WGN No More?

[MrSheps]

 

The Phillies won 81, 73, and 73 games in the last three seasons.  They signed their mega deal in January of 2014.  Signed that deal despite "steep declines" in TV ratings over the last few years after having insanely good ratings while they were winning.  This is the last i'll comment on this.

 

Edit:  I'd like to add that this deal came on top of the knowledge that the Phillies will probably be bad for quite some time.

 

 

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The 2014 Phillies aren't the worst team in franchise history. Not even close. But, for reasons both athletic and aesthetic, they might well be the least interesting.

Except for the August surge of Ben Revere and the back end of their bullpen, these Phils have been exactly what their record and the steep declines in attendance and TV ratings suggest: virtually unwatchable.

 


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The Phillies on the surface seem like a good argument against the notion of short term ratings impacting deals, and in totality it probably is, but Funk, if you look back at the deal there's some stumbling blocks... 

 

First, the Phillies ratings absolutely peaked in 2011, they had an average year in 2012, and negotiated that deal in/after the 2013 season.  You're talking at most two bad seasons (well one that was .500) not what the Cubs have done over a longer period.  Plus, record high ratings 3 seasons prior.  So in the last three years prior to the Phil's deal you could categorize their ratings as "record high", "average to slightly above avg", and "low".   

 

Second, in that .500 season and the one that followed, the Phillies still bested the Cubs ratings wise fairly significantly, despite the Cubs being in a larger TV market.  In fact in 2012, a lot was written about the Phillies ratings fall from the high the year before, but they were still 4th in viewers behind the Yankees, Mets and Tigers.  Their low should, by market size, be lower than ours, but, partially because there are Sox fans in our market, and we have so many day games, and it was several years of losing as opposed to 1-2, they're not. Our low has been sub 50K homes, their low prior to their deal was still at 100K. 

 

Third, and most importantly, a lot has actually been written about the Phil's deal being too small and how ratings may have effected that. For instance, the Angels got a better deal overall prior to the Phillies' deal, but with the notion being the Phillies would best it when it was their turn.  They didn't.  Now LA is a much larger market, but the Phillies viewership, even in '12/'13 prior to their deal, was still higher than the Angels in terms of total viewers.  Some have written the decreasing ratings lessened their take in their deal.  (the counter is probably it was the bubble bursting, but search for "phillies tv deal 2 years late" and you'll see some articles on both sides of the discussion.)