You have to be shitting me.

https://twitter.com/caasports/status/142...35654?s=21

Booo!

Worst television package in college sports.

Here is the long form.

CAA and FloSports Announce Expansion of their Streaming Rights Partnership

RICHMOND, Va. - The Colonial Athletic Association and FloSports have agreed to an expansion of their streaming rights partnership making FloSports the exclusive digital platform for live and on-demand coverage of 13 conference sports.

The expanded agreement provides a minimum of 850 CAA events to FloSports annually over the next two years. All regular season CAA-controlled football and men's and women's basketball games will air exclusively on FloSports on the digital side with CAA member institutions retaining rights for local linear television distribution.

FloSports continues to invest in collegiate sports at all levels with this new expanded agreement that includes an increased annual rights fee to the CAA. The investment enhances the exposure of CAA sports and makes them available to a global audience while strengthening the CAA's ability to build a greater direct relationship with fans.

"We are pleased to expand our partnership with FloSports for the next two years," CAA Commissioner Joe D'Antonio said. "FloSports has done a great job promoting the conference and we're excited to provide CAA fans with a single streaming platform where they can watch nearly every game in a variety of sports."

Upon entering into the original agreement with FloSports in 2019, the CAA became the first college conference to select a streaming OTT, direct-to-consumer company as its primary media partner. FloSports streamed more than 440 CAA events throughout 2019-2020, prior to the cancellation of the spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 488 CAA events in the condensed 2020-2021 season.

"Joe and the forward thinking membership of the CAA have been best-in-class partners since 2019 and we're thrilled to expand our relationship with the conference," says Mike Levy, VP, Global Rights Acquisition, FloSports. "It's a testament to the strength of CAA athletics that we confidently continued our investment in coverage of the CAA."

The conference will maintain its relationship with LAX Sports Network (LSN) for men's and women's lacrosse, but will expand that coverage with additional distribution on FloSports.

(08-12-2021 12:49 PM)zablenoise Wrote:  You have to be shitting me.

https://twitter.com/caasports/status/142...35654?s=21

And I was just thinking earlier this morning how much I was going to hate having to pay them on a monthly basis again in order to see away games for football and basketball.

OK, so now in addition to not watching Tribe basketball and football, I also apparently won't be watching any other Tribe sports. Any chance they can include "free Flo" as a bonus to donors?

It will be "a testament to the strength of CAA athletics" if this sort of decision-making doesn't kill off the conference. But the fact that Flo has "confidently continued our investment in coverage of the CAA" is, I suspect, more of a testament to the fact that nobody else wants to be on Flo.

If Flo is so great and strengthens the CAA product, why don't any of the schools we consider peers use Flo? If you are into CAA sports and Rodeo, Flosports is the place for you. That's about it. Any other major or midmajor conference locked into Flo? Nope.

I think we all know the reason. It doesn't increase visibility and seems to be a short sighted money grab by the CAA brass. You can't convince me that any part of this deal helps grow the CAA fan base. Only the most die hard CAA fans reluctantly pay to watch. No CAA curious college fan, most CAA students, or average CAA alum is going to pay those prices. Awful business.

So the new CAA teams up with a low end media platform and schedules the men’s basketball tournament smack dab in one of the worst neighborhoods on the east coast. The schools and fans deserve so much better.

The conference had used the money from Flo to buy time on CBS Sports, I wonder if the schools are just pocketing it now? Seems like every game is on Flo

Also, the agreement previously had two years left, right? So we didn't extend the length, just the amount of content? I'm (maybe foolishly) hoping that we switch to ESPN+ or something once the contract ends.

The sooner the conference gets out of Flo the better. Yikes.

Separately - what's the issue with the CAA tournament in DC? That was an outstanding venue located right in the middle of a massive alumni base for us. Would love to see it as a permanent home for the tournament.

Absolute disaster. I guess if they don't want anyone to watch the games...

What a joke. I'll just listen to the radio broadcast.

Yeah, we already had 2 years left on the deal I thought, so this isnt news. Theyre just broadcasting twice the CAA content as before, probably because they have no other content to broadcast.

The telecasts are awful technically and FLO Sports is a travesty. I buy it only to get our road games.

(08-12-2021 01:46 PM)Tribe2011 Wrote:  The sooner the conference gets out of Flo the better. Yikes.

Separately - what's the issue with the CAA tournament in DC? That was an outstanding venue located right in the middle of a massive alumni base for us. Would love to see it as a permanent home for the tournament.

The facility is adequate at best and has no hotels or restaurants within walking distance. If we were to play JMU in the semis or final many fans would not get in. Makes little sense to be in the middle of a massive alumni base if they all can't get in the building.

