UPDATE 5/23 - Golden Knights select ROOT/AT&T Sports for local TV

[Slashers98]

The Las Vegas experiment is already having trouble to find support...

Las Vegas’ new hockey team struggling to sell media rights

It will be hard to win this market with the NFL coming in a few years.

Click to read more...

 

[tarheelhockey]

Not sure why Vegas, one of the smallest markets in the league, would be expected to have anything other than one of the smallest media deals in the league.

 

[powerstuck]

Not sure why Vegas, one of the smallest markets in the league, would be expected to have anything other than one of the smallest media deals in the league.

Not only that, but it's a BRAND NEW market. It's not a market that has ''history''.

I would expect them to sign a low paying deal for short term (2-3 years ?) and then as things go, renew or sign a new one, long term, more lucrative.

 

[iconoclast22]

It will be hard to win this market with the NFL coming in a few years

I wonder if this is the issue already. If you only have one team to spend it on, saving it for when the Raiders have their boots on ground in Vegas. I know word on the street is it'll be a season or 2 before they arrive, but perhaps the hope of them coming sooner has the money waiting.

 

[cbcwpg]

Not surprising, but Foley blew it and was put in the "sucker" category when he gave the NHL $500 million.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

"Foley paid the NHL a $500 million expansion fee to secure the team, which starts playing next season. If he can only attract $10 million annually from a regional sports network, the team could lose more than $30 million a year, the hockey executive figured."

Yikes.

 

[USAUSA1]

New York post?

 

[tarheelhockey]

^ But what's that figure based on? Does this unnamed "hockey executive" have access to the books, or is he just throwing numbers out there?

I dunno, this just seems like a really questionable story to me. Why would Vegas have a $40M TV deal? Did anyone at any stage of this process expect Vegas to be one of the league's biggest media players?

 

[USAUSA1]

^ But what's that figure based on? Does this unnamed "hockey executive" have access to the books, or is he just throwing numbers out there?

I dunno, this just seems like a really questionable story to me. Why would Vegas have a $40M TV deal? Did anyone at any stage of this process expect Vegas to be one of the league's biggest media players?

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

 

[Jets4Life]

I wonder if this is the issue already. If you only have one team to spend it on, saving it for when the Raiders have their boots on ground in Vegas. I know word on the street is it'll be a season or 2 before they arrive, but perhaps the hope of them coming sooner has the money waiting.

The Raiders will be in Vegas by 2018. No way they play in Oakland as a lame duck team for two years. Houston tried that with the Oilers, and it was a disaster. The Raiders will be lucky to get 25,000 fans/game. It will be a sea of empty seats, just like the lame duck Houston Oilers had to move a year early to Memphis, as attendance was dropping below 20,000.

They will end up playing at a renovated Sam Boyd Stadium for 2018.

 

[Slot]

"Foley paid the NHL a $500 million expansion fee to secure the team, which starts playing next season. If he can only attract $10 million annually from a regional sports network, the team could lose more than $30 million a year, the hockey executive figured."

Yikes.

well I guess we know what Tony LeBlanc has been doing.

 

[Cirris]

NFL TV media rights are all tied to national TV deals and NFL.com.

They don't have regional media rights deals like NHL,MLB,NBA has.

So the argument, "They're saving it for the Raiders" doesn't work.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Ahh, nice to see the Post back in the game with its anonymous "hockey exec" sources, like the ones who said Andrew Barroway was going to flip the Coyotes to Foley a year and a half ago.

Nice to see consistency in the agenda peddling, though.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Have they not announced media rights yet?

odd.

 

[Fenway]

I have said from day 1 that TV rights in Vegas would be a huge problem.

Vegas is the 40th largest TV market in the US which makes it the smallest in the NHL outside of Buffalo - however the Sabres can also pick up eyeballs in Rochester and Syracuse, Vegas has no such option.

I have to assume when the NHL vetted Vegas as a market they told Foley what to expect for TV revenue.

 

[BattleBorn]

I'm assuming there's going to be some sunken costs into whatever media rights deal they sign.

This is a completely new sports market. Even if they sign with a local television station, they're going to need a whole new staff that knows how to broadcast sports, they'll likely need a new studio, they'll need more equipment (I don't know if they can run a live sports broadcast out of a local TV affiliate satellite truck, I assume they can't.) Whichever outfit gets the rights to the games is going to have some major costs. If it's someone like ROOT Sports, they've got to establish a whole new channel and get it carried in Las Vegas. If they hook up with someone like CSN that's already in the market they'll still need people locally to work the games.

When was the last time there was a completely new pro sports market? OKC?

 

[powerstuck]

I'm assuming there's going to be some sunken costs into whatever media rights deal they sign.

