model – College World Series Time
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1092	Aereo – Model for the Future of TV Blending with the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Want from the US – # 10: Sports Professionalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, but it recognizes that sports and its attendant functions can build up a community, nation and region. But the quest to re-build, re-boot and re-tool the Caribbean will be more than just kids-play, it must model the Super Bowl and act like a Big Business.

The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting activities for the many people, organizations and governments to accomplish this goal. But the goal is conceivable, believable and achievable. We can make the region a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort

Posted on December 16, 2014 in Economics, Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Sports business is big business. But still, even small communities can play in this game.

VIDEO – Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort – http://youtu.be/WT5aaKcDlf4

When the San Francisco 49ers wanted to build a new stadium in Santa Clara, California, Goldman Sachs helped structure an innovative financing plan to make it happen. Levi’s® Stadium, one of the country’s most technologically advanced stadiums, opened in August 2014 and is helping to bring further economic development to the local economy in Santa Clara.

In 2011, Santa Clara voters approved a plan to build the 68,500 seat stadium for the nearby San Francisco 49ers. The groundbreaking for the stadium occurred on April 19, 2012.^[2] The official ribbon cutting took place on Thursday July 17, 2014. The first professional sporting event hosted at the stadium was a Major League Soccer (MLS) match between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders on August 2, 2014. The first professional football event hosted at the stadium was a pre-season game between the 49ers and the Denver Broncos, played on August 17, 2014.

Now the stage is set. The following is a sample of other events (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Stadium) that are scheduled to start the return on Santa Clara’s community investment:

Super Bowl 50
On October 16, 2012, it was announced that Levi’s Stadium was one of two finalists to host Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016 (the other stadium finalist being Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida). On May 21, 2013, it was announced that the San Francisco Bay Area had defeated South Florida in a vote of NFL owners in its bid to host Super Bowl L (50).

College Football Post Season Bowl Game
The stadium will host its first Foster Farms Bowl Game on December 30, 2014 featuring the nearby Stanford University Cardinals and the Maryland Terrapins from the Big Ten Conference.

WrestleMania XXXI
Levi’s Stadium will host WWE’s WrestleMania XXXI on March 29, 2015. This will mark the first time WrestleMania is hosted in Northern California. The area will also host activities throughout the region for the week-long celebration leading up to WrestleMania itself.

Hockey
Levi’s Stadium will host the 2015 NHL Stadium Series’ February 21 game between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.

Soccer
On July 31, 2014, the San Jose Earthquakes agreed to play one match per year for five years at Levi’s Stadium. On September 6, 2014, an international friendly between Mexico and Chile was held.

Concerts

On October 23, 2014, it was announced that international pop group “One Direction” would bring their 2015 “On The Road Again” tour to Levi’s Stadium on July 11, 2015.

On October 30, 2014 Kenny Chesney announced that he would bring his “The Big Revival Tour” to Levi’s Stadium on May 2, 2015 with Jason Aldean co-headlining with Chesney. Jake Owen and Cole Swindell will open for the duo. It’s the first concert announced at the new home of the 49ers.

Taylor Swift set to perform on her fourth upcoming tour, “The 1989 World Tour” in the Levi’s Stadium on 14 & 15 August 2015.

The prime directives of the CU/Go Lean roadmap are described with these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including … sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxii. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism…

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1715	Lebronomy – Economic Impact of the Return of the NBA Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	College World Series Time – Lessons from Omaha
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=498	Book Review: ‘The Sports Gene’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=334	Bahamians Make Presence Felt In Libyan League
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix – Source References:

2. Video: 49ers’ groundbreaking ceremony for Santa Clara stadium – San Jose Mercury News. Mercurynews.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.

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Sports Role Model – espnW.

Posted on December 8, 2014 in Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Introducing a network without the “network”. This is espnW, the ESPN (see Appendix below) channel, without a channel, specifically catering to women’s sports; this network is delivered via the internet only.

Wow, how the world has changed.

So this commentary is a melding of ICT (Internet & Communications Technology), sports, television, gender equality and economics – this is a big deal for the Caribbean to consider.

espnW…

espnW’s mission is to serve women as fans and athletes. espnW.com provides an engaging environment that offers total access to female athletes and the sports they play, takes fans inside the biggest events, and shares a unique point of view on the sports stories that matter most to women.

