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Post by raiders41 on May 6, 2014 11:27:41 GMT -5
Foxsports1 is trying to get out of the racing business. They signed the new contract you listed above BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET ENOUGH INVENTORY IN OTHER MAJOR SPORTS TO FILL THEIR AIR TIME. That is the whole reason I said we should be trying to get our foot in the door with them now while they are looking for more inventory. It's all semantics. I said the SPEED channel wasn't profitable for Fox. Fox is a multibillion dollar company. Having a network only make millions is saying that they weren't profitable. I'm sure you make a decent living. If you had a lemonade stand in your front yard and you were making 20 bucks a weekend selling lemonade I would say that isn't a profitable venture either even though you were making money. "We often schedule Fri/Sun games to accommodate ESPN now."Partially wrongLooking through the schedules that Class of '79 posted above, we had 71 games scheduled on an ESPN channel. The Horizon League had more Saturday games than any other 2 days combined. Friday was the 2nd most scheduled for ESPN broadcasts. But as for Sunday, there was only one Horizon League ESPN game that I could find and that games was on ESPN3. So when it comes to our student athletes, I think ESPN is doing a fine job considering over 70% of HL ESPN games are on the weekend. What the hell is your point? I said we changed dates of games to accommodate ESPN. We want a Thur/Sat schedule. Throughout conference play, 4 teams had to schedule Fri/Sun games so that we could have our Friday night HL game of the week on the ESPN network. Even though only 2 of those teams were playing on Friday night, 2 other teams had to play on Friday too so that those 4 teams would be able to swop and play on Sunday. We also scheduled a game at 10 PM to accommodate ESPN. The whole point of the comment was that we changed some of our games from Thurs/Sat to Fri/Sun to accommodate ESPN. There is no reason we wouldn't do the same for Foxsports1. I don’t know of too many lemonade stands that have lasted 12 years. And the reason Fox bought SPEED in 2001 was because of their contract that they just signed with NASCAR to accommodate more races which includes 3 different series. Sprint, Nationwide, and Camping World. From there they began to add other racing series and even created SPEED 2 so that they could broadcast even more races. The reason SPEED was shut down was because the channel wasn’t 24/7 live broadcasting. I’m guessing you’re not too familiar with what was on SPEED most of the time. During the days it was car auctions and reality car shows. Fox saw an opportunity to make even more money by adding more sports to the channel. Going into the second year of existence FS1 is already expanding their coverage of NASCAR series, signing 5 year deals with Feld Motorsports is not filling. There is just as much racing on FS1 now as there was on SPEED, Fox is just cutting out the programs that wasn't really doing anything productive and replacing them with more sports. And as for the days that the Horizon League would be broadcast on, based on last year’s schedule FS1 was booked with Big East games on Thursdays and Saturdays. So the days that we would get wouldn't be any different from what they are now. At least now we are getting a good amount of Saturday night games. So my point is that we would be playing either more Friday-Sunday games or we would be playing more 10:00 games. The Horizon League be working more around FS1’s schedule then they ever have with ESPN.