This is a completely new sports market. Even if they sign with a local television station, they're going to need a whole new staff that knows how to broadcast sports. Whichever outfit gets the rights to the games is going to have some major costs. If it's someone like ROOT Sports, they've got to establish a whole new channel and get it carried in Las Vegas. If they hook up with someone like CSN that's already in the market they'll still need people locally to work the games.

When was the last time there was a completely new pro sports market? OKC?

Is there any sport channels that are close by that could ''expand'' their territory into Vegas without creating a completely new channel ? Might be a somewhat cheaper option.

But I agree, if anyone was expecting $40M in TV-right from day one...they are dreaming.

 

[King_Stannis]

I ask this honestly, could their rights situation improve when the Coyotes sliver is finally pulled and they completely relocate out of the area? Because right now the NHL can't afford two struggling SW franchises.

 

[BattleBorn]

Is there any sport channels that are close by that could ''expand'' their territory into Vegas without creating a completely new channel ? Might be a somewhat cheaper option.

But I agree, if anyone was expecting $40M in TV-right from day one...they are dreaming.

We've got CSN Bay Area (which has the Sharks,) Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket with the Kings/Ducks (I think the Ducks are on Fox Sports,) and Fox Sports San Diego with my local TV package. It seems like the only one that would possibly have the desire to pick up the Knights and is already on local TV would be Fox Sports San Diego. I don't know how the logistics of that would work.

Either way, there's no Nevada sports network that could just jump in ready to go. I always assumed ROOT Sports Utah would pick the Knights up and put them on with the Utah Jazz programming, but they'll need a Las Vegas outpost and some staff down here after they get the network carried on local TV.

I'll be honest, I'm not a media expert like Fenway, but it seems like there's going to be a lot of money involved on just getting the Knights on TV in the first place.

I know for college sports networks like the B1G Network, all the schools had to invest in the setup prior to getting their full share of the media rights deal involved with the network. I'm only assuming it's somewhat similar for the Knights.

ETA: Sinbin made this connection:

 

[Mightygoose]

^ But what's that figure based on? Does this unnamed "hockey executive" have access to the books, or is he just throwing numbers out there?

I dunno, this just seems like a really questionable story to me. Why would Vegas have a $40M TV deal? Did anyone at any stage of this process expect Vegas to be one of the league's biggest media players?

The real question to me is how much did Foley think the rights fees would fetch. I'm certain that question would have been asked by the board during the long expansion process.

If 10 million was in the ballpark out of the gate, then it shouldn't be a big issue if they were forecasting much more then it's a different tale.

Also, does this reflect the market or is this the start of the rights fees bubble starting to burst?

 

[Mightygoose]

Have they not announced media rights yet?

odd.

Though True North had allot less time to start up. When in 2011 did they announce their media rights deal with TSN?

 

[Elephant Igloo]

I dunno, this just seems like a really questionable story to me. Why would Vegas have a $40M TV deal? Did anyone at any stage of this process expect Vegas to be one of the league's biggest media players?

Why, in a world where we're told over and over that the gate isn't enough anymore, would the league insist upon a television market with so little secondary coverage?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Why, in a world where we're told over and over that the gate isn't enough anymore, would the league insist upon a television market with so little secondary coverage?

You can't say it's "so little" until a deal is inked. Right now, all we have is an anonymous executive telling water cooler tales to the Post.

But in any case, Vegas is prima facie one of the league's smaller markets and it surely should have been expected that their TV deal would reflect that.

 

[snovalleyhockeyfan]

Perhaps what may be best for them out of the gate is for them to sign with an established OTA (read: network affiliate) station for the first one or two years while they get that RSN situation sorted out. The NBC station there is owned by Sinclair, which also has a CW station in that market that they could drop most of the games onto with selected weekend games being picked up by NBC locally. Sinclair is the one behind that American Sports Network so you know.

Having the games on over the air TV would help increase exposure to the local market and perhaps drive some ticket sales as well.

 

[BattleBorn]

Perhaps what may be best for them out of the gate is for them to sign with an established OTA (read: network affiliate) station for the first one or two years while they get that RSN situation sorted out. The NBC station there is owned by Sinclair, which also has a CW station in that market that they could drop most of the games onto with selected weekend games being picked up by NBC locally. Sinclair is the one behind that American Sports Network so you know.

Having the games on over the air TV would help increase exposure to the local market and perhaps drive some ticket sales as well.

Sinclair's also got an affiliate in Reno.

I don't know if it's still the case, but KSNV (the local NBC affiliate owned by Sinclair) used to have sister stations through the Valley Media Group while they were still known as KVBC in the other smaller media markets in the Southern Nevada/Eastern California/Western Arizona area. That could add some small numbers to the overall viewership.