I’m tired of listening to people whine about FloSports. Yesterday I watched the sprint car feature replay from Lincoln Speedway, some of the Delaware football game, and the caa tournament all on flo. All for around $10 a month.

I guess I’m just tired of listening to people complain in general. There was a decent chance none of that was going to happen at all this year...except the race. Spread necks are going to spreadneck. Appreciate it happening at all and in past years the caa wasn’t on any platform.

By starting a thread to try to defend Flo, you're just opening up a forum for people to bash it more. It's great that you have such varied sports interests and can get value out of it. For me, I have no interest in anything Flo offers other than CAA basketball.
Price wise, I was about to get some "deals" out of it. Last year, I paid $99 for a year, but then Drexel gave me 5 free tickets vouchers, which I used for WBB games that I would have attended anyway. This year, it was part of the virtual season ticket that I paid $55 for. So $37.50 of that $55 was for the Flo Subscription.

Here are my gripes with Flo.
1. Price is higher/month than comparable platforms. ESPN+ charges $5/month and the same Price as Flo gets you ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu combined. They also don't have a pay per game option. B/R Live, for example lets you watch one game for $2.99. Fans of road teams in OOC games really get screwed with this price model.

2. Too many other platforms. I'm also an indoor lacrosse fan, and the NLL games are on B/R Live. So it's just another platform to subscribe to for another sport I follow. And I also pay annually for MLB.TV. I'm not getting value with all of the different platform options showing limited sports interest.

3. Interface is terrible. It's hard sometimes to tell if you're watching live or a replay from the beginning. I've had times where I could get to the game on time and wanted to watch from the beginning, but ended up tuning in live and having it ruined. It also only offers very few replays of old games, where CAA.TV showed all replays. And, it doesn't tell you if it's a MBB game or a WBB game.

4. Customer service is terrible. The platform is set up for auto renewal, but they don't give you a heads up that your subscription is up and cs gives you a hard time when you want a refund.

5. Potential audience of CAA games is extremely limited. Put a game on local or regional TV and you get thousands tuning in. Many are not diehard fans and will watch out of curiosity. This helps market and promote your team and school. I'm sure that helps out a little bit when CAA schools pay to put games on RSN's. But they only have the rights to put the home games on. When games are exclusively on FLO, only dozens or hundreds of diehards are tuning in, extremely limited the potential audience. In Drexel's case, games aren't even on the radio, so potential alumni that might consider being fans are getting limited exposure to the product. Doesn't matter this year, but I think it also hurts attendance as well.

(03-07-2021 08:01 AM)J.B. Wrote:  By starting a thread to try to defend Flo, you're just opening up a forum for people to bash it more.

Have you heard of the Streisand Effect? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect says it happened when Barbra Streisand tried to stop photos of her residence and it made people want to see them.

(03-07-2021 08:01 AM)J.B. Wrote:  It also only offers very few replays of old games, where CAA.TV showed all replays. And, it doesn't tell you if it's a MBB game or a WBB game.

They have games available going back one year. As an example, https://www.flohoops.com/events/6726488-...ng=6736720 has your loss to Hofstra in last year's Quarterfinals. You have to open games to find out if they are MBB or WBB, but in a normal season MBB and WBB won't be playing the same day or will be playing nonconference the same day against different opponents.

Some streams have poor quality or don't have the score and time on the screen, but it isn't Flo's fault if the host school can't make good video and graphics. The price is much more than ESPN Plus for fewer games, so I agree with price complaints.

Hofstra's win today made me refresh twice, but other than that it was perfect.

(03-07-2021 08:01 AM)J.B. Wrote:  By starting a thread to try to defend Flo, you're just opening up a forum for people to bash it more.

so i should just sit and let everybody rip it without saying anything? that's not how i operate which you probably know by now.

the other point to make is where else are we expecting these games to go? i guess you're saying espn+ would've been better. at some point there's going to be a reckoning with all these streaming services. there are too many and you can't possibly buy all of them.

flo is actually a conglomerate of a few racing streaming services that merged together. my guess is the caa was a big get for them if they're trying to expand beyond dirt racing...which i'm sure they are to stay competitive. they may be ahead of the game in a sense by scooping up a bunch of sports that nobody else really wants so they can gain traction ahead of moving up to bigger/better things.

and that's the biggest point to make here. it's been a good tournament to watch so far...but i can't imagine tv networks are falling all over each other to broadcast our games. it's on the league and drexel for getting us in a better position. that's where the complaints should go.

