With the upcoming new contract, huge increases in attendance and TV ratings, there is a logical reason for that. Players with the option to declare or wait, have never had a greater incentive to wait. A player coming out this year will be stuck with a rookie contract scale for several years that is likely much lower than what it will be next year. Quite possibly a player that waits might make more in 3 years than in 4 if they came out this year.
All leagues skew their TV schedules to their more popular teams to an extent. This is to another level. All of the teams deserve at least one game on ESPN/ABC. How else do you help these other teams get exposure in their market, especially one the size of DC? And if they can find a slot for the Valkyries, you can't say it wasn't possible for the Mystics.
Seems "Monumental Sports Network" [owned by the owner of the Mystics] will be providing Regional Coverage of 40 Mystics games this season and I think it's available on YoutubeTV, Hulu+ Live TV, and potentially available through DC Regional TV Providers. Obviously, tbha doesn't help national viewers or fans outside the regional area but they will at least still have local eyes. Chrsity winters-Scott and Meghan McPeak will be in the Broadcast Booth. They play one game against the Fever on ION.
And there's the rub as the regional coverage sucks, from a Canadian perspective. Monumental Sports Network isn't something I can subscribe to. I have to use the WNBA app for that. Thing is I'm not a casual fan and this is the perspective I'm viewing this from.
Totally agree. I won't be able to watch any Washington games until they are on ION, which, is a bummer since Washington will have three draft picks in the top 6.
No apologies needed. Thanks to my time on this board I've learned that the TV broadcasting landscape in the US, while robust with more options, is just as frustrating. I was under the assumption that things were a lot easier and less expensive than they really are. It's been a good education for me.
Monumental has its issues. Many of the games aren't shown live because of blackouts. I've never been able to correlate those with national broadcasts, no idea what the deal is there. Christy and Meghan are pretty good broadcasters, though.
Gotta give a shout out to Meghan McPeak, a great Canadian broadcasting talent doing her thing in DC. It's unfortunate we don't get to see her cover NCAAW like Christy does because she also works the Wizards' games. I think she would be a great addition to the number of play-by-play announcers out there.
Basically I'm in the same room...or set of rooms in thinking: how is time going to be allotted? Adding Cloud and Johannes in one week (no wonder they didn't care about the draft choice that went to the Sun
) will drive Sandy Brondello nuts. Maybe there's an app...
We're talking ESPN/ABC broadcasts specifically. The Fever are getting 40% of it. I think the remaining 60% can afford a game or two for everyone else.
least defensive
Hence why they made the move for Cloud.
I was going to say that, but you still have Laney, Stewie, JJ, Sabaly, and now Harrison back in the paint area.
My guess is there will be an adjustment to the rookie scale so players who leave this year will not be subjected to the rookie scale under the old CBA.