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Post by raiders41 on May 6, 2014 11:24:29 GMT -5
If Fox took over something called Speed, Fuel, Velocity or whatever, seems like if the emphasis was to remain with racing, why change to Fox Sports 1 and 2? I did watch something on FS2 yesterday but it was a rerun of Mike Francesa ( radio sports talk that is simulcast on tv that had been on FS1 earlier ). Fox took over the SPEED channel in 2001 after Fox signed a deal with NASCAR
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Post by raiders41 on May 5, 2014 23:07:15 GMT -5
But getting back to the main subject here. We would not get a better deal with Fox Sports 1, there is no shot. That's the kind of attitude that has kept us under ESPN's thumb the last 25 years. Things won't ever change unless you challenge the status quo. FoxSports1 is trying to get out of the racing business. The channel used to be the velocity or speed network (I cannot remember which) but it wasn't profitable. I checked the channel often last season during the week. They had on motor cross racing more during the average week than any redneck could consume. They want to become a major challenge to ESPN as an all sports network. I think they would love to sign up the HL. We might have to change some of the days we traditionally play games on to get more airtime but we shouldn't have a problem with that. The HL wants a Thurs/Sat schedule for our student athletes so they don't miss much class time. We often schedule Fri/Sun games to accommodate ESPN now. If we can get more games and a paycheck from Foxsports1 I think it would be worth moving game days around. At the very least, negotiating with Foxsports1, gives us leverage for a better deal with ESPN. Currently, ESPN is going to give us whatever they want to give us and we are going to take it because we have nothing to negotiate with. If we have another offer from Foxsports1, we now have some leverage to negotiate with. "FoxSports1 is trying to get out of the racing business."WrongThat explains the long contract the Fox just signed with NASCAR through 2024. MotoGP signed a 2 year extension last year, they have a 15 year relationship with Fox. Field Motor Sports which includes Monster Energy AMA supercross, an FIM World Championship, Monster Jam, AMSOIL Arenacross and the Monster Energy Cup signed a 5 year deal which just began in January. Doesn't really look like they're trying to get out of the racing business. msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/sprint-cup-fox-sports-broadcast-rights-nationwide-2015-to-2024-in-extended-expanded-agreement-080113ultimatemotorcycling.com/motogp-signs-multiyear-deal-with-fox-sports/msn.foxsports.com/speed/supercross/sx-feld-motor-sports-and-fox-sports-announce-five-year-agreement/"The channel used to be the velocity or speed network, but it wasn't profitable."It was SPEED and wrong againThe channel was profitable, the problem was the Fox would rather be making "billions instead of millions" blog.caranddriver.com/did-the-speed-channel-have-to-die-we-examine-the-economics/"We often schedule Fri/Sun games to accommodate ESPN now."Partially wrongLooking through the schedules that Class of '79 posted above, we had 71 games scheduled on an ESPN channel. The Horizon League had more Saturday games than any other 2 days combined. Friday was the 2nd most scheduled for ESPN broadcasts. But as for Sunday, there was only one Horizon League ESPN game that I could find and that games was on ESPN3. So when it comes to our student athletes, I think ESPN is doing a fine job considering over 70% of HL ESPN games are on the weekend.
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Post by raiders41 on May 5, 2014 20:13:51 GMT -5
The Big East was also still on ESPN. The Horizon League should and probably will be getting a much better deal than what they have in the past with less conferences to compete with for ESPN airtime. As far as I am concerned I haven't heard of any new conferences signing with ESPN. If you look at this season and the previous you'll see that the amount of games that we had on an ESPN channel doubled. Staying on ESPN is the best option unless there is a network that is going to offer us a bigger contract which I don't think there would be. But why don't we wait for the details to come out about this deal before we start bashing it, just an idea That isn't true. Our exposure didn't double. It went down by 7. Last year our contract with ESPN gave us 32 games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN3. link The year before our contract with ESPN gave us 39 games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN3. link As you pointed out, ESPN lost the Big East last year. They were on Foxsports1 last season. Even with the loss of the Big East, ESPN gave us 7 less games on their networks. I don't anticipate a better contract this year. As Big D pointed out in his original post in this thread, the HL should have looked to move to Foxsports1. They only really have the Big East. You would think they would be motivated to add other conferences and would probably offer us more games on TV and a paycheck, something ESPN has been unwilling to do. My post was based on Wright State's schedule, but moving past that. But getting back to the main subject here. We would not get a better deal with Fox Sports 1, there is no shot. Reason 1 being that if you look through their broadcast schedule from last year on Saturdays were booked with games all day so we wouldn't get any Saturday games, from the time our conference schedule started until the end of our tournament there are 15 nights without basketball on and 2 more of those nights in late February have NASCAR's Budweiser Duels on, now down to 13 nights that are open. So unless we're playing games at 10:00 we're not going to get on during those other nights. Reason 2 is that Fox Sports 1 was created to challenge ESPN's supremacy in sports broadcasting. Look at what they are going to be adding next year to their lineup. Nascar Sprint and Nationwide Series which the Nationwide Series is only being broadcast on ESPN right now. FS1 will be getting a little under half of the races next year for the Nationwide Series. And then they have a number of soccer leagues that they are adding as well which they will be splitting time with ESPN. The moves that they are currently making are going to have huge impact on ESPN. If FS1 would take the Horizon League away do you think that would really hurt ESPN, not really they would probably just broadcast more American Athletic Conference games which would bring in more viewership than the HL.
