I love Portland more than a lot of things, but one of the insane phenomenons that exist here is how snow affects the town. Because we have a lot of hills about town, when there is the slightest bit of snow around, it can make for an adventure driving. And since we have a lot of different weather affecting areas (Beaverton and all points west are higher up, while Gresham gets frozen like a Popsicle with the east winds, etc), the weather isn't the same anywhere in town. But what adds a element of insanity to the mix is our local television station's almost non-stop obsession with reporting the weather. It can go on for hours and hours of pictures of snow about the area, followed with the obligatory reporter stations of Sylvan hill (high point in town) and the Troutdale truck stop, where some rookie reporter slides around on the ice while talking to truckers that can't figure out why people driving certain cars feel the need to drive 80 miles an hour in a driving snowstorm without chains.
The Portland Mercury gets the whole situation right, courtesy of their news list. Even Fark has video of our adventures in trying to drive up a hill covered in snow. The area is down near John's Landing, and yes, it's amazing that nobody got into an accident. That's almost as good as some video they got last year of cars sliding around PGE Park taking out cars. What amazes me is that friends of mine that live in other areas and people that live out here can't imagine why this town goes nuts when the seemingly smallest amounts of snow fall on the ground. Gee, we can drive in this stuff in Minnesota, but why here when there's an inch of snow, the town literally shuts down.
Well, it's really simple. We have something called elevation to deal with, and there's lots of hills around town, and they might not be very big, but get a little snow on them, shake it with some ice and not have any sanding crews come near it for a while, and it becomes a regular sledding hill. We also have a lot of inattentive drivers, who don't realize that you can't drive as fast in the snow as you can on bare pavement, but I think these are some of the same people that freak out when it rains and then have to slam on the brakes because they can't stop as fast with water on the road. Personally, I find our fascination with snow endearing, as I love seeing the white stuff come down, but I could really do without the long TV coverage about it. But I suppose it's one of the things about here you just get used to.
The MLS Dog and Pony show came winding through town last week, as the commissioner and other officials toured the city and met with various personnel about the MLS bid. Merritt Paulson did some talking, the MLS folks did some talking, the city officials talked, and the task force set up to study stadium options asked a lot of questions. Some were pretty good, others not so much, but at least the group is trying to understand all of the challenges and positives about bringing MLS to town. Merritt has a good plan in place to bring MLS here, and is trying to learn from the mistakes of renovations past , while a lot of sports writers are asking simply what will MLS do if it comes to Portland? Even John Canzano has been talking about soccer, and if you can get him to talk about something, you've done your job well but get him to be positive about it, and you are really accomplishing a major feat.
Look, MLS will work here, and I can cover the thoughts in a few sentences. The MLS plan is backed by bonds purchased by the city, so there's no affect on city services. The bond payments are made by collecting taxes from team sales, ticket revenue, and salaries from the players. $85 million for an upgrade to PGE for MLS and getting a minor league ballpark for the Beavers is less of an investment that what would be required to bring any other major sport here. NFL and MLB require large stadium investments with a larger corporate support in town, and while the Rose Garden is suitable for the NHL, that won't happen unless Paul Allen either buys the team or supports the idea because he owns the arena. Yes, there's lots of details to be worked out, but when the MLS commissioner says "We want Portland in our league", that's a pretty clear indicator that they want our city there because they know what we have here, even if we are a little obsessed with the snow.
I've never done much traveling during the holidays to points that didn't involve seeing family. I've done all night Greyhound trips, flown in some of the worst weather possible over the holidays, even drove to some rather remote points just to end up with family for the holidays, and so this year, I'm actually doing something different. Girl, her mom and I escape to Las Vegas for a few days before Christmas to relax. I've been to Vegas a few times in the past few years, and it's a rather fascinating mix of hotels, debauchery, buffets, and entertainment 24 hours a day. I'm actually going to enjoy going somewhere to drink a bit, gamble a bit, and just get away from the day to day insanity around here. Wait, you are telling me the snow is there too? Maybe there is something to this snow obsession.
