Originally Posted by
medford
Good questions, I'll answer the 2nd one 1st. I'm going to guess no, or at least not significantly. At least in my experiences with the Dragons and Reds, I've never considered not going to a game b/c I could watch it on TV, but then again, I only go to about 1-2 games a years. As far as the minor leagues go, I doubt it would hurt attendance much, and would actually be used by people like us, eager to watch future stars for our favorite big league club, and willing to do so in front of a computer. We're in a minority though, most people are not going to sit in front of their computer, or even hook their computer up to their main TV to watch some minor league game.
As far as the additional cost, I wouldn't think it would be much. My main experience is watching UD basketball games over the net, and the production isn't all that much, a video feed from high up, w/ the radio broadcast overlapping the video footage. I'm assuming all minor league games are taped anyways for the purposses of the big league club. I'm sure Walt and other ML GMs trust their scouting team, but I'm sure they'd all like to have an eye witness account of minor leagures they're trading for. Having a bulk supply of film they can upload on any minor leaguer w/n their own system, or in another has got to be a component of their tool set to run an organization.
Assuming the radio broadcasting rights are not an issue (I assume its "owned" by the minor league ball club, and readily accessable, where available), simulcasting the radio feed over a basic video package would seem pretty easy.
So basically, I think both components are already there for most minor league clubs (I know not all have radio deals), and it shouldn't be that hard to combine the two. Could probably be done by an intern trying to get his foot into the door of professional baseball, some young college kid, overseen by the general information/media director of the major league and/or minor league teams in question.
It seems far too easy for it not to be done by now, perhaps the biggest drawback is they don't believe enough people care to support all the bandwidth that would generate.