Founded in July, 2010, espnW lives across television, films, events, digital and social platforms. The annual espnW: Women + Sports Summit is the leading event of its kind in the sports industry. The Women’s Sports Foundation is a charity of choice for espnW.
ESPN W. – About Us Page – Official Website (Retrieved December 7, 2014) – http://espn.go.com/espnw/v1/about

VIDEO: espnW at the 2012 Olympic Games – http://youtu.be/z7vGVQAatig
Published on Aug 14, 2012
Alex Morgan sits down with Julie Foudy to talk about what it feels like to have her first Olympic gold

The Caribbean does not currently have an eco-system for sports business … for men nor women. There is no viable sporting enterprises, other than baseball development/winter leagues in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Communist Cuba. There is absolutely no intercollegiate athletics arrangements. Only Amateur athletics abound in the region.

While so much of the sports business infrastructure is missing, the Caribbean is awash in the underlying assets: the athletes. The Caribbean supplies the world with the best-of-the-best in the sports genres of baseball, basketball, track-and-field, soccer-FIFA-football and other endeavors. This athletic supply applies equally to men and women.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. The roadmap recognizes and fosters the genius qualifiers of many Caribbean men and women. The goal now is to foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments.

This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the entire region, utilizing all the advantages of cutting edge ICT offerings. The result: an audience of 42 million residents (plus 10 million Diaspora) across 30 member-states and 4 languages. ESPN and espnW provides a great role model for this execution, see Appendix below, facilitating television, cable, satellite and internet streaming wherever economically viable.

At the outset, the roadmap recognizes the value of sports, for all genders, in the roadmap with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

xxvi.      Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvii.      Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxviii.      Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxxi.      Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits of sports and talented athletes, men and women. One of the biggest contribution the CU will make is the facilitation of sports venues: arenas and stadia. Sports can be big business (and great educational opportunities) for the athletes, promoters, vendors and landlords. Still, even fans get great benefits: image, national pride, and entertainment. (The E in ESPN means Entertainment). The eco-system of sports is therefore inclusive in the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Consolidating the Region in to a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (Fairgrounds)	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #5 Four Languages in Unison / #8 Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Reduce Brain Drain	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The book Go Lean…Caribbean, and aligning blog commentaries (highlighted throughout this page in bold), asserts that the region can be a better place to live, work and play; that the economy can be grown methodically by embracing progressive strategies in sports and sports broadcasting/streaming at all levels: professional, amateur and intercollegiate.

The Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap is bigger than just sports, its a concerted effort to elevate all of Caribbean society, for all genders: men and women. The CU is the vehicle for this goal, this is detailed by the following 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs (21,000 direct jobs at fairgrounds and sport venues).
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This roadmap adheres to economic principles of supply-and-demand. Similar to the foregoing website on espnW, the roadmap looks for the opportunities to foster interest that may exist in specific endeavors, in this case women’s sports, and then explore the business opportunities around servicing that demand. This is not limited to the domestic Caribbean, but rather can refer to local interest in sports abroad and foreign interest in Caribbean sports and athletes.

This is heavy-lifting. This is the quest of Go Lean/CU, to do the heavy-lifting to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

———

Appendix – Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN)

ESPN is a U.S.-based global cable and satellite television channel that is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Corporation (which holds the remaining 20% interest). The channel focuses on sports-related programming including live and recorded event telecasts, sports news and talk shows, and other original programming.

ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, it has been subject to criticism, which includes accusations of biased coverage^[1] (not showing enough hockey or Women’s athletics), conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.

As of August 2013, ESPN is available to approximately 97,736,000 pay television households (85.58% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.^[2] In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries,^[3] operating regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America and the United Kingdom, and owning a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) as well as its five sister networks and NHL Network in Canada.

Source References:

Geography lesson: Breaking down the bias in ESPN’s coverage, ESPN.com, August 15, 2008.
Seidman, Robert (August 23, 2013). “List of How Many Homes Each Cable Networks Is In – Cable Network Coverage Estimates As Of August 2013”. TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
ESPN Inc Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More

Posted on September 2, 2014 in Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

These blog/commentaries started in March 2014. But this source article was published on November 15, 2013. It never seemed appropriate to reach back and feature this article – until now. This marks the occasion of a Black College Football Game (Classic) being staged in Nassau, Bahamas on September 13, 2014 in the new Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.

