Corporate Greed 1, UT Fans 0

(Stay tuned for another rant...)

Hey, I was a business major.   I understand the predicament that UT/Longhorn Network/ESPN/anybody else are in.  Every business needs to make money---yours, mine, Apple, universities, cable companies; I get it.

What I don't get is how all of the shareholders in the UT television debacle can overlook the tremendous public relations blunders that are being made.  It appears to me to have become a finger-pointing mess, everybody's blaming someone else.  I spent some time yesterday phoning Time-Warner Cable (good luck getting a human being on the phone at all), and emailing the Longhorn Network.  Bottom line is I didn't get anywhere.

Here's what I understand is happening.  Longhorn Network/ESPN wants to provide UT games to Austinites, but they want a portion of cents on the dollar of everyone's Time Warner bill.  Time Warner doesn't want to give up that revenue.  (Hell, at this point, I'd pay per view.  I don't care, I just want to see the game.) One of these entities needs to be the good guy, make a concession or two for the sake of their customers---us. Then blast their "good guy attitude" all over the state.  But greed is getting in the way.  So they're at a stalemate.  And we are caught in the middle.

So, in view of this stand-off, we went to watch the game at a sports bar---it's name is omitted so that Chris Plonsky can't come after them (or me).  Love her, but don't want her mad at me. Great, great place to watch football.  We could see three different games at once, and by UT game time, the place was packed.  Here's the problem.  It appeared that the game was pirated from Grande Communications, and the reception was terrible.  Really.  Terrible.  For every completed play we saw, we missed a play. 

Now I'm not blaming the establishment at all (see paragraph #1).  They capitalized on their situation and did whatever they could to meet the demand of their customers.  And by the way, their food is very good.  Service was even better.

My point is that they shouldn't have to pirate the game...and...we're back to square one.