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Josh Reddick, And Having Patience With Prospects - May 18
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Baseball On Par With Other Professional Sports In Dealing With Bad Umpires - May 20
Jan 12, 2012 - Today's Geography Lesson!
Alaska is our largest state. Bigger than Texas and Montana, even.
Oddly, Alaska is our least populous state.
That's a lie. Alaska actually has more people than North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Combined.
Also a lie. But Alaska really does have more people than each of those three states.
Alaska also has less than a third as many people as Brooklyn. Which for some reason I find fascinating. If Brooklyn were a state, it would rank 38th among the 51 states, population-wise. Which I also find fascinating.
Anyway, there are people in Alaska. Some of those people are baseball fans, and some significant percentage of those people are Mariners fans, perhaps because you can actually board a ferry in Alaska and be dropped off, some hours later just an hour away from Safeco Field. Also, the Mariners are the only team in the Pacific Northwest, and you can't get more Pacific Northwesty than Alaska.
If you're in Alaska, though, you're not allowed to watch Mariners games. Seriously.
Last year, a television network called "Root Sports" carried the Mariners games, and Alaskan cable network GCI -- which services roughly three-fourths of the population -- carried Root Sports.
No more, though. Root Sports wants more money in 2012 than GCI wants to pay, so Root has been dropped. Happily for baseball fans, MLB Network has been added. Unhappily for Mariners fans, any Mariners games that happen to be broadcast on MLB Network will be blacked out in Alaska.
I've not confirmed this yet, but I believe it will also be impossible for Alaskans to watch the Mariners on MLB.com, too. Because ... well, just because.
Actually, here's why:
As you know, a huge percentage of baseball teams' revenues are derived from local television rights, generally paid by regional sports networks (RSN). In turn, the RSNs can pay huge amounts of money for the broadcast rights because they have huge potential audiences. Therefore, it (theoretically) behooves the teams boost those potential audiences however they can. If a Mariners fan gives his money to DirecTV -- or, indirectly, to ESPN or MLB Network -- the Yankees get exactly as much of that money as the Mariners.
This, of course, displeases the Mariners. The idea, I think, is simple: It's okay to utterly disregard the wishes of your fans in the short term, if it means more money in the long term. The Mariners games will be unavailable on TV in Alaska because the M's hope their fans will be incensed enough to a) pressure the local cable company to pony up more dough, and b) in turn, pass the added cost along to its customers.
Which is to say, it's a naked money grab. No more, no less.
Hey, it might work. Bud Selig has done two things brilliantly since taking over as Commissioner: He's avoided serious labor disputes, and he has turned Major League Baseball into a massive, ever-producing cash cow.
Now that Commissioner Bud has finally evened out the leagues, it looks to me like when he retires -- assuming he ever retires, which maybe he won't -- his single biggest failure will be the long-standing out mess of blackout rules, which screws millions of passionate baseball fans every year. All in the service of a few extra and highly amorphous dollars.
31 comments
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![By FWS (fws.gov) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/2730791/Alaska_-_Lower_48_large_large.png)
Comments
Luckily I'm part of the 1/4th
That doesn’t use GCI in Alaska.
But hey, this is like 3 stories mentioning Alaska by my favorite baseball writers, I’ll take it.
by Turner Wingo on Jan 12, 2012 2:21 PM EST reply actions
I forget you can't edit on SBNation
But Direct TV/DISH still carry ROOT Sports, so while no one should be forced to change their lives over petty money grubbing by companies, not all is lost for Mariner fans in Alaska.
by Turner Wingo on Jan 12, 2012 2:23 PM EST up reply actions
But on the plus side, all those people won't be subjected to Mariners baseball!
Reminds me of this Onion article: Popular New DirecTV Package Offers Zero NHL Games
by Eyebrows on Jan 12, 2012 2:41 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
If it weren’t for At-Bat, all would be, sadly, lost for Phillies fans in Alaska. All four of us.
Which part, TW?
by Phrozen on Jan 12, 2012 11:41 PM EST up reply actions
I have to imagine the blackout rules aren’t even saving them money. If you could pay for MLB.tv, perhaps even at a premium within blackout zones, they’d be making money. As is, they’re just locking people out of the sport, not unlike their backwards policy to YouTube.
While services like Hulu, Netflix streaming, and OnDemand remain wildly popular and profitable, all baseball fans get is more thumb-twiddling by Selig on the days when he’s not counting his money.
"I see these guys walking around with rings on, and I want one. That's what it's all about." -Ryan Vogelsong
by Solidarity on Jan 12, 2012 2:22 PM EST reply actions
As a Dodger fan living in Utah, I have 18 game per season that I can’t watch at all (the games against the Diamondbacks, whose territory I am in but whose RSN I don’t have access to) and 18 games (against the Rockies) that I have to make the conscious decision to listen to Drew Goodman and George Frazier when I know that Vin Scully is sitting right next to them. Vin only does about 120 games per season (81 home games, 36 road games within the division, and three road games against the Angels), and I miss 36 of them because of baseball’s stupid blackout rules. And I am a guy who pays for MLB.tv (about $120 per season, I think) AND Extra Innings (maybe $150?) AND both the iPad and iPhone apps ($20 each).
I guess as long as they screw me over but I keep paying out the max, I am voting with my wallet that I’m okay with it. They’re not going to lose me as a baseball fan, but they’re sure not going to create NEW fans this way.
by Jeff J. Snider on Jan 12, 2012 2:45 PM EST reply actions 4 recs
They lost me as an mlb.tv subscriber.
Not because of the blackouts, but because of the atrocious quality of their service.
by hotwater2 on Jan 12, 2012 8:21 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, the quality of the MLB.tv is bad. I use it as a backup, really just for two cases:
1) If the Dodgers are playing a day game, I put the game on my second monitor while I work.
2) If Extra Innings doesn’t give me the Vin Scully feed, I will watch the game through MLB.tv on my Roku.
by Jeff J. Snider on Jan 13, 2012 12:43 PM EST up reply actions
I can't stand blackout rules
I just end up listening to A’s games on the radio as I’m not about to start paying tons of cash for cable/satellite.
This has turned out to be healthy in the long run as I can watch the game on the treadmills at the gym I go to. Which, at least the pain of running lessens the pain of watching the A’s.
by Billy Frijoles on Jan 12, 2012 3:18 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Alaska -- it's further than it looks
Taking the ferry from Alaska to Seattle? Plan ahead. It is a two-day sail (41 hours) from Ketchikan (the southern-most town of any size on the Alaska panhandle) to Bellingham, WA. And the ferry only leaves once a week. From Bellingham, you’ve still got a 90 minute drive (minimum!) to Safeco Field.
You could also drive the whole way, but from Anchorage it’s 2,300 miles and two international frontiers (first into Canada, and then back into the U.S.A.). Which is roughly the same distance from Yankee Stadium to Dodger Stadium, but with border guards along the way.
by MMonkman on Jan 12, 2012 3:45 PM EST reply actions 5 recs
Or you could fly for considerably less money than either of those options
and it’d be much quicker, too.
by gregorykohler on Jan 13, 2012 4:36 AM EST up reply actions
Quicker, but not considerably cheaper. Flights out of Alaska tend to be quite expensive.
by Phrozen on Jan 13, 2012 12:19 PM EST up reply actions
You're not the only one form Alaska
by gregorykohler on Jan 13, 2012 12:41 PM EST up reply actions
Of course I’m not. There are 650,000 of us.
by Phrozen on Jan 13, 2012 6:03 PM EST up reply actions
A one way pass on the ferry from Whittier to Bellingham is $547. My Alaska Airlines flight, next month, round trip to Seattle, is $1,187.
