Remember when you could watch PA States for free?

[Threadkilla]

 

Those were the salad days.    

[Eagle26]

23 hours ago, Threadkilla said:

 

Those were the salad days.    

When was that? I don’t ever remember them being on an over-the-air network?

[Threadkilla]

1 minute ago, Eagle26 said:

When was that? I don’t ever remember them being on an over-the-air network?

It was on NPR years ago then was on PCN (Pennsylvania cable network)  until 2019 when they sold their soul to Flo. 

[Threadkilla]

https://www.citizensvoice.com/sports/pcn-no-longer-carrying-wrestling-championships/article_de90f698-c4f1-5730-8ed1-6e018a772dbb.html

 

Heres an article.

[Eagle26]

1 minute ago, Threadkilla said:

It was on NPR years ago then was on PCN (Pennsylvania cable network)  until 2019 when they sold their soul to Flo. 

Yeah I was trying to be smart… point is that cable is not free. If they were on Fox, NBC, or some other other-the-air network, then they would be free. PCN was never free (not sure about NPR). You either had to pay for cable or now pay for flo. More and more people are ditching cable subscriptions, so a lot of people would be left out from watching it either way. 

[lightweight]

18 hours ago, Eagle26 said:

Yeah I was trying to be smart… point is that cable is not free. If they were on Fox, NBC, or some other other-the-air network, then they would be free. PCN was never free (not sure about NPR). You either had to pay for cable or now pay for flo. More and more people are ditching cable subscriptions, so a lot of people would be left out from watching it either way. 

I only still have cable for the sports coverage.  And the PCN pair of announcers for the tournament did a good job.  Just saw a repeat of the 2017 state championships (Had the Lee/DeSanto match, plus early looks at wrestlers like Starocci, etc.) and was reminded of what a good job they did.)

[ClawRidesAgain]

My daughter and her husband were going to go watch PA states in person this year.  The tickets were $80 for the pair plus parking.  I believe they said tickets were only available online, and each had a $14 "fee" on it.

You know, I miss the old barn and reasonably-priced tickets at the gate.  Plus, the finals were spotlighted.

Ah, the good old days.

Edited March 11 by ClawRidesAgain

[Eagle26]

7 hours ago, ClawRidesAgain said:

My daughter and her husband were going to go watch PA states in person this year.  The tickets were $80 for the pair plus parking.  I believe they said tickets were only available online, and each had a $14 "fee" on it.

You know, I miss the old barn and reasonably-priced tickets at the gate.  Plus, the finals were spotlighted.

Ah, the good old days.

That’s crazy prices for those tickets! Its terrible that they force you to buy online and then add an extra fee

[Eagle26]

10 hours ago, lightweight said:

I only still have cable for the sports coverage.  And the PCN pair of announcers for the tournament did a good job.  Just saw a repeat of the 2017 state championships (Had the Lee/DeSanto match, plus early looks at wrestlers like Starocci, etc.) and was reminded of what a good job they did.)

I agree PCN did a great job. I think the flo announcers for the AAA finals were excellent too though. 

[JVStateChamp]

20 hours ago, ClawRidesAgain said:

My daughter and her husband were going to go watch PA states in person this year.  The tickets were $80 for the pair plus parking.  I believe they said tickets were only available online, and each had a $14 "fee" on it.

You know, I miss the old barn and reasonably-priced tickets at the gate.  Plus, the finals were spotlighted.

Ah, the good old days.

They do force you to pay online, I was at PA States this year and you could purchase all-session tickets for $50/person, this may seem steep but considering it covers girls, AA, and AAA it is not terrible. Online tickets are a pain in the butt and come with extra fees but its just the way things go now. 

I also agree that a spotlight final or something better than girls, AA, AAA finals is a necessary change for next year. The state finalists and state champions were given a disservice, the parade of champions was a joke and did not recognize any of the athletes competing in the finals. PIAA needs to figure out how to handle adding girls wrestling to the tournament as the schedule was a mess and fans missed the first two weight classes for the semi-finals Friday night due to lines outside the Giant Center.

[lightweight]

I followed the tournament online (our local high school had a few boys qualify) and my sense was that they were really highlighting that this was the first year of an 'official PIAA' girls tournament, that these girls would be the first ever girls to be state champions, and the girls got the 'center mat', with the two boys' divisions flanking them, and so forth.

Probably not unreasonable given the circumstances, and insulates them from any criticism that the girls were treated as second class citizens.  

Going forward though, if girls wrestling really does grow, then I suspect that they will have to adopt a different format.  Having it all mixed was probably helpful for any coaches who were coaching both, or parents with both a girl and a boy in the tournament, but it did make the whole event take a very long time, and if you were really just interested in 1 of the 3 events you had a long time between sessions.  

We might look at how other more established sports like swimming or track and field handle this if we want to predict the future.  I suspect that they mix boys and girls, but have separate dates for AAA and AA.  But I've never attended either of those sports so I'm just guessing.

 

[JVStateChamp]

20 hours ago, lightweight said:

I followed the tournament online (our local high school had a few boys qualify) and my sense was that they were really highlighting that this was the first year of an 'official PIAA' girls tournament, that these girls would be the first ever girls to be state champions, and the girls got the 'center mat', with the two boys' divisions flanking them, and so forth.

Probably not unreasonable given the circumstances, and insulates them from any criticism that the girls were treated as second class citizens.  

Going forward though, if girls wrestling really does grow, then I suspect that they will have to adopt a different format.  Having it all mixed was probably helpful for any coaches who were coaching both, or parents with both a girl and a boy in the tournament, but it did make the whole event take a very long time, and if you were really just interested in 1 of the 3 events you had a long time between sessions.  

We might look at how other more established sports like swimming or track and field handle this if we want to predict the future.  I suspect that they mix boys and girls, but have separate dates for AAA and AA.  But I've never attended either of those sports so I'm just guessing.

 

I agree with that this year the PIAA wanted to spotlight the Girls wrestling tournament by putting them on the center mats for both finals and semi-finals. I think this year was a trial run for scheduling as well as how they could format the tournament to make it both efficient and enjoyable from a viewer standpoint. As for the schedule, I would consider it a fail, consi-semi round did not start until 9 PM, and then the wrestlers had to be up and at the arena for 8:00 weigh-ins the following morning. The quarter-final round for AAA also began 30 minutes behind the scheduled time. But it will certainly be interesting to see how the PIAA manages these flaws going forward, there were rumbles around the Giant Center that they may be considering moving the boys back to 16-man brackets, whether that is true I am not sure.

I imagine as girls wrestling grows which it undoubtedly will, they will get their own governing committee that will organize and coordinate postseason. This will separate them from the boys but also allow them to have some autonomy on how they will begin their own traditions without being compared to the boys. 

[fishbane]

On 3/10/2024 at 4:40 PM, Eagle26 said:

Yeah I was trying to be smart… point is that cable is not free. If they were on Fox, NBC, or some other other-the-air network, then they would be free. PCN was never free (not sure about NPR). You either had to pay for cable or now pay for flo. More and more people are ditching cable subscriptions, so a lot of people would be left out from watching it either way. 

You sound like Flo.  It wasn't free on PCN, but it was no additional cost to millions of subscribers.  Most of the viewers that watched on PCN were subscribed for other reasons and watching PA states was a bonus.  

And saying there is a cost is one thing, but the actual costs are quite different.  PCN was part of basic/standard cable at Comcast, which on its own is more than Flo, but no one was subscribing just to watch the PA State finals.  I am sure the portion of your bill allocated to PCN was far less than Flo's $30/month subcription.  I don't even think ESPN gets $30/month.

At $30/month Flo is one of the costlier streaming services.  The only way someone gets to watch States for free as a bonus is if they just so happen to subscribe for one of the other niche sports streamed by Flo which is unlikely.