Finally, I've been listening intently to my local radio station who has been counting down the 94 best alternative albums ever as voted on by the listeners. The list is available here, and I'm not terribly surprised about who won. It was a rather unusual album when it came out, and it showed a generation that music could be dark, raw, unpolished, and yet extremely powerful. But I can't help but thinking that Nevermind isn't my best alternative album, and I probably would put it top 10 but maybe farther on the list.
Look, if this was a question of the most influential alternative album, it wins easily as it totally changed the face of music during the 90's. But Nevermind has some weak tracks intermixed with some great songs, the album can wear you down upon repeated listenings, and I think that Nirvana immediately gets more cred and attention simply because of Kurt Cobain's death. Yes, they are talented, but a lot of their tunes talk about some bleak topics. If that's all you want to listen to, well, I guess that's your thing, but for best alternative albums, I'd choose Weezer's Blue Album, Depeche Mode's Violator, Radiohead's the Bends, U2's Joshua Tree, or even Pearl Jam's 10. All five of those have a tight track set, varied track types, and even the more obscure songs bring something to the album. There's even some more obsure music by the Dismemberment Plan, Self. Futureheads and Hum that I would put up against this and call it some of the best music I've heard
But I suppose this is why stations put together lists or put up voting to get opinions. If anything, you get a lot of discussion about albums, and talking isn't such a bad thing. As long as it's not about snow, we should be Ok. Wait, it's lightly falling down here, I need to go watch the news about Arctic Blast 2008...
Before I go, here's some wonderful Christmas music for you to listen to. Enjoy!!
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Seeing the Forum Up Close, and Visiting the Pope's House.
April 17th - Colosseum Up Close, Forum, Palatine Hill
In waking up on the 17th, I realized that today would be Timber Jim's last day at a Timbers match, and girl and I were 6000 miles away. I truly respect TJ and everything he is, not just the mascot but the man himself and how he lives his life. While I know everyone was understanding about it, I just felt a little odd not being there. But soon enough, I got a text that my friend Obi would be standing in our row in honor of us with girl's maid of honor, Jeane. Obi is truly a best man's best man, and knowing our thoughts were there and we were represented, we tried to figure out the day's activities.
Knowing the Vatican was a good walk away from our hotel (probably 3 to 4 miles), we decided to make that our Friday destination and spend all day there. For today, it was back to the Colosseum to actually go inside, then see the Forum and Palatine Hill where many of the ruins are. This also was a bit of a shorter walk, after our previous day's excursion so it would allow us to rest up for Friday. There was also a famous statue near the Forum that girl wanted to visit, Boca De Veritas. This literally translates to Mouth of Truth, and it's a rather famous exhibit. As legend has it, the statue is of a large face with an open mouth in the front. If a person stuck their hand in the statue's mouth and it was bitten, they were found to be lying. Only an honest person could stick their hand in the mouth and not be injured, although apparently for some emperors they found it amusing to put lobsters in the statue just for fun.
We walked past the Colosseum to see the wait time, and ended up speaking Spanish to mess with the tour guides and vendors that wanted our money. We passed by the Forum, which as with many of the sites, it was hard to believe that thousands of years ago, there were athletic events going on here. What was funny to watch was the dozens of joggers making laps around the ancient track. We made it to the Mouth of Truth, and there was a small service charge to get in. Girl lamented that when she was here, it was free and there was no line. Now, about 50 people patiently waited to get pictures. When I got up there, I did my best imitation of the face, and we walked through the very small chapel next door. The art work and architecture is truly amazing, again showing elegance and simplicity in design.
We then decided to actually head to the Colosseum to get the full pass to view it, Palatine Hill and the various ruins about. You can see the gardens, the ruins of the senator's house, and various chapels and arches plus the Colosseum for one price, so we scooted in and got our tickets. As much as a tour might have been nice, I think it was unnecessary to pay someone to show you the things that you could see yourself. The Colosseum is really hard to describe, as I could see the stadium seats and pathways which when standing would have held 35,000 people for various events. The catacombs under the floor wove about underground, and I could see some people easily getting lost in there if you weren't careful. The crowd wasn't so bad because it was around siesta time, so we could move about pretty easily.
