Four days before the season opener, the new television broadcast contract of the 2009 SBL season is still up in the air. The absence of the largest revenue caused sponsors to waver in their faith as Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc. (KKL) decided to postpone a press conference Tuesday that planned to announce its sponsorship of the SBL team which was previously known as dmedia Numen, the Central News Agency reported.
Negotiation between TV stations and the SBL has not been going well as both sides failed to agree on the broadcast fee. The collected offer of Videoland Sports and ESPN went from NT$56 million (US$1.69 million) all the way down to NT$22 million (US$670,000). VL Sports was said to be considering dropping the bid and ESPN made its final standalone offer of NT$14 million (US$420,000).
Which means the SBL could be left without game broadcast in the upcoming season.