NCAA Tournament and the Media

At a recent alumni meeting of one of the state's Big Ten schools, with the AD in attendance, a fairly lengthy discussion (well, shouting match) involved premium seating at football and basketball games, price hikes and reduced availability, and much anger was generated at prime seats "being given away for nothing" to the media while alumni have to pay big bucks.

It was made clear at the beginning of the shouting segment of the discussion there was a substantial number of alums who would be fine with kicking ALL media out and giving their seating to paying alums (who would apparently be happy to pay for it).

The AD tried to soft-pedal the whole discussion, and also to wash his hands of a lot of it ("a lot of these things aren't in our control") but the shouting consensus of the crowd was that media access should be limited to entities paying money to provide game coverage, the AP (which, it was agreed, should get one press pass and one photo pass), and everybody else (especially BLOGGERS!!) wishing to cover games should be required to pay full donor freight for seating, parking and postgame PC admittance (they have virtual sellouts in football, so this probably means five-figure sums every season).

The AD was very diplomatic and noncomittal, a lot of "that's an interesting idea," etc etc., and also pointed out the media would probably be "very unhappy" with such moves, which brought out full-throated shouts of "nobody gives a fuck whether the media is happy or not; make them pay full freight."

The idea that some outlets might not be satisfied with AP gamers for game coverage was quickly and loudly hooted down.

So basically, that's coming, pretty soon. Basically your outlet is going to have to decide how serious they are about really "covering" college teams, because they are gonna have to start writing some hefty checks to do so.

 

Very well alumni. Have fun reading about JV swim meets and T-ball games.

 

Don't know the ins and outs of how seats were assigned in Anaheim, but I think courtside seating in the first two weekends is pretty much restricted to two rows of seats opposite the bench and a short second row behind the scorer's table on the bench side. With a limited number of seats, you're going to run out of room pretty quick but team beat writers are supposed to be courtside per NCAA tournament regs. Basically, unless you're a print/web writer on deadline, you're sitting upstairs.

Based on limited video evidence, most of the seats behind the scorer's table appear to go to non-media (ADs, conference reps, SIDs, tournament staff, sideline reporters, Craig Sager's valet, etc.).

 

Yes, we still have to pay ...

 

Didn't have to pay in Orlando or New York City.

 

Yeah, that's pretty ignorant of the alumni, or whoever was at that meeting. You know they would be the same people who would complain the minute coverage slacked at the local paper.

 

They don't care because most (almost all) of the outlets in the state are owned by about four companies. They use AP gamers anyway.

 

If they got rid of all the people sitting courtside who had no business being there, there would be plenty of room for writers.

 

Who has "no business" being there?

Those are the school's seats (and the conference's and NCAA's in the case of their respective tournaments), why do you feel entitled to them?

And, while teams value "press" they are no longer dependent on you for it. They can compete with you with their own outlets. More games than ever are on TV, broadcast by media "partners".

And, since media outlets have long censored their own coverage, in return for "access" you've diminished your own value to your readers. Now, you're losing access, and feeling betrayed. It was never a partnership. You just didn't realize it. Sadly, as access is lost, the media seems more determined than ever to hold on to what little they have left, even if it further handcuffs their coverage.

 

Is it time for us to revive the spirited discussion from a few months ago wherein I proposed that local and regional newspapers not cover games any more?

 

You can, but it's not a good business model. It's fashionable nihilism.

 

The AD should have asked: "What about Rush Limbaugh? Can he cover the game for free?"

It all seems pretty slippery slope to me. Especially the part about paying for the press conference. If a media-hatin, Tea Party booster really wanted to come to a press conference, I'm sure he could. I don't care what school it is -- Alabama, FSU, anyone -- a pay-to-listen press conference produces diminishing returns pretty fast. And don't drop the "conference-friendly pool interviewer" stuff, either. It's a surefire road to terrible publicity.

At any rate, if it ever came to that (I doubt it), I think you'd see a quid pro quo instead of actual money changing hands. Free advertising, a college corner, buying ads in the stadium at a higher rate -- something along those lines.