Comcast SportsNet has more sports than they do channels. When fans of the San Jose Sharks tuned in to see playoff hockey last night they were surprised to see a baseball game in progress. When that game went into extra innings, ComcastSportsNet decided to stick with the game and drop playoff hockey.

And they might do it again tonight.

Reader Frank says:

Last night I cooked dinner and made sure it was ready and I was sitting in from of my TV at 7pm Pacific, just in time for the Sharks game. I knew it would be blacked out on the “Versus” sports network, because they would be showing it on our local “Comcast SportsNet Bay Area” sports network. So I turn on the game, and they are showing the end of the baseball game. Ok – thats understandable. Until the baseball game gets tied in the 9th inning, and then goes 20 long minutes into the start of the NHL Playoff game that was supposed to be on instead.
Long story short: Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (which used to be Fox SportsNet) burned every single Sharks fan in the entire Bay Area last night to show the end of the baseball game, game 8 out of 162, an APRIL BASEBALL GAME. Are they joking? The Sharks are one of the favored teams to win the Stanley Cup this season and here we are stuck watching the end of a baseball game instead of the first 3 goals of the hockey game.

Who do I have to email at Comcast SportsNet to get through to them to let them know that this is not ok? I work over here at Google and we have an entire mailing list of pissed off people from last night that were stuck watching baseball instead of our home team.

It gets worse though, as the people on Dish Network didn’t get to see the game AT ALL for some reason! Thank god I have DirecTV.

Thanks!
-Frank

The Sharks themselves aren’t happy either. An executive V.P. wrote to the San Jose Mercury News:

Obviously we were not happy with the situation (just as our fans were not). We were in communication with CSN throughout, pressing to get on the air. We understand the dilemma CSN was in, there are many potential pitfalls that can’t be avoided when televising live sports. This puts them in a difficult situation trying to serve many masters and fans of the different sports teams they cover. However, I will say that our position is that a playoff game should trump a regular-season game. I believe the A’s would feel the same if the situation were reversed. We will work with CSN in an effort to assure we can avoid this situation for future playoff games.

Any angry Sharks fans out there? Any A’s fans who’ll be angry if their regular season game gets bumped for playoff hockey?

Comcast SportsNet has more sports than it can handle [SJMN]

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