Where did January go? Great I suppose for those of you doing dry January as the month seemed to fly by. A short month of February now and we’ll be into March and the island will be coming out of its winter hibernation. We have elections here at the end of May and I’ve said many times on here that will there be a political party that will get rid of the Tourist Tax and the new holiday rental legislation? Sure enough the PP President Biel Company, said this week that the party will eliminate the tourist tax in the low season. He also said that they will reverse everything that is “not correct” with regard to holiday rentals legislation. So the battle lines are beginning to be drawn and it will be interesting to see where this goes.
Mallorca has lots of opportunities to showcase how beautiful it is with tv programmes such as Love Island and The Night Manager. But this Autumn will be probably be one of the best so far. Tennis legend Rafa Nadal will be marrying his girlfriend of 14 years Xisca Perelló which undoubtedly will be the wedding of the year and will grab the Worlds press attention. Where will it be? Who will be invited? Good luck to the wedding planner!
I love the FA Cup and I love an FA Cup weekend and last week was no exception. Well it didn’t get off to a great start with my team Arsenal getting gubbed 3-1 by Man Utd but after that it was for me what the Cup is all about. Frank Lampards Derby were away at what looked a tricky tie at Accrington Stanley(who are they?). The pitch was a leveler but Lampard who has a great Cup pedigree took the match seriously and got the result. Other teams that didn’t take it seriously and got beat included the other team from North London (Spurs to you), Newcastle, Everton and West Ham. All have good enough teams to win the competition but see Premiership survival or qualifying for Europe as being more important. So why is that? Well if you look at the table below you will see 4th round winners receive £180,000 a great windfall for teams like Millwall and Wimbledon who defeated Everton and West Ham but nowhere near what teams get for surviving in the Premier League. Below is what you get from the third round to winning the FA Cup.
Third Round Proper winners £135,000
Fourth Round Proper winners £180,000
Fifth Round Proper winners £360,000
Quarter-Final winners £720,000
Semi-Final winners £1,800,000
Semi-Final losers £900,000
Final runners-up £1,800,000
Final winners £3,600,000
Compare and contrast that to what you get in the Premier League. Manchester United were the biggest beneficiaries of the Premier League’s huge pot of prize money and TV income for the 2017-18 season. They got £149.8 million and Huddersfield who finished 17th got £102.4 million!
Each club takes an equal share of £80.4million, while the rest is divided depending on the final league position and the number of televised matches.
There is a minimum for TV income, set at £12.3million for hosting up to 10 games, with clubs earning an extra £1.1million on top of that for each game over 10. Prize money is awarded per league position, with each side earning £1.9million for every place they finish above bottom.
So there you have it, it’s money driven. Most clubs are run by foreign owners who don’t know the traditions of the FA Cup and quite frankly don’t really care.
Quite a few clubs including my own are run by Americans. In fact the LA Rams who play in this weekends Super Bowl are also run by Stan Kroenke (silent Stan as he’s known at the Emirates). It’s a huge event in the States and this year is no exception. The LA Rams will play the New England Patriots Sunday night in Atlanta. Super Bowl LIII will be the 11th appearance for the Patriots as well as the fourth appearance for the Rams. The Patriots have won eight Super Bowl titles, while the Rams have just one. The average cost of a Super Bowl ticket on the resale market is $7,166. I wonder if they have the same blokes that you see at football matches who will “buy any spares!”?
The average American consumes 2,400 calories at Super Bowl parties, with a national consumption average of 1.38 billion chicken wings, 8 million pounds of guacamole and 14,500 tons of chips. Nearly 52 million cases of beer are bought on Super Bowl Sunday.
The cost of a 30-second ad during this Sunday’s game averages around $5.24 million. Volkswagen’s 2011 Super Bowl ad (the one with the child dressed as Darth Vader trying to start a car by using “the force”) is the most-shared Super Bowl ad with 5.3 million shares.
Following in the footsteps of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and more, three-time Grammy winning band Maroon 5 is this year’s half-time headliner. They will be joined by Travis Scott, a Grammy nominated rapper, and Big Boi, who is from Atlanta.
Kick-off is 00.30 here and 23.30 Uk so it should be just finishing when I’m getting up for Monday mornings breakfast show.
Real Mallorca got a 1-1 draw last weekend away in Cadiz which on paper looks a good result but Cadiz equalised in the last 5 minutes and had 2 players sent-off so not so good. This Sunday they’re at home to Alcorcon, kick-off 12 midday at the Son Moix and let’s hope their 3 new signings make a good start. Both my sons got beat heavily last weekend for their respective football teams so we’re hoping for better things this week.
Enjoy your weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone, Android, The Tunein Radio App and on the Spanish TDT TV service. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.
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