{"id":94184,"date":"2020-01-01T22:58:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T03:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=94184"},"modified":"2020-01-02T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T17:17:08","slug":"oddsmakers-1-1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/01\/oddsmakers-1-1-20\/","title":{"rendered":"OddsMakers! (1\/1\/20)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, well. Let’s get the new year started with a SouthsideCentral favorite that hasn’t been seen for 3.5 years. It’s OddsMakers! What are the chances?<\/p>

It works just like PTI’s version does. Our writers come up with some propositions, and I’ll think about what chance there is for them to actually happen. But first, we need a brand new super deluxe OddsMakers chalkboard… and here it is!<\/p>

\"\"
Not bad. Brand new and fresh. Like me. Heh.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

But hey, that chalkboard is empty… so let’s fill it up with some well thought-out propositions.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

Oh, wow. This is going to be a good way to start 2020. Let’s get to work.<\/p>

“The Danville Register & Bee goes to publishing less than seven days a week.”<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>

Let’s make this prediction for what’s happened by the end of the year. Subscription prices have skyrocketed, single copy prices have gone past the point of “not worth it”, and newspapers are generally dying. Personally, I just took advantage of their holiday special for 3 months of digital access for 99 cents and I’m relatively sure that I’ll cancel that before the price jumps at the end of the three months. With the sad loss of Denice Thibodeau, the Register & Bee newsroom is down to one all-star reporter (John Crane) and a few “insert name here” reporters. Those other reporters are doing a good job, but they have no attachment to the community as of now. If the R&B loses John Crane, they’re in big trouble. The company that owns the R&B has cut costs to the bone, and things still aren’t looking good for the print version of the paper. The next cut would logically be cutting the number of days that they print. Sunday won’t be touched, and Wednesday & Friday would be two days to get the content to fill up a decent-sized newspaper. I think something will happen like that, so I’m going to say there’s an 82%<\/strong> percent chance we’ll be seeing some publication day cuts by the end of the year. NEXT!<\/p>

“The new Danville Economic Development Director will have some previous or current connection to the city.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

Dammit. I can’t blame current director Telly Tucker for taking his talents to Arlington, but he’s going to be missed. It was going to take a lot for people to say “Jeremy Who?” after Jeremy Stratton’s House-O-Cards folded, but Tucker did it with amazing success (and a hard-ass attitude that almost nobody saw from the outside looking in). The replacement search for Tucker is going to be filled with a bunch of well-qualified hired guns in the field, because the economic development future for Danville is extremely bright. If we look for current connections to the city, Corrie Bobe & Kelvin Perry are qualified to take the job and would do great in the position. But let’s face it… you’ve almost got to have a great track record of economic development success on your own to be strongly considered for this kind of job. Especially when there’s so much in play in Danville right now. Don’t get me wrong because I’d be very pleased if Corrie or Kelvin got the job.\u00a0<\/p>

I’m thinking of a former assistant from the Danville office who’s gone on to make some pretty good sized deals when they took the top spot in another region that wasn’t far from here. I’m thinking that person would be an odds-on favorite if they want the position, and they’d be a good match for Danville. I’m wanting that person back here. So I’m going to say there’s a 76%<\/strong> chance that somebody with some Danville connections will be the next Danville economic development director. NEXT!<\/p>

“No more than one new person is elected to Danville City Council in the May 2020 elections.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

Hmmm… interesting wording there. Let’s look at it. Danville City Council incumbents are always extremely strong in re-election bids. It would take an amazing campaign by a very strong challenger to unseat an incumbent. In this upcoming election cycle, I’m pretty sure that all of the incumbents will run again with one exception. Lee Vogler will definitely run again for his 3rd term, Larry Campbell should be back for a 4th term, Fred Shanks will wait until the last minute and run for a 4th term, and Madison Whittle is having too much fun so he’ll run for a 2nd term. If Sherman Saunders decides to ride off into the sunset, that opens up a window for a newcomer.\u00a0<\/p>

Sheila Baynes came damned close to knocking off James Buckner two years ago, so she’s got a chance… especially if Sherman doesn’t run. Christine Stover, anybody?\u00a0<\/p>

Four years ago, we had a wide-open field and all of the challengers ate each other during the campaign with none coming close to winning. And most of those challengers never made themselves stand out as a high-quality candidate. If that happens again, it’s just a race for the 5th seat. And yeah, you hear a lot of the “we need new people on city council” from the Danville Sucks crowd. Laugh at those people, because they won’t do a damned thing.<\/p>

If Sherman Saunders retires from service, we’ll have one new council member. If not, there’s a decent chance a Stover or Baynes could get that 5th seat. But overall, there’s a 99%<\/strong> chance of having zero or one new Danville City Council members in July. Ninety-nine percent, baby. LAST ONE!<\/p>

“Galileo High School is moved from its current location in the next five years.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

Danville City Council can’t tell the school board what to do, but they sure can apply pressure. Lots-O-Pressure. Gary Miller went mild-mannered Godfather at the last school board meeting by questioning the future plans of Galileo to the school board. It was a little weird watching Miller (with Sherman Saunders in the audience) put the screws to the school board, but the message was delivered. The school system made it clear that they weren’t moving Galileo from the old Sears store. So what’s next?<\/p>

I’m imagining an upcoming private chat that says “You’ve got a nice place for a police department. It’d be a shame if you were to keep a high school there. A shame.”<\/p>

Then Galileo gets magically teleported to the Langston complex, the school system central office ends up in the old Glenwood location and the school system gets all of the funding they ask for. And Danville gets a nice new police department headquarters out of the deal. Everybody wins. So I’m going to say that there’s a 92%<\/strong> chance that Galileo Gots To Go before 2025.<\/p>

That’s it! We’re done. Let’s take a look at the final OddsMakers board…<\/p>

\"\"
Orange? Who picked orange? Oh well…<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

This edition of OddsMakers was well overdue… and it’s 100% over!

More coming up on SouthsideCentral!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, well. Let’s get the new year started with a SouthsideCentral favorite that hasn’t been seen for 3.5 years. It’s OddsMakers! What are the chances?<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oddsmakers","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oddsmakers20200101C.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-ov6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9016,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/24\/oddsmakers-6242014\/","url_meta":{"origin":94184,"position":0},"title":"OddsMakers! 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But here's how it works... our writers put propositions on the chalkboard and we offer some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OddsMakers!"","block_context":{"text":"OddsMakers!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/oddsmakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/kFyjQxq.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/kFyjQxq.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/kFyjQxq.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/kFyjQxq.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11651,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/25\/oddsmakers-12252014\/","url_meta":{"origin":94184,"position":2},"title":"OddsMakers! (12\/25\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"December 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Who pulled the big chalkboard out of the closet? Ho Ho Ho! Christmas Day OddsMakers! All righty... Let's see what proposals are on the board. Ah hah! I see a theme here. \"Things that could happen in 2015\". Nice. Let's get to work. \"Danny Marshall has an opponent in 2015\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OddsMakers!"","block_context":{"text":"OddsMakers!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/oddsmakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/ezWmYqN.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/ezWmYqN.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/ezWmYqN.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/ezWmYqN.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12179,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/13\/oddsmakers-31315\/","url_meta":{"origin":94184,"position":3},"title":"OddsMakers! (3\/13\/15)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We rip off ESPN's \"Pardon The Interruption\" features less than the Register & Bee rips off SouthsideCentral articles... but hey, at least we give credit for the inspiration. Hee Hee. Let's get it started. It's been about three months since we pulled the chalkboard out of the closet. 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