THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, February 21, 2016
Unable to make it down to the Boise area this weekend — it wasn’t my turn — I surrounded myself with technology and tried to catch a glimpse of what I could from the state high school girls basketball tournaments.
With an extra monitor to the left of me, and a laptop to the right, I was able to watch Thursday’s first-round games involving Sandpoint and Timberlake, which were going on at the same time, on IdahoSports.com.
Earlier, I monitored Lakeside’s fourth-quarter comeback, capped by a 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime, before the Knights eventually lost to Rockland. And later, we watched Lake City’s first state tourney game since 2009.
All the while thinking, watching all of these games might not be possible next season.
THE IDAHO High School Activities Association is considering a five-year proposal from a Georgia-based company, the NFHS Network, to take over webcasting rights for state tournament games beginning in the 2016-17 school year. The Georgia company — a joint venture between the NFHS and PlayOn! Sports, has offered the IHSAA $45,000 per year for the first three years, and $65,000 in each of the next two years.
The catch — the state tourney games would be pay-per-view ($9.95 for a day pass), and while IdahoSports.com now shows all tournament games in all six classifications, there is no guarantee the Georgia company would show anything other than the state title games. Its proposal covers webcasting state championship events in football, wrestling, basketball, track, cheer and dance, as well as soccer if the stadium offers a suitable setup. IdahoSports.com also webcasts regular-season games, mostly in football and basketball, and also webcasts the state volleyball tournaments.
IdahoSports.com, which shows the games for free, proposed $10,000 per year, along with the idea of offering a higher-quality version of the webcast that could be purchased, while still offering the “standard definition” version for free. IdahoSports.com offered the IHSAA a 60 percent cut of the net profits from the higher-quality webcast.
IdahoSports.com has contracted with the IHSAA since 2005, and has been webcasting games since 1997.
The IHSAA voted 8-6 in favor of the Georgia company’s proposal as a first reading in January. The final vote will take place during the April 6 board meeting.
COMPETITION IS seldom a bad thing and, whether it was real or imagined, IdahoSports.com has stepped up its game in recent years. Sure, there were some glitches in Saturday’s Lake City-Hillcrest webcast, but in general, webstreams don’t peter out as much as they used to, the announcers do a competent job, and they’ve figured out how to have the score permanently on the screen throughout the game, in case you have to have the sound down, and/or the announcer is a little slow keeping you posted on the score. I also saw — wait for it — instant replay on some of the webcasts.
And one of these years, I’ll figure out how to hook up the computer to my TV, and be able to watch the games on an even bigger screen.
So let’s hope the IHSAA thinks less about the green and more about those unable to attend, and votes to let IdahoSports.com continue to show all of the state tournament games.
If the IHSAA needs an extra 35 grand, well, we think they can come up with the money another way.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.