Wednesday, April 07, 2004
The Hardball Questions: Kevin Cattoor
The multi-author Weblog The Hardball Times presents Aaron Gleeman's interview with Kevin Cattoor, president of the Minnesota Twins' fledgling cable network, Victory Sports. Highlights:
According to Cattoor, Victory is now available in 8% of the Twins' market. While he defends the Twins' pricing strategy, he says his biggest frustration is that none of the major cable and satellite companies have offered to carry Victory Sports on expanded basic at any price, but have insisted it be a pay service. Cattoor refuses to consider this option:
"Once you do this, you lose your leverage and ability to get on expanded basic. If you recall, last December we offered the Victory service free of charge, inviting the operators to negotiate so fans could see the Gophers, Big Ten, SCSU and MSU hockey and more. None of the national providers accepted our offer. So, this option doesn't work. We tried it."
Cattoor also claims there's no relationship between attendance and the number of games telecast:
"We've never believed that having so many games on television suppresses our attendance. Conversely, if games are not on television, we don't think it will increase our attendance. The main factor that causes fans to go to the games is winning."
Finally, Cattoor says that even a new stadium and other increased local revenue won't lead to a significant increase in the Twins' payroll:
"We should strive to be at the league average if we get a new ballpark and maximize all of our local revenue streams."
Last year the Twins' Opening Day payroll of $55 million ranked 18th out of 30 teams. The major league average was just over $70 million. Does Cattoor really mean to suggest that in return for all the extra revenue a new stadium (and its $350 million public subsidy) would bring, plus extra money from Victory, the Pohlads only intend to spend $15-$20 million more on major league players?
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The multi-author Weblog The Hardball Times presents Aaron Gleeman's interview with Kevin Cattoor, president of the Minnesota Twins' fledgling cable network, Victory Sports. Highlights:
According to Cattoor, Victory is now available in 8% of the Twins' market. While he defends the Twins' pricing strategy, he says his biggest frustration is that none of the major cable and satellite companies have offered to carry Victory Sports on expanded basic at any price, but have insisted it be a pay service. Cattoor refuses to consider this option:
"Once you do this, you lose your leverage and ability to get on expanded basic. If you recall, last December we offered the Victory service free of charge, inviting the operators to negotiate so fans could see the Gophers, Big Ten, SCSU and MSU hockey and more. None of the national providers accepted our offer. So, this option doesn't work. We tried it."
Cattoor also claims there's no relationship between attendance and the number of games telecast:
"We've never believed that having so many games on television suppresses our attendance. Conversely, if games are not on television, we don't think it will increase our attendance. The main factor that causes fans to go to the games is winning."
Finally, Cattoor says that even a new stadium and other increased local revenue won't lead to a significant increase in the Twins' payroll:
"We should strive to be at the league average if we get a new ballpark and maximize all of our local revenue streams."
Last year the Twins' Opening Day payroll of $55 million ranked 18th out of 30 teams. The major league average was just over $70 million. Does Cattoor really mean to suggest that in return for all the extra revenue a new stadium (and its $350 million public subsidy) would bring, plus extra money from Victory, the Pohlads only intend to spend $15-$20 million more on major league players?
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