As you are aware, the Akron Zips will visit Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday for a noon kickoff that will be televised (against VPI @ UNC) at noon ET. We have weighed into the inconsiderate and puzzling nature of this scheduling ‘strategy’ in this key entry. (I guess this is a way to keep all you evil supportersa and tailgaters out of the parking lots before games!!!)
We decided to pen this entry as advice since the majority of StateFansnation will be watching the game on the tube (and since we are predicting a less than stellar physical turnout for the game because of the inconvenient nature of the scheduling time).
You need to make sure that you understand some “television basics” before finding and watching the game on Saturday.
(1) The game can only be found on ESPNU.
(2) ESPNU is NOT carried by Time Warner Cable (TWC). If you live somewhere that has cable, but not TWC, then you need to check your local listings for ESPNU’s availability on your cable system.
(3) If you have to go to a bar or local spot to watch the game, please realize that not all venues will have access to the game. Just like residences, only venues that subscribe to television service providers that carry ESPNU will hae access to the game.
I have never been short on exasperation and awe how 95% of all “sports” bars do absolutely NO educating of their employees regarding the central core of their business – SPORTS ON TELEVISION. In far more instances than I can fathom, even the folks owning and managing the places don’t seem to have a clue about the simple nuances of service providers, game feeds, game times, etc, etc. This topic is so frustrating to me that six years ago I started draft article for the old Statefans.com that I never finished that was titled, “I like sports and I like beer, so I’m going to open a sports bar!”
For example, earlier this week I had lunch at Champions Sports Bar & Restaurant in the Marriott in downtown Charlotte at the corner of Trade and Tryon. I did my best to ask the questions as simply as I could about their television feeds to figure out if they were going to be able to carry the Akron-State game this weekend. Throughout lunch different/numerous employees in the restaurant and bar came over to the table to see if they could answer my simple question of, “Do you have DirecTV or Cable TV? (I’m trying to figure out if you have ESPNU to watch Saturday’s Akron-NC State college football game).
Not a single employee of the sports bar could answer my question. In fact, they were so ‘attentive’ and ‘understanding’ that the (55 year old female) manager ultimately came over with a remote and a piece of paper asking what game is that we would like to see (right now)? Flabbergasted, I politely went through the whole thing again and she ultimately decided that they have cable and not satellite (even though I still don’t know if she was being accurate). I know that I could have simply clicked ‘menu’ or ‘guide’ on the remote to confirm, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
So, if you want to find the State-Akron game at a local sports bar, do NOT ask the sports bars if they “are going to have the NC State game on Saturday?”
Most employees of these places don’t have a friggin clue about how the television feeds work. They (understandably) think that they “have the package” so therefore they can get “any and all games”. The odds are high that you will get some kind of response like, “We have the package. If the game is on television, then we can get.”
Bullshit.
Odds are also high that if you simply ask if they get ESPNU then you will also get an automatic response without an ounce of actual listening or thought to the question.
So, I suggest that if you really want to insure that your sports bar of choice is going to carry the Akron @ NC State game on ESPNU that ask someone at the bar (like a manager) to verify that their feed is from satellite (DirecTV or Dish) and NOT Time Warner Cable. Without confusing them too much, this is probably the best way for you to quickly get to the truth.