by Phrozen on Jan 13, 2012 6:06 PM EST up reply actions
I hate the blackout rules
I live in Arizona, am a huge Dbacks fan, and don’t have cable. I would gladly pay the money to get mlb.tv, but there’s no point because I live in Arizona, and, therefore, should pony up the insane sums of money each month for lots of channels I would never watch, just so I can get Fox Sports Arizona. In the end, I think the blackout rules are actually costing the teams money, because more and more people are just relying on the internet for their television, and not cable companies. I hope that one day Selig leaves office for whatever reason, so we can actually get someone in there who will make it possible for me to watch my Dbacks online.
isitspringtrainingyet.com
by imstillhungry95 on Jan 12, 2012 3:54 PM EST reply actions
Blackout Sucks
Iowa, land of No Professional Sports (I mean, sure, MiLB, but that’s it mostly), is blacked out of SIX teams. Iowa and Nevada share the Most Hosed Award. Major League teams between them? NONE. Combined blacked out teams? 12 or 13. It’s insane.
R.I.P. Nick Adenhart - Always an Angel
by Kernel on Jan 12, 2012 4:12 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
As a fellow Iowan...
… for years, I’ve asked MLB and the Twins front office via letters, emails, Tweets and blog posts to explain the logic behind why they don’t want me to be a Twins fan, all to no avail. I’ve tried to come up with a logical business reason why overtly telling an entire state’s fans that they don’t want us to watch any of the games played by the six closest teams, but I guess I’m just not smart enough to figure it out.
by Jim Crikket on Jan 19, 2012 2:36 PM EST up reply actions
And this is why baseball is losing a fanbase
Its not enough to whine about money and fill the pockets of some businessman even more, but to deprive people of watching their team; especially one that is pretty much isolated is pathetic. Technically, this doesn’t even abide by the traditional blackout laws. I don’t know too much about how sports are watched or followed in Alaska but it seems to me those folks are getting hosed. I hate blackouts of any sport in general. Why? Because not everyone can afford to attend the game. Not everyone has a team to watch that plays nearby. And with the state of this economy, who can really afford it? Professional sports and baseball especially needs to stop screwing over the fans. After all, its us who makes these games possible.
Integrity first. Service before self. Excellence in all you do. -- USAF Core Values
by Disciple of Carolina on Jan 12, 2012 4:37 PM EST reply actions
Which begs the question...
Who screws their fans more, NFL or MLB? The NFL will black out home games if the stadium is not sold out (a very popular move in this economy, I’m sure). But because all their games are (more or less) nationally broadcast, they can “protect their product” in that kind of way. Personally, I’d say the NFL is better at screwing their fans because when you add in the ridiculous prices for games (seats & concessions), merchandise, and their general usage of the middle finger towards their ever-adoring fans, the blackout rules they use are really bad. Yeah, the MLB blackout rules are pretty screwy and certainly need to be changed, but…well maybe I’m just biased.
Love is the most important thing in the world. But baseball is pretty good, too. - Yogi Berra
by RarefiedAir9 on Jan 12, 2012 4:39 PM EST reply actions
No blackout areas
There should be areas that there are simply no blackouts. If someone lives more than, say, 2 or 3 hours from a stadium, there’s no reason to black out the games. Sure, they could get it on some sort of cable or satellite package, but until companies start offering a la carte programming, you usually have to opt into the “Top 200” plan or something and pay for about 175 channels you never watch in order to get the team.
Maybe they could offer some sort of deal where you can get a “no blackout” deal for certain teams, and a portion of that goes to the RSN whose broadcast is being streamed over the Internet.