Once we were done, we zipped past the Arch and headed for the gardens and ruins. Again, there is so much history present, it was simply overwhelming and hard to fathom sometimes. Walking past places that used to have fountains, large dining rooms, servants quarters, and chapels and seeing the skeletal remains, you could image what these places would be like in their heyday. There's so much to go through, it was a bit of a whirlwind. But I felt a sense of honor to see these ruins, and really see how large the area is. We even passed by a parliament building that was having election meetings going on, as we found out later watching the news. Most of the buildings are now roped or sealed off so you couldn't walk within most of the ruins, which was frustrating but I understood why. After years and years of tourists coming in, the ruins were starting to show more wear and the Romans were taking measures to protect their treasures.
We walked back to the hotel and rested a bit, as girl's feet were bugging her. Apparently, the new Adidas shoes we got for her didn't prevent blisters from forming on some of her toes. We decided to go get some pizza and eat in, trying to watch Italian TV. Outside of the language, I observed that (1) their version of Deal or No Deal didn't have models and people opened boxes to show the amounts (2) in Wheel of Fortune, apparently Victoria Silvstedt knows enough Italian to be their version of Vanna White (3) Bender in Futurama Italian style has the most annoying voice ever (4) Homer is also annoying but not as bad (5) South Park is very funny and the voices match, but the only way I knew what was going on was to have already seen the episode. We know we had a big day tomorrow, so we turned in and got some rest.
April 18th - Visiting the Pope's House
The news was talking about the Pope a lot, and how he was off to New York. Of course, we come to visit and the pope decides to leave. Apparently, he got the memo from someone, but regardless, we ate food, got dressed up and headed out for Vatican City. Unlike other tourist destinations, the Vatican requires you to dress nicely and girls can't show legs out of respect. So we actually dressed up a bit for our venture. Girl had also bandaged up her feet, and we started the long walk to the Vatican. We made a few stops simply to rest up and keep her feet fresh, as we literally walked across town.
While heading to the Vatican, we found the only Irish pub in Rome that also advertised soccer matches, and this was good news to know, as we had interest in watching the Sunderland - Newcastle derby on Saturday. The walk wasn't so bad from the hotel, so we knew where our Saturday would take us. We finally made it to the gates of Vatican City, where two large statues sat at the main entrance. We also saw the Castle Sant Angelo to our right, which was built as protection of the Vatican. It was rather humongous, I could see why this castle could protect the Vatican. Once we walked across the river and took the first left, we were on the main road into Vatican City.
Growing up Catholic, people always talked about wanting to make the trek to see this, and so being there at the Basilica was something I had to take in for a bit. The columns around the main plaza were about 100 feet high, and the art work was very detailed. We viewed some of the fountains on site, then got in line to enter the Basilica. It was moving pretty well, even though there were about 3000 people in line preceding us. As we looked about, there were guards ever present with huge machine guns at the ready. I'm not sure if I felt safe or unnerved at the firepower, but soon, we were heading inside. I'd see the Basilica on TV for Christmas mass, and the TV doesn't do it justice. This place is over 30 football pitches big, and at least a couple pitches tall. There are chapels everywhere, I could foresee multiple masses going on at the same time during the day. We then headed over to see the Papal museum.
I'd also known that the Catholic Church had some riches, and once you see this tour, you'll see why. I have never seen emeralds and diamonds so large ever, and seeing ones as big as my hand was magnificent but sad at the same time. It's an honor to see them, but thinking that these jewels could be used to feed poor people or help economic strife, it was tough to see the opulence and not get a little angry. And it just kept going and going, as you saw more jewels, more scepters, more robes, and more gold. I think my head hurt after seeing all of this...
But it just prepared me for our trip to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which is actually a bit of a walk from Vatican City. We made it over in about 20 minutes, and soon we were off to the races. We spent over 3 hours there, and really you could spend three days here and not see everything. There's so much to see, but we took it all in - ceilings, paintings, statues of naked guys, gardens, chapels, bathes. You name it, it was there, and you could actually take pictures of most of it. Ok, you had to turn off the flash, but at least some of my pictures came out. The museum kept going and going and going, and you made a turn and suddenly there was more stuff to see. I just kept taking pictures and watching the sites until we got to the Sistine Chapel itself. You have to remain quiet and you can't take pictures, but rather you take it in and see the sites above. It was overwhelming to think of how much time and detail it took to make this, and here I was looking at it. The guards at the gate kept yelling at people to shut up and not take pictures, but that didn't stop them from trying. It was well worth the trip to get out here.
