Midwest Sports Channel

and the Minnesota Sports Network Wars

By Dan Whenesota

Assist to Judd Zulgad (Who did much of the reporting for the Star Tribune) 

Note: Minnesota has been blessed to have great play by play voices, analysts and broadcast teams.  When I started writing this, I debated adding the specific names of those people.  That list of names is very long, and numerous.  If I listed them all, this story would be immensely longer than it already is.  In addition, there were some situations where competition for those jobs, the hirings and firings, got personal.  In the end, I decided not to go down that road and only included names where it was a necessary part of the story.

Jump to Links:

Introduction

Part 1 - The Beginning

Part 2 - The Wild, Fox Sports Net and Victory Sports One

Part 3 - FSN Live, Hockey Day Minnesota and the Big Ten Network

Part 4 - Streaming, Cord Cutting and Sports Betting

Introduction

Whether you're a cord cutter or still have a main cable provider, you’ve probably had to make choices at some point in your life about what TV/streaming services you’re willing to pay for.  Those choices are usually based on cost, but also on which channels you’ll be able to watch.  Wading through all the different providers, packages and price plans can be exhausting.

If you’re a Minnesota sports fan, it just got a bit more exhausting recently.

On Tuesday July 21, the Minnesota Wild announced that they would be broadcasting their games on their own (yet to be named) network/feed.  The Minnesota Twins have been doing the same on Twins.Tv since 2025.  The MNUFC Loons soccer games have been exclusively on Apple TV since 2023 and the Lynx are streaming their games on a free app called Victory Sports.  The men’s Gopher basketball games will be mostly on Big Ten Network and the women’s games will be a mixture of Big Ten Network and the plus channel (the plus channel is an extra fee).  If you're willing to pay that extra fee, you'll also get to watch Gopher women’s hockey games, which are also currently scheduled for Big Ten Plus.  The Gopher Men’s hockey team will be mostly on Big Ten Network and some on Fox 9.  (At the time this was written, the Timberwolves and Frost have yet to announce where their games will be viewed for the upcoming seasons.) 

If you’re a die-hard fan of only one of our teams, maybe this isn’t such a big deal.  Your TV/streaming choices are easy.  You just pay for that one channel.  But if reading that paragraph above stressed you out, you're not alone.  For those of us who enjoy watching multiple Minnesota sports teams, it can be a challenge not only to have access to all the required channels, but being able to afford the cost of them as well. 

It brings up the inevitable question, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have all our teams on one channel?” 

Well, we did.  Kind of.  For a while. It was called Midwest Sports Channel. 

With all these Minnesota Sports Network wars playing out, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the history of Midwest Sports Channel (MSC) and see how we got where we are today. Maybe we’ll even learn some lessons from the past that will help us moving forward.

Note:  Because of the length of the story, I have decided to break it into a multi part story.  I will release future parts on this same page as they become available.

PART 1  - The Beginning

Satellite technology had been present in the Twin cities since the 1960s, but local stations were only able to receive satellite signals.  The ability to send video signals to satellites did not arrive until 1982 when the first earth to satellite transmitter arrived in the Twin Cities. That transmitter, which was located in Lino Lakes, was purchased by Midwest Communications for $800,000.  Midwest Communications was the parent company to WCCO-TV.  To manage and operate the transmitter, Midwest Communications created a subdivision of their company called Midwest Cable and Satellite.

In the Summer of 1983, with the assistance on Midwest Cable and Satellite, WCCO spearheaded an experimental service called Local Program Network (LPN).  That network included seven other TV stations around the country that would transmit, share and use each other’s video segments.  WCCO would send their video segments via microwaves to the Lino Lakes transmitter which would then send the signal to the orbiting satellite.  That satellite would then transmit those signals to the other stations in the network.  WCCO began selling the LPN service to other stations.   While experimenting with their new toy, Midwest Cable and Satellite also discovered they could send the video signal locally, up to 25 miles, to cable companies.  

While those appeals were being litigated however, TwinStar opted not to renew their contract with Spectrum in December 1985.  The income from the sports broadcasts fell short of what was projected.  Spectrum, and its scrambled late night programming (IYKYK), pulled up its tent stakes and moved on from Minnesota.  WCCO’s parent company, Midwest Communications, once again purchased the TV rights to Twins games. 

