The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 27

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, FRIDAY, MAY 12, 2000 C5 SPORTS Ixpos are a hit on Interne Team says it's averaging 15,000 listeners per game, compared with 8,000 last year on CIQC RICK WESTHEAO Bloomberg News The Expos are drawing almost twice as many English listeners this year without a radio contract than last year when they had one. The Expos say they're averaging about 15,000 listeners for the first 10 games they broadcast in English on the Internet this season, up from the approximately 8,000 a game last season when radio station CIQC carried the games. The team couldn't find any takers when its English radio rights became available after last season, even though they only "We'll have David Samson (the Expos' executive vice-president) join the broadcast and answer questions that are posted at the Web site," Griffin said, adding that the team is also planning to debut a 30-minute pre-game show within the next month. While the Expos trail most major-league teams in stadium amenities and season-ticket sales, they may be on the leading edge of Internet broadcasts, analysts say. Many baseball teams make their broadcasts available through a link with the host radio broadcaster, yet the radio station's computer server is often less dependable, meaning the signal is choppier and static-filled.

Expos broadcasts have a higher quality because they aren't sent through another server. "Right now, the Internet rights are seen as a throw-in to radio rights, but that will change in the future," said Patrick Keane, an Internet analyst with Jupiter Communications Inc. "Teams will sell their radio and Internet rights separately." However, baseball might eventually take back control of Internet rights for all teams, Keane said. Within four years, when 27 million households are projected to have broadband Internet access, professional sports teams estimate Web-related revenue will increase 10-fold to $100 million, according to a Forrester Research report from November. Griffin said the Expos, who are also without a local television package in either French or English, will continue their attempts to sign an English radio partner before the end of the season.

Montreal-based CKAC has French radio rights to the team and drew 30,000 listeners a game last season, the team says. Griffin said the revenue-share-based contract is worth more than $100,000 to the team. Since the team's Web site was launched on March 4, Griffin said traffic continues to escalate. The site had 120,000 unique visitors in April double March's numbers. Griffin said the rise of the team and Internet interest probably isn't a coincidence.

"We would not have these numbers if they were 10-30." STEPHANIE MYLES OF THE GAZETTE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT were asking for $500,000 to cover production costs. So the Expos spent $150,000 to launch www.mon-trealexpos.com, and the team said it's ecstatic with the results. "It's been a real explosion on the Internet," said Monique Giroux, the team's director of media services. "It's asm-prise." Through the first 10 games broadcast on the Internet, the Expos say they've attracted 150,000 listeners, or 15,000 a game, including 21,000 for the team's 6-4 home win over Milwaukee on April 23. They even attracted 800 listeners to a repeat broadcast of a day-old game on an off-day "That's a lot of traffic," Expos broadcaster Dave Van Home said.

"I know some people, including my wife, have had trouble getting on. "The response has been very interesting coast-to-coast in Canada and coast-to-coast in the U.S., especially. Lots of members of baseball families are tuning in. Dustin Hermanson's dad stopped me in San Francisco to tell me how glad he was we were on the Net. That's something that's unique." Fellow broadcaster Joe Cannon says the interaction is great.

"We respond to people all the way from Antartica to a professor of environmental engineering at MIT," Cannon said. "A lot of former Montrealers enjoy listening to the Expos again. "It's fun. We treat it like a real broadcast, which it is, but it's different. It changes your perspective knowing DARREN HAUCK, AP Fans can follow Vladimir Guerrero and the Expos on the Internet by logging on to www.montrealexpos.com.

you're talking to people who could be from anywhere." Still, Van Home says he's "very disappointed" they're not on radio. "A lot of Expos fans in the Greater Montreal area don't have access to the English broadcasts," he said. Last season, English radio station CIQC was, at the time, 10,000 watts during the day and 5,000 watts at night. Expos games averaged about 8,000 listeners a broadcast last year, when the club was among the worst in baseball, the club says. By comparison, the Canadiens' Eng lish broadcasts on CJAD averaged about 20,000 listeners, the radio station says.

New York Yankees broadcasts on WABC average about 238,000 for the 25- to 54-year-old age group, the station says. "CIQC did not do a great job promoting the broadcast and their antenna was not the strongest either," said Marc Griffin, the Expos' director of broadcasting. The team's dwindling audience made it difficult to sell ad time. While CIQC started the 1999 season selling season ad packages for about $35,000 which included two 30-second spots a game the price was eventually cut to $75 a spot by the end of the season. "You'd go out and try to sell ads and people would say: 'Why should we buy said Ren6 Castonguay, who sells ad time for CIQC.

"When people are spending that much money, they want to see a team making headway." Griffin said the Expos are currently developing an advertising rate card and plan to sell ad time for the games during the next two weeks. Van Home and Cannon now fill airtime between innings with interactive segments. DAVIS CUP TENNIS Co Canada nnell will take over as Captain PAT HICKEY The Gazette was playing, but when Louis told me he was stepping down, I was definitely interested," he said. The bad news is that there are no promising young players on the horizon and no depth in the Canadian program. Connell had a 22-9 record in Davis Cup play 8-3 in singles and 14-6 in doubles.

When asked to identify his Davis Cup highlights, he showed his credentials as a team player by mentioning his 1990 performance against the Netherlands and Nestor's 1992 singles win over Swede Stefan Edberg, who was then No. 1 in the world. Connell found himself in a pressure situation in 1990 after Canada's No. 1 player, Andrew Sznajder, lost his temper in a training session and slammed his hand against a windscreen. Unfortunately, there was a supporting Cayer has at least one more appearance as captain.

He will lead Canada against Argentina, July 21-23 at Jarry Tennis Stadium. If Canada wins, it will remain in the American Zone Group 1 for 2001. If it loses, it faces another qualifying match in October against the loser of the Bahamas-Colombia tie. Connell will inherit a team with two veterans in Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor. Connell has had both players as Davis Cup doubles partners, and described them as veterans who are capable of leading Canada back to the 16-nation World Group.

"They're both great doubles players fit' if" Glenn Michibata as Canada posted a 3-2 win and qualified for its only appearance in the World Group. Connell, who was born in Regina and grew up in North Vancouver, was an All-American at Texas and went on to a successful pro career. He reached a high of No. 67 in singles, but was best-known as a doubles player. He was the top-ranked doubles player on the ATP Tour in 1993, and is the all-time Canadian leader in career earnings with $2,853,907 U.S.

He won the 1995 world doubles title with American Pat Galbraith and reached the Wimbledon doubles final three times -twice with Galbraith and once with Byron Black. NET CORDS Martin Laurendeau will continue to work with the Davis Cup team as the coach. Tickets for the Canada-Argentina matches went on sale this week. The matches will be held on the grandstand court, and prices start at $15 a day or $40 for three days. They are available at the Jarry Tennis Centre or through Admissions at (514) 790-1245.

By his own admission, Grant Connell isn't a rah-rah guy and he's not a technician. But the next captain of Canada's Davis Cup tennis team figures he'll benefit from his experience playing for two guys who fit those descriptions. "I think the one thing that I'll bring to the job is that I know the players and I know what it's like to play in Davis Cup," said the 34-year-old stalwart who played under rah-rah guy Pierre Lamarche and cool technician Louis Cayer. "Davis Cup is different from playing on the tour," Connell said on a conference call from Vancouver, where he is employed as the high-performance director for Tennis B.C. "When you're playing for your country, it's very emotional.

I understand that feeling and how to deal with it" Connell, who replaces Cayer at the end of this year, said he always hoped to stay in tennis after retiring as a player in 1997. "I didn't think about the Davis Cup job when I Connell has experience. pipe behind the tarp and Sznajder broke his hand. Connell rose to the challenge on a slicked-up hard court at the National Tennis Centre in Toronto. He won two singles and the doubles with and we get a break in the next couple of years because most of our matches in the American Zone will be at home and we can tailor the conditions to suit our players," Connell said.

BRIEFS Hrbaty bounces top-ranked Agassi Phoenix International Life Sciences, a contract research company, is conducting studies involving a wide range of both new and already marketed medications in our clinical research centre in Ville St Laurent We are presently offering the following studies for the month of MAY. poor showing to problems with a new wing. the final game of a 4-6, 6-4, 4-6 loss to Spain's Gala Leon Garcia on Wednesday. Ranked 14th in the world, the photogenic Russian has never won a tournament, but is a draw wherever she plays. -88 ple who may be confused about what happened, and others who may be upset about what I did, but the fact is, this is the ball." No it isn't, said two other people at the game Harvey Pollack, there as official statistician and public-relations director for the Warriors, and Joe Ruklick, one of Chamberlain's teammates.

"Why did he wait 38 years to sell the ball? He waited for Chamberlain to die so he could not refute him," Pollack said of Ryman. It was Pollack who first cast doubt on the ball's authenticity after it was sold. Pollack said the historic ball was taken out of the game by referee Willie Smith, given to the Warriors' ballboy, and later to Chamberlain. Synchro title won EDMONTON Anouk Reniere-Lafreniere of Montreal won the solo title at the national synchronized swimming championships yesterday. She had a score of 92.5667 in winning her first senior solo title.

