We’ve talked about how such a great time of year this is. The NFL going full blast, college football too, and the MLB playoffs… all awesome. Then, then, as if that wasn’t enough, here comes the NHL and NBA; the Blackhawks and Bulls are back! There’s almost too much going on… haha, never that. Yet, as the Hawks take the ice, and the Bulls get ready to take the court, there is one little problem; how am I going to watch the games? No, I didn’t get rid of my TVs, but the station that has shown these games for years is done, morphed into some new company, that for some reason, is still working out TV deals with the providers, including Comcast/Xfinity, which has a bigger presence in Chicago than any other. So yeah, I was lucky to see the Blackhawks opener on ESPN, but… no more… not yet. And the Bulls? I won’t be able to watch any Bulls games? I can’t believe we’re getting blacked out in our own city.
This is the #1 reason why I wasn’t a huge Blackhawks fan growing up… I couldn’t watch them on TV! Yes, only via paid/pay per view TV could you see the Hawks play, and my parents weren’t paying that no way, no how; shit, it took forever to get cable growing up. So… I wasn’t able to turn on the TV and watch the Hawks whenever I wanted until Bill Wirtz died, and instantly, games were made available; thankfully this was right before the recent 3 Cup run earlier this century. I did get to see all of that; my inner Blackhawks fan came bursting out full force. The Bulls on the other hand… they were always on TV. And yeah, they did draft some kid from North Carolina when I was just getting into basketball, so… that worked out pretty well; the Bulls were IT back in the day. Bears, Cubs, White Sox… could watch them all growing up. Now? Well, the Sox are in the same boat as the Bulls and Hawks right now; the Sox were in the same boat as the Hawks back in the day for a few. The Cubs? Marquee Network… thankfully I can afford to pay for them, although if I wasn’t able to, I wouldn’t have missed much these past few years. The Bears are always on, thank God. But here we sit, the NHL season has started, and the NBA season is about to begin, and I can’t watch my teams…
It’s a really stupid move for the Blackhawks, especially since we’ve been there done that, especially since they have some young kid that will attract eyeballs/dollars over the next couple decades skating for them. For the Bulls, this would be a first; honestly, I wasn’t that excited about the season to begin with, but… you know we’d be watching them; that’s one thing my wife, son, and I all watch together… this really sucks. How any company can take over programming for Chicago sports and prevent the majority of their fan base to watch it is beyond me; maybe it shouldn’t be. It’s all about money of course, and now that they’ve waited until the last minute to strike a deal, we’re really screwed. I’m hoping they work something out soon, but… Wall Street told us that greed is good, so… forget about the fans; thanks. Hey, at least they’re not moving any of our teams out of town… yet.
Is it Chicago Sports Network fault? Is it Comcast’s fault? Who gives a shit. I want to watch the Blackhawks and Bulls on TV whenever the hell I want. This isn’t fair; isn’t that life though? Money is driving these negotiations that are “hour to hour”; that’s no surprise. Rooting for your sports teams is about as pure as it gets for me, but when the root of all evil pops its head out, and disrupts that… it really sucks. Bulls first game is October 23rd; we’ve already missed 2 Blackhawks games. What will happen? Stay tuned.
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