News quiz for March 14, 2026
Source link
Bracketology winners and losers: Ole Miss is conference tournament week’s Cinderella
A season to forget for Ole Miss will have an ending to remember, regardless of what happens from here. The Rebels stunned Alabama in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Friday, outlasting the Crimson Tide 80-79 for their third win in three days.
Ole Miss needs two more victories to reach the NCAA Tournament. But after knocking off three projected at-large teams in three days, the Rebels shouldn’t be counted out. After all, they haven’t trailed at any point so far during what’s becoming the top Cinderella story of conference tournament week.
One season after reaching the Sweet 16, Ole Miss cratered by losing 12 of its last 13 regular-season games. The precipitous slide left coach Chris Beard’s club as the No. 15 seed for the SEC Tournament. They are still just 15-19 after Friday’s win, but after beginning the week with 300-to-1 odds of winning the SEC Tournament, hope is alive.
Can the Rebels keep their run going on Saturday? They will have no choice if they want to reach the Big Dance. Either way, it’s been a fun ride in Nashville for a team that most had left for dead entering the week.
Here is the rundown of other Bracketology-oriented winners and losers from Friday’s action.
Loser: Oklahoma suffers agonizing defeat
The Soomners came up just short of solidifying itself on the right side of the bubble in CBS Sports Bracketology on Friday night before suffering a heartbreaking 82-79 loss against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Following the loss, the Sooners have slipped back to the First Four Out and have been replaced by SMU. The Mustangs are now the last at-large team in the projected field, according to CBS Sports Bracketology. A 37-point barrage and some clutch shot-making from Darius Acuff was too much for OU to overcome in what amounted to a potential season-defining spot. The Sooners’ final fate will be left to the selection committee.
Winner: Atlantic 10 stalwarts advance
The Atlantic 10’s top two seeds were each tested in quarterfinal action, but Saint Louis and VCU both found ways to survive and advance. The top-seeded Billikens rallied from a 21-point deficit to edge George Washington 88-81 behind 22 points from Robbie Avila, who scored 15 in a big second half for a Saint Louis team that struggled through a 3-3 finish to the regular season.
VCU trailed Duquesne by seven in the first half before stabilizing for a 71-66 victory. The win kept the Rams’ at-large hopes ablaze for another day as they will remain among the “Last Four In” within CBS Sports Bracketology. The A10’s hopes of being a two-bid league are alive and well.
Loser: Auburn’s hopes get slimmer
VCU hanging around on the right side of the bubble was bad news for Auburn, which will likely need the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West to be one-bid leagues. The Tigers (17-16) can do nothing but sit, hope and pray after losing to Tennessee on Thursday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. They are firmly on the wrong side of the bubble in CBS Sports Bracketology, and they didn’t get the help they needed from VCU.
Loser: Illinois drops from No. 2 seed
Illinois dropped from the No. 2 seed line in CBS Sports Bracketology with its 91-88 overtime loss against Wisconsin in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The Illini are now 0-4 in overtime games since the start of February. If the inverse were true, this team would be in the mix for the final No. 1 seed. But great predictive metrics can only get you so far, and the Illini (24-8) won’t have a case for a No. 2 seed on Selection Sunday. In fact, with selection metrics in the mid-teens, Illinois should now be pleased if it gets a No. 3 seed.
Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd, John Blackwell make case for best backcourt in America in comeback vs. Illinois
Isaac Trotter
Winner: Purdue is back in the No. 2 seed mix
Purdue is now the final No. 2 seed in CBS Sports Bracketology — for the time being — after thrashing Nebraska 74-58 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. The Boilermakers desperately needed the authoritative victory after dropping four of six games to close the regular season. To actually end up as a No. 2 seed, the Boilermakers may still need another victory. Iowa State is lurking in the mix for a No. 2 seed and owns a head-to-head win over Purdue, which could be an influential factor if they are scrubbed side by side.
Loser: Seton Hall bows out
Seton Hall’s at-large aspirations were bleak entering the day. But they were officially extinguished in a 78-68 loss to St. John’s in the Big East Tournament semifinals. Though the Pirates have 21 wins, they have just one victory over a projected at-large team (NC State), and they will arrive at Selection Sunday well outside the top 50 in the all-important Wins Above Bubble metric. This was a great defensive team that merely lacked the offensive firepower to break through for needle-moving wins.
