Will locker room access ever return in MLB & NHL?

[Azrael]

Unless it was the offseason, I can't say I've ever had to go through a player's or team's publicist to get access to them for a profile or longer piece. That's why there's locker room/clubhouse access and availability, especially if you're someone who is on a beat and covering the team regularly and they know you. So, no, access would not be roughly what it was for a reporter covering a team.



Because some reporters don't do the job like they should diminished access doesn't matter? Yeah, someone who only talks to the most notable player before or after the game, merely looking for a quote or soundbite, won't be missing out on anything. I don't think readers, or maybe even some reporters, understand how important and valuable the relationships that are built with players and coaches off camera/record are to writing stories with depth and backed with information that can go beyond what numbers say.



Social media is just another way for athletes to craft the image they want of themselves and building a brand. There should be some skepticism of what is published/tweeted/etc. Feels like a real leap to proclaim digital technology and social media have improved our access to many athletes. Perhaps I'd buy that for athletes in less covered sports, but not for the main pro leagues.

It's always disappointing to see any reporter take the stance that diminished clubhouse/locker room access doesn't matter.

I'm sorry you're disappointed, but I didn't say reduced access didn't matter.

Rather, I suggested the access most sports reporters have now - or had last year or had ten years ago - isn't put to good use by most sports reporters.

And as you say, there's a difference between big league access and minor league access, big college access and small college access. There's a difference in how MLB coverage works and Diamond League track and EPL and sumo wrestling and boxing. All get covered.

Access differs and access changes and we adapt to that or we don't.

Different access requires a different sportswriting strategy. As the internet has pretty well proved.

 

[daemon]

I'll be surprised if it goes completely back to normal. Baseball players have been clamoring to close the clubhouse for years. The league never had much of a reason to acquiesce, and it didn't make sense for the MLBPA to spend negotiating capital on it in the CBA. Now, the players can claim it as a health and safety issue/. Even if COVID eventually goes away, there will be the threat of future viruses. The league's ambivalence will cut the other way - they don't have much of a reason to fight to preserve access at the expense of something else. They'll spin it as broadening access - Zoom calls allow non-traveling media to participate on the road, clubs will arrange pre-approved pre-game 1-on-1's, manager will still be available before every game, etc.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Ban the media from clubhouses and you give the jock-sniffers less time to do that and you give the good journalists more time to break investigative stuff that will make the league and the players look bad. Say, maybe, a PED ring. And there won't be the personal ties there between player and reporter to cloud things, either. The leagues and the players are exposed to more risk that way.

The whole PED crisis in baseball broke when an AP reporter noticed a bottle of pills in McGwire's locker. That's not happening without access.

 

[wicked]

Yes, and Steve Wilstein was vilified for asking about it.

 

[SixToe]

That's one point of access, though, asking questions about what they see and hear, or saw and heard in the game

Wilstein being vilified for asking about what he saw in the open is like a football coach going to a booster club gathering and getting pissed about it not being "off the record" in front of hundreds of people. But the coach knows all he/she has to say is "But I said it was off the record! I was among our "family" at that big booster meeting!" and the fans will turn on the reporter.

McGwire could've put those PEDs behind books about Mother Teresa and Winning at Life if he didn't want anyone to see them.

 

[Fdufta]

Anyone have more educated predictions on this, with NHL and NBA ending and now MLB winding down?

 

[ChrisLong]

My guess is, you are never given more access. What's gone is gone.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Yeah, I think the NHL is gone for good, especially given Bettman's sniveling response to the ESPN bubble story. It's a sport that seems to think being fourth in the pecking order is as high as it's ever gonna get so why try harder? I like to think baseball has a shot, but this pandemic won't ease up in time for access to return next year and then the CBA gets renegotiated and the one thing the owners & players are gonna be able to agree upon is closing the locker rooms. Oh well.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

In an absolute stunner, MLB writers are back in the room starting tomorrow!



(And the BBWAA president also sent out a note about this, so I don't think Bob can hex it)

Never expected this. Great news, though.

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[goalmouth]

Baseball players proving again they are the biggest assholes in pro sports.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Well, now I'm confused. If it was "Bye Bye Bye" it was N'Sync. Did he get the lyrics wrong?