ESPN Enrages Viewers With Their "Heat Index" But Why Do They Have The Site?

I'm sure by now you're aware of ESPN.com launching "The Heat Index," a page entirely dedicated to the Miami Heat, last Monday.

The page includes former Miami Herald Heat insider Michael Wallace, international writer Sebastian Martinez-Christensen, a young up and coming writer that they claim will make his debut shortly, and the shocker for many, former Cleveland Plain-Dealer Cavaliers insider Brian Windhorst.

The last one actually caused an outrage among some Cavs fans, claiming its the same thing as LeBron (its not, do you know how much even NBA beat writers at a local newspaper get paid? Not as much as you would think, so much so that the chance to work for ESPN is considered a HUGE promotion. So where's the similarities other than location? I say good for "Scoop" or "Windy" as he's called, and welcome to Miami.)

But the fans are just upset period because they feel that the Miami Heat do not deserve such coverage. I guess they forgot a few things usually taught in any high school economics class:

1. ESPN is a business owned by an even bigger business, the Walt Disney Company.

2. This is the United States of America, a country that's supposed to have a free open capitalist market.

3. One of the key parts of a free open capitalist market is the concept for supply and demand. 

Now these things, believe it or not, lead to "The Decision." I mentioned this in an earlier article:

Why did you watch "The Decision" if you hated it so much? Why did you show so much interest in LeBron prior to that that his team could propose an idea like that to ESPN and ESPN would take it? Notice how Eric Dampier's "Decision" will not be broadcast anywhere.

Not so much to feed his ego, but because ESPN knew that YOU would watch. And you did, over 10 million viewers.

This can't be disputed. If there wasn't such an interest in fans of so many cities over where LeBron was going, it doesn't happen. How do we know there's interest? Well don't you think ESPN reads the comments left on their site? I mean they have to considering that some of them get deleted. And don't you think they have a hit counter that while its not visible on the page itself, someone in Bristol has access too? ESPN is only supplying something that they themselves know there is a demand for. Does it mean that they're pro-Heat? No, even though a lot of people tend to believe it because they're dedicating so much coverage to them and some of their analysts are predicting them to go to the finals. Like I said in that very same article I wrote a few weeks ago:

This is a very myopic view, to say that ESPN favors the Heat just because of their predictions. They haven't defended the Heat, they've covered them. Big difference. I'm sorry but criticizing them just for the sake of it isn't coverage, its an opinion.

So ESPN is covering the Heat in that way. Lakers fans complain because there's no Lakers page, despite the fact that there's ESPN LA. Other basketball fans have a huge problem with this as well because they feel the heat are getting special treatment. They hate any article that seems to talk about the Heat in anything other than negative terms.

But there's a reason they exist: because you read them. 

Good businesses listen to their customers, all this tells me is, ESPN is listening. If you're tired of the Heat coverage on any website, don't watch the games, don't read the articles. But will you do that? Of course not! 

Right now, the demand is for the Heat, not just from Heat fans, but from Heat haters too. Sometimes though I think maybe they aren't really "haters," because they seem to show this team so much love by reading about them and talking about them. Usually when I hate something, I don't discuss it, for instance I LOVE B/R trolls, so I even wrote about them! However, I loathe the New York Yankees, New York Knicks, and New York Jets. Yet, I only wrote about each teams in slide shows, I chose the Yankees to win the World Series in my baseball mid-season power rankings, was wildly wrong about the Jets in my NFL preview and only write about them now when they play the Dolphins or in my NFL picks article (coming out later to day for this week) and even then I tend to be level-headed about them, and the Knicks were only covered in a slide show called "New Rules" and even then it was a backhanded way of being friendly to their fans. Other than that, I don't get upset that there's an "ESPN NY" and not an "ESPN Miami" because I know that the money is in New York and there's always going to be a demand for news about the New York sports teams. Its only fair in the most capitalist point of view.

(By the way, if you're a Yankees or Red Sox fan who complains about the constant Heat coverage, then you especially need to shut up. Honestly, I'm tired of watching your four hour 9 inning games in April that are treated as playoff games, and I know hearing about your bidding wars over Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford this winter will be damn near insufferable. So for you to criticize ESPN for treating another team like they treats your baseball teams only makes you a hypocrite!) 

If you do read a Miami Heat article on ESPN and comment on it, then you have no right to complain about the mere presence because you only feed into it and show ESPN that there's more of a demand for it, therefore, just quit paying this team any attention. If you knew anything about basic economics you would know that once the market shows what they want and what theirs a demand for, that's what will try to be supplied. 

For the answer to all of this, in the words of former Bill Clinton campaign adviser and CNN contributor James Carville: "Its the Economy, Stupid!"

Thomas Galicia doesn't have a degree in economics, however understand basic economic principles like Supply and Demand. He also just accomplished something he's always wanted to do, and fit a James Carville quote into a sports article. Leave a comment if you disagree with him, but be warned, he's armed and ready with a come back to anything you have to say. You can also follow him on twitter where he's not as verbose due to the 140 character limit, @thomasgalicia.