The foregoing article was adapted from the book by Samuel G. Freedman, Breaking the Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Sport and Changed the Course of Civil Rights. (It is available at www.samuelfreedman.com and at bookstores nationwide).

Title: Playing for Pride
By: Samuel G. Freedman

The yearly gridiron matchup known as the ORANGE BLOSSOM CLASSIC helped to even the playing field for black players, coaches and fans. But it was about so much more than football.

The calendar of Black America includes several specific holidays. Juneteenth, celebrated every June 19, honors the day the Union Army liberated slaves in Texas following the end of the Civil War. Kwanzaa, beginning on Dec. 26, is a seven-day festival of African heritage. On Dec. 31, which is called watch night, churches hold worship services to commemorate the way their forebears had stayed up all night awaiting the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

And for a 30-year heyday beginning in the late 1940s, the Orange Blossom Classic football game and festival in Miami was the most important annual sporting event and the largest annual gathering of any kind for black Americans. For most of those years, more than 40,000 spectators attended the game in the Orange Bowl stadium, while tens of thousands more thronged to marching-band parades. Black tourists flocked to the hotels, restaurants and clubs of Miami’s Overtown and Liberty City neighborhoods. Pro-football scouts with binoculars, Ray-Bans and stingy-brim hats elbowed their way along the sidelines to scout prospects.

While the Orange Blossom Classic lives only in memory now — it served as the de facto black college championship until 1978 and was still played sporadically until 2004; it was ultimately the unexpected casualty of racial integration in sports and in society — its spirit persists in the dozens of “Classics” played between football teams from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). There are 37 on the schedule this season, and several of the most famous are coming up. Florida A&M University plays Bethune-Cookman University on Nov. 23 (2013) in the Florida Classic in Orlando, Fla., and Grambling State University faces Southern University and A&M College in the Bayou Classic on Nov. 30 (2013) in New Orleans. [2014 games are scheduled for the same corresponding weekends].

Football, though, is only part of a Classic. Marching bands, step shows, networking, gospel concerts and shopping excursions are all parts of the experience. These Classics continue to draw crowds as large as 70,000 for the on-field rivalry and a broader sense of affirmation.

“Historically speaking, there were not always so many opportunities for African-Americans to socialize in public,” says Todd Boyd, a University of Southern California professor who specializes in race and popular culture. “So the opportunities that did exist often took on added significance. Yet over time, the events became part of a larger tradition. I think the games now have a nostalgic feel. So it’s all about tradition and ritual once again.”

As sporting event and communal celebration, the Orange Blossom Classic rose as an answer to invisibility, the kind Ralph Ellison famously rendered in his novel, Invisible Man. In 1937, when Miami opened the Orange Bowl stadium, a public facility built with public funds, it excluded blacks from all but one section of the eastern end zone. No integrated football team was permitted onto the gridiron until the Nebraska Cornhuskers played Duke in the 1955 Orange Bowl. Blacks were barred from participating in any of the pageants and events related to the bowl game, much as they were barred from patronizing the resort hotels in Miami Beach. The black maids and janitors and cooks and bellhops who comprised the human infrastructure of those establishments had to obtain identification cards from the police. Even the black performers who drew the crowds — Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald — were forbidden from staying in the hotels where they entertained.

During the 1930s, Miami blacks began their own competitor to the Orange Bowl festivities, which they called the Coconut Festival. It had its own beauty queen, its own parade and its own football game, played in Dorsey Park, a segregated square block named for Miami’s first black millionaire. The Coconut Festival game, though, lacked much football pizzazz. That’s where J.R.E. Lee Jr., the son of Florida A&M University’s president, came in.

Even before Lee, black colleges had sought to create their own version of season-ending bowl games. In the 1920s, Lincoln University and Howard University began playing annually in the self-proclaimed Football Classic of the Year, and Tuskegee University met Wilberforce University yearly at Soldier Field in the Midwest Chicago Football Classic. Inspired by these examples, Lee conceived a “Black Rose Bowl,” naming it the Orange Blossom Classic. In the first game, in 1933, Florida A&M beat Howard by a score of 9-6 before 2,000 spectators at a blacks-only ballpark in Jacksonville, Fla. For the next 13 years, the contest migrated among the Florida cities of Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, becoming an itinerant attraction that gradually built its audience and reputation.

