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IS DISNEY'S FAILED ESPN WEST VENTURE SPARKING SALE OF TEAMS?

          Some analysts believe that "one reason the Walt Disney
     Co. is contemplating a sale of the Angels and Mighty Ducks
     is the company's failed ESPN West cable channel enterprise,"
     according to Mark Emmons of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, who
     wrote that Disney-owned teams televised on a Disney-owned
     RSN "would have made for the sort of cross-promotional,
     corporate synergy that [Disney CEO] Michael Eisner's company
     is known."  Disney's "plans for the much-hyped ESPN West
     were scuttled 13 months ago" and it was a "bitter defeat for
     Disney prestige."  Paul Kagan Associates media sports
     business analyst John Mansell: "I don't believe they would
     even think about a sale if they had ESPN West.  Those teams
     would have been the backbone of a venture built on the same
     model Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch and others have used." 
     Game Plan Chair Bob Caporale: "I think getting ESPN West off
     the ground would have made a big difference in their
     decision-making process."  Pilson Communications President
     Neal Pilson: "Sports teams, as stand-alone entities, simply
     don't provide the kind of profits and growth as other units
     within a company like Disney" (O.C. REGISTER, 8/22).    


          

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