It's Just Bud Being Bud

And Bud Strikes again.

Why am I even surprised by the news that MLB will make the Extra Innings package available only on DirecTV? (registration required for link). The Extra Innings package gives fans up to 60 out of market games per week.

To summarize the article, DirecTV will pay MLB $700 million, or roughly 2.8 “A-Rods,” over seven years for the exclusive rights to carry the Extra Innings Package. This means that only 15 million of the 75 million families that currently have the option to buy the package will have the option when the deal goes through.

If the ratios of current subscribers are equal across mediums (and I don’t have that stat), then the number of subscribers will fall from 750,000 to 150,000 simply due to lack of availability. MLB will have left 600,000 of its diehard fans without the subscription.

Fewer fans who, in October of 2007, will know the Indians or Brewers when they meet in the series which will, for the third consecutive season, set a record for the lowest rated World Series in MLB history. MLB will make more money off the deal than those humble subscribers would have paid them, I’m sure. But I feel as though I’ve just had my teeth worked on with a drill that entered my body through my pinkie toe.

Nice work, Bud. Another fine example of grabbing money now at the expense of later.

TV wants the playoffs at noon and 9:00 pm? Screw the kids, take the money. Corporate America will pay for every decent seat to every game? Screw the fans, take the money. Corporate America will pay more for luxury boxes? Screw the ordinary fans with their pants on so they don’t realize you are taking their money to build a new stadium where they have no prayer of ever sitting within an astronomical unit of home plate. Then take the money.

It’s great for the bottom line. The TV money is big money. When businesses buy the seats, it looks like the park is full. It’s full of people who’d rather be on their cell phones and blackberries than watch a game, but it’s full. It all equals more money for MLB, and that’s fine. It’s a business.

But it equals less interest in the game. Fewer kids grow up watching baseball. Fewer parents can take their families to fewer games.

The question is: where is the tipping point? Back in the days of the St. Louis Arena, the blue collar worker in St. Louis paid good money to go see as many Blues games as possible. Hockey grew in popularity, and the NHL expanded to new markets and bought new arenas. The price on tickets went up, and Corporate America initially filled that void with season ticket purchases. The regular fan was left with a few games in the cheap seats each year.

The result? Interest in Hockey began to wane. Hockey teams in "warm weather" cities couldn't sustain or create the fan base. Ratings fell, the TV money dried up, and the owners were left with horrible contracts for players based on revenue that was no longer there. Now the Blues can top 10,000 fans only when they offer the fattest city in America free fried food to show up.

So where is the tipping point? When do we pass the point where MLB loses all that really matters when determining how much money a sport can make?

When have we lost too many fans?