Well, the wait is over.  The Beatles are here:

But everyone already owns all The Beatles songs, right?  So why is there such a big deal made about iTunes getting music available for a band that everyone already has on their iPods?  Well, maybe it’s not everybody.  As of right now, less than 24 hours after The Beatles became available on iTunes, 17 of their albums are in the Top 50:

#7 Abbey Road
#8 White Album
#9 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
#11 Beatles Box Set (and selling for $149!)
#13 Blue Album
#16 Red Album
#18 Rubber Soul
#20 Revolver
#21 Magical Mystery Tour
#22 Let It Be
#26 A Hard Day’s Night
#28 Please Please Me
#29 Help!
#31 With The Beatles
#34 Past Masters Vols 1 & 2
#36 Beatles For Sale
#46 Yellow Submarine

The Beatles are also all over the Top 150 singles list:

#20 Here Comes the Sun (my favorite Beatles song)
#25 Let It Be
#36 Come Together
#52 With a Little Help From My Friends
#53 Hey Jude
#65 White My Guitar Gently Weeps
#67 Twist & Shout
#68 Let It Be (I don’t know why it’s listed twice)
#74 Eleanor Rigby
#74 A Day In the Life
#77 I Saw Her Standing There
#78 Twist and Shout (also listed twice)
#79 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
#80 Yesterday
#84 Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds
#85 Yesterday (again)
#88 Help!
#89 Something
#96 A Hard Day’s Night
#99 Can’t Buy Me Love
#102 Hey Jude
#106 Dear Prudence
#108 Strawberry Fields Forever
#109 Here Comes the Sun (again)
#110 I Saw Her Standing There
#114 I Am the Walrus
#121 You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
#122 When I’m Sixty-Four
#124 All My Loving
#127 Revolution
#128 Norwegian Wood
#131 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
#135 Penny Lane
#140 I Should Have Known Better
#141 Back in the U.S.S.R.
#144 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
#145 Across the Universe
#146 The Long and Winding Road
#147 I’ll Follow the Sun
#149 Come Together
#150 Hello, Goodbye

That’s right. 41 songs in the Top 150. So I guess not everyone owns enough music from The Beatles.

But this is more about iTunes than it is The Beatles.  It’s no surprise that Steve Jobs loves the band and clearly did anything he could to get their music on his music service.  But the real problem that iTunes had before yesterday is that it wanted to be THE destination for music online and yet it didn’t have any songs from the greatest band of all time.  How could they consider themselves the best when it didn’t offer the best?

Well, now they do.

Click on the picture to get a clearer view.

Theoretically Bud Light could become the Official Beer of Fantasy Football by ESPN.com or even NFL.com, both big players in the fantasy football universe.

What’s next, Coors Light becoming the Official Beer of Checking Your Fantasy Team Constantly on Sundays?

**UPDATE** Miller Lite is apparently also a proud sponsor of Fantasy Draft Week on ESPN.com

Before I go any further, I must state that I am a Cablevision customer.  I’ve tried a number of times to switch to a phone company offering (my only option is AT&T’s UVerse) but because of a lack of certain sports channels and the higher cost, I’ve stuck with Cablevision.  I’ve been a subscriber for almost three years and have had a difficult time finding good things to say about the company.

I used to get cable television (with DVR) and high-speed internet for $143.50 per month.  I don’t have access to my bills back that far, so unfortunately I can’t break down the specific costs.  However, I received a phone call one day to try to sell me their Triple Play package (I would simply have to add phone service) and my bill would be cut dramatically.  With no need for a phone line, I was hesitant, but if it lowered my bill why wouldn’t I do it?  So I did.  And how much did I save per month?  $11.64.  That’s almost $140 per year of savings, so I was pretty happy.  I won’t get into the fact that the phone number they assigned me was already assigned to a massage and nail salon close to where I live and now I get calls all the time to set up appointments…

What really bothers me about the entire Cablevision anti-FiOS campaign is how much they slam them for having “up to $20 in taxes and fees on top of it.”

