Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Moeger this football season. No matter who you
root for, no matter if it's college or pro, you
can catch every game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've
got four k TVs all over the place. And remember
the sound is on for every big game. And if
you haven't tried Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for?
There's tons of other great stuff on the menu, and
(00:20):
no place in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection.
Locations in Wilder, Richwood and Hebron, Long Neck Sports Grill stay, long,
come often. In what was expected, the Reds announced today
that they're TV games. They're games on TV I should say,
will be produced and distributed by Major League Baseball. This
(00:42):
obviously happening, and well you've seen this coming down the pike.
It's happened with other Big League clubs where MLB has
taken over the TV production and the distribution, which to me,
that might be what right now matters more than anything
to fans this because essentially Bally Sports is going, it's
been rebranded. I know there's a Blue Jacket's component, a
(01:03):
Cleveland Cavaliers component, but Reds fans how the games are
produced and maybe to a large degree, how they look
and how they make money off their TV broadcasts gonna change,
and there's I think there are concerns. I gather this
from looking at what people put on social media that
this is going to impact their ability to sign players
this offseason. I don't know, but I know who does.
(01:25):
Our guy that we call, and frankly, it's always been
about baseball whenever there's like a sports business intersection and
somebody who can answer questions about TV rights and stuff
like that. Our friend Maury Brown who's on X at bisball,
Maury from Forbes. I appreciate you joining us on short
notice because I have questions and they're probably dumb questions.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Maury, how are you? I'm good and there are no
dumb questions.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh oh, I I proved that wrong every single day.
All right, So this is not the first city, this
is not the first team where this has happened, and
there's gonna be more this year. How's this going to work?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I mean, the good thing is, right Baseball had the
production a long time since they did their MLB Network
Game of the Week, right, so all the graphics, everything,
their ability to go ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And produce that.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
They'll largely hire I imagine the contractors that were involved
at what was then called Ballet Sports.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Now it's FanDuel.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So your on air personalities, everything largely stays the same. What,
of course, does change is the distribution package. And historically
now Baseball has done a good job in improving the
territory by which fans can get a hold of it. Now,
(02:44):
some might not like the method that it's going to
go ahead and presented as, but as they said today,
it's going to grow from I don't know, close to
two million to almost thirteen million. And that comes in
a number of different ways.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So, uh, if I had a cable carrier or a
television distribution service, and I had it specifically because it
had Bally Sports and I've wanted to cut the cord
if the Reds left Bally Sports, I can do that
and then get the games elsewhere without blackouts.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, and this is where it gets tricky.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So Baseball determines what blackouts are different ways. Their idea is,
we want to be able to get it available to
fans outside of being trapped in this thing necessarily with television,
and this is where it gets tricky. So you might
be able to watch it streaming if you don't have
(03:40):
let's say Direct TV or whoever they're going to carry,
then I can go and I'll be able to get
it online and I'll be able to stream it. So
that is how they're able to say that they're be
able to cover their entire broadcast territory. They'll either be
a television way to get it, and if you can't
get it that way, you'll be able to get it
via streaming. But the idea, of course, is if you
(04:01):
want to get it and you're willing to, you know,
go to those particular platforms that it's available on, it
will be available as opposed to how it was before
where you were more or less trapped.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I see, I see a lot of folks, and
you know, the Reds are in a position. They have
a new manager. Everybody's excited for Terry Francona, they have
a good young nucleus. Fans are wondering, Okay, what are
they going to spend on the team, and is that
going to be affected by having a new TV deal.
I've seen folks express some concern that the Reds aren't
going to make hardly any money off of this. I'm
(04:33):
not sure that's the case is it.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And this is a great question because the numbers haven't
really you know, drawn themselves out. But I would look
to some of the other teams that were kind of
caught in this Diamond Sports group, right, which is the
group that has been controlling all of these teams. This
is they went into banking now, but we saw that
some of them decided to renegotiate with Diamond and stick around.
(05:00):
And to me, you don't do that unless you were
willing to take a cut, right, I mean, somebody coming
out of bankruptcy. You reached the deal, they went, well,
we can't pay that anymore, we're bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You renegotiate that can only assume that that went down.
So there is some concern.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
This is a transitional point right now where we're moving
kind of from traditional television as we know it to
really having the streamers in place, and they're all feeling
it out, you.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Know, to find out where they're at.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Now. More and more of them are wanting to get
their hands on live sports, and the reason for that
is pretty obvious.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You don't DVR sports. It's live, it's unscripted.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Most people want to watch that and that will always
draw people in and it's obviously got a very dedicated
fan base.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So I believe that over the next five.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Years, maybe a little bit longer, maybe a little bit less,
you're going to see some of this transition in the
near term.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, I mean, it could be less money.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now, Baseball is made up for that in a number
of ways, and the Reds are one of them. They
have more sponsorships than any other club in the league.
