Defending Peter Angelos is like backing a bully. But sometimes even the billionaire of Baltimore is right.
For so long, it was easy to blame the Orioles owner for not only blocking Washington’s bid for a major league team, but for Comcast subscribers’ inability to watch Nationals games. Well, you can still hold a grudge against him for delaying baseball’s return, but the TV deal is much more complicated.
Angelos remains partially to blame for the Nationals skimpy TV package. Comcast shares some of the fault while Major League Baseball gets a lion’s share of the blame for mishandling the Nats relocation costs. When it comes to the wealthy individuals and corporations fighting over hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s pretty hard for the average Joe to feel sympathy while simply trying to watch the Nats.
To fans, all three simply stink.
In an exclusive interview with The Examiner’s Jim Williams on Monday, Angelos convincingly blamed Comcast for the blackout. Angelos really isn’t the bad guy in all of this. (May my keyboard burst into flames for ever writing such a thing.) The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) was largely created as a defensive measure for the Orioles to remain competitive with the huge TV revenues generated by the Yankees and Red Sox.
The Orioles were entitled compensation as part of a the territorial infringement by the Nationals that essentially reverted Baltimore back to a small market team. MLB, trying to not pay out of its own pockets, gave Angelos far more equity than they should have in the regional sports network for the Nats’ return.
MLB gave Angelos too much power in its limp negotiating bid to keep Angelos from suing his baseball brethren into oblivion for territorial infringement. Now that Angelos has all the power, he sure isn’t giving it back. Would you? Baseball should have struck a better deal at the start so we’re not saddled with watching so few games.
Angelos’ 90-percent ownership in MASN slips to 67 percent in coming years with the new Nats owners gaining 33 percent. Given Angelos created the network and pays the costs, he deserves more than half. However, MLB should have narrowed that gap to 55-45 plus provisions for equal ownership with a future lump sum payment.
Comcast didn’t foresee MASN’s impact in their own dispute with Angelos over Orioles rights. Poor, poor planning. Now Comcast either gives into Angelos’ demands, which will surely include the distribution of Orioles games on Comcast in Baltimore when the current cable deal expires in 2007, or the cable company has angry viewers in two cities.
Comcast is playing hardball with Angelos for Orioles games using the Nats TV rights. That means Washingtonians either get a satellite dish, live within several smaller cable network areas or watch 32 games on Channel 20.
Comcast could always bump your cable bill a few dollars monthly to cover any deal with Angelos. It may not go over well with folks who don’t watch the Nats, but I don’t watch two shopping channels and three Spanish language stations on Comcast so if someone else is sharing the pain for the Nats games, tough.
Angelos says the Nats and Orioles can work together. They can create cross-marketing given many fans watch both teams in different leagues. However, let’s remember Angelos has far more to gain by keeping good relations in the larger Washington market than the Nats do in Charm City.
If Angelos wants the Orioles to remain welcome in Washington, he needs to relent somewhat on this TV impasse. If Comcast wants to keep its customers happy, the cable giant should remember money isn’t everything and cut a deal. And if MLB doesn’t want to sour local fans even more than they have, it needs to name an owner and get out of our town satisfied with more loot than vikings used to pillage.
Meanwhile, “Gilmore Girls” is on tonight.
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
