Rantings of a New Yorker

The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, has responded to baseball fans’ complaints about the MLB/DirectTV exclusive deal over the MLB Extra Innings package.  Mocking Fans, he calls the complaints ridiculous by claiming that most baseball fans have access to more than enough games and that it is only a “a slight controversy, in some places.”

Thanks Bud, for blowing off half the fans who want to actually pay for the MLB Extra Innings.  Thanks for calling our concerns ridiculous.

“I’ve heard for years we have too much product out there,” Selig said.  “Everywhere I’ve gone, there’s no market that has less than 350 to 400 [televised] games, and some [like Chicago] have quite a bit more than that. We have an enormous amount of product out there.”

Really?  Just because a person who lives in Nebraska has access to Kansas City and Chicago Cubs’ games, doesn’t mean they are a Royals or Cubs fan.  Say they are a fan of the NY Mets.  That means, they get to see the Mets play the Royals once every three years during interleague play and the Mets up to ten times per year when they play the Cubs, depending on that year’s schedule.  There are also a handful of games on ESPN and the FOX game of the week.  If the Mets fan is lucky, they will see 15 games per year this way.  But Bud thinks that it’s good enough that they can watch games they don’t want to see so he ignores the fans and puts money into his pockets instead.

“As for this deal, what fascinates me is I have spent a lot of time going over it and trying to find out who can’t get [DirecTV].  We’re down now to such small numbers, that I’m really wondering [about the fuss].  …..In a year or two, when people understand the significance of this deal…..everybody will understand it.”

Evidently, we’ll “get it” when we “get” DirectTV.  There are thousands of fans who cannot get DirectTV because their landlord forbids it or they cannot get a dish to point towards the satellite.  Bud doesn’t care.

MLB met Friday with executives from In Demand Networks to try to strike a deal for distribution of MLB’s Extra Innings live-game package on cable systems. The meeting came one day after the league announced that it would give cable operators and EchoStar Communications’ Dish Network until the end of the month to reach an Extra Innings accord before the pay-per-view package becomes the exclusive property of DirecTV in a $700 million, seven-year deal.

The catch: Cable and Dish have to agree in principle to the same deal terms MLB and DirecTV announced for the Extra Innings package: placing the games on the operators’ most widely available tier of programming and taking a stake in the league’s baseball network when it launches in 2009.

This is tossing a bone to the fans so that MLB can say, “we tried.”

About 500,000 people bought Extra Innings in 2006 through the three distributors, with DirecTV leading the way with a reported 270,000.

So, just under half the people who purchased MLB Extra Innings are now being shut out from a service they have had access to for many years.  Major League Baseball needs fans to grow as a sport.  By keeping thousands of fans from watching the game is only hurting the league.  It is turning fans away from the sport instead of gaining new ones.

Thousands of fans cannot attend games.  It is commonly known that most of the good seats at the stadiums are bought by corporations, leaving the regular fan with the nosebleed section, if they can even afford that.  Some are elderly and can no longer attend the games.  Many live far away.  As an example, I live far enough away that it costs $138 to attend a single game.

Tickets for two to the game, $35, if you’re lucky.  The train into NYC for a game is $30 roundtrip, each.  I cannot drive because a new stadium is being built and parking has been slashed.  Once in NYC, a subway ride to and from the stadium, $4 each, is required.  This, of course, is provided that no food or drink is consumed.  Since 9/11, there is no outside food or drink so one must pay $4.50 for a hot dog and $3.25 for a drink.  Other food items are in the same, similar range.  At least, these were the prices two years ago, the last time I was able to see a game live.  I am fortunate to live within the NY Mets broadcast area and can see the game for free.  However, I have lived a 16 hour drive and a 25 hour drive from the stadium, well out of broadcast range, and took advantage of the MLB Extra Innings.  If I move, there is a good chance I will not be able to see any games again.

MLB suggested such scorned customers could merely sign up for Internet viewing via the mlb.com package, but for heaven’s sake, who gathers up the neighbors for a lively night around the laptop? (Hey, watch it — you spilled beer on my keyboard! And get that guacamole dip outta here!)

Thanks Bud.  I’m sure my friends will love huddling around my 12” laptop for the game.  This does not even get into the complaints of poor connections, dropped connections, schedules that say a game will be available when it isn’t, and the small picture that one must suffer with when purchasing the ability to watch the games online.  You can sign a petition online to try to keep MLB Extra Innings on cable, but I doubt that MLB will even listen.

Fans are getting shafted.  Bud Selig calls fans ridiculous.  The fans will not benefit from the new cash cow flowing into the baseball coffers.  At this point in time, I will enjoy the benefits of living in my favorite teams’ broadcast area.  When I move again, I’ll probably be forced to give up baseball, a mainstay of my life for 37 years.  I am quickly understanding what fans of the Giants and Dodgers had to suffer when their teams headed for the West Coast.  I’ll mourn the passing of enjoying watching baseball, but I won’t be upset that Bud won’t ever get another dime from me.