“What channel is the game on?” It’s a lot more complicated than it used to be – or needs to be. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the MLB ethos on media, streaming and how we find baseball in 2025. And, more importantly, where the new ownership of the Orioles find their fan base with the MASN mess left behind with the Nationals from Team Angelos’ mismanagement and chaos.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the future of sports broadcasting, focusing on the shift towards streaming services. They highlight the challenges of balancing profitability with fan engagement, using examples like the NFL’s move to streaming and the NBA’s experiment with free TV. Jones emphasizes the need for teams to set appropriate price points to attract fans without alienating them. They also discuss the impact of streaming on sports bars and the importance of maintaining fan interest through strategic pricing and content offerings. The conversation underscores the complexity of navigating the new media landscape in sports. They also discuss the complexities of streaming MLB games, including the need for a direct-to-consumer option and the potential for free TV games to attract subscribers. They express frustration with the current streaming model and the lack of accessibility for fans. The conversation also touches on the broader issues in baseball, including the decline of regional sports networks and the need for a new distribution model.
Nestor Aparicio 38:44
Baseball doesn’t even have that situation where, but I don’t know that these people know where their money’s coming from, or mass and there’s so much uncertainty in I mean,
Luke Jones 39:30
you just don’t know what it’s going to look like, you know? I mean, even, I mean not, not specific to the Orioles, but it still impacts them, and it reflects where we are now. I mean baseball and ESPN breaking up after this. I’m not shocked by it. ESPN hasn’t made any kind of an effort to really make baseball part of its print closure. Why? I don’t know. I’ll tell you exactly it’s
Nestor Aparicio 39:59
all. Old, it’s white, it’s slow, it’s
Luke Jones 40:03
bad. I think that’s the I’m not saying there are 200 games. There’s just a lot saying there aren’t elements of truth to that, but that’s the lazy way of the reality is, I’ll tell you why baseball’s a regional game. It’s a local game. If you’re an Orioles fan, and I’m not even saying you watch seven days a week, but let’s say you try to watch five days a week, which is still 15 hours right there on average, right how many hours a week does it take to watch the Ravens? Three? So of course, you have a little more disposable time, you know, without kicking off your wife or your kids or or, you know, whatever. Well, it’s almost like soap
Nestor Aparicio 40:46
opera an hour at a time, you know, that my mother would have on days of our lives, or whatever it happened, five days a week. And say, my God, that’s like five hours a week. That’s a lot. And I thought nothing of giving the Orioles 30 hours a week, 40, if I was on the bus back and forth 100 if you and I are in Toronto for four days, chasing a couple of baseball games. So like I you know, the baseball time element is you’re either nerds like you and me and all in I’m only half a nerd, you’re holding just a with it. So or they’re trying. Katie Griggs is trying to make little nerds or convert little lacrosse nerds or soccer nerds, or get your daughter or your your sister’s daughters involved in it because they want softball and this and that. It’s crowded, dude, it’s crowded. And ESPN just said, we can’t make money on this. It’s too old, it’s too white, it’s too slow, it’s too regional. It’s do this. Let’s do that. Whatever it is, we can’t make money on
Luke Jones 41:39
it anymore. I don’t know if ESPN can make money in anything other than maybe the NFL at this point. Steven a Smith, and part of it, part of it, well, they’re good at that full disclosure. And, you know, I’ve told you that I recently, I cut the cord, right? I no longer have satellite. I actually, and this won’t be, this is just for the now. You know, in the last month, I actually have not had ESPN. Reason why is, I didn’t really have a strong meet. I have no interest in watching Stephen A or any of their morning shows in the way that 25 years ago, I loved watching SportsCenter, and I love watching baseball tonight, you know, with Carl Ravitch, and they’d actually do highlights and all that. I mean, ESPN doesn’t do that kind of stuff anymore, but because the Terps typically play on either Fs one or Big 10 Network or CBS, they’re not on ESPN this time of year, maybe non conference early in the year. They are, but they aren’t this time of year. I haven’t had ESPN in three weeks. I will be picking it back up as I pivot to another streaming package that I’ll be able to get mass and with and everything fubo, for anyone wondering, that’s, that’s the one you know that and direct TV streaming are the two that offer mass.