While all that was happening, WCCO-II kept growing and expanded their satellite programming.  When not showing news programs, they broadcast infomercials (You youngsters may need to look that one up) and music videos at night.  In the mid 1980’s WCCO-II began to dabble in sports, broadcasting high school all-star games, Canterbury Downs reports and Minnesota Strikers road games. 

With WCCO once again having the Twins TV rights, WCCO-II began broadcasting a small number of Twins games on a PPV basis.  The first was a home series with the Yankees in late July, 1987 ($7 per game or $19.95 for all three).  

In October 1988, WCCO-II started toying with the idea of about changing from a news based channel to an all sports channel.  That change came on January 1, 1989 for most of the Twin Cities.  Out state cable subscribers were able to tune in on March 1st which was also when the official name change to Midwest Sports Channel took place. 

Side Note: The Twins and North Stars were still sharing TV revenues via their TwinStar partnership at that time.  But after the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and changed ownership, the Carl Pohlad owned Twins' organization decided they wanted out of that partnership.  They felt their broadcasts were more profitable than the North Stars and that the agreement had never been equitable.  Ironically, when the TwinStar agreement was formed the North Stars had recently been in the Stanley Cup Final and the Twins were the worst team in baseball.  Regardless, in December 1988, the North Stars filed a lawsuit against the Twins for trying to back out of the TwinStar agreement.  That lawsuit would eventually be settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in February, 1990 effectively severing the TwinStar partnership. 

The 1990’s - The Golden Age of MSC

In 1991, the North Stars went on an incredible playoff run and ended up in the Stanley Cup Final.  Most folks who were alive during that time will not only remember how exciting those games were, but they’ll also remember that’s when the term “pay-per-view” forced its way into the MN sports lexicon.  Its not like we had never heard of it before, but that year, 1991, the term “pay-per-view” became a sort of historical mile marker in Minnesota sports history. 

The North Stars away playoff games that season were broadcast on local TV by KMSP channel 9.   MSC was able to show the home playoff games to their outstate customers via their SportsChannel America rights but they were not allowed to show the games in the metro because they were considered “in market”.  North Stars owner Norm Green offered MSC the broadcast rights to home playoff games in the metro at a cost of $26K per game.  MSC passed, for whatever reason.  Don’t forget MSC was on very few cable providers in the Twin Cities at the time.  Green then made the decision to make the games available on pay-per-view at $10-13 per game (depending on the game and cable provider). 

With the fans, the pay-per-view situation went over about as well as Mario Lemiuex miraculously returning from a debilitating back injury.  They were outraged.  Legislators even weighed in, suggesting there should be laws against it. 

For Green and the organization however, the pay-per-view situation during that playoff run was a huge success financially.  According to the Star Tribune’s Jon Roe, it reportedly cut the team’s regular season loss of $7 Million down to $1 million.  In other words, the North Stars made $6 million off pay-per-view during the 1991 NHL playoffs. 

As you can Imagine, Green saw dollar signs and carried the pay-per-view options into the next season.  In an advertisement announcing which games would be on pay-per-view, the North Stars declared themselves the “Leif Ericksons of pay-per-view”. (Link to that ad https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune/129624406/ )

By 1993, almost all metro cable operators had MSC on their services.  The last remaining holdout was the east metro’s Continental Cablevision which finally signed a deal with MSC in March of 1993 – just in time for the North Stars to announce they were moving to Dallas.  The final North Stars game to air live on MSC was April 1, 1993, a 5-3 loss at Calgary.

In the summer following the North Stars Stanley Cup run, MSC got the cable rights to Gopher hockey games.  In 1993, MSC broadcast Gopher football games, albeit many of them on tape delay.  1994 brought Minnesota Moose broadcasts, and in 1995, MSC obtained the cable rights to Timberwolves games which had aired on a different cable channel during the team's first few seasons.

MSC’s relationship with Gopher sports got stronger in 1998, when the University signed a 10 year agreement with MSC which not only included the games themselves, but also the production of coaches shows. (The Don Lucia Show, The Glen Mason Show, etc).   The first televised Gopher Women’s hockey game was aired on MSC on November 5, 1998 – a 3-1 loss to Harvard at Mariucci Arena. 

In the late 90s, MSC added St. Paul Saints baseball games as well as Minnesota Thunder soccer games.  On June 19, 1999, the new WNBA expansion team, the Minnesota Lynx made their broadcast debut on MSC.  A 69-55 loss to the Houston Comets.  It was the first loss in Lynx franchise history.      

In addition to all the other sports and outdoor shows that were aired, the mid to late 1990’s were really the golden age of Midwest Sports Channel.  The Millenium however, would bring change to Minnesota sports broadcasting – by way of a new NHL team, and challenges from competitors taking aim at MSC.      

Part 2: The Wild, Fox Sports Net and Victory Sports One

Almost immediately after the North Stars left town there were rumors of a another NHL team coming to town.  The Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers all explored moving to Minnesota in the mid 1990s..

On June 17, 1997 St. Paul was awarded an NHL expansion franchise – the Minnesota Wild.  That team would begin play in the 2000-01 season.  With everything else that needed to be done to prepare, a new arena, logos and branding, etc, the TV rights needed to be determined.  It would only make sense for the Wild to partner with Midwest Sports Channel, right?

If only it was that simple.  There was a lot going on in the sports broadcasting world at that time. 

Ironically, the final straw may have been Target Field, which didn’t even exist yet.  Throughout the early 2000’s the Twins and Vikings had been lobbying for public funding from the state to build new stadiums. While the 2004 version of that bill was on the legislative floor, an amendment was proposed that if the Twins were to receive public funding for a stadium, they would be required the to make a large package of their games available to 70% of cable subscribers in the state.

The next day, Pohlad made the call to pull the plug on VS1 and the Twins signed an 8 year deal with FSN.   

That 2004 version of the Stadium Bill did not pass. 

In a June 23, 2004 column, the Star Tribune’s Jim Souhan wrote, “The vibe in the Twins organization is that because Victory Sports failed and no stadium deal was approved, owner Carl Pohlad won’t add to the payroll.”

In February 2006 a Hennepin County District Judge gave Carl Pohlad permission to sell or move the Twins.  Pohlad claimed a new stadium would help them increase the team’s payroll to compete with other bigger market teams.  In May of 2006 the ‘Ballpark Bill’ was passed paving the way for Target Field to be built.

PART 3 - FSN Live, Hockey Day Minnesota and the Big Ten Network

BIG Ten Network

In the early 1990’s Gopher football games were shown on either MSC, ABC or the ESPN Networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, etc).  But back then, not every Gopher football game was televised.  In 1995, an agreement was reached between the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten to increase the number of Gopher football games that were televised, at least locally.  Into the latter 1990’s and early 2000’s the number of games on ABC and the ESPNs increased each year and the number shown on MSC/FSN was very few.  The final Gopher football game to be shown on FSN was September 17, 2005, a 46-7 non-conference victory over Florida Atlantic at the Metrodome.  After that season, in the Summer of 2006, the Big Ten Conference announced that they would be starting their own TV network. 

This might have been one of the first nails in the FSN coffin. 

Up until that point, Gopher basketball games were primarily broadcast on FSN or local over-the-air TV.  Some games were broadcast on the ESPN networks depending on national TV contractual agreements.  Once Big Ten Network (BTN) launched in August of 2007, less and less Gopher basketball games would appear on FSN.   During the 2006-07 season, FSN broadcast 8 Gopher men’s basketball games.  The next season, there were no Gopher basketball games on FSN.  The final Gopher men’s basketball game on FSN was December 20, 2008, a 70-64 win over #9 Louisville in the Arizona Stadium Shootout holiday tournament. 

Records on the history of Gopher women’s basketball broadcasts are hard to find.  From what I could dig up in old papers, the final regularly contracted Gopher women’s basketball game on FSN was February 25, 2007, a 57-50 loss at Michigan State.  There were two other Gopher women’s basketball games broadcast on FSN, but those may have been due to other teams TV contracts or last-minute TV additions.  December 10, 2014, at North Dakota and March 2, 2018, during the Big Ten tourney.

