USA Soccer: Now some Better News

Go Wiz!

Contrary to yesterday's post, soccer is not unappreciated and unnoticed in the United States. In fact, the world's most popular spectator sport has finally found itself a place in world's largest entertainment market. Of course, soccer is not about to usurp college football or Nascar or the NFL from the nation's sporting liturgy, but the nation has slowly and steadily created opportunities to attract and retain passionate fans.

The most important effort has been the creation of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996. Major investments in America's domestic league began with ten teams in 1996 as an effort to capitalize on the enthusiasm generated by the 1994 World Cup finals held in the United States. Rather than splash out on top European or Latin American players in hopes of attracting huge crowds, as the ill-fated North American Soccer League did in the 1970's, the initial investors agreed to tight-fisted salary caps. Moreover, for the sake of nurturing domestic talent, i.e. the national team, each club was limited to carrying only five foreign-born players.

The experiment has undergone a number of growing pains. At first, many of the teams competed in giant stadiums designed for American football. Though these established venues were happy to lease out space in the spring and summer months, their over-sized dimensions meant that even a great turnout of 20,000 fans would bring a stadium to maybe 25% capacity. Now many franchises have sought out smaller, more intimate venues on college campuses or minor-league ballparks. LA and Columbus even have soccer-specific stadia.

Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH, offers a more fitting soccer venue than the city's 100,000-seat Ohio Stadium, aka "The Horseshoe."

Those early optics were not helped by the 1990's American sports trend of nicknaming teams for concepts and non-plural nouns. This trend produced head-scratchers like Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL, but MLS took it to another level: Columbus Crew, San Jose Clash, Tampa Bay Mutiny. Most of these clubs were stationed in growing cities with only modest experience in pro sports, but Kansas City should have known better than to call its club KC Wiz. The name may reference "The Wizard of Oz," but a crowd chanting, "Go Wiz!" won't really intimidate the opposition. The team hastily became the Wizards in November 1996; Dallas Burn are now simply FC Dallas, and San Jose plays as Earthquakes.

The name change for Dallas taps into the current MLS trend: burnishing a side's soccer bonafides by imitating established club names in Europe. Incremental expansion has brought Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC, and soon Philadelphia Union. Los Angeles even has Club Deportivo Chivas USA, an American offshoot of the established Guadalajara club and the area's Spanish friendly counterweight to flash LA Galaxy.

Stuart Holden of Amigo Energy (Houston Dynamo) challenges Seth Stammler of Red Bull (New York Red Bulls). Photo by Mike Stobe for Getty, 16 May 2009.

For fourteen seasons MLS has declined to buy their way to the top of the US sporting scene and settled instead for organic growth. This patience has helped to manage expectations and build a loyal fan base. The most publicized MLS story, LA Galaxy's purchase of celebrity footballer David Beckham in 2007, stood as a clear exception to the overall business model. The first franchise owners may have included heavyweights from the NFL and NHL, like Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and the late Lamar Hunt, but they ventured forth with a rather conservative, even European business model. Notice the choice to accept the dependable revenue of shirt sponsors. It might be a common practice worldwide, but none of the major television sports in America does that. MLS knew they were starting a league that couldn't outplay or outdraw the English Premiership or Serie A for viewers or players. Sustainability had to trump theater.

USA Soccer: First the Bad News

Update added below...

Mexico is in. England is in. So is Italy, but Turkey is out, and Portugal is looking shaky. Saturday featured worldwide sporting excitement as the major European football (soccer) leagues paused their schedule for the penultimate game of the World Cup group qualifiers. The Americans had to travel to Central America and defeat Honduras if they wanted a place at next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa. But did anyone care in the USA?

Yesterday, the Passengers awoke early in Singapore to join some of my countrymen watching college football courtesy of new-fangled Slingbox technology. For all you Britons, college football is the Saturday ritual of autumn across the Atlantic that involves millions of people gathering in stadiums with seating for over 100,000 people to watch university students play (American) football. A college football Saturday features more than fifty games, but only about twenty really matter. To partake of this rite in Singapore, twelve hours ahead of New York, passionate alumni must choose between the afternoon games starting at midnight or the evening games that start at 8:00 AM Sunday morning. This week was the highly anticipated contest between Florida and Louisiana State, but we were Big Ten alumni so we cared more about Michigan vs. Iowa.

