Dodgers Team News

Stan Kasten on Dodgers’ TV Deal: ‘We will all see together’

There are two topics that are sure to rile up Dodgers fans: The front office and that damn TV deal.

It’s totally understandable, too. To a certain extent, it doesn’t matter if the Dodgers make some huge move because the majority of fans can’t actually watch the team play.




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I can’t express how much I miss listening to Vin Scully take us on a stroll of memory lane as he simultaneously guides us through a game. Fortunately, once the football season ends, as does my contract with DirecTV and I’ll be making the switch.

ESPN’s Mark Saxon asked Stan Kasten about the TV deal, who sounds just as frustrated as any of us.

Now to your favorite topic: Do you have any further optimism that your channel, SportsNetLA, will be available to more homes in Southern California next season? Could the dispute with DirecTV and other carriers carry through a third season?

Kasten: I don’t have any news, which is one reason why I don’t answer questions on this every day. It got kind of silly. But there isn’t a day that goes by, including earlier today, when we haven’t engaged in some conversations with someone or multiple parties or companies looking to find the best path to finally get everyone access. Are there some companies that after two years of not giving their customers the Dodgers, never will? At some point you might just have to accept that, but today people should be convinced we’re doing all we can. I can’t talk to anything substantive, because the minute we do it gets mischaracterized and sets us further back in terms of resolution.

As hard as we have worked on the product, the team, the stadium, our community relations in the name of solidifying our core of fans, this TV thing has hurt our fans more than anything else. This problem has bothered me more than any other we have had.

Once all these mergers are final could that lead to resolution?

Kasten: I’m tired of predicting that, but I am hopeful. I guess we just have to see how it all works. You have new companies owning rights that have to deal with other companies that thus far didn’t feel the need to provide the Dodgers to their customers. We will all see together.

Look, all sides are culpable in this fiasco. It’s Vin’s last season and millions won’t be able to watch. Here’s hoping they can find some kind of solution to fix that.

As frustrating as it might be, though, please don’t kill the messenger. All we can do is provide the news and updates as they come along — if they ever come along.

NEXT: Maeda Prefers West Coast, Making Dodgers Favorites

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8 Comments

  1. It’s just like taking to the last ownership you just get the feeling they don’t care

  2. Longtime Dodgers fans will remain Dodgers fans whether they can see the games or not. What is going to hurt the club in the long run, however, is the fact that they aren’t growing any new fans. If kids today are watching baseball in the Los Angeles/Orange County area (those who can’t get Time Warner Cable that is), they are watching the Angels on Fox Sports. Dodgers brass can wring their hands all they want and moan and complain, but they are the ones who made the deal with TWC and a boatload of money along with it. They can point to attendance being up at Dodger Stadium, but it goes up every year, so having games on TV doesn’t really matter. I can’t see the club, no matter how much they “complain,” really giving a damn whether games are televised or not. And it’s particularly irksome to many that the brass didn’t take this windfall of money and spend on quality free agents. Their own pockets are, not doubt, well-lined with cash and they can laugh all the way to the bank while the rest of us are left with trying various ways to see or hear the games on TV or radio (yes, some of us live out of radio contact because of geography, ie. mountains, that stop the signals). Anyway, after Vin leaves, maybe a lot of us old-timers will leave along with him. Good riddance to yet another front office that doesn’t seem to give a damn, despite weak protests that they do.

  3. 6 minutes ago
    simply greed by the people who bought the team we’ve supported for so many years…Stan be the man who breaks the log jam…part with some money – that will fix it! IF YOU CARE.

  4. I live 24 miles from the Oregon border, but I’m an LA County native, and a Dodger fan since they moved west in ’58.  I was angry the first year, somewhat mad the second, and now I have simply decided not to watch television baseball anymore.  I follow the Dodgers on the Internet.  Boy, do I miss out on the commercials!  I have no idea what the new products on the market are; I don’t know anything about specials, or special promotions.  TV advertising works very well.  Yet, the powers that be have reduced me to a 1930’s-style baseball fan, simply reading about it.  Oh well…  It is fun to read about the Blue Crew.  If the owners involved in all the broadcasting shenanigans–cable people, team owners, brand mangers etc.–don’t care, then I guess I no longer do either.

  5. Mr. Kasten, you sound tired of hearing people moan about the lack of TV access to the Dodgers. But really, the right thing to say would be: “we’re going to get this done.” It’s about results, and giving the customer what they want. Stop making excuses, and get all parties in the same room, and tell them “let’s make this work. Now.”

  6. BobRohwer
    Couldn’t agree with you more. The 1% just don’t give a sh*t about the 99%.

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