ESPN will lose $75 million televising Raiders-Texans!
http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn- ... ans-010217
what's the worst television contract in all of sports? I thought it was the recent deal that the NBA signed with ESPN and Turner, but I was wrong. Turns out that it's actually ESPN's deal with the NFL which allows ESPN to carry one wild card game each year. This year ESPN will be televising the worst wild card game of the bunch in the worst time slot on the worst day for NFL football, the Oakland Raiders at the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon.
It's a battle between Matt McGloin/Connor Cook and Tom Savage/Brock Osweiler for the right to advance to play the New England Patriots and be executed on live television.
Until today I thought that at least ESPN was getting this wild card game as part of the $1.9 billion a year it pays for Monday Night Football and assorted other NFL studio shows. That Monday Night Football package just hit the lowest ratings in nearly a decade and narrowly avoided becoming the worst rated package of games in over forty years of Monday Night Football. But I was wrong about this game being included in that deal.
It turns out, and this is positively mind boggling, that ESPN pays $100 million dollars just to air this single wild card game.
Seriously, ESPN is paying $100 million to televise Raiders at Texans on Saturday.
Every other network that carries the NFL -- NBC, CBS, and Fox -- has their playoff games or the Super Bowl, which rotates between NBC, CBS and Fox each three years, included within their yearly rights fee. Except for ESPN, which pays an extra $100 million for one crappy wild card game.
But, wait, it gets worse.
ESPN can only make around $25 million airing this wild card game.
So ESPN will lose $75 million televising one playoff football game.
Holy. Shit.
This means the wild card game on ESPN is the worst contract in the history of American sports on television and I'm not sure there's even a close second. Between now and 2021, when this contract runs out, ESPN will lose over $600 million airing this one crappy wild card game a year.
And here's the kicker, the game is also simulcast for free on ABC. So you don't even need a cable package to watch this game. That is, ESPN derives no benefit whatsoever from airing this game exclusively on cable.
Think that's bad? It gets worse.
The NFL assigns ESPN the worst wild card game in the worst time slot on the worst day possible and then decides whether or not it wants to take the $100 million each year. That is, ESPN doesn't even get to choose whether it wants to air the game or not. The NFL just says, "You're airing it, give us $100 million."
Putting this contract into terms that everyone can easily understand, the NFL is the guy telling ESPN to squeal like a pig in Deliverance.
Remember when everyone thought the Texans made a mistake signing Brock Osweiler for $37 million guaranteed? At least the Texans get Osweiler for 32 games at that rate. Hell, that's just over a million a game. ESPN is going to lose $75 million just televising one of Osweiler's games.
We need to update the worst free agent deals of all time. Move over Dan Snyder, your signing of Albert Haynesworth looks like a bargain compared to ESPN's signing of the NFL wild card game.
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The best part to this story, 4 days ago our local ABC blocked out DISHNETWORK over a contract dispute so I couldn't watch the Packers vs Lions or the Raiders vs Texans anyway........Now with ESPN I get to watch this gun slinging battle at home without attaching rabbit ears!
Good Games ESPN! 100 Million is worth one Wild Card game a year.....Maybe next year ESPN will get lucky with Kirk Cousin hopefully new 5/120m Redskins vs Tampa Bay...........Now ESPN needs to hire Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and add Cris Collinsworth in the booth.