If you’re a dedicated sports fan, you’re probably going to want to watch your team play. You likely can’t make it to all their games, though. That would get expensive quickly, and you might live far away from where they play.
The solution, then, is to figure out how to watch them on TV, or a laptop, tablet, or your smartphone, as the case may be. Some sports fans, though, particularly baseball fans, are running into problems this year.
Take the New York Yankee fans, for instance. Those in the New York area, including upstate, not just those in and around New York City, might want to watch the Yankees this year. The team is playing a full 162-game schedule rather than the abbreviated season they played last year during the pandemic.
The problem is that most of the games are on the YES network, and many streaming services, such as Hulu, Sling, and others, have dropped it. This article will explain how some intrepid fans are using technology to get around this issue.
Illegal Sports Streaming Sites
Some fans are resorting to watching the Yankees, not to mention other teams, on illegal live sports pirating sites. These websites certainly do exist, but as we said, they are illegal since the Yankees and Major League Baseball want fans to pay for the YES network.
If you try to pirate a baseball game or any other sporting event, it’s possible that the FBI might catch you. It’s not terribly likely, but if they can figure out your IP address and zero in on you, you might find them knocking down your door one of these days when you settle down to watch the game.
If that happens, you’ll need to defend yourself in court. Lawyers often charge $100 and $300 per hour, while specialty attorneys can charge up to $1,000 per hour in some instances. That’s a high price to pay to watch your team.
Cable or Remaining Streaming Services
If a New York area Yankee fan wants to watch the team but they don’t wish to break the law, they have a couple of other options. For example, they can get cable. However, cable packages these days run close to $100 per month in most instances, and many casual sports fans can’t afford that.
If someone pays for cable, the chances are high that they’re an older Yankee fan, such as a Baby Boomer, for instance. A retired individual might be willing to pay for cable to watch the games if they are not on a fixed income. Also, older fans might not be tech-savvy enough to purchase a streaming service, so they feel like cable is their only option anyway.
The only streaming service left at the moment that has the YES network in the New York area is AT&T TV. However, that one starts at $69.99 per month, plus tax, for the most basic package. Many fans don’t want to pay that either.
VPNs
This brings us to the MLB network and VPNs, which more and more fans are doing these days. You can pay for the MLB network as a stand-alone service and then stream it on your smart TV or another device. The only issue is that the MLB network will not let fans who are physically close to a particular team watch that team.
That seems to make little sense since, presumably, more fans of that team will live close to the team than those who live far away. The reason why MLB won’t let Yankee fans watch their team through the network is that they want to force them to order the YES network instead. This exclusivity means fans must either get cable or AT&T TV, the more expensive options.
The way around this is to purchase a VPN or virtual private network. This service, offered by companies like Nord, allows individuals to block their IP addresses, which reveal their physical location when they use the internet.
If you live in the New York area, and you purchase a VPN as a monthly service, plus the Yankee games via the MLB network, you can disguise where you are. In this way, you’re using technology to prevent the MLB network from blacking out the Yankee games you want to watch.
It’s clever, and it’s also legal. If you do this, you’re not committing any crimes, but you can still watch your team without breaking the bank.
