TV MONITOR: Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Red Sox-Orioles followed by Yankees-
Devil Rays. CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" led with the "Austin
Powers" promo at the SkyDome, which was the lead into
Indians-Blue Jays. Red Sox-Orioles followed. "Fox Sports
News Primetime" (Fox Sports Net South) led with the Cubs-
Rockies, followed by the Reds-Astros (THE DAILY).
X MARKS THE SPOT: ESPN's X Games get underway in S.F.
today and Yumi Wilson wrote that ESPN "expects about 200,000
people to come" to S.F. during the event's next 10 days.
Last year's games, held in San Diego, generated $32M and the
event drew 230,000 people. Wilson noted that ESPN "gave its
national corporate sponsors exclusive rights to hang their
logos and banners at the games. As a result, few local
businesses were interested in fronting cash for an event at
which they will get little or no on-air exposure." City
officials "feared the city would have to tap taxpayer funds
to pay" for event control, but several local businesses and
individual donors were "finally persuaded" to come forward
with a total of "nearly" $700,000 (S.F. CHRONICLE, 6/24).
In St. Pete, Ernest Hooper writes ESPN's X Games "is never
going to be on the same par with a major sport, but there is
an audience" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 6/25).
MATCH POINT: HBO has informed Wimbledon officials it is
"pulling out" of televising duties for Wimbledon after this
year's event, according to Rudy Martzke of USA TODAY. HBO,
which has televised the event for 25 years, has seen weekday
daytime ratings drop to a 1.6 in '97 before "improving to
1.9 last year when more women's matches were carried." Fox
Sports Group President David Hill and ESPN VP/Communications
Chris La Placa have "expressed interest" in the event. USA
Network, which carries the French and U.S. Opens, "figures
to be interested, although" Exec Producer Gordon Beck
"declined comment" (USA TODAY, 6/25).
MORE NOTES: Guest appearances on HBO's next "ARLI$$"
(Sunday, 9:30pm ET) include: Falcons RB Jamal Anderson,
boxing promoter Bob Arum, boxing analyst Al Bernstein and
boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Prince Naseem Hamed. The
episode will replay on Tuesday (6/29) at 11:30pm ET,
Wednesday (6/30) at 8:00pm ET and Friday (7/2) at midnight
(THE DAILY)....In Miami, Barry Jackson cites NBC Sports
Chair Dick Ebersol as saying that he "fully expects Marv
Albert will work again for NBC someday." But Ebersol added
that "he's committed to lead announcer Bob Costas and No. 2
announcer Tom Hammond." Ebersol also said that the proposed
NBC-Turner football league "is not definite but 'better than
50-50'" (MIAMI HERALD, 6/25)....In Long Beach, Bob Keisser,
on last weekend's WWC match on ABC earning a 2.2 Nielsen
rating: "It was beaten by other sports, but a 2.2 isn't bad
considering NHL ratings on Fox" (PRESS-TELEGRAM, 6/25).