Six or seven years ago, the Oakland Athletics used to have 50 cent hotdog day and $2 ticket day. They were usually on day games in the middle of the week when they knew they would only be selling about 5,000 tickets.

As the A’s started winning, those freebies and cheap ticket deals went away. Although, as recently as three years ago you could still get a ticket in the upper deck for only $8.

This week, the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the oldest sports franchises in the country and one of the original NHL teams, took the freebies one step further. They began to clandestinely offer free tickets on ticketmaster.

Cold Steel On Ice- it’s not.

Free tickets are not new to the Blackhawks this season. Several months ago they were offering tickets only 15 rows from the glass to season ticket holders for free. But this is a whole other level. This is, supposedly, thousands of free tickets available for the $6 ticketmaster fee.

Shhhh!

No one is supposed to know. They have NOT advertised it. Yet, not surprisingly, some upscale downtown workers started to hear about the “deal” and let their friends in office buildings know who then e-mailed their friends and their friends e-mailed those in Lakeview bars and, well, you get the story.

You have to hand it to the Blackhawk marketing department. They wanted to make it seem like the free tickets were a “deal” or a “mistake”, without it being “known” that they were. It’s like the $11 airline tickets that occasionally show up on airline websites. But this was for real. They had to keep it quiet though. Because, after all, it’s not like they want any Tom, Dick or Harry getting the tickets.

Noooo…

They want beer drinking, hot dog eating 20 and 30-somethings.

Because, frankly, the empty seats are doing nothing for the team’s revenues. At least if you have some people in the seats they are buying something at the stadium. Something is better than nothing.

But you don’t want to appear desperate. After all, there are several thousand paying ticket holders and you don’t want to upset them.

Still, this is not a good sign for a franchise that used to pack them in 15 years ago. I remember going to games that were standing room only. Remember the Blue Line magazine? You could buy it out in front of the stadium before games for $1. It was written by Blackhawk fans and was not “authorized” by team management- making it all the more juicy. Blackhawk management seethed at the notion that someone else was making money off the team (when it was, frankly, a sign of love by diehard fans.)

The team and the Blue Line engaged in litigation against each other in 1995 with allegations that the Blackhawks had the publisher of the Blue Line thrown into jail for selling the magazine outside of the old Chicago Stadium. Of course, us young fans bought the Blue Line. Religiously.

It’s been a long time since the Blue Line was published.

Sad.

Because who cares now? Where are the standing room only crowds? Where are the hotdog throwing crazies? Where is the organist playing the Rocky Theme song whenever there is, um, action on the ice?

IS there action on the ice?

The Blackhawks have lost their last six games and are mired in the cellar of the league.

The demise of a great franchise.

Go to ticketmaster. Get your free tickets for Friday’s game versus Columbus. Drink beer.

It’s the least you can do.

Imagine a place where the number of rich women outnumber men. It exists. In Hong Kong.

Ten years after China took over rule of the former British colony, according to a recent survey by Citibank, the number of Hong Kong women who are millionaires rose to 51% of all millionaires. From Monsters and Critics news section:

The annual Citibank survey found that for the first time, women were a majority of those residents with liquid assets of at least 1 million Hong Kong dollars (128,000 US dollars).

An estimated 276,000 people in the former British colony, population 6.8 million, are now Hong-Kong-dollar millionaires, 51 per cent of them women.

The study also found that Hong Kong’s millionaires are 40 per cent richer than a year ago, with average total assets including property and other holdings, of 12.8 million US dollars.

Explaining the trend toward women millionaires, Citibank executive Weber Lo told the South China Morning Post, which carried the survey, that it reflected Hong Kong’s egalitarian society.

‘Many women work in senior positions and are independent, with high earning power,’ he told the newspaper. ‘It is inevitable that the financial return of women from their jobs is higher than before.’

Does that mean women don’t work as hard in America or Britain? In the United States, women make 77 cents compared to every dollar a man makes. Makes it harder to become a millionaire.

Maybe more Hong Kong women are single and therefore their income isn’t interrupted by childbearing? The survey didn’t seem to indicate that was the case:

The survey found that 88 per cent of millionaires are married, 82 per cent invest in stocks, 75 per cent own property and 64 per cent read a newspaper business section of a newspaper every day.

Clearly, Hong Kong knows something that other cities does not: How to get women to perform at their peak performance.

It is a lesson that many other countries, especially in the Middle East where women are shunted into the back room, would be wise to heed. But will they? It’s hard to compete is half of your talent isn’t even in the game.

The CBS tv reality show Amazing Race begins again this weekend with its first ever All-Star show.

For those of you not familiar with the show, it follows teams of contestants who race around the world. The last team each week to make it to the designated “pit stop” for that part of the race, is eliminated from the show.

The last team standing wins $1 million.

It first began airing on September 5, 2001- and was rightly overshadowed in the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks. But it is also fitting that this show began when it did. It is truly a window into what is going on in our ever shrinking world.

There have always been American tv shows depicting other parts of the world. From Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous to the Today Show’s- Where in the world is Matt Lauer?- Americans have been transported to other parts of the world.

But Amazing Race is the first show to truly show globalization at its finest. The contestants engage, many times, in commercial activities in other countries (selling or buying items, eating in restaurants.) As a viewer, it’s easy to see that we really aren’t that different from each other.

