[dirno2000]

Kind of along the lines of what MFFL said, I can't see the ticket being replaced by a "pure sports" station. This is not the market for it. I can see some of the bigger northeastern markets like a Boston where they are passionate about all of their teams and can talk Red Sox year around. Same with NY. People in this town just don't have the emotional ties to the Rangers or the Mavs.

In the summer when baseball is the only sport in season listening to those other sports stations local programming is torture. They pick generic topic like "what player to you love to hate" and take calls on it for 2 hours. Even for a sports fanatic, that gets old pretty quick.

Xerxes, I you seem to make a point for the ticket when you talk about how local programming is superior to national. The ticket is local from 5am until 12 midnights 5 days a week and from I believe (I'm not up that early) 8-6 on weekends. No other station is close. Fox has been on the air for over a year and they still don't even show up in the ratings.

That's not even taking into account the tickets established ties with the community. They can pull hundreds to a local road show and thousands to their big events. As long has they have their current personalities, they aren't going anywhere.