In March of 2011, the Gopher hockey team announced they were joining the newly formed Big Ten hockey conference, beginning in the 2013-14 season. They had been members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) since 1951 because the Big Ten never had enough hockey teams to form a conference.  When Penn State announced they were adding hockey as a varsity sport in 2010, it triggered a Big Ten bylaw that a hockey conference must be formed.  This change would also affect where Gopher Hockey games would be broadcast.   

At that time Gopher Hockey was broadcast mainly on FSN.  With a few big games being shown on the newly formed BTN each season.  The number of games on BTN would increase after the 2011 announcement.  BTN would also have priority in which games they wanted to air. 

It’s reasonable to assume that with three of the biggest names in college hockey history (Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin) the Big Ten felt they could corner the market and cash in on those TV broadcasts. 

One college hockey official was quoted in the Star Tribune saying, “When a prestigious institution like Penn State and other large schools combine to form a conference, it will get a lot of media attention, better TV exposure, and all of that is a positive for the sport.”

However, that perceived “exposure” would prove to be fool’s gold.  As time passed, more and more Gopher hockey games would be aired on the BTN+ channel which required an extra subscription.  Then, in 2017, Notre Dame joined the Big Ten Hockey conference.  Notre Dame already had a previous broadcasting agreement with NBC.  In other words, any hockey games played at Notre Dame, would be broadcast on Peacock (NBC’s subscription based TV service) and thus required Gopher hockey fans to pay for yet another subscription to watch all the team’s games. 

In fact, the move to the Big Ten and the decreased exposure may have also affected attendance at Mariucci Arena.  The traditional rivalry games with teams like UMD, St. Cloud, North Dakota, etc, were no longer an annual part of the Gopher’s schedule because those teams were now in a different conference.  When the Gophers were still in the WCHA, those games were huge attendance draws.  They often sold out and tickets were always hard to get.  But now that the Gophers were in the Big Ten, they could only schedule those teams as non-conference games.  Even then, those games were rarely televised because of the other team’s broadcasting rights.  If they were televised they required a subscription to that conference’s TV service.  During that time attendance at Mariucci arena declined significantly.   

The Gopher men’s basketball team also saw a similar shift of some of their games to the BTN+ channel.  Unfortunately, the biggest casualty in all of this may have been women’s sports.  Both the women’s basketball and hockey teams would see a significant number of games moved to BTN+ as the years went by. 

The Future of FSN

Although FSN was losing many Gopher sports to BTN, the Minnesota Wild extended their contract with FSN in May of 2010.  That extension made all Wild games available on TV for the first time in franchise history.  The deal also made FSN the exclusive home of the Wild starting in the 2011-12 season.  In other words, every Wild game would be televised on FSN moving forward. 

In early 2011, The Twins signed a similar deal with FSN.  Other than a handful of nationally televised games, every Twins game would air exclusively on FSN.  By 2015, the Timberwolves agreement with FSN called for the broadcasting 75 of the teams 82 regular season games.  In 2017, FSN aired a record number, 12 Lynx games, more than had ever been aired before.  The Wild, Twins, Wolves, and Lynx would all remain primarily on FSN for the next decade.

Then in 2018, prior to the MNUFC Loons’ second MLS season, FSN reached an agreement with the team to broadcast 31 matches that season.   

It seemed that FSN, Minnesota’s regional sports network, was on solid ground and had a strong stable of teams to fill its airwaves.

But much like “Winter” in the popular Game of Thrones TV series at the time….”change” was coming. 

Part 4: Streaming, Cord Cutting, and Sports Betting

(Shout out to Michael Rand who documented much of the Minnesota sports broadcast history during this era for the Star Tribune)

The previous installment of this story left off around 2017-ish.  Before we get into the final chapter, it’s important to understand what was going on in the broadcast world at that time.  Below is brief timeline of streaming services (services that offer programming over the internet rather than a traditional cable or satellite connection). 

