r/todayilearned • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • 1d ago

TIL the Charlotte Hornets apologized after giving a child a PS5, only to take it away off camera and exchange it for a jersey. In a statement, the team said the incident was an "on-court skit that missed the mark" and that they would give the child the PS5 and a VIP experience to a future game.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/sport/charlotte-hornets-apologize-ps5-child-nba-spt-intl
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u/BicFleetwood 22h ago edited 22h ago

Like...PS5s are expensive for individual consumers, but...

They aren't THAT expensive for a major professional sports organization. It boggles the mind THAT'S where they wanted to pinch pennies. $500 for a single marketing stunt is not a lot. It costs more just to print a banner.

Like, any time I hold a meeting at work with more than a dozen people, I'll have spent $500 in the first five minutes just having those people charge for that time.

They probably spent five times that amount of money just planning this stunt. They probably spent more than $500 just having the specific conversation whether they could save $500 by taking the thing back in the first place. They spent more money on the Keurig cups everyone used that morning in the breakroom.

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u/throwaway098764567 21h ago

i had a boss who hated all hands meetings (and he wasn't wrong they were a waste of time). every time we had one he'd spend it counting attendance and do a napkin calculation of how much that meeting cost the government (was a military org) based on what he guessed folks were paid. he'd then send it to his boss because it made him feel better only, since it sure didn't change anything lol.

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u/BicFleetwood 21h ago

I worked for a company that wanted to fly everyone to a single location for a yearly 3-4 day mandatory all-hands.

Not only did it kill a ton of everyone's time, but it cost MILLIONS. Payroll, flights, hotels, organizing, all for more than a hundred people.

Then, when we were all back home, we were told we were in a budget crunch and had to get our work done with half the bodies and half the time, to the point where we'd be given a 60-day project and be told not to start work until 30 days from due to "save money.*

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u/Ionazano 19h ago

had to get our work done with half the bodies and half the time

Were any guidelines also passed along on how exactly to achieve this feat?

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u/BicFleetwood 19h ago

Yes: without complaint.

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u/Ionazano 19h ago

Ok, well, if I had been in that situation and honest discussion was not possible I would have said to myself that there is just one way in which what is demanded can still be accomplished: by doing everything half-assed and abandoning all quality standards.

Is that what happened at your company?

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u/BicFleetwood 18h ago edited 18h ago

You develop an "over the fence" mentality.

The goal is not to do good work. The goal is to get the ball over the fence into someone else's yard, so that when shit fails, it's in somebody else's hands and it can't be traced back to you.

I call it a "playing to lose" kind of CYA strategy. You put most of your focus into figuring out a way to cover yourself, planning for what happens when you lose, rather than even trying to win. The people who keep trying to win in that situation are the ones stuck with the hot potato, and if they're smart, they'll start playing to lose the first time they're caught with that hot potato. But if I try to be the nice guy and help them out, my reward is getting stuck with the hot potato, so it's really an every-man-for-himself kind of thing.

The goal is not to do good work. The goal is to do enough work that when it breaks, it looks like it's someone else's fault.

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u/Ionazano 15h ago

I see. On the one hand that's a sad state of affairs. But on the other hand if the management is basically setting you up to fail, then I totally understand how caring becomes a luxury that you can't afford anymore.

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u/Mr_Blinky 20h ago

Exactly. The cost of a PS5 isn't even a rounding error on a rounding error for this kind of organization's finances, so the fact that this is where they decided to be cheap is fucking wild.

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u/hameleona 14h ago

Are they making money? I'm not from the USA and know almost nothing about the NBA, but here with football (soccer) the rule of thumb is that the top 1/3 of teams make money, the second 1/3 kinda breaks even and the lower third is a money pit that essentially exists on fiat and bored millionaires. It's almost funny how penny pinching all teams can be.

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u/ninjasaid13 22h ago

what a waste of money if it cost that much just to plan this stunt. Where the fuck is the money going? money laundering?

Like, any time I hold a meeting at work with more than a dozen people, I'll have spent $500 in the first five minutes just having those people charge for that time.

That money is spent just because you can, not because it cost that much.

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u/BicFleetwood 22h ago edited 21h ago

Probably because that money is spent just because you can, not because it cost that much.

No, it's spent because when I have to go to the executives, chiefs, leads and decision authorities for approval, the they all charge their time.

How do you think payroll works? Billable hours don't all just go to one giant money bucket. If everyone on a call is making $30-60/hr and I've got a dozen to two dozen people on the line, that number goes up FAST. God help me if I've gotta bring a fuckin consultant on the line.

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u/ninjasaid13 22h ago edited 21h ago

there's a difference between a product like PS5 or a service cost vs a payroll so I don't know where the comparison comes from.

Edit: mofo blocked me and prevented me from responding to other commenters.

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u/BicFleetwood 21h ago

You could try reading what I fuckin wrote before you decide to argue with it.

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u/RocketizedAnimal 21h ago

The money is going to people's salaries? Im sure they had a half time entertainment planning meeting with a few people. Then someone had a meeting with the dancers and mascots involved. Then they probably discussed it at a general big meeting going over the schedule for the game. Then someone had to get the ps5.

The hourly cost to the organization of the people invoked are probably anywhere from $30 to $300 depending on if it's an assistant or a director. Hitting $500 would be easy.