So they've gone out and done that. Now, whether they
would have done that anyway, that's the argument, right They're like, Hey,
of course, we don't want to lose that television revenue,
and we would have preferred to have television revenue be
(06:22):
where it's at and grow our sponsorship numbers. But again,
Baseball always seems to figure out a way to increase
revenues if something drops off a little bit, and sponsorships
has been the big one. So are the Reds going
to hold back on it? They would have largely probably
a five year plan. If they're worried about, you know,
the uncertainty of revenues right now, they might hold back.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Maybe they won't.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I mean, I seriously doubt you go after Terry Francona
without the idea that that young nucleus is going to
do something.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
So this is maybe the dumbest question that I ask them, Like,
I obviously I understand how the radio end of it
works because I work. I work for the place that
carries the games. Right they they sell the majority of
the inventory. Is that how it's gonna work here? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Are they?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
They're gonna sell the commercial avails and then pocket that
money and then of course obviously be able to sign
Wan Soda with that coin.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, I won't say one soda at that point, but yeah,
I mean, look, there are projections. Again, the public doesn't
see this stuff baseball as a closed, you know, private thing.
But they've got enough details now, they have enough club's
in the in or hopper.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, The Podreys are probably the best example.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
If I was to sit there and go, what club
is probably seeing the highest return on what they're getting
in terms of.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Engagement at revenues?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
What goes along with them moving over to MLB doing
their distribution and whatnot. You'd have to say the Podreise
right now, right, They're they're doing really well. So there,
you know, then the Diamondbacks, they're going to have other
teams that are gonna go ahead and see how.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
This works out. Again. Even if you go all the
way back to the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Padres, who were the very first team, them and the
Diamondbacks are the first two teams that went in twenty
twenty three, that's not a large sample size to figure
out how it's really performing. It will say this, if
you have a streaming deal, nobody is tied into it.
Television deals used to be of the ten year variety, right,
(08:24):
and then those revenues were locked in. They may have
been a little bit less in terms of years, but
you knew what your cost certain your revenue coming in
was going to be.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Streaming is not like that.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I mean, if your team stinks one year, you want
unsubscribe to go I'm not going to watch this, that
revenue stops. So I look at this as kind of
a glass half full thing. Yeah, it should incentivize teams
to want to win because now the product that you
roll out there is directly tied to money. You can't
(08:56):
just sit on your hands and have money pour in.
You have to put a good product on the field,
and that, of course is what everybody should be striving
for in the first place.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, you stole my thunder because that was gonna be
my last. It wasn't even gonna frame it like a
question that I view this as. If you're a fan,
you have a little bit more power because you know,
we've seen unfortunately here the Reds for most of the
last thirty years haven't been good. And then fans speak
with their wallets, right, they decided not buy tickets. And
I think this is interesting because if you have a
(09:26):
season like two years ago, when the Reds lose one
hundred games, you're gonna have folks who are like, well,
I'm not paying for this streaming service to watch them
lose one hundred games, And it empowers the fan a
little bit more.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I like this morey, Yeah, I would look at it
this way too. There's some other stuff looming out on
the horizon, so nobody, of course. I mean, look, the
Reds are in a pickle. There were a number of
teams right that we're involved with, us, the Guardians, the Twins,
who already talked about a couple of others, the Braves
that were stuck in this bankruptcy purgatory for lack of
(09:57):
a better term, right, they were really stuck for a while.
Now they're kind of figuring it out.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Right this last year, right season, we saw, of course,
the two best teams in both leagues with the highest
payrolls make it, and you go, oh, there's not chance.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
But if you look historically since we've added the wildcard,
there is the ability.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Now there's enough randomness with that wildcard series to make
it for teams that get in, they can really move
up the ranks pretty quickly. The wildcard teams can perform
and do well and get further along. In twenty twenty six,
the labor deal ends. So teams now, I think, are
prepping with this idea that maybe additional wildcard teams make
(10:41):
it in there. And look, the Players Association may have
something to say about this, but the owners wanted to
have two additional wildcard.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Teams per league, so four teams total going. They didn't
get that, they got two.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And I think that part of the thinking along the
lines of this is we will be quote unquote competitive
because it'll be easier to get in with additional wildcard teams. Right,
and you're here's out from this if this happens. Teams
that are starting to set themselves up now with their
media rights, with how they're positioning, their teams are more inclined.
(11:21):
I think, along with this pressure of trying to get
an audience, are going to start to say, we need
to be competitive. We can't just sit back and collect money.
The As right are the best example of this. They
can't do that stuff forever. I mean, they're going to
live on revenue sharing as much as possible, but they can't.
And so I think that this is ultimately a good
forcing what I call a forcing function. Hey, you're going
(11:44):
to have to be good here once you start to
make your product available all a cart where somebody goes.
I just want to watch my team when they're good
and not when they're bad. I can resign up when
they get better. It's going to force them to try
and get better.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I think that's the best part of this. H. I
appreciate you jumping on very short notice. You were the
first person I thought of when I saw to this.
When I saw the the announcement, I knew people had questions.
I tried to get them answered. You answer them.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
You're the best. Thanks Mary, all right, you take care
Manthanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Hey, it's Moeger this football season, no matter who you
root for. No matter if it's college or pro, you
can catch every game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've
got four KTVs all over the place. And remember this
sound is on for every big game. And if you
haven't tried Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for?
There's tons of other great stuff on the menu, and
(12:35):
no place in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection.
Locations in Wilder, rich Wood, and Hebron Long Neck Sports Grill,
Stay long, come often.