The Golden Knights are not to be discussed on their Las Vegas sports talk station because they don't hold the rights. YER DEAD TA ME!

http://www.ronfutrell.com/las-vegas-rad ... -coverage/

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Synergy! Makes you wonder what goes on at CBS Chicago.

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Elections have consequences.

They've probably resented the Blackhawks ever since they inherited the rights from WMAQ.

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How long do you think it will take for the Las Vegas Golden Knights to end up in one of the many pawn shops in/around Las Vegas?

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makes you wonder about sox/blackhawks talk on WSCR.... not that I really want a lot of either of those things, but if they are willing to do it in vegas, why not here?

In a just world, five years, but the NHL is very stubborn about protecting its failing warm-weather markets while telling northern teams not to let the door hit their ass on the way out.

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Shoutout rescinded, they backed down like a bitch. Meanwhile, WSCR, a station of principles, will courageously continue to feud with the Blackhawks.

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Sounds like Tony Perlongo won't be around very longo.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

"First and only?" How dare they forget the Las Vegas Posse from the CFL's feeble US expansion phase.

I was a Baltimore Stallions fan. They were on ESPN2 a lot.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I believe they had an XFL team also.

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Blackhawk goal, scored by number 20, Al Secord.

No clue why this would've deserved a shoutout ... unless it was a sarcastic one, in which case bully for you.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Half sarcasm, half genuinely glad this stupid Las Vegas expansion team was going to be consciously unacknowledged in its own town.

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Cox Cable, the main cable provider in southern Nevada, does not and probably will not carry AT&T Sports Rocky Mountain, the RSN that will air the Golden Knights. They'll be readily available in Wyoming and Utah, though, so that's peachy.

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That makes no sense.

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Elections have consequences.

It makes perfect sense: the RSN's only other properties are the Colorado Rockies and Utah Jazz, and the Rockies are blacked out in southern Nevada (dunno about the Jazz, they used to sublease home games to Las Vegas in the '80s, but I suspect the Lakers and Clippers claim Las Vegas now). You're asking all Vegas-area cable subscribers to pay an exorbitant carriage fee for an NHL team, hardly a mass-appeal product, and shit else. The cable provider doesn't want to deal with all that.

Unless you mean it makes no sense that the team has carriage all the way up in empty-ass Idaho but not within a 50-mile radius of the arena, in which case I agree. Maybe the smart play would have been to air the first season on a local over-the-air station as a goodwill gesture -- watch your new team for free! -- and then figure out how you're going to do pay television in a small media market with a limited capacity for sports programming.

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They will cave and the games will be shown.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't know, wasn't there a really long impasse with L.A. cable systems and the Dodgers? If a cable company has the balls to shut out the Dodgers, an NHL expansion team in Las Vegas shouldn't be too tough to play hardball with.

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I was just going to reply with this example. I think the largest cable provider in LA still doesn't carry their channel.

This is also why Cubs TV will never happen. Do you think Comcast will add a channel that competes with their new NBC Sports Chicago?

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

It's not new, it's the same channel (joint venture of Comcast/Cubs/Hawks/Bulls/Sox) it's been since it was launched. Comcast just changed the names of their RSNs because they might as well trade on the brand equity of NBC Sports.

But I agree that cashing out of Comcast to start a new channel that will compete with Comcast (and JERRY???) while expecting carriage on Comcast seems rather dicey to me.

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yes, I know it's the same channel under a different name. I am surprised the rebranding took this long to be honest.

I just can't see Comcast letting the Cubs get away to launch a competing channel and then granting them carriage.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

It's easier since the price is far less for this bad hockey team.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

With the major proviso that I don't know what AT&T Sports is charging Cox per household, the price may be higher than you think if only because the scale of NHL business is bubbling out right now. The expansion fee for the Golden Knights was half a billion. Consider that in recent years, the Thrashers sold for $170MM (actually $110MM with a made-up "relocation fee" to punish Winnipeg ownership for, uh, existing), the Lightning (plus the master lease on a public arena and some adjacent undeveloped land) sold for under $100MM, and the Stars sold for the agreement to pay off Tom Hicks's old debt.

I know there's a lot of Clippers-effect inflation at work there, but it's still completely unreasonable to believe a Las Vegas NHL team is worth that much money. So for AT&T to recoup what they paid the Golden Knights to recoup what they paid the NHL, the carriage fee may be, while not near Dodgers levels, still way too high for that market, which is not terribly wealthy and not terribly invested in what's been a barren local sports scene. So while this probably will end with Cox picking up AT&TSRM (ugh), it surely won't be at the carriage fee anyone budgeted for, which means big trouble.

I'm sure it went without saying but I'm rooting hard for the team not to be cleared in its own media market (meanwhile, they're making a big show out of claiming back-of-beyond Intermountain West territory that's closer to Calgary or Denver than Las Vegas but closest of all to not giving a shit about hockey) and for all possible setbacks they may encounter. I want this to fail.

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