Here is how my monthly bill breaks down:

So let’s see here. $39.95 for cable + $9.95 for DVR + $29.95 for internet access + $29.95 for phone service = $109.80. That leaves me with $22.06 in taxes and fees, even though they seem to list only $6.66 for that figure, as if “Additional Outlet” and charging me for my cable boxes and remotes are not fees.  So looking at this, I should be saving a few dollars in taxes and fees if I switch to the phone company.

Cablevision has me locked in because they are cheaper than the phone company and they have one channel that AT&T UVerse cannot offer me where I live; but enough with the implications that they are fee and tax free.

The first story that caught my eye was about a report called the Capgemini 2010 U.S. Metro Wealth Index which “monitors populations of high net worth individuals within the top ten United States metropolitan statistical areas.”  New York City topped the list with the most high net worth individuals (defined as “those having investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables,” or essentially “millionaires”), which wasn’t overly surprising to me.  It is the biggest city in the country and is a world financial marketplace, so seeing New York at the top of the list was expected.  The next nine cities were Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Houston and San Jose (for those of you that are surprised about San Jose, you might be even more surprised that it is the tenth largest city in the United States).

Scanning the list, I have no problems with it; it seems about right.  I am not necessarily sure there are any cities that I would think belonged ahead of them, so that’s fine.  But naturally that isn’t the part of the list that surprised me.  It was the number of millionaires that each city has.  I asked a diverse group of friends how many millionaires they thought New York City had.  The highest guess was 250,000, with the lowest around 1,000; the correct figure, according to Capgemini is 667,200.  667,200! That is more than the populations of Boston, Seattle, Baltimore, Denver, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Miami, Cleveland, Oakland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Tampa, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh.  That’s right, there are more millionaires in New York City than there are people in Boston.

Below are the 2010 figures from Capgemini (in a rather helpful map):

I am not quite sure how to react to all of this.  To think that there are this many people with net assets in excess of $1,000,000 is a somewhat staggering realization.  I mean, I always knew there were lots of rich people in this country, but had no idea there were this many.  And yet when you look at it the other way, these millionaires account for less than 2% of the total population in this country.  So how much does everyone else have?  Obviously much less on an individual level.

Well, those who are less fortunate are surely to be helped shortly by the super rich.  The other wealth story that recently got my attention was news of The Giving Pledge, which is a group of American billionaires who have publicly declared that they will donate at least half of their fortunes to charity when they die.  The Pledge was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (pictured below with rapper Ludacris, which seems just that), who have long championed for rich families to donate more money to charity.  While Gates and Buffett are certainly big names on the list, other donors include Michael Bloomberg, George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen, T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner, to name a few.

Now in all honesty, I am not quite sure what to do with these two bits of information.  On one hand, there are many more millionaires than I ever dreamed of and I still can’t really get a hold of how it’s possible.  However, it does explain why there are so many million dollar apartments.

On the other hand, many of these millionaires are spending their money on apartments instead of pledging half of their fortunes to charity (and let’s be honest here, a million dollars is a fortune to a vast majority of the people in this country).  Not to say that those previously named billionaires are living in two-bedrooms shacks…except maybe Buffett.

So where does this leave us?  I actually have no idea, but I thought it would be interesting news to pass along.

At the beginning of this week, the term “done deal” was used when discussing James and Chris Bosh heading to the Chicago Bulls.  However, the very next day, we were told that it was a “done deal” that James and Bosh would be joining Wade in Miami.  The New York Knicks are out of the LeBron Sweepstakes, until of course they are back in it because James hasn’t made a decision yet.  The New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers are also vying for these superstars and the Boston Celtics are now faced with their own dilemma as Paul Pierce officially opted out of his own contract to join the free agency party.

As a Knicks fan, I am much more concerned with what my hometown team will be able to accomplish over the next two months.  They have done nothing to hide the fact that LeBron James is their #1 target, the top priority for the organization since Isiah Thomas was let go and Donnie Walsh was brought in to right the ship.  While they are certainly interested in also bringing in Bosh or Amar’e Stoudemire, they are only doing so because James has stated that he would like to play with either one of them.  Wade and Johnson would be good also, as would Dirk Nowitzki, but James is the goal.  The organization has literally been dedicated to bringing James to New York for three years and tomorrow marks the beginning of the legal wooing process.

