As sportswriter Chris Zelkovich says, "Toronto Blue Jays fans across the country plan torch-and-pitchfork parades as they face being deprived of watching their favourite team on television" in his article Sportsnet One battle turns into a shooting war. Even out here in the heart of the west coast's lala land there are sports fans, lottsa them are Blue Jay fans. Up until a couple weeks ago it was easy to overhear people talking about the Jays. Not any more, now if two sports fans meet the first topic is the pigs at Rogers and their satanic child Sportsnet One.The big brass at Rogers are #1 at one thing: shedding fans daily. In the here and now 'we the fans' feel lied to. We watched Rogers Sportsnet's 4 regional channels run commercials stating they were carrying ALL the Jays games "Right here on Sportsnet". Then, in their brain dead short-sighted wisdom, they changed where 'here' is and moved 25 Jays games onto a speciality channel nobody gets outside of S. Ontario [and nobody anywhere wants].
Raptors fans are next up to weep and wail as 23 Raptors' games will air exclusively on Sportsnet One starting in early October. The biggest fan explosion up here in Canuckistan against Rogers' schemes will be in two weeks when the hockey coverage schedule will be published..
These guys at Rogers are doing exactly what monopoly capitialists do. They've vertically integrated their niche, now its time to jack up the profit margins. Worked wonders on widgets but maybe not so well on 'we the fans'. The Rogers braintrust forgot that people often wiggle free as the screws are tightened, sometimes they organize and resist, sometimes they remember how much fun it was listening to baseball on the radio as a kid, someimes they just do something else with their time. Rogers has forgotten that to build the Jays' team they need a growng fan base not a shrinking one. And that watching a favorite baseball, basketball or hockey team is a habit reinforced by the community of friends that share the habit, no community-no fans.
