Goatboy

UIL has placed (what was 3A and is now) 4A State Baseball Semis and Finals at Disch Falk for the past 15 years while everyone else plays at Dell Diamond. Haven't heard anyone in 4A complain about being treated like second class citizens. And often times they are unable to allow fans into the stadium until an hour before the first semi-final game because the Longhorns are still practicing prior to Regionals. Somehow they make it work.

Maybe you should have a clue what actually went on before you comment. That's kind of piss poor posting on your part.

I call it a plight for fans who cannot physically get to the games and paid their money expecting to receive a professional quality product in return. Instead they get a 9 year old girl manning a cell phone. I honestly don't care about the ton of other games I may get to watch. I paid to watch my team. That was not a fair exchange for the money that we paid. I sure don't call that a luxury.

Fair enough. I apologize for any inaccuracies. I just get hot under the collar when you came across as insensitive to the plight of fans who just want to watch their teams play and have to pay for something that was certainly not worth the fee. Thanks for all you do and for taking the time to respond.

This thread has been quite enlightening. The folks who created a magazine that did more to promote football for the fans in the state of Texas for more than 50 years, now have taken the position that basically says, "Too bad if you don't like what we have taken control of, DEAL WITH IT." We have the Texas Football Friday app, ### about it too much and we will shut off the comment section. We have TexanLive, We control live streaming of playoff games in the state for the next ten years. You don't like it, don't watch it. I am not sure why the folks at DCTFM, who make one of the best football magazines in the country, have become the controlling body of all media for Texas High School football, but from what I have seen in the past year, it is certainly does not appear to be for the benefit of the fans of high school football. But it does look like it is for the financial benefit of folks like Matt Stepp who shill for their severely lacking products and who keep coming on here and telling fans to live with it.

When Longview fans who got to see quality broadcasts EVERY game during the regular season now have to "accept that part of not going to the game is the inherent risk because quality varies greatly depending on which sub-contractor is used," something is seriously messed up. Amazing how NFHS can charge fans $12.99 to watch the game - and then put out a monumentally inferior product to the one that we got for free for the previous ten weeks. Explain to the grandparents who can't get out to the games, but had to pay to watch a game that a 9 year old girl filmed on a cellphone through a glass press box window - that they have to accept the risk of not going to the games. Matt, I like you, and you guys at Dave Campbell's do a great service to the state, but you are on the wrong side of this one.

It is my understanding that UIL doesn't fund any of those other activities until they compete at the State level. Everything else all the way from District to Region is funded by the participating school districts. Longview for instance pays $3500 into the pool with the other schools in their non-football district to pay for the District Academic UIL competition. Either way, those events existed before 2014 and UIL didn't have the revenue from the streaming video rights of football games to be able to fund them - except for State Championship week through FS1. I assume that the price of overhead for TexanLive to do the Crosby game will include payment to LISD for using their video feed - after all the fans of Longview football have to plunk down $10.99 to watch the game this week.

The fact that NFHS/TexanLive gets the rights to any playoff games that they want dates back to the 2014 agreement by the UIL to allow for streaming video of post season games. (WHEN NO GAMES WERE BEING LIVE STREAMED AT ALL) That decision was made pre-Covid and before UIL opened the door for companies like Longview Gameday to live stream the games on Friday nights. Now that the state has allowed for live streaming of games, (and some companies and/or schools are streaming their own games all season) the UIL no longer has any reason to hand off the rights to the playoff games to 3rd parties that have not been involved all season long. In effect NFHS and TexanLive are swooping in, using the home schools' video feed and charging fans to watch their team's games - when they watched them for free all season. It looks like it's time for UIL to revisit that exclusive cherry-picking arrangement that they gave to NFHS and allow school districts that already have their own live streamed games to continue to air their own games. (WIth the exception of the state championship games - which Balley Sports owns the rights to) Just my two cents worth.