Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Events Attractions

ABC/IMG TOUT WOODS-DUVAL, BUT CRITICS TAKE SHOTS AT CONCEPT

          IMG and ABC Sports formally announced that Tiger Woods
     and David Duval will meet in an 18-hole match-play format on
     Monday, August 2, which will be televised in prime time on
     ABC from Thousand Oaks, CA.  The "Showdown at Sherwood" will
     be broadcast live from 8:00-11:00pm ET, and will feature
     both the players and their caddies wearing microphones on
     the course.  In N.Y., Clifton Brown reports that ABC Sports
     President Howard Katz "would not make a specific prediction"
     about the event's ratings potential, but he "anticipated"
     that "it would attract more viewers than the usual summer
     programming during that time period" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/11). 
     USA TODAY's Jerry Potter writes that network execs "expect"
     the telecast's rating "to at least equal the ratings of
     summer reruns" (USA TODAY, 5/11).  Katz: "This is the type
     of programming that shows our commitment to continuing the
     tradition of excellence at ABC Sports" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
     5/11).  Katz: "It's not the British Open.  We're not going
     to prove who the world's greatest player is.  We want to
     entertain people."  David Duval: "I thought he (Tiger) and I
     could expose the game to a broader audience.  ABC came in
     and has given us the platform" (ESPN.com, 5/11).  The AP's
     Doug Ferguson writes that "while the PGA Tour cannot endorse
     the exhibition, it has agreed to give the players the
     television release they need" (AP, 5/11).  IMG Senior VP
     Barry Frank, who is credited with the idea for the event,
     says that he pitched it to Katz "only six weeks ago." 
     Frank: "I never thought we could get all of the details in
     place this readily" (K.C. STAR, 5/11).  Katz "acknowledged"
     the "risk involved" if one of the golfers plays poorly and
     the match "has a lopsided outcome" (HOLLY. REPORTER, 5/11). 
          FROM THE GALLERY: In Houston, Eddie Sefko writes that
     "it sure seems like" the PGA Tour and network TV "are taking
     an active role in forcing a Duval-Woods rivalry down the
     public's throat."  Sefko: "Hey, if Wrestlemania sells, why
     not golf's made-for-TV schlock?"  While the event's proceeds
     going to charity is "great," the "event still treads
     unevenly on the thin line between sport and trashsport"
     (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/11).  In Baltimore, Milton Kent: "The
     two greedy golfers and their representatives apparently
     weren't content to let time and real competition forge a
     true rivalry, so they had to go contrive this hokum, and ABC
     was all too willing to go along. ... Shame on ABC for wading
     hip deep into the toxic goo that Tiger Woods, David Duval
     and their agent, IMG, are creating" (SUN, 5/11). In K.C.,
     Howard Richman writes that the Duval-Woods rivalry "hasn't
     developed in a major, so IMG and ABC have taken steps to
     manufacture it" (K.C. STAR, 5/11).               

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/1999/05/11/Events-Attractions/ABCIMG-TOUT-WOODS-DUVAL-BUT-CRITICS-TAKE-SHOTS-AT-CONCEPT.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/1999/05/11/Events-Attractions/ABCIMG-TOUT-WOODS-DUVAL-BUT-CRITICS-TAKE-SHOTS-AT-CONCEPT.aspx

CLOSE