UPDATE: Blazers will be sending their TV & Radio crews w/ the team on the road

Dewayne has said a final decision hasn't been made and they could change their position on this?

 

I can assure you with how negative the Blazers are getting with this news this will not happen

 

If they change their mind and don't do this, this shows you why fans should voice their opinions instead of sitting down, shutting up and just accepting the product.

Hope these employees get their full salary.

 

I thought HCP said they do get full pay...what they don't get is travel per diem which is used to spend money on the road...if you're not on the road you don't need per diem....it's like hazardous duty pay in the military that added 90 bucks a month to my paycheck when I was in Viet Nam...when I was out of the combat zone...no more hazzardous duty pay. That's life. As I said, I think they'll actually save money in the long run being off the road....everybody spends more on the road than at home. The only real issue I see is whether the quality of the remote broadcast can improve over the bubble sample we had before...I have no reason to think it won't. For one, Jordan Kent is gone.

 

@THE HCP care to correct this?

He said he would lose 30% of his pay. If you go back and look, he went into an explanation on the why. People don't spend all their per diem on the road, and they get paid on travel days when that is all they are doing.

 

I understood that is his per diem which he also said is more generous than most teams pay their staff on the road. I disagree that people don't spend more on the road than if they are home..I've traveled the world and hotels alone are spendy not to mention food. Hazardous duty pay in the military is exactly the same... only applies when you're in the line of fire. Transportation, room and board, not to mention any other movies, or whatever folks do in their down time all costs money. So does child care in the case of a single parent like Brooke. If the Blazers lower their carbon footprint by this move, I'm all for it. I think people will get over the initial panic in short order and I hope this leads to the team owning their own streaming service for fans down the road. They said they wanted to improve remote broadcasting by learning from the bubble experiment. We may just be leading the league in this trend..time will tell

 

I sure hope you're right. They should be ashamed of themselves.

 

This isn't the kind of trend we want to lead on.

 

Per diem does not have to be used while out on the road. He gets to take whatever he does not use home. Nobody is arguing that hotels and food while traveling is more expensive. That doesn't mean HCP is spending his per diem. You don't know how he handles his per diem. He said it himself in posts it will be an adjustment and they are losing income at a bad time.

 

I don't have any issue with it so count me out of the disgruntled fans on this one. I talked yesterday at length about this with Richman and we agree to disagree but he's lobbying for non stop emailing or calling the front office and demanding they go back to the old way....I don't have that mindset at all, nor the anger....these topics need perspective in my view and not raw vitriol for the sake of vitriol. I've heard and read all the complaints on several msg boards about it and think it's sabre rattling for the sake of sabre rattling but it's not a popular stance I understand that much. People most disgruntled seem to be beat writers although I know Travis Demers doesn't like it. I'll bet Calabro loves it....he almost retired over fears of his age and covid exposure when Kent took over. HCP is no spring chicken....his health will be better for it as well as the other folks. Sleeping in your own bed is a huge perk for the health. Long view. I'd throw them all a welcome home party if I were the owner. Maybe give them a raise as well.

 

People losing income for.their family while the team provides an inferior product is not vitriol for the sake of.vitriol.

 

The job of the crew is to relay the details to fans that can't be seen remotely.

People are upset because it is impossible for the crew to do that if they are also remote. The only reason to watch the home feed is to have a person who you know and trust help put you in the arena.

There is no way that will be possible if they are not in the arena themselves.

People are upset because this will result in an already watered down Blazer broadcast being even more watered down. There is no way around that.

And they are going to charge us the same or higher rates, while cutting the pay of said crew that we know and love.

That's why, from my perspective, it's not just sabre rattling.

 

HCP also said he's already lined up work in 3 other sports....he's a freelancer...different from Casey who works for the team directly. Of course I don't know personal financial habits of players on the road....I know what sailors spend when they're away from home and it's a lot more than being at your home base. Just common sense to me. I spent years on the road playing music and it was exactly the same...you tend to spend more on the road than when you're in a house band at home...just facts. Of course I'm generalizing. People can make their own choices as to whether it's worth working for the Blazers or if they're able to do better with another franchise as well. I'm sure if half the staff quit over this they'd look at it as a failed move.

 

In order to make similar to their prior pay, the entire staff will have to work for somebody else.

It's not good if you're cutting pay during an inflationary period and forcing your employees to get 2nd jobs. That's a HORRIBLE solution for a billionaire to turn to.

This is just the same Kolde/Vulcan BS that has always been a problem with Portland in the past. But now there is no Paul Allen to govern them.

 

That's a lot of assumption in my view.... finalities...the job of the crew is to broadcast the games. I know why people are upset but I don't agree with why they are upset. Until you've seen how they plan to navigate this I don't think you can say all these things...they may have upgraded their abilities for all we know. Watered down is speculation in my view. They aren't cutting the pay of staff...they are cutting traveling expenses...the crew gets it's salary, just not per diem for travel....simple ...and as I said, there are perks to working from home.

 

Think of it this way. If their job is to just broadcast the games why do we have our own announcers at all?

Why not just use the local arena feed?

 

I don't worry about those things...I'm here to be entertained ...I was entertained even when they were in the bubble. However I can get Blazer games streamed, I'm happy. I hope they start their own streaming service. I paid for NBA league pass for years where all the home games were blacked out....glad that's over. I'm a radio guy for sports for the most part.

 

If they started their own streaming service so we could get every game that would be a huge improvement.

Unfortunately I think this is the opposite direction...

 

I didn't take you as a guy that would be happy and accept a large corporation to cut costs and hurt their employees so they have to find work elsewhere during a recession but to each their own.

 

This isn't about me...let's not go there. I'm trying to frame a perspective about the topic that's not being addressed, I don't care about corporate profits nor am I sure that's what drove this change from the front office. I could be wrong and they could be evil capitalists but until I see that as the result of the change, I'll wait and see. Working from home to me is a great perk in that field. Less traveling to do the same job should be part of changing the carbon footprint of sports...I think for the same reason no Western conference teams should be east of the Mississippi. We need to address our carbon footprint in my view...for the record, my son disagrees with me about this too and it's all good. For the same reason I want us to buy a G league franchise and keep it in Oregon too....that pesky old carbon footprint......see, I drive a Prius too! We now don't risk humans to fly missions halfway around the globe...they are controlled drones from cubicles in Nevada...pilots might prefer the thrill of flight but the safer way is to not put humans in harms way. The world is changing.