The Albuquerque Thunderbirds are coming to the small screen (read: the screen that’s probably considerably larger than that of the computer monitor you use to watch D-League games on Futurecast).
On Friday, the Thunderbirds announced a partnership with Quote Unquote, Inc., which operates Encantada TV, to air tape-delayed home games on the channel through the rest of the season. The ‘Birds will be getting plenty of face time as game film will be broadcast thrice weekly: 6 p.m. Tuesdays, noon Wednesdays and 3 p.m. Saturdays.
Thunderbirds Vice President of Business Operations Adam Minnick said no money will change hands as part of the partnership agreement.
“It’s a complete trade deal,” Minnick said. “They’ve got some tickets to our games, they’re getting some branding at our games and we’re getting some branding on some of their other shows. In my opinion, in markets of this size and at the minor league level, those [barter deals] are a lot more valuable than cash going one way or the other sometimes. When you can have a true partner in the media, it really helps.”
It bears reiterating that, as is the case in the D-League’s national deal with VERSUS, T-Birds games will not be shown live on Encantada (so far, the only team that I’m aware of to reach such an agreement is the “12 consecutive sellouts and counting” Maine Red Claws, who will have select home games shown on Time Warner Cable’s TWC TV). During our chat late Friday, Minnick sounded upbeat about the Encantada arrangement and said while he would love to have all road games carried live, he isn’t sure if live coverage of home games would be a help or a hindrance in Albuquerque.
“Does it deter attendance?” he asked. “There’s two different theories on that at the minor league level. At the major league level, no, it helps attendance. That’s been proven. At this point, I’d take any TV coverage. In an ideal world, I’d love to be sold out and have games live, but to me, the live broadcasts aren’t as important as just getting the broadcast on, even on a tape delay.”
I wish there a more effective way in print to demonstrate the way Minnick drew out the phrase “just getting the broadcast on” without resorting to typing certain letters in each of those words several times. But know that his tone alone made it evident just how important a step this is for the Thunderbirds.
The more I’ve mulled it over, the more comfortable I am with the idea that going live is far from a necessity from a business standpoint at this time. Sure, on a personal level, I’d rather all the games were televised live simply because it would be nice not to have to squint at my laptop screen and rely on the mercy of my Internet provider in order to watch D-League hoops. But as is presumably the case for most other hardcore D-League observers, watching on a computer isn’t a deal-breaker for me, and the people that are really concerned with seeing the games live will see them by watching Futurecast. Those people don’t comprise the target audience for a deal like this. This is about grabbing eyeballs that aren’t normally on the D-League and convincing them that making the trip out to the arena is a fun experience that is worth their while. It’s hard to imagine those people flying off the handle because the games aren’t being shown live (or perhaps even realizing that they aren’t).
Minnick used similar reasoning in his explanation of why the new TV deal only covers home games for the ‘Birds.
“We want our fans to get a feel for what they’re missing out on by not coming to Tingley Coliseum,” he said. “By seeing the games that go on [during timeouts], seeing the sumo wrestling, seeing the quality of basketball, seeing the entertainment and the excited fans, we want people to see what they’re missing by not coming out to one of our home games and to get them out there.”
Speaking of the quality of basketball, the timing couldn’t be better in that regard: Television viewers will get to see a squad that has won 10 of 13 since the turn of the calendar to jump to 13-12 on the season.
The more D-League action available on television sets anywhere, the merrier.
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Memo from the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: I recently answered some questions from Empty the Bench‘s Brian Spencer, who said some kinder things about me than I deserve as calling me “that schlemiel who took too long to answer our questions” would have been accurate (though it’s really a credit to Brian for sending over some really thought-provoking stuff). Thanks to the folks from ETB for letting me babble a bit over there, and be sure to look out for Part II, which is in the works for the near future.
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