🧯🔥 Burning Man is losing its flame

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TOP STORY
🔥🧯 Burning Man is losing its flame

Burning Man, the cultural phenomenon that has been going on for nearly four decades, usually draws a sellout crowd of at least 70,000 partygoers.

But this year, the weeklong event is struggling to sell tickets.

For the first time since 2011, when the festival began consistently selling out, organizers are offering tickets to last-minute buyers without requiring pre-registration.

AND the resale market, which includes ticketing giants like StubHub and SeatGeek, is flooded.

Those who aren’t turned off by the outfits or the heat can currently grab a ticket for less than half the regular price.

The biggest issue, or scapegoat really, is that darn U.S. economy.

People don’t want to spend money right now, especially when Burning Man can cost an arm and a leg.

A standard ticket in 2024 costs $575, and there are plenty of additional expenses, ranging from parking and camp fees to RV rental and flights.

But it’s not just Burning Man that has had trouble.

Maybe the fact that most events have been going through this recently will make it easier for the Burning Man organizers to sleep better at night—doubt it, though.

Higher prices, even slight increases, seem to be driving people away in droves, no matter how cool the event.

But hey, maybe if only the most loyal adventurers go from now on, it’ll make the event even better; who knows?

ENTERTAINMENT
❌ Disney and Warner’s joint streaming service blocked

Over the past few months, we’ve been teased that a new sports streaming service, “Venu,” was coming to town.

Just what the world needs, right? Another streaming service.

But this one actually makes some sense.

• For basically forever, watching different sports leagues has meant subscribing to multiple streaming services, since each league offers its own package.

• This, if you aren’t already aware, is both confusing and annoying as hell.

• Venu’s goal is to fix this by putting the biggest sports networks all in one place.

Venu has some major partners, combining Disney (ESPN), FOX (Sports), and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT and TBS) all into one service.

Now, that's what I'm talking about.

Adding to the hype and appeal, Venu Sports will be much cheaper than its competitors.

Venu will cost $42.99 per month, which is significantly less than similar alternatives like…

• Sling TV: $55 per month.

• YouTube TV: $72.99 per month.

• Hulu Live TV: $77 per month.

• Fubo TV: $79.99 per month.

• DirecTV Stream: $80 per month.

And Venu will also just have more to offer customers.

But before you go out and get the package, one of these aforementioned companies, Fubo, couldn’t handle the heat and convinced a federal judge to temporarily block the joint venture.

• U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett found that Fubo is likely to prevail on claims that the (Venu) partnership will “substantially lessen competition and restrain trade.”

• Furthermore, if Venu launches, there will likely be a “swift exodus” of Fubo’s subscribers, leading to the company’s bankruptcy.

“Venu will be the only option on the market for those television consumers who want to spend their money on multiple live sports channels they love to watch, but not on superfluous entertainment channels they do not.”

It seems you're just explaining the solution, Judge: With Venu, we'd get our sports channels covered without having to pay for the extra crap.

That's what we want! Looks like, for now, we're still stuck paying for 20 different streaming services to watch live sports.

AGRICULTURE
🚜 John Deere needs a farmhand

John Deere, the world’s largest tractor maker, is in the midst of a struggling farm economy—yes, that’s a real thing—with fewer and fewer people willing to buy their expensive equipment.

• Deere’s latest quarterly profit fell 42% to $1.7 billion.

• Overall equipment sales decreased by 20%, which was still better than analysts expected.

• Deere has shed about 15% of its hourly workforce since November.

Doesn’t look too good for John D. So, what seems to be the problem?

The real issue boils down to two very simple things:

1) Falling prices for corn, soybeans, and other farm commodities are reducing demand for Deere's equipment.

2) The price of the equipment itself. Used high-horsepower tractors and combines, which were sold for $100K-$200K during a downturn, are now priced at $300K-$450K.

And it doesn’t even stop there.

Deere’s employees are pissed about the job cuts we mentioned before, particularly because in the past when Deere was going through tough financial times, they often reduced jobs through voluntary resignations, not unforgiving layoffs.

• Deere plans to move production of some construction vehicles and equipment from the U.S. to Mexico, adding to employees' growing frustrations.

• But Deere says there’s no need to worry, as they’ve spent $2.5 billion on their U.S. plants over the past four and a half years and consider the U.S. their primary manufacturing location.

Regardless, the bottom line is: 1) tractors are expensive as hell, and 2) don’t piss off your workforce.