| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Friday, February 22, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| • | Salt Lake City Winter Games: Links, Channel Surfing & The Enron Scandal |
| • | Galindo Unsure Why Others Have Not Joined Him In Expressing Themselves |
| • | Fox Debuts Its New Season Of NASCAR On Sunday |
| • | Joseph DeFrancis Declines Churchill Downs’ Offer To Buy MD Tracks |
| • | Critics Weigh In: Costner’s “Dragonfly” and Aaliyah’s “Queen of the Damned” |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/In Other News/Articles of Interest/Channel Surfing |
PUBLIC FOLLOWING ENRON CLOSER THAN THE WINTER GAMES
A new poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that more Americans “are paying closer attention to the Enron story than the Winter Olympics,” with 28% following Enron "very closely," compared to 22% for the Games in Salt Lake City (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/22).
Meanwhile, SALON.com’s King Kaufman interviews openly gay U.S. figure skating champion Rudy Galindo, and asks, “Are you surprised there still haven't been others [admitting to being gay]?” Galindo: “Yeah, because I thought maybe I would, like, pave the way, and with my success and everything, have more people be more upfront with everything and look at when I came out, how accepted I was. … I wonder if it's because of family, they're afraid their family won't accept it, or the judges, because, you know, I had to skate, like, twice as good as the other skaters just to win. And maybe they didn't want the judges to think they're gay, so they won't give them the marks. Or, if it's endorsements, but male figure skaters don't get endorsements very much. So I don't understand” (SALON.com, 2/22).
OLYMPIC CHANNEL SURFING
FRIDAY
CNBC will air Men’s Ice Hockey, Russia-U.S., at 6:00pm ET.
NBC will air Alpine Skiing, Bobsledding, Figure Skating and Nordic Combined at 8:00pm ET.
SATURDAY
MSNBC will air Figure Skating Champions gala at 10:00am ET.
NBC will air the Men’s Ice Hockey Bronze Medal Game and Speed Skating at 1:30pm ET.
NBC will air Alpine Skiing, Bobsledding, Cross-Country Skiing and Speed Skating at 8:00pm ET.
SUNDAY
NBC will air the Men’s Ice Hockey Gold Medal game at 2:30pm ET.
NBC will air the Closing Ceremony at 8:00pm ET.
View today’s Olympic Daily Stat.
Click on the buttons below for additional Olympic links:
ROCK & REV: FOX TO KICK OFF NASCAR COVERAGE THIS WEEKEND
Fox begins its new season of NASCAR coverage this weekend from North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, with the Busch Series 1-866RBCTERM.com 200 Saturday at 1:00pm ET and the Winston Cup Subway 400 Sunday at 12:30pm ET. The TAMPA TRIBUNE reports one new feature Fox will debut this weekend is the Ford “Cut-Away” car that will “be used during the prerace show for illustrating the technical inner-workings of the race car.” Fox NASCAR Producer Neil Goldberg said of the net’s coverage, “Our starting point is to keep the momentum from last year. It isn’t about always finding a new trick and a new gadget. We’ve got plenty of that. It’s applying it better and making it a more useful tool for [the announcers]” (TAMPA TRIBUNE, 2/22). Fox NASCAR analyst Darrell Waltrip added, “Last year was the tip of the iceberg. I believe we can have a better year” (USA TODAY, 2/22)
Meanwhile FoxSports.com will introduce several new features for its NASCAR coverage this year including Virtual Crew Chief, TonyStewart.com, Pit Perspectives, NASCAR This Morning Weekly Poll and NASCAR Tech’s video preview (THE DAILY).
DE FRANCIS DECLINES TO SELL MD TRACKS TO CHURCHILL DOWNS
The Baltimore SUN reports that Churchill Downs “recently attempted to buy Maryland's major tracks but was unable to strike a deal with their president, Joseph De Francis, who did not want to relinquish control of the tracks.” De Francis owns the controlling share of stock in both Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, known collectively as the Maryland Jockey Club. Talks between De Francis and Churchill President Thomas Meeker “have occurred periodically over the years but grew more intense in December, only to falter, resume and falter again in recent weeks over the issue of control” (Baltimore SUN, 2/22).
SCRATCH OFF LOTTERY PAYS OFF FOR OILERS, FLAMES
The EDMONTON SUN reports that the new provincial hockey lottery is “scoring big” for the Oilers. The $10 “Breakaway to Win” scratch tickets “went on sale Jan. 17 to raise money for Alberta's two NHL teams, the Oilers and the Calgary Flames.” Oilers VP/Marketing Allan Watt: “We've sold $2.5 million worth of tickets. That's 250,000 of them. That's great” (EDMONTON SUN, 2/22).
JORDAN EXPRESSES FAITH IN FORMER F1 OWNER ECCLESTONE
CNN’s Richard Quest interviewed F1 team boss Eddie Jordan on BizCentral, and asked him if former F1 Owner Bernie Ecclestone “would buy back the business from troubled German media group Kirch.” Jordan: “Bernie, for sure, has his heart imbedded deep in Formula One, and he will do what is best for its participants. Bernie Ecclestone has proved time and time again that he is the master genius and he will look after us” (CNN, 2/22).
BUZZER BEATERS
The PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS reports that former 76ers coach Billy Cunningham, with the support of the NBA, has “joined forces with attorney Steve Cozen to create the Wilt Chamberlain Memorial Fund Inc., to provide scholarships for athletically and academically talented young people in the area” (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 2/22).
The Capitals received four Golden Matrix national awards for game entertainment, including Best Overall Team Video Display, at the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) annual convention in San Francisco last week (THE DAILY).