As we watched, we noted the results from the earlier European qualifiers that occasionally scrolled across the bottom of the screen, along with other college scores and listings for the baseball playoffs, but none of us knew what country USA was playing nor what the game meant for their chance to qualify. The second half of the match in Honduras was still going when the Michigan game finished so we decided to change channels and cheer for our country. Unfortunately, no station available to us was carrying the game. That's right, despite 300+ channels of cable television available to one Michigan household, not one station bothered to broadcast a major international soccer match.

UPDATE (14 October 2009): The difficulty in finding the USA vs. Honduras game on TV was abetted by the Honduras federation, which under FIFA rules holds the television rights as the home side, deciding to sell the US broadcast rights to a company which elected to show the game on an obscure closed-circuit broadcast. Similar, yet stranger, circumstances restricted the moot England qualifier in Ukraine to a pay-per-view, online-only event. However, both blackouts ultimately resulted from the calculations of major media outlets that the expense of buying television rights and altering established broadcast schedules would not garner the advertising revenues or ratings to justify airing a World Cup qualifier.

Broadsheet typos - The Fourth Plinth

Sam Martin appointed himself referee of Trafalgar Square one night, starting at 3am.

Even the venerable journalistic newspapers of Britain are showing signs of decline in the internet age. Fewer copy editors means more typographical errors in print and online. This one came from a Guardian review of, or maybe a comment on, Anthony Gormley's art installation that put ordinary Britons atop the usually empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

So it [Gormley's One & Other project] was popular before it began, and that popularity has not diminished. It has been widely celebrated as a democratic portrait of Britain in the 12st century.

I love this error because the ambiguity provokes such enjoyable speculation. What did the author Jonathan Jones really intend to write? Was One & Other "a democratic portrait of Britain in the 12th century," an insightful, modern take on the formative decades following the Norman Conquest? Perhaps the text is correct and this refers to some system of describing an era by weight. A 12-stone (168 lbs./76.2 kg) century would be a sturdy lady but a well-proportioned chap (to the Americans: people are weighed in stone in Britain and Ireland at 14 pounds/stone). The other intention might be "in the 21st century," but this hardly seems humorous.

Gormley's installation was a provocative piece of theater and certainly a populist stroke of creativity. The article includes a worthwhile slideshow of what people choose to do when given an hour of public prominence. The newspaper also featured a review that contradicted Jones' critique.

Student Discounts

National Rail enlisted glam rocker (and later sex offender) Gary Glitter to promote their Young Persons Railcard. Turns out hindsight has a sense of humor (thank you, bitterwallet).

My upbringing by a coupon-clipping mother has taught me to feel proud of searching out good bargains. I admit I enjoy the thrill of possibility whilst elbows deep in the disorganized bins at down-market clearance stores. At other times I am simply the guy with tips on where to reliably find a good men's shoe sale. My favorite cost-cutting mechanism: the student discount. It's like a coupon that can't expire until graduation.

Last weekend I exercised Club Monaco's newly offered discount on purchases for myself and Passenger H. It's a great offer since I think the shop asks about 20% too much their merchandise anyhow. J. Crew also lends a hand to students, but they fluctuate their rates and terms regularly. My university also let's me buy cheap movie vouchers and Broadway tickets through their box office. Plus, loads of New York museums that give free or reduced admissions.

Of course, European countries are even more generous to students, especially when it comes to the expenses of daily life. Britain gives students 1/3 off rail fares. Amtrak only does 15%. Apparel retailers in Britain who cut students a ten-percent break include Topshop and Uniqlo. But what really underscores the difference for my European colleagues is the astounding situation whereby stipends given to students in America that exceed tuition and fees are taxed as income. Heaven knows what the IRS thinks we do for food. Until then, we will take solace in all the corporate welfare we can find.