Nestor Aparicio 42:48
I can’t even speak to this because you’re in Pennsylvania. My wife’s a 34 year as of today, of Verizon employee. And you know, we, we have our the thing we have. So when I hear all of this, and I hear it from everybody and everywhere, including my kid, whatever, and the thing that drives me totally batshit is that when my phone I’m planning right now doing the crab cake tour thing in August, and I’m going to be out on the road, I’m going to do my favorite foods all over the state with the lottery and sponsors and whatnot. And it just drives me crazy that when I’m out in places at seven o’clock at night that I can’t put the phone on in my car, on video, that I have to have Bao on the radio. No offense. Brett, anybody on business like I should be able to watch the game in the toilet at a rest stop, on on I 95 if I want to on my phone. And it should just be clear. And I think between the Angelos family, cord cutting, mass and disillusion like this, all of this thing, I just, and I’m an old guy, but I’m not a young, old guy, and I can figure things out. I’m just trying to, like, feed me what the charge is. You know, when I when I go through the tunnel, I know what it costs. And I just like, at some point they need to figure their model out. And this goes into Dylan season, signing players and no quite much money they’re gonna have and all that, because they have not in it in any way, especially here, if it’s a regional sport here, it’s dead here because it’s been run into the ground by the creep that owned the team for 30 years and everything about it, including today, that you could go down and get a press pass, and I can’t, because the woman who’s been running the place from the old people still thinks I’m a jerk and never met me. So they’re still doing things to this minute that have to do with old world that I can’t explain to anyone in my world, and I can’t explain even how to get the games. And I think until they get to the point and and it’s gonna become pay for the game, like the Apple TV on Friday night, where they just take the game away from me and make it so hard. This starts at the top of a level of arrogance in these Country Club me. Manfred’s been making $30 million a year. For since Peter ran for me at the Hyatt back when he got named. And so these are not people making decisions based on reality. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what Katie Griggs knows or not or in this, but they just got to change so many things in order for this to be as successful as it could and should be.
Luke Jones 45:20
Yeah, no doubt, you know a couple things, and I’m trying to work backwards to finish my point on ESPN, I haven’t missed it. I’ve missed it one night when the US played Canada last Thursday night in the, you know, the hockey, you know the all star, you know format, that they missed the Orioles when they’re on Friday night and playing some game. And then I was just finishing my Yeah, it’s easy to miss things I see the next the next frontier. And look, full disclosure, you can watch games on your phone if you have a subscription to mass, right? If you have mass in through your cable provider, your satellite, fubo, Direct TV streaming, that’s basically the net. Or if you’re out of the mart, you know, if you’re out of the Baltimore area, mlb.tv which is a great service, but you know, that’s for out of market. If you’re in market, you’re out of luck with that. So the next frontier is direct to consumer options, being able to purchase mass and without having DirecTV or XFINITY or whatever. You know, whatever your cable or satellite provider is or used to be. So I think the athletic actually did a piece on this last week. I think it was in concert with the Mets. Now have a direct to consumer option. We are now up to, I believe it’s 22 of the 30 major league teams now have a direct consumer option. When I say direct to consumer for everyone listening, meaning, there is some kind of subscription that you can pay, and most of the teams are, you know, it’s $30 a month, or you get it, you know, some kind of a package, 100, $130, a year, whatever, whatever it is that you will have a login, that you can basically Have a mass and subscription and have have the Orioles, even if you don’t have anything else other than just an internet connection. So that’s the next frontier. Is it going