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Post by raiders41 on May 4, 2014 9:19:27 GMT -5
It cannot possibly be the same type of deal. We have GOT to be getting something in return except exposure! Maybe we'll get an announcement soon. You do realize the last contact we signed with ESPN was after Butler's first trip to the NCAA championship game. If LeCrone wasn't able to get a paycheck from ESPN then, do you seriously think he was able to negotiate anything better now? The Big East was also still on ESPN. The Horizon League should and probably will be getting a much better deal than what they have in the past with less conferences to compete with for ESPN airtime. As far as I am concerned I haven't heard of any new conferences signing with ESPN. If you look at this season and the previous you'll see that the amount of games that we had on an ESPN channel doubled. Staying on ESPN is the best option unless there is a network that is going to offer us a bigger contract which I don't think there would be. But why don't we wait for the details to come out about this deal before we start bashing it, just an idea
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 22, 2014 17:04:23 GMT -5
Most schools like to be in 1 conference for all sports (with the exception of Notre Dame). I'd say this is the first step to adding Belmont. And I think this could be 1 of possibly 3 schools that could come over from the OVC. Obviously Belmont has men's soccer, but so does Eastern Illinois and SIUE. All 3 schools have baseball and only EIU has football. Perfect additions for the Horizon League if we could get it done. For future expansion I'd keep an eye on these guys. Maybe not EIU so much but I would think SIUE would be a strong candidate Belmont joined as an affiliate member because the OVC doesn't sponsor men's soccer. This happens quite a bit. I wouldn't mistake this as the first step towards them being a full member. Like I said "most" schools prefer to be in the same conference for all sports. For the schools that are in different conferences for some sports they are already trying to get into the same conference for all sports such as Louisville next switching from partially Big East to full on ACC or Rutgers and the switch from Big East to Big Ten
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 21, 2014 18:40:55 GMT -5
www.horizonleague.org/blog/belmont-university-to-join-horizon-league-as-affiliate-memberBelmont university becomes affiliate member of HL soccer, could this be a prelude of things to come? ...In addition to the affiliate membership in men’s soccer, Belmont and the Horizon League have reached agreement on a non-conference scheduling partnership that will see the Bruins compete against league members in men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and women’s soccer. Over the next four years, Belmont will play six league members in men’s basketball home-and-home games as part of the non-conference scheduling agreement. Weird. Pardon my naivety, but does this sort of thing happen a lot? Good "addition" by the HL. Most schools like to be in 1 conference for all sports (with the exception of Notre Dame). I'd say this is the first step to adding Belmont. And I think this could be 1 of possibly 3 schools that could come over from the OVC. Obviously Belmont has men's soccer, but so does Eastern Illinois and SIUE. All 3 schools have baseball and only EIU has football. Perfect additions for the Horizon League if we could get it done. For future expansion I'd keep an eye on these guys. Maybe not EIU so much but I would think SIUE would be a strong candidate
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 17, 2014 10:17:00 GMT -5
Green Bay head coach Brian Wardle Agrees to New Five-Year Contract
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 13, 2014 20:30:04 GMT -5
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 11, 2014 8:11:21 GMT -5
I think it would be a huge mistake to change the current format for 2 reasons. 1. We went to this format so the HL's championship game looked good on ESPN. We have huge crowds with our current format. We will play in a 2/3 empty arena if we go to a neutral site. 2. The current format makes the whole HL season worth playing for to get the home court advantage and buys. If the tournament is played at a neutral site, it takes away the importance of the whole regular season. Took the words right out of my mout... The system is perfect the way it is. And like you said it gives the season so much more meaning to it. This was the first time since the HL has switched to this format where the 1 seed has not made it to the championship. And even if the distance is a problem, we just proved that it is possible to move the game to a campus completely on the other side of the conference map and make it work. This is not a league that is going to pull fans in from outside of this conference. We barely pull in fans from our own fanbases until the championship game.
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Post by raiders41 on Apr 9, 2014 19:26:36 GMT -5
They will not be in the Horizon League tournament, just to clarify.....
Found this on Twitter today:
In today's Guardian, we reported the Horizon League is considering switching tournament formats. This development definitely changes things.
