April Moves On To The Final Four/Magic Arena Vote Nail Biting

A big congrats to April for beating Candace to move on to the final four in the Magic Cheerleading Tournament. I actually thought April and Candace were rather evenly matched, so it was a surprise to see that April had almost doubled the amount of votes as her competitor. The next matchup will be 3 cheerleaders going against each other to see who faces April in the semis, so things are only going to get more interesting.

In Magic news, it was a rather uneventful weekend. -This isn't a big surprise as the venue votes are this week and constitute one of the most important moments in recent Orlando history. Even more important to the readers of this blog, these 7 committee members hold the Orlando Magic's fate in their hands. If 5 of 7 of them support the venues, we can look forward to telling our grandchildren about the championships that Dwight Howard won for the city and take them to a game before we get special wheelchair access to Space Mountain. If the venues get shot down, it isn't the end of the world but doesn't exactly bode well. For those of you impatient folks like me, it also would mean waiting on knowing whether the Magic will be Orlando's to keep.

I typically don't laugh out loud at articles, but I did at David Whitley's take on the situation in the Sentinel yesterday. Whitley provides a very good commentary, and surprisingly funny 'what ifs' if the deal doesn't get done.

It is kind of embarrassing to be so nervous over a vote when the team it is supporting is rather popular (and becoming moreso season by season). I am used to watching the efforts of the Florida Marlins to get a stadium laughed off, but the Magic actually sold out games last year and are gaining respectability in the league. Even the Sonics are somehow still in Seattle despite being bought by Oklahoma City investors, having a few awful seasons in a row, and routinely making the most moronic draft picks outside of the Hawks these past few seasons before they finally got Durant (the words on the bottom of the 2006 NBA draft screen still make me chuckle:

"With their first pick, Sonics select.....Saer Sene, C/PF.

Must Improve: Overall Basketball Skills"

-So how could our Magic be in the same conversation as these folks? Simple: Orlando is run from top to bottom by hotel and theme park magnates. It makes sense as those two things are the lifeblood of the city's economy, but those same things kill off any worthwhile unrelated project in the area. If Disney actually supported the Magic instead of distancing themselves, the Magic would probably have 80 stadium deals, including a seperate theme park devoted to improving Dwight Howard's free throw shooting. The trick for the Magic is to somehow convince the committee that these venues will mean more business for the theme parks and hotels. If David Stern has said that he will give Orlando an All Star weekend when they complete a new venue, you can bet that would shoot dollar signs into the eyes of the money men of Orlando. I know that I would make the trip down to see Vince Carter shoot off balance shots at the carnival games on the Universal Studios boardwalk.

Speaking of money men, it came out that someone tried to buy the Magic recently for 410 million dollars. Last year someone wanted to shell out over $100 million more than the club was worth to take control of the team. Rich Devos said no way, and I think we owe it to Rich that there even is an 'Orlando' next to the 'Magic' as a result. With so many non-NBA cities getting bigger and bigger cajones, there is a good chance that investor was from Kansas City, Vegas, Oklahoma City, Puerto Rico or somewhere else that is not in the state of Florida. The fact that this news is even coming out now is no doubt related to the Magic trying to tell the city of Orlando (with help from the newspapers) that they have been loyal and are asking for the same loyalty in return.

This venue talk is enough to get ones proverbial panties in a bunch. With the excitement leading up to the action, this no doubt will be a hot button issue in the days to come.