ft.
4The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, January 21, 1986
S PORTO'S
MESA
o rr o n n . n n f sv
By TIM CROTKERS
Assistant Sports Edtor
Aisle 202 A, Row W, Seat 3.
It is the one of the worst seats in the
Dean E. Smith Student Activities Cen
ter. Trust me, I sampled it.
Behind me was a wall. In front of
me, there were 21,443 Carolina Blue
fans in Carolina blue seats and ten
dots, five of each color, milling around
on the court like ants on a saltine.
"There isn't a bad seat in the house.1
I heard it a hundred times from every .
public relation involved in the inaugu
ration of the Dean Dome. The surpris
ing thing is, it's true. My seat,
although it made my ears pop and was
not padded, afforded a very reasona
ble view of the ant action. (Writer
draws a deep breath) "I almost (gulp)
. . . like the SAC."
Walking up the hill to Manning
7
V
ELLIOT ROAD at E. FRANKLIN
967-4737
$250 TIL 6:00 PM EVERYDAY!
. VANESSA REDGRAVE
WETHERBY (R)
3:00 5:15 7:25 9:40
MICHEAL DOUGLAS
A CHORUS LINE (PG-13)
3:00 5:15 7:30 9:45
ROBERT REDFORDMARYL STREEP
OUT OF AFRICA (PG)
3:30 7:45 ONLY!
- T r--
CHgc8. Gsf s
Historic Carr Mill
Acres of free parking
TUESDAY
Wrestling vs. Duke
7 :30 Carmichael Auditorium
SUNDAY
Women's Basketball
vs. Clemson
7:30 Carmichael Auditorium
n n
PUT THE PIECES
7
t 1
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14912 E. Franklin
(under Town & Campus)
967-7456
Serving Lunch and Dinner
11 am-10 pm
SALAD AND POTATO BAR HOT AND COLD
SANDWICHES BURGERS AND STEAKS o
IMPORTED BEERS AND BOTTLED WINES
ABC Permit and Late Nile Menu
11
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o OVi amy Entree
Good thru Jan. 31
Limit 1 per person
fM e3f3K3C363E3aK3tlia)KliaiBaESKSiESI
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opinion
Drive, a flying saucer appears on the
horizon. It is the Starship Smith which
seems to have touched down like a
meteor, sunk into a barren section of
earth. But no, it is the Dean Dome.
Where else on the globe could you find
20,000 or so people, all dressed in a dis
tinctive shade of blue, shouting obscen
ities like "Go to hell Duke" or "How
much did you give, Fred??
On the steps of the SAC, people
held up $100 bills. I dont know about
you, but I started gazing down at the
ticket clenched in my sweaty palm and
saw a compact disc player or Spring
Break in Miami Beach and heck you
can see it better on T.V. anyway and
... and ... Never!
The next thing I knew I was inside
the House That Dean Built (with the
help of a few rich friends). My first
thought was; HUGE! For someone
who had spent four blissful years ger
minating in the friendly confines of
Carmichael Auditorium, this was quite
an uprooting experience.
Kenny Smith put it best last week
before the SAC opener, "It seems too
big to practice in," Smith said. "It's a
little intimidating, but it closes in on
you." The same feeling Smith disco
vered in the quiet, cavernous arena dur
ing practice, I found true on Saturday
with the place jammed. It was a bit
imt Huan. tTMf i
Ml Mil
AMERICAN RABBIT (G)
3:30 5:30
101 DALMATIANS
3:00 5:00 (G)
TROLL (PG-13)
TRANSYLVANIA
6-5000 (PG)
7:00 9:00
mmmmm
9
TOGETHER at
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B
B
B
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B
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me
overwhelming at first, but eventually
the ants turned into people, albeit very
small people. r
The Game decided the best college
basketball team in the nation on Jan.
1 8, 1986. But what the 20,000 fans
packed inside the SAC that day will
boast and playfully exaggerate about
in the company of friends and relatives
decades from now was the spectacle.
They'll talk about the Duke players
wandering out on the court for the
first time with looks of astonishment
on their collective faces. They'll talk
about the ten-minute drum roll that
preceeded the Tar Heel's opening
appearance. They'll talk about Warren
Martin's dunk that officially baptized
the SAC and about his fist-in-the-air
acknowledgment to the appreciative
throng chanting "Warren! Warren!
Warren!" after he'd fouled out. Oh,
and theyll mention the game. "Yeah,
the Heels won by five or seven or
something. It was great, but IH never
forget seeing that arena for the first
time." ; .
Back on earth, I saw the beginning
of what will become a tradition.
Hoard your Charmin on game days if
you live in Hinton-James. But the
most pleasant part of the SAC is that
it's so far away from home. I had twice
as much time walking home to savor a
sweet victory.
So the SAC may take several, games
to get accustomed to, but before long
the novelty will wear off. Better get
started planning an even bigger Dean
Dome, huh?
"PINK t-iAMINGQS"
t RE C. MING'
BARYSHNIKDV HINES
Golden Globe
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2:00
30
700
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JOURNEY
Natty Gann.
2:10 4:15 '10 9 15mJBL HiF
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CHAPEL HILL KIWANIS CLUB
PANCAKE
JAMBOREE
Friday, Januaiy 24 5 pm-8:30 pm
Saturday, Januaiy 25 . 7 am-8 pm
University Methodist
Church Fellowship
Hall Franklin Street
All Tickets $2.50
Cluldren under six
FREE if accompanied
by an adult
All proceeds will be used for youth and
community activities
Support the UNC Circle K Tickets on sale
in the Pit Thurs., Fri., Sat.
j' it -
3tvv
lflVgirl
By JAMES SUROWIECKI
Staff Writer
Boy, that was a great St. John's
Georgetown game a week ago
Saturday, wasn!t it? What's that? You
say you didnt see the big St. John's
victory? Oh. Well, in any case, it was
really nice after UNC's big win over
Duke to watch Louisville upset Syra
cuse in a matchup of two of the
nation's best teams. But you say you
didn't see that game either? And you
didn't get to see Notre Dame's defeat
of Depaul in the Rosemont Horizon?
