You ever buy any tickets with the caveat “limited view” on there? My wife wants to go see Wicked; thing is, they’re only here for another month, and we’re now looking for tickets last minute. They’re not cheap. As I browsed, I saw some with “limited view”; I thought about it, but only for a second. Why would I want to sign up for that? If it’s truly limited, then it makes no sense to get those tickets. This makes me think of days when I can’t view my teams on TV… unfortunately, I’m used to it; unfortunately, it seems to be happening again.
The biggest example I have is the Blackhawks. Growing up, since I didn’t have cable/Sports Channel, I couldn’t watch them; it sucked. How can you build a fan following if you’re not showing your product for all to see? Sure, no problem for those who could afford it, but what about everybody else? This lead to the Blackhawks being an after thought for me as a kid; not until they were shown on TV again, did my fandom start to grow. It was good timing considering it was 2007 when this happened; a few short years later, a Cup dynasty was born. The popularity of the Blackhawks blew up; they rocketed towards the top of the Chicago sports world. With a whole new generation of fans, multiple generations considering how long folks couldn’t watch them, coupled with an awesome team, they got a whole lot of love; funny how that works. Yet today, actually the last couple games, I couldn’t watch them… again. I saw the West Coast games coming up, and was excited. Unfortunately, these were being shown on ESPN+… wtf is that? Haven’t we learned our lesson? You’re limiting the amount of people who can view your product. If you want to ADD ways to watch the Hawks, fine; that shouldn’t come with subtracting ways. The Hawks should know this better than anybody, and honestly, the NHL… ain’t as popular as the other sports; to take games away from the people that actually watch it… not smart. That seems to be the way of the future though…
Look at the Cubs… the Marquee network, which I had mixed feelings about. An exclusive Cubs network!!!! Who wouldn’t love that. I was hyped for it. At the same time, the Cubs were becoming paid TV; that ain’t cool. Why do you think the Cubs were so popular not only in Chicago but across the country? WGN… free national TV. And now, you’re limiting the viewership; you’re going to lose part of a generation of fans. Haven’t we learned anything from the Blackhawks; for that matter, we should have learned this lesson from the White Sox. They were in that same boat as the Blackhawks; I couldn’t watch many of their games growing up. So when I wanted to watch baseball, in a city with two teams, I only had one option; I grew up watching much, much more of the Cubs… it’s not a surprise why I consider the Cubs my only baseball team. And now, the Cubs are playing with fire; sure, they already have millions and millions of fans… are they complacent? Do they not need any new fans? And newsflash: the Marquee network ain’t that great after all; it doesn’t help when the team decides not to compete for a year…
Although the Cubs are popular, there’s only 1 sport where this limited viewing probably won’t hurt, and that’s the NFL. Like Marquee, I actually have Amazon Prime, so I do get to watch Thursday night football. However, even if I didn’t have Prime, the Bears games wouldn’t have been a problem, because they showed them on multiple channels; THAT is the way to do it. I guess the NFL can do that because they are so popular; these other leagues, not so much, which is exactly why they shouldn’t limit their viewership. I’m not going to get upset if I couldn’t watch Thursday night football with 2 teams not named the Bears, but if I couldn’t watch a Bears game… holy shit, that would be a big problem. Kind of if I couldn’t watch a Cubs game if I didn’t have Marquee, or like not being able to watch the Hawks in the last 2 West Coast games because I don’t have ESPN+. It absolutely blows.
The Blackhawks lost to the Kings and beat the Ducks, for those of you, like me, who couldn’t watch them. It was disappointing. Life already limits all the games I can watch, but if I have the time, if I’m sitting on the couch in front of the TV, and my teams are playing, and I can’t watch them… I have a big problem with that. Thankfully, I do have the money to get these other options, but why should I have to? Why should those that don’t have these options not be able to watch their teams? I could go on… Chicago should do something about this, for our teams, ensuring that there will never be a game played that someone can’t watch on TV; you don’t think that would make a difference? I think it would, but I also think the empty boxes for home games should be given away to youth groups throughout the city, instead of sitting there… empty. You don’t think you would gain fans for life; wouldn’t that be worth it? It’s all about putting your product out there; making it accessible for all. This whole “limited view” thing… why would I want to sign up for that?
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