Cleaning out the Inbox

    The cleaning of the inbox is overdue, so we'll start the new year by pulling everything out of the inbox to start fresh.

WTOP.com celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Capital Centre, the former home of the Washington Bullets, Washington Capitals, and Georgetown Hoyas, along with title defenses by Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, professional wrestling, ACC basketball tournaments, and many other events as well from 1973-2002.

The Capital Centre was the first arena of its era to have a closed circuit television feed on its scoreboard that could be seen from each side of the arena as well and was among the first of the move to the suburbs by teams for new stadiums/arenas.

The Capital Centre was closed with the teams moving to the new downtown arena in 2002 and now things are starting to swing back to the suburbs with the Wizards/Capitals announcing plans for a future arena in Alexandria, Virginia.

ESPN writes of the plans for the third leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, to be moved to Saratoga Race Course for 2024 and possibly 2025.

Belmont Park is undergoing major renovations to the country's only one and a half miles course and Saratoga is a natural site to host the Belmont, although the mile-and-a-half classic will be shortened to a mile-and-a-quarter due to the configuration of Saratoga.

I've thought for years that the answer to the power hitters in golf making classic golf courses obsolete due to distance was to change the golf ball itself.

Slow-pitch softball has used two different types of balls for decades, the "blue dot" made as a normal softball, while the "red dot" is a restricted flight ball that doesn't leap off the bat for the stronger hitters and I've been a proponent of golf doing the same with their ball, rather than changing the length of courses that changes some of the history and charm as well as the costs involved.

The Athletic writes of the pros and cons of the move which will begin in 2028 for the professionals and 2030 for the rest of the golf-playing world.

The Athletic also writes of the troubles with the once-proud Louisville Cardinals basketball program under second-year coach Kenny Payne.

The former Cardinal star returned home to turn the Cardinals around but finished 4-28 last season and started 5-8 this season to date amid players leaving the program, struggling attendance, and questions about the program's future under Payne.

Problems in the Atlantic League just before Hagerstown opens their new stadium next season.

The problem isn't the league as much as one franchise, the Gastonia Honey Hunters, who have been ordered to vacate their home stadium and have their franchise revoked from the league.

The Honey Hunters have left a trail of unpaid bills to the Atlantic League and the city of Gastonia for use of the stadium that the city built for them.

The stadium opened in 2021 and the Atlantic League has announced their intentions to field a Gastonia team in the league in 2024, although I'm not sure if they will be the Honey Hunters or under a new nickname as I'm not sure if the owners of the team or the league owns the trademarks to the name and intellectual property such as logos etc. 

We wrap with The Athletic's story of how Tino Livramento left the Chelsea academy to move to Southampton before his eventual move to Newcastle last summer.

It's an interesting piece on how young players progress through a sports system that doesn't use either college or a minor league system like in the United States.

Livramento is one of the few Newcastle that is playing very well during a poor run of play from the Magpies.