The Celtics and WABU-TV yesterday agreed on a three-
year deal for the BU-owned station to televise the team's
road games, according to Howard Manly of the BOSTON GLOBE.
The agreement is estimated to be worth "at least" $4M per
year and is structured in a way that Celtics CFO Richard
Pond described as "novel." No up-front rights fees were
paid by WABU; instead, the Celtics and WABU "plan to sell
[advertising] spots and split the revenues." Manly: "The
Celtics will receive the majority of the initial money, but
once a threshold of about $100,000 per game is reached --
the amount the Celtics received last year -- then the team
will split the remainder of the money with the station on a
50-50 basis." Pond: "Our success is based on how hard we
all work." Each game telecast has 55-60 ad spots, and at a
cost of approximately $3,000 per 30-second spot, the games
"could earn" about $165,000 each, or "a minimum" of about
$6.6M for the season. Fox Sports and Fox Sports New England
(FSNE) offered the Celtics a 10-year deal but the team
rejected it. FSNE has the rights to Celtics home games,
also for three years. The Celtics "plan to renegotiate both
over-the-air and cable rights then" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/18).
