ASU to decide on streaming Comet football games

Weekly Associated Student Union Meeting Update

By Brian Boyle, Spotlight Editor

At the Associated Students Union’s weekly meeting in AA-207 at 2:30p.m. on Wednesday, the topic of potentially streaming the college’s football games online was discussed.

Athletic Director John Wade approached the ASU with a proposal he received from the company Bay Area Sports TV. He said the company wished to partner with the college to record and stream football games online.

“We’re talking about doing something we’ve never done before,” Wade said. He said other colleges stream their games, and the attention it draws those programs is substantial.
Wade said that Bay Area Sports TV wishes to broadcast Contra Costa College’s home games, and the cost would be approximately $325-$400 per game.

During the meeting, ASU President Antone Agnitsch said the board should consider Wade’s proposal, and come back next week to discuss it. Senator Luanna Waters and Agnitsch dominated the conversation, and most of what was said was in favor of supporting Wade’s program.

Wade said to the ASU board that the athletic department was willing to partner with the ASU and pay for the cost of some of the five home games to be streamed.
Tim Banks, Bay Area Sports TV’s camera crew chief, said that the costs break down as follows: $100 per game for a sports commentator to comment, $150 for the cameras and camera switcher and another $150 for insurance.

“There could always be more cameras if (the college) wants more angles, but that’d be an additional charge,” Banks said. He said his cameramen work for about $15 per hour.

Banks said the way the streaming would work would be that he would provide the college a link they could put on the website, and students could watch the game either at the college’s website, or at bayareasports.tv.

Banks said his cameras are the JVC Professional 600 and 150 models, which record in high definition.

He said it would take him approximately three hours prior to a game in order to set up.

The other topics discussed at this week’s meeting were the ASU’s grant structure, Fall Festival and Club Rush.

During the meeting, Agnitsch said the ASU was looking at starting three forms of grants that departments, clubs and students could seek: a one-time grant for support with a $3,000 limit, a $500 emergency funding grant and a $1,000 sponsorship grant that could be sought multiple times throughout a semester.
Agnitsch said, “Let’s just go forward saying we don’t have a limit on how much we can grant.”

In regards to Fall Festival, Agnitsch asked the members of the board to volunteer to oversee individual elements of Fall Festival.
He volunteered to be in charge of requisitioning a “bouncy obstacle course.”

ASU Vice President Huong Vu volunteered to be in charge of games during Fall Festival and Waters volunteered to be in charge of food.

The other topics discussed were decorations and music, but no senator volunteered to be in charge of those elements.

The InterClub Council is scheduled to have their first meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. in HS-101. They will discuss which clubs are still active and go from there in planning Club Rush.
Waters also presented the board with a proposal to host a food drive competition between every department at school.

“We have a lot of homeless students at CCC and they need food,” she said.

Members of the board seemed interested and Agnitsch said, “Maybe we should look instead of giving it to the food banks to see if we can give it directly to homeless students at CCC.”
The ASU’s next meeting is Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 2:30 p.m. in AA-207.