For those hoping that MLB will be improving their blackout policy in regards to broadcasting games, well… don’t get your hopes up.
Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball has the scoop:
The chances of any movement on the blackout policy becomes ever more remote as the season approaches, and owners deal with a case of tunnel vision regarding economic factors…
Word is that MLB hopes to have a proposal to address the arcane blackout policy formulated by opening day. With owners grasping onto every thin dime, odds seem exceptionally long that restructuring the television territories will take place by the time the first pitch arrives on the 2009 season.
Here’s a link to the MLB blackout map.
I live three hours south of Chicago which is enough to black out the Sox, Cubs and the Cardinals. But you may as well not be a baseball fan in the state of Iowa (or do as my friend DonS does and follow an out-of-market team. The entire state of Iowa blacks out games of the Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Twins, Brewers, and the Royals.
Thank god for the Iowa Cubs, I guess.