I’m a hard-working person just like you. This isn’t my only gig. I have other jobs that help me put food on the table and save money so my dogs can have a better life than I did. I make small concessions like most millennials to try to keep track of my money and like many of us, I debated cutting the cable and just using my streaming services for television. There was a catch though. If I do that, I will miss every single Orioles game that I don’t watch in person.

You see, for the first time in 64 years, the Baltimore Orioles are not playing on any local affiliates. Instead, we are forced to purchase the premium sports package from our local cable provider.

No cutting the cable if I want to watch the last few innings of Manny Machado in an Orioles Jersey. Can’t cut the cord if I want to watch Chris Davis be the living embodiment of what happens when desperate, mid-level sports markets try to maintain relevancy in a division that includes Boston and New York.

That got me wondering exactly how they could do that. How could a team with a 90% ownership stake of MASN be allowed to play in our stadium, which is on our land, and force me to watch from their network?

According to the lease summary, “$137 M in lease revenue bonds and $60 M in lease revenue notes issued by the Maryland Stadium Authority financed the project. Revenue generated by special sports-themed lottery tickets is paying for the debt. Cash that accumulated in the lottery fund, which was established in 1988 to finance sports stadiums covered the remaining costs. The team contributed $9 M for the construction of skyboxes. The Maryland Sports Authority spent $1.5 M on improvements in 1998.”

So it’s our stadium anyway you slice it. If you play ball at our stadium, it should be a natural deduction that we get to watch the games that are played there.

The answer must be that I’m allowed to stream these games online, from the MASN site so that MASN and the Orioles are able to maintain their revenue stream. But that isn’t correct either. Of the 30 MLB franchises, only three of them do not allow live streaming of games to in-market viewers. 2/3 of those teams air their games exclusively on MASN.

the Orioles baseball operations are equally as ineffective as the Orioles public relations outfit.

I want to watch my Orioles, but in 2018 the generic lifestyles that allowed for people to work 9-5 jobs and be home in time for first pitch may be coming to an end. Blue collar work is no longer eight-hours at the steel yard and then home with my Natty Boh in time for first pitch. We work all hours of the day, doing a myriad of different jobs and the way we survive is by finding ways to relax and save money.

The Orioles are finding a way to stop us from doing both.

Categories: Orioles

Tags: Baltimore, MASN, Orioles