In February, SFC board member Brad Blakeman testified before the Oregon General Assembly against Comcast’s decision to withhold games from fans in Oregon more than 3 years after promising to provide them access.  Now, the Portland Trailblazers have taken the next step in requesting that the FCC force Comcast’s hand in providing broadcasts to the multitudes of Oregon-based fans who are unable to subscribe to Comcast.

Let’s keep the pressure on Comcast to do right by Blazers fans and keep their promise to the people of Oregon.

Sign the petition to the Oregon General Assembly to give us our Blazers games.

Tell us your story.

Become a fan of SFC-Portland on Facebook.

Follow the Local Chapter on Twitter.

Taxpayers would have to help pay for whatever the Blazers design.

Isaac declined to disclose any financial estimates, saying he’s still working on them. But he told city officials that the total cost of an earlier proposal would have been $100 million to $150 million.

As for the public subsidies, the city’s urban renewal agency has budgeted $5.4 million. But the city has the capacity to offer more than $50 million if it takes on riskier debt in one urban renewal district and redraws another district’s boundaries to swoop into the Rose Quarter.

Read the full article here.  Sounds like the City will be footing part of the bill for whatever the Blazers decide to do.  We can’t take these actions for granted.

Sign the petition to the Oregon General Assembly to give us our Blazers games.

Become a fan of SFC-Portland on Facebook.

Follow the Local Chapter on Twitter.

Phil Knight, Nike’s founder, wants to live by his own rules and privately construct this athletic facility of his own design assuming the local political powers that be allow him carte blanche all the way up to cutting the rope and claiming mission accomplished. What appears on the outside to be a huge philanthropic endeavor presents deeper issues for tax paying sports fans in Oregon.

SFC-Portland Local Chapter Chair Sarah Moon contributed to this article.

Visit the SFC Portland page here.

Become a fan of SFC-Portland on Facebook.

Follow the Local Chapter on Twitter.

While SFC will not rest until this agregious practice has ceased, SFC-Portland Chair Sarah Moon is reporting that many Blazers fans are reacting strongly to rumours that GM Kevin Pritchard might go the way of his ally and Assistant GM Tom Penn who was fired less than a week ago. According to Moon, Pritchard is as much a fan favorite as Brandon Roy. 

As the playoffs near, there remains some uncertainty as to the future of the front office alignment. After all the ups and downs the organization has been through on the court in the last decade and a half, Blazers fans want to be able to count on the team to return to post-season play for many years to come in the stacked Western Conference.

While the SFC won’t get caught up in rumours concerning the players on the court, the management in the front office, or ownership in the box, we will focus on all those Blazers fans who are barred from watching the games on TV due to the deal with Comcast. Many are still left without access to the games throughout the state of Oregon.

Comcast has broken the law, and more important to many Blazers fans, they’ve broken their promise. At the outset of the deal with the Blazers, Comcast vowed to share the games with competing media companies so their fans could watch the games in any region across the state. Outside of a few instances, this has not occurred.

The fans will not stand for it. It’s amazing the type of fan base we’ve tapped into by launching SFC-Portland. Blazers fans have wasted no time in starting their own petition to send a message to the team’s ownership following the firing of Asst. GM Tom Penn.  

We applaud their social activism, and request that you join our efforts to make a difference for sports fans in Portland and across the region.  

Visit the Facebook and Twitter pages to become a fan and follow what the Local Chapter is doing about the issues that affect sports fans.

Also, don’t forget to sign the petition to demand your Blazers games today. Many are still without TV access, and deserve it. Promises have been made. Let’s see to it that they are kept.

More recently, Brian Smith from The Columbian interviewed the Blazers Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing Sarah Mensah, and it appears that this practice will not only continue, but is going to increase across the board.

With the rise of StubHub and similar ticket resale organizations, Mensah claims that the increase in data has provided a more accurate measure of ticket values.  To take it a step further, it has allowed the team to raise prices on particular season ticket-holders, pricing them out, with the knowledge that fans will pay more money in the resale.

Season ticket-holders have plenty of reasons to be frustrated. While many are worried about the increase in price for their specific sections, there is growing fear that the Blazers will tinker with other variables like row-by-row pricing, increasing the complexity of section pricing, raising costs and reducing the number of league minimum seat prices.

While it boggles the mind why any organization might emulate the airline industry, that’s exactly what Mensah says they are attempting to do. The adjustable pricing is barring the die-hards from entering the doors. While those without the cash are left at home, many aren’t even able to watch the games on TV.

Fans are not so eager to anger the team by protesting such tactics. Fans fear the Blazers might find a way to go the way of the Seattle Supersonics and escape from their contract with the city which was part of the $34.5 million which built the Rose Garden. However, it is not likely for fans to be effective without organizing their efforts and raising their voices in unison expressing their discontent.

SFC-Portland is your home to let your voice be heard.

Visit the Facebook and Twitter pages to become a fan and follow what the Local Chapter is doing about the issues that affect sports fans.

Also, sign the petition to demand your Blazers games today.

I traveled last week to Salem, Oregon to testify before Members of the Oregon General Assembly with regard to Comcast Cable’s blacking out of Portland Trail Blazers home games. Thousands of Trail Blazers fans are denied enjoying their favorite past time because of the greed and control exercised by a cable provider who refuses to provide the feed for home games to competitors in areas they cannot and do not service.

SFC struck a nerve in Oregon and challenged lawmakers and fans to take on Comcast, the Trail Blazers, and  satellite providers to “do the right thing” by fans. There is no good reason why tens of thousands of sports fans are unable to enjoy Trail Blazers home games in the comfort of their homes, their favorite restaurant or bar.

