ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110100
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Is it worth the wait? Is it worth the price?
Those are among the questions to be answered tonight, when Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield fight for the WBA heavyweight championship in Las Vegas, the headliner on a four-bout card that is expected to attract the largest audience in pay-per-view boxing history.
Showtime Boxing executive producer Jay Larkin isn't alone in his prediction of an audience that will eclipse the 1.56 million who bought Tyson's return to the ring after a prison stay - a fight that lasted 91 seconds against Peter McNeeley.
``I don't just think the record will be broken,'' Larkin said earlier this week in a media conference call. ``I think it will be broken significantly.''
The fight also has gained significant exposure thanks to a decision by giant Cablevision Inc. to sell the card at $9.95 per round of the Tyson-Holyfield fight, a viewer grab rooted in Tyson's quick finishes of McNeeley and, more recently, Bruce Seldon. There's a $50 cap on the Cablevision price.
The card is attractive because it includes two other heavyweight title fights and the big name in women's boxing, Christy Martin. Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, who will serve as a telecast analyst for the Showtime production, said the IBF heavyweight title fight on the undercard - Michael Moorer against Francois Botha - ``is in the dreamboat category.''
In the Roanoke Valley, Cox Cable Roanoke and Booth Communications of Salem were selling the card for $39.95 in advance. The Roanoke system price goes to $44.95 today, with Salem's rate $1 higher. Each system is expecting a high buy number, perhaps a record.
Viewers in this region traditionally are fight-day PPV purchasers, according to Ann Luther, Cox Cable's marketing coordinator, with 65 percent of the Roanoke system's PPV boxing buys coming on the day of the card. Tyson-McNeeley also was the local Cox system's biggest pay-per-view event, with about 1,200 buys. Trudy McNew, Booth's marketing manager in Salem, said advance sales for tonight's card are running 5 percent ahead of any past boxing show.
Larkin expects the PPV cable numbers to grow by a projected 200,000 viewers via DirecTV and satellite. This also could be the first $100 million gross worldwide for a boxing card, but it could lead to bigger numbers down the road - if Holyfield battles Tyson for any respectable length of time. Many people won't buy Tyson bouts because they've been jokes in the past.
ON CAMPUS: It's never too early to talk hoops, particularly when the 1996-97 college season begins Friday night, when ESPN televises The Classic doubleheader from Indianapolis starting at 7. The opener has Connecticut against Indiana, with Kentucky-Clemson to follow. In the final 16 days of November, the network will air 23 games, just the start of a plus 200-game schedule.
AT RADFORD: WDBJ (Channel 7) is moving its annual college basketball telecast production down I-81, from Lexington to Radford. After airing the first regular-season meeting between VMI and Washington and Lee last season, the Roanoke station will produce and air the Highlanders' Jan.18 game with UNC-Greensboro at 2 p.m., sandwiched between ACC and CBS telecasts.
Radford will have more telecast exposure than at any other time in its men's hoops history. Coach Ron Bradley's team, in addition to the UNC-G game locally, will have a Dec.5 game with Richmond live on Home Team Sports, as well as dates with Marshall, Liberty and Charleston Southern on HTS, either live or on tape.
The Big South Conference package on HTS also includes a live telecast of the Virginia Tech-Liberty game Jan.23 from the Vines Center in Lynchburg.
AROUND THE DIAL: ABC is sending today's Clemson-Virginia football regional telecast (3:30 p.m., WSET) to 20.3 percent of the nation's TV homes. The Atlantic 10 basketball TV network doesn't yet have an agreement with Home Team Sports, meaning the four Virginia Tech telecasts on the league schedule are in jeopardy of not being seen via cable in the Hokies' home state. One of the earliest ACC games in recent memory - Clemson at Virginia on Dec.7 (4 p.m., WDBJ) - begins CBS' expanded basketball schedule. ``RPM 2Night,'' the weeknight half-hour ESPN2 studio show on auto racing hosted by former Roanoke sportscaster John Kernan, will begin its winter break after Monday night's show. It will return in February, just before the Daytona 500. The fifth edition of ``Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,'' airing Tuesday (10 p.m., Home Box Office) certainly has one timely segment, considering the recent happenings at Boston College. It's Larry Merchant's look at the prevalence of student-run illegal sports gambling on campuses.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB