Arena Football with a 4 team league Bull Riding Indoor Lacrosse Outdoor Lacrosse A new Pro Rugby league Even Pro Ultimate Frisbee .... Those things are on TV, with game of the week coverage, can anyone explain why with all these Sports channels, CBSSN, NBCSN, FS1, FS2, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNNEWS, ESPNU, Comcast, why can't they get MASL at least some games on TV? Those things are not inherently any better than indoor soccer.
No Network will give you a television contract when you have 2,500 people in the seat and a team playing in a Rec Center.
Agreed - with no money and no big national sponsors who might foot some of the production costs, indoor soccer won't get national TV contracts. Other reasons (in no particular order): some owners with criminal backgrounds/convictions, many teams folding over the years (including some folding mid-season), poor quality online broadcasts from many teams, too many changes in scoring systems and rules, a lot of teams playing at a low/below average level (not enough good quality play across the league), low attendance in many cities (how do you build buzz for a sport with so many empty seats). The MASL is somewhat more stable that a couple years ago, but without a lot more money and better ownership groups, these issues will be hard to resolve.
I think that all of the leagues that the OP mentioned are on television by virtue of time buys, not rights purchases.
Outdoor lacrosse is only on TV (CBSSN) for the All-Star and Championship games. The rest of their season is on an all-lacrosse online channel/app (LSN). Indoor lacrosse is on their own app (NLLTV) with one regular season game a week and all playoff games streamed on Twitter. No traditional TV in either the US or Canada. I believe some games are also on the CBS Sports Live (formerly College Sports Live) app.
Just televise games that "look good"... a Baltimore Blast game or a Monterrey game on TV with a full rockin' arena looks as good as college basketball or NHL. Don't televise a home game of a lesser rec center team.
I would love to see indoor soccer televised on some sort of national channel. I just don't see it happening with the current state of the sport. Either the MASL or teams need to ensure better quality online broadcasts across the league. Some teams have decent broadcasts but Florida and Cedar Rapids (to name a couple examples) were very poor quality this past season. The revenue issues never get resolved (national sponsors , etc). YouTube broadcasts is the best we will see, I am afraid.
I will mention again that ultimate frisbee and those other things are on television because they bought the time from the network, not because any network bought their television rights. What's more, ultimate frisbee is an excellent spectator sport. It is very cool to watch.
You think it's better to watch than indoor soccer? And how can UF have more money than indoor soccer, seriously, it's high school stadiums 90% empty?
I have to admit that I do. The slow, majestic flight of the disc makes for brilliant real-time viewing. Whereas, watching indoor soccer on television relies upon slow-motion replays. When I first saw ultimate frisbee, I was amazed at how suitable it was for television. It really is a beautiful-looking game. It's not a matter of which league has more money; it's a matter of how any given league chooses to spend its money. For whatever reason, the MASL does not choose to spend money by buying time on CBS Sports. I understand the disappointment. I, too, wish that the MASL were on television. Likewise the NLL. But, if the people running the MASL thought that it was in their interest to buy time on CBS Sports, then they could have done so. Presumably they don't think that they can sell enough advertising to make the purchase price back; and they don't regard the publicity alone as being worth the expenditure.
You're talking about a regional sports network, and that's in a region where lacrosse is extremely popular. I think that's the exception to the rule and probably not a great indicator of the overall appetite for lacrosse on television.
The sad state of this conversation is if you think that TV broadcasts are the future, you are greatly misinformed. The MASL has the ability to market world wide with no limitations of a tv contract. All Sports leagues are doing more and more on the net. The NFL sells the streaming rights of games to Amazon. You will see this more and more in the future. If you think TV can save our sport and some how make it popular again, its not happening! I'd love for indoor to be as big as the NHL or even the AHL but the only way it gets popular again is to have the best in the world avoiding the outdoor game and playing inside by North American rules. Also for FIFA to somehow stop supporting futsal. HA HA
I don't care about that, I'd just like to see it on regular TV because I'm not ready to update my technology today.