Primary Care Primer

Wherever I travel abroad and no matter the political situation in the United States, talk about life in my country invariably circle around to America’s labyrinthine system of health care. Generally, I welcome the chance to explain life in those United States to any willing listener/reader. I hope, probably naively, that conversations about real experiences help everyone to humanize and understand a world full of social caricatures. Most of the perceived deficiencies of the United States (or any country, really) are actually peculiarities, like two-party politics or SUV's. Usually, I feel I can give some apology and for my nation's various quirks that makes America less cartoonish. However, in discussions about the American health care system I have yet to find myself an apology, and every year our medical arrangements become even more “perverse and baffling,” whether measured by individual stories or systemic statistics. Simply put, a major illness can carry catastrophic and ruinous costs, and medical insurance provides only a modicum of security.

Americans understand very little about how they pay the doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies that provide their medical care. This has contributed greatly to inaction against the system’s incentives and inefficiencies. It also explains why health care reform becomes a political rallying cry about once a decade. For those abroad who want to know what Americans live through when they get sick and for those Americans who wonder why it has come to this and how to fix it, I have a sampling of the really informative and provocative journalism (bold links) that has been generated by the current clamor for medical coverage.

Presently, dissaffection has reached a level where Americans are actually willing to pay increased taxes for adequate health care coverage, but we are still fearful of what change could mean. As always, the Economist do summaries of the existing situation really well. For a detailed look at the difficulties in containing health care costs, read Atul Gawande's "The Cost Conundrum," a New Yorker piece cited by the Obama administration. Dr. Gawande also wrote an insightful, and more encouraging, look in 2008 about how various European nations built their health care systems. For a more global perspective in providing patient care, listen to NPR's All Things Considered's examinations of Taiwan and Japan for Frontline.

Gawande's assumption that Americans will probably want to keep insurance as the mechanism for paying medical bills has proved accurate given the current discussion of a so-called "public option" for medical insurance. Robert Reich and Paul Krugman both write repeatedly about the economics of how a public option might control costs. Of course, a badly designed public option has serious risks.

Of course, all of this political chit-chat rides the daily shifts of opinions and optimism, but much of America appears to be debating and thinking about what they want in the health care. I only hope that what we want will be good for us, too. Anyone else read a good story or study about American health care? Click on "comments" below and clue us in.

Update (29 June 2009): Columnist David Brooks delivered an incredibly astute assessment of the legislative machinations toward health care reform a couple weeks ago. It's one of the cleverest passages of non-partisan political commentary I have read in some time.

Denny's Disasters

The Onion (America's Finest News Source) has provided another pitch-perfect indictment of American life decrying casual dining and cable news; see Obama Drastically Scales Back Goals for America After Visiting Denny's. Courtesy warning: This video includes a few words not suitable for broadcasting over your cubicle wall.

American food has on occasion been praised for its mass appeal, but our odd predilection to combine comestibles with propellants deservedly invites derision from the French and, yes, even the English. Perhaps casual dining restaurants, those indistinguishable iterations of Applebee's, Olive Garden, and TGI Friday's, best capture the American urge to standardize, homogenize, and mediocritize the culinary experience. Among these Denny's stands proud as the forerunners who blanketed America with their version of the neighborhood/all-night roadhouse diner. They might be described as a sanitized edition of an American institution, but they scrubbed out all the charm and let their cleaning skills lapse. However, they are cheap and always open, plus senior citizens get their own discounted menu.

For those Britons who have never been into this restaurant, please conjure up some crude American stereotypes: fluorescent lighting, plastic booths, badly positioned smoking section, food retaining the shape of its container, apathetic waitstaff. Now subtract flavor and fun. The dishes don't require many ingredients, but they still taste like cardboard. Denny's is a place visited out of necessity -- when everything else is closed, because it's affordable, because I had a coupon. It's stationed at the bottom rung of American society, which means either customers are too ignorant to want something better or just unable to start climbing higher.

Instructions

For the first (and possibly only) time, hello, Passenger H here. Today I will mostly be discussing that which brings Britain and Asia together, tea. Now I will concede that unlike the gorgeous photos Passenger J has been posting my photo looks like smeared peas, however it actually shows the wrapper from a tea bag (green tea obviously). Due to my photographic limitations I will have to transcribe the text below:

JASMINE GREEN TEA
Selected Premium Leaf
Preparation
1. Put a POKKA Jasmine Green Tea bag in a cup.
2. Fill cup with 150cc of hot Water.
3. Jiggle tea bag a few times and let it rest in cup for 30 seconds.
4. Jiggle tea bag again, then remove it from cup.
5. Now enjoy a cup of really good POKKA Jasmine Green Tea.
A Quality Product of Japan

Italics mine.
Jiggle twice, cup once. (Passenger J’s commentary)

Wanna go halves on a teen pregnancy?