The cornerstone of the Knicks’ plan for LeBron revolves around the city of New York, the most populated city in the United States and therefore the largest media market.  It is considered to be the center of the financial universe and is arguably the most advanced culinary center in America.  Its main arena, Madison Square Garden, is affectionately referred to as “the World’s Most Famous Arena,”  and one of the City’s baseball teams is the most successful than any other organization in professional sports.  New York is arguably the fashion capital of the world and also is home to Madison Avenue, the center of the advertising world.

It is the latter point that has been frequently used as the reason why LeBron James should sign with the New York Knicks or the New Jersey Nets, who will be moving to Brooklyn sometime in the relatively-near future.  James is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world and his brand is well known in many different circles.  He has endorsement deals with Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and State Farm, to name a few and there are a number of reporters and columnists who believe that James’ portfolio of endorsements will grow if he moves to New York.  This, unfortunately, doesn’t matter.  James doesn’t become more valuable to Fortune 500 companies because he lives in New York.  LeBron can sell a Big Mac as easily in Cleveland as he can in New York.  The same goes for Vitamin Water and insurance.  Getting more of these deals is not the point.

James has said repeatedly that he wants to be a $1 billion athlete.  The only two who have achieved that feat are Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods…and neither of them did it strictly with basic endorsements.  Woods has built golf courses around the world and Jordan made tons of money through his Jumpman line with Nike.  It’s important to not confuse Jordan’s arrangement with Nike and LeBron’s.  Jordan has an ownership stake in the Jumpman line, which endorses its own set of athletes like Derek Jeter and Carmelo Anthony.  LeBron does not have this; he has his own line, but he’s the only one on the label, so earning $1 billion from Nike won’t happen.

So if getting more endorsement deals is the point, coming to New York is not going to be enough to bring James to the Knicks.  But if earning $1 billion is the point, New York is the only place to go.

Playing in New York will give James access to capital that he would not have in any other place in the country.  With private equity titans strewn throughout the tri-state area with cash to invest alongside possibly the biggest athlete in the City’s history, James will be able to make partnerships in New York that will diversify his investment portfolio so that he can become that billion dollar athlete.  Instead of a billboard showing James eating a new McWhatever Sandwich, he can open up his own restaurant.  Ever heard of Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse?  Well, LeBron can have one too in New York and if it’s popular, he can open more in Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas, and Atlantic City.  How does “Akron Meats” sound to you?

Keeping with the food service industry, how about his own high-end sports bar like Jay-Z’s 40/40 club?  The club has been such a success for Jay-Z that locations have been opened in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Chicago, Tokyo and Macau, in addition to New York.  LeBron can do the same, but he must start in New York.  He may be able to open a bar in Cleveland, but it would never be able to succeed enough for it to grow to China…never.

What else can James start in New York that will grow internationally if it succeeded?  How about his own sneaker store?  Even if it’s packed with Nikes, New York is the home to a myriad of niche sneaker stores that can significantly add to LeBron’s bottom line.  Even if it stays in New York, he will earn so much more there than in Cleveland or Miami or Chicago.

Want to start a new magazine?  New York is the place where Conde Nast and Time Inc. call the Big Apple their headquarters.  Sure, they could theoretically go with an idea from James if he called from Cleveland, but his request is greeted with much more interest when asked in a Knicks jersey.

How about his own record company?  How many musicians do you know that have started an empire from Cleveland?  And from New York?  That’s what I thought.

The opportunities are there for LeBron James in New York.  But they aren’t on Madison Avenue.  They are everywhere else.

Well, if we’re going to turn everything upside down, why don’t we actually do it so something comes out of it that is at least partially coherent.  With that, below are my suggestions for a total realignment in college sports.  Five power conferences, with a few schools left out…but there are always some that are left out, so who cares!?

