SPORTS: Monthly Sports Calendar — January & February 2018
The winter months are always our favorite for sports here at The Rail & SportsTV Guide. Take February as an example. The NBA is in full swing with the All Star game happening mid-month. This year you have the Olympics in South Korea and UEFA Champions elimination round games that can be added to a great slate of NCAA Basketball games. Here are the highlights you should plan on for next month.
SOCIAL MEME-DIA: The Rail's First Foray into Memes
Starting today we will be creating and posting original memes each week to help brighten your day and ideally get a chuckle, who knows, maybe even a full-on laugh! Our end game is to spread some happiness here.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Nomaine!
Food safety experts at Consumer Reports are advising US and Canadains to stop eating romaine lettuce after 58 people across the borders have become ill from E. coli. Two have died from the illness. The FDA and CDC have yet to make that recommendation.
Is this KFC Tweet in Poor Taste?
KFC mocked McDonald’s by rewriting Donald Trump’s “nuclear button” tweet. It’s clever and getting a lot of eyeballs, but we’re wondering if jesting about nuclear war is the best way to go viral.
NFL, NHL’s Winter Classic Drop in Ratings
This year’s Winter Classic was the lowest-rated ever. Not great for a league and broadcasting company promoting it as being better than indoor games. It’s the fourth straight year of declining ratings. Meanwhile, the NFL rating dropped almost 10% in 2017. But before we all blame the silent player protests for it, remember that this is the second straight year of declining viewership – and for a load of reasons.
$5 FOOTLONG [Song]
Why it matters to you: If you are a franchise, how much can you push back on your franchisor?
As business models go, the structure behind franchises is one of the most successful and proven in all the of business world. Franchisors provide knowledge and brand equity, and franchisors provide capital for development. It works and there are thousands of restaurant franchises that prove it. But there is one dirty little secret in the industry that is also a fascinating dynamic. When franchisees resist direction from franchisors it can sometimes get dicey. Take a recent rift between some Subway franchisees and the Milford, CT based Subway International. Subway is bringing back their $5 Footlong promotion and some franchisors don’t like it.
Their disdain was sufficient to get them to place an ad in the Washington Post about it to complain en-masse. For their part, Subway International claims they have the support of their franchises, but the truth is anyone’s guess. This is also where the interesting part begins. If the franchisees do decide to resist, it can create real tension that can ultimately derail a franchisor’s development dreams. The franchise landscape is littered with franchises that fell apart because they couldn’t make peace with their franchisors. While it’s unlikely that Subway will fall apart, this tension may lead to further issues and is worth noting. If you are a franchisee, how much authority do you have to direct your own business and where are you limited by the franchisor? Let us know in the comments or emailing us.
SESSIONS TRIES TO MAKE THE GREEN AREA TURN GREY
Why it matters to you: The Justice Department is reversing several Obama-era rules pertaining to legalized marijuana.
On Thursday Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement that the Justice Department would be reversing some of the Obama-era rules surrounding legalized cannabis. These rules made it so that the federal government could not interfere with states that had voted to legalize the substance as long as said legalization did not interfere with other federal laws (i.e. trafficking). These rules being overturned could mean that owners and operators of legal marijuana companies can be federally prosecuted and investors will be less likely to invest because of said potential.
Sessions’ was once quoted in saying “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He also said it was a “real danger. More than half of Republicans and nearly three-quarters of Democrats are in favor of legalized cannabis, so it is best that everyone know their rights on this. Chances are we all know a close friend or loved one who uses marijuana medically or recreationally or use it ourselves, so this hits particularly close to home.
The move is also detrimental towards a new segment of our economy that is expected to bring in $1 billion in tax revenue in California alone, and has brought in half a billion in taxes and fees in Colorado. With all of the potential for good here, Jeff Sessions would have to be pretty high to continue ignoring all of this and stay on target. That said, one African-American lawyer testified that Sessions had joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot.” Yikes!
