Last week, Major League Baseball (MLB) players reported for spring training, and now, hardcore junkies of America’s favorite pastime can get a fix of their choice sport 24/7.
This season, for the first time, baseball fans have something gridiron buffs have had for years: a dedicated cable network devoted to all the games, news, interviews, stats, and steroid updates they could ever hope for. Like the NFL Network, the new MLB Network, which went on the air Jan. 1, hopes to be at the forefront of sport-specific news and analysis.
The problems in Harlem made the MLB take a longer look at Secaucus.
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Initial plans called for the network to come to Secaucus short-term until the building in Harlem was completed in 2011. But after the building developer faced problems with financing, groundbreaking was delayed and the network had to reevaluate its plans.
The problems in Harlem made the MLB take a longer look at Secaucus.
“We were always happy with this site,” said Jeff Heckelman, public relations manager for the network. “I think there may have been some other people at high levels who liked the idea of the network being in Harlem. But once that project got delayed it was starting to look like we were going to be here for two years, possibly longer. And once we started looking at the types of studios we needed to build, everyone involved realized that it made more sense to stay here.”
Now in HD
Turning the old MSNBC studio into a modern High Definition (HD) facility was among the costly renovations the network made that convinced senior management to stay in Secaucus. Heckelman said the network didn’t want to put off broadcasting in HD until they were in a permanent space, so HD renovations were made to the old MSNBC facility.
For the project, 300 miles of cable had to be installed beneath a raised floor to accommodate the network’s HD plans and the financial investment was considerable. Business media sources that followed the network’s pre-launch estimate that Major League Baseball spent tens of millions of dollars on the HD renovations.
“The more that [the building in Harlem] stalled, and the more that our team here got adjusted to working here, I just felt that Secaucus was a very good option for us long term,” said MLB President and CEO Tony Petitti, who joined the company last June. “With the investments that had been made to the studio, it didn’t make sense to do that here and turn around a couple years from now and do it again in another studio.”
The network’s widely-publicized Jan. 1 launch date also meant the channel had to move quickly to find a home where the staff could be fully functional and on-air by that date.
Petitti added that the officials from Hartz Mountain Industries, which owns the studio space where the network is based, were “very aggressive and very accommodating and eager to have our business.”
Over the last year, Hartz has pushed its “Move 6 Miles, Save $60 Million” campaign to lure New York-based businesses to the Meadowlands region, where office space rents for $25 to $35 a square foot, compared to $100 a square foot in Manhattan.
Because of Hartz’s history with MSNBC, Petitti said the company understands the nature of the broadcast industry and the needs the MLB Network is likely to have.
Network joins growing list
The MLB Network now joins a growing list of broadcast companies that have either been headquartered in Secaucus or that have satellite offices here.
WWOR-TV is located on Meadowlands Parkway. New York City-based WPIX, the flagship station of the CW network, has an office on Plaza Drive. Previously, radio stations WPAT and Z100 also had offices in town, as did Univision.
Reach E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.