Then, in 1947, Lee linked the game’s fortunes to the Coconut Festival’s and settled it in Miami. Miami had the largest stadium in Florida. Miami also had the greatest concentration of media anywhere in the state. And Miami, as it entered the postwar boom, was beginning to shake off its rigid segregation, largely owing to the influx of Jews from the North, most of them either tacitly or actively supportive of civil rights.

The very first Classic game in Miami made racial history. For the first time, black fans were permitted to sit in the main stands of the Orange Bowl. And when a Florida A&M Rattler receiver named Nathaniel “Traz” Powell caught a 45-yard pass to break a 0-0 tie with Hampton Institute, he became the first black man to score a touchdown on the Orange Bowl’s previously whites-only gridiron. Powell had grown up in Miami as the son of a laundress and a laborer at the city’s incinerator. For years to come, blacks around the state would speak about his touchdown as if he’d been Rosa Parks refusing to surrender her seat.

The civil rights analogy was apt. Black colleges and their football teams operated in a kind of parallel universe during the segregation era. Even as they sent hundreds of players into the pros, the mainstream media rarely covered the schools. The proliferation of sports-focused talk radio and cable TV was decades away. So Jake Gaither, Florida A&M’s legendary coach, set about raising the Orange Blossom Classic to the status of a de facto black championship. Year in and year out, his Rattlers ranked near the top. And because Florida A&M hosted the Orange Blossom Classic, Gaither invited the strongest possible opponent.

As a result, the Orange Blossom Classic far outdrew the University of Miami’s football games and, later, those of the new National Football League (NFL) franchise, the Miami Dolphins. In Black America, it supplanted the Negro League All-Star game as the biggest single event. Florida A&M’s renowned “Marching 100” band pranced in two parades, one through the black neighborhoods and the other downtown, each drawing thousands upon thousands of spectators.

One year, comedian Nipsey Russell joined the Rattlers on their sideline; another time it was Sammy Davis Jr. All week long, the streets of Overtown and LibertyCity were “crowded like the state fair, music pouring out of doorways,” as one participant remembers. At the Zebra Lounge and the Hampton House, in the Harlem Square Club and the Rockland Palace and all along the stretch of Northwest Second Street called the Great Black Way, stars of jazz, soul and rhythm and blues headlined. Women spent a year’s savings on their Orange Blossom dresses, and beauty salons stayed open all night to handle the demand. When the parties ended near daybreak, people went their ways for breakfast before a sunrise snooze.

“The Classic was bigger than the Fourth of July,” says Marvin Dunn, author of the history book Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. “It was a black thing, and it was well done, and it added to the sense of pride. Even if you didn’t go to the game, you’d have all these people massed along the parade route. And the clothes — you had to get a new suit, a new dress for the Classic. There was not a seat to be had in a barber shop.”

No game brought more luster and historical significance than the 1967 matchup between Florida A&M and Grambling. They were the two greatest black college teams with the two greatest black college coaches (Jake Gaither and Eddie Robinson, respectively) and the two finest quarterbacks to play at each school (Ken Riley and James Harris, respectively). Robinson very deliberately was developing Harris to break the quarterback color line in the pros, to forever lay to rest the canard that no black man was smart enough to play that most intellectual of positions. As Leon Armbrister, the sports columnist of The Miami Times, the city’s weekly black newspaper, exalted, “The selection of Grambling adds Super Bowl status to the Classic.”

In many ways, the Orange Blossom Classic in 1967 also embodied the recent progress in race relations. The Grambling and Florida A&M teams both stayed in integrated hotels on Miami Beach. The P. Ballantine & Sons Brewing Company sponsored a tape-delayed broadcast of the game on television stations in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York. Buddy Young, the first black executive in the NFL’s front office, provided the on-air commentary. The local publicity for the game was handled by Julian Cole, a transplanted Jew who counted the ritziest Miami Beach hotels among his clients.

