May - June 2001
Vol. 12, No. 3 | Contents
Where's my Racquetball Channel ?
by Doug Ganim

I’ve been playing this great sport we all love for the past 21 years, and had the good fortune of being able to travel worldwide competing with the U.S. Team. In those years I’ve spent countless hours in hundreds of clubs and locker rooms, talking to racquetball enthusiasts of every description. As long as I can remember, the topic of “racquetball on TV” has been bantered about as if it were one of the great mysteries of the universe.

It seems everybody has an opinion on the subject. Most conversations start out bristling with disgust at how billiards, bowling, water-skiing, and log-chopping make their way to the airwaves with regularity, but that pro racquetball is nowhere to be found. In most cases, these discussions end with someone declaring with authority: “It’s too bad you can’t televise racquetball … the ball moves so fast, you can’t follow it on television.”

To be honest, until about seven years ago (when I first started developing the concept for the U.S. OPEN), I was just another one of those thousands of racquetball players who shared that same, somewhat un-informed opinion. Back then, all I knew was that I loved racquetball … therefore it should be on TV! Blaming this dilemma on “technical difficulties” in filming the high-speed sport seemed logical (along with that secret international broadcast-executive plot to keep racquetball down). But after a whirlwind course on the subject, I came to the frightening realization that, for over a decade, I’d really had absolutely no idea what I was talking about! I hate when that happens.

What I did know was that one of the main goals for the U.S. OPEN was to produce the sport’s first real Grand Slam event, which — of course — would have to be nationally televised. Since I had absolutely no idea how to make this happen, I turned to Jerry McKinnis (who I knew from his work with the IRT) for help. He had produced excellent pro tour broadcasts in the early 90’s and gotten those shows aired on ESPN2. I also knew that he was an avid player and the owner of J.M. Associates, a nationally renowned production house specializing in outdoor sports programming. For the past six years I’ve worked with J.M. Associates to produce a one-hour, tape-delayed broadcast of each annual U.S. OPEN for ESPN2. In the process, I’ve learned a great deal about ‘the business,’ including the true answers to “Why isn’t racquetball on TV more often?” Here’s what I found out ...

The Product First, let’s get the biggest myth out of the way — “You can’t televise pro racquetball because the ball moves too fast.” The truth is, racquetball can be televised and done so very well. Anyone who has viewed a U.S. OPEN broadcast will tell you that you can definitely see the ball and follow the action without any problem. The key, as I learned from Jerry, is to tape the action from several different angles (six cameras in all) and take all the raw footage back to the editing room. 

During this “post-production” phase, it’s common to find that that one of the camera angles usually captures a particular serve, shot, or even an entire rally better than the others. In building a “master tape” (using tape from all the cameras) you continually select and paste down the best footage available for every rally. After “building the show,” a complete master tape clearly shows the ball during every rally. Of course, viewers can always replay a rally in slow motion to add even more dimension to the broadcast.

In addition to learning all this cool stuff about “producing,” I realized that this is just the tip of the iceberg … racquetball can be televised even better! The proper way to go about it is to hire a professional cinematography group to test every possible variable - from the color of the walls, ball, and floor - to various lighting techniques and hidden cameras for new and improved angles. This type of study would produce an even better technique, which could then be maximized with high definition TV. As HDTV technology becomes more widespread in the U.S., televised racquetball would reap the visibility benefits of significantly increased numbers of pixels captured by higher resolution digital taping equipment.

So now you know all about producing a racquetball show for TV. But how do you get it on the air? This was another entirely new education “adventure” for me, but what I learned is actually quite refreshing. I’ll start with the answer and then work backward. The bottom line: Almost anything can get on television … all it takes is $$$. Now that you know the truth, let’s talk about why. 
The Profit Margin Television time is just like any other commodity. Networks sell airtime and try to realize the largest possible profit-per-minute during each time slot of the day. The classic way to achieve this goal is to produce (or purchase) programming that will attract a significant number of viewers. The network then sells the available inventory of commercial spots during the broadcast for whatever price the market will bear given the size of the viewing audience.

Networks can also achieve profit goals by selling blocks of time directly to producers of programming. This is known as a time-buy deal. The best example of a pure “time-buy” is late night infomercials, for which a company purchases a 30 or 60-minute block of time and then has total control over all the minutes in terms of producing content. You may not realize that many of the “normal” shows we watch are time-buy deals. 

Another way to go about it is with a programming time-buy that works a bit differently. In this case, a programmer purchases an entire block of time from a network, but agrees to a pre-set format in terms of building in commercial breaks in standard quantities and at standard times. The programmer then attempts to offset the total cost of the time-buy by selling the commercial inventory independently.

A third way to structure programs is through partial time-buys. This works exactly the same as a regular time-buy except that the network agrees to charge a lower price for the block of time in exchange for part of the commercial inventory. This is how the U.S. OPEN works with ESPN2. In our case, we split the 16 spots with ESPN2 and retain a total inventory of eight thirty-second commercials. 

We then take those eight commercial spots and allocate most of them to sponsorship packages that garner corporate support for the event (i.e. Hilton receives three thirty-second spots during the broadcast in return for their title sponsorship support). Some of the remaining spots we sell outright to advertisers. Then ESPN2 sells their inventory of eight spots to advertisers and combines that revenue with our partial time-buy contribution to financially justify the entire one-hour block.

Using these basics (there are many other hybrid versions that can be negotiated) let’s look at beach volleyball as an example. First, the promoters wanted to televise a beach volleyball event, but had no track record of capturing viewers. So they raised money and took it to the networks to search out the best time-buy deal. After several time-buys, beach volleyball promoters started to attract larger audiences with their broadcasts. Based on that larger viewer base, soon they were able to negotiate a lower time-buy price and trade back some of the commercial inventory. As ratings continued to improve, promoters were able to trade back all of the commercial inventory in return for the rights to the programming (this no-fee time-buy arrangement is called a pure barter agreement). As ratings continued to rise, promoters were able to sell the programming rights to networks for a fee. Finally, with a large “market” of viewers, commercial spots became more valuable and networks were able to sell them to cover the costs of the right fees and still realize a profit for the time allotted.
The Nuts & Bolts Now it’s either … 
Now back to our question. Why isn’t racquetball on TV? Now that we know it can be televised well and that there really isn’t a network conspiracy against the sport, the problem is clear. Racquetball has simply been unable to come up with the cash to accomplish a few critical tasks. 

First, we need to underwrite the study to develop the best possible technique to televise racquetball. Second, we need funds to employ a professional production firm, such as J.M. Associates, to produce 26 one-hour racquetball shows per year. Lastly, we need to cover the costs of purchasing time-buys for one hour of racquetball on national TV for 26 consecutive weeks per year (a season) for at least two years. If this could be accomplished I believe these telecasts would build a very large and loyal group of regular viewers. 

So how much money are we talking about? To televise racquetball properly we need a tour that utilizes the made-for-TV portable court (probably modified to the findings of the cinematography study). To set up the court with bleachers, lights, and sound - in multiple cities - would equal the production and time-buy fees for the broadcasts. All told, we’d need to raise between $3 - $4 million per year to pull this off. Is this an unreasonable amount? Not really. In the world of sports marketing this isn’t a lot of money. In return for a major sponsor putting up, let’s say, $2 million dollars they would get significant on-screen logo presence during 26 hours of national television broadcasts, some commercial time, numerous on-site benefits at all tour events (VIP tickets, signage, trade show booths, souvenir program ads, etc.) and a host of other marketing benefits. Co-sponsors could receive similar packages until all the needed money is raised. This is not an impossible scenario for the sport and is actually quite inexpensive for the uncluttered opportunity that would be offered.

Or … 
There are less expensive ways to accomplish similar goals with regard to getting TV time on a more regular basis. An idea that we are pursuing now is to produce seven hours of programming at the U.S. OPEN, instead of just one, by filming each match individually from the quarterfinals through the finals. We would then create a series of “linked” shows to be run once per week for seven consecutive weeks. Viewers would be informed that they are “watching a men’s quarterfinal match at the Hilton U.S. OPEN and that the winner will move on to the semi-finals. Tune in next week for another quarterfinal match-up between X and Y.” As you can see, viewers could follow the same tournament over seven weeks until the champion is crowned. 

This format would be far less costly since we wouldn’t need to set up the portable court in seven different cities, and production costs would be lower per hour since the crews would only need to travel and set up all their gear once (around the portable court) to capture all the matches. A second Grand Slam event in another city could employ the same format to generate 14 weeks of programming for a fraction of the cost (about $850,000). Raising this kind of money will still be a huge challenge, but it is within reason.
Your Part One of the keys to accomplishing this modified format is to convince ESPN to sell us a partial time-buy program at a reasonable cost. The only way they will consider this is if they believe this series of programming has the chance to attract a significant number of viewers and therefore create higher values for commercial inventories. This is where YOU come in. ESPN2 has agreed to a test for the sport of pro racquetball and will air the Hilton U.S. OPEN on June 18th at 1:00 p.m. EST. This time slot is a huge improvement over the 2:00 a.m. slots we’ve had in the past – and the reason is that they want to test for viewer interest. It’s absolutely critical that we respond by tuning in and then contacting ESPN to tell them that we want more! It’s that simple. If we perform well on this “test” we’ll be able to continue on this road toward more televised racquetball. If we fail, it’s over. Refer to the box shown below and the center pages of this issue for specific instructions on what you can do to make an important difference.

Approximately six million people play racquetball in the U.S. and more than 40 million have played the sport at some time in their lives. We all know that racquetball is the best-kept secret in sports, with incredible athletes hitting a rubber ball near 200 miles per hour and diving around the court with grace and agility. Nothing is more exciting than two pros locked in battle in a close match. The sport can offer interesting personalities and characters that would be well received by sports fans throughout the country. I personally believe that the excitement of regular television exposure would cause racquetball to double in size to over 12 million in no time.

I hope this article clears up some of the mystery surrounding racquetball and television, and that you’ve become as convinced as I am that it is only a matter of time before the sport breaks out onto the national broadcast scene in a big way. If you know of a sponsor that might be interested in this pioneering opportunity, please contact me at ganim@earthlink.net. We’re ready to respond eagerly with formal sponsorship presentations to aid in this effort to get you more of what you want. See you on the courts!

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