There won't be any local Cyberrays broadcasts this season, just 3 PAX games. Shortee emailed the office and posted their response on the WUSA board. They said local air time is too expensive. Are any other teams in the same position? Does anyone know if we can pick up other teams' CRays broadcasts on a satellite dish? I noticed that the Freedom are showing the April 19th match on a local DC station.
I have DirecTV with the sports package. As of right now I can get a good number of Freedom games on Comcast Sportsnet and Power games on MSG/FSNY but not METRO cuz it's local only. San Jose/New York games on DirecTV with sports package: June 8 (MSG) June 14 (MSG) July 5 (PAX) And of course you got the 4/19 Freedom v San Jose match on CSN. But other than that hope is slim for more San Jose games on DirecTV. The Beat use to be on FXSS a good number of times in season #1 and then they moved to some local station in season #2. Last season Carolina aired several games on FXSS. This sucks. It really sucks.
i really hate this. hopefully SOMETHING works out next year or they're in trouble. geezus... i never realized how much the economy in the bay area sucked. oh what the hell... i never paid attention to the economy. i'll wait til i take economics.
The Rays have been on either KICU Ch 36 or Fox Sports Bay Area the past 2 seasons. I know that the former dropped the Warriors from their slate and only have the Oakland Athletics on this season's slate. Now, I'm only inferring at this point but it's the economy here. However, it could be some incentive to try and get the fans into the stadium by not broadcasting at least the home games.
WHAT?!?!?! Nap!!!!!! Are you seriously inferring that the CyberRays would INTENTIONALLY NOT WANT A TV CONTRACT?? There's NO WAY, dude. There's just no way that's true. I say that with 100% certainty despite the fact that I have no contact with the CyberRays office aside from ordering and picking up my season tickets. Lack of television exposure is death for sports leagues (remember the ABL? Maybe you don't, because it wasn't really ever on TV!). I am 100% sure that Marlene and her staff know this and have been working hard to try and secure a TV deal to continue to get the CyberRays exposure locally. I'd bet the CyberRays front office is much more distraught over no local TV coverage than their fans are. This is really bad news for them. If anyone there is saying, "well, maybe more people will show up for home games," it's only whistling in the dark. Please tell me you were joking and I just missed the humor in it.
It's really unfortunate that SJ won't be on local TV. But buying two hours worth of programming only to have 2500 households watch it really does not make much economic sense. SJ can put that money to better use.
haha econ.. fun senior class... righhhtttt... I umm just got a D on my test.. maybe I should have studied huh?
How much will it cost to produce streaming media on the net? Then sell it to log-on users, just like a PPV event.
Just a take, nothing more. I mention it because the Earthquakes don't have their home games broadcasted on local TV. To be short, there was some debate as to broadcasting the home games for the Clash/Earthquakes live and the front office dilemma as to put the home games live or tape against trying to get people to come to Spartan. If I recall, the home games were on FSBA/Ch 36 through the 2000 season. Personally, I like to see the road games broadcasted since that is the key to exposure. The home games is a hot potato, but a local deal to show as many games as possible is key. Didn't mean to put the shock value up--being a realist here but at the same time the Rays brass hoping that something comes up where fans can see the team on television. As for attendance, at least 7000 would be the average. I'll be even happier if at least 10,000 people are in the stands. Cheers!
You are forgetting about the production cost inside the stadium no matter what method one uses to deliver the telecast. A regional WUSA telecast costs a team around $18000-$20000 to produce if the telecast is aired on both teams' markets. The cost goes up to $30000 if only one team is taking the telecast. A streaming video outfit would want to split proceeds with the promoter 50-50, with a minimum guarantee to cover fixed costs. In order for streaming video to work as a business, the promoter has to be confident of exceeding the threshold number of "buys" in order to pay the minimum guarantee and at least break even. So in order for WUSA to at least break even on a streaming video telecast, WUSA needs around 4000 "buys" at $10 each. That's the big problem. WUSA won't be able get the minimum number of "buys" to reach the break even point. I can see up to 500 "buys" for each regular-season game, but not 4000. Oh btw: 2 hours of TV time on FSN Bay Area or KICU-TV (Action 36 Cable 6) cost about $5000.
WUSA makes tough choices in struggle for survival WOMEN'S SOCCER LEAGUE CUTS SALARIES, ROSTERS By Barry Witt Mercury News