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A Whole New Game

A Mexican media magnate and a New York publisher team up to start a national daily sports newspaper called The National.

At birth, it's already bigger and richer than most businesses ever get. But like many start-ups, America's first all-sports daily newspaper is gambling on a hunch

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Frank Deford's favorite color is purple, a hue that does not match his prose. A writer for Sports Illustrated for 27 years, Deford has been chosen six times as national Sportswriter of the Year. He has also written 10 books and done sports commentary for both TV and radio.

Despite the acclaim he had garnered as America's de facto dean of sports writing, Deford, by the time he was pushing 50, had come to feel the dread that rises in any magazine writer embarking on the same sort of story one too many times. By February 1989 Deford was ready for a break. He had his house on the market and was looking forward to a year in London, during which he would finish a novel. But then came the call from Peter O. Price.

Price was the publisher of The New York Post, and in February 1989 he was a harried man. The paper was about to launch its first Sunday edition. After that, Price was looking forward to a well-earned vacation, the opportunity to lie on a beach somewhere and give his mind a chance to empty out. But before he went, Price had to talk to Frank Deford.

When Price called, Deford protested he was on deadline; he couldn't talk. Price persisted -- five minutes, Frank. Deford relented, and Price went over to Sports Illustrated. "Here's the concept, Frank: a sports daily for the United States."

"It'll never work."

Price wanted Deford to edit this mythical paper, and he needed Deford's decision fast. Price himself had a decision on his hands, thanks to a high-stakes offer by someone else hungry for an answer.

That person was Emilio Azcarraga -- the owner of, among other properties, a media company that controls 90% of Mexico's television programming. As influential as he is rich, Azcarraga is reputed to be worth at least $1 billion. In November 1988 he had met Peter Price, and the subject of national sports daily papers came up. Other countries had them, said Azcarraga, why not the United States?

Price replied that America was a "confederation of city-states," each with a loyalty to its local institutions, including sports teams. A sports daily would require marrying local and national coverage. That required talented people and state-of-the-art technology. That required satellites in space, bureaus and presses across the continent. That would cost a ton of money.

"I know," said Azcarraga. "We ought to do it." Price then said he had a handshake deal that obligated him to the Post for one year.

Last February, just as Price was approaching his first anniversary as publisher of the Post, Azcarraga called. That precipitated Price's urgent call to Deford and a detour to Mexico City on his way to a long-anticipated Caribbean vacation.

When Price met with Azcarraga, he threw out six numbers off the top of his head. These related to such issues as circulation, staffing, and revenue. The most mind-numbing figure was $100 million. That's what the venture would consume before the paper broke even three to five years out. Azcarraga, unfazed, asked, "Anything else?"

Price considered him blankly. "No."

"Let's do it."

Price, in semishock, protested. Maybe he should call his lawyer.

Azcarraga rolled his eyes. "You Americans are all the same. You always want to get lawyers involved." The next morning they signed a letter of agreement, giving Price enough time to catch a 10 a.m. flight and ring up Deford before his plane took off. "Uh, Frank, you'd better take your house off the market."

Unless you've spent the past six months crossing the Gobi Desert, you've probably already heard about The National. On January 31, 1990, the first copies of this amply hyped paper rolled off presses in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The National Sports Daily is published six times a week (Sunday through Friday). It costs 50¢ a copy and varies in length from 32 to 48 pages per issue. Initially, single-copy sales will account for all the circulation income, which will contribute 75% of the paper's revenue. Advertising income will make up the balance.

The National is a hybrid. It carries sports stories of general interest wrapped in eight pages of intensive, up-to-date reportage about the local heroes. In New York, for example, the lead stories detail yesterday's fortunes of the Yankees, Giants, Islanders, Rangers, and Knicks, written by beat writers assigned to cover those teams on a daily basis. The National runs columns and cartoons. It has an editorial page and a gossip page. It has a full-time two-man investigative team. It intends to write about the business of sport.