Now it is up to the fans to get off the bench and take to the court and take on this issue, head on. There is no doubt that fans can make a difference and SFC is there to help.

Sign the petition directing Oregon State representatives to take on this issue.

Become a fan of the Local Chapter in Oregon, SFC-Portland, on Facebook.

Follow SFC-Portland on Twitter.

Watch the video of Brad’s testimony:

Comcast promised to provide competitors access to games so that the areas where Comcast is not available in Oregon, fans would still be able to watch their games.  Furthermore, the FCC has ruled that it is not lawful to maintain local sports exclusives.  In other words, even where Comcast is available, they need to share the games with competitors so consumers have the choice of carriers.  Almost 3 years ago, this deal was struck, the promise was made, and the fans are still left out in the cold without access to their Blazers games.

The media recognizes that the activist state that is Oregon will not settle for this mistreatment.  Blakeman’s testimony was mentioned in Willamette Week Online, The Oregonian, KPTV, The Oregon Politico, and BlazersEdge.com.  His interviews on The Lars Larson Show and on The Game 95.5 helped spread the word to current and future members of the new Local Chapter SFC-Portland.

SFC has built the avenue to channel the frustration of so many Blazers fans who are signing the petition asking the state legislature, ‘Where Are My Blazers Games?‘  Sports Fans in Oregon are taking action deciding to JOIN THE COALITION, to become a fan of SFC Portland on Facebook, and to follow the local chapter on Twitter.

We need to keep the pressure on Comcast, the team, and the state representatives to make this right.  We Want Our Games!

Wednesday, February 24^th, 2010

State of Oregon Seeks Remedy to Trail Blazers TV Contract

SFC Testifies Against Comcast in Oregon General Assembly

SFC Launches First Local Chapter in Portland, Oregon

Washington, D.C. — At the request of the Oregon State Legislature, Sports Fans Coalition sends board member Brad Blakeman to testify in the Oregon State House Committee on Consumer Protection and Government Accountability concerning Comcast’s egregious practice of shutting out Portland Trail Blazers fans from the ability to watch their home games on TV. While Comcast seeks permission to merge with NBC Universal, Blakeman asks, ‘Why can’t Trail Blazers fans in Oregon ask to see their home games first?’

At the outset of the ten-year contract struck between Comcast and the Portland Trail Blazers, Comcast promised Oregon sports fans that they would eventually get to view their home games regardless of who provided their TV.  “Almost three years after the Comcast/Blazers deal,” Blakeman notes, “only Comcast cable subscribers and a few subscribers to small cable systems can watch every game the Blazers play at home.”

To more adequately address the issues that face sports fans in Oregon, Sports Fans Coalition launches the first Local Chapter today based in Portland.  The Chair of SFC Portland, Sarah Moon, shares the experience of many Trail Blazers fans with friends and family currently shut out of Blazers’ broadcasts much to their discontent.  SFC Portland will serve as a home for sports fans to share their frustrations and as a voice for the local community seeking to organize consumers to speak up and demand results from government and industry.

If a media giant like Comcast acts in such a way as to provoke an entire state of sports fans today with such disingenuous behavior, it is evident that preconditions should be applied to the company’s bid to acquire NBC Universal before real consideration is given to approval of the merger.  “Oregon sports fans,” Blakeman continues, “you deserve better.”

The Sports Fans Coalition’s agenda advocates that sports fans should be able to watch their local teams play, regardless of how fans get their games.  There should be no local sports exclusives.  Now that the FCC has voted in favor of the sports fan, the Sports Fans Coalition will be acutely focused on the execution of the ruling in Oregon as well as in every state across the country.

On February 19^th, Sports Fans Coalition joined a group of twelve industry associations, labor organizations, and public interest groups in creating and sending a letter urging Comcast President and CEO Brian Roberts to drop litigation seeking to overturn the FCC’s decision to ensure that programming owned by cable operators is shared with competing cable and satellite TV providers so that sports fans are not left out in the cold asking ‘Where are my games?’

Read the letter here.

Sign the petition here.

View the SFC Portland page here.

Become a fan of SFC Portland on Facebook.

Follow SFC Portland on Twitter.

Start an SFC Local Chapter in your town.

While the big players in the $30 million deal will walk away with smiles on their faces, this level of consolidation will surely bring more pain and suffering to sports fans across the country. As SFC has reported, a merged Comcast NBC giant would flex its muscles as owner of programming, distribution on the local station, and broadband in more than 11 TV markets including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, Miami, Denver, Hartford and Fresno. 

Furthermore, that list fails to include the harm Comcast currently poses to Trail Blazer fans across the state of Oregon. Fans of Portland’s NBA team are forced to pay Comcast’s ransom to watch their games.  What’s even worse is that entire regions of the state, and locals across state lines in Washington are unable to subscribe to Comcast even if they could afford to do so.

Comcast has claimed repeatedly that they would make the games available to competitors so that all Oregon could watch the games, but at what price? If Comcast is pricing out the competition, what’s the difference between this and a ‘local sports exclusive’ in which the media giant just says, ‘no’?

It’s these types of examples that spawn the action the SFC has taken in petitioning the FCC and joining a coalition, as it did on Friday, to write and send a letter directly to Comcast President and CEO Brian Roberts urging the company to withdraw it’s litigation seeking to overturn the FCC’s pro-sports fan ruling to close the ‘terrestrial loophole’.

At some point, the greed needs to stop. Sports Fans Coalition will not count on these media giants to act in the best interests of sports fans. SFC will not rest on the laurels of a positive decision by the FCC.

A delayed merger approval process does not build confidence in the company to act more socially responsible when business practices and behavior of the past will surely dictate how it will act in the future. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.