ESPN said that "it has a new contract in the works"
that would allow it "to receive a clean feed," eliminating
Fox ads, from the America's Cup races, according to Barbara
Lloyd of the N.Y. TIMES. America's Cup Challenge
Association Chair David Elwell "confirmed" that a "revised"
deal is "scheduled to be signed" today. Fox recently signed
a sponsorship deal to display its logo on the Young America
yacht, one of the 15 America's Cup challenge teams, but ESPN
Exec VP/Programming Dick Glover said that he "expects" to
receive TV footage "void of any competing network verbiage
or logos." Elwell said that while America's Cup 2000, the
event's organizer in New Zealand, "has agreed to the
tentative" deal, final approval "hinges on" all of the 15
challenge teams agreeing "not to allow any sponsors to put
signage on their boats if the corporation competes with
ESPN." Glover "conceded" such a deal would open up "a gray
area as to which advertising ESPN might oppose." Lloyd
wrote that Fox is "unlikely to let Young America off the
hook." Young America spokesperson Jane Eagleson, on the
$2.5M deal it has with Fox: "We have a sponsorship with Fox,
and that has not changed" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/21).
