Posted on: Tuesday, April 23, 2002
UH-Santa Barbara match not likely to be televised
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff match between Hawai'i and UC Santa Barbara is not expected to be televised.
John Fink, K5 president and general manager, said his station has been unsuccessful in securing a financial partner to offset the estimated $25,000 in production expenses and satellite rental for Thursday's semifinal match in Malibu, Calif.
"It's part of the economic reality of doing business in 2002," Fink said.
The MPSF controls the television rights to the single-elimination tournament. K5, which owns the television rights to UH sports, was the only station to show an interest in the match.
Even though the MPSF flip-flopped the schedule — with host Pepperdine playing in the first match of the doubleheader and visiting UH playing in the second — the 4:30 p.m. start in Hawai'i is prohibitive in selling commercial time.
"It's not the best time slot," Fink said. "The ratings don't justify the expense."
He said advertisers were willing to buy commercial time for Saturday's championship match, but there was no guarantee UH would advance past UC Santa Barbara. Without such a guarantee, it would be too much of a financial risk to send a broadcast team to Malibu, hire a Los Angeles-based production crew and rent satellite time.
Fink said he floated the idea of making the telecast available on a pay-per-view basis. But samplings showed there would not be enough buyers "to pay for the expenses."
Fox Sports West, a cable station available throughout Southern California, and the MPSF were unwilling to share in production costs.
"They have been supportive in the past, but they told us there's not enough interest on the West Coast," Fink said. "We're the only place in the country where men's volleyball gets any exposure."
Fink said K5 was able to show UH basketball games from last month's Western Athletic Conference Tournament because the WAC co-produced the telecasts.
"That's not the case this time," Fink said. "Nobody is willing to help out, and it becomes economically impossible to make ends meet. We're sorry, because we wanted to do the matches, and we tried to find a way to make it work out."
