“America’s team” could get prime time exposure for the first home game in its new stadium.
Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn reports that a “highly [placed] NFL source” believes that the Dallas Cowboys’ first home game in their new stadium “will go to NBC.” Horn himself puts the odds of NBC airing the game at 2-to-1, with FOX at 4-to-1, ESPN at 6-to-1 and CBS at 100-to-1.
The Cowboys’ first game in their new stadium figures to be a major attraction, and all four NFL rightsholders — NBC, FOX, CBS and ESPN — have expressed interest in televising the game. Last month, ESPN officials met with Cowboys officials in Arlington, partly to “discuss the possibility of broadcasting the first regular-season game [at the Cowboys new stadium] on ‘Monday Night Football.’“
An ESPN spokesman told the Sports Business Journal that “[w]e are always thrilled to showcase the Cowboys on ?Monday Night Football,? and the team?s opener at their new facility would be no exception.” Meanwhile, an unnamed source at another network told the Dallas Morning News that “[w]e’d want a Cowboys game played at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday night from a minor league baseball stadium in North Dakota.”
The 2009 NFL schedule will be released in April.
