STLtoday.com

Just Whit wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 20:55 pm

cardinalsfever44 wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 19:44 pm

sdaltons wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 19:40 pm

WeeVikes wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 19:16 pm

cardinalsfever44 wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 17:56 pm

Talkin' Baseball wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 17:55 pm

cardinalsfever44 wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 17:37 pm

cardstatman wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 16:45 pm Oh boy...

Another hurdle in the path of the St Louis Cardinals hopes of returning to success.

The Cardinals have to realize that tanking is not the best time to renegotiate a long term TV deal, right?

Carrier: So what are your viewership numbers?

Cardinals: Well we decided to make it difficult to watch our games in many markets and we let the STL media run wild with a narrative that the Cardinals have been downright awful for 10 years (2016-2025) and we can never win again even though we have won 52.3% of our games which is 10th best in MLB since the end of our 5 year run as the best team in MLB from 2011-2015.

Carrier: Why do we want to give you large sums of money if no one will be watching?

Cardinals: Can we sign an IOU for you? We've had a bad run of luck and don't expect to have a good product to watch for at least a couple more years.

I think the #1 factor contributing to recent fan apathy is that there are really no marketable or exciting players currently on the team. Which player would you even buy a jersey for right now?

I can only speak for me, but I wasn't put off by the players as I was the utterly poor performance by the front office, the poor roster construction, the mixed messaging, and the condescension.

I'm not put off by the players at all. I'm just saying that there have been no players on the team the past few years that are going to excite the casual fan. There are no "must see" players. Hopefully that turns around quickly.

For me, I don’t necessarily care who the players are. If the team is winning and dominating the division, that’s what makes it fun. I don’t need to see a McGwire hitting a ton of homers on a team with no chance of doing anything.

McGwire was an obvious exception, but in general winning and dominating the division goes hand-in-hand with having some "must see" players.

Exactly. There is just nobody on this roster that you get excited about to see at the plate. I'm hoping Wetherholt may be that guy for the future, but we will have to wait on that. Also, paging Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman to see if they still have a pulse.

The Brewers don't either but they win, thats what draws fans.

+1

My betting history says Fan Duel should have plenty of money.

This just not effects the Cards. From what I am seeing this effects over 30 other professional teams with MLB,NHL and NBA teams facing the same issue. This is why MLB wants to take control of all broadcasts and move away from regional networks.

kyace wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025 22:51 pm This just not effects the Cards. From what I am seeing this effects over 30 other professional teams with MLB,NHL and NBA teams facing the same issue. This is why MLB wants to take control of all broadcasts and move away from regional networks.

It is going to be a long way back to make this work. I looked at the households in the Cards viewing area, it is around 1.5M. If the Cards achieved 20% purchase rate at $200 per year, that is 300,000 households or $60M. They would also presumably be sharing that with the Blues. I don't know what it costs to operate a broadcast, but it can't be cheap. $20M(?) $30M(?) Advertising will produce additional revenue. But, the Cards would be lucky to produce $20M net in year 1 of their own venture with a long road to get back to $55M. Given what we know about the Dodgers network profits, how does MLB do a fair revenue share deal if they try and get everyone onto an MLB site, which has to be a cheaper start-up cost? This is a really complicated situation. MLB will figure it out because it has too. But, in the short term, it likely means less revenues. That also has to complicate the CBA.