We left the museum, and tried to loop back around to the river to get back into Rome. However, the wall surrounding the Vatican made it rather difficult to get over there, as we took a shortcut to try and get back to the river. After a few minutes, we backtracked to the museum and went back the same way we came. We did get to see the policia scare some vendors who were blocking a sidewalk. As the lights flashed, the vendors scrambled not to get caught, it was truly a COPS moment. We took our time getting back to the hotel, stopping for plenty of breaks and water and we got back to our room about dinner time.
After some rest, I headed out for more food as we decided to eat in our room again. We had found a grocery store down the road from us, and so we were able to load up on a few things like water and snacks. The pizza place I visited the previous night was very good, so I grabbed some pizza and authentic spaghetti for the road. And it was really good, not greasy at all and quite filling. The pizza crust was thin, but very flavorful, and the sauce was not too spicy. It was very filling, and allowed us to watch more bad TV.
About 11 Pm, the Italian TV gets some of their adult shows on regular broadcast TV, and they think nothing about showing full frontal nudity on TV. Some of the shows were really cheesy - one in particular was a girl in a room with some phones. People would call in to ask the girl to do things for them on TV, and then she would talk to the camera every now and then. This girl would take her top off, wiggle her tongue and point her fingers at it repeatedly. Then, she would put her top back on, and then take another phone call. We also found a casino show where the losers of various gambling games would have to strip for losing. I may not have understood what they were saying, but I understood boobs. And then we met Justine, who either was a man who became a woman or she had the worst boob job in the history of medicine. They were deformed, there was no other way to put it. But people kept calling in, so apparently Italians either like boobs or they aren't very picky about what boobs they see. But at least it's entertaining.
Next Time - Walking Finally Catches Up with Us, and Are Newcastle Fans Everywhere?
In waking up on the 17th, I realized that today would be Timber Jim's last day at a Timbers match, and girl and I were 6000 miles away. I truly respect TJ and everything he is, not just the mascot but the man himself and how he lives his life. While I know everyone was understanding about it, I just felt a little odd not being there. But soon enough, I got a text that my friend Obi would be standing in our row in honor of us with girl's maid of honor, Jeane. Obi is truly a best man's best man, and knowing our thoughts were there and we were represented, we tried to figure out the day's activities.
Knowing the Vatican was a good walk away from our hotel (probably 3 to 4 miles), we decided to make that our Friday destination and spend all day there. For today, it was back to the Colosseum to actually go inside, then see the Forum and Palatine Hill where many of the ruins are. This also was a bit of a shorter walk, after our previous day's excursion so it would allow us to rest up for Friday. There was also a famous statue near the Forum that girl wanted to visit, Boca De Veritas. This literally translates to Mouth of Truth, and it's a rather famous exhibit. As legend has it, the statue is of a large face with an open mouth in the front. If a person stuck their hand in the statue's mouth and it was bitten, they were found to be lying. Only an honest person could stick their hand in the mouth and not be injured, although apparently for some emperors they found it amusing to put lobsters in the statue just for fun.
We walked past the Colosseum to see the wait time, and ended up speaking Spanish to mess with the tour guides and vendors that wanted our money. We passed by the Forum, which as with many of the sites, it was hard to believe that thousands of years ago, there were athletic events going on here. What was funny to watch was the dozens of joggers making laps around the ancient track. We made it to the Mouth of Truth, and there was a small service charge to get in. Girl lamented that when she was here, it was free and there was no line. Now, about 50 people patiently waited to get pictures. When I got up there, I did my best imitation of the face, and we walked through the very small chapel next door. The art work and architecture is truly amazing, again showing elegance and simplicity in design.
We then decided to actually head to the Colosseum to get the full pass to view it, Palatine Hill and the various ruins about. You can see the gardens, the ruins of the senator's house, and various chapels and arches plus the Colosseum for one price, so we scooted in and got our tickets. As much as a tour might have been nice, I think it was unnecessary to pay someone to show you the things that you could see yourself. The Colosseum is really hard to describe, as I could see the stadium seats and pathways which when standing would have held 35,000 people for various events. The catacombs under the floor wove about underground, and I could see some people easily getting lost in there if you weren't careful. The crowd wasn't so bad because it was around siesta time, so we could move about pretty easily.
