ESPN launched in 1979, and they basically had the rights to
nothing except college football and college basketball. Otherwise
they had nothing to fill up their programming day. They would
show stuff like ping-pong, strongman contests and TONS of Australian
rules football.
Meanwhile they had three jai alai frontons in their state.
Why couldn't someone from one of the frontons reach out to ESPN?
They could have offered it to them free. Jai alai gets exposure
and a fledgling ESPN gets programming. It's a win-win.
While jai alai would have bene phased out on ESPN as it got the
rights to MLB, NBA and NFL, the exposure generated in those years
could have been a huge help.
