NLL to be Carried by CNN/SI |
NLL to be Carried by CNN/SI
by neil on August 20, 2001 (New York City)--The National Lacrosse League (NLL) today announced that
CNN/Sports Illustrated will be the League's national broadcast partner for
the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. CNN/SI will broadcast 23 games throughout
each season, including 17 "Game of the Week" broadcasts, the NLL All-Star
Game and all five playoff games, including the NLL Championship Game in April
of 2002.
"This is an exciting announcement for the National Lacrosse League and for
our thirteen member teams," said Jim Jennings, Commissioner of the National
Lacrosse League. "For sixteen years the NLL has provided its fans with one
of the fastest and most exciting indoor sports in the world. CNN/SI is a
terrific partner and we look forward to an exciting season. This agreement
certainly brings our league to the next level."
The agreement includes 17 regular season games, the All-Star Game and all
five playoff games, to be broadcast and aired live, primarily on Saturday
evenings for each of the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. Terms of the two-year
agreement were not announced. The League expects to announce its national
television broadcast partner in Canada in the coming days.
"We are thrilled to add the NLL to our growing lineup of sports-event
programming," said Steve Robinson, executive vice president of CNN/Sports
Illustrated. "The NLL is an exciting and competitive sports league and will
make for compelling sports television."
The NLL Game of the Week on CNN/SI Broadcast Schedule will be released
shortly.
CNN/Sports Illustrated, a joint venture of CNN and Sports Illustrated, is a
24-hour sports network, offering 24-hour coverage of the world of sports,
with in-depth reporting and live coverage of breaking news and press
conferences. In addition to sports news updates throughout the day,
CNN/Sports Illustrated provides live programming for the WUSA and Wimbledon.
CNNSI.com is the sports Web site for CNN/Sports Illustrated, AOL Time
Warner's sports Web site, the home of Sports Illustrated on the Web and the
sports site for CNN.com.
The National Lacrosse League is North America's professional indoor lacrosse
league. The NLL plays a sixteen-game regular season schedule in thirteen of
North America's top markets. The League's membership consists of the
Philadelphia Wings, Toronto Rock, New York Saints, New Jersey Storm,
Washington Power, Buffalo Bandits, Montreal Express, Vancouver Ravens, Ottawa
Rebel, Calgary Roughnecks, Rochester Knighthawks, Albany Attack and the
Columbus Landsharks. The teams play in the same state-of-the-art facilities
used by the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association,
including the Continental Arena, Air Canada Centre, HSBC Arena, the First
Union Center and the Molson Centre.
| | | | | Reply to this story > |  | |
| finally some real coverage
by guitarandlax (#9024) on 8/20/01 @8:21PM | | | | this is what the sport really needs... some real nationwide coverage on a respected network, no offense to HTS or any of the satelite networks, but CNN/SI gets alot more viewers... hopefully so will lacrosse on the network. Now all we need is ESPN to carry some more college games and some network to pick up the MLL and were set. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | Amazing
by MillonBreaksAnkles (#5488) on 8/20/01 @9:02PM | | | | Even though I'm not a huge fan of the NLL or the box,I still think this is great for the game and it will really open alot of things for the future. CNN/SI I see it on CNN at night for all the highlights,but where the hell is this 24/7 network? I live in New York and I have never seen a 24/7 CNN/SI network. Alot of people havent. It's great and all,but it's still not huge until the World Wide Leader in Sports takes the whole sport on. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | CNNSI
by grantfan (#15089) on 8/20/01 @9:20PM | | | | it's on most digital and satellite packages. Not on regular cable, but on digital. Some satellite providers might offer it as an additional package.
It's definitely better.
I don't want ESPN to have it yet. They have enough on their plate and i don't think they'd put a lot of effort into it. CNNSI's ratings will be used in future television deals. CNNSIs ratings suck for WUSA, but they'll be better for the NLL.
I'll say this though...the MLL screwed the pooch by demanding big name TV contract because they only get tape delays nationally. Live is better even if its on CNNSI instead of Fox or ESPN. Ratings are better on lower station for live games than bigger station on tape delay. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | | Might Not Have Been a Mistake
by shocks (#1383) on 8/20/01 @9:53PM | | | | It's not like the MLL didn't think that TV was important, they just might not have had much to choose from. Look at it from ESPN or FOX's point of view; you have this dumb new league starting up in a sport that is nowhere near as popular as the other start-up leagues, so why not bend them over with a completely one-sided offer? The MLL needs ESPN far more than ESPN needs the MLL. Fox just probably offered a slightly less insulting deal.
