Three years ago, there was a strange twist in the relationship between the Syracuse women’s basketball team and Time Warner Sports.

After showing four live women’s games in the 2004-05 season, SU declined a deal to allow live broadcasts on the local sports network. The decision appears to be rooted in the fickle economics of non-revenue sports and has resulted in the program’s best season ever being played predominantly off the airwaves.

As recently as this past summer, Time Warner reached out to SU and tried to forge a contract that would allow live broadcasts of the women’s games. The network’s offer was rebuffed, once again.

‘Three years ago my offer to SU was not embraced,’ said Doug Logan, director of Time Warner Sports, in a statement. ‘I made another offer to SU this past summer and, again, it was not embraced. Thus, we will not produce Orange women’s basketball games until there is an agreement in place.’

Fans have voiced their displeasure with the arrangement, or more appropriately, the lack thereof. It was fan e-mails and message board posts that led Logan to produce a statement explaining why Time Warner did not televise the women’s games, said Jeff Unaitis, Time Warner’s vice president for public affairs. Logan was not available for further comment.

What the statement won’t reveal is maybe there’s more behind SU’s holdout, such as a desire to make the most money possible off non-revenue, also known as Olympic sports.

Without women’s games on TV, Syracuse could satisfy a slew of its other economic priorities including driving more fans to attend games, selling online gamecasts through the Orange All Access package and securing an omnibus deal with Time Warner that would guarantee all non-revenue sports are broadcast. Holding out on an individual women’s basketball deal makes it a prime bargaining chip in negotiations with Time Warner.

These three developments are far more profitable than selling Time Warner the rights to women’s coverage and appear to be the only logical (though cutthroat) reasoning why SU would want to keep its most successful team in 2007-08 off television. Logical reasoning producing illogical conclusions.

It’s not for sure whether these were the factors that influenced Director of Athletics Daryl Gross’ decision to refuse a deal. Upon request for comment, Gross released a statement through SU Athletics and was not made available for an interview.

‘We have worked very hard in growing our programs and having fans attend our venues and support the teams,’ Gross wrote. He later added: ‘As women’s basketball has shown, we feel we will be ready to showcase all of our sports in the very near future. We have grown our attendance in women’s basketball and have broken numerous records this year.’

The women’s team is continually packaged with other Olympic sports in Gross’ rhetoric. As the most successful of these Olympic sports, women’s basketball – with its increased demand and surging audience – would be a strong centerpiece.

‘Time Warner Cable and Syracuse Athletics are working together to reestablish a comprehensive Olympic sports package,’ Gross said in his statement.

Time Warner’s Unaitis would not say whether the university was using a women’s deal as leverage, citing a policy of not commenting on negotiations.

The absurdity of the current situation is illuminated by the conciliatory past between SU and Time Warner, which still does its own broadcasts of select Orange football, men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse games.

And the local sports station had broadcast tape-delayed games of women’s basketball and other SU Olympic sports ‘for years,’ according to Time Warner’s statement.

But, the information age had dawned by the 2004-05 season. Time Warner no longer saw a viable business model in tape-delayed gamecasts – a process for recording a live event for subsequent broadcast.

That season, SU agreed to have four women’s basketball games produced and broadcast live by Time Warner. But that was the end of that gig. When Time Warner sought out a live-only deal for 2005-06, they were rebuffed.

Of course, the fans suffer the most, because they may prefer the comfort of their couch to a hike out to the Carrier Dome.

It’s understandable that there had not been much attention to the disappearance of women’s basketball three years ago. The program was a historical underachiever, but during its best season ever – solidified with a No. 22 national ranking that will likely evaporate following Tuesday’s loss to Providence – fans looking for the Orange could not find them in the TV listings.

The Syracuse women’s team would make compelling television – if they were on television.

The stalemate is locking out fans at exactly the wrong time. Women’s basketball is not only thriving in Central New York, but the nation is showing more interest generally.

This is the sixth straight season the Big East has increased its broadcast exposure, jumping 152 percent since the 2003-04 season, said Donna DeMarco, the associate Big East commissioner for women’s basketball.

‘While I think it’s grown tremendously,’ DeMarco said. ‘I still think it can be expanded upon.’

And where does DeMarco see the most room for growth? On local networks – exactly the medium Syracuse women’s basketball no longer has.

Since SU originally ended its deal with Time Warner, the program has moved to the Dome and held two record-setting games for the women (the largest crowd, 4,221, against Connecticut and the largest non-UConn crowd, 3,552, against Marquette). Maybe this year’s attendance boost will give Gross the incentive to make a deal with Time Warner. But, he could also continue to holdout until the entire Olympic sports package is offered.

Students and local fans should be able to watch women’s basketball on local television, especially now that the program is thriving, now that it matters.

There is a good product on the Carrier Dome court, with an expanding audience – an ideal formula for making money. And isn’t that what this all about anyhow?

Matt Reilly is the sports and the media columnist for The Daily Orange where his columns will appear bi-weekly. He can be reached at msreilly@syr.edu.

Published on February 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm