Woof. I just tried to get a read on how Marquee Sports Network’s doing and I ended up accidentally clicking a Phil Rosenthal column in which he said they should cover the White Sox. Seriously. Not as bad as I just made it sound, because I thought that was a funny sentence, but he did say they should talk about the White Sox more. White Sox can get their own network, Phil. PHIL.
The Marquee Sports Network experiment has not gone well for the fans. There were the cable wars. There was the pandemic. They made Len Kasper wear a suit. Len Kasper quit. It wasn’t because of the suit, but it felt like it was because of the suit. The suit could not have helped. The network isn’t broadcasting road spring training games, which may or may not be their fault. (I didn’t look very far into it. I didn’t want to risk giving Rosenthal another pageview.) They did get Jon Sciambi, which was a great pickup and a sign of life, but man. Not a great start. We know this much. It hasn’t gone well…for the fans.
The bigger question, or at least the unanswered one, is how it’s gone for the team. This was hyped at times as a windfall for the front office. Is that happening? It’s hard to make much of anything financial after last year being the year that it was, but if we’re really trying to read the tea leaves, I suppose the two indicators are the Cubs suddenly having no money to spend and the Cubs then suddenly having a little money to spend. Is that because of Marquee? We don’t know. But it might at least factor into it.
Where it goes from here is, like the degree to which Kasper’s departure was suit-related, presently unknowable. Marquee could soar. Marquee could flop. It’ll be at least a few years, one would imagine, before we know.
In the meantime, though, remind me not to google it again when I get curious. Or to at least not click on any Tribune links when I do.
