Sadly, Bastian simply does not care anymore. I am sad to say this (as he has been one of my favorite players for the past 10 years or so), but it is true. He is simply cashing a paycheck at this point. As for my posts in this and other threads: Yes, I am angry (for reasons way, way, way beyond the Fire...thanks to all of you for providing this outlet) and, yes, I have had a couple of beverages (but not too many).
When you are the Chicago Fire, just about EVERY game is non-televised. Our ONLY "tv partner" is ESPN+.
I love that Nrod said they doubled their viewership since leaving CSN. ESPN+ is national not local so the Fire doubled their viewership by going to a national broadcast. That’s not good. Are there two broadcasts for each game on ESPN+ , home and away or is everyone stuck with Dan Kelly?
I also love how he said that Andi's been working getting out of the Bridgeview lease for years, but nothing happened until somebody (Joe) came along with money to actually do something about it. Nelson's thinking is Andi hasn't/can't do anything wrong.
There are two broadcasts, but they are "National" (English) and Spanish. Also, it is important to remember that ESPN+ is generally not available at commercial establishments (bars, restaurants, etc.*). So, each "person" who logs on to ESPN+ is, likely, an individual, or, at best, a tiny group. With CSN or any other actual broadcaster, it is quite likely that at least some of the places were commercial locations with dozens or hundreds of viewers. As such, the viewership for each may be very, very different. Not surprisingly, I think Nelson 'shady' Rodriguez is being less than forthright with this. *How the few places that do show the games are able to do so, I do not understand. I have personally discussed the issue with ESPN a few times and they have told me more than once that 1) you cannot use or link a personal ESPN+ account to a tv in a commercial establishment and 2) they do not offer commercial accounts for establishments. I also discussed with the Fire back when they originally decided to move to ESPN+. They "told" me there was no problem with bars showing the games. I am sure glad that I contacted ESPN directly before I moved forward.
i also believe that he said the fire were the third highest viewership on espn+ (don't quote me), which means we are being beat out by two teams that have local tv options for people to watch.
Unfortunately, the streaming only setup is only going to become more common across the league. And IIRC, we're stuck with ESPN+ one more season. Though FWIW, CSN never had the rights situation dealt with for those of us with streaming cable providers (I couldn't watch when we were with CSN unless I ran MLSLive through a VPN then hooked my laptop up to my TV via an HDMI cord), which is ALSO becoming more and more common, and given the deals that teams like FC Cinci have been managing and the rumors that MLS is negotiating a league-wide streaming deal, TV rights are going to be a clusterf-ck in two years no matter what happens and it's going to screw some people.
I would hope so, but he has been very much the company man. Really, Dax McCarty has shown way more backbone than Bastian. I am very sad to say this.
That's interesting. When I was in KC last year and at Sporting's supporter's bar (which is amazing), I asked my server to put the Fire game on for me on the massive wall of TVs. She was willing (KC was playing at the same time) and able to do so. I remember thinking they probably wouldn't be able to with ESPN+, so I don't think it was one of our rare TV appearances.
Sure, they (and the bar at the Fire maggot on the northside) may have an agreement with MLS/ESPN to do so. The Fire FO told me it would not be a problem at the time. ESPN tells me something very different.
it also ignores what his and Andi's stewardship did to viewers over the past decade. Pretty easy to double the viewership after you personally destroy it. I could go dump $10K in Vegas tomorrow, and next Friday tell my wife "hey, I just doubled the money in our savings account, everything's cool!" after my paycheck clears.