I read Steve's post to mean that the Beanpot final would be on ch 68 -
does this mean that the semifinals would stay with NESN?  I'll assume
that to be true in making the rest of my comments.
 
There are at least two big problems I see with moving the Beanpot to
ch 68:
 
* The area of coverage decreases greatly.  WSBK is seen by people all
over North America.  Some of these people are displaced Beanpot alumni
who watch the game, feel pride in their school and may make donations
or increased donations when their alum rep comes a-calling.  And some
are prospective college students or parents of prospective students
who could be led to investigate further one of the schools that is
playing.
 
If the Beanpot is moved to ch 68, it will hurt the schools who rely on
this additional exposure.  Harvard doesn't need it as far as what I
described above.  Northeastern needs it more than any of the other
three schools.  And BC & BU lie in between those two extremes.
 
As well, ch 68 doesn't even come in well in much of New England.  It
will be much harder for fans without cable to see the game.  That
hurts local exposure since only 15,000 can go to it.
 
* There is suddenly a conflict of interest between the event and the
station broadcasting it.  Ch 68, WABU (if I remember the call letters
correctly), is owned by BU.  They are the station that will be showing
a number of 15-20 BU games next season.  Anyone want to guess what the
chances are that if they carried the Beanpot, they would get a ton of
complaints from the other three schools regarding the coverage, no
matter how unbiased it may turn out to be?  And that is if it truly is
unbiased - we have seen what happens when schools in the area put
their games on local tv (UNH, UML).  I don't know who will be doing
the BU games or who would do the Beanpot on ch 68, but because of
these poor past examples, I have to be worried.
 
Basically, it could turn out to be very embarrassing.  I would be
interested to hear how much more money we are talking about, but I
doubt it would be significant enough to make me think that it is worth
risking these potential problems.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
<<<<< Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors (station TBA for 94-95) >>>>>