Comments on: The Dodgers are gonna get big media money soon, but let’s not go crazy

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:28:51 +0000

Gee, I remember back in the day when all the “expert commentators” said the new ESPN network couldn’t possibly work because nobody wanted to watch sports all the time. Population growth isn’t slowing down any time soon and the popularity of U.S. sports overseas continues to grow unabated. The Dodgers are quite popular in many places, particularly Latin America, and will certainly see revenue growth for many years to come. Now if they can just turn their deep pockets towards decent pitching in the lower half of the rotation….

By: fuddpucker

fuddpucker — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:40:56 +0000

There’s no way the Dodgers spending spree is sustainable. It’s true, NOBODY knows what the TV landscape will be like in ten, let alone 20, years. Really, did I just see the Dodgers acquire over a QUARTER OF A BILLION dollars of mostly has-been talent? I thank my lucky stars I’m a Royals fan. Sure, they’re small ball but the owner isn’t going to drown himself into debt and insolvency.

The Dodgers are now officially the reincarnation of “The Worst Team Money Can Buy”!

By: dl3mk3

dl3mk3 — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 03:17:04 +0000

for the mlbtv streamer, you need to use a proxy so it appears that you are out of market.
specific to TV deals: sports TV revenue will continue to rise specifically because of DVR being popular. While people will watch recorded shows later, and thus fast forwards through commercials, fans want to watch sports live-not hear about the score the next day and ‘miss out’ on the excitement, advertisers know this and will continue to pay big $ for sports ad time.

By: pasta09man

pasta09man — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 02:07:11 +0000

Teach your son how to throw a knuckleball, cash in when he wins the Cy Young

By: mcsnide

mcsnide — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 01:48:27 +0000

I cut the cord and currently have to listen to my favorite team because mlb.Tv, for which I happily plunk down an annual Benjamin, will not stream in-market games. I’d gladly pay $5-10 per month for access to my team’s live video feed. I think a smartly run team could make way more money with video streams than with cable/sat alone. That of course would require mlb to get the hell out of the way.

By: bigjimatch

bigjimatch — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 01:43:57 +0000

“Magic Johnson’s infectious passion…” Pun intended?

Dodgers are going to get billions for their tv rights, but it is going to be around $4 billion. The financial decisions they have made (and will make this offseason) will be an albatross, as they follow the path of the 1980s Yankees. Dodgers will be regretting not setting up their own sport network by the end of the third year. Ownership is going to have a high payroll, but its not unlimited.

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:35:56 +0000

Once the Dodgers sign this tv contract they won’t have the ability to start their own network, like the Yankee’s YES network, for the next 2 decades, btw.

By: kevinbnyc

kevinbnyc — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:30:59 +0000

I know a guy named Bernie who was getting pretty good returns, just in case they need to invest somewhere else.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:30:16 +0000

Always.

By: dkchi

dkchi — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:58:20 +0000

Don’t be so sure. Unbundling may actually drive higher local TV sports revenue, ESPECIALLY when large market teams like the Dodgers have the alternative of building their own YES/NESN-style regional sports network. The teams/players/leagues create the product and sports fanatics are willing to pay to see EXACTLY the content that interests them, without paying cover-all subscription fees for the 600 hundred channels we don’t care about. Unbundling will let the teams cash in without sharing with Comcast, etc. Witness MLBN’s success as a premium-pay channel in just a few years.

By: jaydoubleyou22

jaydoubleyou22 — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:35:45 +0000

It doesn’t matter what the market looks like in 2022 or 2032. As long as the market yields 8.5 billion (or in that range) when they negotiate the contract with fox or TW then they would be cashing in big time relative to the expectations at the time of the purchase of the team.

From an investor’s perspective, there’s no problem with a bubble if you sell before the crash!!

With that in mind, if they do get 8.5 billion, the present value of the increase over McCourt’s 3 billion deal (which was used as an assumption to derive the expected sale price that was reported by the media prior to the sale) easily explains the 2.15 billion acquisition price and more than justifies the current spending spree.

As a Dodgers fan, I’m perfectly content to ride the TV bubble to the World Series, bad contracts included.

By: sportsdrenched

sportsdrenched — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:30:25 +0000

I ran across this article from the WSJ last week:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204083204577080793289112260.html

I AM a sports fan and I cut the cable. There are enough sources for sports content that you can reach the point of saturation without paying for it, or at least want you don’t want to watch like TebowMania. My last blog post was about that if you want to read it.

If I were a non-sports fan, I would definalty cut the cable.

By: lanflfan

lanflfan — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:25:29 +0000

Depends on if the bundle concept still hangs on, or if channels can be selected a la carte. Once individual selection of channels is common place, I could see a large dip in TV revenue for sports.

By: normcash

normcash — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:24:46 +0000

It may well be that there’s a bit of a bubble economy at work. On the other hand, Tigers games
on FSD have regularly been the highest rated program throughout Michigan all summer
(the Olympics excepted), beating the major TV networks and every other channel.My guess is that
when the current deal with FSD is up for renewal, the Tigers will cash in.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:19:27 +0000

Invest in CalcaterraTV.

By: hansob

hansob — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:08:38 +0000

Non sports fans are at some point going to get sick and tired of subsidizing sports channels via their cable and satellite bills, and they are going to go to Netflix, Hulu, CalcaterraTV, or whatever else is available in the future. Then the whole model that this is based on falls apart.

Now if I can just figure out how to profit from this bubble….

By: nagrommit

nagrommit — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:07:56 +0000

They will have Vin Scully for another year, and that counts for something, right?