When it first went to what (in the cable television business) amounts to war with the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network last November, Comcast said 90% of its 900,000+ customers were not watching Bombers games.
As it unceremoniously booted YES off its systems in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and some small communities in the metropolitan area, Comcast was by no means subtle. What it meant to say was the product the Yankees put on the field was not compelling. As a matter of fact, it stunk. Simply put — and even worse — Comcast was saying the Yankees had become irrelevant to its subscribers.
But now, the Yankees have a chance to change the perception of the corporate media giant. The Yankees are not only playing for a wild card down the stretch, they are playing for their cable TV future.
The Yankees performance through the first four months of the season did nothing to alter Comcast’s perception or provide YES with any negotiating leverage. It reached the point where near the end of June, some callers to the Valley of the Stupid, claiming to be Yankees fans and Comcast subscribers, mocked the Bombers performance, saying they didn’t give a damn about their inability to access the games on YES.
Talk about being dead in the water. The way things were going, Comcast had this thing won. Subscribers were finding other viewing habits. There was no outrage or subscriber protests designed to bring back YES and Yankees baseball.
The Nets’ (the other YES team) acquisition of Jeremy Lin was not even a blip on the radar. There was absolutely no pressure on Comcast to cut a deal with YES, who stands to lose about $27 million in Comcast carriage fees by the end of this season.
Then, a funny thing happened on the way to what was supposed to be meaningless September baseball in the Bronx. Brian Cashman made his moves at the deadline, dealing Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran. Then there was Alex Rodriguez’s “Please Release Me” mini-series, featuring an emotional Joe Girardi. Yet the season of give-up was about to turn into the season of get-going.
Those of us who accused Cashman of throwing in the towel are now choking on it. Because the beat went on with the media hyping the “Baby Bombers,” which was really just one “Baby Boomer” named Gary Sanchez.
No matter, perception is 99% reality in the entertainment business. Besides, all the available pieces Girardi had at his disposal started to win. The Yankees had created a demand for this new, improved, surprising product. This should not go ignored, even by Comcast suits. If the Yankees can roll strong down the stretch, they roll into 2017 with an even more anticipated product.
Just a few months ago, there was talk that if the Yankees could not restructure and right the ship, YES would not only still be in a vulnerable spot with Comcast but with other cable operators emboldened to follow a similar blueprint when their deals with YES expire.
If the Yankees go in the tank the final 17 games, their resurgence will be characterized as a mirage — a fluke. If they finish strong, the re-branding of the Yankees as a team building “the right way” will be reinforced, alive and well. The perception will be there is plenty of reason to look forward to the “new look” Yankees.
“… We felt it couldn’t be any worse if we re-shuffled the deck and it might actually be better,” Cashman told boss scribes on Wednesday. “And it turned out to be much better. I can’t say we expected it but we certainly hoped it.”
Expected or not, it didn’t take long for Yankees marketing suits to take Cashman’s “re-shuffled deck” and deal, using it to start selling hope-and-tickets for the 2017 season. The commercials, airing on YES, are a departure from hard-selling tradition and Bombers past championship glory. That’s why one of the spots features a young couple enjoying a night of excitement inside the Stadium.
Or shots of fans whooping it up.
They are supposedly excited about Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Masahiro Tanaka, all featured in the commercials tagged with the Yankees catch-all credo: Pride … Power … Pinstripes.
“There is a transformation here,” a television sports executive said. “It may turn out to be ephemeral but the Yankees have done it on the fly.”
Sadly for them, Comcast subscribers have not been able to fly along with the Yankees and witness the turnaround.
No matter how this season ends for the Yankees, these particular fans have already lost. And are left only with a familiar lament: Wait ’til next year.
