*From the July 13, 2005 issue of the St. Louis Post Dispatch*

Cardinals President Mark Lamping, unhappy with what KMOX has called its final offer to the team to retain its radio rights beyond this season, said the club no longer is focusing on that bid. Instead, the team is concentrating its efforts on deciding whether buying into KTRS and moving the broadcasts there, as has been discussed for months, is feasible.

"There's nothing else to focus on from KMOX," Lamping said this week. "They're pretty much done with us. We can't make them give us another offer.

"As far as KMOX is concerned, other than some non-economic things, we're not in the midst of any discussions with them. What we're spending our time on is not so much evaluating KMOX's offer, but if we choose to go to another station then there are issues that we're going need to deal with. (We) need to determine if we can deal with those issues or not before we make up our mind as to what we're going to do."

One of those key issues is lining up stations on the club's radio network that would cover areas in the St. Louis market that now get KMOX (1120 AM) but do not receive the signal of KTRS (550 AM) at night, when most of the games are played.Advertisement


"That's one of many things," being evaluated, Lamping said. "Just in terms of the strength of the flagship station, KMOX is the best (option). But there are issues on both. And the thing that we're working on now is if we end up with a network that the flagship station does not have that strong of a signal, then there are things we need to deal with. What we're doing is we're figuring out is how would we deal with those things before we make up our mind."

Last week a source tied to KMOX and its owner, Infinity Broadcasting, said the offer to the Cards for next season, the first of a five-year deal, was worth about $7.5 million. But Lamping scoffed at that figure.

"The question has never been our rights fee going up with KMOX," Lamping said. "It always has been a negotiation of how far it goes down. I don't know what kind of funny math they have going."


Revenue sharing

While both sides agree that the rights fee this season is $6.7 million, Lamping said KMOX's bid to retain the broadcasts for a 53rd consecutive season starts with a guarantee of about $4.7 million, then goes into a revenue-sharing formula. The point of contention is how much the Cards would get from that.

"Anyone who believes that KMOX has offered the Cardinals more than we're receiving right now and that we're holding out for more, that couldn't be further from the truth," Lamping said. "It's just a question of how far our rights fees are going to go down, not if they're going to go down. ... The key here is the guarantee."

But KMOX general manger Dave Ervin said Tuesday the formula would more than make up the difference.

"We expect our last offer will make the Cardinals more money in 2006 than they made in 2005, and more than in any previous year," he said.

Lamping disagreed.

"Their formula would result in a lower payment to the Cardinals (than this year)," he said. "Our premise all along to KMOX has been we do not agree that if we're successful on the field and they're successful in their sales efforts, that the Cardinals radio rights should be worth less in 2006 than in 2005."

And in addressing the $7.5 million figure, Lamping said, "If you can get that in writing, we'd probably throw a press conference" to announce a deal with KMOX.

Lamping added, "Basically, their final economic offer would result in a major change in the nature of the agreement between KMOX and the Cardinals. In years past, KMOX would pay the Cardinals a flat guaranteed rights fee, and if they were more successful than they thought they would be (in selling ads), KMOX would benefit. If they were less successful, KMOX would bear the burden. What they have asked us to do is to take a significant cut, almost $2 million, in the guaranteed rights fee with the potential that the Cardinals could earn more money on top of that if KMOX is successful in selling."

Lamping said a problem for the club is how KMOX's revenue-sharing proposal is structured. He said the station would receive the bulk of the money at lower sales levels, and when the pot grew larger the Cardinals would get the bigger percentage. He fears that would reduce the incentive for the station to sell when it's not benefiting the most.

"That has been a real problem in the structure of any type of revenue sharing," he said.

Ervin declined comment on that issue.


Weighing options

Lamping stressed that no decision has been made, and that it isn't coming this week.

"We know that there are a tremendous number of positives with both offers," Lamping said. "KMOX's positive is they've got a strong signal. If it just came down to signal (strength), this would have been decided a long time ago. On the other hand, if it just came down to financials it also would have been decided a long time ago and we would have gone to KTRS. There's no question financially the best way for the Cardinals to go is KTRS."

And he said it might not have been the best move for Infinity/KMOX to have made a "final" financial offer at this stage, although Ervin said other non-economic issues such as partnering with KFNS (590 AM, 100.7 FM) to provide expanded coverage are being discussed.

"My experience as a negotiation, and it's been relatively extensive ... I think parties always have to be very careful when they draw a line in the sand," Lamping said. "I know that we try to avoid that, whether it's in negotiations with a player, negotiations with a sponsor or even a (broadcast) rights holder."

Finally, Lamping confirmed earlier reports that Mike Shannon and Wayne Hagin will remain as the radio announcers no matter where the broadcasts air.

My thoughts: Great move by Mr. Lamping considering the fact that KMOX hardly does any emphasize on sports on their radio station. Every time i tune in, which isnt often due to the lack of sports broadcasting, I cant find any sports coverage anywhere. BYE BYE KMOX