(03-07-2021 02:35 PM)EvanJ Wrote:  You have to open games to find out if they are MBB or WBB, but in a normal season MBB and WBB won't be playing the same day or will be playing nonconference the same day against different opponents.

Figured out the MBB vs. WBB.....since the display lists the home team second. So if you know which teams were home vs. away you could figure out what game it was. Since DU only ended up with two home conference games this year it was easy if you saw they listed second. Most likely the Women's game.

(03-07-2021 04:55 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  

(03-07-2021 08:01 AM)J.B. Wrote:  By starting a thread to try to defend Flo, you're just opening up a forum for people to bash it more.

so i should just sit and let everybody rip it without saying anything? that's not how i operate which you probably know by now.

the other point to make is where else are we expecting these games to go? i guess you're saying espn+ would've been better. at some point there's going to be a reckoning with all these streaming services. there are too many and you can't possibly buy all of them.

flo is actually a conglomerate of a few racing streaming services that merged together. my guess is the caa was a big get for them if they're trying to expand beyond dirt racing...which i'm sure they are to stay competitive. they may be ahead of the game in a sense by scooping up a bunch of sports that nobody else really wants so they can gain traction ahead of moving up to bigger/better things.

and that's the biggest point to make here. it's been a good tournament to watch so far...but i can't imagine tv networks are falling all over each other to broadcast our games. it's on the league and drexel for getting us in a better position. that's where the complaints should go.

Here's the deal that I would have tried to make. Just focusing on exposure and not $$$ because I have no idea if this would work or not, and it is quite possible that FLO was their best option from a $$$ standpoint.

I would have preferred a deal with NBC and Comcast with a syndicate option for markets that don't have an NBC Sports affiliate. The non-televised games could have been broadcast on NBC Sports Gold, which is now being moved into Peacock. Other sporting events that NBC doesn't want for their streaming service can then be broadcast for free on the CAA app. Then they could have gotten a few games broadcast nationally on NBCSN, like in the past with the semifinals and championship on NBCSN. Since NBCSN is going away, these games would then be moved to Peacock. Being that NBC Regional networks are big in the Mid-Atlantic area, I thought this would have been the best way for the CAA to get the most exposure. The NBC Regional Networks have a lot of dead air time, so there would have been plenty of opportunities to get a lot of CAA games on real TV.

Losing the free option of caa.tv hurt the extremely localize fanbases of this conference. Even our finals and I think semis are on a "network" that many fewer have. Its going the wrong way

local comcast with championship on ESPN to caa.tv with finals on NBC Sports to now subscribe to flo with the finals on cbs sports.

The biggest complaint is obviously price. Those who subscribe are now paying a very high price for the same produce that we all got for free through the conference previously. Most didnt mind and understood moving to a subscription. But to move to one that didnt even require upgrades from schools and for more than most competitive streaming services? That was never going to sit well with most. The customer service side is why MLS/DC United ran as fast as they could as soon as they were able. The argument about regionalizing is ok, but if games are all on an ESPN+, its completely moot of needing a comcast philly etc. If you are trying to grow the league, you dont hide your content. Even worse that we cut out audio feeds in the tournament. So the only option is to subscribe or follow live stats. While pairing the fact that our most important games (semis and finals) are on Monday and Tuesday and the weekend is the useless games. Its almost indefensible

I didn't realize that they cut the audio feeds. I really hope that it was due to Covid and not wanting announcers to travel to the tournament and just a one year thing. I really hope that the Flo contract had nothing to do with it. I think that Drexel's decisions to leave radio terrestrial radio cheapened the product. I liked when I could listen to games in the car, which I really struggled to do through my phone. Drexel has a lot of older fans who used to listen on the radio and still would if they could. It's as if they really didn't understand their fanbase, and the low cost of broadcasting games on radio was worth it for the exposure.

