Southwest Sports Group Chair Tom Hicks reached a 15-
year deal to "sell the cable broadcasting rights" for his
Rangers and Stars to Fox Sports Net Southwest (FSNSW),
"effectively ending his plan to form" his own RSN, according
to Yung & Kirkpatrick in a front-page report in the DALLAS
MORNING NEWS Business section. Although financial terms
weren't disclosed, Hicks said the deal is worth "hundreds of
millions of dollars." Hicks: "Our choice was to do our own
independent network and to compete with Fox or to join with
Fox as we have done here. It was purely a trade-off of
money." FSNSW also "gains the right" to broadcast the
Mesquite Championship Rodeo and "plans to air 24 hourlong"
live broadcasts from the rodeo each year from April to
October. Yung & Kirkpatrick write that the deal
"transforms" Southwest Sports into a "provider of sports
programming rather than a distributor." Hicks added that
the company is "not currently in negotiations to purchase
another sports team," though more acquisitions are
"possible" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 9/30). In Ft. Worth,
Mitchell Schnurman cites sources who put the deal at $300M,
including $100M "upfront" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 9/30).