Look for the MLL to negotiate better deals over the next two years though (assuming they're not lying about the ratings like they do attendance). They just needed to get some ratings under their belt so they have something to go to bat with. You can't walk into negotiations with a huge company like ESPN and promise tons of viewers in your first year without looking like an ass. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | | ESPN
by MillonBreaksAnkles (#5488) on 8/21/01 @1:15PM | | | | ESPN has so much coverage of Major League Baseball that it makes me sick. They play a ton of games each summer,they have Baseball Tonight on all the time and they even have Baseball Today on Sundays in the afternoon. If the MLL was on ESPN,they would air the games live and show the highlights on sportscenter,but it would'nt be quality. They put all their effort into baseball and alot of pre-season football. A good example of this is with the NHL. ESPN and ABC which are both owned by Disney,they show about 100 NHL games,especially alot on ESPN 2. Also show a ton of play-off games and of course the Stanley Cup. They have a highlight show just for the NHL. But with all that,you can just tell that there half assing it with the NHL. Everyone knows that in the winter,College Basketball is big with ESPN. ESPN shows like 15 games a week on the channel from October all the way up till the March Madness. The coverage is just huge. There is also alot of coverage on the NBA,but no games. If we want the NLL or the MLL or even College to be on ESPN alot,it's gotta be quality. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | | | ummmmm...
by zzturkeyzz (#8316) on 8/21/01 @4:19PM | | | | What are you talking about?
I love lax just as much of the next guy, but you can't be whining that ESPN covers too much baseball, football, and hockey. They are national pastimes that millions of people watch.
MLL just started out, isn't very popular (besides lacrosse players), you can't say its unfair that baseball gets more coverage, its the "national-past time). I mean please.. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | | | | Who cares?
by MillonBreaksAnkles (#5488) on 8/22/01 @3:20PM | | | | Baseball might be the National Past Time,but so what,it's going down the tubes. There is always talk of another strike,with players like ARod getting over $200 million thats just garbage and too much money. More players will get greedy and go on strike. If baseball has another strike and it could happen in the next 5 years,many many fans will not return to that game. Baseball doesn't have the tradition and fraternity that College Lacrosse has. I dont see any tradition in the MLB right now. I just see a bunch of greedy no talent pussys. Look at Barry Bonds,he might break McGwires 70 homerun record,but does he care about wether his team goes into the playoffs? No,he doesn't. He just cares about himself,what the hell is that sh*t. Where is the greatness in that. If you read what I wrote,I said that hockey doesn't get alot of coverage at all from ESPN. But yet ESPN signs a 60 Billion dollar deal with the NHL and ESPN cant even put some effort into it. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | | | | | (no subject)
by LAXER727 (#11436) on 8/31/01 @8:52AM | | | | i agree that there should be lax on tv and all but what u said is so stupid. Barry Bonds in all his interviews says he dosnt even care if he gets the record and he doesnt even like to talk about it | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | | tv is awesome
by doahlax (#44) on 8/22/01 @10:16AM | | | | DirectTV in the new york area has it on the 200's to be correct its channel 205. I cannot wait to see the superstars on live tv. Gait, Grant, Colsey and Tavares live. Kudos to the NLL for getting this deal done it will bring this game to the next level in the US. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| Way over due...
by BuddhaMan (#16256) on 8/20/01 @9:59PM | | | | It's about time NLL gets TV coverage. In it's Virgin season, MLL gets coverage, but it took 13 years for this. I'm heading to Buffalo, and other Canada locations for tryouts this year, and this definitely wets my whistle to perform a little better. Thanks CNN/SI
BuddhaMan | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | Hey, lay offa Leif, willya?
by veritas88 (#6392) on 8/21/01 @12:44PM | | | | After all, what a great goal call:
"rrrrOPE! He's got rope!" | | | | | Reply to this |
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| great
by deepblue (#12866) on 8/22/01 @8:44AM | | | | this is a huge step for lax, now all we need is to have our scores reported somewhere else that lax.com, like cnn, on that little score ticker... that would be sweet. and have a major tv station like fox, nbc, cbs, or abc, have monday night lax. or even first of june lax... instead they only have the national "pastimes" like baseball where a guy stands on a mound and scracthes himself for an hour while the catcher gives signals he doesn't like then throws a ball. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | Video Game Could be alot better
by MillonBreaksAnkles (#5488) on 8/25/01 @4:47PM | | | | Our Video Game could be made alot better. If a company like EA Sports made it,that would be sick and really help the popularity and growth of the sport. Look what happend to skateboarding after the Tony Hawk game came out. It got huge! That game that Acclaim put out last Spring,"Blast Lacrosse" was terrible. I bought it the day it came out and it was garbage. Graphics were just horendus,game play was garbage,it was sooo fake and nowhere being real. It wasn't even challenging,I played a full-season,went undefeated with the Saints and won the Championship. It was so dumb. If a big company like EA Sports or 989 Sports made a lacrosse NLL Game or MLL or even College,that would really help aswell. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| Lacrosse is growing
by HillLax18 (#6718) on 8/27/01 @10:09PM | | | | Everybody wants lacrosse to blow up every night. Its not gonna happen. The game has made huge strides but we the die hard lax fans who take time to check out this web site. We need to support college and the NLL and the MLL. For the next few years its gonna be the die hard lax fans that care the sport and then and only then will it have a chance to make it into the big time spotlight. | | | | | Reply to this |
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| | | GO TO YOUR LOCAL BAR/PUB AND WATCH NLL LAX
by IrelandLax (#4776) on 8/29/01 @1:10PM | | | | When the season comes around, no matter where you are in the great fruited plain, any bar or pub should have direct tv or satellite if not cnn/si already. Get some buddies and grab a beer and tell the bartender to turn on some live lacrosse. Even in Fairbanks, Alaska one can watch a live lacrosse game this year. This is just the beginning. | | | | | Reply to this |
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