Winner: Arizona pulls off the comeback
Arizona fell behind 14-2 out of the gate and trailed by eight in the second half. But the Wildcats rallied for a thrilling 82-80 win over Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals on Jaden Bradley’s buzzer beater. The victory keeps Arizona alive in the race for the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance, as they will play for a “double title” on Saturday after winning the Big 12’s regular-season title by two games. Bradley made the final shot, but Anthony Dell’Orso also played the role of hero with four 3-pointers in the second half as he finished with a team-high 26 points on 10 of 14 shooting.
Loser: Tennessee fades against Vanderbilt
One day after using a 20-0 run in the second half to roar back and beat Auburn, Tennessee ended up on the wrong side of a similar equation in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Vanderbilt used a 10-0 run to flip the script on the Volunteers and earn a 75-68 win over its in-state rival. Vandy remains firmly on the No. 4 seed line in CBS Sports Bracketology, and the Commodores aren’t done yet, as losses from Alabama and Nebraska may have opened a narrow path to the No. 3 seed line.
Winner: Florida looks inevitable
Florida endured its worst 3-point shooting performance of the season and still kept Kentucky at arm’s length in a 71-63 SEC Tournament quarterfinal victory. The Gators needed the win to keep their grasp on the final No. 1 seed in CBS Sports Bracketology, and the outcome was scarcely in doubt. The reigning national champions own the nation’s second-longest winning streak at 12 games — trailing only High Point at 14 — and are two wins away from repeating as SEC Tournament champions. A national title repeat appears to be squarely within the realm of possibility, too.
Ice-cold shooting barely phased red-hot Florida vs. Kentucky; is a Gators repeat national title inevitable?
David Cobb
Out of the frying pan? Noma’s Rene Redzepi resigns, and fine dining confronts ‘brigade’ culture
LONDON — Chef Gordon Ramsay yells at people. His mentor was known for throwing pans and plates. That chef, London’s Marco Pierre White, titled his own memoir “The Devil in the Kitchen” — in part for the punishments he meted out to his chefs.
“If you don’t fear the boss, you’ll take shortcuts, you’ll turn up late,” White wrote, saying his kitchen staff at Harveys accepted that. “They were all pain junkies, they had to be. They couldn’t get enough of the bollockings.”
No more.
The public downfall this week of Denmark’s Rene Redzepi, arguably the world’s top chef, has forced a reckoning in real time over when “brigade de cuisine” becomes abuse and what should happen to perpetrators who direct the creation of edible art.
At issue is whether time is up on the storied bullying and intimidation of fine dining kitchen culture, brought to the masses through pop culture by celebrity chef reality shows and high-end TV like “The Bear.” Lofty, pricey matters like leadership style and legal liability are suddenly at the center of a relatively small industry known for narrow profit margins, not HR departments or training.
“The resources aren’t there for self-policing,” said Robin Burrow, associate professor of organization studies at the University of York. “The general feeling, though, is that things are so tough even for very good chefs that this kind of culture ends up being inevitable.”
Redzepi, a Danish knight and the founder of Noma and innovative “New Nordic” cuisine, stepped down Thursday after The New York Times reported that dozens of former employees had shared their accounts of abuse and assault between 2009 and 2017 at the Copenhagen landmark. Redzepi had been dogged for years by reports of mistreating his staff and employing unpaid interns at Noma, which received three Michelin stars and was ranked first on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List five times.
The allegations overshadowed Noma’s $1,500-a-head pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles. Sponsors pulled their funding for the residency, which opened on Wednesday to a small gathering of protesters. Redzepi announced his resignation on Instagram with a tearful video soon after. “An apology is not enough,” he said. “I take responsibility for my own actions.”
Former employees said Redzepi has never been held accountable for his conduct, which included punching members of the staff, jabbing them with kitchen tools and threatening to get them blacklisted from restaurants or have their families deported.
Jason Ignacio White, a former head of Noma’s fermentation lab, collected anonymous testimonies of alleged abuse at the restaurant and posted them to his Instagram page. The accounts have been viewed millions of times.
“Noma destroyed my passion for the industry,” one post said. “I struggled with intense anxiety, bad enough to give me panic attacks in the middle of the night. The trauma, abuse and idea that nothing would ever change all led me to walk away from the career.”
The process at the heart of restaurants worldwide is the “brigade de cuisine,” a strict organization of the kitchen developed around the turn of the 20th century by French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier, who based it on his own military experience.
Under its hierarchy, every member of the staff has a specialty — from the “chief” to the sauce-maker, the roast cook, the grill cook and the fish cook. Their choreography and their communications — “Hand!” and “Yes, chef!” — are designed for speed, consistency and cleanliness.
Even so, kitchen atmospheres have long been filled with chaos and intensity. Escoffier himself wrote that his first chef believed it was impossible to govern a kitchen “without a shower of slaps.”
George Orwell, the essayist and author of the dystopian classic “1984,” once described the restaurant kitchen of his time as a place where one person in the hierarchy yelled at his subordinate, who yelled at someone below him and so on. Weeping was not unusual. As a plongeur (dishwasher), Orwell ranked at the bottom.
“A plongeur is one of the slaves of the modem world,” he wrote in “Down and Out in Paris and London,” published in 1933. “He is no freer than if he were bought and sold.”
In the modern era, professional kitchens are thought to be some of the toughest places to work thanks to a recipe of long hours, close quarters, strict hierarchies, grueling physical conditions and relentless pressure.
The rise of the chef as an auteur during the 1970s with an obsession with Michelin-star-level excellence only accelerated the poor behavior as prices and egos rose.
In his 2006 memoir, White described his kitchen at Harveys in London as “my theatre of cruelty” and boasted of giving his chefs “a 10-second throttle.” Anthony Bourdain’s memoir “Kitchen Confidential” helped romanticize that testosterone-fueled vision, describing kitchens filled with “heated argument, hypermacho posturing and drunken ranting.”
Personal accounts and research suggest there’s painful truth behind the romanticized branding. Cardiff University conducted interviews with 47 elite chefs for a 2021 study and found that the isolation of commercial kitchens can produce a sort of “geography of deviance” that create “feelings of invisibility, alienation and detachment” in lower-ranking employees. It also found that chef conduct can make a kitchen “an instrument of social withdrawal and a symbol of deviance around which the community pivots.”
Open kitchens in part were designed to merge the two spaces, kitchens and dining rooms. Several employees told The Times that when Redzepi wanted to discipline them in the open kitchen but there were customers in the dining room, he would crouch under the counters and jab them in the legs with his fingers or a nearby utensil.
Many chefs’ proteges stay silent because they don’t want to risk the opportunity to learn from the best — or the potential to launch high-flying culinary careers of their own. That was the case in the fictional, wildly popular show “The Bear,” in which the main character, Carmy Berzatto, endured open and flagrant abuse so that he can study under one of the world’s greatest chefs.
Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordisk and Mad, meaning Nordic and food — opened in 2003 dedicated to “a simple desire to rediscover wild local ingredients by foraging and to follow the seasons.” By the time Redzepi stepped down, he had become so prominent in the culinary world that Noma played a role in “The Bear” as the training ground for two main characters. Redzepi himself appeared on the series in a cameo.
It wasn’t his first time on camera. He’d also been seen yelling at cooks in the 2008 documentary “Noma at Boiling Point,” and has made several public apologies. He acknowledged in a 2015 essay, being “a bully for a large part of my career.” He said he’s “yelled and pushed people. I’ve been a terrible boss at times.”
And — today’s mass-culture excitement around intense kitchen behavior notwithstanding — he seemed to recognize even then that the old way alienated young, talented workers and jeopardized the future of cuisine.
“The only way we will be able to reap the promise of the present is by confronting the unpleasant legacies of our past,” Redzepi said, “and collectively forging a new path forward.”
___
Associated Press Writer Mark Kennedy contributed from New York.
Officials reveal their recommendations for plan for the future of New Mexico state fairgrounds
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It was another packed house with a heated debate Friday night, as the community gave more feedback on what to do with the New Mexico state fairgrounds. The consulting firm behind the master plan update is recommending the fairgrounds stay put, but is proposing a sports venue to be built on the property. […]
Source link
Guitarists SEAN MCFARLAND, MATT SARGENT & TREVOR BABB To Perform JAMES ROMIG’s Trilogy Of Solo Works In Baltimore & New York
A trio of acclaimed experimental guitarists – Sean McFarland, Matt Sargent, and Trevor Babb – will perform a special program dedicated to the music of composer James Romig this weekend in Baltimore and New York.
The performances showcase Romig’s trilogy of solo guitar works: The Complexity of Distance (2022), The Fragility of Time (2022), and The Distortion of Memory (2024) – a series of compositions exploring themes of perception, memory, and sonic space.
Critics have praised Romig‘s music for its unique atmosphere and slow-evolving intensity. The San Francisco Chronicle described his work as “rapturous slow-moving beauty,” while Burning Ambulance famously compared it to “a steamroller driving down a highway paved with skulls.” Meanwhile, The New Yorker noted its organic progression, saying it develops “with the naturalness of breathing.”
Romig‘s reputation in contemporary classical music continues to grow; his solo piano composition Still was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Performance Dates
The Performers
Sean McFarland, a Baltimore-based composer and guitarist, performs the baritone electric guitar for the program. A Master of Music candidate at the Peabody Conservatory, McFarland studies composition with Michael Hersch and is a recipient of the Philip D. Glass Endowed Scholarship. His work often explores the human experience and has been performed by ensembles such as JACK Quartet and Rhymes With Opera. Outside the concert hall, he is active in Baltimore’s DIY scene, working with Charm City Art Space to support independent music.
Matt Sargent, an electric guitarist on the program, is a composer and technologist based in upstate New York. An assistant professor of music at Bard College, his work blends live performance, recording technology, and computer-driven composition. Critics have praised his technological artistry, with writer Peter Margasak describing his sonic tools as “a veritable fountain of intensifying, kaleidoscopic spumes.”
Completing the trio, Trevor Babb performs on classical guitar. The New Haven-based musician is known for his dedication to contemporary music and collaborations with modern ensembles such as So Percussion and Bang on a Can All-Stars. A Fulbright Award recipient and winner of the Yale School of Music’s Eliot Fisk Prize, Babb frequently premieres works by emerging composers and records original material, including his albums Warmth and From a Dream.
Together, the three musicians bring Romig‘s meditative yet powerful trilogy to life, blending classical technique, experimental guitar textures, and contemporary compositional language across two intimate concert settings.
Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter
Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.
Li Auto Posts Narrow Profit Amid Deteriorating Sales, Margins
The Chinese plug-in hybrid specialist is grappling with flagging sales while it tries to make headway in the highly competitive full-electric market.
Source link
Transfer rumors, news: Barcelona eye Chelsea’s Pedro Neto
Barcelona are considering a move for Chelsea winger Pedro Neto, while reigning Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembélé could be lined up for a future transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Manchester City. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.
Transfers home page | Men’s winter grades | Women’s grades
TRENDING RUMORS
– Chelsea winger Pedro Neto is on Barcelona’s radar in case they decide to strengthen that position, Mundo Deportivo reports. The Blaugrana are aiming to sign a striker, centre-back and winger in the summer, although wide forwards Lamine Yamal and Raphinha are undisputed starters while Marcus Rashford‘s loan from Manchester United could still be made permanent. So far, Barça are only monitoring Neto, 26, but there is a clause in his contract that will facilitate a transfer if they decide to make a move.
– The agent of Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembélé, recently had a meeting with Manchester City sporting director Hugo Viana, according to Diario Sport. The 28-year-old, who won the Ballon d’Or for his part in PSG’s UEFA Champions League triumph last season, has a contract with the European champions that runs until 2028. However his representative, Moussa Sissoko, is exploring other options with talks regarding an extension not progressing positively despite Les Parisiens seeing Dembélé’s renewal as a priority. There haven’t yet been any formal negotiations about a move to join City so far, and the Premier League club are aware that PSG wouldn’t make it easy for Dembélé to leave.
– Atlético Madrid will block any attempt from Barcelona to sign Julián Álvarez, but Los Colchoneros could let the striker move to the Premier League if they receive an offer that significantly exceeds €100m, according to Diario Sport. Arsenal and Chelsea are both interested in the 26-year-old, while Barcelona have accepted that signing him is virtually impossible. The Blaugrana would only attempt to sign the Argentina international if he publicly states his desire to play for them, which is now unlikely.
– Manchester United and Chelsea are the frontrunners to sign RB Leipzig midfielder Assan Ouédraogo but there is also interest from Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, Newcastle United and other European sides, according to TEAMtalk. The 19-year-old’s contract with Die Roten Bullen runs until 2029 and doesn’t include a release clause, so the Bundesliga club would likely demand between €80m and €100m. For now, Ouedraogo is fully focused on helping Leipzig qualify for the Champions League and earning his place in Germany‘s squad for the World Cup.
– That isn’t the only story about Manchester United’s interest in midfielders, as The Sun reports that the Red Devils’ shortlist also includes Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali, Nottingham Forest‘s Elliot Anderson, Crystal Palace‘s Adam Wharton, AFC Bournemouth‘s Alex Scott and Brighton & Hove Albion‘s Carlos Baleba. However, Man United would have to qualify for the Champions League to have a chance of signing Anderson or Wharton and there are doubts about whether they can compete with Manchester City for the former.
DONE DEALS
Reece James, who has been training with Chelsea since the age of six and was made club captain in 2023, has signed a new contract that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2032. Read
EXPERT TAKE
1:50
Klinsmann responds to Tottenham links: ‘Who wouldn’t want the job!’
Jürgen Klinsmann explains what Tottenham need to stay in the Premier League.
– Juventus have explored the prospect of signing goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who views his time at Aston Villa as being over. (Tuttosport)
– Real Madrid are still among the clubs monitoring Ibrahima Konaté, with the centre-back’s Liverpool future remaining uncertain. (talkSPORT)
– Manchester City will sign a midfielder in the summer and still see Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson as a priority. (Fabrizio Romano)
– Barcelona are interested in Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Luka Vuskovic, who has impressed on loan at Hamburg. (Diario Sport)
– AC Milan are considering Fiorentina’s Moise Kean as they look to sign a striker during the summer transfer window. (Gazzetta dello Sport)
– Inter Milan are interested in Al Ittihad winger Moussa Diaby, who wants to return to Europe. (Corriere dello Sport)
– Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Newcastle United are all interested in Paris Saint-Germain attacking midfielder Lee Kang-In. (TEAMtalk)
– Inter Milan could let Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella leave for the right amount, while they are looking to bring in Roma midfielder Manu Koné. (Gazzetta dello Sport)
– Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-Jae and Lazio’s Mario Gila are AC Milan’s priorities as they aim to sign a centre-back. (Gazzetta dello Sport)
– FC Cologne winger Said El Mala is on Newcastle United’s radar and the Magpies want to sign a striker in the summer. (Daily Mail)
– Real Madrid see Eduardo Camavinga as transferable but won’t accept anything under €50m, with Premier League clubs interested. (Marca)
– Serhou Guirassy and Karim Adeyemi are potential candidates to leave Borussia Dortmund in the summer. (Sky Sports Deutschland)
– Leeds United are weighing up a double move to sign Jens Petter Hauge and Kasper Hogh from Bodo/Glimt. (TEAMtalk)
– Juventus are closely following 18-year-old AZ Alkmaar striker Bendeguz Kovacs. (Gazzetta dello Sport)
– Napoli and Inter Milan are interested in Dinamo Zagreb right-back Moris Valincic. (Nicolo Schira)
OTHER RUMORS
House calls prison guard working night of Epstein death
-
Charges dropped against Georgia teens in fatal prank
00:15
-
Now Playing
House calls prison guard working night of Epstein death
01:28
-
UP NEXT
Trump says military targets on Iranian island ‘obliterated’
01:15
-
Michigan synagogue suspect seen buying fireworks before attack
01:23
-
Fans gather for Dolly Parton’s return post-health struggle
00:32
-
Team USA sled hockey advances to gold medal game
01:22
-
Mayor: Michigan suspect lost family in Israeli airstrike
00:32
-
Judge blocks subpoenas for Fed Chair Powell
01:03
-
Video appears to show Michigan suspect buying fireworks
00:49
-
Messages show Live Nation employees joking about fees
01:06
-
Alysa Liu welcomed back to Oakland as hometown hero
00:41
-
Hegseth says Iran’s leader is ‘likely disfigured’
00:43
-
Gaza suffers food shortages as Iran war escalates
00:31
-
Explosion rocks Tehran during Quds Day rally
00:22
-
Noma chef René Redzepi resigns amid abuse allegations
00:50
-
Red fox stows away from England to New York on cargo ship
00:19
-
Pickup truck narrowly misses kids at bus stop in Maryland
00:14
-
Trump warns Iran’s World Cup team over safety in U.S.
