Stayed at a hotel to see a game that you couldnt see localy?

[Mr Tony]

OK now on the subject of crazy topics, here is one for ya

With the age of sports packages, able to "move" on satellite to see other games, streaming etc lets go back in time to before that...With the Vikings possibly having a blackout this year after 11 years we might have to take "blackout buses" to see the game. Years ago they use to run buses to Hinckley which is 100 miles or so north of Minneapolis but they also get the Duluth, MN locals which is outside of the 75 mile blackout zone so they could see the game. I remember reading about years ago when the home games for a team were always blacked out that fans of the NY Giants would go to Connecticut and rent hotel rooms to see the game because it was on TV

so that riddles a question

Have you ever rented a hotel room just so you could watch a game featuring your team that you couldn't see at home?

 

[Mr Tony]

yes I have

When I moved back from Duluth to Minneapolis I wanted to watch the MN Duluth Bulldog hockey team who was on the Duluth ABC. I didnt know about "moving" so the big games on TV I would drive to Duluth (or Hinckley since they had Duluth locals and was 75 miles south of Duluth), rent a hotel room for the nite and watch the game

 

[Jimbo]

Nope,
I have NOT done that

That said, in the past 25 years the Red Wings have been on regularly.

In the NFL, I would get blacked out regularly being in the Lions market, but why would I leave home to go to a place so I could see the Lions ?

They have not been worth a trip since 1957

Jimbo

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Um NO. I don't think the Family would allow that

 

[SmokeFan14]

Have I? No. Would I? YES, if a blackout was going to make me miss 1 of the two Duke vs. Carolina basketball games.

 

[Derwin0]

Nope.
Growing up in Jackson, GA, we were about half way between Atlanta and Macon, so when (not if) the Falcons were blacked out, we just turned the OTA towards Macon and watched on WMAZ-13 instead.

 

[AntAltMike]

Back in the early 1990s, when PPV fights were more complicated to arrange, one of the large Sports Bars in Springfield, Mass that was part of a Marriott Hotel - Champions or Challengers, I forget which -carried the Holyfield/Bowe fight: the one where someone glided into the ring.

The promoter (Top Rank?) used to send out B-MAC decoders a week before the fight and rent an hour of satellite time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to allow the operators to confirm the operation of their downlink. This fight was being carried by a Galaxy satellite that had been relocated from its original orbital slot, so the promoter kept sending out notices informing the customers that the Galaxy satellite was not in the same slot it had been in previously and that they needed to make sure they were pointing at the right slot.

Well, this lounge almost never used its C-band set-up and at fight time, the dish positioner moved the dish to the wrong spot on the arc and no one there knew what was going wrong. I, on the other hand, had confirmed that the downlink I was running 20 miles away was working during all three test intervals and our show went off without a hitch.

The hotel wound up getting sued by some of the patrons. There were so few PPV outlets back then that the hotel had actually promoted it like a real ringside fight, where a limo would pick people up at their home, bring them to the hotel for a pre-fight dinner, and the package actually included a room for the night. I left the area shortly after that, so I don't know how the suit turned out.

**************************

A few years ago, some rich Saudi (is there any other kind) was staying at a Ritz Carlton with which I do some business. He wanted to see a soccer game on TV in his suite but was told it was not available. He said to make it available.

The hotel management called Lodgenet, who said that under the licensing terms they can arrange, they could only provide it to the entire hotel. He said to do it and got to see the game.

I don't know what the bill was for furnishing the PPV game to 300 hotel rooms, but it must have exceeded $10,000.

 

[Iceberg Slim]

If it was a home game, wouldn't it just be easier to go the game than go thru all that hassle?

Unless the tickets were over 1000, I'd just go see it live

 

[Islandguy43]

OK now on the subject of crazy topics, here is one for ya



Have you ever rented a hotel room just so you could watch a game featuring your team that you couldn't see at home?

Well sorta. I can remember driving from buffalo to a watering hole in syracuse back in the 80's to be able to watch Buffalo Bills games that were blacked out in buffalo but available there.

 

[SmokeFan14]

If it was a home game, wouldn't it just be easier to go the game than go thru all that hassle?

Unless the tickets were over 1000, I'd just go see it live

I wish I could. That's exactly what's stopping me from doing that; a waiting list of years for Duke tickets to that game and if you COULD get tickets, they would be WAY out of my price range. I'd have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it. Then I'd be divorced, etc, etc.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Corner bar has the Lions every Sunday, regardless of whether they are blacked out , or not.

 

[bidger`]

Nope, don't live close enough to a major metro area to get blocked out and I have DIRECTV for all my Sports needs.

 

[HD MM]

Corner bar has the Lions every Sunday, regardless of whether they are blacked out , or not.

That's what I'm saying. Why not just go to a bar that has the Sunday Ticket or access to the main sporting event?

 

[mccoyrj]

Corner bar has the Lions every Sunday, regardless of whether they are blacked out , or not.

Since the invention of satellite TV if there was a game or fight I ever wanted to watch that bad, I found it in a local sportsbar somewhere. Early on, however, I thought about it.

 

[AntAltMike]

My favorite sportsbar in the early 1990s had HBO. The guy who owned it also owned the apartment above it, and when HBO had a big fight on, he'd drop a coax out his second floor window down to the bar room TV.

 

[Ramy]

Looks like you're the only one Iceberg

 

[Mr Tony]

oh well....

 

[dantheman77]

If it was a home game, wouldn't it just be easier to go the game than go thru all that hassle?

Unless the tickets were over 1000, I'd just go see it live

i think "back then" home games were blacked out even if it was a sellout

 

[cybok0]

Steelers games aren't blacked out, Pens games aren't blacked out and who cares if they don't show a pirates game.