He didn't like the Bulls and Hawks doing end-runs around territorial rights agreements. Stern was always looking out for mid-market owners, he clashed with the big guys like Reinsdorf, Turner, and Dolan/MSG. Contrast with MLB where Reinsdorf and Turner were among the biggest power brokers.
EDIT: as for the Mets, how long were they on the superstation feed, I wonder? I know sometime in the early-to-mid '90s when teams all finally started taking TV seriously, MLB and the NBA started getting very cranky about the superstations and charging them fees to reach outside their territories. The Cubs started offloading games to cable in '96, I think, and the Braves started Turner South around the same time. (The Sox had always been more committed to cable anyway, as we all know.) It wouldn't surprise me if the Mets backed down from superstation telecasts earliest and hardest, effectively leaving the national WOR feed with no destination programming.
Here's Sandomir on the superstation wars from 1995, and the Mets aren't even mentioned:
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/10/spor ... overs.htmlQuote:
Last Friday's ruling by a United States District judge on superstation telecasts was a split victory for the Chicago Bulls and WGN, who first sued the league in 1990. Every antitrust argument waged by the league was tossed out handily by Judge Hubert L. Will, as he said WGN could send 30 games a season to more than 30 million cable subscribers. Yet, Will stopped short of granting WGN's ultimate request to air 41 telecasts.
"We disposed for good that notion that superstation telecasts adversely affect the ratings of other teams," said Joel Chefitz, a Bulls attorney.
But the N.B.A. persuaded Will that it can impose a fee on WGN's telecasts, but not one as onerous as the one the league proposed.
Amazingly, Commissioner David Stern said the league will appeal the 30-game limit, even though the league's rationale has repeatedly proved faulty. If the league couldn't prove that the WGN telecasts were impacting other markets when Michael Jordan was playing, he would appear to have even more of a problem with Jordan retired.
It's time for Stern to surrender -- which he won't.
Does this ruling affect baseball, the other superstation-impacted sport? Probably not too much. When he was commissioner, Fay Vincent waged a holy war on WGN, TV home of the Cubs and White Sox, and TBS, land of the Braves. But he lost. Will's ruling probably confirms the WGN and TBS rights, and the validity of baseball's superstation fee system.
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