to happen this year? I’m guessing not, since we’re already a month out from the season, but it better be next year then, because that’s where we’re talking and look, there are some other teams, like the Phillies, for example, they don’t have a direct to consumer option just yet, but we’re down to eight teams, and obviously the Orioles and the nationals are two of those eight teams, so but that’s the next frontier, and baseball teams and the sport at large and the yet, the ESPN thing ties into this in some shape or form. They’re trying to figure out what this looks like and look I mean, the NFL, we’re starting to see it evolve. I mean, there was a, you know, there’s been some scuttlebutt the last week that Netflix once in on they want a piece of the action of the NFL Sunday afternoon TV packages. I mean, you talk about something that would really change things. We’re not talking about a couple Christmas games. We’re talking about, if Netflix suddenly has CBS is package, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 48:06
mean, all of these, and Netflix is expensive, from what I understand. I mean, it’s $8
Luke Jones 48:10
I think it’s $8 a month with with ads, right? But, you know, it’s eight bucks for that. And how much is Max? How much is Disney plus, how much is you know, if you’re going to have ESP anyway, man,
Nestor Aparicio 48:23
I talked to Leonard. I did a whole segment with Leonard two weeks ago about, like, literally, this issue of, it’s a lie stop. How do we do it? What he he was a direct TV guy because of the NFL. He wanted the games for a long time,
Luke Jones 48:39
for a long time, and and there is a freedom to cutting the cord. However, there is a and I, again, full disclosure, the last month, I’ve kind of been shopping around, looking at my different options. A lot of these packages, like YouTube TV or a lot of them try to replicate what a cable or satellite package is, but you’ll find that just about all of them are missing something, right? YouTube TV doesn’t have TBS and TNT. What starts next month? That TBS is on TBS and TNT the NCAA Tournament, right? So there’s always whatever is that true TV? A true TV as well? Yes, yes, making sure, but, but the point is, like, YouTube TV is a really popular one, but, or no, I’m sorry, they have it. Fubo does not. So then it’s like, okay, well, you need Max. Then you know which is HBO Max, their streaming service, they have the ability to broadcast games on TBS, TNT, true TV, so you can use, they
Nestor Aparicio 49:41
don’t have the HBO Max because I went looking for the doc, rock doc and documentary because, and I don’t even know what the hell I have. My wife’s your finger, oh sure, the guide. And I’m like the unavailable, available. She said, we have that channel. It’s a live channel. And look,
Luke Jones 49:55
there’s an ability to save some money, if you are shrewd about. And you’re willing to jump from one to the other, one month to the other, but it’s a lot, rather than just paying your cable or satellite provider all those years and everything was there, right? Somebody
Nestor Aparicio 50:12
say what I say to my wife, I’m not giving any of those rat bastards on the internet my credit card. Fine. That’s it. Fine.
Luke Jones 50:18
That’s fine, and you’re not alone in that, I think. But this is the new world, and just as consumers are trying to figure it out, these teams are trying to figure it out. Now the NFL, and
Nestor Aparicio 50:32
it’s at the basis of how baseball is going to do Sure, the most important thing baseball is going to do is really organize this and sort it out and not say, Well, back in 1974 Mr. Steinbrenner had it out for everybody in the hawks and the doves of the owners in 94 in Ryan store, dude, that little Johnny, little Sally, you guys selling baseball. You’re not and they’ve done a lousy job. They really have. They’ve done a lousy job of selling a 55 year old, 56 now your old guy named Aparicio, who lives and dies baseball in the Orioles and built a friggin media company to support what they do. And I can’t figure it out, although I love you know I’m gonna watch the games you and I are gonna opine. I’m gonna know as much as anybody knows about it. Um, for you, and you got to get it to me. You got, you got, you got to know, you got to help me figure this out, so that my wife might want to sit and watch the Orioles too.
