1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Thursday “All About the Money in San Diego”
Money-Root of All Evils”
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Some 48-hours in San Diego.
The Padres damaged by the loss of their TV rightsholder.
The Holiday Bowl damaged by what UCLA did to them in 2021.
The implications of what just happened are pretty serious.
MLB seized the Padres TV-rights after Diamond Sports-Bally Sports failed to make their 2nd rights fee payment for this year, 20M that was due over the weekend. Baseball has taken control of the Friars telecasts and will make the broadcasts a streaming purchase for fans.
There are all types of dollar implications here for the Padres future. They were in the middle of a 20-year TV contract with Bally Sports. They were getting 60M per season in rights fees. All that is gone now. And the fact they owned 20-percent of Bally Sports, means they are holding stock in a worthless business now in bankruptcy court.
Yes baseball’s idea is to create full season streaming for Padres fans. Subscribe on any of 5-platforms, including MLB-TV, Direct TV, ATT-Uverse. But how many 19.99-per month subscriptions do you have to sell to make up for the 60M revenue stream lost by the Bally Sports bankruptcy. 13-other teams who had similar contracts, are asking the same question. The math does not equal out.
The Padres called the changes ‘groundbreaking’. I call it ‘earth shattering’. Don’t know how you replace that revenue stream..all 60M of it each year.
Losing 60M-a year is a huge financial hit. And how much can you put on the fans pocketbook, considering the Padres have raised ticket prices 38%-combined over the last two seasons.
The Holiday Bowl bitterness over the antics of UCLA coach Chip Kelly are legitimate. He badly hurt a bowl game that operates with the thinnest of margins, and he seemed to do it with no remorse. And UCLA new AD seemed to have no remorse either.
The Holiday Bowl is not suing for damages, just to be compensated for what they lost. Dragging Oregon into this, by refusing to pay the Ducks share in last year’s bowl game seems a bit of a reach, and could further damage the relationship with the Pac 12.
The Holiday Bowl was damaged when the 2020 game was cancelled at the height of the Covid crisis. You don’t want to see a heritage event be put in jeopardy by what UCLA’s belligerent coach and leadership allowed to happen.
Like North Carolina State’s coach said, ‘we were lied to by UCLA’. Those feelings are probably alot deeper here in San Diego and by bowl officials because the damage done is pretty deep too.
The Conference of Champions must think they can walk away from a business deal by invoking masse-jeur, citing an uncontrollable event (covid) for leading to the cancellation.
So we wait and see where all this goes. This is a massive dollar issue for the Padres to have to work thru. This is a critical court case that is part of the life-line for the Holiday Bowl.
Not so much about the games as money that allows the game to operate.
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The Bally’s debacle is devastating for all of baseball. When small town teams can knock off the large market teams, it brings parity. This means hope for all fans. Overall, the sports industry is going to collapse from greed.