It's A Business

For anyone that doesn’t know, I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up the city was Laker crazy. I was never a  huge basketball fan but I did enjoy watching it when my brothers and family would surround the TV during big games. It was that thing where the feeling was contagious and I’d get swept up in their excitement over a win or disappointment at a loss. As a kid it seems important to have something to cheer for be it a celebrity, athlete, or even a cartoon character.

I heard about a deal where Laker games would not be shown on broadcast television anymore and thought it was a joke. Here their games are shown on KCAL which is our Channel 9 and Fox Sports West. They’ve always been the Laker channel ever since I was little just as Fox has always been the Dodger channel. But now you will only be able to watch Laker games if you have Time Warner cable. This is bullshit. Why? I don’t have cable! Yes, I’m that guy. Living in L.A with no car, I still refuse to get a cell phone, and I don’t have cable. Even when I had cable I couldn’t afford it. Shit gets expensive and honestly I don’t watch network TV that much anymore. Mostly because I work weird hours and everything is available later online.

At $150,000,000 a year I can see why the Laker’s would sign such a deal. It’s a business. it’s the same thing that happened when WWE moved Smackdown to SyFy. Even though I wasn’t following Smackdown every single week I would tune in when the mood struck me. Now that its on cable I just read about what happened on Angrymarks. I made the mistake of getting too personal with wrestling. I thought we were buddies when it turned out I was its secret friend. Wrestling, like the NBA, is a business and they have no obligation to me except to entertain. Seeing as how the Laker’s have been playing and the quality of wrestling on television right now the entertainment factor is debatable.

When the NBA season starts hundreds of thousands of people who depended on broadcast TV to entertain them for three hours every few nights a week will be left with nothing to do but find new shows to watch or bite the bullet and spend hundreds of dollars a year to watch their team. I know there are some people saying “Cable isn’t that expensive!” or “If they’re your team you’ll do whatever it takes to watch.” I’ve been unemployed before and I can tell you that no matter how much you may like to see Kobe dunk or Ryback get fed when it comes down to being entertained or having enough for some Top Ramen most times hunger will win. My hunger. Not Ryback's.

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