12-07-2012, 12:21 PM
[quote name='jstraw' timestamp='1354861221' post='200064']
I think that Ivy's point is that if your negotiating a big tv contract and everyone is operating on the belief that they're investing on a team that will be more watched down the road than it is now, it's still better to be selling the rights to broadcast an 85 win team than a 70 win team. And a really, really horrible team will get a crappier deal than a team that's simply not making the playoffs but that are at least mediocre and watchable.It's fine to say they can't contend till 2015 but if you decide that means you field garbage till then, garbage is what you have to peddle to television networks. Saving 10s of millions to lose hundreds of millions is a bad idea.
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TV deals are long-term. Cable networks don't look strictly at short-term comps to project out revenues for 10-20 year deals. It's hard enough to predict if a team can be competitive on a year-by-year basis, let alone a decade down the road. As I said, if short-term thinking drove TV deals, the Padres never would have gotten such a great new deal. I doubt they even have a fraction of our viewership and national following, and both teams haven't exactly been chasing pennants as of late. They got a great deal. I suspect ours will blow theirs out of the water.
I think that Ivy's point is that if your negotiating a big tv contract and everyone is operating on the belief that they're investing on a team that will be more watched down the road than it is now, it's still better to be selling the rights to broadcast an 85 win team than a 70 win team. And a really, really horrible team will get a crappier deal than a team that's simply not making the playoffs but that are at least mediocre and watchable.It's fine to say they can't contend till 2015 but if you decide that means you field garbage till then, garbage is what you have to peddle to television networks. Saving 10s of millions to lose hundreds of millions is a bad idea.
[/quote]
TV deals are long-term. Cable networks don't look strictly at short-term comps to project out revenues for 10-20 year deals. It's hard enough to predict if a team can be competitive on a year-by-year basis, let alone a decade down the road. As I said, if short-term thinking drove TV deals, the Padres never would have gotten such a great new deal. I doubt they even have a fraction of our viewership and national following, and both teams haven't exactly been chasing pennants as of late. They got a great deal. I suspect ours will blow theirs out of the water.