100% agree, NHL does this as well. Living near San Jose, can't watch a local Sharks game when it's happening. Tickets for playoffs games were >$100, and it's $25/month just for NHL.TV. Details of their blackouts: https://subscribe.nhl.com/us#blackouts
It's really just burning the biggest fans. I personally don't care about any sports, but if I did, I'd probably just find some shady streams online instead of trying to deal with all their restrictions, rules, and commercials. It really seems like they have no clue what people want, since they're unwilling to give it to them at any price. Smart business, IMO, would say, OK, you want no ads and no blackouts? $500 a year, or whatever. Figure out what it would cost and show people, so they understand how much they pay with their credit card and how much they pay with their time + eyeballs each month.
Edit: I'm sure the hardcore fans would take the more expensive package. You could even offer things like exclusive programming which would happen during times when commercials play for other lower-tier subscribers. Make it even cost twice what you're losing in ad revenue. The good will it would do for the brand, to even offer a no-commercial, no blackout, no contract, no BS option is not a zero-dollar value for the company either.
Take journalism. You can purchase digital only for this much money, or you can purchase a digital + paper subscription for some amount more. Maybe even a premium subscription like the New York Times has with the crossword puzzle.
Why can't sports teams do that? Buy paper tickets for individual games for some amount. Buy digital access for individual games for some other amount. Buy digital season passes for another amount. Buy paper ticket season passes, includes digital season passes. Pre-order your digital season pass before the team goes to pre-season training and get a voucher for a free bleachers seat for one of the games. If you have a digital season pass, pay a premium to use an app which lets you decide which camera to watch through, control over rewinds, etc. Pay another premium to get get a version of the game, a week after it happened, with audio commentary tracks from the coaches and players.
It's not that hard, and honestly, they'd probably get even more money from the die-hard fans than they're getting now. The executives are just stuck in the stone age.
Stone age and profiting b/c people keep giving them money. Damned if I'm going to spend $hundreds on paper tickets, parking & over-priced junk food when the location of the seats(in said price tier) is determined by someone else to fit their preferences. The capacity for customer service is huge, but TV ratings and ads are all they seem to care about... tired pandering script and contractually required player comments to the 'great fans' notwithstanding.
I cancelled my NHL.tv subscription because they subjected me to team/region blackouts despite _literally living in another continent_. Was a total waste of money - it could have been great.
NHL Center Ice was awesome when the commercial break came & you got the static camera image as the guy announced he has to hit the head and additional audio of announcers' goings on in the booth prepping for next segment. Of course, it couldn't last, I can pay AND get commercials; just like ad-free cable & ad-free sat radio.
Tickets for sharks playoff games are perfectly reasonable, especially considering what I'd have to pay in arenas in the east coast or the cost of going to a giants/warriors playoff game.
Where I live now, a Sharks playoff game ticket is cheaper than me going to a regular season hockey game.
It's really just burning the biggest fans. I personally don't care about any sports, but if I did, I'd probably just find some shady streams online instead of trying to deal with all their restrictions, rules, and commercials. It really seems like they have no clue what people want, since they're unwilling to give it to them at any price. Smart business, IMO, would say, OK, you want no ads and no blackouts? $500 a year, or whatever. Figure out what it would cost and show people, so they understand how much they pay with their credit card and how much they pay with their time + eyeballs each month.
Edit: I'm sure the hardcore fans would take the more expensive package. You could even offer things like exclusive programming which would happen during times when commercials play for other lower-tier subscribers. Make it even cost twice what you're losing in ad revenue. The good will it would do for the brand, to even offer a no-commercial, no blackout, no contract, no BS option is not a zero-dollar value for the company either.