The Gruen Transfer on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) may be the cleverest act of media jujitsu executed by state-supported television in decades. I know this post wanders features neither Anglo or American culture nor life in Singapore, but the show's format and mission are seriously interesting and simultaneously entertaining. Essentially the television program deconstructs the mechanics of advertising using, in large part, the talents and words of top Australian marketing firms. The same people who came up with the hilarious Big Ad and beer catapults turn out to be really engaging behind-the-scenes characters.

Teaching the public about the methods ad men use to sell products to their audiences constitutes an unassailable public mission for a broadcasting corporation supported by license fees. The real twist comes from the choice to include, or maybe even co-opt, the advertising firms themselves in presenting the revelations. Reality programming has demonstrated that few people can resist the opportunity to appear on television, but it's the weekly Pitch that keeps the show entertaining rather than preachy and makes ad firms clammer for inclusion. The Pitch features two major ad firms in a head-to-head showdown to see who can sell ice to Eskimos and convince Australians to keep cane toads for pets, i. e. selling the unsellable. The results capture the Australian spirit of self deprecation while gently dismantling the insiduous displays that interrupt commercial broadcasting. It's almost like an extended case for state-supported, commercial-free media.

Unsurprisingly, good programming will always serve as the best argument for continuing the BBC-inspired license fee model of state media. I have embedded above and below a couple highlights from the first season of the Pitch.

Now It's a Story (to Americans)

Labour MP David Chaytor claimed for a mortgage he already paid off. He says it was an error, albeit one that took eleven months to notice. And haven't we all taken a sabbatical from our outstanding debts now and again?

The New York Times today offered its summary of the British scandal involving a raft of dubious expenses claimed by Members of Parliament. The story has been simmering away for days in the UK, furiously bubbling over each day with every new revelation of incredulous reimbursements from the Daily Telegraph. The initial story ran two weeks ago and targeted government, i.e. Labour Party, MPs. The Telegraph has cleverly kept pole position on the story by waiting through a few days of outrage after each story before publishing more expenses claimed. Conservative and later Liberal Democrats each received time under the media klieg lights, and now the country’s entire political class is sweating uncomfortably.

This post does not mean to offer pointed opinions about British political behavior. That can be saved for another time. Rather, the ongoing story points up the character of British newspapers and the way developments in the UK are treated by American publications.

The New York Times usually waits on the sidelines before alerting its readers to the latest hubbub from media across the Atlantic, whether in Britain or in continental Europe. Generally, American newspapers only offer daily coverage for stories within the US unless the international matter obviously touches on the country’s interests. Maybe this represents another example of American ethnocentricity, though recent New York Times coverage of the endgame to Sri Lanka’s civil war offers a meritorious exception. Mostly, the delay ensures that precious column inches are not wasted on piffle from self-important news outlets, but with yesterday's resignation of House Speaker Michael Martin the story has produced substantive results. A late entry from the New York Times tends not to add information to the story but attempts to summarize the matter from a deliberately outside perspective, often as a way to call attention to a larger national debate or to play with cultural stereotypes. The editors have sometimes sought these ends even when the actual substance of the story might be in doubt.

These summaries from abroad can offer an outsider’s perspective, but the clamor created by the MP’s expenses story demonstrates the ability of the UK’s media diversity to stir up the national consciousness. Britain has a large number of so-called national newspapers, papers available in every city in the same edition. These include several taste-bating “Red Tops” specializing in tabloid journalism and titillating photography and serious-minded broadsheets. The broadsheets target readers along different parts of the political spectrum with the Telegraph on the right and the Independent on the left. Generally, all these papers, even the Red Tops, all report on the same major events, but they diverge in how each one values an individual story or which facts are highlighted. All the other publishers scrambled to headline the scoop of a business and ideological rival because the story was accurate, timely, and compelling. The United States, by contrast, has only USA Today as a national newspaper. The Washington Post and the New York Times, of course, publish for an effectively nationwide audience, but the collection formed by these and even a few lesser big-city banners hardly creates the diversity of viewpoints that somewhat paradoxically enhances the moral and investigative sensitivities of print journalism.

