[NDR] Question re FCD v SJ on local Houston TV

[anderson]

A local, independent over-ther-air station, KNWS Channel 51, carried the FCD v SJ game on Saturday night (the Brad Sham/Dave Dir broadcast). We occasionally get the FSN Southwest of FCD games, but I don't recall ever seeing an MLS game on local broadcast TV such as KNWS.

Does anyone know if there's a deal with KNWS to show some FCD games in Houston? Since MLS games get very good ratings in this market, it would be reasonable for someone to conclude that FCD games may fare better on Channel 51 than the usual assortment of syndicated crap that they generally carry.

Just curious.

[ElJefe]

KNWS is owned by the same company that owns KLDT, the station that was carrying the game in D/FW.

KLDT is also carrying Saturday night's FCD game in LA.

[anderson]

Thanks.

My channel guide shows KNWS in Houston also carrying the FCD v LAG game on Saturday.

[ElJefe]

The funny thing is that while most people in Houston can get KNWS with the rabbit ears, almost nobody up here can get KLDT, due to the fact that their tower is a completely different place (near Lewisville) than all the other local TV stations' towers (near Cedar Hill) and that it doesn't have a very powerful signal.

However, a quick check of the FCC web site tells me that KLDT has a construction permit to move their tower to Cedar Hill and increase their power. Probably won't happen before Saturday night, however.

[yanks02]

I was wodnering that too. We got back into town to see the last 2 minutes of that game and I was shocked.

[houstonrocks]

does anyone know the Rating for this Game?

[anderson]

does anyone know the Rating for this Game?Welcome to BS.

I doubt anything in Houston last Saturday had decent ratings - other than maybe the Rita coverage on the main broadcast stations. Up to 2.5 million people in the metro area out of 4.5 - 5 million (depending on how you estimate the number of undocumented residents) evacuated and most weren't yet back in town.

This upcoming Saturday's FCD at LAG game on KNWS - at 9:00 pm, IIRC - should be a better indicator.

MLS games on espn2/ABC have received excellent ratings (by MLS standards) in Houston, often among the highest in the nation.

...

falvo - we can only speculate at this point about how any new market would do in terms of attendance. We can look at things like TV ratings for MLS games, attendances for various types of soccer events, demographics, percent of the population and specific demographic groups living within reasonable distance of the likely venue, etc. - but none of it guarantees anything. If the Quakes move from San Jose to Houston, it won't be primarly because AEG or Televisa thinks that Houston would blow away the average MLS attendance.

It'll be because AEG or Televisa believes that they'll have a better business in Houston than in San Jose. That analysis involves evaluation of attendance and potential attendances in the relevant markets, but it also involves the costs of developing an appropriate venue in each market as well as other costs of doing business. The costs of developing a venue and doing business on an on-going basis are probably more important in the long run. It also probably involves an analysis of the market for other businesses that will be operated at the venue (both AEG and Televisa run concert and event promotion businesses, for example). Soccer is only one part of the business and attendance at MLS games is only one part of a much broader analysis.

It's about economics. MLS is run by successful, rational business people and they'll make decisions about whether to sell or remain involved in a set of businesses involving an MLS team in the Bay Area or Houston based on economics, not emotion.

[joebloe888]

Houston: the oil and natural gas industries are booming with the energy bust nowhere in sight. Cost of doing business is relatively low. Real Estate value is still reasonable.

San Jose: the "Detroit of the 21st Century". High cost of doing business. Outrageous real estate prices. Stagnant economy that won't rebound unless the "next big thing" arrives, if it ever arrives at all.

Advantage: Houston by a country mile.

Adios San Jose Earthquakes. Bienvenidos Los Aguilas USA de Houston.

[Goodsport]

Houston: the oil and natural gas industries are booming with the energy bust nowhere in sight. Cost of doing business is relatively low. Real Estate value is still reasonable.

San Jose: the "Detroit of the 21st Century". High cost of doing business. Outrageous real estate prices. Stagnant economy that won't rebound unless the "next big thing" arrives, if it ever arrives at all.

Advantage: Houston by a country mile.

Adios San Jose Earthquakes. Bienvenidos Los Aguilas USA de Houston.

You claimed the same thing around this time last year, Ollie.

And the year before.

Heck, the Quakes were gone be 2002, remember?

By the way, have you gotten your Los Angeles MFL team tickets yet? :D


-G

[anderson]

Just FYI about ratings in Houston right now, and in the long term, from David Barron's sports media column in the Chron:

Nielsen has suspended daily ratings services in Houston since Sept. 22 because data from its approximately 400 reporting households was limited due to Hurricane Rita. No word when ratings will resume.

Houston is again a top-10 television market. Nielsen Media Research's Designated Market Areas for the 2005-06 television season lists Houston with 1,938,670 TV households, up from 1,901,810 last year.

That was enough to surpass Detroit, now 11th after falling to 1,936,350 households. And, in case you're wondering, Houston's total doesn't include recent evacuees. New Orleans remains at No. 43.

TV Notebook, Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3376052)

[anderson]

Just a reminder:

KNWS, channel 51 over-the-air and certainly carried somewhere on your basic cable tier, will carry the FC Dallas x LA Galaxy game at 9:00 pm tonight.