Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Start of Spring

Although we are on the cusp of the first snowfall (I mean, this year's STORM OF THE CENTURY!! People: we almost live in New England. It snows in February, okay?) this year in NYC, pitchers and catchers reported today for the Yankees (whatevs), the Mets and Reds open camp on Saturday, and Major League Baseball has fucked over their fans once again.

I heard about this deal via Keller who was up in arms about it last night while we were having dinner at Fatty Crab (that watermelon pickle and crispy pork salad is killer, btw). In a nutshell, MLB has sold the full broadcast rights to any out-of-market games for the next seven years to DirecTV for the tidy sum of $700 million dollars. So if I wanted to buy the package that allows me to see some of the Reds games from the comfort of my own home in Brooklyn (as I was considering this year), I am out of luck unless I am a DirecTV subscriber. Note: one in FIVE people who have previously bought MLB Extra Innings is a current DirecTV subcriber.

What a bunch of idiots, and way to drive down your audience even more. It's no wonder baseball only loses fans these days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't know this was final. I thought John Kerry was fighting this DirecTV Bullsh**. I guess he lost this one too! (at least I'll save some money this year).

SKL said...

Was final...then it wasn't as of last week when they reopened the bidding to other carriers. But the cost to get the games for any other operator is so high, that it's going to go to DirecTV anyway. There was an article in Times last Friday about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/sports/baseball/09sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin