The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Friday, September 7, 2001
4:00pm ET
| • | Bad Foot Will Keep Boom-Boom From Facing McEnroe |
| • | PGA Tour Releases Schedule For Next Year |
| • | Fan Frenzy? Mariners Host Second Bobblehead Giveaway Tomorrow |
| • | Verizon Calls On Broncos For Sponsorship |
| • | Buzzer Beaters |
| • | Channel Surfing |
HEINEKEN SPONSORED EXHIBITION MATCH CANCELLED AT U.S. OPEN
The Heineken Challenge exhibition match between Boris Becker and John McEnroe scheduled for Saturday night after the U.S. Open Women’s Final was canceled Friday afternoon due to Becker’s injured left foot. Becker sustained Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome while practicing last week. The exhibition was not scheduled to be televised, but the winner of the best of three sets was scheduled to take home $100,000 in prize money (THE DAILY).
PGA TOUR SCHEDULE RELEASED TODAY WITH FEW SURPRISES
The PGA Tour released its 49-tournament schedule today for the ’02 calendar year, and the AP reports that it begins on January 3 with the Mercedes Championship at Kapalua in Hawaii and ends November 3 with the Tour Championship and the Southern Farm Bureau Classic. There "were no significant changes except for late March," where an extra week will separate The Players Championships from The Masters "for the first time in 12 years" (AP, 9/7). To see the complete schedule, visit http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/2002_pgatour.html
WILL KAZU-MANIA STRIKE DURING M’S BOBBLEHEAD GIVEAWAY?
The SEATTLE TIMES reports that the Mariners will "hold their second bobblehead giveaway of the season" on Saturday, this one honoring P Kazuhiro Sasaki. The first one on July 28 for OF Ichiro Suzuki "created a frenzy among the fans and collectors who began camping around the stadium 24 hours before the gates opened." Mariners Dir of Public Information Rebecca Hale looked ahead to Saturday and said, "Our hope and belief are that it will go very smoothly. It might not be quite the same level of intensity with Kazu as opposed to Ichiro. But bobblehead collecting continues to be very popular. Some people are going to want a complete set." The club has set 8:00am PT tomorrow as the time fans can begin lining up for the 7:05pm game. The gates will open at 4:05pm (SEATTLE TIMES, 9/7).
VERIZON ANNOUNCES THREE-YEAR DEAL WITH BRONCOS
Verizon Wireless announced today that it has signed a three-year deal to become a sponsorship partner of the Broncos. Under the deal, Verizon gains rights to signage and promotions in Invesco Field at Mile High, and advertising in game-day programs and in Broncos Magazine. In addition, Verizon services and products will be on sale at the stadium during select games (THE DAILY).
BUZZER BEATERS
The AP notes that Temple Univ., "kicked out as a football-playing member of the Big East Conference, was given the go-ahead Friday to continue fielding a team through the 2004 season." The decision "probably means the school will drop any plans it might have had to challenge the conference in court after the league's seven other football schools voted last March to drop the Owls" (AP, 9/7)…. Regular season single game tickets for the Wild will go on sale tomorrow at 9:00am CT at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office and 10:00am at all Ticketmaster locations (THE DAILY)….Vikings WR Cris Carter will announce the launch of AthletesHealth.com on Sunday. The site will provide expert information about health, training and nutrition and offer a line of products, including natural supplements (THE DAILY).
MORE BAD NEWS: The AP reports, "The U.S. unemployment rate soared to a four-year high in August as companies hacked 113,000 workers from their payrolls, the government said on Friday in a startlingly bleak report on the economy" (AP, 9/7).
THE DAILY STATS
The following are the top sports Internet properties as ranked by Media Metrix by unique home and work visitors for the week ending September 2, 2001. * = an aggregation of commonly owned/branded domain names. Visitors are listed in thousands (Media Metrix).
| Rank | Site | Unique Visitors (000) | Active Reach |
| 1 | ESPN* | 3,502 | 4.6% |
| 2 | SportsLine.com sites* | 2,230 | 3.0% |
| 3 | NFL Internet Group* | 2,077 | 2.8% |
| 4 | MLB.com | 1,498 | 2.0% |
| 5 | CNNSI.com* | 1,445 | 1.9% |
| 6 | NASCAR.com | 1,114 | 1.5% |
| 7 | FansOnly.com | 916 | 1.2% |
| 8 | SportingNews.com | 903 | 1.2% |
| 9 | Sandbox.com | 584 | 0.8% |
| 10 | The Active Network* | 343 | 0.5% |
CHANNEL SURFING
FRIDAY
CNBC's "Business Center" will examine the business of football and feature Colts Owner Jim Irsay, CBS Sports President Sean McManus, OMD USA Dir of Sports Marketing Tom McGovern and Pilson Communications President Neal Pilson. "Business Center" starts at 6:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air regional coverage of Dodgers-Cardinals or Red Sox-Yankees at 8:00pm ET.
