Have you seen The Wall Street Journal recently? It's now sporting a sports page. Go figure. A financial newspaper lowering itself to covering sports, and in the traditional---not business---sense. Have advertising revenues sunk so low as to need to entice additional eyeballs to the storied business pages? Have all the Wall St. bankers canceled their subscriptions now that their salaries have evaporated to a mere $500,000 a year? Does TARP forbid advertising? Do elite WSJ advertisers even care about the average sports-loving Joe Schmoe and his little earnings demographic? Does Rupert Murdoch just want to get his morning dose of Yanks regardless of which of his dailies he picks up at breakfast? Considering that A&D Watch newsletter diligently and comprehensively covers oil and gas dealmaking, and all of the business-development folk are on vacation these days, we've decided to add a section titled "E&P A&D Sports" to the venerable blue newsletter. While all the A&D dealmakers are taking a BD rainout amidst economic storms, we'll put together a softball league, golf circuit and tennis matches and cover the results in the publication. At the A-Dcenter.com website, we'll post up-to-the minute stats and online interviews with all of your favorite A&D stars. "XTO Stallions look to match win-loss record to buy-sell record." "Asian shelf players sweep private independents in GOM Invitational." "Petrohawk birdies to clinch Haynesville Classic, losses ball in 12,400-foot-deep hole." "Rockies matchup between Oxy, Bill Barrett canceled due to ticket price differentials." "Chesapeake JVs with opponents to take 66-75% win in all tournament matches." It'll be great reading and give the acquisitions teams something to do to relieve the boredom while the bankers get their act together. As banks are hoarding their cash from new dealmakers, maybe they'd like to sponsor some team jerseys instead. Slow times call for drastic measures. If The Wall Street Journal can do it, we can do it better. And who knows? Maybe a deal will get done somewhere around second base and we can report on it.
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