Anschutz Group Wants TV Rights
The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which operates four Major League Soccer teams, including the Galaxy, is negotiating to buy the United States English-language television rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup soccer tournaments, either in partnership with the league’s other investors or, failing that, perhaps on its own.
The deal, which would be worth tens of millions of dollars, has not been struck, but Tim Leiweke, AEG vice president, said Sunday that “there have been ongoing conversations” with Germany-based Kirch Media, the company that owns the rights. “It’s something that we have been working on as a league,” Leiweke said. “It’s something that is in progress.
“That doesn’t mean that a) anything is going to get done, or b) anything is going to get done through MLS. But it means that, yes, we’ve had meetings and, yes, AEG as a partner in MLS has probably been the most active in those discussions, but active only on behalf of our [league] partners.”
The league today will announce a new five-year television agreement with ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, details of which were not available Sunday. Since the agreement will stretch through 2006, it will encompass the 2002 World Cup to be jointly staged by Japan and South Korea and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
The belief is that if AEG/MLS does acquire the TV rights, it would lead to a greatly enhanced World Cup package on the U.S. networks. Reports at Internet sites have stated that Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz paid Kirch $60 million for the rights, but Leiweke scoffed at that, saying that so far there is no deal.
“We’re not there,” he said. “I’m not sure we’re going to get there. But because it’s still a conversation that’s in progress, I think it would be inappropriate to get into the [financial] details. What I can tell you is I’ve seen numbers bandied about, and I haven’t seen any accurate numbers.”
Leiweke said the benefits for the sport, and for MLS in particular, could be immense.
“The World Cup is the most important sporting event in the world, period,” he said.
“In order for us to ultimately grow the sport of soccer in this country and in particular to grow MLS, we need to lean on what I think is the greatest resource and strength that soccer has, and that is its international appeal.”
Univision Communications owns the U.S. Spanish-language rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup tournaments.
