Evening star., 1948-12-05
News of VideO and Radio
n. Y. Television Fans Like D. G..
!. Wrestling; CHS Signs Tourney of Champs
By Harry Macarthur

Some time ago the New Yorker
magazine ran a short story describ-
ing the possible football game of the
future. 1t involves no bodily contact
of young football players, but was
played, like chess, by coaches, who
opposed each other by thinking up
confounding plays. 1t was designed
solely for the delight of the radio
audience, which, by that time, was
to be the only sports audience left.
The jests of man have way of
turning around and flying right
back In his teeth. That particular
form of football has little future in a
land where television has come into
such prominence and is due for far
wider expansion, but video is having
its effect on the sports world already.
No man knows what the ultimate
effect of one on the other will be,
but there are portents in the air,
signs to be noted by those who will
bother to look at them.
Fans Want 1t Rough.
One effect, probably minor, could
have been seen and heard in the
ofing on one of the weeks wrestling
telecasts from New York. In New
York wrestling is moderately polite
sport, in which the participants fol-
low certain rules and do not indulge
In the more extreme forms of may
hem. The wrestling fans up there,
however, have learned about diff
ferent brand of grunt- -groan
entertainment, by way of telecasts
from Turner's Arena.
In New York the other night a
young rassler took to stepping on
the neck of his opponent whenever
told to break a hold, gambit con-
sidered effete at Turner's, where a
good kick in the kidneys is more
often in order. Well, the New York
referee chided this young man and
you should have heard the booing
he got. Television has taught the
fans what uninhibited rassling can
be like.
In baseball, televisions effects al
ready have been noted, too. Video's
effect on games telecast is not what
has the sports boys worried, how
ever. The blow is falling on minor
league clubs in cities where nearby
big league games are available, to
be seen and heard at home or In
the corner bar-and-grill. Newark
where Yankee, Dodger and Giant
games can be plucked out OF the
air, may be the home OF the first
major victim of television. The
bali team there suffered such
drop in attendance last season that
1t has been placed on the block.
Lick 'Em or Join EN-"
There is one school which con-
tends the answer to the sports-video
problem is to be found in the OLD
adage: If you can't lick 'em. join
'em. The men behind the Tourna-
ment of Champions are thinking
along these lines. Already the
Tournament of Champions has en-
tered the boxing field, and during
the week an alliance with the Co
lumbia Broadcasting System was
announced in a syndicate to stage
athletic contests for television au-
diences. Football, ice hockey ano
tennis are other fields where the
T. of C. plans to tread.
The speeding of the nationwide
television network, due to follow the
joining Of the eastern and mid.
western networks In January, will
make Tournament Of Champion!
plans sound more and more feas'
ible. 1t is the notion Of the mer
behind the combine that, with tele'
vision spread across the country
or a good part of it, sports promo.
ters can make their money from all
sponsorship and forget about ring
siders and near-ringsiders.
You don't have to be visionary
to foresee sports events staged FOL