Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 14, 1993 TAG: 9305140069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROSEMONT, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
The six-year package with ABC and NBC appeared to have the support of most clubs after a four-hour meeting, but large-market clubs were making an effort to block it.
Those contracts call for most league championship series games to be shown regionally along with an expanded round of playoffs that would start next year. Baseball officials said declining ratings gave them no choice but to show most postseason games regionally, a move criticized by many fans and congressmen.
"We have given them an alternative," said CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, whose two-year bid and surprising appearance outside the room where owners were meeting appeared to establish new ground rules for television negotiations. The three networks traditionally have not attempted to block each other's deals.
"At crucial times of negotiating there is fair play," NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said. "I definitely feel there's an etiquette."
Milwaukee Brewers president Bud Selig, chairman of the ruling executive council, wasn't interested in the CBS offer and said there would be a vote sometime after May 23 on the ABC-NBC deal, which calls for splitting revenue instead of a rights fee.
Pilson said the CBS offer calls for a rights fee of less than 50 percent of the current deal, which averages $265 million per season, plus revenue sharing. Philadelphia Phillies president Bill Giles estimated the ABC-NBC offer would be worth about $145 million in 1994.
"The committee has spent seven or eight months doing business the way you're supposed to do business, not playing one network against the other," Selig said.
CBS officials said several teams came to them earlier this week and asked for a counteroffer. Any deals must be approved by 8 of 14 teams in each league.
While many small-market owners said they were leaning toward the ABC-NBC proposal, owners of large-market teams were ambiguous about their intentions.
"I feel better that there was no vote today," said George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees. "I would say the large-market clubs have to look at it very carefully."
Fred Wilpon of the New York Mets added: "I think everybody has concerns about a large business transaction."
The CBS offer would allow baseball to sell an opening round of expanded playoffs to either another network or to a cable network. Congressmen have said the ABC-NBC deal would lead to pay-per-view, which Selig denied.
Selig had said last fall that owners wanted earlier starting times for postseason games. The ABC-NBC deal calls for Saturday and Sunday games to be moved up to 7:20 p.m. EDT, but for weeknight games to remain at 8:35 p.m. The ABC-NBC deal would move all postseason games to prime time; CBS would have some day games.
by CNB