Her duet partner, Jessika Dubuc, also of Montreal, finished second with a score of 90.9700. Edmonton's Lindsay Cargill was third at 88.1667. A CP ROME Top-ranked Andre Agassi failed to raise his game and find that "other level" yesterday, falling in straight sets to hard-hitting Dominik Hrbaty in the third round of the Italian Open. The American lost 6-4, 6-4 to the No. 15 Hrbaty in just over an hour, drawing disapproving whistles from the capacity centre-court crowd at the tournament now known as the Tennis Masters Series Roma A double fault on match point seemed to sum up Agassi's futility "If a match goes like this a couple weeks from now, it's a big problem," Agassi said, looking ahead to May 29 and defending his championship in the French Open.

"He played too well, and closed me out," Agassi said of Hrbaty, after earlier saying: "I feel like I had another level there waiting for me." Hrbaty set the pace throughout and hit aces and service winners that kept Agassi from getting back in the match. Sale of ball called off NEW YORK-The half-million dollar sale of the basketball advertised as the one Wilt Chamberlain used to score 100 points was called off yesterday because of questions about its authenticity "We've decided to pull it back until we can further investigate the claims being made about the ball" said Mike Hefner, president of Leland's, the auction house that sold the ball on April 28 for $551,844 a record for a basketball and the third-highest figure of any sports memorabilia item sold at auction. "Our credibility is at stake," Heftier said. "The ball sold for six figures, but our reputation is worth a lot more." Leland's has refused to identify the winning bidder for the ball that was stolen from Chamberlain after his historic feat for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. Chamberlain died in October.

Kerry Ryman, who as a 14-year-old ran off with the ball after shaking Chamberlain's hand, insisted yesterday that the ball was the genuine piece of sports history "There is no way it is not the ball," the 52-year-old crane operator said from his home in Anneville, Pa. "There are other peo A study for NON-SMOKING MEN 18 to 46 years of age, available to stay at our clinic on TWO different occasions from FRIDAY EVENING until SUNDAY EVENING with TEN return visits following each session. COMPENSATORY INDEMNITY: $1800 A study for MEN 18 to 45 years of age, available to stay at our clinic on TWO different occasions from FRIDAY EVENING until SUNDAY EVENING with THREE return visits following each session. COMPENSATORY INDEMNITY: $800 If you are interested in participating in a study or would like further information, call us today! 514-333-0010 1-800-593-7230 Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. p.m.

Saturday 10:00 a.m. p.m. 2A Brack leads way MOTEGI, Japan With a late spurt, rookie Kenny Brack edged CART champion Juan Montoya and posted the fastest practice speed yesterday for the Firestone Firehawk 500 (11 p.m. tonight, TSN, RDS). At the 1.55-mile oval speedway of Honda Motor's Twin Ring Motegi, Brack's Shell Ford-Cos-worth Reynard posted the fastest lap of 26.072 seconds for an average speed of 213.885 miles per hour.

Montoya's Toyota-Lola wound up with a fast lap of 213.721. Rookie Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie was 10th at 26.596, while Player's teammate Memo Gidley, filling in for the injured Patrick Carpen-tier of Joliette, was 18th. Toronto's Paul Tracy was 20th, attributing the Notice to our clientele Please note the following changes in our 56 page Mother's Day pre-print (sale dates: May distributed in The Gazette May 7,2000. on page 16, Cool Water Woman Mother's Day set includes 50 ml Eau de Toilette Natural Spray, 1 00ml Gentle Shower Breeze and 100ml Moisturizing Body Lotion. on page 31, Save 25 on girls swimwear should read: sizes S-L(7-16).

Save 30 girls' smock sundresses should read: sizes 2-3x reg. 15.99 and sizes 4-6x reg 17.99 For automotive newspaper ads having an end date May 21, 2000, this is incorrect, correct end date is May 14,2000. Sears apotogizas for any fncovenience this may have caused. Kournikova injured BERLIN Anna Kournikova suffered a torn ligament in her left ankle while taking a spill at the German Open, but might recover in time for the French Open, the Russian teenager's coach said yesterday. "When everything goes well, everything goes fantastic, she'll play in Paris," Eric Van Harpen said.

Van Harpen said Kournikova only tore one of three ligaments in her ankle The 18 year-old fell to the ground writhing in pain during.