I’m not for any sort of blackouts, but I can see the economics. Still, there has got to be a better way than what they do. People in Arkansas (where I live) are blacked out of the Rangers, Astros, Royals, and Cardinals. There aren’t many baseball fans around here, but there are some. It’s a good climate for PLAYING baseball, so they might actually have fans if they made it easier for people to choose and follow a favorite team.
by Stephen Suffron on Jan 12, 2012 6:37 PM EST reply actions
Exactly
Exactly this. MLB should build a bigger fan base to make more money rather than gouging their existing fans.
by hotwater2 on Jan 12, 2012 8:25 PM EST up reply actions
I'm in Arkansas, too. I'm a Cardinals fan.
I can’t get Fox Sports Midwest on Cable, and I can’t get satellite because I have too many trees. I get Fox Sports Houston on my Cable, but they black out the Astros-Cardinals games. In other words, I get to watch only the Astros games in which I have no interest. I won’t order mlb.tv.com, because you can’t find out which games are blacked out until after you sign up, and I know people nearby who get the Cardinals blacked out. So basically, I get to watch the Cardinals on Fox on Saturdays, on the two or three days they’re on, and on ESPN’s Sunday night baseball a couple of times a year (but not on ESPN Wednesday night baseball—WTF?). On top of that, I live in an area that doesn’t even get the Cards radio network.
by Archaeopteryx on Jan 17, 2012 4:25 PM EST up reply actions
A la carte cable
Never have understood why there hasn’t been an anti-trust takedown of cable packages.
Basic cable should be just the channels that are free to the cableco (like the big 4 networks), and then any channel where the cableco is paying per-subscriber, you should be able to choose whether or not to pay and get that channel.
You’d be able to just pay for six months of your RSN (April-September) and for basic cable (ie the cost of the infrastructure). Then the blackout would make sense.
by po8crg on Jan 12, 2012 6:55 PM EST reply actions
MLB.tv isn't blacked out in Alaska.
Just tv stuff. It’s similar to Vegas, which gets all the west coast teams blacked out on TV(extra innings, non-Sunday ESPN) but has no blackouts on MLB.tv
by Vegasexpat on Jan 12, 2012 8:15 PM EST reply actions
Except when the game in question is otherwise nationally televised, a la Fox Saturday Baseball or whatever.
by Phrozen on Jan 12, 2012 11:43 PM EST up reply actions
Blackout Rules....
Are as bad as Hall of Fame voting. Yes. It. Is. That. Bad.
by Brett Davis on Jan 12, 2012 10:37 PM EST reply actions
Thanks for the bit about us, Rob. Most people tend to forget about us, and when we are thought of, it’s generally in the context of either “Former AK Gov. Sarah Palin…” or “IT’s REALLY FRICKEN COLD/HEAVY SNOW OMG!”
Incidentally, we also play baseball here. The Alaska Baseball League, a semi-pro collection of [mostly] collegiate players, has featured such notable alums as Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Barry Bonds and Michael Young. And, in addition to selling $1 beer inside the ballpark, the Fairbanks Goldpanners host the Midnight Sun Game, beginning at 11PM on June 21st, without artificial lights. Because awesome.
by Phrozen on Jan 12, 2012 11:48 PM EST reply actions
Incidentally, I find it strange that you used a map of Federal Wildlife Refuges as your map. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just odd, is all.
by Phrozen on Jan 12, 2012 11:53 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
51 states
Wait…What? I haven’t been paying attention to much, but I’d missed that.
by cjlane on Jan 13, 2012 1:01 PM EST reply actions
Biggest failure? Forgetting something?
The blackout rules are Bud’s biggest failure as a commissioner? Seriously? I know there’s been an effort out there to whitewash Bud’s early tenure, but there was a little something that happened on his watch that was a lot bigger and a lot worse than byzantine blackout rules. Here are some hints which may jog a memory or two as to what Bud’s biggest failure really is.
1. Montreal Expos.
2. Tony Gwynn .394 BA, Matt Wiliams 43 HR.
3. Replacement players.
4. Sonia Sotomayor.
by Vidor1 on Jan 13, 2012 11:19 PM EST reply actions
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