Border War exhibition to be televised via pay-per-view option

By Matt Tait     Oct 20, 2017

Antonio Calanni/AP Photo
Kansas players listen to their national anthem prior to the start of the basketball match between KU and an Italian selection of players, in Seregno, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017.

Kansas basketball officials announced Friday morning that this weekend’s exhibition game against Missouri — 3 p.m. Sunday at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., — will in fact be televised after all.

The cost for the telecast of the online stream of the event will be $40 and fans can sign up online at showdownforrelief.com. To expedite the expected rush, fans are encouraged to subscribe as soon as possible. As with the tickets to the game, all revenue derived from the telecast will go to aid the victims of the recent natural disasters in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Veteran Kansas City broadcaster Leif Lisec will do play-by-play, while nationally known ESPN broadcasters Fran Fraschilla and Holly Rowe will serve as the color analyst and sideline reporter. All three will donate their time and talent to the cause.

Initially pegged as a radio-only game because of both sides’ desire to sell out the arena in an effort to raise as much money as possible for hurricane relief, officials from both schools began looking into the idea of televising the game once the event sold out earlier this week.

“Our first objective was to sell out Sprint Center,” the two schools said jointly in a release. “Once we achieved the sellout so quickly, our fans who could not get tickets expressed tremendous interest in having the game televised. We wanted to make sure that the charities we’ve identified would be the only entities to derive revenue from this game. SIDEARM Sports has provided the platform to allow us to create a second stream of revenue via this telecast.”

According to a press release, SIDEARM Sports, the official website provider for both schools’ athletics departments, has arranged the platform for the telecast and is waiving all fees to ensure that all revenue raised is directed to relief efforts. Money raised from the game will be contributed to the organizations that the five living former U.S. Presidents have come together to support: the Houston Harvey Relief Fund, the Rebuild Texas Fund, the Florida Disaster Fund, Juntos y Unidos Por Puerto Rico and the Fund for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

— BORDER WAR QUIZ: Test your knowledge of Border Wars past and enter to win a $25 Visa gift card.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.