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Post by raiders41 on Mar 31, 2014 17:10:12 GMT -5
I highly doubt having flashy signs around campus with one of our players dunking is going to increase student attendance. Honestly, I think we could have put up a life size image of Young dunking on the door of every building around campus this year and student attendance wouldn't have gone up. If the game isn't on TV or against an opponent they know about, college kids don't give a crap. If we want our students to care we need to do the same thing we need to do to attract paying customers. We need to improve our OOC schedule and we need to start winning more games. Until we fix those 2 problems, nothing else is really going to matter. I'm not saying that this is the only thing to do nor is it magically going to get every student at WSU to get out to the games, but it is a start. We need to build excitement about games that aren't giveaways or tournament games. But to get students to the arena, students need to know when there is a game, and right now our techniques being used by our athletic department are failing to capture the attention of the student body. Like I said in an earlier post students do not even know when games are. And I do agree with your about the OOC schedule I mean look at the UC game a few years ago, students showed up for the game
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Post by raiders41 on Mar 31, 2014 15:54:26 GMT -5
I very much disagree with this comment, yes we do giveaway tickets for free to the games and usually 1 t-shirt game a year. But with the exception of those 2 things there is a lackluster effort by the university to get students out to the games. To be honest if I didn't have the schedule memorized I would never know when a game was with the exception of the t-shirt games because those are the only ones that they advertise for. The university puts up these dull green signs on gameday that say "Game tonight at 7:00" that practically blend in with the grass, so if there isn't snow on the ground you're probably not going to see it. I've asked fellow students that I get to go to the games "would you have known there was a game tonight if I didn't tell you?" and every time they say no. Students don't know when the games are, some don't even know we are even a DI program, and some don't even know we have sports here at all! We had 3 T-shirt giveaways this year. The athletic department sent out e-mails to student's WSU e-mail account before the season and before every home game. They have the Raider Up rewards program to get students to share info about the games on facebook and twitter so they can get that info out to their friends. In the past they had giveaways to students that included 1 free quarter's tuition, TVs, gift cards, etc and student attendance hasn't really benefitted. Wright State has increased student housing over the years but in large part we are still a commuter school. Most of our students work in order to attend school. It doesn't matter what incentives we offer them, they aren't interested in attending basketball games. Like I said we usually have 1 t-shirt game a year, I really don't expect us to be doing this every year with 3. As for the emails, I just searched through my emails, and the only ones that I received were for the t-shirt games, the beginning of the season, and the Horizon League Championship game. So we really only advertised for 4 games this season. Think about popular apps on iphones today Vine and SnapChat. These videos/pictures last 6-10 seconds. The attention span of people is getting smaller and smaller, so how do you reach them? Honestly what I would do, well at least coming into this season, I would have got cutouts of Jerran going up for a dunk put them in every building on campus, have the time, date, opponent of the next home game and mention tickets are free. These would capture the attention of a lot more students than what emails and these lame signs that we have now would. We can't just be advertising the day of the game because like goraiders93 said people already have plans for that night made up by then. We need to be advertising for the next home game the morning after the last game. Emails are easy to skip over and delete, if we could just pound that image of one of our players into the minds of students around campus and build that excitement that if I go to the game I'm going to see Chrishawn or Steven (thinking of the future here) throw one down I think that the student attendance will go up.
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Post by raiders41 on Mar 31, 2014 12:28:10 GMT -5
We do just about everything possible to get students to come to games except give them class credit for attending games. They get free tickets. They can be bused from their dorms to the Nutter Center for free. We regularly do giveaways for students. I very much disagree with this comment, yes we do giveaway tickets for free to the games and usually 1 t-shirt game a year. But with the exception of those 2 things there is a lackluster effort by the university to get students out to the games. To be honest if I didn't have the schedule memorized I would never know when a game was with the exception of the t-shirt games because those are the only ones that they advertise for. The university puts up these dull green signs on gameday that say "Game tonight at 7:00" that practically blend in with the grass, so if there isn't snow on the ground you're probably not going to see it. I've asked fellow students that I get to go to the games "would you have known there was a game tonight if I didn't tell you?" and every time they say no. Students don't know when the games are, some don't even know we are even a DI program, and some don't even know we have sports here at all!
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Post by raiders41 on Mar 23, 2014 18:05:56 GMT -5
I think it would be more effective if you literally sent a message to the athletic department and tell them that you're not going to renew your season tickets if they continue to schedule non-DI games. Then again I really don't care what you guys do, I'll be at the games regardless of who we play but that's just me
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