-by Alaina Scarano-Isbouts
Beer? Check. Pizza? Check. Altitude? Check. Nachos? Check. Tissues? Check (it was Joe Sakic’s
Who the heck is this kid?
retirement, after all). DirecTV? Check.
Tonight, my family and I sat down to watch what was possibly the biggest night in the Avalanche’s season — opening night with our brand new roster and the retirement of Joe Sakic‘s famous #19. We had everything together for a fantastic family night in and the Joe Sakic Night party. We were ready in case Pierre Lacroix made us cry (again) and were ready to play our Avalanche drinking game for the first regular season game of the 09-10 season. But, after an hour and a half of Joe Sakic festivities, something bad happened.
The Miss Colorado pageant came on. And didn’t go away.
Like many Coloradans, my family and I have DirecTV. You know, satellite television. High-def, plasma, the whole nine yards. We thought we were totally 100% set for the game. We have NHL Center Ice. I double (and triple) checked the game listings in my friendly Denver Post as well as the official Avalanche website. Joe Sakic retirement ceremony at 6:30pm on Altitude, Avalanche vs. San Jose 8pm on Versus.
But once the retirement ceremony ended and the beauty queens were STILL wrecking havoc on my NHL season opener, I started to freak. There was no John-Michael Liles. No Craig Anderson. And, perhaps worst of all, there was no Matt Duchene. There was no hockey. For when we finally turned to Versus on our DirecTV network, we found this message:
Unfortunately, Versus is no longer available on DIRECTV. Comcast, the largest cable company in the U.S. and our largest competitor, owns the channel and has forced us to pull it down. Here is the situation.
DIRECTV was already paying Comcast more than any other non-Comcast distributor to air Versus — and now Comcast is demanding an overall rate hike of 20% on top of that. Comcast also forces DIRECTV to make Versus available to a much larger portion of our customer base at our own expense than they require from other TV providers — most notably, DISH Network. We simply cannot accept these unfair and outrageous terms. All we’re asking from Comcast is equal treatment.
Read: No Hockey on Opening Night, Avs Fans. Now I don’t know about you, but when I am sitting on my couch on opening night in the NHL, the last thing I want to see on my TV screens is two corporate giants pass the buck on the 20% fee no one wants to pay. I don’t even care whose fault it is that I’m not watching the Avs game. The only thing that I, and many fans across the great state of Colorado like myself, care about is the fact that I’M NOT WATCHING THE COLORADO AVALANCHE HOME OPENER. 20%? Really DirecTV? You couldn’t have aired the opening night game and then re-negotiated the rest of the season to make your Avalanche customers happy? Or you couldn’t have mailed everyone a notice so they weren’t left in the dark on what is, for many, the most important night of the hockey season? Thanks. And we thought corporate greed was just on Wall Street. Why should I feel sorry for a multi-billion dollar corporation who has to pay a measly 20% fee on one channel?
You know, as long as I’m being honest here, I suppose it all started out back in September. You see, my favorite Denver magazine wrote this incredibly offensive article to me. They proclaimed that the Broncos are the most loved team in all of Colorado — and that we should figure out who the red-headed stepchild of Colorado sports would be. Now, I don’t root against the Broncos. I would never. Ever. But, I do feel very strongly that it isn’t fair for a local magazine to play favorites, no matter what the staff may say. Of course the Broncos are huge here, and so are the Nugs and so are the Rockies. And rightfully so — all are amazing teams that have gone through phases of rebuilding and gaining new fans. But just because the Avs are rebuilding this particular season, does that mean we shouldn’t be #2? According to the article, the reason that the Avs aren’t even in the #2 spot is because, “Name five current players—without cheating. An Avs game used to mean seeing future hall-of-famers, but now that Sakic has hung up his skates, there aren’t any stars on this team.” Which is quite outrageous, if you think about it. Denver is a great sports team, but the Avs are still the new kids on the block. We’ve had the Broncos since 1960, the Nuggets since 1974 and the Rockies since 1993. The Rockies have made leaps in bounds in the past few seasons, but before then the reason most people would go to games is to drink beer in the sun. The Broncos and Nuggets have gone though many rebuilding phases — when we lost John Elway, when Carmelo came to Colorado. So it isn’t quite fair to say that rooting for the Avalanche is contingent upon having Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy around. The Avs are in the first rebuilding phase in our franchise’s history. Don’t you think we should learn these kids names? Don’t you think, as proper and not just as fair-weather fans, we should learn a bit about Duchene, Matt Hendricks, Ryan O’Reilly and Kyle Quincey? Because like it or not, these are players we will soon be on a first-name-basis with. Soon, these will be the players we associate with our franchise. And 5280, like DirecTV, wants us to pick one or the other. Because with DirecTV you can watch the NFL network — and with Comcast you can watch Versus. But not both. Pick one please, fellow Rocky Mountaineers. Avalanche or Nuggets.
Maybe DirecTV will get it together soon, who knows. But right now, if the Avs aren’t on Altitude, we aren’t watching them. How’s that for rebuilding support?
But don’t feel too bad for me. I was able to watch the last period at my grandmother’s house. And you know what? The 30th place Avalanche kicked the crap out of the 1st place San Jose Sharks — and I’m sure this first game was just the tip of the iceberg.
So how’s that for support, DirecTV?