00:38
-
U.S. KC-135 refueling plane crashes in Iraq
00:48
-
NASA says they knocked asteroid off its course
00:15
-
Charges dropped against Georgia teens in fatal prank
00:15
-
Now Playing
House calls prison guard working night of Epstein death
01:28
-
UP NEXT
Trump says military targets on Iranian island ‘obliterated’
01:15
-
Michigan synagogue suspect seen buying fireworks before attack
01:23
-
Fans gather for Dolly Parton’s return post-health struggle
00:32
-
Team USA sled hockey advances to gold medal game
01:22
APD selects three finalists in police chief search
On Friday, Mayor Tim Keller announced the final three candidates who are being considered in the search for the next Albuquerque Police Department police chief. APD says a total of 19 people applied for the position, and seven were interviewed during the selection process. After interviews were completed, the search was narrowed down to three candidates: Dallas Assistant Police Chief Gilberto Garza, APD Interim Chief Cecily Barker, and Perry Tarrant, the former assistant police chief in Seattle.Keller announced the search for the new chief back in January. “We have great candidates with a range of experience in law enforcement in large police departments,” Keller said. “I will make my choice based on what is best for public safety in Albuquerque.”The city said that since January, more than 1,000 Albuquerque residents expressed their priorities for the hiring of the chief through public surveys, focus groups and public forums.Keller said he is confident that they will be ready to announce a new police chief by the end of the month.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
On Friday, Mayor Tim Keller announced the final three candidates who are being considered in the search for the next Albuquerque Police Department police chief.
APD says a total of 19 people applied for the position, and seven were interviewed during the selection process. After interviews were completed, the search was narrowed down to three candidates: Dallas Assistant Police Chief Gilberto Garza, APD Interim Chief Cecily Barker, and Perry Tarrant, the former assistant police chief in Seattle.
Keller announced the search for the new chief back in January.
“We have great candidates with a range of experience in law enforcement in large police departments,” Keller said. “I will make my choice based on what is best for public safety in Albuquerque.”
The city said that since January, more than 1,000 Albuquerque residents expressed their priorities for the hiring of the chief through public surveys, focus groups and public forums.
Keller said he is confident that they will be ready to announce a new police chief by the end of the month.
Slack Exchange Between LIVE NATION Employees Reveals Them Bragging About Fans Paying Jacked-Up Fees: “These People Are So Stupid”
If you’ve ever paid $60 to park in a field of dirt and gravel at an amphitheater show, congratulations — someone in a Live Nation office was laughing about it.
Court documents surfaced this week in the DOJ’s antitrust case against the concert giant — reported by Variety and Bloomberg — revealing a 2022 Slack exchange between two of the company’s regional ticketing directors, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold. The topic: how much they could squeeze out of fans through “ancillary fees” like parking and lawn chair rentals. The tone: gleeful.
Weinhold floated VIP parking priced at $250 a spot for a single show. Baker‘s reaction: “These people are so stupid.” A beat later: “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.”
He did not, in fact, feel bad. Baker went on to brag about charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass.” “Robbing them blind, baby,” he wrote. “That’s how we do it.”
Live Nation pushed to keep the messages buried and out of the antitrust trial. A DOJ attorney argued they provided a “candid, contemporaneous look into how they view prices.” Judge Aran Subramanian agreed and ordered the full documents released.
The company’s damage control was swift and creative. A spokesperson called Baker “one junior staffer” chatting with “a friend” — conveniently leaving out that Baker was actually head of ticketing for Live Nation‘s Venue Nation division and was due to testify in the trial this week. And according to The New York Times, Weinhold is the senior ticketing director in the Washington area.
The full statement: “The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate. Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly. Our business only works when fans have great experiences, which is why we’ve capped amphitheater venue fees at 15% and have invested $1 billion in the last 18 months into U.S. venues and fan amenities.”
A billion dollars in venue improvements. Bold move from the company whose guy was pricing grass parking at $60 a pop.
Live Nation did reach a tentative settlement with the DOJ earlier this week, narrowly avoiding a forced split from Ticketmaster. But 27 states — including New York, California, and Colorado — filed their own parallel legal actions and are not going anywhere.
Sleep tight, Live Nation — the parking’s free in federal court. Too bad the same can’t be said for your reputation.
Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter
Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.