Altitude-Comcast battle rages on, as it’s another lost season for fans

Avalanche and Nuggets fans once had reason to believe their teams might be actually back on TV for most fans for the rest of this season. After all, federal magistrate Michael Hegarty, once dubbed the Michael Jordan of settlement negotiations, was now on the case, right?

Well, the Feb. 23 settlement conference between the two parties came and went without a resolution. As a judge and lawyer, that part was never a surprise to me. I never expected a full agreement after a short four- to six-hour session in front of Magistrate Hagerty.

In this case, when I saw that the initial settlement conference passed without an agreement, I wasn’t surprised. After all, this is a complex negotiation between two large parties. However, I did not expect the largely obtuse language leaving fans more angry and without hope.

“We will continue discussions.” Yikes.

What I did expect was something along the lines of, “While we still remain ways apart, we are hopeful that another round of discussions would be fruitful and benefit Avs and Nuggets fans. We will continue discussions in front of Judge Hegarty.”

In other words: Did I expect them to reach an agreement after four hours? No. Did I expect them to announce another settlement conference with Magistrate Hagerty? Yes?

Did I expect it to take this long? No. If the parties were even remotely close at the end of the initial settlement conference, why didn’t he just set another date at the end of the day? Most likely, both sides were still trying to play hardball.

Will the Avs and Nuggets be on Comcast this season? No. As encouraging as it is that they will remain in front of Hagerty, neither side seems to, from a legal perspective, have any urgency towards the two teams regular season broadcast schedules.

So it’s more of the same for the fans. Another lost season for the Avalanche and Nuggets