Men’s Canadian hockey team Fs Michael Peca and Simon Gagner, on Nike’s Utah 2002 media-only Web site this morning, discussed the upcoming game against Belarus, the lessons learned so far and their hopes to play against the U.S. in the Gold Medal game on Sunday (THE DAILY).
WEEKEND EVENTS
Friday
The Wizards, the Fannie Mae Foundation and Manna, Inc. will revitalize three homes in the Shaw Neighborhood of Washington, DC, from 1:00-4:00pm ET. Manna, with the help of a $125,000 grant from Fannie Mae and $15,000 from the Wizards, will manage the workday (THE DAILY).
Comcast Sports Southeast / Charter Sports Southeast will carry live college baseball games, beginning with Troy State Univ. hosting Middle Tennessee State Univ. in an Atlantic Sun Conference game Friday night. Game time is slated for 7:30pm ET. On Saturday, Georgia Tech plays Univ. of SC at noon ET, in a game from the Baseball at the Beach Tournament (THE DAILY).
Saturday
The Predators will host the “Unmasked Ball” live auction at 6:30pm ET. Proceeds will benefit the Nashville Predators Foundation (THE DAILY).
The WUSA NY Power will begin their training sessions for the ’02 season by running in the NY Road Runners Snowflake 4-Miler, scheduled for 9:30am ET in Central Park, N.Y. (THE DAILY).
The TX Thoroughbred Association and the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association will present a “New Owners Seminar” at the Sam Houston Race Park in Houston from 12:00-5:00pm MT (THE DAILY).
Sunday
Former Univ. of MD basketball players Tom McMillen and Len Elmore will sign their book “Cole Classics!” prior to the 12:30pm ET game against Wake Forest (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS…
DAILY VARIETY reports that "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett will team with sports production/management outlet Battle Entertainment to “create a new small-screen martial arts reality franchise.” The series will be built around an “Enter the Dragon”-style competition to find “the toughest man in the world” (DAILY VARIETY, 2/22).
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that Madison Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard “may soon intersect,” as advertising agencies and talent agencies “are considering each other for possible combinations and cross-investments in anticipation of revised rules that would open up Hollywood's talent brokers to new investors” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/22).
TODAY’S DAILY STAT: TRACKING OLYMPIC ATHLETES ON THE WEB
The following presents the most-recent listing of the Yahoo! Buzz Index tracking the top U.S. Olympic athlete searches on Yahoo!'s search engines. This listing reflects searches of Feb 18-20 (Yahoo!):
| RK | ATHLETE |
| 1) | Michelle Kwan |
| 2) | Apolo Ohno |
| 3) | Timothy Goebel |
| 4) | Sasha Cohen |
| 5) | Sarah Hughes |
| 6) | Bode Miller |
| 7) | Picabo Street |
| 8) | Gea Johnson |
| 9) | Danny Kass |
| 10) | Jean Racine |
CRITICS WEIGH IN: “DRAGONFLY” & “QUEEN OF THE DAMNED”
It looks like a Blockbuster weekend, as the nation’s top critics slam both Kevin Costner’s “Dragonfly,” and the vampire thriller “Queen of the Damned,” starring the late Aaliyah:
| | —— Movie —— |
| | Dragonfly | Queen of the Damned |
| Chicago Sun-Times | 
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| L.A. Times |
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| N.Y. Times |
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| USA Today |
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| Washington Post |
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CHANNEL SURFING
FRIDAY
ESPN will air men’s college basketball: Marquette-Cincinnati at 7:00pm ET and Louisville-St. Louis at 9:00pm ET.
Comedians Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla will be on FSN’s “The Last Word.”
ESPN2 will air Friday Night Fights at 9:00pm ET.
Skeleton Gold Medalist Tristan Gale, skeleton Silver Medalist Lea Ann Parsley and speed skating double Bronze Medalist Jennifer Rodriguez will be on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.
SATURDAY
| College Basketball | | |
| Game | Network | Time |
| Navy-Army | CBS (regional) | Noon ET |
| Arkansas-Kentucky | CBS (regional) | Noon ET |
| Dayton-St. Joseph’s | ESPN | 2:00pm ET |
| Creighton-Bradley | ESPN2 | 2:00pm ET |
| DePaul-Memphis | CBS (regional) | 2:00pm ET |
| Florida-Alabama | CBS (regional) | 2:00pm ET |
| IL Chicago-Butler | ESPN | 4:00pm ET |
| GA Tech-Virginia | ESPN2 | 4:00pm ET |
| UCLA-Stanford | CBS | 4:00pm ET |
| Michigan-Iowa | ESPN | 7:00pm ET |
| Texas-Oklahoma | ESPN | 9:00pm ET |
ESPN will air the Accenture Match Play Championship at 10:30am ET.
FOX will air the NASCAR BGN Rockingham 200 at 1:00pm ET.
CNBC will air the Audi Senior PGA Classic at 2:00pm ET.
ABC will air the Accenture Match Play Championship at 2:30pm ET.
NBC will air Kings-Mavericks at 5:30pm ET.
SUNDAY
CBS will air men’s college basketball: Indiana-Michigan St. at Noon ET, Georgetown-Syracuse at 2:00pm ET, and regional coverage of St. John’s-Duke or Kansas-Nebraska at 4:00pm ET.
NBC will air Lakers-Knicks at Noon ET.
FOX will air the NASCAR Subway 400 at 12:30pm ET.
ESPN will air Wake Forest-Maryland at 2:00pm ET.
CNBC will air the Audi Senior PGA Classic at 2:00pm ET.
ABC will air the Accenture Match Play Championship at 2:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air women’s college basketball, Duke-UNC, at 4:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the original TV program “Star-Crossed” at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air the ’02 Eclipse Awards at 11:00pm ET.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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