The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and State Rep. Eric Johnson of Dallas are meeting today to discuss Confederate monuments on the state Capitol grounds.
Johnson has called for the removal a historically inaccurate Confederate plaque posted near his office.
Abbott has previously expressed resistance to removing Confederate markers.
The WNBA’s San Antonio Stars are moving to Las Vegas. They first moved to the Alamo City before the start of the 2003 season.
Now, in the scheme of things, a team moving to a new city isn’t that surprising. The San Antonio Stars, themselves actually got their start as the Utah Starzz in 1997. Plus, think of all the moves that have been happening in the NFL.
In a video for the website FanSided.com, Host Mark Carman said, “NFL, what are you doing? Three franchises on the move in 14 months. This from supposedly the best league on the planet. San Diego going to LA where there really are no Chargers fans, the Raiders going to Las Vegas when there are a ton of Raiders fans in LA, and the Rams coming to LA leaving St. Louis behind.”
Mechelle Voepel, a writer for ESPN.com, says the decision of Spurs Sports & Entertainment to sell the Stars is hard on San Antonio fans.
“There’s a definitely a fan base there,” Voepel says. “I don’t question that there was a fan base there and people have been going to games the entire 15 years. What I would say that this is a case of management deciding this isn’t where they want to put their interest anymore.”
Voepel explains that Texas has lost WNBA teams before because the owner wanted to get out of that business – usually for financial reasons.
“And you could say that about the Houston Comets that won the first four WNBA championships,” Voepel says. “It’s not like they didn’t have a fan base they did. But the Rockets organization got out of the WNBA business they were sold then to a furniture magnate who lost a lot of money during the financial crisis in 2007, 2008, 2009. That time period hurt the WNBA.”
Voepel says, in this case, the Stars move isn’t a reflection of the state of the WNBA as a whole.
“I don’t think it’s a reflection of oh, the sky is falling on the WNBA,” Voepel says. “The league always has to continue to be vigilant about its product and about growing its product but to me this is a pretty specific case of an ownership group that lost interest and decided to move on – this isn’t something they wanted to put time, money or effort into.”
The Stars were purchased by MGM Resorts International and will play home games at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS NFL analyst Tony Romo called an unexpected play Thursday night when a cat scampered onto the field.
“Perfect form and doesn’t even get phased if there’s people around,” Romo said. “Oooo, look at that change of direction.”
The small cat caused a splash during the Baltimore Ravens 40-O shutout of the Miami Dolphins.