2005 YouTube video hosting site launches.

2007 Netflix offers movie streaming options to its DVD by mail service.

2008 Hulu launches - showing previously aired network TV shows.

2010 Netflix begins streaming previously aired TV shows.

2010 ESPN 360/ESPN3 launches which eventually becomes WatchESPN.

2013 Netflix airs their first original streaming TV production “House of Cards”.

2015 FuboTV launched as a soccer streaming platform.

2015 Sling TV is introduced with smaller and cheaper TV packages.

2016 Amazon launches Prime TV streaming service.

2017 YouTube TV launched.

2017 Hulu Plus Live TV launched.

2018 ESPN+ launched.

2019 Disney Plus launched.

2019 Apple Tv+ launched.

2020 Prime airs first exclusive NFL game.

As our story continues, “cord cutting” (cancelling cable/satellite providers and choosing internet TV streaming options) will increase greatly over the next decade.  As a result, the number of people subscribed to traditional cable/satellite providers will greatly decrease during that same time.  This trend will put another nail in the coffin of Fox Sports North (FSN).

2017-2020

In December of 2017, the Walt Disney Company purchased 21st Century Fox.  That deal originally included the ownership of FSN.  Disney already owned ESPN and federal regulators felt that would be too much of a broadcasting monopoly.  Therefore, Disney was forced to put the Fox Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) up for sale before regulators would approve the merger.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a Maryland based media conglomerate that owned the Minnesota CW channel, purchased all the Fox RSNs from Disney in May of 2019.  Those RSNs would be run by a division of Sinclair called Diamond Sports Group.  There were reports that Jim Pohlad and the Twins were part of a group that attempted to purchase the Fox RSNs, but they were unsuccessful.  

Also in 2019, Dish Network and Sling TV dropped the all the Fox RSNs.  Even though negotiations would resume at times over the next few years, FSN would never return to those services.  That meant all the subscribers to those services were no longer getting Twins, Wild and Wolves games.  FuboTV also dropped the Fox RSNs that year but they would return two years later.   After the 2020 MLB/Twins season, both YouTube TV and Hulu also dropped Fox RSN’s never to return.

2021 - 2022

On March 31, 2021, Fox Sports North was rebranded as Bally’s Sports North (BSN) to accommodate the increasing popularity of in-game sports betting.  Sinclair intended to create a “gamification” viewing experience on their Bally’s regional sports networks in which viewers could interact with the broadcast via a gambling platform called “Bet.works iGaming”.  Even though sports betting was not/is not legal in Minnesota, it is legal in other states where their other regional sports networks were.

BSN also introduced a stand-alone app/website in May of 2022, where cord cutters could pay a subscription to watch Wolves and Wild games without a cable or satellite provider.  Unfortunately, that app did not include rights to Twins games due to MLB blackout rules. 

In June of 2022, the MLS signed a ten year deal with Apple TV+.  That meant MNUFC Loons soccer would no longer be available on BSN.  If you wanted to watch those games you would have to pay a separate subscription fee.  The final Loons game on BSN was October 9, 2022, a 2-0 first round playoff win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at Allianz Field in St. Paul.  

2023 – The Bankruptcy

On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of BSN, officially filed for bankruptcy.  According to a report from the Mpls/St. Paul Business Journal, BSN “lost well over half of its subscriber base in the last decade.”  Those losses were similar in Bally’s other RSN’s around the country. 

On the heels of that announcement, Diamond Sports missed a payment to the Twins.  The Twins, who were in the final year of their contract with BSN, filed a lawsuit (alongside MLB) against Diamond Sports threating to terminate the contract with BSN.  The Twins prevailed in court, but there was still uncertainty they would actually receive the $54 million they were owed, or whether BSN would survive long enough to broadcast the entire season.  Diamond Sports finally made that payment in July and the Twins stayed on BSN throughout the rest of the 2023 season.

Up until that point, Gopher Hockey had partnered with MSC/FSN/BSN since 1991.  Having already had their games split between Big Ten Network and BSN in recent years, they made a change heading into their 2023-24 season.  The games that had previously been on BSN, would now be broadcast over the air on Fox 9 that season.  Craig Cotner, who runs the popular “Gopher Puck Live” social media account, recalls that the change may have been because the University was concerned about the Diamond Sports bankruptcy litigation.  Unknowingly, the final Gopher men’s hockey game on BSN was February 10, 2023, a 4-1 win at Wisconsin.

