Pay to Watch NW Mid State?

[YoungBuck]

I always get a chuckle when colleges and universities expect you to pay to watch their athletic teams live stream… Alabama - I get it…UCLA - sure. For the rest of the schools that are not well known name brands it seems very short sighted. Athletics are the ‘front porch’ to a school and no one except mom and dad are paying to watch the ‘NW Mid State Panthers (I apologize if there really is a NW Mid State out there!).’ Most of the universities that come to mind I would not be aware of if it were not for athletics. Athletics from the public’s perspective should be an invitation to learn more about your school. Hide it behind a paywall and you limit your pool of future students.

I bring this up because I see the NAIA has a fee to see their softball championship streamed…silly!

 

[MightyMO]

I always get a chuckle when colleges and universities expect you to pay to watch their athletic teams live stream… Alabama - I get it…UCLA - sure. For the rest of the schools that are not well known name brands it seems very short sighted. Athletics are the ‘front porch’ to a school and no one except mom and dad are paying to watch the ‘NW Mid State Panthers (I apologize if there really is a NW Mid State out there!).’ Most of the universities that come to mind I would not be aware of if it were not for athletics. Athletics from the public’s perspective should be an invitation to learn more about your school. Hide it behind a paywall and you limit your pool of future students.

I bring this up because I see the NAIA has a fee to see their softball championship streamed…silly!

It's funny you mention this. DD will be playing at an NAIA school next year and I streamed some games throughout the season this year. I was happy that I could stream home and away for free as it seemed every team had a stream for all of their games that you could access. Charging for the championship stream is dumb. Why not just sell advertising and show commercials between innings?

About the only good thing to come out of Covid was that almost every school was forced to offer a streaming option and most kept it in place.

 

[Tatonka]

Given the quality (or I should say lack thereof) of many college livestreams I've experienced they should be paying us for the misery, headache and time wasted. No excuse for any school not to deliver a better product. And I completely agree, they should see it as an opportunity to showcase their program.

 

[The Man In Blue]

If they are putting out a quality, produced product that their journalism department is putting together, sure.

Paying for two outdated iPads strapped to the backstop and the left foul pole? Nope.

 

[Gtrips07]

The NJCAA Division 1 softball championship feed has been great sometimes and bad sometimes.The announcers have been good when done as a team and bad when done by one. Most games you get two camera angles but no replay.

For 25.00 you can get all three Division all for 100.00 you can get all NJCAA feeds for the year and not just softball.

I wonder what's going to the longhorn network when Texas becomes part of the SEC.




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[pattar]

I have pay like 800 bucks a year in gate fees to watch a 13 YO to play what sometimes resembles softball..50 bucks a year for college ball is a steal

 

[Lance Steckler]

the ironic (or sad ) part to watching some of these college programs play is "really? this is college level softball at Podunk State?" sure the 1 game seen might have been a clunker, or whatever, but wow have I seen some games played where the local 16u B squad would compete to win easily.

 

[pattar]

the ironic (or sad ) part to watching some of these college programs play is "really? this is college level softball at Podunk State?"

Beyond your amusement level, did it look like they were enjoying themselves? I was pretty good but anybody looking at me play would have thought that I was being tortured..I’ll take the former over the latter every day of the week and twice on Sundays..

Now whether you should have to pay to watch that is a different story but it didn’t seem like that was what you were getting at..

 

[Lance Steckler]

sure I understand the 'having fun' part of playing softball (or any level sport for that matter).

My point was the exposure of some really mediocre level of play at various college teams. including small level D1 and just shaking my head and asking myself "Really coach, that's the best 9 players you could recruit to put on the field for your school?"

Not every college program is at the level we see televised nationally.

 

[pattar]

sure I understand the 'having fun' part of playing softball (or any level sport for that matter).

My point was the exposure of some really mediocre level of play at various college teams. including small level D1 and just shaking my head and asking myself "Really coach, that's the best 9 players you could recruit to put on the field for your school?"

Not every college program is at the level we see televised nationally.

There are probably a lot of kids who are better that could play but really for most females unless you really love playing what is the point? You are not going to make a living out of softball. College is a lot harder when you play a sport. My GPA went up almost half a point after I stopped playing. Yeah you get the camaraderie of being on a team,etc but there are other ways of satisfying those social interaction needs that some humans have.