AN OPEN LETTER TO DIRECTOR LOMBARDI
Director Lombardi –
We are Mike Mayer, webmaster of Havenfootball.net and Jim Allsman, owner of Tigers Radio Network and we have been operating our web pages since 2002 and 2008 respectively. We both began audio broadcasting Strath Haven and Marple Newtown football and then began full video streaming of all football games, both home and away.
Havenfootball.net also operate Delcohoops.com which is a web site and broadcasting operation following and promoting Delaware County high school basketball.
We wish to bring to your attention an on-going issue for schools and broadcasters like us when it comes to football and basketball playoffs at both the District and State levels.
In order to video stream the four games of the District 1 playoffs this year the cost for PIAA video streaming rights was over $5,000! Marple Newtown played in two games so their cost was $1350. This cost is in addition to District 1 receiving 100% of the tickets sales. District 1 does not pay the hosting school any facility fees but does pick-up game expenses for officials, personnel, and security.
While the fees appear reasonable for commercial broadcasters the reality is that no Philadelphia market broadcaster or cable operator has any interest in the games. High school sports are simply too fragmented and attract too small an audience.
Case in point. The D1 Championship game between Strath Haven and Chester was a huge draw. It was a beautiful day with a packed facility (3,500+) and we offered our video streaming on our own web site and You Tube. We had 13,000 live viewers. Fans and families could tune in at no charge. As large of a viewing audience for us it was much too small a viewership for any Philadelphia market broadcaster in our area.
One week later Havenfootball.net was the broadcast team for NFHS (who has exclusive rights to produce PIAA state playoffs). A big game for both schools (Haven and Imhotep). The weather was poor, and the attendance was very light. Cost per view (monthly subscription) was $11.99. Total viewers, 1,500. Ticket prices were $9.00, and it was an hour’s drive for both teams to attend the game.
13,000 viewers for one local game and 1,500 for the next. Both big games. What was the difference? Obviously, the price. Bottom line is the PIAA does not have a product (high school sports) that has any real value with the consumer.
How would Havenfootball.net or Tigers Radio Network , school exclusive video streamers, raise the $5,000 required for a four game broadcast?
We have nine sponsors for the full season of ads during our broadcasts. They pay $250 each for the year. We would have to ask each of them for $550 (more than twice our regular season fee) just for the four playoff games. An exceedingly high price.
Not only is it too expensive in literal dollars it is also a ridiculously expensive media buy. Normal media buys in the Philadelphia market work out to about $.02 per viewer while the PIAA playoffs come in at $.21, 10 times higher!
The only conclusion one can draw is that your broadcast fees have no basis in market reality either as an ability to offset the costs with advertising fees or even to present the advertising purchase as a good media purchase.
The reality is that 100% of your fees for broadcast in the Philadelphia area are paid by the schools themselves. A fee that, quite frankly, the PIAA knows will never be paid by a commercial broadcaster but will certainly be paid by playoff schools anxious to promote their team to their community.
By the PIAA taking 100% of the ticket sales Strath Haven high school lost over 6,000 ticket sales for their three home games accounting for $48,000 in gross revenue in ADDITION to paying the PIAA-D1 $2,550 for broadcast rights for the first three games. A total cost of $50,550 of taxpayer money was paid to the PIAA for the purpose of putting on three athletic contests! Almost $17,000 per game to play in your playoffs.
It is simply outrageous! Taxpayers spend tens of thousands of dollars to field a team and then are expected to pay thousands more to have their own teams participate in the playoffs?
The taxpayers and the members of the PIAA (the schools) should no longer be held hostage to PIAA fees. A more equitable system of PIAA fundraising and playoff broadcasting needs to be offered.
Please take action on this matter.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Mayer Jim Allsman
Webmaster Webmaster
Havenfootball.net Tigers Radio Network