Wolves and Wild broadcasts continued without interruption on BSN that Fall but a November ruling in the continuing Diamond Sports bankruptcy litigation gave both teams an “out”.  The ruling stipulated that both teams could terminate their contracts with BSN after the 2023-24 seasons.  In December, both the Wild and the Wolves decided to exercise that option. 

All the challenges BSN faced during 2023 happened behind the camera, not in front of it.  The bankruptcy didn’t affect any broadcasts of the Minnesota teams they partnered with.  Having said that, the situation may have served as a warning to those teams to start planning for the future and exploring other options.

2024

Without the Twins, Gopher hockey, and soon to be without the Wild and Timberwolves, things were looking bleak for BSN in early 2024.  Miraculously, Diamond Sports was thrown a lifeline by an unlikely candidate - Amazon.  Amazon started Prime TV streaming service in 2017.  They also broadcast live sports, including NFL’s Thursday Night Football.  It was reported that Diamond Sports Group acquired new investments totaling $500 million - which included $100 million from Amazon. 

Around that same time, BSN announced they would be partnering with the Minnesota franchise in the newly formed PWHL – Professional Women’s Hockey League.  (That franchise would be named the Frost a year later.)

In February, the Twins announced a one year deal to stay on BSN.  But that deal still did not include a direct to consumer streaming option because of MLB’s blackout rules.  The Wolves and Wild would also agree to re-sign with BSN later that year.

Just when things were looking up for BSN, there was a contractual dispute with Comcast, one Minnesota’s largest cable providers (also the #2 cable provider in the entire US).  The two sides could not come to terms on a deal for Comcast to continue carrying Bally’s RSNs.  On May 2nd, BSN went dark on Comcast airwaves. Having already lost YouTube, Hulu, Sling, etc, this was bad for Bally's.  

The dispute continued all summer and finally ended on August 1st with BSN reportedly caving to Comcast’s demands.  The dispute had lasted 3 months and Comcast subscribers in Minnesota missed the vast majority of the Twins season.  Ironically, when the dispute ended and BSN was back on Comcast, subscribers who were looking forward to finally watching a Twins game were still out of luck.  The Twins did not have a scheduled game that day.

Following the Comcast debacle, and free from their contract with BSN now that the baseball season had ended, the Twins announced in early October they would no longer be relying on an RSN.  Instead, they announced they would be partnering with MLB on a future TV service, starting in the 2025 baseball season.  The final Twins game to be broadcast on BSN was on September 29, 2024, a 6-2 loss to the Orioles at Target Field. 

A few weeks later, BSN got a facelift, when Diamond Sports signed a deal with the gambling company FanDuel.  BSN would officially change its name to FanDuel Sports North (FDSN) on Monday October 21, 2024.  In early 2025, after reducing its debt and emerging from bankruptcy, Diamond Sports Group changed their name to Main Street Sports Group.

2025

Since the very beginnings of Midwest Sports Channel and the TwinStar days, the Minnesota Twins had been looking for a way to control their own TV broadcasts.  In January 2025, they did just that, introducing the creation of “Twins.TV”.  The “channel” would be produced and distributed in partnership with Major League Baseball.   This deal gave the team a stand alone streaming option which they did not have with FDSN.  In other words, Twins games would still be available in cable/satellite packages as they had in the past, but now cord cutters could purchase games separately at $19.99/month or $99.99 for the whole season. 

The Timberwolves, Wild, Lynx and Frost would stay on FDSN for their 2025 seasons.  But…change was coming and the writing was on the wall.   

Side Note:  In December 2025 it was reported in Sports Business Journal that a sports streaming service called DAZN was attempting to purchase Main Street Sports and all their RSNs, including FDSN.  That deal fell through, but DAZN will come back into play in the future.  

Conclusion

*Note: Up until this point I’ve tried to keep it factual.  Be warned - this next part will include opinion.  😉

I intended this story to be a nostalgic love letter to Midwest Sports Channel.  Along the way it morphed into a commentary on the difficulties trying to watch our Minnesota Sports teams.  When I started writing it, the Timberwolves had not yet decided what they would do with their broadcasts after the demise of Fan Duel Sports Network.  On July 30, 2026, the Timberwolves announced they would be partnering with DAZN to broadcast games on a subscription only basis.  In other words, if you have cable or satellite you will still need to pay an extra subscription fee to watch most of the Timberwolves game this season.  Reminder: Twins.TV and the new Wild broadcasting service are/will be available to cable/satellite providers as well as to cord cutters. 