TNT will air live coverage of basketball from the Goodwill Games at 11:45pm ET.
ESPN’s coverage of the PGA Tour’s Bell Canadian Open began at 2:00pm ET.
TNT will air the NASCAR BGN Autolite FRAM 250 at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the Northwestern-UNLV college football game at 8:00pm ET.
Notre Dame football coach Bob Davie will be on "The Last Word."
SATURDAY
| College football |
| Game | Network | Time |
| Fresno St.-Wisconsin | ESPN | Noon ET |
| Western Michigan-Virginia Tech | ESPN2 | Noon ET |
| North Carolina-Texas | ABC | Noon ET |
| Georgia Tech-Navy | FSN | Noon ET |
| Michigan-Washington | ABC | 3:30pm ET |
| UAB-Florida St. | ESPN2 | 5:00pm ET |
| Kansas St.-USC | FSN | 6:30pm ET |
| South Carolina-Georgia | ESPN | 7:45pm ET |
| Notre Dame-Nebraska | ABC | 8:00pm ET |
| Tennessee-Arkansas | ESPN2 | 9:00pm ET |
| Boston College-Stanford | FSN | 10:00pm ET |
CBS’s U.S. Open coverage will feature the Sampras-Safin and Kafelnikov-Hewitt men’s semifinal matches at Noon ET and the Women’s Championship at 8:00pm ET.
"Fox Saturday Baseball" will feature regional coverage of Red Sox-Yankees (estimated 39% of the country) or Dodgers-Cardinals (15%) at 1:00pm ET or Braves-Cubs (34%) or Padres-Diamondbacks (4%) at 4:00pm ET.
FX will air regional coverage of Mets-Marlins or White Sox-Indians at 7:00pm ET and Orioles-Mariners at 10:00pm ET.
TNT will air the NASCAR Winston Cup Chevrolet Monte Carlo 500 at 7:30pm ET.
ESPN will air third round coverage of the PGA Tour’s Bell Canadian Open at 4:00pm ET.
NBC will air third round coverage of the LPGA’s Williams LPGA Classic at 4:00pm ET.
TNT’s Goodwill Games coverage will feature figure skating at 5:00 and 6:15am ET; figure skating and diving at 6:00pm ET and basketball and boxing at midnight ET.
Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins will host "This Week In Baseball."
Larry Bowa will be on "The Tim McCarver Show."
Alex Gonzalez will be on "Talkin' Baseball."
SUNDAY
| NFL |
| Game | Network | Time | U.S. Coverage Area |
| Bears-Ravens | FOX | 1:00pm ET | 36% |
| Buccaneers-Cowboys | FOX | 1:00pm ET | 25% |
| Panthers-Vikings | FOX | 1:00pm ET | 10% |
| Lions-Packers | FOX | 1:00pm ET | 6% |
| Saints-Bills | FOX | 1:00pm ET | 6% |
| Colts-Jets | CBS | 1:00pm ET | |
| Patriots-Bengals | CBS | 1:00pm ET | |
| Raiders-Chiefs | CBS | 1:00pm ET | |
| Steelers-Jaguars | CBS | 1:00pm ET | |
| Seahawks-Browns | CBS | 1:00pm ET | |
| Rams-Eagles | FOX | 4:15pm ET | 77% |
| Falcons-49ers | FOX | 4:15pm ET | 12% |
| Redskins-Chargers | FOX | 4:15pm ET | 10% |
| Dolphins-Titans | ESPN | 7:30pm ET | |
CBS’ U.S Open coverage will feature the Men’s Singles championship match at 4:00pm ET.
USA Network’s U.S. Open coverage will feature the Women’s Doubles championship at 1:00pm ET.
NBC will air final round coverage of the LPGA’s Williams LPGA Classic at 2:00pm ET.
ESPN will air final round coverage of the PGA Tour’s Bell Canadian Open at 3:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the U.S.-Germany women’s soccer match at 1:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air the MLS Crew-Mutiny game at 5:00pm ET.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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