Joe Bell was one of the local bar owners who had to scramble last fall when there was no deal between Big Ten Network and Comcast Corp.
Last fall the fledgling station, which carried four MSU football games, was trying to come to an agreement with Comcast, the largest cable provider in the nation.
The two sides didn’t reach a deal until Thursday, leaving many people without the channel during last season.
“We went through the first two games without it, freaked out and said, ‘The hell with it,’” said Bell, owner of The Peanut Barrel Restaurant, 521 E. Grand River Ave. “So we dumped Comcast and picked up the dish.”
But now that the two sides have come to a deal that puts BTN on Comcast’s extended basic program until the end of the college basketball season, many bars are left to wonder what will happen to one of the college football season’s big draws.
Mark LaPorte, manager of Dublin Square Irish Pub, 327 Abbot Road, said being one of the few places to carry the network in the fall brought in a lot of customers.
“Usually for football games, stuff like that, basketball games … we usually packed them in here pretty good,” LaPorte said.
While some people will inevitably stay home to watch the games, there will still be people who want a beer with the game, LaPorte said.
“I think it will affect us a little bit,” said Bill Chapman, manager of Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe, 1601 Lake Lansing Road.
“But with our ace clientele and our name out there we’ll be fine. Coming to a bar to watch a game is just a different atmosphere than watching at home.”
Chapman said basketball games were huge at the MSU-themed restaurant, especially since many of the team’s games were on BTN. The MSU men’ basketball team played 14 of its 38 games on the conference network in the 2007-08 season.
Bell said that is one reason for him not to switch back to Comcast now that the cable provider carries BTN.
“We still have Versus, we still have ESPNU, not offered on Comcast,” Bell said. “So we’ll have some minor advantages, especially for basketball. Not maybe so much for football, but we do fine for football anyway.”
In the end, it shouldn’t affect them too much, Bell said.
“It will all work out, everyone will be happy,” Bell said. “Some will stay with the dish, some will go back to Comcast, it all depends, do you want to spend the money on the dish or keep it.”
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