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NFL DEAL COULD SQUEEZE NHL
By June 1, ESPN will decide if it will pick up its $60 million option on the NHL. With the NHL devalued after canceling its season, the NFL deal will make ESPN even more likely to force hockey to take the deal it wants.
"Some of those announcements in the next several weeks might be deals we are not doing," Shapiro told NYP TV Sports. "We understand. We fully grasp we cannot acquire every property out there. We are putting our stock in the NFL and we are getting behind that horse. Other horses won't be able to run because of our deal with the NFL. That is the decision we made."
What effect will it have on the NHL?
"We believe that any rebuilding of that property would benefit from having ESPN behind it," Shapiro said. "We would like to do a deal, but that deal needs to be on our terms."
NFL DEAL COULD SQUEEZE NHL
By June 1, ESPN will decide if it will pick up its $60 million option on the NHL. With the NHL devalued after canceling its season, the NFL deal will make ESPN even more likely to force hockey to take the deal it wants.
"Some of those announcements in the next several weeks might be deals we are not doing," Shapiro told NYP TV Sports. "We understand. We fully grasp we cannot acquire every property out there. We are putting our stock in the NFL and we are getting behind that horse. Other horses won't be able to run because of our deal with the NFL. That is the decision we made."
What effect will it have on the NHL?
"We believe that any rebuilding of that property would benefit from having ESPN behind it," Shapiro said. "We would like to do a deal, but that deal needs to be on our terms."