KOMO AM 1000 - M's

[LAallnews]

BONGWATER:

Yes, Entercom walked away from the Mariners. But at $10M per year, I think that was a good walk.

Entercom didn't lose the Mariners because it was a bad business deal. It lost the Mariners because it drove them away with an insulting, arrogant attitude during negotiations. Telling the team, "We made you what you are," isn't exactly a great way to get a fair deal. The deal is expensive, there's no doubt about that, but KOMO has the M's only because KIRO is so full of itself.

Interesting comments.

KIRO's biggest mistake last time was not wrapping up a Mariner's deal during an exclusive negotiating period which has traditionally been in Seattle pro sports broadcast contracts. KIRO did an excellent job in the 80's and 90's of "protecting the franchise" by not allowing competitors to even get a shot at making a bid. This isn't the first time KOMO has made a crazy bid on broadcast rights.

While none of the Entercom execs were there at the time, the Mariners DID lobby KIRO very hard to come on the station -- and KIRO at the time was reluctant because of the impact on afternoon drive news services and commercial inventory. In the long run, the association was a good one. Baseball has done well in Seattle from an audience standpoint and particularly for KIRO as its pure programming shares began fading in the mid 90's. The sports numbers -- which made KIRO scary-dominant in the 80's/early 90's now provided that something-extra they needed to stay high in the rankings and get in on buys they'd otherwise lose.

I'd suggest that KIRO's "arrogant" tone a few years ago might actually be just a taste of what the Mariners are hearing now. You think Fishers' CEO made those recent comments by accident? $10M, if that is accurate, is WAY too much for the Mariner rights -- and probably too much for any team, in any market.
Stations are just not willing to make deals likely to lose millions every year. MLB teams, in several markets, for the first time are settling for broadcast rights deals $3-4 million less than their previous deals. Some deals are combo rights/revenue sharing. And then you have the Anaheim Angels where the owner bought a radio station, primarily to air/sell his baseball games.

Fisher is either out -- staying in just to get Bonneville to pay too much -- or setting the table to tell the Mariners, "we're only willing to make a deal that makes sense." It's a new world out there and sport franchises are learning that even long time associations can't be turned into big money losers. KIRO's already dealt with the financial impact of losing the Mariners, so, if they're smart, they should be able to focus on coming up with the number that can beat KOMO -- and not lose money.

 

[Jigawatts]

I couldn't find the answer to this in any of the posts, so I'll ask. When does the KOMO/M's contract end, and when can we watch Fisher and Bonneville duke it out for the M's?