Looks like audio showed up after game started, wasnt there prior to tip, so at least those who arent subscribed arent completely cut off.

(03-07-2021 09:45 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Looks like audio showed up after game started, wasnt there prior to tip, so at least those who arent subscribed arent completely cut off.

Good to know. Is it Drexel's announcers or standard CAA issued announcers? I'm assuming that it's not audio from Flo, correct?

(03-07-2021 09:57 PM)J.B. Wrote:  

(03-07-2021 09:45 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Looks like audio showed up after game started, wasnt there prior to tip, so at least those who arent subscribed arent completely cut off.

Good to know. Is it Drexel's announcers or standard CAA issued announcers? I'm assuming that it's not audio from Flo, correct?

I got it from our site, so its our announcers

The worst part about Flo is not what it means for the fans themselves. Yes, I'd prefer them to be on ESPN+ so I don't have to add another streaming service, and I have no plans of actually subscribing to Flo. The main loss is that Flo gets ZERO neutral eyeballs, which makes it impossible for the CAA to have any sort of presence nationally. I don't expect CAA games to get a TON of views necessarily, but with how huge sports gambling is, there are always going to be potential viewers out there. With CAA games not being on any sort of major streaming service, you lose all of that.

If the CAA gets the best deal from Flo, fine, that's their prerogative. I am not interested in subscribing, and only the most diehard fans are going to. Everyone else has plenty of other conferences to watch without having to jump through a new hoop.

(03-07-2021 10:39 PM)jcohen42 Wrote:  The worst part about Flo is not what it means for the fans themselves. Yes, I'd prefer them to be on ESPN+ so I don't have to add another streaming service, and I have no plans of actually subscribing to Flo. The main loss is that Flo gets ZERO neutral eyeballs, which makes it impossible for the CAA to have any sort of presence nationally. I don't expect CAA games to get a TON of views necessarily, but with how huge sports gambling is, there are always going to be potential viewers out there. With CAA games not being on any sort of major streaming service, you lose all of that.

If the CAA gets the best deal from Flo, fine, that's their prerogative. I am not interested in subscribing, and only the most diehard fans are going to. Everyone else has plenty of other conferences to watch without having to jump through a new hoop.

THIS. Since I'm not a gambler, I didn't think about the gambling aspect of it. I'm sure there are people who would put money down on CAA games and are interested in actually watching the games. I doubt that the betting sportsbar with 100 TV's in it has a FloSports account to get the CAA on TV.

I was disappointed with the Flo deal, and pointed out it's faults in the post above. But I still paid for it through the Drexel Virtual Season Ticket, since watching Drexel Basketball is a passion of mine. Either I shell out a few bucks (it's really not that much), or miss out entirely. I think back to the NAC days in college where I would hover over a radio to hear the voice of the great Pat Delsi in on 1310AM to give the description of Drexel road games. While I love hearing Pat tell me that Brian Holden's "rainbow hit the pot of gold", I would have paid anything for the chance to be able to watch games on TV. So paying for a subscription is still worth it for me.

I'll join hiroshimacarp in being a fan of FloSports. I would prefer the games were all on ESPN+ since I get that anyway because the rest of the family wants the Hulu/Disney+ parts. (Although now perhaps I would get it anyway as I've gotten into watching Americans playing in the Bundesliga.) That being said, I get a lot out of what I pay for Flo, I watch all the Drexel men's and women's game and many other CAA games as well. My wife and son usually join me in watching Drexel games. The cost is what we would pay to see a single game in person.

I guess I'm not a spread neck as the racing holds no interest for me, but I do watch other stuff in the Flo universe at times. Covid seems to have taken away a lot this year, but last year I watched quite a few games of Massenat and Elegar over in Europe and some of Oden's high school games.

I agree that the phone/TV apps for Flo are bad, however on a computer things are much more straight forward. You can easily find old games and games are pretty much available on demand immediately. I don't need to worry about conflicting times with my son's high school sports, I just watch when I have time. It is not that hard to avoid seeing CAA scores if you avoid a few things (especially when you live in Montana.) The archive seems to be pretty extensive; I watched the Drexel-Houston game in the lull before the season started this year when I needed a Drexel BB fix.

