If you guys win the series you might be the only team we ever play on ABC. We haven't had a single game on there so far and I don't expect them to put us on much in the future. You guys should feel privilegedABC would rather show Miami vs. Cleveland for the 23rd time. Beating a dead horse that's been killed many times over, but ABC blows.
In all honesty, do you really think people in markets like Chicago, LA, New York would enjoy watching the Jazz on a Sunday afternoon? Or perhaps D Wade and Lebron and the Suns, Lakers, or Mavericks? As much as you might love them along with many in SLC, not many outside of that enjoy it.
I understand that it's big business showing the big markets more often, but what about fans of all the other teams? ABC loves showing Cleveland and Chicago so let's just say they're playing. Yeah a lot of people will tune into watch Lebron and the locals (which are a lot) will watch as well. Thing is though what about the rest of us? Seems like every Sunday morning it's one of like 6 teams and they just rotate them in and out. I'd be more compelled to watch if there were some new teams occasionally.
It's really just an issue of the Jazz being a little ahead of schedule (in the opinion of non-jazz fans) this year. If people had known that Deron Williams would be this good this fast (maybe predictable) and that Boozer would be challenging as one of the top 10-15 players in the game (completely unpredictable), they likely would have gotten more TV slots.
Maybe gotten some more ESPN/TNT airplay in the season, but ABC would never play em unless they suddenly Lebron or Kobe donned powder blue.
This is what's wrong with ABC. Instead of trying to make some classic team vs. team matchups, they'd rather promote individuals instead. In my 16 or so years of watching NBA ball this has only worked for 1 player IMO.
It's all about those big markets like LA, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Dallas. Those top 6 teams are hugely popular to watch in those main markets even if not the home team. Most people outside most the other team's home markets just don't like to watch most of the rest. As a fan of the Diamondbacks for instance and living elsewhere, I would like them to be on a national broadcast here and there, but it makes sense to show the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Mets ever chance they get, because those teams attract viewers outside of their home markets, and since 2002, a team like the Diamondbacks sure hasn't, but thats the way it is.
It's all about the bottom dollar for any network, and those classic team vs team matchups usually don't do it. So it's not the issue with ABC, because if they did something like the Jazz vs Rockets Sunday afternoon game, they would likely lose quite a few viewers to something else, and thats a very busy day and time slot for sports, so they have to go with the absolute most compelling matchup, like with the Suns, or Lebron, or Wade, something like that.
Ratings just aren't that good for the NBA are they? I just think that they would be better trying to develop some awesome team rivalries rather than player ones. We see the fair amount of good matchups like you guys vs. Suns/Mavs/Pistons/etc. and pretty much any combo of those teams, but I swear Miami vs. Chicago had to be on ABC at least 3 times this year. Miami ended up sucking and Chicago is pretty good, but really have no individual players that anyone wants to watch. It just makes me mad that they will subs ute a great matchup of good teams for superstars on mediocre teams.
The ratings in the NBA were actually pretty decent this year, better than many recent years. Prior to the year, the NBA saw the Heat/Bulls matchup as a great one, and scheduled it, and couldnt change because they do not have flexible scheduling like the NFL. It's not up to me, and I do agree with you that some good matchups of less sexy teams playing well that year would be more intruiging, but to the general public, Lebron, Kobe, Wade are always going to win out on mational TV over a team like the Jazz, at least for the near future.
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