I don't know. I have no idea. Let's let them find out. I know what they're doing isn't working...at all. It hasn't worked. It's clear it's not going to work. There is nothing to "reorganize" here.
FWIW, I live 807 miles from Houston, and watch the Astros/Rockets all the time. The 5 state region doesn't feature an MLB team outside of the Astros & Rangers, so the Astros can gain followings across their MLB regional territory. The Rockets have a harder time because they are flanked by Dallas to the North, New Orleans to the East, & San Antonio to the West. At the same time, NBA teams are less dependent on their geographic territory for fans, IMO. Star players can create national followings. Look what getting Howard partnering with Harden did for Houston's games being on National TV.
That's the issue. The status quo has them and the Rockets receiving zilch right now...nothing at all...for media rights. It's enough already. There's no market for this thing among the carriers....the Rockets and Astros have both affirmed that to the judge. Comcast affirmed it by failing to bring forth a deal worth taking for about a year. The providers have dug their heels in...in Houston and elsewhere. Comcast says they're not interested in buying folks out. Great. It's over. Move along.
So holding out for big money and hardballing the providers from the beginning backfired... Both sides of this mess made dumbass decisions. Money pissed away.
I don't think the providers made a bad decision. They didn't lose any customers, and if the thing implodes and goes back to FoxSports, they'll get their programming with no extra fees.
The bankruptcy filing, along with the judge's backing, also has to be looked at as a stupid/time-wasting decision... since there's nothing much left to reorganize, and if an "obvious" solution was attainable, it would have been reached by now. Instead, lets pay more lawyers! With the amount of fees they've collected, they could have funded a good part of the Rockets season in subscribers fees!
I'm not stopping them from finding out anything and the Judge is following law as he interprets it. When you bluff and your bluff gets called, you lose leverage. CSN H bluffed big time out the gates. 2 parties regrouped and the other kept bluffing and losing more leverage. Regarding things that are clear.....Fox doesn't have to offer the teams big money now. Where are they going to go?
Bad poker analogy. A more precise analogy would be: CSNH bluffed. Providers raised the bluff. CSNH had two parties willing to call the raise while the other party wanted to fold the losing hand.
If their media rights are in play, channels will bid. T Nobody wants to take on this sinking ship, and pay off all the bad debt that comes with it. Nobody's buying out CSN-H. So far, the discussions in "looking for a suitor" come with those stipulations. But if the teams get their rights back to sell again, with carriage deals for the channels bidding already in place, the advertising revenue is too lucrative (esp with a popular/good local team) to pass up on making an offer.
I don't know where the teams would go...and I'm not remotely suggesting that I think you're a decision maker in this. As a fan of both teams, I want the bankrtupcy gone so I can watch my teams. That's all. The judge isn't interpreting squat at this point. We're in a holding pattern, and there is seemingly no chance for reorganization. This isn't about interepreting case law at this point. I say very often to clients that in every case there is a legal reality and a practical reality. The practical reality here is that there seems to be no solution to salvage CSN-H. Personally, I wish they'd kill it so I can watch my teams.
Every Judge follows the law as they interpret it... Just happens to be that the Judge has wasted a tremendous amount of time on an entity that clearly wasn't going to survive long term. The rest of your post doesn't real add any insight either.
If the judge kills the channel, I don't care. I just hope all those who were carrying the Crane cross realize whatever deal the Astros do wind up with now won't be near the AL West money he has been holding out for.
Bluffing is a poker term hence you made a poker analogy. Why you're still allowed to pollute these CSN threads is a wonder.
Any deal will be better and more profitable than the deal they're currently stuck in now... where they are making negative dollars for each game. They're also not stuck in a 20 year deal where they lose money. A lot can/will change in the sports/cable/satellite landscape over the next several years, including on-demand/ala-carte options that if the leagues/teams do it right, they've got the opportunity to still make a killing. The key is, don't lock yourself into a bad deal... which they've avoided. Now its time for the teams to get their media rights back... which is what was said 8 months ago when this whole bankruptcy farce started.
If there are multiple bidders, prices have a way of getting to a certain level. Again, this is not for the worthless CSN channel... its for the media rights which have inherent built-in value that is well protected (and the leagues see to that, since they all share a % of the rights fees).
Like Crane hasn't wasted al our time with his shenanigans. He has been holding out for money it has been obvious for a year and a half he won't get. Many predicted a lengthy legal process if the judge didn't toss this outgo bankruptcy court. Both Judges ruled correctly on this. but somehow the Crane Crowd think this should be a short process despite predicting otherwise. If folks only dog in this fight is just to see both their teams they wouldn't be emotionally invested in the Astros profit margin Even if the Astros had absorbed 9.2m per year in losses on the Network side, they were still going to make money on carriage fees that were reported to average 80m per year over the length of the agreement