Luke Jones 51:27
And that’s where I still think. And this isn’t, this doesn’t just go for the Orioles in baseball. I would say the same thing about the NHL. I would say the same thing about the NBA. The NBA had the real trouble, right? The Yeah, and that’s where es ESPN still married to them, right? That’s why I kind of said, I’m not sure the ESPN is making money off anything but the NFL at this point. But on the flip side, the NFL gets more and more and more expensive, right? So for all these rights holders, so, but I think with, I think with those other leagues that are clearly, you know, it’s the NFL is way up here, and the rest of them are fighting for the scraps, right? You know, regional, local interest, right? Baseball is a local game. Because even as someone who loves baseball, but, and I say this more pretending I was just Luke Jones, the Orioles fan, right, rather than a media member, it takes a lot to follow one team, right? So if I, if I’m a die hard, how much time do I really have to watch other games on a regular basis? And that’s why I keep saying, like these, when
Nestor Aparicio 52:30
I was 18 caps, Terps, bullets, like, sure, and then these lacrosse heads would get all issue with me, right? Dude, I don’t starting. And then there’s college basketball, and there’s Patrick Ewing, and they’re like, and then
Luke Jones 52:45
there’s an Oh, yeah, you might have a wife, or you might have kids. Raw
Nestor Aparicio 52:48
is War is coming to town, and stones here, and I’m trying to meet girls, and on Monday and a concert on Wednesday, the stones are here. There’s just
Luke Jones 52:57
and the NFL is the one thing that is immune to all that, right? The NFL is king, and maybe it won’t be forever, but right now, it is everything else. I mean, everything else kind of cannibalizes themselves, right? They’re, they’re all fighting for it and but the reality is, for baseball to bring it back to specifically, they, have to figure out how this is going to fit. I’ve said to you a model to check out and you know you should look at this just because you’re a sports business guy. Take a look at what MLS has done with Apple TV. Basically their entire menu of games, like my brother in law is a Philadelphia Union fan, everything is on Apple TV, save for maybe, you know, handful of national TV games, you know, over the course of a month or a week, whatever. But their entire package is basically that, like you don’t see the Philadelphia Union. I don’t think I could be wrong on this, but my understanding is you don’t see any of their games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, it’s all on Apple TV. So I think baseball in some shape or form, and again, I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like. Maybe it’s prime, maybe it’s Netflix, maybe it’s a combination of a couple, where you’ll ultimately see all these teams have their games kind of based there, and then you’ll have either a subscription to everything, like NFL Sunday Ticket, or you have a subscription to your specific team. And I think that’s where we’re going in some shape or form. You know, I don’t know that ticket is what you’re looking at, but what’s the price point there, compared to all these teams having these RSNs, or RSNs that paid for rights fees that was connected to these cable and satellite monsters that were much more lucrative. But we all know that that bubble burst a long time ago at this point, and you know the air isn’t out of the balloon entire. Early, but it’s, it’s dude. Let me tell you this. Let me give you a model. It’s going to be empty, $299
Nestor Aparicio 55:06
a summer for your mother to have games. That’s $50 a month now, right? Six months, right? So that’s 300 that’s what it sounds like. And you could break that down and say, Well, it’s $1.64 a game, or whatever. However you’re going to do the math on that, right? Your mother spending 300 is your sister or you? You and your brother, me, my I don’t know. That’s not an outrageous ask. It’s not an outrageous amount of money. Sounds outlandish on the whole, though, when you break it down and say, and what am I getting, and what’s it worth? And how does this regard to mass and and other things and perch keys and bird Landes and mercies and all of that. Like if, if that’s their model. And I say, No, what’s the model to just watch the twins on Wednesday night or whatever? $5 a game, 899, then I’m never buying it, except if it’s September 21 and it’s a knockout game, and then maybe I’ll just go to the game that night instead. But I’m probably not going to go to the game because I haven’t watched any of the games, because I didn’t give him $300 to begin with. Sure. Well, and
Luke Jones 56:09
this is where they have to figure out the price point that makes sense for context, because we are now at a point with the way that some of the Bally and the RSN models crumbling bankruptcy. You know, we’ve seen that, you know, we followed that from afar, even if it hasn’t happened with mass and specifically. But the Cleveland guardians, you know, some similarities with the markets. You know, Baltimore, not exactly, you know, not saying it’s apples to apples, but relatively close. I suppose they are. Now, there are games. You can buy them directly. They have a direct to consumer option through major league baseball and mlb.tv the Cleveland guardians, you can pay 1999 a month. You can pay 9999
Nestor Aparicio 56:53
for month. And I got it by 12 months or six months.
Luke Jones 56:57
I think it’s just, just promote. So what happens
Nestor Aparicio 57:00
when the team stinks in July? They’re not going to stink, but if the team stinks in July, you just, you just get rid of you just, I’m out,
Luke Jones 57:07
okay? Or you do the cheaper one, and it’s $100 for the year or and that’s, you know that obviously you save some money doing it that way. I mean, you know that that’s not, you know, you see that all the time with cable and satellite and satellite and streaming options, things like that. If you commit to a longer time, you get you get it for better value, and then they have
Nestor Aparicio 57:27
the smarter thing to do is charge $200 and give them eight tickets for two games that, you know, like, that’s where this gonna wind up going, right?
