Men who don't understand blackout rules, and the women who love them.
by robber23 on May 10, 2008 9:23 AM PDT
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PrintIt's been a long while since I have posted anything on A's Nation.
Man, I really love the fact that our #1 power-ranked A's are playing America's sport this weekend. They've played fantastically to this point. They've legitimized themselves this season, and continue to wow and disprove mainstream predictions of dire straits.
Which is where my disgust comes from.
Yesterday, our Green and Gold Brethren encountered a foe on their territory. In Arlington, physically 1,706 miles away.
Now, we all know the A's television broadcasting system is second to all, and last to many. But, I was absolutely amazed last night when I got home from my game (I work in minor league baseball) and found my DVR recording black, nothing but black.
Why?
Can anyone explain to me, why the Oakland Athletics game, that is taking place 1,700 miles away from Oakland, without a provided A's broadcast, is still being blacked out?
There is no, zero, competition for that telecast. None!! Yet it is still blacked out. This blows me away, and proves to me once again, that MLB is all about cash, and cares only for the fans as much as they can cram them into their seats, and push their merchandise onto them.
How can this policy be good for baseball?
As I mentioned before, I myself actually work for a minor league baseball front office. And take part in all the amazing perks provided through my affiliation, yet the regular fan is left out in the black, so to speak.
MLB does not think Oakland has fans. As proven by the whole, red sox only apology by ESPN, or whoever, after the blacked out, pre-season, opening day, middle of spring training garbage. (Emil Brown, first player in MLB history to hit a regular season home run before his first spring training home run?! What?)
Now, I hope I don't get in trouble for not towing the line on this, but this black out stuff is ridiculous.
If anyone cares to expell their disgust for this weekends horrible coverage, nows the time.
I honestly think we should start a petition to MLB to restructure the black out rules.
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The issue of MLB.tv and MLB Extra Innings blackouts
is supposed to be addressed at the owner’s meetings this month. The notion being that, if you’re not broadcasting your games into a city, via either your RSN partner (Comcast Sports Net, in the A’s case) or your over-the-air network, that city will no longer be included within your team’s MLB.tv and EI blackout zones. This should address the problem of A’s games being blacked out in distant locations like Las Vegas and Eugene.
What it still doesn’t fix is the problem that the A’s local television contracts only include about 75% of the team’s games. I’ll just assume that you work for a team like Sacramento, Stockton or Modesto, in an area that would still be within the A’s coverage area. The only solution to that is, the A’s need to negotiate better local television contracts.
Specifically in regard to the Sacramento area problem, where the A’s have been unable to get their games carried on an over-the-air station for years, I think the ultimate solution has to be that the A’s do what the Warriors, Sharks and quite a few MLB teams have done, which is to pull their games off over-the-air entirely and put them all on an all-sports cable channel. There should be plenty of programming between pro and college teams for a second full-time sports channel to run alongside Comcast Sports Net. L.A. has separate FSN channels (e.g. Dodgers are always on one and Angels are always on the other), and New York has a bunch of them.
A's Ballpark Blog has an idea on the Regional Sports network issue
Comcast Sports Network West might become available if/when the Sacramento Kings decide what they will be doing. If they move to Vegas, stay in Sac and/or build a new arena. But the Kings want a publically funded arena, and in California, its not going to happen. The Kings also own a portion of CSNW.
The A’s TV deal with Comcast expires in 2010, as does, I believe, the Sharks and Warriors. So there is a good possibility that the A’s could buy a stake in CSNW and have their games on that channel, expanding all over Northern California, and partner with either the Kings (if they are still there) or more likely the Warriors or Sharks.
Well, the Kings arn't going anywhere, so that option seems to be nulified.
by theblackpearl on May 10, 2008 1:59 PM PDT up reply actions
Not really
It’s a similar concept to what the A’s are pitching in Fremont, except that it’s more expensive and to finance it they’re relying on sales in a far worse real estate market – Sacramento. I wouldn’t call it even close to a done deal.
I have to imagine that the fact that there's no developer on board -- the developer being the entity that would
do all the real work and pay all the up front money—is a very, very major difference.
I mean, it’s a tad more complicated than this, but basically Cal Expo is saying, we have land, we’d love to turn it into a fancy new fairgrounds at little or not cost to us and the NBA is saying, yes, your land would be good for an arena … we’d be very happy if one were built there at little or no cost to us …
The location is okay, but not great, for retail. Visibility is low, but it’s right off one of the key freeways. That area is already pretty ridiculously full of retail, though. I can’t imagine the need for more space is really that great. It would be very good for upper-mid range residential but there is absolutely no market for it right now, here in Sac. They’re building a tower of upscale condos in downtown, right now and, for a while, there was talk that the developer would just stop mid way because sales were so slow and only promising to get slower. I doubt there was every any real danger in that happening—but Sac has gone through such a ridiculous building boom over the last decade, they’re practically giving away houses 10-20 miles outside of town …
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
Soaker went for a workout
and was thinking about something:
robber23, would your first initial happen to be “D”, and did your team win by a score of 4-3 last night?
I’m just thinking you may have given up a bit more information in your post than you thought (I have no inside info).
That's a negative
on both questions.
There is an A in disAbled list.
OK, good
I was just concerned that, if I could identify you, so could your superiors. If I’m going to publicly post something that’s critical of my employer or my industry, I don’t want to be called into my manager’s office, have the printout thrown on my desk and be asked, “Did you write this?”
The blackout rules are among
MLB”s most profound acts of stupidity. They sell EI to the public, yet they shoot themselves in the foot with their own stupidity. As an A’s fan who lives 200 hundred miles from the bay, I can’t receive an over the air broadcast. I can, however, buy the EI package! Great! Except MLB says the A’s are a “local” team and refuse to allow A’s games to be carried on the package. So why would I buy the package?
It strikes me that if MLB had any sense at all, they would form league rules that state all local broadcasts are subject to being aired on EI, no matter the customers geographical location. Hell, the technology exists where they can “blackout” the away teams broadcast in the local market so that the fans in the local area have to watch the local broadcast.
At any rate, a determined fan can beat the blackout rules. It’s not that hard. But it is a pain in the ass. In todays age of “information” and tech, it makes no sense to hide your product from people who are willing to pay to see it.
"You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat."--The Boys of Summer
I live in Iowa...
...and am consider “local” for six teams! The closest one is a 5 hour drive away.
A 100 mile radius would be reasonable, and anything beyond that is shortsighted greed, IMHO.
Some read stats. Others actually watch the game.
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