Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993 TAG: 9306120020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The answer: Capitol is one of three bidders for the Cavaliers' lucrative on-air future. UVa will package its radio network, TV coaches shows and print promotional and marketing items in one contract starting in 1994-95.
Capitol, of Raleigh, N.C., and UVa have been solid partners for more than decade. Will that be a factor when UVa decides which bid to accept by July 1? Maybe.
One thing is certain: UVa figures to get a huge boost by joining what has become a trend in college athletics. North Carolina, Alabama, Wake Forest, South Carolina and Kentucky have tied their TV/radio packages to deals for game programs, posters, schedule cards and other salable promotional items, and are much richer for it.
That's why Virginia only signed a one-year renewal with Capitol for the radio rights after a three-year contract ran out following the NCAA basketball tournaments. The school already had decided to bid out all of its promotional inventory in one contract.
According to contracts made available by UVa, Capitol paid UVa a basic game rights fee of $185,000 in 1992-93, finishing a three-year, $525,000 deal.
UVa also received 15 percent of the gross revenue from advertising sales on the coaches' "Cavalier Call-In" Sunday night shows, plus a $53,000 contribution to the Virginia Student Aid Foundation.
The one-year renewal, signed in December, will bring the school bigger bucks this season. Capitol is bumping the rights fee to $294,250, raising the coaches' shows percentage to be paid to the school to 25 percent, contributing $20,000 to the VSAF and extending a revenue sharing plan for postseason, giving the athletic department 45 percent of the net sales revenue.
Capitol has projected a payment of $424,815 to UVa for the 1993-94 radio rights if the Cavaliers reach a bowl game and the men's basketball team plays at least two NCAA or NIT dates.
It is all but certain UVa will improve on those figures by adding more to the mix. It would not be surprising if the Cavaliers received as much as $600,000 annually on a contract that will be at least three years in length.
Negotiations for the new packages are under way and a decision is expected within three weeks. A UVa athletic department source said each of the bidders had made a presentation.
Capitol is joined in the bidding by International Sports Properties of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting of Charlotte, N.C. - the firm that owns ACC football TV rights and shares the lucrative ACC basketball TV deal with Raycom Sports.
One reason UVA's property is valuable is the presence of Richmond's WRVA, the state's only 50,000-watt AM station, on the network. By putting print promotional items into the contract, the Cavaliers not only will receive more revenue, but they no longer will have athletic department personnel in the advertising sales business.
\ FORE DAYS: Before ABC Sports takes over the U.S. Open Golf Championship for the third and fourth rounds next weekend with 18-hole coverage, ESPN will present 14 hours of programming from Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J.
ESPN's coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with the preview show. Then, the cable network will air live first- and second-round coverage with ABC's announcing team. ESPN will air 6 1/2 hours of each round - 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. - Thursday and Friday.
\ LIGHTS ON: Charlotte Motor Speedway has discussed pushing back the start of next year's NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, but it won't be much later than this year's 4:30 p.m. start. Eddie Gossage, the track's public relations director, said there also is concern about a later finish missing newspaper deadlines that traditionally are earlier on the Memorial Day weekend.
Gossage said CMS officials also must consider moving the massive crowds and traffic after the race. On the other hand, a later start would put more of the race in prime time, when TV commercial spots are more expensive. The speedway then could negotiate a higher rights fee.
"If changes are made, I'd say we wouldn't go any more than a half-hour later and start around 5 p.m.," Gossage said.
Turner Broadcasting aired the Coca-Cola 600 again this year, and CMS was paid a $500,000 rights fee. About 100 minutes of the four-hour-plus race was run in prime time, which begins at 7 p.m. on Sundays.
\ TUBE TALK: ESPN is looking for a studio baseball analyst to replace new Cincinnati Reds coach Ray Knight. Perhaps it will be former first baseman Steve Garvey, who joined the network for several college baseball games this year, including the current College World Series. . . . ESPN has added Pam Oliver, a former Florida A & M track and field All-American, as a Houston-based correspondent for SportsCenter. Oliver previously worked for Houston and Tampa TV stations. . . . The entry fee for two NFL expansion teams to be awarded in October is $140 million each. However, when interest is added and the loss of 50 percent of the NFL's per-club TV rights payment is subtracted for three years as called for in the expansion plan, the cost comes to about $204 million per team.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB