Sources said yesterday that the WWF has "reached terms
on a major agreement that will it give minority ownership"
of Canada's Headline Sports Network, according to Marty York
of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL. With the deal, the WWF will
"supply important programming" for the net by televising XFL
games "across Canada" on Sunday nights beginning next
February. York reports that the XFL-Headline deal "makes it
almost certain, as well, that the new league will have a
team in Toronto for its second season" in 2002 (Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL, 11/14). Also in Toronto, Perry Lefko cites
one TV source as saying that the "only markets for XFL
programming in Canada were Headline and [CTV] Sportsnet
because all the other networks have deals to simulcast NFL
games." But a different TV source "insisted there was a
bidding war for the XFL product and that Headline 'stepped
up in a big way'" (TORONTO SUN, 11/14).
X MARKS THE SPOTS: Meanwhile, the SPORTSBUSINESS
JOURNAL's Langdon Brockinton reports that the XFL "has put a
$145,000 price tag on a regular-season ad package"
consisting of three 30-second spots. One spot would air on
an NBC's Saturday prime-time XFL telecast, another on a
TNN's Sunday afternoon broadcast and the third on a UPN's
Sunday prime-time broadcast (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/13).
WHAT ABOUT BOB? WELL, HE'S NOT INTERESTED: Westwood One
Radio NFL analyst Bob Trumpy, asked about joining his former
employer, NBC, for XFL games: "I'm not interested. I've
never been a fan of the WWF. I have no interest"
(CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 11/12).