West States Conference

USC, UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Colorado, Boise State, Hawaii, Nevada, BYU, Utah

The Great Plains Conference

Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas, Baylor, Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Arkansas, LSU, New Mexico, New Mexico State

Southeastern Conference

Florida, Florida State, Miami (FL), Alabama, Mississippi State, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Memphis, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest

Midwestern Conference

Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Northwestern, Purdue, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette

Big East Conference

Syracuse, Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Connecticut, Rutgers, Temple, Marshall, Georgetown, Villanova, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Providence, George Washington

I realize there are some bigger or popular schools missing like DePaul, South Florida, and Gonzaga, but I wasn’t quite sure where they would even fit in.  The Big East clearly is in trouble with only 10 football playing schools, but at least it cuts it down from the ridiculousness that it has now…and since I am a Villanova grad, I had to put them somewhere even though they are D-1AA in football (I know they call it something else, but it will always be D-1AA to me).

Anyway, it’s a thought.  Chew on it.

The Minnesota Twins took a step themselves this year, opening up Target Field yesterday only a few weeks after signing catcher Joe Mauer to an eight-year, $184 million contract, by far the largest in team history.  But with new stadium revenue, they were able to make the deal.

While the new Yankee Stadium and Target Field used some public money (whether through tax breaks, bonds offered from their respective cities, or simple direct payments), the days of 100% publicly financed stadiums appear to be over.  However, that doesn’t mean we can’t look back at one of the craziest offers a professional team has ever turned down: former Connecticut governor John Rowland’s offer to the New England Patriots to have them move from Foxboro, Massachusetts to Hartford, the capital of Rowland’s state.

On November 17th, 1998, Rowland offered to build the Patriots a brand new stadium as part of a $1.0 billion development in Hartford.  The $375 million stadium would be the centerpiece of a revitalization project in downtown Hartford, a city that was in desperate need of an upgrade.

Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, was trying to get a new stadium in Massachusetts, but had been turned down and was open to the offer from Hartford.  In fact, Kraft was so intrigued with Hartford that he actually agreed to move the team into the (then) 27th largest media market, from the Boston area, which was sixth at the time.

What was so impressive about this deal was that the Patriots would not have to put in any money up front.  That’s right, none.  The state would pay for the construction costs by selling bonds and the Patriots would use the stadium for free.  While 10% of future revenue from tickets, parking and concessions would go back to the state, 90% would go right into Kraft’s wallet.  It’s no wonder that Kraft jumped at the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement between Kraft and Rowland, the state of Connecticut would build a 68,000-seat open-air stadium in Hartford with not a single dime coming out of Kraft’s pocket.  So the obvious question arises: how did this deal not happen?

While the move to Hartford would have been economically advantageous for Kraft, the NFL felt differently about his team and the League as a whole.  Not too much before Kraft hinted at moving to Hartford, the Houston Oilers moved their franchise to Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the Tennessee Titans.  The biggest issue for the NFL was that they now did not have a team in the third largest city in America.  With the possibility of losing the Patriots to Hartford, the NFL was going to be without a team in three of the largest cities in the country (Los Angeles was already vacant).

So how did the NFL and the Connecticut legislature respond?  By bringing up a concern about the environmental contamination of the riverfront site in downtown Hartford where the state wanted to build the stadium.  A report submitted to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on January 19th described the site area as thoroughly contaminated with such toxic chemicals as lead, cadmium, and benzene.  I guess they forgot that the point of this redevelopment was to clean up these types of areas.

Eventually, the pressure from the EPA and the NFL led Kraft to reconsider his move.  Also reconsidering?  The state of Massachusetts, which eventually came in and offered to help the Patriots build their new stadium in Foxboro.  While Hartford never ended up getting its act together, or maybe the NFL would never let it get to that point, it did get a $2,399,060.66 payment from the League to cover the costs of (not) luring the Patriots to the city.

We know what happened next.  Tom Brady came in and led the Patriots to three Super Bowl wins after the team moved to Gillette Stadium and the city of Hartford, not to mention the state of Connecticut, is still without a professional sports franchise.

If you’ve previously read through the King Morland Naming Rights Longevity List, you will notice that Conseco Fieldhouse is not listed.   The reason this is the case is that Conseco has previously gone through a chapter 11 bankruptcy and no longer pays to have its name adorn the Fieldhouse.  However, it is still up in the air as to whether the change in name will result in a payment to the Pacers, who are absolutely desperate for any additional revenue at this point.  If there is a cash payment, there will be an additional arena on the Naming Rights Longevity List.