It may be a second-rate platform, but the CAA is also a second- (or maybe third- or fourth-) rate league. I would rather shell out a few bucks and have something like Flo than the Big Sky league whose games are available for free on pluto.tv but only live. As far as local exposure, there have been many home games on Philadelphia tv, which I don't believe would happen if the CAA had gone with ESPN+.

I always hear the argument of you won't get non-CAA fans watching. Do people really just watch random games on ESPN+? I've watch games where ex-Drexel guys like Doles, Peck, Isabell have played in or if I had some other rooting interest like the U of Montana but I don't think I've ever watched some random mid-major game just because I have ESPN+ and can.

I'm guessing like it or not, we're stuck with it for at least two more years. If the Big East women stick with it, maybe we can watch Hannah Nihill next year when she goes to play with Denise Dillon.

I'm guessing ESPN is the most used site for scores. Fans can check the scores of every in progress game, and if they play for ESPN Plus they can see something that makes them want to watch and there's a good chance it will be on ESPN3 (for games on an ESPN TV channel) or ESPN Plus. You could see a close score, a great record for a team you didn't know was great, a team that had a big halftime lead and was now in a close game, a guy who had 30 points, or some other reason why you could see a score and spontaneously want to watch.

It would be nice to have regular season games on CBSSN next season and/or have games on NBC Sports regional networks be on SNY. The only times Hofstra was on TV this season were the opener at Rutgers on Big Ten Network and the game at Richmond on regional channels including SNY. Some games including both games at James Madison were on TV in the other team's area. I'm going to move, so I won't get SNY anymore, but it would still be nice for Hofstra to be on TV.

this is a separate argument but you guys mentioned the g word...gambling. i hear guys on national talk radio like cbs/espn act like the only way they can watch a game is if they have money on it. have we really fallen that far? we're not too far away from a big scandal at the pace we're on.

last month i had the fanatic on when i was running. they filled the time between the missanelli show and a sixers game with what amounted to an advertisement for one of those apps. sports coverage was already down the tubes. now it's just a blatant advertisement for these sports books and apps that i would argue are ruining sports.

and again...i thought the coverage of the games yesterday was excellent. i don't recall the play by play guy's name but i hear him doing a lot of games this time of year...so he wasn't somebody he pulled off the street. color guy knew the teams. tough day for them too calling games for 12+ hours.

i can't really speak for the customer service. the games weren't really that hard to find on the computer so i don't get the complaints about the interface.

(03-08-2021 11:30 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  and again...i thought the coverage of the games yesterday was excellent. i don't recall the play by play guy's name but i hear him doing a lot of games this time of year...so he wasn't somebody he pulled off the street. color guy knew the teams. tough day for them too calling games for 12+ hours.

i can't really speak for the customer service. the games weren't really that hard to find on the computer so i don't get the complaints about the interface.

Agree that the coverage yesterday was much better than I expected. At least there was 3.5 hours between tips, so at least they had some downtime while the Covid sanitation protocols were taking place.

(03-08-2021 11:28 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  this is a separate argument but you guys mentioned the g word...gambling. i hear guys on national talk radio like cbs/espn act like the only way they can watch a game is if they have money on it. have we really fallen that far? we're not too far away from a big scandal at the pace we're on.

last month i had the fanatic on when i was running. they filled the time between the missanelli show and a sixers game with what amounted to an advertisement for one of those apps. sports coverage was already down the tubes. now it's just a blatant advertisement for these sports books and apps that i would argue are ruining sports.

Gambling has always been a big driver to viewership and money in the NCAA. It was just a silent partner for many years. Now that many states have gambling approved, its not so taboo. But with players on the cusp of getting paid, gambling sponsorships in visible places is right around the corner (whether on arenas, courts, or uniforms). I dont think that is what is ruining sports, because it has always been a huge part of it.

(03-08-2021 11:30 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  and again...i thought the coverage of the games yesterday was excellent. i don't recall the play by play guy's name but i hear him doing a lot of games this time of year...so he wasn't somebody he pulled off the street. color guy knew the teams. tough day for them too calling games for 12+ hours.

The announcers were Tom McCarthy and Pete Gillen.