Sports on Free Television
An idea that should return.
The Day The Sports Left Our TV
I know it’s unusual for this blog, but I’m going to write about something I remember this time. And it’s not only going to be about baseball.
I was 9 years old when the announcement was made. All local Utah Jazz games would be broadcast on free, over-the-air television.
I vaguely remember watching the Jazz on television before this June 1993 announcement was made. I do know that my dad and I spent most of our time following the team on the radio. Basketball, of course, is a much bigger television sport, which is why this announcement felt so exciting at the time:
I know that my reader base isn’t necessarily familiar with sports in the Rocky Mountain region. I can tell you that glancing through this article reminds me of just how long ago this was. The Colorado Rockies were only a few months old. The Salt Lake Golden Eagles, our local minor league hockey team, were still around. And Salt Lake City was in an odd baseball lull, having lost the old Rookie League Salt Lake Trappers just a year or two before.
It’s also interesting to see that the U.S. National Team was preempted by a movie on our local NBC affiliate. Sometimes we forget how important that 1994 World Cup was for the recognition of soccer as a major sport.
Having all 82 Jazz games on television was huge. Everybody watched the team — especially during those NBA Finals runs in 1997 and 1998.
I mean, everybody I knew watched the team, including people I never would have expected. I was in middle school at the time, and vividly remember a certain male classmate who would come to school dressed in all black, including black makeup, black t-shirts with the names of various death metal groups, and a trenchcoat (this was before Columbine). A few years ago, this same classmate posted on Facebook about his fond memories of watching the Jazz during those playoff runs.
Seriously, everybody watched the team. It was our team, a real pillar of the community. When owner Larry H. Miller tried to trade journeyman Adam Keefe around 1997 or so, it was front-page news — and it drew the ire of fans all over the state.
And then, well, they took the team off of television.
I was older at the time, obviously, and knew some people who covered television for a living. They told me that this deal was inevitable, that it was the way of the future. Everything sports related would be for sale, they said.
And that’s how the community lost its team.
Now, the Jazz were still around. They’re still in Salt Lake City to this day. But the fanbase just isn’t the same.
And the reason is obvious. Not everybody wants to pay extra money to watch some sports team, even if it is local.
Changing Trend?
That’s why I was thrilled when I saw the news that the Phoenix Suns are leaving cable for over the air television.
I know that the money won’t be the same. But there is a different way of looking at this problem.
If you’re trying to get attention to your sports team — or, heck, your sports league — you’ve got to get people to care about it. You’ve got to go where the people are, give them your product, and do something to get them excited. They’re not just going to materialize magically.
That’s what happened with Ban Johnson and the American League. Remember this article? Way back in 1900, Johnson knew that his fledgling American League experiment needed media attention. It needed to be where the people were, front and center, being offered as a viable pastime for anybody who is interested.
Pay television doesn’t do that. It’s just the opposite, actually. It hides the product away, forcing people to pay excessive amounts of money to monopolistic organizations just to see what the shouting is about.
Could It Happen In Baseball?
The big question, of course, is whether this could happen in baseball.
I’m not an expert on the economics of baseball. I do know, though, that the bloated television contracts that major league teams have provide a huge percentage of revenue.
In fact, when you really dig into it, you’ll find that many teams own part or all of the cable television stations that pay them. This provides a complicated business situation, one that is frustratingly opaque for outside observers. You’ll see articles about teams like the Cincinnati Reds, a team which owns significant equity in the television station that broadcasts its games. Is that a good position to be in as the cable television system continues to crumble around it?
I won’t bore you with my thoughts on the cable television monopoly, aside from mentioning that teams get paid regardless of the number of viewers — and that many cable television packages are automatically included in HOA agreements and apartment leases. I’ll just say that it must be nice to run an industry where you make money even if nobody watches.
What is clear to me, though, is that the television and radio broadcast of these games really should be thought of as a form of advertising, and not some sort of premium product for hardcore fans to buy. If teams and leagues are interested in building a fanbase for the future, they need to figure out a way to reach out to youngsters. Keeping everything behind a paywall isn’t going to do it.
My children don’t watch sports. In fact, we don’t have any television channels at home. Scripted television is worse than it’s ever been, and live sports require an investment of time and attention that I’m simply not willing to give. I’d much rather play my own sports and write about them: it’s more fun this way.
Now, if one of my children wanted to discover sports on their own, they couldn’t do it. The cost of live streaming packages is far higher than any of them could pay, and they simply don’t have the interest in the first place to spend the time and effort necessary to find a bootleg stream. Even if we did have over the air television at home, their choice of sport viewing would be extremely limited.
How are these sports planning on growing in the future? If baseball is continuing to rely on fathers bonding with their sons at ballparks, the sport is in for a rude awakening. Bonding experiences are fun, but not at $50+ per ticket, not counting parking, concessions, and so on.
I’m happy to see that the days of people paying ridiculous monthly fees for the privilege of being advertised to might be ending. I just hope that this trend spreads.