The countries the show has visited is impressive. From Wikipedia:

Continent	Countries
North America	Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, United States (including Alaska, Hawaii± and Puerto Rico)
South America	Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay
Europe	Austria, Finland, France (including Corsica), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy (including Sicily), Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom (including England and Scotland), Vatican City°
Africa	Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia
Asia	People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong), India, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam
Oceania	Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii (USA)±

° Vatican City fielded a Fast Forward in Season 1; however, it was neither used nor shown

How quickly is the world shrinking? A few seasons ago the show featured the winner and runner-up of another reality show, Survivor’s Rob and Amber. In several of the countries, including one time in a market in the middle of nowhere South Africa, they were recognized by normal people on the street with questions like, “aren’t you Rob and Amber?”

In South Africa!

And yes, they were on a first name basis with “fans” from around the world.

Globalization seems obvious when watching the show. But you can also see the strains. In one season, the frustrated contestants could not find anyone in rural China who understood English (somewhat of a rarity on the show, actually.) One stop in Senegal portrayed the poverty that is Africa, something not shown that often on the show.

Amazing Race has also encountered political sensitivities in some countries. From Wikipedia:

During Season 3, the production visited Vietnam; while there, the flags used were a solid yellow, to avoid confusion with the former flag of South Vietnam which differs from the current flag of Vietnam. The flag of the former South Vietnam is used as the “official” flag of some expatriate Vietnamese communities in the United States, and is something of a holdover from the Vietnam War. It is a potentially politically volatile subject, and the producers avoided unintended comparison by using the solid yellow color scheme with no red striping. In Season 10 when the show visited Vietnam, the flags were yellow and white.

You don’t have to be a contestant on the Amazing Race to do your own around the world tour. It’s surprisingly not as expensive as you might imagine. All the airline partnerships offer some sort of package. Take the Star Alliance (United’s partners). They offer three levels of around the world tickets- based on the amount of miles you fly. For instance:

Mileage	Coach	Business	First
29,000	$3,800	$7,400	$9,800
34,000	$4,400	$8,450	$11,200
39,000	$5,150	$9,950	$13,200

The prices listed above are in US dollars for departures originating in the United States. They do not reflect any additional taxes and are subject to change without notice until ticket is purchased.

They also list out possible itineraries- though the destinations are your choosing and you can change them at any time. There are some “rules” though- you have to complete the travel within a year and you can have a maximum of 15 stopovers in different cities. It’s a deal! (even in business class)

29,000 MILES: CHICAGO - SAN FRANCISCO - HONOLULU - AUCKLAND - CHRISTCHURCH - SYDNEY - SINGAPORE - BANGKOK - DELHI - FRANKFURT - ROME - MUNICH - MADRID - LONDON - NEW YORK - CHICAGO

34,000 Miles: CHICAGO - TOKYO - BEIJING - BANGKOK - KATMANDU -SINGAPORE - BOMBAY - FRANKFURT - RIO DE JANEIRO - BUENOS AIRES - SANTIAGO - MEXICO CITY - CHICAGO

39,000 MILES: CHICAGO - MEXICO CITY - SANTIAGO - RIO DE JANEIRO - MADRID - FRANKFURT - JOHANNESBURG - SINGAPORE - SYDNEY - AUCKLAND - HAWAII- CHICAGO

So, before you think that Amazing Race is just another tv show, consider its long term implications on the American psyche and the far reaches of globalization.

And then go and book your own around the world adventure.

India has been on the “rise” for at least two decades. But it was the recent acquisition by India’s Tata Steel of the UK’s Corus Group that affirmed that India has arrived. The deal got scant play in the American press, but in Britain, it was big news.

In Britain, it was akin to the son surpassing the father to finally take over the family business after years of apprenticeship.

Do not underestimate the impact of Tata Steel now owning a British company, with interests all over the world. The combination will make Tata the 5th largest steel company in the world. From the Times of India:

Soon after Tata Steel announced its acquisition of Corus at a packed press conference in Mumbai, managing director B Muthuraman (fondly called Muthu at Bombay House), found himself cornered. Hysterical television reporters and camerapersons from competing channels surrounded the man and came close to throwing punches at each other in a desperate bid for an exclusive sound byte. To Muthuraman’s credit, he kept his poise, continued to smile at the cameras (reluctantly perhaps), and fielded questions thrown at him. Now with the camera crews finally out of his way, there are other pressing issues to handle. As LN Mittal, chairman of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel company told newspersons in London: “The biggest challenge ahead of the Tatas would be how to integrate these two companies, these two cultures, how to work with a new type of management and how to work in a matured market as opposed to working in a developing market.”

The pride in India is understandable. It is another affirmation that they are no longer the poor man in Asia (or the world.) From the India Telegraph:

At the press conference, Muthuraman said the takeover has put Jamshedpur firmly on the world map.

Earlier, too, the steel city was popular in the international circles. But now, those in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom would be well acquainted with the city, he said.

It was a matter of great pride for Jamshedpur as this deal is the largest acquisition in India, over 10 times bigger than any other, said the managing director of the fifth largest steelmaker in the world. The deal has made the country, the state and Jamshedpur proud.

Muthuraman also expressed hope that the record Tata Steel has created by acquiring Corus would be broken.

Earlier, this morning, an exuberant Muthuraman visited the premises of the Tata Workers€™ Union (TWU). He was accorded a rousing welcome by the office-bearers and other committee members. TWU president Raghunath Pandey and other office-bearers congratulated Muthuraman.

Now that the deal is completed, Tata Steel will have to do what every other company that has done an international acquisition has had to do: get down to actually running the business. Tata is a huge conglomerate, so it’s unlikely that will be a problem.

Perceptions, however, matter. And in India, Tata’s growth is a source of national pride and an inspiration to other Indian entrepreneurs. India is soaring right now. Question is, will it grow too fast for its infrastructure to keep up? Growing pains are inevitable. But, following Tata Steel’s lead, it seems likely that India will be looking more to the future and less to its old colonial past.