I moved here from California and left the Lakers and Kings in the rearview mirror. Maybe you weren't around when the Blazers spent years trying to get around the Comcast deal, knowing how they froze out so many fans. I was at meetings with the team president (what was his name? The Nike guy) where he was talking about it three years after they signed the deal. It was a huge mistake.
The problem is that Comcast is an inherently evil company. Nobody should ever do business with them. They should be driven out of this market and never allowed back in.
Evil companies destroy the environment, exploit workers, corrupt the government, take advantage of the elderly, poor and addicts. Comcast sells an overpriced product with crappy customer service that can be frustrating to purchase. Its annoying but its hardly evil. Their held in the same regard as all the other cable companies. Here in Austin we got Time Warner which is a mirror image of Comcast.
I've been around for the entire Comcast deal. I was born and raised in portland. Draco is right. All these cable companies can be annoying, not evil. Directv, dish, Frontier all suck. With Playstation vue available to watch games, the only thing Comcast might have over portlanders is internet ( but probably not anymore because most of you can choose century link (city) or frontier (burbs) now). Companies coming to Portland to provide Internet invest shit tons of money into portland to build the infrastructure to even provide you with these services. That's what Google is stuck doing right now. Negotiating with the city what they will invest in portland in terms of infrastructure. You scratch my back, we'll scratch yours stuff I'm sure. In ten years we will still be posting here and by then I'm sure we will hear how evil Google is too.
Btw, a few problems I find with subscribing to League Pass streaming only is that it's got about a 1 min delay over live TV, and it's at 30 fps which is kind of crappy for sports. Tolerable, but a little annoying. I'd rather have a slightly lower res image with 60p. The other issue is that you can't get NBATV games to stream, which I've found the Blazers were on more than a few times this season.
I'm not going to hate on new Californian transplants just for going to a few games. Sh-t. I graduated college in SF and lived in Cali for several years and the Blazers got plenty of love from them. But when this place hits hard times and the Fakers still suck..... don't mention the rain!
Comcast does exactly these things you describe as an evil company. (FYI, Time Warner and Comcast are the same network) Comcast destroys the environment. They dig up the ground to bury their products. NO it isn't huge, but it could be considered the same as oil drilling projects digging in the ground. What will be the effects of this 50-100 years when we have all these conduits with aging cable buried in the ground? Comcast exploits its workers, most specifically its subcontractors. They will intentionally over schedule customer service issues and new hookups even though they cant handle it and then force the subcontractors to take on more work at the end of the day. I can't tell you how many nights I finished my work at 6 but didn't get home until after 10, so their employees could make their dinner. Comcast does corrupt the government.. Not sure how, but the legal monopoly they have is enough for me to believe this. Comcast may not take advantage of the elderly, but they most definitely take advantage of the poor. I also firmly believe the reason they monitor our viewing is so they can then package the channels we like to watch into a higher tier package forcing us to pay more for the same channels as someone else, because I watch those channels more. Having been a supervisor for a contract company, I have been deep inside Comcast and seen just how they treat people.
what do you care, FAMS? You'll get paid no matter which channel they sign with. FAMS. FAMS. F.A.M.S. Fat and Mangy Sucka!
The way conduit works is you pull out old cable and pull in new cable. The benefits of having conduit are many. The alternative is ugly phone poles and wires above ground. All that infrastructure is exposed to much harsher conditions.
It's not that easy to get new providers in because of the investment they have to make in the city. Comcast made that investment, other companies have chosen not to do so (look at how long it's taking Google to decide). The city worked hard to get century link in to give portland another option. Being convinced of them being in cahoots with Comcast is too big brotherish.
If the city owns the conduit, they would be able to rent it out and charge companies for construction. Construction would be pulling new cable, installing bigger conduit, etc.
That's because we are all in California. I think it works both ways. I rarely meet people in SoCal that are originally form SoCal. We are very much a transient society.....