The Orange Blossom Classic’s souvenir program featured advertisements from major national companies, including Humble Oil, Prudential Insurance and RC Cola. Coca-Cola sponsored a float carrying the Grambling College queen and her court in the pregame parade. The celebrities in attendance included the first wave of black executives hired by corporations in search of black consumers. Pepsi-Cola, the leader in the field, dispatched its vice president for special markets, Charles Dryden, a bona fide war hero as one of the Tuskegee Airmen. Greyhound sent Joe Black, the former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher, who recently had been appointed the bus company’s vice president of special markets. F.W. Woolworth, a company trying to repair a reputation damaged by its segregated lunch counters in Southern cities, dispatched Aubrey Lewis, a former Notre Dame football star and FBI agent it recently had hired as an executive recruiter.

The competitive tension built as the game approached. As Grambling ran through its practice session at a junior college, two busloads of Florida A&M players arrived. They jogged around the field, chanting, “It’s so hard to be a Rattler,” before haughtily driving off. Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, incensed, told his team, “The peace dove flies out the window tomorrow!” At a pregame banquet, he had to remind his players not to start jawing at the Florida A&M team, saying, “Take it out on the field.”

On the night of Dec. 2, 1967, before more than 40,000 spectators, Grambling and Florida A&M produced a classic for the Classic. The game went down to the final play, with the Tigers holding off a final drive by the Rattlers to win 28-25. Florida A&M compiled 396 yards of total offense, slightly more than Grambling’s 382. James Harris threw for 174 yards, and Ken Riley nearly matched him, with 110 yards passing and 62 more rushing.

The scouts certainly noticed. Harris, then a junior, would be drafted by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in January 1969. He went on to become the first black quarterback to regularly start in the NFL, leading the Los Angeles Rams to the conference title game twice in the mid-1970s. Every black quarterback to follow, from Doug Williams and Warren Moon to Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III, came through the door that James Harris opened. As for Ken Riley, he was moved to cornerback in the NFL and had an illustrious 15-year career with the Cincinnati Bengals. Even now, 30 years after retiring, he ranks fifth in NFL history in career interceptions.

In the aftermath of the 1967 Orange Blossom Classic, Grambling was able to bring black college football to the nation as a whole. The following September, the Tigers played Morgan State before a sold-out crowd in Yankee Stadium in a fundraising game for the National Urban League, a prominent civil-rights organization. That example inspired the dozens of black-college classics being played today, keeping a precious thread of prideful history unbroken.
——
SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN is a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a New York Times columnist.

The foregoing article depicts reality for the Black American population for much of the 20th Century. Despite the differences in population, cultural heritage and language, much of the historical experiences were parallel in the Caribbean until majority rule and/or de-colonization came to fruition in these tropical homelands.

This foregoing article therefore relates to more than just sports, but history, culture and civil rights cause-and-effect. The foregoing therefore harmonizes with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which also stresses the need to Transform Sports and Change the Course of Civil Rights but this time for the Caribbean region. The Go Lean book studies the assessment of the 30 Caribbean member-states and posits that the region is in crisis, with the societal engines at the precipice due the an unsustainable rate of human flight. The African-American experience in the US has thusly improved over the last century, the current US President Barack Obama is of African-American descent; the dreaded co-existence (segregation) of Blacks along side Whites is no longer the status quo; their community is more color-blind. This creates strong motivation for Caribbean residents to consider an American migration. In fact 70% of the Caribbean college-educated population, some from American HBCU’s as depicted in the foregoing article, have abandoned their homeland and live abroad, mostly in the US.

The City of Miami, prominently featured in the foregoing article is largely comprised of the Caribbean Diaspora. (In the interest of full disclosure, this Go Lean blogger attended one of the schools prominently featured in this foregoing article, Florida A&M University, and separately lived in Miami for 17 years).

The underlying issue in this consideration is sports and the game of (American) football. A compelling mission of the Go Lean book is to foster the eco-systems for sports enterprises in the region. The book posits that sports, collegiate sports included, can impact a community’s economics and surely its pride.

An important mission of this Go Lean message is to simply lower the “push and pull” factors that lead many to abandon their Caribbean homeland for American shores. The “pull” factors were miniscule in the mid-20^th Century; Caribbean citizens of Black and Brown heritage may not have found the (southern) US so welcoming. But times have changed, and the minority experience in America is different; more enticing and appealing to Caribbean citizens seeking to relocate.

