As usual, Monaghan brings up some good points. And as usual, I've deleted them, so I can't add to any specific points. Here's a hypothetical plan for developing sponsorship for college hockey: The four hockey conferences would strike a deal with one or two national companies. Each Div. I school with a rink capable of televising a game would provide these companies exclusive advertising space along the center- ice boards, in exchange for bankrolling a national game-of-the-week broadcast. Let's say a board ad at center ice costs $5000 a season (I honestly don't know), and let's say there are 40 rinks capable of supporting a broadcast. That's $200,000. Get two sponsors involved and you have $400,000, which could probably fund the production of four, five games? There are bugs, of course, aside from any cost underestimation of my own: 1. Exclusivity contracts at individual schools. Suppose Coke is a sponsor at a Pepsi campus? 2. Schools which do not own their own rinks, therefore don't control rink advertising. 3. The NCAA's take on the whole thing. I originally thought of under-ice ads, but there's no way Overlord Park would let that happen. And a personal plea: the deal has to be on ESPN, not the Deuce. Third-largest TV market in the US, and I can't get it. Grrrr.... -- Greg Sorenson [log in to unmask]