The impending death of Bally Sports

[oblong]

What you could see are shared operations among member clubs of any new network.  That eliminations production crew redundancy.  If the Tigers host the Twins and they both are part of a new operation, then you have a single truck and one set of camera operators rather than each team having it's own setup.  

 

[gehringer_2]

20 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

After posting previous I forgot I wanted to touch on this too. I'm starting to wonder what percentage ticket sales are even factoring into revenue.  I don't live in Detroit so it's hard to say how much I would or wouldn't make an effort to go to the games if I did, but honestly...

I could pay for a ticket, pay for some over priced food, have to deal with the risk of bad weather (rain, heat, cold, etc), pay for parking probably, stand in a bunch of lines for concessions or bathrooms. 

or

I could sit in my comfy chair at home, watch on a big screen TV, get better views than sitting in the stands, have cheap, easy to get good and drinks, my own bathroom, instant reply. No money out of my pocket (unless you count cable or streaming costs).

And now, from the team's perspective: How much of that ticket money ends up in their hands? How much of it is used up for overhead to pay for upkeep of the stadium and the employees needed to run the event?

All income is fungible.

2.5 million tickets at an average of $50 plus another $20/head on concession  plus  500K parking fees at $20 is $185million in attendance income/yr. The gate can still a major piece of a successful team's income. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by gehringer_2

[bobrob2004]

21 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

All income is fungible.

2.5 million tickets at an average of $50 plus another $20/head on concession  plus  500K parking fees at $20 is $185million in attendance income/yr. The gate can still a major piece of a successful team's income. 

Don't forget that all of Ilitch's companies, the Tigers, Red Wings, Little Caesar's,  Olympia Entertainment, etc. are all under one umbrella, Ilitch Holdings.  While they likely keep statements separate for each organization internally, it is impossible for the public to know exactly the revenues and expenses for each individual one.  It is easy for them to absorb the losses the Tigers might have because of the other companies.  Although according to Forbes, the Tigers made a profit of $31 million in 2021 (under Mike it usually showed a negative).

https://www.forbes.com/teams/detroit-tigers/?sh=1b85cb8871e0 

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

What you could see are shared operations among member clubs of any new network.  That eliminations production crew redundancy.  If the Tigers host the Twins and they both are part of a new operation, then you have a single truck and one set of camera operators rather than each team having it's own setup.  

 

That reminds me of the early days of hi-def TV. The home games would all be in hi-def and the road games weren't. 

[chasfh]

43 minutes ago, bobrob2004 said:

Don't forget that all of Ilitch's companies, the Tigers, Red Wings, Little Caesar's,  Olympia Entertainment, etc. are all under one umbrella, Ilitch Holdings.  While they likely keep statements separate for each organization internally, it is impossible for the public to know exactly the revenues and expenses for each individual one.  It is easy for them to absorb the losses the Tigers might have because of the other companies.  Although according to Forbes, the Tigers made a profit of $31 million in 2021 (under Mike it usually showed a negative).

https://www.forbes.com/teams/detroit-tigers/?sh=1b85cb8871e0 

Teams play that shell game all the time. One common way they do it is to set off parking and concessions into separate companies and mark revenue to them instead of to the baseball company. When you have a closed book system like Baseball does, it’s easy to get away with. 

[oblong]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Teams play that shell game all the time. One common way they do it is to set off parking and concessions into separate companies and mark revenue to them instead of to the baseball company. When you have a closed book system like Baseball does, it’s easy to get away with. 

fenway is notorious at that.

All the Ilitch lots near Comerica.... filled up same time as a concert at the Fox or Fillmore... well we don't know why they are parking.  They could just be parking in those lots to go to Beacon Park instead of a ballgame.

 

[Motor City Sonics]

Has anything been announced on how this is going to work?     Nothing like waiting until the very last minute.  

[CMRivdogs]

From what I've seen things are still in limbo. Bally has yet to file for bankruptcy. Only Arizona has been notified they won't be receiving a payment due this month.

BTW, T-Mobile has announced free MLB-TV again this season. The promotion starts 3/28 on thru  the Tuesdays app 

[Motor City Sonics]

6 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

From what I've seen things are still in limbo. Bally has yet to file for bankruptcy. Only Arizona has been notified they won't be receiving a payment due this month.

BTW, T-Mobile has announced free MLB-TV again this season. The promotion starts 3/28 on thru  the Tuesdays app 

Nothing like waiting until the last moment - you know, like with the lockout last year.   Sure worked out well wit the record number of pitching injuries.   I can see why they'd apply that strategy again. 

Is Manfred the worst commish ever?   For any sport?     He might be.  

