Des Moines left in the dark
City demands to have baseball blackout problem fixed
We’re a month into the season, and the Chicago Cubs have a winning record.
Yet while hope should spring again for a wide array of Cubs fans, those in Des Moines are pretty much out of luck if they want in on the excitement.
Like many others, Brian Conley is sick of the fact that he can’t watch the Cubs on area cable packages or the MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings subscription services because it is considered part of the team’s regular-season inmarket blackout. And since he can’t have a dish at his West Des Moines town home, he can’t catch games via satellite on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, either.
He says he called MLB.TV and customer service people there blamed the blackout policy on the franchise. He says he called the Cubs and they blamed it on MLB.TV.
“This is a problem,” he said. “They are trying to turn this into a Cardinals town.”
His question: Whose problem is it really, and why won’t they fix it?
The blackout problem, as the fans of other Midwest teams know, is actually far worse. That’s because when it comes to broadcasting, Iowa is not only claimed as the home turf of the Cubs, but also by the Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers.
That means whenever the Cubs, Cardinals, Twins, Royals, White Sox and Brewers — the six Major League Baseball clubs in the Midwest — are on a nationally televised weekday broadcast, that game can, and most likely will, be blacked out in the state.
Put in other terms, Iowa is in baseball viewing hell. Only Las Vegas and southern Nevada are subject to as many teams’ blackouts.
There was some good news this month that should allay a little anxiety in Des Moines. KCWI and partner WOI put together a last-minute deal with WGN-Channel 9 to air 33 Cubs games and 17 White Sox games this season.
Tony Hoffman, sales manager at KCWI, said that’s all the stations could grab for now.
Greg Easterly, general manager at WGN in Chicago, which picked up 45 games under a new fiveyear contract with the Cubs, said he hopes to make those games and three preseason games available in Iowa. “Obviously this is the first year for us to find other markets to find those interested in our games,” he said. “Response has been great.”
But MLB officials say fix- ing the larger issue of blackout territories and ensuring all Iowa fans have access to their favorite Midwest teams is going to take time.
In the next year or so, MLB’s broadcast policies will be on trial. Fans brought a class-action suit against MLB and MLB Advanced Media. A federal appeals court rejected the league’s attempt to have the suit thrown out using its federal antitrust exemption. The suit also names cable and satellite operators and several regional sports networks.