(08-12-2021 01:46 PM)Tribe2011 Wrote:  Separately - what's the issue with the CAA tournament in DC? That was an outstanding venue located right in the middle of a massive alumni base for us. Would love to see it as a permanent home for the tournament.

I kind of agree with both points. Ward 8, where the arena is located, traditionally has some of the worst crime stats in the city. That said, I wouldn't say that St. Elizabeth campus is necessarily a bad crime area. Violent Crime is up nationwide since Covid. Crime in DC is higher than 2019, but on pace to be no worse than the 2020 year numbers. You do what you feel safe with, but statistically speaking, I wouldn't worry about attending there.
I do think DC is perfectly centralized for the conference. The size of the arena is probably the right size for the number of fans the tourney draws. DC wants the arena used and I'm sure they cut the CAA a sweetheart deal to come to the arena. Any thoughts on what a better arena would be? It would be weird, but I suppose the Patriot Center could have been a possibility.

I did go the last trip there. I thought the venue was ok, mostly because it was new. I also like the general geographical location. Baltimore and/of DC makes sense. I noted the neighborhood as issue, not the city or metro.

It was not the kind of location you could walk to. You couldn’t step out to a bar or restaurant. At the end of our game with Elon at 11pm, there was a long line of people outside waiting outside for cabs or Ubers, and this is not an area where you have a lot of them running around.

This was all pre-pandemic, pre defund police, pre the rise in crime. You have had occurrences at both Nats Park and Camden Yards where fans were forced recently to lockdown inside. Both of those facilities are in far better locations than this arena. I’m genuinely concerned - if anything did happen - what kind of harm would you be putting the on the attending fans. I don’t want to be a test case, personally, my family or the CAA, for some city’s attempt at neighborhood renewal.

(08-12-2021 04:37 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  I did go the last trip there. I thought the venue was ok, mostly because it was new. I also like the general geographical location. Baltimore and/of DC makes sense. I noted the neighborhood as issue, not the city or metro.

It was not the kind of location you could walk to. You couldn’t step out to a bar or restaurant. At the end of our game with Elon at 11pm, there was a long line of people outside waiting outside for cabs or Ubers, and this is not an area where you have a lot of them running around.

This was all pre-pandemic, pre defund police, pre the rise in crime. You have had occurrences at both Nats Park and Camden Yards where fans were forced recently to lockdown inside. Both of those facilities are in far better locations than this arena. I’m genuinely concerned - if anything did happen - what kind of harm would you be putting the on the attending fans. I don’t want to be a test case, personally, my family or the CAA, for some city’s attempt at neighborhood renewal.

We stayed at the Melrose in DC and drove to the arena. Huge presence of police and lots of parking! Short walk to the arena from lot and felt very safe. Doubt if they will change the police presence since the arena would put this expense as their #1 priority and are paying for the extra security already.

If we made finals then lots of fans will be locked out. Give $ to Tribe Club and will have easy chance to get tickets if we have a great season!

(08-12-2021 01:21 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  So the new CAA teams up with a low end media platform and schedules the men’s basketball tournament smack dab in one of the worst neighborhoods on the east coast. The schools and fans deserve so much better.

Occasionally the fans appear to notice that the tailor responsible for Tribe Athletics' "best fit" conference stitched the fabric such that the orientation of the pin stripes was horizontal instead of vertical.

CAA media coverage is so sparse that there isn't much reporting on the business calculations of these decisions. It could be asked whether the league landed on FLO Sports after deciding that there was no audience for CAA sports events beyond those affiliated with league members and whether 4200 is the best estimate on how many fans will actually turn out for CAA men's basketball tournament games. Hard for most fans to know what's behind the decisions.

(08-13-2021 06:57 AM)Florida tribe fan Wrote:  

(08-12-2021 01:21 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  So the new CAA teams up with a low end media platform and schedules the men’s basketball tournament smack dab in one of the worst neighborhoods on the east coast. The schools and fans deserve so much better.

Occasionally the fans appear to notice that the tailor responsible for Tribe Athletics' "best fit" conference stitched the fabric such that the orientation of the pin stripes was horizontal instead of vertical.

CAA media coverage is so sparse that there isn't much reporting on the business calculations of these decisions. It could be asked whether the league landed on FLO Sports after deciding that there was no audience for CAA sports events beyond those affiliated with league members and whether 4200 is the best estimate on how many fans will actually turn out for CAA men's basketball tournament games. Hard for most fans to know what's behind the decisions.

From everything I have read Flo offered more money, local TV rights, and less production quality standards which the schools must pay to meet.

ESPN+ would have been less money, questionable on local TV rights, and higher production quality standards which the schools must pay to meet.

Having said that going with Flo was a terrible decision.

https://twitter.com/MattBrownEP/status/1...86919?s=20



Normally anything that makes JMU mad is a good thing, but this may be an exception.