In my introduction, I wrote:

“If you’re a die-hard fan of only one of our teams, maybe this isn’t a big deal.”

That’s still true.  But how many MN sports fans only watch one team?  I’d argue that most Minnesota sports fans, pay attention to more than one team.  If that’s true, I’m also of the opinion that our teams isolating their broadcasts will not only hurt fans, it will eventually hurt the teams themselves. 

The obvious reason is financial.  Unless fans have the means to do so, having all these TV subscriptions can be tough on the budget.  Inevitably, fans may be forced to choose between our teams.  That means less eyes on each team. 

Think of a Venn diagram of Timberwolves fans and Wild fans.  There’s one circle for Wolves fans and one for Wild fans. There is some overlap in the middle with people who are fans of both teams.  Forcing fans to choose one or the other eliminates that overlap. 

It also eliminates the casual fan.  An example: Before the MNUFC games were broadcast on FSN, I wasn’t much of a soccer fan.  I have a few coworkers who are big soccer fans and brought me to some games.  I began to watch the MNUFC on FSN regularly.  When the MLS moved their games to Apple TV+, I didn’t have that channel.  And I wasn’t willing to pay another subscription  for something I was just a casual fan of.  So I stopped watching Loons games.  

This trend of sports broadcast isolation and the focus on the immediate financial gains of it, ignores how it may affect those teams long term.  Common sense says less eyes on a broadcast means less exposure.  Less exposure means less new fans interacting with their product, especially younger fans.

It also hurts women’s sports.  The formation of the Big Ten Hockey conference eventually forced many of the Gopher hockey games to Big Ten Network.  Recently however, many of those games have been moved to the BTN+ channel, which is an extra cost.  In fact, almost all of the Gopher women’s hockey games have been moved to the BTN+ channel.  That extra cost of  BTN+ means there will be even less eyes on the product.

In a 2015 Star Tribune article, Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve said, “And let’s not hide this. The more [the Lynx are on TV], the more we’re seen, the more we grow the game.” 

If women’s games are being aired primarily on a plus channel that requires an extra subscription, there are less eyes on the product which possibly hinders the growth of those sports.  Is that good for women’s sports?     

Finally, let’s talk attendance.  There was a time when our teams shared one stadium.  Today, most Minnesota teams have their own stadium - even at the college level.  Unless you are the Minnesota Vikings, filling those seats for every game is a daily challenge for those teams.  Will dividing our fan-bases improve that situation or make it worse?  We’ve already talked about the attendance decline at Mariucci.  That’s just one example.  Just the other day I heard a story that Allianz Field was half empty.  And Target Field is….well, that’s a different story.  (I had to get my Twins cheap shot in.)   

Whenever we have these conversations there’s always someone on social media who says to me, “It’s only like $5-$10 more per month!”  Like it should be a no-brainer for me and I should be ashamed that I can’t come up with that small amount. 

Currently at my house, I have DirecTV, Prime TV, Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+ and ESPN+.  If it’s not on one of those stations, I’m tapped out. 

Just $10 more per month you say?  Then another $10 for Apple TV+, and another $10 for Big10+, then another $10 for DAZN….and so on. 

We all have our breaking point and will make our decisions.  That’s capitalism.  Capitalism is competition.  With competition comes winners and losers.  In the long run we may look back at this point in time as where some of our teams started to fail.

When streaming first became available and the cord cutting was all the rage, many of us had visions of ridding ourselves of cable/satellite package shopping. We dreamed of an a-la-carte style system where we could pick and choose which channels we wanted to pay for individually, without the bloat of the extra channels we never even watched. 

Well.  Here we are.  Is this really better?  Especially for sports? 

Memories

When I first started writing this, I asked folks on Twitter what were their favorite memories of Midwest Sports Channel.  Below are the responses.  I'm not sure all are from MSC, but I posted them anyway.