Fox Sports Net has reached a five-year agreement to
carry the Silicon Valley Football Classic bowl game at
Spartan Stadium in San Jose, CA. The game, which debuts
December 31, 2000, matches a WAC team and a national at-
large opponent (FSN). In San Jose, Ron Bergman writes that
each team will receive $1.2M in payout from the game. In
exchange for TV rights, Silicon Valley bowl administrators
"will receive 20 different 30-second commercial spots to
sell to 10 corporate sponsors and eight more to sell" to the
game's presenting or title sponsor (MERCURY NEWS, 2/15).
SUMMERTIME, THE BOWLING IS EASY: The SPORTSBUSINESS
JOURNAL's Langdon Brockinton reports that FSN has agreed to
televise five PBA Tour events this year. The deal, brokered
by Chicago-based HA-LO Sports & Entertainment, covers
tournaments on "consecutive Saturdays" from June 17 through
July 15. The PBA's winter and fall tours air on ESPN, but
ESPN's "increasingly heavy" MLB schedule "precluded it from
televising events this summer." HA-LO will "be in charge of
producing all the telecasts for FSN." Brockinton writes
that the deal for FSN "represents the network's first major
push into pro bowling" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/14).
