Ticked Off At Rogers

[professordeb]

Admin, if this is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move.

OK, I'm getting on my soapbox and yelling at Rogers!

You stupid short-sighted people. Just who the hell do you think you are? You've created a new "sports" network called Sportsnet One and you're going to move 25 Blue Jay games in this season to this stupid new station. Why is it stupid. Well for starters, ONLY ROGERS SUBSCRIBERS can get the channel and believe it or not, many of us can't get Rogers service where we are located. So all those games where you thought you'd have people watching won't be able to get to watch the games because their company currently doesn't carry Sportnet One (I'm with Cogeco and they are supposedly in negotations with Rogers). Secondly, once the stupid station does become available, I'll have to pay extra for it. Yeah, like that's going to happen. I feel like I already pay enough for my TV viewing and now I'm going to pay extra for something I've gotten for free. Lastly, people around the country are starting to pay attention to the Jays a bit more. Granted, they aren't really in the hunt for anything, but they are playing exciting ball. Enough so that more people are going out to the games a bit more often.

I was reading an article in my local paper about this very thing and he brought something to my attention. It seems that once the Detroit Tigers stopped broadcasting many of their games on the "free" channels, their attendance dropped. Except for baseball diehards, many people weren't watching the games, weren't excited about the club and couldn't be bothered to take in a game. Could this happen to the Jays as a result of this dumb and stupid idea (and the other teams who are also going to be featured on this new station - the Leafs, the Raptors, the Senators are a few examples)? I'm thinking it a definite possibility.

This evening I was watching a sports talk show and they had on some bigwig from Rogers who basically said that "hey, it works in the U.S. so we're going to do it here. In NY they have such and it works fine. He made it sound like since the cost of broadcasting a game is going up, they have to justify it by putting it on a channel that people will have to pay extra - just like in the states. Well dumbo, I already pay extra to have some sports channels and the thought of giving a money-hungry company yet more of my hard earned money (correction, that would be my husband's hard earned cash) just burns me up. Justifying a change here in Canada just because it seems to work in big sports areas in the U.S. gets my dander up. Does that mean that everything that seems successful is the model that we should follow for everything. Sorry, I digress.

What gets me about this is I have gotten so excited about the Jays this season that I attended my first Jays game at the Rogers Center. My last Jays game was back at the old stadium and the only other major league baseball game I attended was at Tigers Stadium. With it being a three hour plus drive to get to the ball park, it takes a lot for me to want to go to a game but this year's team has inspired me to want to go and it's because of what I've seen on TV. Instead they will carry games of teams for which I have no interest - like those damned Yankees.

Oh yeah, the game is no longer carried on any local radio station where I live so I can't listen to it for free either.

Rogers, you and my cable company are not going to hold me hostage. I refuse to get this channel just so that I can enjoy watching Canadian based teams. I will NOT pay to watch it on the internet either. Instead, I will check scores of the games online at sites like MLB or Bluejays.com and will do the same for hockey and basketball. It isn't like I don't already have to do such for another sport I enjoy that gets no TV coverage at all - Canada's national summer sport -- LACROSSE.

:stepping off soapbox now:

Thanks all. I needed to get that off my chest. I realize that no one owes me anything but ardent sports fan that I am, I'm ticked.

[AragornElessar]

Deb, I posted my extreme displeasure of this entire bone headed move in the Baseball thread. There's two big differences between the Jays and other sports that will be featured on Rogers bone headed new channel/network though.

Those other teams in other sports? They have contracts w/CTV, TSN and/or the CBC as well, so at least we have other places where we can see them. Sportsnet is the sole provider of Blue Jays Baseball in Canada. Which I thought was rather idiotic when I heard *that* piece of info before the season started in April.

The other one? Rogers are the Primary Owners of the Blue Jays. So since they've got their own network and their own baseball team....They think they can do whatever they want. WRONG!!

I still say this goes against the CRTC guidelines, as it's a monopoly and that can't happen according to the CRTC. Or at least it did the last time a network tried something like this. I also have a feeling that if Ted Rogers was still w/us, this would have *never* happened. He would have seen this for what it was and nipped it in the bud before word of it even left the boardroom.

My biggest worry is the one you just posted about. A backlash against the team, which is not their fault, and even fewer people at the Concrete Pizza Pocket.

What *really* has my Dad and I incensed though? Just when it looks like we've turned the corner and people are excited about the Jays again, they do w/out a doubt the worst thing they could have done.

I'm thinking of writing to the CRTC, as well as whatever Minister is in charge of things at the Federal level (too late at night and my brain's blanking at the moment) when it comes to Communications, which is what something like this falls under. Writing Rogers won't do any good, so why bother? If we want access to this stupid thing and w/out an increase in price compared to the rest of "the Sportsnet Family", that's the only way it's happening.

Here's a really scary thing though...Sportsnet's still a part of CTV's Olympic Consortium, which means they'll be broadcasting stuff from London. What's to keep them from bumping events where we know Canada's getting any kind of medal in, from Sportsnet Regular, to Sportsnet for only Rogers Subscribers?

I still can't believe what a boneheaded business move this is...Unbelievable!!!