To be sure, the reliance on broadcast revenue is not universal.

Their local broadcast revenues have to be outstanding.

In addition, the Sox would not have to share broadcast revenues with another team in that fast-growing market.

The ball park was small, the parking inadequate and the broadcast revenue relatively meager.

Company officials said that newspaper advertising was up 4 percent, reflecting strength in classified ad sales, and that broadcast revenues increased slightly in the quarter.

"We're forecasting that broadcast revenues will grow only about 3 percent in 2001, which is down from 8 or 9 percent," Mr. Myers said.

The root of the problem is that baseball teams do not share local broadcast revenues, which vary widely from city to city.

He supported the Players Association, helped fund the pension plan by allowing them to share in broadcast revenues, and worked toward a minimum salary.

The company's broadcast revenues for 1993 jumped almost 44 percent, to more than $118 million, and after-tax cash flow increased 55 percent, to about $26.6 million.

Indeed, the $90 million franchise fee charged to the latest applicants, was explicitly intended to compensate for the bite into broadcast revenues.