Article on the Farce that Is NBA regional coverage today

[Rummpd]

Accessible on the free side of www.hoopsworld.com

Last Updated: Mar 12th, 2006 - 17:16:46

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A Farce: ABC Regional/ No League Pass Coverage!
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By Peter Rumm, MD
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 12, 2006, 16:56


A Total Farce: ABC Regional/ Lack of League Pass Coverage


Please somebody from the NBA Front Office or ABC explain to me why?

1. I live in Philadelphia, hundreds of miles closer to San Antonio and the surging Houston Rockets and yet have to watch on regional coverage this year's pitiful Seattle Sonics play the still mediocre Lakers – who nothing against the Lakers, who with Kobe Bryant, are at least an entertaining team in reasonable doses. However, are they not already on seemingly all the time?

I admit I am a Spurs fan but this unreal "non-geographical" determinism is nothing more than the NBA and ABC blantantly favoring a big market team, such as the Lakers over the NBA defending champions and/or the Rockets who have Yao Ming playing right now.

Per milage calculations betwee the cities of Philadelphia and San Antonio (1805 miles) and LA (2782) respectively - San Antonio is almost a thousand miles closer and a time zone closer. Unreal.

2. OK, I could live with that if it was covered on League Pass. The NBA aggressively says it will cover all the leagues games with the exception of some local blackout coverage. Excuse me but when is Philadelphia a local area of either San Antonio or Houston? According to a least two well done Spurs chatrooms, www.fullsportpress.com and www.spurseport.com - I am not the only incensed Spurs fan today.

Nothing at:http://www.nba.com/nba_tv/league_pass.html says anything that ABC could exclude games from outside the local area.

Furthermore, I called Comcast (my cable provider) and they said the decision to exclude the game off of League Pass "was not their decision", but could not tell me whether it was ABC or the NBA who made that decision.

3. Ok I might even live with that and watch my second favorite team the 76ers, who I cover for Basketball News Service in real time but as the Philadelphia Inquirer reports today that game is not even being televised until after the Lakers-Sonics game on tape delay!

Why? According to the Inquirer, Tim Frank, NBA VP for communications: “NBA teams cannot televise local games while ABC is also broadcasting games”.

Frankly Mr. Frank - this is all a sublime situation with at least several wrongs in the fact that I cannot watch either of my favorite teams today - despite loyally spending good money on League Pass and cable coverage each year.

Shame on the NBA for allowing the snubbing of the champs and local coverage of the Sixers in my area and others!

Please fix this blantantly unfair and potentially misleading situation with the marketing that is going on with League Pass!



Dr. Rumm covers the Sixers for the Basketball News Service and as a former editor contributes articles on players, teams and medical issues.
Gotta Response? E-mail It Here

[Guru of Nothing]

All I can say is that Stern did not get my $189 this year.

The only way to fix this problem is to keep your money.

[Rummpd]

Good point except I love the Spurs so much so try to watch 40-50 games a year!

[Spurminator]

Yeah... League Pass is a frustrating concept to me. Logically, what most people would probably prefer is to simply buy all games featuring their favorite team, rather than every game for all teams... But as long as people are willing to pay $149-$189 for all games there's really no incentive for them to offer partial packages.

[ChumpDumper]

Kobe is from Philly right? Kind of?

And really, do you think the average Philly viewer would prefer to see Houston/SA?

I would hope that digital broadcasting eventually solves this, though.

[Rummpd]

Philly as a whole these days seem to hate Kobe and boos him each time he comes to the Sixers to play!

I don't mind watching the Lakers as long as they don't knock off the Spurs off the air.

[Guru of Nothing]

Yeah... League Pass is a frustrating concept to me. Logically, what most people would probably prefer is to simply buy all games featuring their favorite team, rather than every game for all teams... But as long as people are willing to pay $149-$189 for all games there's really no incentive for them to offer partial packages.

Actually, you do not get all games for all teams with League Pass. You get most games, with expectations (based upon three years experience) of missing several excellent Spurs' games down the SPAM stretch.

[Spurminator]

Right, I meant all games not otherwise broadcast nationally/regionally/whimsically.

[sanman53]

Do they do this with other teams or is it just the Spurs?

[Rummpd]

Spurs were on at least one other regional time this year with much of the nation seeing the woeful Wolves versus the struggling Sixers.

[1Parker1]

Philly as a whole these days seem to hate Kobe and boos him each time he comes to the Sixers to play!

I don't mind watching the Lakers as long as they don't knock off the Spurs off the air.

:lol I don't know what part of Philly you're living in, but I see tons of people walking around in Kobe jerseys. Of course when the Lakers come to town, people are going to boo them!

Although I am also very, very pissed with this BS regional coverage crap...simply because it seems they only do it for Spurs games (I've counted 3-4 times this season)...I can see where the majority of the population would prefer to watch Ray Allen and Kobe go at it, they do it for ratings, nothing else.

With that said, :flipoff ABC

[ALVAREZ6]

Why can't ABC just fucking die, or at least stop trying to even cover a game, because :

1) They suck at covering basketball games
2) They always have to fuck up the whole regional shit and piss people off
3) Whenever they do decide to show 2 games at one time, they ALWAYS, yes, ALWAYS manage to include the Spurs in one of those games, but NEVER in fucking Filthadelphia.



FUCK ABC!!!

:flipoff

[1Parker1]

:lol Alvarez, you're solution to everything is that someone or something should "just fucking die"

[ALVAREZ6]

:lol Alvarez, you're solution to everything is that someone or something should "just fucking die"
:lol Not really.




It just may seem like it's my solution to everything because, well, that's how often those bitches at ABC rip us off.

[bdubya]

This one is on ABC as I understand it. The LP is supposed to carry all games that aren't carried nationally, but apparently if somebody (ABf'ingC) has the RIGHTS, that's all it takes to black it out on LP even if they don't AIR it.

ABC grabbing the rights to a game they don't air, on top of them giving Walton a broadcasting job = insult added to injury.

Moot point for me today; LP is OUT in my area, so I'm listening to Det/Cha on Sirius.... :cuss

[leemajors]

they do this with every sport, not just the NBA. regional coverage is what it is, regional coverage. you just have to deal with it.

[Rummpd]

Except they don't advertise exaxctly and I quote on LP: all the games except when Local Blackout rules apply". Local as in Philly ain't SA or Houston.


It is greed period and a snub of the Spurs that if it happened once ok, but several times a year = intentional by ABC and the NBA.

Best thing Spurs can do is shove it down their *&^$% and continue to win titles.

[SoCalSpursFan]

Sorry, I feel your pain being in L.A. and all...

Hopefully they do something to help you guys out in the near future.

[Brodels]

they do this with every sport, not just the NBA. regional coverage is what it is, regional coverage. you just have to deal with it.

It just doesn't make any sense. How can a game involving Los Angeles and Seattle be considered a regional game in Maine? I'm closer to Texas. In fact, Los Angeles is about as far away as you can get from Maine while remaining in the lower 48.

[SouthernFried]

ABC does suck at basketball coverage.

[leemajors]

at least al michaels is gone. like i said, the nfl does this crap all the time. it's not to "screw over the spurs".