The editorial agendas at each newspaper and the concerns of their target readerships shape the day’s headlines and the presentation of stories. At the same time, a publication must maintain credibility as a worthwhile news venture if it hopes to shift public opinion towards its ideological perspective or sustain its profits. Without verifiable facts and timely reporting readers will look elsewhere for information, and the overall mission will fail. American cable news might actually benefit from more openly espousing any political leanings so as to diminish the group–think that requires every channel to report live on celebrity court appearances or searches for missing white girls. Of course, the British media also endlessly reports on searches for blonde children.

Update: The New York Times made its summary even more comprehensive on Sunday, all the way back to 1832.

Marmite Ad

I have spent very little time in London during this trip through England. However, while returning from Leeds to the Home Counties, I traveled along the Victoria line to get myself south of London. On the journey I spied this clever, kinematic advertisement overhead in my Tube carriage.

For the uninitiated, Marmite has been a staple of British life for over one hundred years, the dark, sticky spread made from brewer’s yeast has provided cost-efficient loads of B vitamins and salt to the public for decades, preferably spread thinly across toast at breakfast. I find it a fascinating taste and a great aid against hangovers, but many native Britons find the food’s texture, concept, and taste revolting. Australians vainly promote Vegimite to Marmite haters as a milder alternative. I can hardly tell the difference between the two, and the argument seems only to concern the Poms vs. those "from a Land Down Under." Americans generally abhor the product in all its forms.

Despite, or perhaps because of, this strong taste and distinctive smell Marmite inhabits British culture as both a comfort food and a looking glass into British culture. The company began in Burton-on-Trent, where the English produced many a fine beer and discarded yeast was available in great volumes. Iconic jars of Marmite also provided part of soldiers’ rations in both World Wars, serving vitamins and salt to expeditionary troops. (Read Mark Kurlansky for more about armies’ unyielding need for salt.) The Marmite label and packaging have changed very little over the years, maintaing these associations, and the cheap prices and slight punitive flavor probably reminds Britons of the make-do-and-mend spirit that sustained the country through rationing, civil unrest, and gray winters.

However, Marmite has been expanding their brand in recent years, putting their flavor and imprimatur on potato chips and related snack foods, like cashews. Plus, they have developed a number of brand partnerships and alternative flavors for those who want their yeast extract to taste just a little different. But trust me, the Marmite flavor trounces both champagne and Guinness.

Now I am off on a thirteen-hour flight to Singapore.

Life in the North Yorkshire Dales

I had to cross several time zones, but I have finally made it back to the Midwest. Actually, these days I am even further from the Midwest than usual. I am in Ripon in North Yorkshire to do research on the big stone church here. The city is an historic market town on the River Skell; the monastery that later became Ripon Cathedral goes back to the seventh century. However, most of the urban fabric, including the market place, dates only back to the eighteenth century.

It's a remote place by English standards. There is no train station; I arrived by bus from Harrogate. The nearest university is probably aways south in Leeds or York. Both of those are considered relatively new institutions. The University of Leeds is barely one hundred years old. Again, English standards. Historically, Ripon arose from agriculture and livestock around the Yorkshire Dales. Now much of its economy relies on tourism. In addition to historic charm Ripon has a well known racecourse. The city lies between the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors National Parks, which makes it a good stop for literary folks chasing Brontes or Shelley or even James Herriot.

The tourism means the town has plenty of places to eat, but Ripon does not really bustle. I had to visit three pubs before I found one serving food after 7:30 tonight. Hotels are plentiful, but none of the major chains operate here. They are down in Harrogate with the International Centre. The agricultural history and its separation from the British mainstream give it a familiar feel to someone who grew up in the rural Midwest. The shops here are provincial. Even if daily newspapers and television link everyone into the latest fashion and music, those cultural touchstones don't travel very well. Urban fabrics and urban sounds are not quite suited to the lifestyle here. Likewise, the food has been good so far, but it is based around an agrarian diet where meat is plentiful and local, not a convergence of multiple cultures. I had my second pie (fish) for dinner in as many days. I am also on a first-name basis with several of the hotel staff already, and the library has kept a pile of books waiting for my return tomorrow. They are not carefully catalogued on a reserve shelf. The librarian simply stacked them atop the Help Desk with a note announcing my return tomorrow. Occasionally, locals ask why I left New York to spend a week here. I came here for work, but all those hometown qualities mean I don't go stir crazy here. I try to concentrate on the niceties that are cultivated by a more static environment. A preacher once described his hometown to me. "It's a great place to be from," he intoned. It's not glamorous, but being from somewhere teaches a lot about how to live somewhere.

