WARNING - OFF TOPIC
As I sit in my living room in front of the fire, with a dog on either side of me, watching the Super Bowl in HDTV... I am reminded of what could of been.
The TV truck doing the Super Bowl for CBS in HDTV is the truck Paul Allen built for Blazers Broadcasting to produce Blazers games in. That HDTV truck did many Blazer games - the first one being in Redmond, OR for a preseason Blazers/Kings game. The truck was used to produce Seahawks Preseason games, Blazers, did a couple of Portland Fire Games and was available for anyone to hire that wanted to produce a game, concert, or any type of TV show in HDTV.
When Paul Allen's so-called "consultants" came in and decided to cut the Blazers staff and look at Paul's other businesses, they decided to sell the HDTV truck at about a 50% loss on what it cost to build it. That truck would have been a money maker (something Paul Allen's businesses don't do with the exception of Microsoft). The truck did the Master's, CBS' NFL Football coverage for their A team, it will do the Daytona 500 and numerous other major sporting events. It would have made plenty of money... and shows that in this case (and many others in my opinion) Paul Allen's consultants DO NOT HAVE A CLUE.
So, as I watch the Super Bowl today, I think of what might have been for the Blazers and Paul Allen from a broadcasting perspective. And, a smile comes to my face knowing that one of those employees that was laid off in a very unprofessional manner (once again, in my opinion) is the engineer on the HDTV truck producing the Super Bowl. Dang, the pictures sure do look awesome in HD and Paul if you are watching - you have another notch in that very jagged belt of bad business decisions. You must be proud!