Once we were done, we zipped past the Arch and headed for the gardens and ruins. Again, there is so much history present, it was simply overwhelming and hard to fathom sometimes. Walking past places that used to have fountains, large dining rooms, servants quarters, and chapels and seeing the skeletal remains, you could image what these places would be like in their heyday. There's so much to go through, it was a bit of a whirlwind. But I felt a sense of honor to see these ruins, and really see how large the area is. We even passed by a parliament building that was having election meetings going on, as we found out later watching the news. Most of the buildings are now roped or sealed off so you couldn't walk within most of the ruins, which was frustrating but I understood why. After years and years of tourists coming in, the ruins were starting to show more wear and the Romans were taking measures to protect their treasures.
We walked back to the hotel and rested a bit, as girl's feet were bugging her. Apparently, the new Adidas shoes we got for her didn't prevent blisters from forming on some of her toes. We decided to go get some pizza and eat in, trying to watch Italian TV. Outside of the language, I observed that (1) their version of Deal or No Deal didn't have models and people opened boxes to show the amounts (2) in Wheel of Fortune, apparently Victoria Silvstedt knows enough Italian to be their version of Vanna White (3) Bender in Futurama Italian style has the most annoying voice ever (4) Homer is also annoying but not as bad (5) South Park is very funny and the voices match, but the only way I knew what was going on was to have already seen the episode. We know we had a big day tomorrow, so we turned in and got some rest.
April 18th - Visiting the Pope's House
The news was talking about the Pope a lot, and how he was off to New York. Of course, we come to visit and the pope decides to leave. Apparently, he got the memo from someone, but regardless, we ate food, got dressed up and headed out for Vatican City. Unlike other tourist destinations, the Vatican requires you to dress nicely and girls can't show legs out of respect. So we actually dressed up a bit for our venture. Girl had also bandaged up her feet, and we started the long walk to the Vatican. We made a few stops simply to rest up and keep her feet fresh, as we literally walked across town.
While heading to the Vatican, we found the only Irish pub in Rome that also advertised soccer matches, and this was good news to know, as we had interest in watching the Sunderland - Newcastle derby on Saturday. The walk wasn't so bad from the hotel, so we knew where our Saturday would take us. We finally made it to the gates of Vatican City, where two large statues sat at the main entrance. We also saw the Castle Sant Angelo to our right, which was built as protection of the Vatican. It was rather humongous, I could see why this castle could protect the Vatican. Once we walked across the river and took the first left, we were on the main road into Vatican City.
Growing up Catholic, people always talked about wanting to make the trek to see this, and so being there at the Basilica was something I had to take in for a bit. The columns around the main plaza were about 100 feet high, and the art work was very detailed. We viewed some of the fountains on site, then got in line to enter the Basilica. It was moving pretty well, even though there were about 3000 people in line preceding us. As we looked about, there were guards ever present with huge machine guns at the ready. I'm not sure if I felt safe or unnerved at the firepower, but soon, we were heading inside. I'd see the Basilica on TV for Christmas mass, and the TV doesn't do it justice. This place is over 30 football pitches big, and at least a couple pitches tall. There are chapels everywhere, I could foresee multiple masses going on at the same time during the day. We then headed over to see the Papal museum.
I'd also known that the Catholic Church had some riches, and once you see this tour, you'll see why. I have never seen emeralds and diamonds so large ever, and seeing ones as big as my hand was magnificent but sad at the same time. It's an honor to see them, but thinking that these jewels could be used to feed poor people or help economic strife, it was tough to see the opulence and not get a little angry. And it just kept going and going, as you saw more jewels, more scepters, more robes, and more gold. I think my head hurt after seeing all of this...