What's going on here?
What's going on here in North
Carolina, as the result of WRAL-TV 5
becoming a CBS affiliate in August of
1985, is a systematic exclusion of
national collegiate basketball games
from this viewing area in favor of
ACC br oadcasts. Now most of you
who are reading are probably saying
now, "Good. We'd rather watch the
ACC than a national game anyway."
But what that attitude implies is a pref
erence for games that fit your regional
bias over games that feature two top
flight opponents.
This is true because to a large,
indeed almost complete extent, the
games which WRAL has been show
ing in place of the CBS national con
tests have been of vastly inferior qual
ity. Instead of seeing St. John's and
Georgetown, WRAL showed Clemson
and Virginia. Instead of Syracuse and
Louisville Saturday, the station
showed the classic matchup of N.C.
State and Wake Forest. The situation
is not that of replacing good Big East
games with good ACC games, but of
replacing good Big East games with
mediocre ACC games. '
Now the question arises: Why are
the ACC games, supposedly featuring
the best conference in America this
year, of lesser quality than the national
broadcasts? The answer lies in the
respective television contracts of the
Big East and ACC conferences.
The Big East Conference is right
now in the final year of a contract with
CBS, with NBC having "secondary
rights." Starting next year, the Big
East has a new contract with CBS,
which will essentially create a Big East
V.
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THE WHITE ANIMALS
opinion
"game oi the week" on Saturday after
noons, and also provides for the broad
cast of Big East interactional games.
Assistant to the Commissioner Tom
McElroy said, "We gave CBS the Big
East tournament, but said the price is
a game of the week. In return we can
not dilute the national advertising
market." That promise eliminates any
more Pitt-Syracuse games on ESPN
on Saturday night.
What this all means is that the Big
East has become more of a national
conference than a mere regional
alliance. Instead of making a local syn
dication deal, the Big East went right
to the networks and has received ter
rific national exposure. "CBS must do
a minimum of 14 states (from Virginia
to Maine), which puts us in approxi
mately 25-30 percent of all the televi
sion homes," McElroy said. "But the
way it's worked out, it looks like CBS
will take it beyond those states. Right
now, we're averaging 50 percent of the
country's television homes."
Thus, the Big East is not trying to
blot out the other conferences, as some
have alleged. Instead it is relying on
the networks to broadcast its games to
the viewing area it wants to reach (the
14 states).
The ACC, on the other hand, relies
on Jefferson Pilot-Raycom Sports to
accomplish the same task. "We own
the rights to all ACC games, and all
intersectional games played at ACC
sites," Mike Klatt, coordinating pro
ducer for Raycom, said. "We make up
our schedule and then are approached
by the networks, who are obviously
looking for games like Georgia Tech
UNC or UNC-Duke. We sell off about
the top 10 percent of our schedule to
the networks."
Raycom then goes to its affiliates,
including WRAL-TV, and offers them
a maximum schedule which this year
includes 33 games plus the tourna
ment. But that schedule does not
include, save for rare exceptions like
the UNC-Duke game this past Satur
day, games pitting the best ACC teams
against each other. After all, just about
all of those games have been skimmed
off and sold to the networks. WRAL
is left with the rest. This Saturday, for
example, the Georgia Tech-UNC game
will be shown on NBC, while WRAL
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will be stuck with the fine matchups of
Clemson-Wake Forest and Virginia
N.C. State.
Ah, but here's the rub. You see,
WRAL does not have to be stuck with
those games. It could show Indiana
Illinois and St. John's-Pitt, the CBS
games. For according to Klatt, the sta
tions have the option of taking the full
schedule or just part of it. "There are
very few stations that do not take a
full schedule," Klatt said. "If a station
doesnt take all the games, and our
arrangement with them isn't exclusive,
well go to other affiliates in the area
and offer them the games that are
left." In this area, the other affiliate
Raycom goes to is WLFL-TV 22.
"Raycom offered the package first
to WRAL-TV, and they decided what
they did and did not want to carry,"
Joel Kaczmarek of WLFL said.
"Those games they did not want to
carry we picked up. We will show a
total of seven ACC games this year,
based on WRAL's refusal." Kacz-
marek also said that those seven games
were the only ones WRAL decided not
to show.
The point now becomes clear
enough. WRAL is not committed to
broadcasting every ACC game that
Raycom offers. It has made a decision
not to show seven of those games for a
variety of reasons, including a decision
to show the CBS-produced
Oklahoma-Duke game on February
22. In each case, WLFL will broadcast
the dropped game. And so, there is
nothing preventing WRAL from show
ing the CBS national game on Satur
days and allowing another station to
pick up the Raycom contest. Nothing
but the desire for higher ratings, rat
ings which the ACC games provide.
But in its quest for ratings, WRAL
has left behind the viewer. If WRAL
showed the CBS game, that is, acted
like an affiliate, WLFL would show
the ACC game and viewers would'
have a choice. This is not a question of
obliterating the Raycom package from
the region. It is a question, though, of
bringing national games into the
region, of having a choice between St.
John's-Georgetown and N.C. State
Wake Forest instead of a choice
between N.C. State-Wake Forest and
nothing at all, of essentially being able
to choose at times between a great Big
East matchup and a mediocre ACC
matchup. And like the Wendy's com
mercial says, don't you really want a
choice?
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