The Crew Television Thread

Yeah I think you're right. My bedroom TV doesn't have a box and I can get FSO. So... I dunno

 

Fiddy - Is it considered a trolling/cardable offense to rep posts in other club's boards? I have never tried with any of the rep systems (especially this newer one), but I was just wondering. I rarely read other club's boards (lack of time/interest), but DC's boards are in a classic state today. Disclaimer: I am not going to rep any of those meltdown posts in DC. I was merely curious as to the answer.

Thank you!

 

Thanks again for all of the work you guys did to make the best of a bad situation. It was a little bit odd to have the four signals be slightly off but I know this was just a temporary situation.

Appreciate everything you guys did. Cheers.

 

I hated not being able to watch the game but really enjoyed listening to Seika and following the bitchfest on twitter, facebook and here.

 

This to me is the crux of the issue. The TWC deal, while might not be my vision of "ideal", was their decision. I'm ok with that, I guess. However, it's the blackout that really irks me to beyond words. I still can't get my head around it and it's souring my excitement for the season. Didn't Malo tweet out that it was something they (The Crew) were unsuccessful at negotiating? McCullers also said the league website verbiage on local blackouts being at the club's discretion was inaccurate.

The responses thusfar have been wholly unsatisfactory. McCullers on twitter has come off as a completely condescending asshole, and I feel that Precourt's overtures have simply been attempts at placating the masses.

All this, combined with your efforts at 4th Street on Saturday make me proud to have renewed my CU membership for this year. I'm not an actively involved member (simply because I don't really know anyone and it's hard for me to meet new people), but I'm proud of the efforts that you guys have gone through this and previous years.

Three cheers for ThreeC and the rest of the CU leadership team!!! Well done.

 

This situation is completely unacceptable. I can't believe that I can watch every other team in this league except the team I have a season ticket for. I'm never switching back to TWC or Comcast. You hear me McCullers/Precourt??!! NEVER. I've had them both and they are worthless.

I hope people made their feelings well known yesterday at the viewing party. This is not acceptable for the next away match let alone the next 2 years. If this is wholly on McCullers, he needs to be fired. If Precourt was involved, he needs to hire an MLS sage to tell him what to do and what not to do.

I can't believe this is happening. I'm still in shock.

 

One should note that FSO also had the blackout last year, unless I'm very much mistaken--it just wasn't as obvious due to the fact that FSO was on more/most platforms. But wasn't there a problem when the Crew first went on to FSO with this? I think the Crew were not always on both (at the time) FSO feeds and only Columbus had both feeds.

I would like to hear the answer to the blackout question though. Wonder if they could negotiate a blackout lifting fee with TWC? Or negotiate a deal where TWC would supply an internet feed to individuals for a charge (kinda like ESPN3 is now). Baseball probably has more blackout restrictions (didn't HHM state that Nebraska was in St Louis' blackout territory?). Heck, they blackout *radio* on the internet. But they also have ways to get around much of that--for a fee. I'm of the opinion that cable companies are as mercenary as the next company--if not more so. I know I'd pay for GolTV if I could get an internet feed.

 

The more vocal you can be on twitter and facebook, the better. And even if you're not a current twitter-er, it might be worth it to create an account simply to utilize the medium to communicate with McCullers and Precourt directly. It's been very interesting.

 

I think I'll need to read that book Crucial Conversations first or I'll probably end up verbally abusing them.

 

Read the book if you hope to persuade them to change course. Skip the book if you simply want to vent and incent them to not screw this up next time.

 

My experience with MLSLive is it was always blacked out. Hence the reason I dropped it. The non-Crew games I wanted to watch we're also usually blacked out. As a result, anything I watched was usually 24 to 48 hours later.

I think they ought to work a deal where the revenue goes back to whoever has the contract that requires the blackouts. Of course that would raise the price, but in this case, I think it might be worth it. From a TWC POV, they wouldn't be getting new subscribers - but maybe a little extra dough?

 

To be fair that's one more Crew game then Ray Stien has watched in the past.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure threats would do any of us any good. Either way, I read half the book 6 months ago and have been able to identify my intense emotions. I have yet to read the other half which talks about the persuasion part.

I looked at Precourt's twitter page and he talks about the motivation for switching was to increase the quality of the broadcast. Someone should tell Precourt that it doesn't matter how good the broadcast is, if people can't see it, all is wasted. Business 101.

You can make the best product in the world, but if people can't access your product they can't use it, and if they can't use it, they won't care, and if they don't care, you will look like an idiot. If they could use your product previously and you make it so they can't use it, not only will you look like an idiot, but they will also hate you.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Sitting here watching the FA Cup, entertaining game. Its nuts that we can watch matches halfway around the world, and these major leagues do all they can to put their product on channels where fans can watch, to build interest. Yet the Crew..... You are correct, the quality of the telecast doesn't mean much if people can see it. It is more important to be able to see the product. That is why soccer from overseas is becoming more popular in the States....people can access the games and no one is shut out

 

I just read through McCuller's twitter page as well. He also seems to be missing the point that even if the production is better, no one can watch it, which renders all changes moot. In fact it's not moot, it's a net loss. I'm not sure how he is going to get "more content desirable to current fans and to attract new fans" IF NO ONE CAN SEE THE GAMES!

Go back to managing sporting venues McCullers, your business acumen sucks.

 

McCullers' chickens are going to come home to roost on Tuesday at the fan forum.

 

Yeah, I came to post that. It's linked on the first page of Dispatch.com with the tag "The Mailbox: Fan completely turned off by Crew's television deal". The Crew front office is no doubt hoping to change the subject to anything else but it's not going away. Will Precourt be there on Tuesday?

 

Tuned in to channel 1311 last night and watched a great game in HD and did not have to wait for the Cavs and Blue Jackets to finish their games. Thank you Columbus Crew! (BTW. I only have the standard tv package on a cable card through a TiVo dvr.)

 

For the few soccer fans with TWC: was the pre game and post game show worth all this?

I follow several teams but honestly never watch post games shows... once a game is over I'm on to other things.

 

So you don't have TWC? How would you know whether or not those games were available live to TWC customers last year?

 

One thing about the supposed "unique and compelling content." I remember last year seeing ads through TWC for LA's in-depth show, and it looked somewhat similar to the ridiculous "Being Liverpool." I won't be surprised if something like this is in the works, which is fine, I get it, but it's not the sort of thing I would watch and I can't imagine I'd be alone on that either.

 

Apparently Mark McCuller's kids are on bigsoccer.