[CMRivdogs]

It's official. Bally files for bankrupcy

According to the story MLB plans to stream in market games for free for the teams involved.

edit

Bally says they will broadcast games while they restructure 

Edited March 15, 2023 by CMRivdogs
Updating facts

[roarintiger1]

For all the hatred thrown at Mario and Rod,  having them and Fox Sports Detroit,   we didn't know just how good we had it.  

MLB's TV blackout rules are still a mystery to me.  The MLB changes baseball rules to try to make it more fan friendly, and yet they still have their blackout rules.   It's just a shame that the real baseball fans are forgotten.  It's no wonder the interest in MLB is fading.  

[Tenacious D]

2 minutes ago, roarintiger1 said:

For all the hatred thrown at Mario and Rod,  having them and Fox Sports Detroit,   we didn't know just how good we had it.  

MLB's TV blackout rules are still a mystery to me.  The MLB changes baseball rules to try to make it more fan friendly, and yet they still have their blackout rules.   It's just a shame that the real baseball fans are forgotten.  It's no wonder the interest in MLB is fading.  

I miss Mario and Rod dearly.  Basically every time Shep opens his mouth.

Baseball needs a good marketer (shameless plug), who can help identify how fans of all types truly feel about the sport.  I’m sure those insights would be extremely sobering and hopefully push them to take some fan-friendly changes beyond the game rules changes, which I do applaud.  Baseball is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant to a younger audience.

[casimir]

19 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I miss Mario and Rod dearly.  Basically every time Shep opens his mouth.

Baseball needs a good marketer (shameless plug), who can help identify how fans of all types truly feel about the sport.  I’m sure those insights would be extremely sobering and hopefully push them to take some fan-friendly changes beyond the game rules changes, which I do applaud.  Baseball is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant to a younger audience.

Another option is figuring out a way for the current baseball audience to stop getting older.  Anybody got any ideas?

[Tenacious D]

1 minute ago, casimir said:

Another option is figuring out a way for the current baseball audience to stop getting older.  Anybody got any ideas?

Let me plug that into GPT-4.  I’ll get back to you with the answer.

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, casimir said:

Another option is figuring out a way for the current baseball audience to stop getting older.

I'd be all in for that.

[chasfh]

I think there's a good chance the pitch clock will revive interest enough to bring some young 'uns to the game, or back to the game. After all, the issue with them has long been how slow and boring it's gotten, and the pitch clock will knock a half an hour of pure dead time off the game, which will help. It will never beat the NBA or NFL but I can see it adding a few points in additional viewers and bringing down the average age a tick or two.

[gehringer_2]

LOL - just got surveyed by MLB. You'll be glad to know I told them to deaden the damn ball!

And shitcan the gambling advertising. (of course I would say to shitcan any advertising so the topic on that question was almost immaterial on my end...)

Edited March 19, 2023 by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

28 minutes ago, chasfh said:

the pitch clock will knock a half an hour of pure dead time off the game,

It's some kind of miracle how much better everybody's batting gloves stay on this year isn't it?

[Shinzaki]

1 hour ago, Tenacious D said:

Let me plug that into GPT-4.  I’ll get back to you with the answer.

CRISPR

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - just got surveyed by MLB. You'll be glad to know I told them to deaden the damn ball!

And shitcan the gambling advertising. (of course I would say to shitcan any advertising so the topic on that question was almost immaterial on my end...)

I did the exact same thing on my survey! It's the only thing I wanted to do!

I was wary that it was going to be the kind of bullshit survey that was mostly centered around "would you recommend MLB to your friends" ...

Edited March 19, 2023 by chasfh

[chasfh]

42 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

It's some kind of miracle how much better everybody's batting gloves stay on this year isn't it?

I hardly know how batters can hold onto the bat!

[casimir]

2 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Let me plug that into GPT-4.  I’ll get back to you with the answer.

:flux capacitor emoji:

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - just got surveyed by MLB. You'll be glad to know I told them to deaden the damn ball!

And shitcan the gambling advertising. (of course I would say to shitcan any advertising so the topic on that question was almost immaterial on my end...)

Hey G-man, here's one sport that got the memo about deadening the ball:

 

[Biff Mayhem]

On 3/18/2023 at 5:06 PM, Tenacious D said:

I miss Mario and Rod dearly.

Well you're half right.

[Tiger337]

On 3/18/2023 at 5:06 PM, Tenacious D said:

I miss Mario and Rod dearly.  Basically every time Shep opens his mouth.

Baseball needs a good marketer (shameless plug), who can help identify how fans of all types truly feel about the sport.  I’m sure those insights would be extremely sobering and hopefully push them to take some fan-friendly changes beyond the game rules changes, which I do applaud.  Baseball is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant to a younger audience.

What changes do you suggest?