The whole affair breaks the illusion of team/city/fan and reminds us entertainment is a money grubbing business run by corporations for corporate profit. It's alienating the people that want money from now and is losing the attention (cash flow) from the next generation, who will have more entertainment alternatives than we can even imagine. Like every boom brings on a bust, they will kill this golden goose trying to go from profit to obscene profit.
This is the bottom line IMO. CSN will eventually face reality and cave, the logjam will break and all the deals will suddenly get done. Wouldn't surprise me if it coincides with the start of the Rockets 2013/14 season. I think Crane & CSN are still stunned how the worm turned on them instead of the providers.
I don't think the CSN partners presently believe they are losing the battle of public opinion. If they did, they would be talking about concessions or creative pricing solutions. They aren't, to my knowledge. As Dubious alluded to, they seem to be hell bent on strangling the goose that laid the golden egg.
I agree. I think Crane expected horrible attendance this year so he likely doesn't see this getting done this year as a major issue. In a sport without a great young fanbase, he might not fully understand the long term consequences of very few young boys being able to follow the Astros right now though . . .
Agreed, but it goes deeper than that. They are alienating their existing fan base. I have been going to Astros games since 1979. I have always gone to games. I have had a 27 game package in the past. I have bought jerseys, shirts, hats and all kinds of other stuff. My family has been as close to their base as you can get. None of us are going to spend a single penny on this team as long as they don't care whether or not we can follow the team. They are eroding their fan base, present and future, the longer this goes on.
Same for the Rockets as well? I get your feeling on this...but ultimately this is paid entertainment. You have every right in the world to say, "screw it! i've had enough!" But I paid for Rockets tickets and my firm bought a 28 game package to the Astros this season largely because...these are my teams. I love going to games with my family and friends. I enjoy going with clients and referral sources (largely friends) as well. I'll be rooting like crazy for the Rockets tonight and throughout the playoffs. I'll be rooting like crazy for the Astros all season. They're just too much a part of me.
I'm not saying that I am not rooting for them. I follow the games largely on the Scorecenter app. I still want them to win. I watched the season opener because I could since it was on national TV. I have not abandoned my teams. I simply don't feel like spending money on them because it is the only way I have to meaningfully express my displeasure. And yes, the same goes for the Rockets.
The Houston Sports Authority should lock the doors of the Toyota Center for the first home playoff game. See how that goes over. We aren't going to be winning a championship this year anyway. Maybe if no one makes a penny, someone would figure something out.
So, an entire season without regular Rockets games. ****ing sucks. Seriously ... **** you Comcast. **** you so ****ing hard. This is the first time since I've lived in Texas that I haven't been able to watch Rockets games on TV. I will never ... ever ... give you a single ******* penny of my money, you filthy, profit-w**** *****.
I agree with this 100% And Max . . .I feel the same about the Rockets as well as the Astros. I do think the Astros have a lot more to lose here though, even if Crane might not realize it. Today's youth cares a lot more about basketball than baseball. If we go a couple of years with no TV coverage and the Rockets are kicking butt, with Harden turning into a superstar, the fan base will evolve because there are thousands of youth that love the game . . .Baseball's fan base is getting a little older every year, I know the youth of the city well and I can promise you that a large percentage doesn't follow baseball closely at all, so if they close the door on so much of the older and middle age fan base, huge crowds might not show up in 4 years even if the team is back on track . .don't get me wrong, I love baseball and I really love the Astros, but it is a very dangerous game that Crane is playing right now and I honestly don't think he understands that
This is a good point. The Astros need to be fan friendly, especially with youth. As for older fans, a lifelong friend of my father, in his 70s has been an Astros fan since day one. Because he loves baseball and cannot watch the Astros, he has decided to watch the Rangers games because he has access to them. The longer this goes on, the worse this gets for the Astros.
The sorry ads they run prove CSN feels the heat and the need to point the finger away from themselves and at providers. Running ads about concessions would weaken their negotiating position. No chance of happening.
It is all about the PR. I get that. I also know that they aren't likely to run ads saying that they are adjusting their asking price. That being said, I still think that they have no intention of lowering the asking price. The strategy being employed is to sway public opinion in their favor to put pressure n the providers to pay the asking price.
Completely agree with you on their current intentions. CSN will continue blindly swinging at air until they hit something. They will use the entire Astros season to vainly search for a theme, slogan or anything that gives them a rhetorical advantage before the begining of the 2013/14 Rockets season comes into focus. Then CSN will again realize the other providers won't pay their asking price. This is when I believe they will cave. If not, they will cave before the 2014 Astros season starts.
A lot of this will come down to how well capitalized the venture is and how deep of losses they are willing to or are able to sustain. It is possible, if this is a prolonged lack of revenue, that CSN could fail entirely. Often, these contracts contain out clauses in the event that performance of the contract becomes impractical.
If the comments in the Chronicle's editorial section are any indication, CSN is badly losing the battle of public opinion. I don't know the motivations of the editor and the balance of all the letters he receives, but the ones he is printing are just killing them."Tax payer built stadiums and tax abatements for the network and they still deprive us of the entertainment we've grown accustomed to." Cat, you've got a lot more work to do.
CSN is majority owned and controlled by the Astros and Rockets. So, we cannot really talk about CSN without also talking about the Rockets and Astros by extension. As an example, imagine that someone has just kicked you in the balls. While bent over clutching your junk, you say: "WTF dude?" The person who kicked you in the balls then says, "hey, that wasn't me, it was my right leg that did that!" That would be a lot like talking about CSN's actions here independent of the Astros and the Rockets. It just isn't so.
