Friday, April 09, 2004
Conflict of Interest at Work
Buried at the bottom of this Minneapolis Star Tribune article about the Twins' new Victory Sports network is this tidbit:
"Fox Sports Net no longer has the Twins, but it does have the rights to 115 Milwaukee Brewers games and will begin showing them in certain parts of Minnesota, including Austin-Rochester, Duluth and Albert Lea. The Brewers and Major League Baseball approved airing the games."
According to my Rand McNally Road Atlas, Rochester and Albert Lea are both within 100 miles of Minneapolis, are not on the Wisconsin border, and are at least a five-hour drive from Milwaukee. Duluth is a little farther away and on the Wisconsin border, but is also approximately 390 miles from Milwaukee. What conceivable justification, other than the Commissioner's personal stake in the Brewers, does MLB have for allowing the Brewers to expand their local TV market into these cities? Does anyone seriously believe that if the Brewers were the ones trying to start a local cable network, MLB would allow the Twins to air their games in Madison and Green Bay?
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Buried at the bottom of this Minneapolis Star Tribune article about the Twins' new Victory Sports network is this tidbit:
"Fox Sports Net no longer has the Twins, but it does have the rights to 115 Milwaukee Brewers games and will begin showing them in certain parts of Minnesota, including Austin-Rochester, Duluth and Albert Lea. The Brewers and Major League Baseball approved airing the games."
According to my Rand McNally Road Atlas, Rochester and Albert Lea are both within 100 miles of Minneapolis, are not on the Wisconsin border, and are at least a five-hour drive from Milwaukee. Duluth is a little farther away and on the Wisconsin border, but is also approximately 390 miles from Milwaukee. What conceivable justification, other than the Commissioner's personal stake in the Brewers, does MLB have for allowing the Brewers to expand their local TV market into these cities? Does anyone seriously believe that if the Brewers were the ones trying to start a local cable network, MLB would allow the Twins to air their games in Madison and Green Bay?
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