Nathan Hampton writes:
 
>Dear John, et al.
>" Despite the fact
>that anyone in town could pick up the game over the air without even
>having cable, the place with all the satellite dishes plans to turn
>every TV in the joint to the Utes-Tarheels game.  Tell me again how
>capitalism means more choices for the consumer?'
 
>You asked for it, there are economists on this list:
 
        Well, I was being rhetorical, but there are some interesting
issues involved here...
 
> Suppose one TV was
>turned to the hockey game from the basketball game. Would the number of
>happy people (hockey fans) out number/weigh the number of unhappy people
>(basketball fans)?
 
        But the two definitions of happiness are so drastically
different.  Their definition of happiness is being able to watch their
game anywhere and everywhere they feel like.  Our definition is being
able to watch the games *at all*.
 
>What people, particularly on this list, often forget is that college
>hockey fans are a pitiful minority. This talk of college hockey
>expansion is a JOKE. It ain't gonna happen because the fan base is not
>that large. Where is the NCAA Men's (and Women's?) Basketball Final --
>on major TV. Where is the NCAA Ice Hockey Final -- on cable ESPN. The
>facts are that (1) most sports fans not only don't care about college
>hockey, but they don't know anything about it; and (2) those of us who
>do care, do so, so vehemently and emotionally, that we forget to notice
>that others are twirling their index finger around their temples and
>pointing at us with the other hand.
 
        I'm not asking for college hockey coverage to become as
ubiquitous, nay inescapable, as college basketball.  In fact, it is
the relative obscurity that draws so many of us to the sport, since we
can enjoy the pure drama without the hype and commercialization of the
major sports.  Some of us at least would be repulsed if college hockey
ever turned into college basketball.  It would just be nice if, when
it comes up, the rest of the world would treat our sport with some
kind of baseline respect, rather than deeming a live playoff game less
important than a basketball pep rally or demanding that the one TV in
town that can get our game be switched over to the same game that
every place else in the city is watching.  (As an extreme example of
this sort of inanity, when Karl Malone was named NBA MVP, every local
TV station carried the press conference live, including the Fox
station which pre-empted a Stanley Cup playoff game to do so.  Thanks
for interrupting a live sporting event with that; I couldn't possibly
have flipped over to *any* *other* *station* to watch the press
conference.)
 
        The problem is that the sports bar paradigm is fundamentally
flawed.  This is the one and only outlet for a lot of people to see
some sporting events, but since they're not allowed to charge you for
the game, they instead sell you food and drinks.  Since that's how
they make their money, the game is only important to get people in the
door.  And since the same games that are relegated to satellite are
typically of interest only to a handful of people, those people are
viewed as unimportant compared to the masses who often enough are
there to see a game which, due to its popularity, they don't even need
to go to a sports bar to see.  Add to that the exclusion of the
under-21 sports fan (and in Utah the riduculous charade of buying a
"private club" membership), the sheer dishonesty of any sports bar
employee who is asked if a particular event will be available, and the
entry into the field of idiots who pipe music into the room rather
than letting people hear their own games...  Issues?  Just a few.
 
        The availability of mini-dishes has allowed a lot of obscure
sports fans to escape from this scene, but there are still plenty of
folks who can't afford to lay out a couple hundred bucks or don't have
living arrangements compatible with bolting a piece of hardware to the
side/roof of their dwelling.
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
        Learn about the NCAA selection process on the web at
       http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?pairwise
 
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