I agree, there will be no expansion in today's environment. Atleast for many years. As I posted earlier, it is dog eat dog. The Sonics were stolen, so we can steal back.
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What local broadcast group is likely to pick up the rights to the new NHL team?
- Thread starter fordranger797
- Start date
I agree, there will be no expansion in today's environment. Atleast for many years. As I posted earlier, it is dog eat dog. The Sonics were stolen, so we can steal back.
The Sonics weren't stolen. Howard Schultz mismanaged the organization into almost-insolvency, then with the help of 'Mayor McQuimby' and David Stern, worked a deal behind their backs with Oklahoma City. The whole outrage on the part of both parties in front of the fans during the drama was all Kabuki Theater. The City received north of $50 million, and Howard managed to break even, recovering his losses, plus original purchase price of $220M.
Steve Ballmer paid a Billion dollars for the LA Clippers a few years ago. Any team in any market right now is worth that, plus another $200M. I know of no Seattle entrepreneurs willing to spend that much on a professional sports franchise, mainly because the return on that large of an investment is nil. Especially true these days when professional sports and entertainment is effectively shut down.
Stolen in the sense that Clay Bennett said he would keep them here and then immediately moved them. To me that is theft in the first degree.
He said he'd keep them in Seattle if the city would agree to finance a new arena. That didn't happen, and he moved.
Then the city sued him. The city won, and Bennett paid the city to compensate them for their loss:
The city of Seattle will be paid $45 million in exchange for letting the Sonics move to Oklahoma City this year as part of last-minute settlement announced this afternoon.
Sonics owner Clay Bennett may have to pay an additional $30 million in five years if the city is unable to secure another NBA team, under the terms of the settlement announced at simultaneous press conferences in Seattle and Oklahoma City.
If you consider an advantageous business deal 'stealing', especially when you have the Mayor helping, then okay.
Howard needed to sell the team, and the City needed to recover rent on KeyArena. Bennett knew going-in that there was no chance Seattle would allow a new arena to be built. Barry Ackerley proved that several years earlier after owing the lot where Safeco Field was eventually built. The City was going to sue anyone who was going to build a new arena. Why do you think the Center building has been rebuilt twice, rather than building a new one?
Just remember your outrage about the loss of the Seattle Supersonics before buying your next coffee at Starbucks. Suffice it to say that Clay Bennett wasn't the liar here.
Now we're jumping back to post #1, which laid out the battle between Bonneville and iHeart. They control the only three sports parking lots in the market. KIRO is booked with MLB and NFL. KJR has the space but maybe not the interest in hockey (from fans or hosts). KFNQ has the space but not really a market-grade signal. Will a pure FM or KOMO jump in? I'd hazard a guess that the games will air on 1090.
I might agree. Take a look at the deal iHeart made in Phoenix for the Coyotes.
Great, unless the games are played after sunset.
So true. I remember trying to tune in 1090 AM (then of course KING-AM) in Federal Way after sunset back in the early 80's. Instead all I could hear was XEPRS out of Baja Mexico. And they didn't even have the Wolfman on!
There are multiple reasons why 1090 wouldn't work as the official broadcast location for the new team. Signal quality is an important factor, but also the fact that 1090 is already the home of the Seattle Thunderbirds, which will inevitably have an overlapping broadcast schedule with the Seattle Kraken.
IHeart could always dump the Thunderbirds' games on another of its properties, even a music-formatted station. That's what happens in several cities in which scheduling conflicts arise. Or it could just have no further interest in the junior hockey team now that it has rights to an NHL club.
What will actually happen is that the Thunderbirds will fold or relocate before the Kraken play their first game. They are not a factor in where the Kraken will land on the Puget Sound radio dial.
And assuming iHeart doesn't want to dial back Seahawks and NFL talk on KJR-AM in favor of NHL, that then makes 1090 the natural landing spot for hockey, weak signal and all. I'm thinking the team is far more concerned about finalizing a local TV deal than a radio deal -- they recently signed a guy to be their PBP voice for TV and/or radio.
And assuming iHeart doesn't want to dial back Seahawks and NFL talk on KJR-AM in favor of NHL, that then makes 1090 the natural landing spot for hockey, weak signal and all. I'm thinking the team is far more concerned about finalizing a local TV deal than a radio deal -- they recently signed a guy to be their PBP voice for TV and/or radio.
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950, 1000 and 1090 have almost identical 5 mV/m daytime population coverage, although not identical areas. 3.3 million to 3.4 million, with the total market being 4.6 million.
KIRO is only slightly better with 3.9 million.
Of course, at night all get worse.
(And today, 5 mV/m is not adequate in many areas of today's cities)
Since most hockey games are played at night (in normal seasons, that is), that doesn't sound good for any of those stations. Of course, most fans would be watching the games at home, anyway, so the radio audience would be negligible even on an FM signal.
?Estoy hablando con The Old Gringo??
Your comments on the strengths of the various signals are interesting, particularly WRT live sports programming which requires a strong nighttime metro signal. I live fairly well east of the City of Seattle and have observed that 710, 950, and 1090 (the "sports parking lots") are good in the day, wobbly at night. Upthread you can see posters.for whom 1090,doesn't work at all. As you hinted, the old coverage standards aren't adequate for where people live here.
1000/97.7 has the strongest real-world coverage of the bunch in my experience, but I get the impression they don't need or want sports. So I don't think they're an option for the hockey team. For max reach the team should go for an FM affiliate but I don't know who's interested.
I'll leave the coverage misinformation correction to Steve & Kelly (you guys ever thing about doing a morning show?) but as for KOMO picking up the hockey franchise - they already have Huskies sports (currently suspended) so I doubt Sinclair would spend the $$$.
Don't leave Entercom out of this - I wouldn't be surprised to see the Kraken on KISW. It's talk in AM and PM drive already so it wouldn't be a stretch to add hockey.
That's an interesting thought. Anyone who's been to a hockey game knows they love rock music. But it is an 82 game season, and that's a big commitment. Lately Entercom isn't good at the commitment thing.
The move of UW athletics to KJR was announced in March.
https://sportsradiokjr.iheart.com/c...broadcast-agreement-with-iheartmedia-seattle/
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