Luke Jones 57:34
Sure, I and I think, I think that’s absolutely something that you’ll see teams, you know. I think that’s an option. I mean, I have Robbie Leonard on we talk many horse. He just gives him 1000 bucks at the beginning of the year, puts his credit card, just decides I’ll use it whenever I won the you know, that’s kind of thing you can do, right? What? My best friend actually, it wasn’t quite that much, but he had, it was a certain amount of money, and he bought a certain number of tickets for certain number of games over the course of the year. I think he last year with his kids. He was kind of busy in April and May. He, I think he started doing it in June, and then it was through the summer, but and then the last option that I wanted to mention, just because I was going through this guard, this guardians, new frontier for them, as they’re no longer, you know, tied to just cable. And so this is a model the Orioles come look at the other Cleveland guardians TV and mlb.tv which is basically NFL Sunday Ticket for Major League Baseball. That’s $200 where you would get the guardians and everything else for the season. So, you know, look for the baseball fan who had direct TV or Comcast or whatever they had it for all those years. Don’t pay that gladly. The difference is the number of people that were subscribed to cable and satellite who were paying for massen or paying for Bally or which is honestly what got Mr. Angelo’s rich right, the honest truth.
Nestor Aparicio 58:59
For 20 years, I tried to educate people that if you live in Middle River, look down the street. And every house that you have has cable TV, cents a month for they will never put mass in on ever but and every neighborhood you drive into, everywhere, go to Parkville, go to Dundalk, go to everywhere you go. Every if you fly into BWI, look down. Everyone down there that had cable television in 2003 was giving mister Angelo’s 3742 $52 a year, whether they were dude that financed that, you know, the whole era of baseball, all that we didn’t drink in. But that’s how Mark to share got paid in baseball 20
Luke Jones 59:40
years. Yeah, this is where I think, and I’ve had some experience with this too. As I told you, I’ve cut the cord. I have an indoor antenna in my living room here in southern Pennsylvania. Little thing that goes now it’s actually, it’s funny. It’s actually, I’ll actually, next time we reconvene. You know, even if it’s just you and I talking on Zoom, I’ll show it to you. It’s very, you know, it’s very simplistic. It honestly just looks like a sheet of paper, like a blank sheet of paper. Basically, in the
Nestor Aparicio 1:00:08
old days, I had a thing that would get Gary Michael capetti In on Channel 29 and 17 from Philly. My
Luke Jones 1:00:13
point with saying that is, people are cutting the cord. Antennas are becoming not a widely used thing, but people are using them again, if you’re baseball trying to cast the wider net in this new frontier of streaming. Hmm, maybe it might be a good idea to put 20 games on free TV again, to serve as commercials to get people to subscribe to your $20 a month service for a baseball team. I’m just saying, I think, in this day and age, as we’re going away from conventional cable and satellite, I think that might be something that teams should at least think about. And whether it’s 20, whether it’s once a week, twice a month, you know, whether you’re talking, you know, put it on Channel 13, channel 11, you know, in every given market. I do think there’s probably something to be said to utilizing that in terms of that being another commercial for your product. Otherwise, you’ve to the point that I made a couple minutes ago. Everyone that’s a one a Orioles fan will gladly pay $20 a month for games, right? I mean, they won’t even think twice about it. But for the people like my mom, you know, just to use, hi mom, you know, really simplistic example. Is she going to do it for $20 a month all season? Nope, she might do it in September, but otherwise it’s going to be, well, I’ll just watch games when I’m over at your house, or they’ll
Nestor Aparicio 1:01:41
do what they did in hockey season. I’ll tune in the games in the playoffs, right? So,
Luke Jones 1:01:45
so the point with that is, you’ve got to figure out the price point that you want to get. You’re you’re going to get all the hardcore fans right, assuming you don’t call charge something that’s insane. But is there a number that makes sense that you’re still profitable, but is still going to cast a wide enough net to attract new fans. That’s why I said maybe you do want to sprinkle in some free TV games to use as a commercial. I mean, year, decades ago, the idea of baseball on TV was all about, hey, come out to the ballpark, right? I mean, how many games you know, you’d show some road games. And hey, come out to the ballpark. Cotton candy looks so a little Jimmy there eating it. So you know some, I mean, we’re spitballing here. Look, at the end of the day, I’m not a TV executive, I don’t know, but I’m just they, they have to figure out where this is all going to fit. And yeah, the streaming services are absolutely going to be part of this. And that’s where you know, as much as you say, you’re not going to give them your credit card, they’re going to expect you to do that if you want all the games. But at the same time, whatever your new Mason is going to become, you know, whatever that direct to consumer model is going to look like, You got to figure out the price point that makes sense to one, you need to be profitable, but two, you need to have a attract a wide enough fan base that you can be profitable and continue to grow and make it healthy. So I think it can be done. But all of these teams, and this isn’t just an Orioles thing, this isn’t just a Katie Griggs and David Rubenstein thing. This is all of these teams trying to figure out in the new world what that is going to look like, in the same way that we’re now seeing the NFL go to more and more streaming games. I mean, that’s not going away. That’s that’s going to go continue to go in that direction. So Thursday night football lead
