You might know Clay Travis as an outspoken national commentator, a firebrand whose staunch conservative political stances can polarize audiences who hear or see him on many outlets that include Fox News as well as a nationally syndicated radio program and on the Outkick multimedia platform he founded then sold to the Fox Corp. three years ago.
But before that, he was a sportswriter and sportscaster and still has been appearing on Fox Sports’ college football “Big Noon†pregame show while remaining a sports fan. And like legions of others, he has become extremely frustrated by the increasing difficulty of not only finding telecasts of sporting events but accessing them in the increasingly costly and fragmented business model employed by leagues in which they divvy up games between streaming, broadcast and cable/satellite distributors.
Travis, who lives in Nashville, recently wrote a about the matter after his family couldn’t watch the telecast of an Atlanta Braves game because of Major League Baseball’s tangled web of blackout regulations. That led him to vent about that as well as many other sports also making it hard for their customers to access their product.
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“At a time when technology has never been more omnipresent and ease of transmission has never been cheaper and more reliable, why are we going backwards when it comes to watching our favorite teams play?†he wrote. “And why are leagues allowing it to happen? In an era when getting kids to care about sports is often impossible — youth game watching rates are at abysmal levels — why are sports leagues giving up the future to make a few extra dollars in the short term? Sports leagues, in the year of our lord 2024, are actually making it far more difficult for fans to watch their games than they have been for a generation.â€
The Cardinals will fall into that category on Friday night, when their game against the New York Mets is exclusively streamed on Apple TV+.
“... All of us are paying massive amounts of money in a streaming era for much less quality of viewership experience,†Travis wrote. “And many of you, like me, are fed up with it.â€
Bill of rights for fans
Travis has an idea to fight back.
“I don’t know who is advising these sports leagues on this — I suspect it’s corporate bean counters with no actual knowledge of sports fandom — but it’s long past time for a sports fan’s bill of rights.â€
One of his proposals is what he terms a “golden ticket,†which would provide access to all telecasts of a fan’s favorite team regardless of where it was being shown.
“There should be one price I can pay that guarantees me every game for a team that I want to watch,†he wrote. “Period. It should be the default, 100% guaranteed way to watch a game and there should never be any blackouts on that location.
“... I want to buy a golden ticket that guarantees me the game will always be on at that location. I don’t care who the announcer is or who the broadcasters are, I just want to know I can watch without fear of any blackout.â€
He adds, “I don’t want to need a billion passwords to (access multiple providers) and I don’t want to subscribe to a million streaming services, which are virtually impossible to switch rapidly between.
“I want one pass and I want every game. Kind of like, you know, cable was in 2014.â€
He also complained about key games starting so late that kids can’t watch until the conclusion — if at all.
“Leagues need to spend more time worried about the next generation and less time worrying about the extra nickel they’re squeezing out of their broadcast rights,†he wrote. “Because what’s the value of a nickel if you lose a generation in the process?
“Eventually the cost gets realized. You’re just passing the cost down to the next generation. ... You’ve got the adults already, they’ll spend their money with you for the rest of their lives, but how many young people do you have? That’s even more important because when I grew up there were far fewer entertainment options.â€
He emphasizes that each team and each league should have a person whose sole job is to focus on trying to develop pre-teenage fans.
“That executive should have veto power,†Travis wrote. “One reason baseball doesn’t have a national fan base? The World Series games start way too late.â€
He sums up his ideas.
“Allowing (fans) to watch the games with ease should be the paramount goal of every league and team. And right now the leagues and teams are failing. We’re all paying much more and getting much less in a streaming era.
“So far streaming has been a disaster for sports fans. ... It’s well past time for that to be rectified. ... We’ll see if sports leagues are smart enough to make that trade in the years to come. Because right now, they haven’t been.â€
Michael Mulvihill, head of research, analytics and planning for Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment and its Tubi streaming service, agrees.
“This business will pay a heavy price for making sports fandom more complex and more expensive,†he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, regarding Clay’s commentary. “Young people will gravitate to the cheap and easy as they always do.â€
Ramsey to KTRS
Longtime ºüÀêÊÓƵ sportscaster Bob Ramsey, who has been the radio play-by-play voice of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ University men’s basketball team for nearly four decades, has been hired as a co-host on the afternoon drive-time general talk show on KTRS (550 AM), station general manger Mark Dorsey said.
Ramsey will join Heidi Glaus and Josh Gilbert, who already are in the 3-6 p.m. weekday slot, beginning May 13. Ramsey, who could not be reached for comment, currently is talking sports on KFNS (590 AM) with Frank Cusumano from 10 a.m. to noon weekdays and previously was on with Nate Lucas in early afternoons. A replacement for Ramsey is not immediately expected.
“I have enjoyed Bob’s presence on the air,†KFNS owner Dave Zobrist said. “I wish him the best of luck in the future.â€
It’s the reversal of a move Ramsey made in 2018, when he went from KTRS to KFNS.
Dorsey said he’s confident Ramsey will make a smooth transition to the general talk genre from sports banter, just as KTVI (Channel 2) sports director Martin Kilcoyne previously did.
“He fits our demographics, he’s married with three children,†Dorsey said. “Bob can branch out of sports, he’ll fit right in a news-talk-entertainment format. This is a way for us to show Bob’s other talents; he knows about much more than sports. He’s a hidden gem.â€