Fan
Time Warner Cable shelled out $3 billion for the rights to show Lakers games for the next 20 years. Now consumers have to pay an extra $4 a month to TWC to watch the Lakers which was shown on KCAL 9 for years. The issue is, not everyone has TWC and not everyone can get TWC in their area. It’s one thing to not be a fan of the Lakers and choose not to watch them. It’s another thing entirely to be a fan and you can’t watch them. TWC has not been in talks about distributing their Lakers channels to Verizon, Directv and other television providers. I don’t think anything will be resolved before the season starts.
The phrase “cash rules” rings true in this case. I just don’t see how this could be a good move for the Lakers organization. They have 16 championship banners and a loyal fan base. With the acquisition of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, every Lakers fan would be glued to the television to watch their beloved Lakers.
I can see if a franchise like the Kings or Raptors took the deal. They can use $3 billion as leverage to pay players to play for their organization. The Lakers don’t need the money but I feel as though they slapped their fans in the face with this move. My pet peeve is when people start with the phrase, “in these hard economic times…..” I will say this; consumers don’t want to shell out more money for the same or less service. That seems to be with companies are doing now.