But it just prepared me for our trip to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which is actually a bit of a walk from Vatican City. We made it over in about 20 minutes, and soon we were off to the races. We spent over 3 hours there, and really you could spend three days here and not see everything. There's so much to see, but we took it all in - ceilings, paintings, statues of naked guys, gardens, chapels, bathes. You name it, it was there, and you could actually take pictures of most of it. Ok, you had to turn off the flash, but at least some of my pictures came out. The museum kept going and going and going, and you made a turn and suddenly there was more stuff to see. I just kept taking pictures and watching the sites until we got to the Sistine Chapel itself. You have to remain quiet and you can't take pictures, but rather you take it in and see the sites above. It was overwhelming to think of how much time and detail it took to make this, and here I was looking at it. The guards at the gate kept yelling at people to shut up and not take pictures, but that didn't stop them from trying. It was well worth the trip to get out here.
We left the museum, and tried to loop back around to the river to get back into Rome. However, the wall surrounding the Vatican made it rather difficult to get over there, as we took a shortcut to try and get back to the river. After a few minutes, we backtracked to the museum and went back the same way we came. We did get to see the policia scare some vendors who were blocking a sidewalk. As the lights flashed, the vendors scrambled not to get caught, it was truly a COPS moment. We took our time getting back to the hotel, stopping for plenty of breaks and water and we got back to our room about dinner time.
After some rest, I headed out for more food as we decided to eat in our room again. We had found a grocery store down the road from us, and so we were able to load up on a few things like water and snacks. The pizza place I visited the previous night was very good, so I grabbed some pizza and authentic spaghetti for the road. And it was really good, not greasy at all and quite filling. The pizza crust was thin, but very flavorful, and the sauce was not too spicy. It was very filling, and allowed us to watch more bad TV.
About 11 Pm, the Italian TV gets some of their adult shows on regular broadcast TV, and they think nothing about showing full frontal nudity on TV. Some of the shows were really cheesy - one in particular was a girl in a room with some phones. People would call in to ask the girl to do things for them on TV, and then she would talk to the camera every now and then. This girl would take her top off, wiggle her tongue and point her fingers at it repeatedly. Then, she would put her top back on, and then take another phone call. We also found a casino show where the losers of various gambling games would have to strip for losing. I may not have understood what they were saying, but I understood boobs. And then we met Justine, who either was a man who became a woman or she had the worst boob job in the history of medicine. They were deformed, there was no other way to put it. But people kept calling in, so apparently Italians either like boobs or they aren't very picky about what boobs they see. But at least it's entertaining.
Next Time - Walking Finally Catches Up with Us, and Are Newcastle Fans Everywhere?
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Upcoming Media War in the Rose City
Ok, I'm not trying to scare you with the title, especially with the Trail Blazers being one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now on an eight-game winning streak. Optimism is really high about the team, and it's translating into increased TV ratings, increased attention in the media, higher demand for tickets, and overall a better feeling about this team. But a recent media move has me a bit concerned, and it might affect the future of sports coverage in our fair city.
Flash back to the early 1990's in Trail Blazer land, and TV coverage of the team was basically handled by KOIN (CBS affiliate) and BlazerVision, a pay per view deal with Comcast where their cable customers could buy access to home games. BlazerVision had a few outlets that non cable folks could pay to watch games, but it paid during those days to know somebody who purchased the package. At the time, the Trail Blazers played in the Memorial Coliseum which seated about 12,700 folks, one of the smaller arenas in the NBA. When the team announced they were building a new arena, it led to optimism about getting tickets and perhaps opening up the TV coverage a bit.
The Rose Garden opened in 1995, and while it became a bit easier to get game day tickets, BlazerVision remained on the scene because of demand for the games. It was around this time that the team and Paul Allen made a decision to try and create an all sports cable channel in Portland called Action Sports Cable Network (ASCN). The Trail Blazers would be the main draw, but the channel would showcase lots of local sports, including colleges and other pro teams. The major competition for this endeavor was Fox Sports Northwest, originally called Prime Sports Northwest, who had the Pac-10 coverage and some other sports packages that they showed on their channel. Prime was based out of Seattle, and while they called themselves Northwest, the coverage was a bit biased towards Seattle based teams.
