Combatting league takeovers of access

NASCAR? PGA? Tennis?

Without your getting into some specifics, there's nothing much we can do to help.

 

If you've ever been credentialed for the MLB playoffs you know they give credentials... then they give the plastic clubhouse badges. No clubhouse badge, no clubhouse access.

I've come up without a badge twice. Both times I talked my way in, but it was very difficult, and I wouldn't recommend trying that. The last time it happened, once I got in, I saw fucking MLB.tv interviewing players... looked to be about a 16 year old kid conducting the interviews. It's bullshit, but what can you do?

 

I know the MLB does not allow companies like Scout.com aren't allowed at MLB games. They can do minor league stuff, but other than that they are out of luck.

 

Maybe Babs should try some PMs to people he trusts for a solution.

 

Yeah, duh.

 

I am, against my better judgement, going to try and take a stab at what Babs is referring to....

The NFL -- NFL Network guys and NFL Films guys are getting increasingly more and more first dibs and top access while reporters are getting squeezed -- slowly -- out of the picture. NFL Network guys come to town, locker room access for beat reporters is shorter, etc.

NBA -- The NBA.Com people and the NBA Entertainment people and the NBA people all get the best access and are able to get interviews that reporters cannot.

And then things get taken one step further -- newspapers can't use clips and sound bytes from NFL locker rooms, local TV stations have been pushed off the sidelines and have strict guidelines as to how many and how long their highlights can be. And there are stricter restrictions on how many highlights they can stream on their web sites.....

The reason -- so NFL.Com can have the monopoly on the highlights and info and quotes.....

I am hoping I am at least in the ballpark with Babs but her messages are so cryptic I might be way off......

All of that being said -- that's life, and we as reporters must suck it up or go sell cars......

 

You had me until your last sentence.

BULL-FUCKING-SHIT.

 

This sounds like something the NFL would do.

 

OK let me rephrase it to reflect what I was trying to say -- we as reporters need to stop whining, suck it up and find ways around it -- and we also need to start pushing back, like you know, declining to do those 95 inch puff pieces on whatever bullshit charity the league or team PR guy wants us to write about -- or go sell cars.

In other words -- this is our reality we can either respond to it or whine about it.

 

This does sound like the almighty NFL.

But access might not be an issue in a couple years when the greedy owners lockout the players and kill their golden goose;
or when the inevitable steroid scandal explodes;
or when the issue of gambling blows up and we find out how many games really are fixed;
In the next four to five years, the great NFL marketing machine is going to blow up in Roger Goodell's face.

 

Lessee...the NFL's got its own network, AND encompassing TV deals, AND can push whatever story it wants, unfettered, via the web. With newspapers serving an older, shrinking audience, what possible reason would the NFL have to make more than minimal nice with the print press?