Baseball fans that don’t have cable TV better have enjoyed that exciting Mets vs. Cardinals series, because this year’s League Championship Series playoffs may have been the last to be seen in their entirety on over-the-air TV. Starting next season, most of Major League Baseball’s championship games will be seen on cable, on Turner Sports’ TBS network.

The World Series appears to be safe through 2013, when the existing series of TV deals with FOX, TBS, and ESPN expires. But there is something wrong with the way the Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Bud Selig, and the president of Turner Sports, David Levy, presented this deal to the public.

Both gushed about the enormous amount of money TBS is paying MLB in a way that is sure to draw the attention of the Federal Communications Commission, Congress, and various groups who want changes in the way cable TV is funded. Selig was blunt when he said of the deal, “Frankly, the economics were what we wanted.” Levy chipped in about Turner’s having the cash to walk away with one of baseball’s crown jewel events.

The new baseball deal is guaranteed to raise cable TV rates around the country because someone is going to have to pay for the new Turner Sports-MLB deal, just as someone is paying for ESPN’s deal with the NFL, as well as the NBA-Turner-ESPN agreement. Those who are footing the bill are cable TV subscribers who have basic-expanded service, and cable TV ratings indicate that most of the 90-odd million cable subscribers never watch the sports they are paying for.

It’s an issue that has been festering for a long time, and one that has garnered the attention of many, including the chairman and chief executive officer of Comcast, Brian Roberts. This is why Selig and Levy’s comments may grate on people.

Because he is CEO of the country’s largest cable television multiple systems operators, when Roberts talks, the sports world listens. Not only does Comcast own the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers, the national Versus sports network, numerous regional sports networks including a piece of Sports Net New York, but it also holds a partnership in a number of ventures with the NFL.

So when Roberts calls for a cable industry-wide debate on whether all subscribers or just sports fans should pick up the cost of expensive regional and national sports cable TV networks, it should be cause for concern for sports owners, ESPN, the multitude of regional networks around the country, and other major players such as Turner and Fox Sports Net.

A change in the way cable TV sports is funded could alter the way in which the sports industry operates and change the economy of sports.

On September 21, as he spoke before the Progress & Freedom Foundation in Washington, Roberts was asked about the escalating cost of sports programming on cable TV. His response was somewhat surprising considering his company’s holdings.

“I think it’s time to call for a dialogue, a serious dialogue on this subject.” Roberts responded. “We would be very willing to participate without pre-conditions as to what the solution is. And I think there’s a lot at stake and it’s accelerating and it’s the moment right now.”

Yet Roberts did not provide any possible remedies for cable subscribers because those solutions may come from Congress and the FCC.

So, here is the problem in a nutshell: In its infancy, sports owners had discovered in cable television a new source of exposure and revenue where rights fees were rather small. As more owners found cable TV, the industry began paying more and more money to buy product. Cable TV networks were struggling to survive in the early 1980s and to ensure the survival of CNN, the Weather Channel, and ESPN, Congress passed the 1984 Cable Act, which, besides deregulating the industry that October, gave local cable TV companies the ability to bundle cable networks together on an expanded basic tier and require subscribers to pay for the pre-packaged channels, among other things. The legislation enabled CNN, ESPN and the Weather Channel of the cable world to keep their heads above water.

As an increasing number of sports owners cut deals with national and local sports networks, rights fees for games grew more expensive — and that cost was passed onto cable subscribers. The cost of sports programming on cable has since skyrocketed, with ESPN and regional sports networks becoming the most costly to consumers.

And sports owners increasingly have their eye on another venture: Many want to hop on the gravy train by cutting out the middleman to form their own networks.

All of this means non-sports fans in the New York area who have basic-expanded tier service could be paying nearly $200 a year for services they never use.

The chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has suggested that cable subscribers be allowed to pick and choose the channels they want, but he has not been able to persuade Congress to come around to his thinking.

The National Cable Television Association began asking sports cable networks to slow down their spending for rights fees in 1999, but ESPN, TNT, and the regional networks have ignored the NCTA’s pleas. Now, multiple systems operators are weighing moving sports channels from the “basic-expanded” cable universe to a separate “sports tier” that would be formed to control costs. That move would undoubtedly be met with great resistance from the Walt Disney Company. Disney’s ESPN networks are cash cows, and the company cannot afford to have ESPN taken off basic expanded for a special tier that only sports fans might buy.

There is a dirty little secret that Disney, Roberts, the owner of Cablevision, Charles Dolan, and other sports insiders would like kept under wraps: If Martin succeeds in getting the new Congress to amend cable rules to allow subscribers to cherry-pick programming, buy rates for sports channels would drop significantly. The buy rates for ESPN, FOX Sports Net, and the regional channels would hover around 7–8% — that’s about it. Which means ESPN — which daily reaches nearly 90 million homes — would sign up maybe 9–10 million subscribers, a staggering revenue loss for Disney. Whereas the company can now count on more than $1 billion in annual subscriber fees, the ESPN networks might generate about $200 million each year. The only way to recoup the losses would be to charge ESPN subscribers a hefty $12–$15 a month to subscribe.

The same would hold true for the other sports networks.

Consider Howard Stern’s Sirius Satellite Radio buy rates. On “free” radio, Stern had millions of listeners, but, as it turns out, most of his listeners didn’t want to pay what amounted to a licensing fee to hear him. Would a majority of sports fans pay a high licensing fee for games? The answer is no.

Congress hasn’t had the political will during the past two and a half years to change cable rules, but there is mounting pressure on the FCC to get control of cable costs. Martin has been telling Congress that he is staunchly pro-choice when it comes to giving cable subscribers the right to pick and chose cable channels across the spectrum. That prospect has to be a frightening thought to sports’ commissioners, owners, management, players, and agents because changing cable TV rules will change the sports industry.