Quote:
Originally Posted by 1991 Canadian
I feel like nobody on the industry side has stopped and asked “what are the medium term impacts of maximizing short term sports revenue”?
Sports franchises/leagues have been more than happy to see tv deals skyrocket in value. Sports broadcasters like Sinclair have historically seen good advertising / cable carriage cost returns on these deals so have been happy to pay. Cable companies recognized that sports fans are going to be the last of the cord cutters so they seem content paying $5-7 a month for a sports channel to be in their cable packages.
I could make the argument that their greed is going to screw all of them in the long run.
Sports teams are losing the next generation of fans because their product is not as accessible and affordable as the competition (E-sports, Youtube, Netflix, Non-American sports streaming)
Sports broadcaster are stuck with expensive contracts that they cannot make a profit from
Cable companies are losing their subscriber base because they have tied themselves to carrying overpriced sports channels
There is a naïve belief that consumers will be continually content with increased sports costs and an even naiver belief that young people will just magically become sports fans.
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This is a big thing.
I used to be a big boxing fan. Watched Tyson, Holyfield and that era on TV, and it was always a big draw in the household of my friends. All us kids would watch and then talk about for the next week. Around the time of Lennox Lewis things started to go to PPV, and it became more cumbersome to watch.
These days, I don't know who most of the players are, and when a PPV for WBC Champion Slev Poinkers vs. interim CBYD Champion Poink Slevers is the next big thing, I for sure don't tune in.
Kids, with no frame of reference, probably don't even consider boxing a sport.
If there starts to be rumblings of big sports television having to restructure, like this Sinclair bankruptcy, I'm holding out some sliver of hope that a big player will clean up the cesspool that is boxing.
Turner Broadcasting, or someone of that ilk, coming in and creating a true rating system, focusing on a league system (one major belt, and two minor belts to build a 'up and coming' system of deciding contenders. Win the major belt and vacate the minor. Something of that nature.) to push out the multiple governing body system. Put everything on television. Promote the hell out of it. Kill the PPV system, except for the once or twice a year Boxomania.
A big boy could come in a kill the corruption, save the sport, and fill some of the void left by the crumbling major sports viewership.
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Sorry, that went off on a tangent I didn't expect.
If you can't readily see the product, kids just won't care.