Cleveland radio host: ‘How am I supposed to sit here and talk about the Cavs?’

The Cavaliers have a team they hope can compete for a championship. Ken Carman wants to know how many local fans will be watching.

The 92.3 The Fan host criticized Cleveland’s new television arrangement, arguing that the cost and lack of a traditional local TV option could discourage fans from following the team.

“I think a lot of people are not going to pay this,” Carman said, via Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing. “It’s bad for me, it’s bad for the team, it’s bad for the fanbase, it’s bad for what we do.”

The Cavs moved their local games to DAZN following the collapse of the regional sports network system. As Hoops Wire previously covered, Awful Announcing ranked Cleveland last in the NBA for local broadcast accessibility.

That ranking reflects the available viewing options. Carman’s concern is what those limitations could mean for interest in the team.

“How am I supposed to sit here and talk about the Cavs?” he said. “I got to pay it. I’ll watch it. But how am I supposed to sit here and talk about the Cavs when nobody’s going to watch them?”

“Nobody” is an exaggeration, of course. But the underlying question is fair: How many fans who previously watched regularly will purchase another streaming package, and how many will simply watch less?

Carman also suggested the timing makes the arrangement a tougher sell. Cleveland is coming off a sweep in the Eastern Conference finals, and some fans were disappointed that LeBron James landed elsewhere.

Those are separate basketball matters, but they factor into his assessment of the audience’s willingness to pay.

“They got to figure out a way to fix this and get this accessible to their fans,” Carman said.

The Cavs’ decision comes amid a broader upheaval in local NBA broadcasting, with teams pursuing different combinations of streaming and television distribution. A subscription service provides a way to deliver games, but reaching casual viewers remains part of the challenge.

For Cleveland, the business question extends beyond how many subscriptions it can sell. It’s also how many fans it can keep watching over an entire season.