CBS ruined baseball
Antonio Pera
think CBS deserves a lot of blame for today's problems. If they did
not overpay for baseball and then not show games, then a regular
market price would have been paid and nobody would be talking about
the troubles of baseball. Attendance is up and owners are making
money and minor league baseball is big business but the ratings are
down and the network money that small owners need is in jeopardy and
that is a major cause of today's ills. Is this the only problem?
Of course not but nobody seemed to complain in the eighties. As I
see it, the two basic problems are media exposure and labor relations.
There is a myth that baseball is overexposed. This is not
true. Case in point is Boston and NY. If you don't have cable in Bos.
forget about the NL. If you don't have cable in NY, count on 50 odd
yankee games and less than half of the met games. If you get cable,
you get ESPN,Braves and maybe WGN but no real increase in local
coverage except the yanks on MSG because the games are on premium
channels. Is that overexposure? Ask the NHL about it when they stop
drooling. If anything, they need more. I think a Spanish-language
network is inevitable especially if you put a team in Mexico. I say
bring back the game of the week and blackout all but local teams during
the game. Regionalization is a fact of life in the season but should not
be in the playoffs.
There is an undeclared war between labor and management. How
can owners badmouth their own players publicly? That's crazy. Clearly
a combination of salary cap and revenue sharing skewed so that the small
teams get most of the money from shared sources like network deals and
marketing,marketing and marketing. The NBA markets their guys so much
that people are sick of it but they know who they are and don't seem
to have a problem with the money Jordan et al. are making. Why do people
like Bonds and Bonilla get heat and Jordan doesn't? Marketing, Marketing
and Marketing.
Anyway, these are my thoughts. I don't know how long I'll be
around but I'm ready for the flame wars.
Chuq Von Rospach
> I want to say that I
>think CBS deserves a lot of blame for today's problems. If they did
>not overpay for baseball and then not show games, then a regular
>market price would have been paid and nobody would be talking about
>the troubles of baseball.
Ah, so it's all the network's fault. They held a gun to MLB's head and
forced them to take the contract and all that money, even though the owners
were more worried about visibility and market access and stuff like that.
Sorry, bogus argument. Baseall ALSO agreed to the contract, and was too busy
cashing the checks to wonder whether or not they were slitting their own
throats. CBS is a strawman. The owners set themselves up.
>Attendance is up and owners are making money
It's not really clear attendance is up. When I looked at last year's
numbers, it really looked flat. Factor out the new ballpark surges (and this
year, the accounting changes and expansion teams), and it'll be interesting
to see what happens. I'm betting on flat again..
>and minor league baseball is big business
And a separate issue. Don't worry, MLB is trying to screw it up, too.
>but the ratings are
>down and the network money that small owners need is in jeopardy and
>that is a major cause of today's ills. Is this the only problem?
Nope. You forgot that cable money is also down, and that cable ratings are
down, and that playoff games last season didn't sell out, and...
> There is a myth that baseball is overexposed. This is not
>true. Case in point is Boston and NY.
Case in point: the rest of the country. Go take a look at what the ESPN
ratings have been doing. There's a strong correlation between # of games in
the market and a decline in viewership for any given game.
> There is an undeclared war between labor and management.
About as undeclared as the war in Bosnia.
>How can owners badmouth their own players publicly?
I dunno. Ask Jose Canseco or Rickey Henderson. They might have insight.
--
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Charles Rosen
ic...@csa.bu.edu (Antonio Pera) writes:
>
>Of course not but nobody seemed to complain in the eighties. As I
>see it, the two basic problems are media exposure and labor relations.
the resulting lack of a commissioner. If baseball had one, I think that it
would get at least some of its credibility back.
**********************************************************************
* Charles Rosen * "...I still believe we're going to catch *
* University of Alabama * fire, and when we do, it's going to be *
* Tuscaloosa, AL * serious."--Bernard Gilkey, May 21, 1993, *
* ROLL TIDE!!!!! * when St. Louis was 2 games over .500 *
**********************************************************************
Vince Skahan
>> I want to say that I
>>think CBS deserves a lot of blame for today's problems. If they did
>Sorry, bogus argument. Baseall ALSO agreed to the contract, and was too busy
>cashing the checks to wonder whether or not they were slitting their own
>throats. CBS is a strawman. The owners set themselves up.
>>Attendance is up and owners are making money
>> There is a myth that baseball is overexposed. This is not
>>true. Case in point is Boston and NY.
>Case in point: the rest of the country. Go take a look at what the ESPN
>ratings have been doing. There's a strong correlation between # of games in
>the market and a decline in viewership for any given game.
All I can say is that IMHO baseball was far better off with the traditional
Saturday afternoon game when parents taught their kids the game by watching
on weekend afternoons. I really don't care who's at fault, but the lack
of the Saturday game-of-the-week kills me. Yes, I know it's a business.
I used to watch 150 Phillies games per year on TV (all away on UHF and
almost all home on cable) and that was heaven even when the Phils were
finishing last.
With (little) respect to CBS, it seems to mean "can't broadcast sports".
Every evidence I've seen is that CBS as a network is pathetic with
respect to sports in general (Remember the Olympics?) and baseball in
particular.
Give me Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek on a Saturday afternoon any day.
(or if you can get the Phils, Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas any
day of the week).
--
---------- Vince Skahan --------- vi...@victrola.wa.com -------------
What is there in the construction of mobile homes that seems to attract
tornadoes ? - Me 1989
Jim_...@transarc.com
>think CBS deserves a lot of blame for today's problems. If they did
>not overpay for baseball and then not show games, then a regular
>market price would have been paid and nobody would be talking about
>the troubles of baseball.
No, they would still be talking about the troubles of baseball.
They've been yelling "the sky is falling" for years. Why stop now?
If baseball IS in trouble, it is because of a self-fulfilling prophecy
by the owner. They've said things are in bad shape so many times
that they now have something of an image problem.
>Attendance is up and owners are making
>money and minor league baseball is big business but the ratings are
>down and the network money that small owners need is in jeopardy and
>that is a major cause of today's ills. Is this the only problem?
>Of course not but nobody seemed to complain in the eighties. As I
>see it, the two basic problems are media exposure and labor relations.
My guess is that ratings on the national level are down precisely
because baseball is doing so well. 20 years ago, you could generally
only watch your teams road games on TV, and not all those at that.
Today, with the advent of regional sports networks, many people can
see ALL of the local team's games. In New England, for example,
the Red Sox game of the night gets viewers that otherwise may have
been watching the ESPN game of the night.
------------------------
Jim Mann
Transarc Corporation
jm...@transarc.com
Chuq Von Rospach
>All I can say is that IMHO baseball was far better off with the traditional
>Saturday afternoon game when parents taught their kids the game by watching
>on weekend afternoons. I really don't care who's at fault, but the lack
>of the Saturday game-of-the-week kills me. Yes, I know it's a business.
Agreed completely. And the owners were stupid to accept the CBS contract.
Which they did because there were lots and lots of zeros attached to it. CBS
wrote up a contract they thought was good for CBS (hee hee), and the owners
accepted it. CBS wasn't looking out for the good of the game, but the good
of CBS.
Turns out, neither were the owners. That's why it's not CBS's fault here.
The owners were too busy spending money to look at what the contract would
to do the game. That isn't CBS's fault.