Team 980/Audacy Drop Commanders Broadcasts

[Boone]

Via Twitter:

The Team 980 will no longer broadcast Washington Commanders games.

Commanders games will not be broadcast on The Team 980 or any Audacy stations in the 2022 season, Kevin Sheehan announced on behalf of the station Wednesday.

The organization and the company “disagreed on the value of the broadcasts [and] it is also very important for us as a sports talk station, even as a long-time flagship station for the team, it was important for us to continue to be able to provide honest, objective information and analysis about the [Commanders] on our talk shows,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan announced that The Team 980 will debut new Washington football gameday coverage for the 2022 NFL season "including at least four hours of pregame coverage, a new in-game talk show focusing on analysis and fan-reaction and in-game betting angles" and capped with complete postgame coverage.

“It was important for us to be able to continue to provide what we provide on our talk shows which is honest, objective analysis about the team,” Sheehan said.

Recently, Anheuser-Busch, the official beer sponsor of the NFL, was the third company in the last year to end its relationship with the Washington Commanders.

“We remain fully committed to Washington football fans, and we look forward to continuing our long-term partnership with the NFL and our other 26 team partners to create meaningful experiences and connections for fans across the country,” an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Post.

 

[Boone]

I’m not sure what to make of this. On the face of it, sounds like the Commanders upped the cost for the rights to broadcast games substantially. I’ve seen it implied that Washington is one of the minority of franchises that sells broadcasting rights - although I’m skeptical that’s true.

There’s also an allusion here to journalistic freedom - which implies 980 somehow felt they were going to be muzzled or asked to tone down the rhetoric/criticism? They are as tough as any outlet on the team so I don’t doubt it’s a possibility.

Finally, they throw in the stuff about Anheuser-Busch - as if to imply that they might be cutting ties out of some moral outrage. I don’t follow that aspect. That’s either part of the decision or it’s not - why not just say so one way or the other clearly?

Got to be more to this story than a being revealed here…

 

[Boone]

From the Team:

 

[SkinsOrlando]

I’m not sure what to make of this. On the face of it, sounds like the Commanders upped the cost for the rights to broadcast games substantially. I’ve seen it implied that Washington is one of the minority of franchises that sells broadcasting rights - although I’m skeptical that’s true.

The Bucs and Dolphins sell their rights in FL, no idea about the Jags but I'd guess their paying someone to broadcast the games if they're on air

 

[Chris]

Sounds to me that the team wanted an increase in the rights fees AND wanted some control over the tenor of content.

 

[Boone]

Probably Chris. But we’re talking game broadcasts. I get that the team probably can’t stand all the negative reporting 106.7 and 980 do on their daily shows (sometimes I can’t even stand it) but I would think that’s mostly occurring on the non-game broadcasts, not during the broadcast?

My gut feeling is that maybe the team had already decided to ‘stick it’ to 980 and price the rights well beyond what they knew 980 would pay, and has made some kind of backdoor agreement with a competitor who they will somehow compensate with other benefits to justify the high expenditure? Just guessing.

 

[Chris]

Or Snyder will buy another station and run it into the ground like his previous ones. (Considering that everything he touches turns to shit.)

 

[Neophyte]

Wright is smart enough to know that the negative reporting will go away when there stop being negatives to report on.

Switching stations isn't going to change anything.

 

[Skinsfan1311]

Hopefully the station that ends up with it will have a stronger signal. We live in the Baltimore metro area, and the signal is weak around here.

 

[Boone]

 

[Skinsfan1311]

I hope that we can pick up the broadcast in the Baltimore metro area. 980 is/was horrific