If You Like Baseball…
M'man Daniels just kills it with this phenomenal post on baseball's marketing woes. I'd totally cut n' paste it, post it here on TBG and claim it as my own if there weren't such high standards of integrity on the internet. I'm not entirely sure I agree with every point he makes, but that just makes me wanna read it again.
One thing that I found interesting is that I, as a Canadian, probably see a greater variety of teams than the majority of American baseball fans. Other than maybe someone with the giant MLB package (cough, Cam, cough).
ReplyDeleteOf course I see a lot of the Jays, especially since I live in Ontario, but thanks to one of our sports networks picking up FSN stations from all over, I see plenty of games from every part of the US, including late night games from the West Coast. Heck, I probably see more of the Mariners than any other team aside Toronto and the Cubs (I avoid the Yankees and Red Sox like the plague. So sick of them).
I also get WGN out of Chicago, so I see plenty of Central division games thanks to the Cubs and White Sox.
It says a lot that someone in a country with 1/29th of the MLB teams can get so much more variety than many American fans.
CC,
ReplyDeleteIt's very much the same way with the NFL though. During the 'main slate' of games on Sundays (1 PM, then 4 PM ET), Americans have a Fox or CBS Doubleheader, then one game on whichever network isn't showing the doubleheader. So you get 3 games, and the local team is always involved in one.
Being in Canada, we get those same US stations. Plus, I have Eastern feeds of the four major US networks, who usually show different games, then Global or Sportsnet will show games of their own. Sometimes these games double up, but usually I'll have access to 5-6 games during this same time. Meaning over a whole weekend of football, there's very few games I don't have access to. If Philly plays the Giants in a big battle, I'll get that game whereas somebody in California might be stuck with 49ers-Rams.
OK, I'm rambling. But this has more to do with US blackout procedures than it does anything else, as everyone tries to protect the 'home' market.
As it relates to baseball though, I have the MLB.tv package for my computer. Only $100 a season and I never miss a pitch of ANY team. There were a few bugs early in the season I heard, but I never had any problems. I DO find it funny that the one team I'm unable to watch though is the Blue Jays as they are my designated 'local' team (even though they are 3,000 miles away), but I can catch every Mariner game without issues even though they're a 2 hour drive from me. Though I've heard this MLB.tv issue can be worse when youre in a region near a bunch of teams, as more than one team is blacked out, and your 'local' teams can be somewhat randomly chosen.
I believe it's Las Vegas - or possibly even Iowa(?) - where SIX teams are blacked out of mlb.tv and/or the Extra Innings package.
ReplyDeleteThere might be a whole post in this, but MLB's ancient perspective regarding blackouts and "nationally televised games" is insane.
The NFL's blackout rule is even worse.
ReplyDeleteCurious -- what do you disagree with?
Oh, you'll find out. Courtesy of the "Fire Joe Morgan" treatment.
ReplyDeleteYup, I'm going there.
Since we were talking about relaxed blackour rules in Canada, I must show the bad side too. I'm an Edmonton Oilers fan living in Vancouver. I also pay for a bunch of regional sports networks across Canada, one that has Canucks games, another that carries Oilers' and Calgary Flames' games. Obviously, if the Oilers are playing the same time as the Canucks, I can't watch the Oil. But even if the Canucks aren't playing, I'm still not allowed. It makes no sense. I understand protecting the local team, but if they're not playing, why not promote the game?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, rant over. To the point of this actual thread. I think MLB has a real issue in promoting stars in that 1) position players only come up to the plate to do their thing a few times a game, and 2) the pitchers who you can watch for an entire game only pitch every 5th day.
I think they need to come up with SOMETHING that speeds the game up though. And by doing that, I think you have to give advantages back to the pitcher. MLB might think fans want to see the long ball, but what they really want is some entertainment and to be home by 10. Some of those Yankee-Red Sox games are excrutiating. And those are your star teams! How do we do that? I'm not sure. Hopefully Cam's article will give us something to chew on. I look forward to it.