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:36
to Wednesday night football. And like, like I said, Netflix,
Luke Jones 1:03:39
Netflix has put it out there that, you know, once the NFL is up for their Sunday afternoon negotiating again, they’re going to try to get a piece of that. I don’t want that to happen, but, dude, we know the NFL. They’re soulless when it comes to maximizing profits. So if next Netflix end up, ends up being the highest bidder, there’ll be Sunday afternoon games on Netflix then and, you know, we’ll see what that looks like. But, you know, this is all so fascinating in terms of trying to really figure out where it’s going to go, what it’s going to look like. Where can they maximize things profit wise, while growing things long term. I mean, that’s been where baseball has been so near, you know, so short sighted in terms of trying to maximize the revenue now, but having no wherewithal to think about what it could mean for them 20 or 30 years down the line. That’s why I said. I think putting some games back on free TV as you’re trying to venture into this new frontier is probably a decent idea. And I think the Utah Jazz, for example, go, go, look at them. They’ve actually done that the last year or two. They’ve actually ventured into having some free TV after years of the NBA not being on free TV at all. So, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not an easy answer. You know, everything I said, these are you. It’s a hypothesis, right? It’s a educated guess as far as what it’s going to look like. But there are enough teams now to kind of see, you know, 20, $20 a month, $30 a month. How much is a season? Can Can I get you to spend a little bit more, and then I’ll give you the rest of Major League Baseball’s games? You know? I think, you know, there’s a pathway for it to be successful, but really figuring out exactly what it is, I think, is really fascinating. And to your point, if you’re not New York or LA or Philadelphia or the biggest markets in this country, you’ve got to be really meticulous about this. You need to be really deliberate about what your price points are going to be, in terms of wanting to be profitable, but also wanting to reach enough of your fans to continue to grow and make sure that you’re a healthy brand in the big picture. And everyone in TV is trying to figure that out here in 2025 sports and even beyond Luke
Nestor Aparicio 1:06:00
Jones is serious. Baltimore, Luke, just the last shot kicking the nuts for the NBA. My wife and I were Cooper’s pub the other night getting delicious chicken. Sammy and I, for the first time, had the salmon and the jasmine rice was delicious with the wilted, charred spinach, delicious. We’re in there. It’s all basketball and golf. The other night. It was after the NHL Thursday, Friday night. The NHL thing played the night before or whatever, and maybe Saturday night, either way, we were out. It’s up. It’s Friday night. All basketball on, and the wizards came on on the television, and they were on. And there was another NBA game that was like a real game between two teams that were like, good. I don’t know what it was. Two teams that were, you know, above 500 and the game was on there playing Milwaukee Bucks. The Wizards were so, you know, Giannis is in or DC, and, yeah, there’s people there, whatever. So I said to my wife, who was at one point such a huge Celtics fan back in the 80s, and, you know, DJ and the chief and, you know, all that stuff. Right back in the day, Red Auerbach, Celtics girl back in the 80s, she I’m watching NBA, the dude to save their life’s a big NBA fan, as you know, Neil’s Dirk Davis, all that stuff. So I said to my wife, who’s, you know, pretty cool and up on things knowing what’s going on with politics and pop culture and Grammys in Academy Award. She stays up on things she’s not. I said to her, Do you know the wizards record? She’s like, No, no. I said, well, they played 54 games. It’s February. How many do you think they’ve won? And she’s like, 54 I don’t know. 2025, and I’m like, nine, yeah. And that’s what she did, yeah. So I when you’re buying by the month, my point would be, I don’t know if I was paying $20 a month for that, whether I’m watching it or not, even if I love the wizards, even I’ve loved the NBA and I’m out in DC, whatever on a Friday night or whatever, I would say the parting shot. The last thing I’ll say about this is places like Cooper’s pub, places like Costas. When the Orioles go on these bandit Apple TVs, and when the NFL goes on these bandit places, they lose every sports bar in America. I mean, they they lose all of that ability. And I guess fans, and I’ve done they lose all of them, but my phone at the bar, I’ve done that. Yeah, I’ve done that.
