The Monday Poll in Review

No new The Monday Poll for you! Not a punishment, I just couldn't come up with anything that interested me--and none of you slackers had any bright ideas either. (Or if you did you failed to share them with everybody. And when I say "everybody" I mean me.) Maybe next week.

Last week's The Monday Poll asked you when (or if) the rumored big league merger was going to be publicly announced. Everybody was correct (in not voting) for the option 'sometime this coming week' as that week has come and gone. Beyond that there was little unanimity. One lonely voter chose before NPPL Vegas which was either a bold move on a long shot or a sign that the voter is well out of the loop and not in the least bit concerned. Otherwise 35% picked either never gonna happen or will simply result in endless talks which means better than 1 in 3 have decided all this merger talk is kinda like the boy who cried wolf. They just don't believe anymore. Slightly fewer voters (32%) think the announcement will come post Vegas. (Current rumors continue to have the talks on track with the prospect of the actual doing of the deal at Vegas--but who knows? It's been close before.) With respect to the other options 'After Vegas' really applied to all the remaining choices; Before Thanksgiving (4%), Before Christmas (11%) & After Jan 1 (14%), so what I take away from the responses is a series of windows of time. After Vegas means closer to the event than not--within the time frame of the event itself. Before Thanksgiving is the window after the event and before, well, yeah, Thanksgiving. And the others are sorta self-explanatory in that context. While I am certainly cynical enough to go for the After Jan 1st option I think that timing would be closing in on problematic--particularly if the merger occurs and the season becomes say, 5 events. Likely participants are going to want to know what the format will be and the approximate dates of the events as soon as possible and the league should want to limit the uncertainty and upheaval no matter what happens as much as possible. All of which implies, if it doesn't actually necessitate--an earlier announcement date.

Anyway, it hasn't happened yet. (Over at Baddog's Facebook page the kids are running a Merger Pool giveaway for anyone who wants to guess the correct announcement date. Be the first to guess the correct date and win--something.)