My friend Bob Timmermann is a longtime Dodgers fan. But he lives in Los Angeles so, like a lot of Dodgers fans, he can’t see the Dodgers on TV due to the carriage dispute between Spectrum/Time Warner, which owns Dodgers broadcasts, and the other carriers which will not pay the exorbitant fees Spectrum/Time Warner is demanding.
We hear about all of this mostly when some new court case pops up. I personally hear about this most loudly from intense, diehard Dodgers fans, angry about not being able to see their team through normal channels. They beef a lot about the shady, sometimes expensive lengths they have to go to in order to see their team.
The folks we don’t hear much from, however, are people like Bob. We don’t hear much because, as he describes, he’s not angry, as such. He was mildly bummed, but since 2014 life has gone on and he simply hasn’t watched the Dodgers. Now they’re just a thing to which he’s mildly and tenuously attached:
The Dodgers have made a lot of money due to their massive TV deal with Spectrum/Time Warner. But that will end one day. And when it does, they will have sacrificed an entire generation of fans, like Bob, who were devoted to the team when they were actually able to be but who mostly moved on when the team made it all but impossible for people to enjoy their games.
It may very well prove to have been a shortsighted play.