Luke Jones 1:08:23
So some bars, I’ve been places where they do have that. But, yeah, your point is, well, taken that you’re not going to get all of them like you normally do, um, you know, the NBA, it’s interesting. You made mention of that. I mean, you know, I’m a, I’ve become a 70 Sixers fan over the last decade, and they’re horrible this year. I mean, it’s, you know, but at
Nestor Aparicio 1:08:43
least they’ve got 20
Luke Jones 1:08:44
wins, dude. Well, they do, but, but the but the same point. And my, my brother in law, who is a big 76 I mean, used to be a season ticket holder, even like this was like, Sam hinky, like process early years where they were winning 10 games a year, he would go to not every game, but a lot of games. And that was also when he lived further out that way, before he married my sister. But I even him like he’s he’s even said, well, the Sixers have made me a hockey fan again this year, like he’s watching the flyers more. So that’s the same thing. Now they would probably tell you, well, those kind of fans probably spent for the whole season anyway, but yeah, it’s a consideration, you know, and that that’s the whole thing with the cord cutting mindset for consumers
Nestor Aparicio 1:09:30
at this point on that, because I’m watching the NBA in the bar, and the ads that were playing between the breaks were hockey ads on monumental. And let me to give another cheap shot the monumental just for this. And this isn’t about TED or Zach, you know, whose arrogance is on that Chad Steele level, but he was born into it’s a little different, the notion that hockey ads and basketball ads and all that, and I have not literally put monumental Sports. It’s on. And I’ve had cable TV three years where I live now. I don’t know what channel it’s on. I haven’t watched it at all. I don’t know where it is. And I reached in the last you’ve paid for you’ve paid
Luke Jones 1:10:13
for it, though they’re getting
Nestor Aparicio 1:10:14
8their dollars, getting $1.20 a month for me, or whatever it is, right? Whatever the subs are, um, I reached to a monumental employee, broadcaster who I’ve known for a million years, reached back to me respectfully and said, We’re not allowed to come on and I’m like, you’re not allowed to promote the team that you’re you’re not allowed to promote the network. You’re not like, what? Like, really, okay, dude, the, you know, I won’t ask again, but it, it kind of pissed me off, because this is somebody that used to kind of hang out around here as a part of my thing and part of my world. And I’m like, that’s, that’s not good. I’m in Baltimore, Dude, I got 100,000 people following everything we’re doing all the time. Like, I’m trying to help you sell college basketball, NBA, the stuff that you have on, La Croix, whatever you have. And if I’m inviting people on and you’re telling them they can’t come on to promote your network, your sport, your thing, is what I would say to that.
Luke Jones 1:11:14
Luke Jones, exclusivity has two sides to it, right? You know, it’s great for the people who are in maybe, but you’re going to struggle to bring people in from the outside. Then Anyway, go ahead
Nestor Aparicio 1:11:25
that. Well, case in point with the Orioles and baseball, back to the beginning of the beginning of the beginning. They better figure out how to get people to care about this if we’re going to, if it’s going to work the way it needs to work financially for Mr. Rubenstein and on. And every time I think of him, I think of 1,000,000,008 and we’re going to pay the bill. We are going to pay the bill, we’re going to pay the bill, or the bill ain’t going to get paid. Sure, so I am Nestor. He’s Luke. We’ll get back. We’ll do some more baseball. We are W N, S, D, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore spring training, and the Orioles are waiting a World Series this year. I guarantee it. I think you.
