|
By Terry Foster
The Sports Inferno
There has been a lot of talk about the future of The Sports Inferno on SI.com and I wanted to address a few issues.
There is a chance you are listening to the final months of the Sports Inferno. I hope I am wrong but here is the situation. Our contract expires in April of next year and we are not negotiating. We were given an offer and it was so ridiculous it was not even worth responding to.
And that is where we sit. Once the offer was rejected talks stopped. There was no counter offer. It ended right there.
Now I've been told time and time again this is the way negotiations go. It always looks bleak until the final days of the contract. Things open up and magic happens. I hope it happens here but there are signs that won't. And I will admit I have never been in serious negotiations in radio.
Right now I would say it is a 75 percent chance we won't be doing a show this time next year.
There are other factors in place that I will discuss at a future date. Mike is in a position to do something about it his radio future. He can leave and I believe that if a deal is not in place by the first of the year, that he will leave. It is not a threat. It is not a prank. It is reality. He will leave.
There are other stations interested in him. They will talk to him at the appropriate time because the guy is very good at what he does. My guess is he leaves Detroit. Detroit and Chicago are possibilities.
You have also heard that the Lions do not want Valenti doing the post game. I do believe that although I've been told that is not the case. However, we are still not doing the post game on 97.1 FM. The reason I was given is because our shows have been sold to certain clients and the 97.1 FM version was sold to other venues. I buy that, But I also buy into the speculation that the Lions would rather have somebody else doing post game than Mike.
He is not sugar and spice and everything nice. The dude is a breathing dragon and everybody does not like that.
The clock is ticking. The good news is there is a lot of sand in the hour glass, but I really believe management believes Mike is bluffing. If they believe that then it could prove to be a critical mistake.
As far as my future? Let's just hope foobtoob.com takes off.
|