ASCN finally was born and did a good job of showing games. The problem was that nobody in Portland could see the games due to a conflict with the team, ASCN and AT&T Cable which was being acquired by Comcast. The sides kept trying to figure out a deal to get the channel on cable, but each side wouldn't budge on price, channel location, and other ammenities. Other cable companies did sign up and get ASCN, so basically if you lived outside of Portland, you could see games on TV but not within the city limits. The bars and restaurants that originally had BlazerVision were able to hook up with ASCN so there were Blazer Spots to watch games, but not in your own home. All sides blamed each other for the issues, saying they were doing everything they could to get the games available for fans.
Then, the free spending days of the team started to affect the team's bottom line, with ASCN being part of the issue. Owning a channel that few people in your own town could see was draining the team's bottom line. It didn't help that this coincided with the period of the Jail Blazers, where the team's attitude was very jaded and antics both on and off the court stained the once proud franchise. The solid hard working team of the 1990's had been replaced with a selfish, angry, combative team that effectively imploded before our eyes. ASCN finally went out of business during one of the team's off season, and the team began looking for a new home for games.
Up stepped Fox Sports Northwest, who had added the Mariners to their stable of teams. The Oregon Ducks had begun transitioning away from FSN to their own telecasts as the new Mariner heavy programming made the station more Seattle biased. But the Trail Blazers had a home, and you could finally see home games on cable. All was well until the following year the Supersonics moved their games to FSN, which was good for them but bad for the viewers. As the Sonics continued to get better and the Trail Blazers struggled with finding an identity, the coverage became more and more slanted towards up north.
The Trail Blazers began a renaissance a few years ago to reconnect with the fans, and build a team that everyone could be proud of. The pieces have been coming together, with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Steve Blake, Martell Webster, Jarrett Jack and Travis Outlaw forming a solid nucleus of players. However, the process wasn't without bumps in the road, and the team got very aggressive in marketing the team as different and thing would improve.
During the most recent off season, the TrailBlazers TV deal was up, and while there were cursory discussions with FSN, both sides went their own way because of terms. Within a few weeks, the team announced a 10 year deal with Comcast to set up a Oregon based sports channel in time for the 2007 season. While the Trail Blazers would be the programming hub, other local teams would get coverage as well. Comcast Sports Northwest went on the air in October 2007, and so far, it's not a bad place to watch games. But there are still ongoing issues.
So far, only Verizon Cable in Hillsboro was able to add CSNW to their channel lineup. Fans who have other cable systems or satellite TV have been shut out of Trail Blazer games this year, mostly because all of the sides can't come to an agreement. With the season now 25 games in, there's hope that terms can be reached, but essentially each side is blaming each other for the issue. But the interesting development that happened a few days ago was that FSN agreed to broadcast 20 Portland Beavers games and 5 Portland Timbers games each season for the next few years. It's great for the teams to get the coverage, and should help with the gate and interest in the teams, but I believe this is probably the start of competition between FSN and CSNW.
The future of FSN's programming is up in the air with the status of the SuperSonics, now rumored to be moving to Oklahoma next season. The University of Oregon joined CSNW, and now you can see most Duck broadcasts locally. There's been talk that the Beavers might be looking to move their broadcasts as well, if the terms are right. And Seattle now has MLS coming to town in 2009, and would be looking for broadcast partners.
I'm not against competition at all if it benefits the customers and fans that want to see the games. But in the all mighty pursuit of dollars and exposure, my hope is that the teams and channels involved will not only think of the bottom line but think of the fans as well. Nobody wins when games are hard to find, especially if your cable system or satellite provider doesn't even have access to carry the games. I'm hoping history doesn't repeat itself here, but at this point, all I can do is find my remote and take my chances..
Flash back to the early 1990's in Trail Blazer land, and TV coverage of the team was basically handled by KOIN (CBS affiliate) and BlazerVision, a pay per view deal with Comcast where their cable customers could buy access to home games. BlazerVision had a few outlets that non cable folks could pay to watch games, but it paid during those days to know somebody who purchased the package. At the time, the Trail Blazers played in the Memorial Coliseum which seated about 12,700 folks, one of the smaller arenas in the NBA. When the team announced they were building a new arena, it led to optimism about getting tickets and perhaps opening up the TV coverage a bit.
