Opinion: Flo Sports Reminds Everyone Why They Stink
Out of the remaining 20 games of the Towson Men’s Basketball Season, nine of them will be broadcast exclusively on Flo Sports. Nearly 50% of their remaining games are going to be through one of, if not the worst broadcasting companies we have in this country. I’ve made it not secret in my Tweets (I refuse to call them posts, Elon) that I hate this company and the lack of quality they deliver with their product. Except, calling it their product is a monumental (if you get this pun, please let me know) stretch.
Let’s take a look at what Flo has to offer. For the miniscule price of $29.99 you can get access to the exact same broadcast that a school was offering for free on their website! No, seriously, instead of getting a free live stream, viewers are treated to the exact same set up, quality and announcers that were present before there was a pay wall. When a game is host by Towson, there are announcers that are HEAVILY in favor of Towson calling the game. When Towson travels to *picks random CAA team* Elon, the broadcast has the Elon heavy team on the call.
On the surface, this makes sense. Small market schools get local broadcasts because they don’t demand a more national type of announcing team. However, watching these games through a paywall of a third-party company with no association to the school makes the home-team heavy commentary incredibly infuriating; at least when it was on a school’s website it made sense. Not to mention, the audio for the announcers is abjectly horrendous. Volume levels will shift randomly throughout a small stretch of game time, voices sound like their coming through a filter, and its clear nothing has been done to improve the product fans are viewing.
“Hey Sean, why don’t you just not pay for it then?”
Oh hey, little voice in my head, been a while since I’ve heard from you. It’s a fair question, but I want to watch my team play!
“Go to the game!”
I’m in my 30s, married and have things to do, I can’t go to every game, especially ones that are in Elmont, New York. So when Towson plays in a grueling double-OT battle against Bryant, I can’t watch a single second of it. So let’s do a quick review of a few obvious things:
- Flo Sports charges $30/month or $150 for a yearly plan
- The money being paid for a subscription does nothing to improve the quality of the product consumers reveive
- Towson fans don’t want to list to a UNCW heavy broadcast, UNCW fans don’t want to listen to a Towson heavy broadcast. I don’t want to listen to either because it gets really old just as a standard fan
- Fans used to be able to get the exact same product off a livestream from their school’s website
- That did mean there were occasional paywalls based on schools, but much like the quality being subpar, it made sense.
So for those who are like me, here are the games you CAN watch without paying for a garbage prduct:
Dec 22 vs. Nicholls
Jan 6 vs. UNCW
Jan 20 vs. Campbell
Jan 25 (Maybe) vs Drexel
Jan 27 @ Delaware
Feb 1 vs Northeastern
Feb 3 @ Hofstra
Feb 12 vs. Elon
Feb 22 (Maybe) vs Monmouth
Feb 24 vs. Charleston
Here are the games you CANNOT watch without paying for Flo:
Dec 30 vs Arcadia
Jan 4 @ Monmouth
Jan 11 Vs. Stony Brook
Jan 13 Northeastern
Jan 18 @ Charleston
Feb 15 @ William & Mary
Feb 17 @ Hampton
Feb 29 @ NCA&T
Mar 2 @ UNCW
Enjoy what you can while you can!