While the Caribbean may not have the sports business eco-system, we do have the underlying assets: athletes. The Caribbean supplies the world, including American colleges (NCAA), with the best-of-the-best in the sports genres of basketball, track-and-field, FIFA-soccer and a few football players (NCAA & NFL). The Go Lean book recognizes and fosters the genius qualifiers of many Caribbean athletes.

The Go Lean goal now is to foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner successful returns on their athletic investments.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/ governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. At the outset, the roadmap recognizes our crisis and the value of sports in the roadmap, with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

xxvi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for the market organizations to better garner the economic benefits of sports. One of the biggest contributions the CU will make is the facilitation of sports venues: arenas and stadia. Sports can be big business! But even when money is not involved, other benefits abound: educational scholarships, fitness/wellness, disciplined activities for the youth, image, and pride. No doubt an intangible yet important benefits is depicted in this Go Lean roadmap, that of less societal abandonment. A mission of the CU is to reduce the brain drain and incentivize repatriation of the Diaspora.

Another area of the Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap that relates to the foregoing article is the strategy is to create a Single (Media) Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the region, the resultant consolidated market would cover 30 member-states, 4 languages and 42 million people. The successful execution of this strategy will elevate the art, science and genius of sport enterprises in the region. Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean to re-boot the delivery of the regional solutions to elevate the Caribbean region through sports:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Make Caribbean The Best Place to Live, Work and Play	Page 46
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (Fairgrounds)	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Caribbean Image	Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229

With some measure of success, we should be able to reduce the “push and pull” factors that lead many to abandon the Caribbean region in the first place. We want our athletes to transform their sports and change our society, not some distant land.

Other subjects related to the sports world and it’s impact on society have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:

Date Published	Blog Subject / Link
August 24	Sports Role Model – The SEC Network for College Sports Broadcasting
June 23	Caribbean Players Impact on the 2014 World Cup
June 22	Caribbean Crisis: More than 70 Percent of Tertiary- Educated Abandon Region
May 27	Sports Revolution for Advocate Jeffrey Webb
March 24	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
March 24	10 Things We Want from the US – #10 Sports Professionalism
March 21	Muhammad Ali and Advocate Kevin Connolly – Changing Society

The Caribbean has the capacity to be the best address on the planet, but there are certain missing features, such as intercollegiate athletics… and jobs. Why else would citizens choose to abandon their beloved homeland if not for the greater economic opportunities abroad. The foregoing article reminds us of the evolutionary nature of change, thereby aligning with this Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap. This effort is bigger than college sports; this is about Caribbean life; we must elevate our own society. The CU is the vehicle for this change, detailed here with the following 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

With the Go Lean roadmap, the people and institutions of the Caribbean can easily envision major sporting events like the Orange Blossom Classic of bygone days, having similar impact on society beyond the playing field. Sports can have that effect; we must therefore not ignore its significance and contributions.

The purpose of this roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. Sports falls under the “games people play” category. With the CU oversight on the economy, security and governing engines, our community can take time to play. As the Bible book of Ecclesiastes (Chapter 3 verses 1 – 8 of Young’s Literal Translation) relates, there is a right time, a season for “everything under the sun”:

To everything — a season, and a time to every delight under the heavens:
A time to bring forth, And a time to die. A time to plant, And a time to eradicate the planted.
A time to slay, And a time to heal, A time to break down, And a time to build up.
A time to weep, And a time to laugh. A time to mourn, And a time to skip [about].
A time to cast away stones, And a time to heap up stones. A time to embrace, And a time to be far from embracing.
A time to seek, And a time to destroy. A time to keep, And a time to cast away.
A time to rend, And a time to sew. A time to be silent, And a time to speak.
A time to love, And a time to hate. A time of war, And a time of peace.

There was a time for the Orange Blossom Classic, for its impact on American society; there was also a time for the Classic to pass on, where it would no longer be required to showcase African-American athletic talent. The same applies for the Caribbean. Now is the time for all the Caribbean to lean-in for this roadmap to transform sports and changed the course of Caribbean society. Now is the season to Go Lean.

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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