Tim Tucker of the AJC reports that Fox Sports South and ESPN have reached a deal whereby Fox Sports South will televise 91 sporting events per year including 7 SEC night football games and 20 men's basketball games.
Several weeks ago, Comcast / Charter Sports Southeast and ESPN reached a separate deal to televise 6 more games (no start time announced), 20 men's basketball games and other sports. Essentially, ESPN negotiated the rights to all SEC sporting events not televised by CBS for the next 15 years. ESPN can sell the games that they don't have inventory to televise.
Per this article in the Birmingham News and the Tucker article above, it sounds like there will be 40-46 SEC night games per year (depending on what time the CSS games air). That means 3-4 night games per week across the league. LSU fans everywhere are rejoicing while Mike Adams and Athens Law Enforcement Agencies weep openly.
What does this really mean for UGA? It's unclear because the pecking order for the Tier 2 and Tier 3 games isn't obvious. Also, it seems obvious that Adams and the cops will request some games not be played at night. That said...I'm now thinking that Georgia is looking at 3 home night games (SC, ASU and AU) and one home 3:30 pm (LSU) kickoff. We'll see.
The only way that would work for the cops, city and Adams would be if the Arizona State and/or Auburn games were twilight ESPN2 starts to keep the crowd a little more manageable / sober.
PWD
27 comments:
Mike Adams can blow it out his ass.
Bought time!
Three night home games? Sweet! The later the game starts, the more the advantage leans to the home team. (Please disregard last year's Alabama game.)
Dang, I may have to subscribe to the sports super pack on DirecTv after all.
Quite simply, look for Mr. Adams, et al, to impose a no tailgating before noon policy on night games.
I am thinking eventually we will see something similar to ASU where the policy is X number of hours.
So is this deal in addition to the deal already reached with ESPN? Or is ESPN just selling these 7 games for Fox Sports South to televise?
dawgnotdog...
That would lead to terrible unintended consequences. People are still going to arrive in town early and most likely begin imbibing when they do. Then you have streets full of semi-intoxicated drivers and pedestrians. That won't end well. You are much better off letting people tailgate for 12 hours, getting drunk off their asses, and have to deal with the trash problem.
I'm guessing these games will be some of the last picks.
Bama - FIU
AUB - Ball State
SC - FIU
UT - Memphis
Maybe for us the UK game?
"In order to have a great atmosphere inside and outside of Sun Devil Stadium for home football games, tailgating policies are in place. These policies coincide with the Arizona Board of Regents policy 5-108 (A)(8) which states the authority of the president to permit the consumption of alcohol at designated times and in designated areas of the university on days when football games are played at the Tempe campus. Unless otherwise designated by the president, consumption of alcohol at authorized tailgate parties is limited to beer and wine and does not include spirituous liquor, wine, or other alcoholic beverages. "
Michael Adams can't take my Bourbon and Coke away.
Realist...
I do not disagree with you at all, but this is an administration that can not see the forest for the trees. And I am including public safety in that grouping.
Everything they have ever done has seemed to solve a problem only to create 2.
There is no reason whatsoever that grassy areas behind sidewalks (speaking specifically about the intersection of River Road and the Ramsey Circle) can not be used for parking, for example.
The seven o'clock start time sounds great, but in reality, it creates a sort of panic, and at times friction, at certain spots on game day....allow people to trickle in and you alleviate that.
It's gonna happen at some level if we continue to have more night games, which it appears we will, and yes, you are correct, the unforseen consequences will be much worse.
As some of you go about planning your awesome tailgates, aren't you even a little concerned that "night game" is going to eventually end up being "Thursday Night"? We have said we won't do it, but they paid a lot of money on these contracts....
I am not concerned about Thursday nights at all.
Contract calls for 2 a year. MSU, OM, SC need and love those more than we do.
ACC has a huge contract...they will eat up a lot of the Thursday slots
Pac 10 is desperate to get on espn....they will do so by doing Thursday night stuff.
NOt gonna happen for many many years, if ever.
Question for those of you outside the country or living in Montana (or some other place where they don't know the Dogs).
Now that ESPN has a big deal with the SEC would it be better to get a Slingbox or ESPN Gameplan to watch Georgia while living overseas?
I was considering a Slingbox, but during the first 5 days back in the US, I realized that TV in general sucks. And all I really want to watch is some college football (UGA) and 2 network TV shows that I can also get via iTunes.
Plus, correct me if I am wrong, but with Gameplan I can watch or rewatch the game at a later time and not at midnight when it would start in Asia.
Thoughts?
This is GREAT news to a diehard college football junkie like myself. I had to ask myself last night: "Why on earth are you watching the 2005 UNC v Maryland game?" Because I crave college football the way Gollum craves the ring, Kate Gosselin craves human male blood, and Barney craves Duff.
"Just stick it in my veins!"
I'm all for the night/later starts, as it means I don't have to blow out of the house near as early, which is a concern with two small kids now.
As for Mike's fear of trash, he could kill two birds with one stone, and make a pretty profound point at the same time. Any UGA student picked up by either campus or ACCPD for an 'alcohol related crime' gets to pick up trash at 8am the following gameday sunday.
Mike gets to make his grand point about the evils of underage consumption, and drinking in general, and doesn't have to pay anybody to pick up the mess.
JasonC. If you have the internet I would think most all these games will be on espn360 which would be cheaper and most computers\laptops can easily be connected to TVs. It might be a cheaper or efficient way to watch
S.A.W.B.
I am a believer that the legal drinking age should be 18 but since it's not that actually sounds like a very good and fair punishment for a non-violent, non-driving alcohol related crime.
@JasonC - Gameplan sounds great, but make sure it is available overseas. Plenty of video hosting sites work great in the US, but don't allow anyone else to watch.
And Mike Adams can try and say "no tailgating before X time" but can he actually enforce that? Ask him how well that Family Friendly Zone bs worked out for all concerned.
If Adams limits tailgate times, I'm buying a bar in Athens and opening at 6 a.m.
@ will & anon,
When I looked into 360 last year, I don't think it was offered in Hong Kong. I remember a friend using Gameplan in Thailand & Taiwan, but I think she used a US-based VPN to connect.
Some international fans have told me that they use SlingBox and Tivo to watch games. A family or friend hooks the SlingBox up at their place, and they watch remotely.
I've even talked to missionaries in China who've done that.
PWD
Tebow watches the DAWGS on slingbox while performing circumcisions.
Does anyone know if FoxSports South is in HD or am I going to have to watch what looks like tv hidden behind wax paper?
Cadillac Bill,
I get select Fox Sports South shows in HD through U-Verse (like some Braves games). I didn't get any FSS in HD when I had Comcast.
X-Dawg,
Unfortunately Comcast is my cable carrier. Every time I would watch a PAC-10 game on FoxSports, it looked foggy and misty on the tv even in dry and nice conditions. They must use a really crappy filter on their lens. Thanks for the heads up anyway!
to hell with adams, to hell with the clarke county gustapo! i just wanna win
It's amazing how LSU can have all these night games but it is never an issue for them. Maybe Adams could take a look at the steps they take to clean up the place. I love the idea about using the underage kids who get in trouble to pick up the trash. Could you imagine them trying to limit tailgating times here? They would have to call in the SWAT team because no one is going to listen to that.
Post a Comment