BBC or NPR?

I got my wife hooked on listening to National Public Radio. I shouldn't be surprised, really. The NPR media organization and the various affiliated radio stations around the country represent the closest equivalent in these United States to BBC Radio 4. Nevertheless, anyone trying to convince a Briton of American radio's merits faces a serious task: The Archers vs. Shot 97.

The BBC operates a multitude of stations with Radio 4 given over to "intelligent speech." This includes radio versions of books and plays, topical satires, and the quaint and nationally beloved deadpan reading of the shipping forecast. The programming is incredibly accomplished, particularly the clear-minded journalism of the morning news show Today. The station is a daily staple of informed and middle-class households around the country. I recommend the Radio 4 Choice podcast to anyone wanting a sample.

National Public Radio could similarly be considered the airwaves for America's intelligentsia. But instead of carrying the staid tones of a state-funded media apparatus, NPR and its affliated stations operate with the hippie/hipster vibe of a co-op or an arts collective, hence all the pledge drives. Any distinctions between "hippie" and "hipster" come down to generational differences since Garrison Keillor (A Prairie Home Companion) and Ira Glass (This American Life) both maintain public radio's bohemian spirit. A comparison of their images shows that both of them have cultivated the humanities-professor look: Keillor as the rumpled, tenured don and Glass as the bright, young scholar. Both of them bring a laid-back approach to broadcast media, especially compared to other American news outlets, but aside from an hour or two of BBC News content, public radio mostly adheres to the American-centric approach to life and culture found throughout media in the US. I always found it a telling difference that Britain has Gardeners' Question Time as one of Britain's most popular and longest running radio shows. America, by turn has Car Talk. This means it's no sure thing that a Radio 4 listener will embrace NPR.

Fortunately, NPR is run by geeks, which appeals deeply to Passenger H. Radio 4 comes from civic-minded Oxbridge graduates who believe in regional accents. Most of the on-air personalities probably came from nice families, went to nice schools and universities, and then decided to help Britain maintain nice cultural standards. However, NPR producers seem to take up missions and carry them out with American earnestness. Radio Lab looks into science with unabashed awe, curiosity, and slightly manic sound effects. On the Media employs two top-notch journalists as hosts, not to break stories but to wax meta on how various journalistic practices shape public opinion of politics and journalism itself. And Garrison Keillor, of course, has been unashamedly and mellifluously talking up the virtues of traditional American music and poetry for years.

But the geekiness runs deeper than single-minded pursuits. These programs come from people who played in marching band and now consider it the chance-of-a-lifetime to spend airtime asking Leonard Nimoy about old Star Trek episodes. Peter Sagal hilariously brushed off homespun hero Tom Bodett for his ignorance of Star Wars lore on the Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me news quiz, "Darth Vader was a fallen Jedi whereas stormtroopers are clones. It's not. the. same." Even All Things Considered made sure to give the sci-fi television series Battlestar Galactica a fond farewell. Seriously geeky. But maybe it is all part of that American dream where everybody can create her own destiny, even geeks. Arguably, a couple of nerds have been guiding everything since 1975. Fortunately, podcasting and internet availability mean the Passengers rarely have to choose between NPR or the BBC, and in Singapore this summer we will still have both.

Update (16 June 2009): We really can have both. Just yesterday we found a way to stream WNYC through my iPod Touch.

Explaining 1950's American pastimes

We have guests coming around for drinks next week. We have been brainstorming activities appropriate for entertaining a professional couple one generation older.

Passenger H: What's that cheesy game again?
Passenger J: What? Do you mean Parcheesi?
Passenger H: Yeah, that's the one.

Parcheesi is known in Europe as Ludo. Fortunately, sarcastic suggestions about 1970's fondue parties are understood on both sides of the Atlantic.