regionals in Boston - updated info 3/25 - Sports Grille!

[DeltaOne81]

From Hillel:
[Q]The bad news for most folks in Cornell diaspora: The situation when it comes to sports bars and other commercial venues is very murky. Channel 658 is NOT available on all commercial DTV accounts -- even places that get "Sports Pack." It sounds like access to DTV 658 is an a la carte add-on: some get it, some don't, and most of 'em probably have no idea whether they get it or not. Scheduling a public gathering at a sports bar to watch Saturday afternoon's game live is a risky proposition, even at places that showed last weekend's ECAC championship. Unless you get an unusually swift manager (riiiiiiight), it will be very difficult to check whether an establishment will be able to broadcast this game, because DTV 658 is almost always blank. [One absurdly complicated test: Call the sports bar at 7:30 on Thursday night and ask them to put on DTV 657. If they see a D-II basketball tournament game, you're probably good to go for 658 on Saturday... Don't ask.]

So if you don't get DTV and you live outside CNY, Ohio, Omaha, KC, Denver, and other lucky pockets, it looks like watching the regional semifinal live is likely to be a hit-or-miss challenge.[/Q]

So we should definitely do the 657 test on Thursday. In the meantime, keep writing to other channels requesting it.

Also, we can test out channel 658 on Saturday before our game, when they should be carrying Harvard/UNH, and on Friday when they should be carrying the Worcester semis.

[dargason]

Ok, Got that written down...I can pop in there on Friday too to confirm 658.  I spend enough of my life in Allston anyways, another evening won't kill me  

:-D

[abmarks]

Is someone confirmed to be checking 657 on THursday after 5 MST?

[dargason]

I will be there

[DeltaOne81]

UPDATE: 3/24 - 1:30 PM

So we have 3 options we are working on. At the moment this is our order:

1) Sports Depot - Cambridge St, Allston
Pros: location, size, kids allowed, parking... oh, and WiFi
Cons: still not sure if we'll get the game there

2) Sports Grille - Canal St, Boston
Pros: checking with management, but regularly does order channels for people... size, kids allowed
Cons: location & parking (its near the Fleet/Gahden), but no big events (only Globetrotters on Sat and Figure Skating on Sun) - for pay garage parking may be necessary

3) Lazy Dog - Route 20, Marlborough
Pros: willing to order channel for us, we'd probably mainly take over the place, kids allowed (?), parking available
Cons: near 495 / route 20. Very close to me :-) , but not convenient to most.

So it looks like this will be happening. We're working on confirming the Sports Depot tv availability. If that doesn't work out, we'll wait for a call back from Sports Grille and make sure we can get the channel. If for some reason that doesn't work out, our last 3rd option is the metrowest Lazy Dog.

Further updates will be coming when we know exactly which place, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that it looks like we will be finding someplace, so do plan to attend!

[Rosey]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 UPDATE: 3/24 - 1:30 PM
[/q]

Well, I'll do either of the first two; but if it comes down to the Lazy Dog, I'd rather stay at home in case there are technical difficulties, because I *know* I can get it here (modulo DirecTV or Altitude themselves screwing up), and it's a long, long drive from Marlborough if things don't work out.

Cheers,
Kyle

[DeltaOne81]

We will confirm with whichever place that they are getting the games on Altitude alternate, channel 358 on Friday *and* on Saturday that they're getting the Harvard/UNH game on the same. That should minimzie the risk significantly. Do feel free to regularly check this thread and/or your email for status updates.

Afterall, its a long long drive from the Fleet area back to Marlborough for me if it doesn't work out there, so I intend to take as little risk as possible.

I wouldn't expect Sports Grille to fall through unless the manager is having a really bad day. The guy I spoke with seemed very aware of the kind of situation and very willing to help, and they've done it before for groups as small as 5. Considering I'm bringing at least 4 or 5 and dargason has a list of 30 last I knew, I'm not too worried about that

[Ken \'70]

The Boston Colgate Alumni Club arranged with the Sports Depot to pick up the Colgate/CC game 5PM Friday (also ALT channel).  Can't see why the SD can't do Cornell/OSU as well.

See http://board.uscho.com/showpost.php?p=1920076&postcount=117

[nyc94]

[Q]Ken '70 Wrote:

 The Boston Colgate Alumni Club arranged with the Sports Depot to pick up the Colgate/CC game 5PM Friday (also ALT channel).  Can't see why the SD can't do Cornell/OSU as well.[/q]

Are you sure they are watching it on Altitude?  The USCHO TV page http://www.uscho.com/m/ncaad1/?data=tv2005 says that game is also on Fox Sports North Wisconsin which is channel 642 on DirecTV.  Is that part of the Sports Pack or is that an extra subscription?

[abmarks]

I bet that is sports pack.....(just guessing)

[MARooney]

I set up the Colgate Alumni Club of Boston viewing at the Sports Depot tomorrow for the Colgate v. CC game.  Sports Depot doesn't normally get Altitude Sports (ch. 644), but we were able to arrange for a one-time upgrade DirecTV order for 70 bucks.  This one-time order may carry over to Saturday, but I'm really not sure.  To be safe, I would call Sports Depot to make sure.  I dealt with a guy named John, and he was very helpful - give them a ring at 617-783-2300.

Good luck!

[DeltaOne81]

Well, it doesn't seem there is a base Sports Back for business. Rather there's about half a dozen packages... Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Altitude, Comcast SportsNet West, Commercial Choice (all standard commercial channels + CSTV), Fox Sports Net, SportsChannel, and ESPN Networks seem to be the packages (+ sports subscriptions like MLB Extra Innings and and NFL Sunday Ticket).

SportsChannel seems to include all the FSNs which used to go by the name SportsChannel (this includes New England, NY, Ohio, Florida and a few while), and the FSN pack is the rest of them.

Fox Sports Net North, which is split into two feeds (Minn and Wisc) is part of the Fox Sports Net package. That would seem to be a much more likely package for most bars to have, even though the northeastern channels are in the SportsChannel pack.

Certainly more likely than the Altitude choice.

[abmarks]

uh delta- see the post above yours from MARooney

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]abmarks Wrote:

 uh delta- see the post above yours from MARooney[/q]
Indeed... thanks MARooney! considering the info I have say that a month is $50 (it could be old info), I would think $70 is more than a day's worth, but we'll definitely see.

[dargason]

So I checked out Sports Depot last night and first of all, the place was absolutely mobbed for basketball.  The manager said that he would check on Altitude and the Alternate...he seemed to indicate that they got original Altitude but that nothing was playing on the alternate feed (this was in the middle of the DII basketball game).  He then politely told me that he was really frikking busy and to stop bothering him.  In all fairness, he did seem really busy.

Anyways, my point being that we're not sure if the Sports Depot will have the game and even if they do, we will most likely not get audio.  Fred (DeltaOne) has been calling up The Sports Grille by the Fleet Center and they look like they will be able to host us, most likely with audio, and will order Altitude just for us.  We just need to make sure that they will get the alternate feed, which we will figure out tonight.

We will keep you updated!