The Rose Garden opened in 1995, and while it became a bit easier to get game day tickets, BlazerVision remained on the scene because of demand for the games. It was around this time that the team and Paul Allen made a decision to try and create an all sports cable channel in Portland called Action Sports Cable Network (ASCN). The Trail Blazers would be the main draw, but the channel would showcase lots of local sports, including colleges and other pro teams. The major competition for this endeavor was Fox Sports Northwest, originally called Prime Sports Northwest, who had the Pac-10 coverage and some other sports packages that they showed on their channel. Prime was based out of Seattle, and while they called themselves Northwest, the coverage was a bit biased towards Seattle based teams.
ASCN finally was born and did a good job of showing games. The problem was that nobody in Portland could see the games due to a conflict with the team, ASCN and AT&T Cable which was being acquired by Comcast. The sides kept trying to figure out a deal to get the channel on cable, but each side wouldn't budge on price, channel location, and other ammenities. Other cable companies did sign up and get ASCN, so basically if you lived outside of Portland, you could see games on TV but not within the city limits. The bars and restaurants that originally had BlazerVision were able to hook up with ASCN so there were Blazer Spots to watch games, but not in your own home. All sides blamed each other for the issues, saying they were doing everything they could to get the games available for fans.
Then, the free spending days of the team started to affect the team's bottom line, with ASCN being part of the issue. Owning a channel that few people in your own town could see was draining the team's bottom line. It didn't help that this coincided with the period of the Jail Blazers, where the team's attitude was very jaded and antics both on and off the court stained the once proud franchise. The solid hard working team of the 1990's had been replaced with a selfish, angry, combative team that effectively imploded before our eyes. ASCN finally went out of business during one of the team's off season, and the team began looking for a new home for games.
Up stepped Fox Sports Northwest, who had added the Mariners to their stable of teams. The Oregon Ducks had begun transitioning away from FSN to their own telecasts as the new Mariner heavy programming made the station more Seattle biased. But the Trail Blazers had a home, and you could finally see home games on cable. All was well until the following year the Supersonics moved their games to FSN, which was good for them but bad for the viewers. As the Sonics continued to get better and the Trail Blazers struggled with finding an identity, the coverage became more and more slanted towards up north.
The Trail Blazers began a renaissance a few years ago to reconnect with the fans, and build a team that everyone could be proud of. The pieces have been coming together, with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Steve Blake, Martell Webster, Jarrett Jack and Travis Outlaw forming a solid nucleus of players. However, the process wasn't without bumps in the road, and the team got very aggressive in marketing the team as different and thing would improve.
During the most recent off season, the TrailBlazers TV deal was up, and while there were cursory discussions with FSN, both sides went their own way because of terms. Within a few weeks, the team announced a 10 year deal with Comcast to set up a Oregon based sports channel in time for the 2007 season. While the Trail Blazers would be the programming hub, other local teams would get coverage as well. Comcast Sports Northwest went on the air in October 2007, and so far, it's not a bad place to watch games. But there are still ongoing issues.
So far, only Verizon Cable in Hillsboro was able to add CSNW to their channel lineup. Fans who have other cable systems or satellite TV have been shut out of Trail Blazer games this year, mostly because all of the sides can't come to an agreement. With the season now 25 games in, there's hope that terms can be reached, but essentially each side is blaming each other for the issue. But the interesting development that happened a few days ago was that FSN agreed to broadcast 20 Portland Beavers games and 5 Portland Timbers games each season for the next few years. It's great for the teams to get the coverage, and should help with the gate and interest in the teams, but I believe this is probably the start of competition between FSN and CSNW.
The future of FSN's programming is up in the air with the status of the SuperSonics, now rumored to be moving to Oklahoma next season. The University of Oregon joined CSNW, and now you can see most Duck broadcasts locally. There's been talk that the Beavers might be looking to move their broadcasts as well, if the terms are right. And Seattle now has MLS coming to town in 2009, and would be looking for broadcast partners.
I'm not against competition at all if it benefits the customers and fans that want to see the games. But in the all mighty pursuit of dollars and exposure, my hope is that the teams and channels involved will not only think of the bottom line but think of the fans as well. Nobody wins when games are hard to find, especially if your cable system or satellite provider doesn't even have access to carry the games. I'm hoping history doesn't repeat itself here, but at this point, all I can do is find my remote and take my chances..
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