Professional Sports Are Now Streaming: What Will It Cost Fans?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Inflation is raising the cost of just about everything these days, and sports fans are being hit especially hard by its collision with the "streaming wars" among combatants like Prime Video (Amazon), Paramount+ (Paramount), Apple TV+ (Apple), Peacock (NBC), ESPN+ (Disney) … the list goes on.
The limited set of pro sports games is being balkanized and distributed by a growing group of such platforms, each demanding that would-be viewers set up yet another username, password, and monthly charge to their credit cards.
The New York Mets game against the Washington Nationals on April 8th, for instance, featured Max Scherzer's first start on the team. But the game wasn't broadcast locally in New York or Washington. For that, you had to subscribe to Apple TV+. Baseball fans already shell out around $100 a month for a local cable or satellite package, and some fork over at least that much to watch baseball on the league's own MLB TV or MLB app.
On top of that, MLB has complicated blackout policies. Depending on where you live, you might not be able to watch the teams you like, even if you pay for the privilege.
Attending sporting events in person has grown pricier over the last decade, too. Between 2010 and 2020, ticket prices for NFL games rose over 32%. That statistic was 38% for the NHL and 51% for the NBA. The cost of going to a ballgame only shot up 22% over that time, but baseball puts on way more games than do the other leagues.
It seems like pro sports leagues think fans have an unlimited supply of cash to funnel into their endless array of products. LZ and Will talk about whether viewers have reached a breaking point.
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The Cubs now have their own tv network (Marquee) , which the team owns. In order to see Cubs games you must have a cable tv subscription, which is at least a hundred bucks a month. I dont have cable anymore, I have Sling and other streaming channels, but they are not cable.
The Cubs dont offer Marquee as a stand alone streaming channel, just on cable tv. Screw them.
If you get the MLB App with a subscription $25 a month (I only keep mine from Apr-Oct), I think you be able to watch streaming and also highlights, news, lineups etc.
I believe that MLB is really only viable to watch out of town (teams from other cities games) games. Your home team's games will be blacked out.
I don't know how it works now but I thought they only blacked out games if they weren't sold out.
I am pretty sure that if you are in St Louis and you buy the MLB package, you will get ZERO Cardinals games with that package (home or away) , you will get the games of all the other teams though (except when they play the Cardinals).
If a game is blacked out in your area, then it's not available for live streaming. It is available around 90 after the game in their archive.
I agree. I could easily live without sports on tv.
Everyone in media now wants to get their hand in your pocket. Not only can "regular" people no longer afford to go to many games in person, soon they wont be able to afford to watch them on tv either.
Sorry, I should have read the seed before replying to your comment.
I've been to a few sporting events lately. Ticket prices weren't that bad. What's bad are the prices for the concessions. $10 for a 12 oz Pepsi, $12 for a 16 oz beer, $5 for a 16 oz bottle of water, etc.
We just "pre-game".
Depending on where you go sometimes the parking fees exceed the ticket price.
Didn't even think about that. That's another pathetic part of it. Was just at a concert in Raleigh, tickets were $15 parking was $20. They had a sign in the lot "Venue not responsible for vehicles in lot".
We went to the Hooters down the street, did our "pre-game" there then went to the show.
The only sport I could possibly see justified high ticket prices for is the NFL, since teams only play 8 or 9 home games per season. A box seat for one person at a major league baseball game can be 100 dollars or more. It depends because the teams set their own prices and they differ. 100 dollars for one person to attend one game out of 81 seems way out of line to me. A dad who wants to bring two kids and mom to a game will need at least 500 bucks. So they dont go.
NFL is a waste of time. Even on TV we only see them actually play, maybe 20 minutes the rest of the time they just mill around the field. And, like you said, they only do a very limited number of home games. I've lost interest in the NFL with all the rule changes and ego's.
I've never tried for box seating. I see that as just over priced, air conditioned / heated (depending on the sport) nose bleed. They are too far from the play area to really see what's going on. But that's just me.
I'm not big on basketball but just saw the Globetrotters Wednesday courtside for $50. I know they aren't actual NBA that it's more general entertainment but, I've watched them on TV all my life and finally got a chance to go to a game.
Never did Pay-Per-View, not going to do this either.
One thing we can agree on.