| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| • | NBA Commissioner David Stern Addresses League Strengths, TV Deal |
| • | Four NBA Players, Teams Achieve Popularity Status For First Time |
| • | Charleston’s Family Circle Cup Sets Ticket Sales Record |
| • | IOC Eliminates Medalists From Blood-Transfusion Controversy |
| • | Are The Red Wings The Best Team Ever? |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/In Other News/Tonight’s Events/Daily Stat/Channel Surfing |
STERN DISCUSSES STATE OF LEAGUE IN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
An exclusive interview with NBA Commissioner David Stern will be featured in tomorrow’s issue of THE DAILY as part of our continuing series entitled “Watching The Commissioners.” In his discussion with Editor-at-Large Terry Lefton, Stern speaks about the state of the league, and offers further details on the NBA’s new TV deals and planned All Sports Network. Looking ahead to the start of this week’s playoffs, Stern says, “We feel very good. The rule changes seemed to have achieved their desired results of opening up the game a bit, and put more emphasis on shooting and less on isolation. Attendance is up by a couple of hundred thousand fans. Ratings are up on Turner, NBC and locally. There seems to be a significant up-tick in the use of our players by consumer product companies (as spokespeople). That is always a good sign of health to me, when we are getting a fair share of consumers’ hearts and minds.” See tomorrow’s issue for our entire discussion with Stern (THE DAILY).
FOUR TEAMS, FOUR PLAYERS JOIN NBA POPULARITY CONTEST
The NBA announced today that four new players and four new teams entered the league’s top 10 list of the most popular players and team merchandise sold during the ’01-02 season, including Michael Jordan who returned to the list after his hiatus. The following charts of the top 10 players and teams are determined by sales reports provided by the league’s licensees and sales information from the NBA Store in N.Y. and on NBA.com dating back to October 1, 2001 (THE DAILY):
| Top Ten Teams | | Top Ten Players |
| Dallas Mavericks * | | Kobe Bryant |
| L.A. Clippers * | | Vince Carter |
| L.A. Lakers | | Kevin Garnett |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | | Allen Iverson |
| N.Y. Knicks | | Michael Jordan * |
| Orlando Magic | | Tracy McGrady * |
| Philadelphia 76ers | | Darius Miles * |
| Sacramento Kings * | | Lamar Odom * |
| Toronto Raptors | | Shaquille O'Neal |
| Washington Wizards * | | Latrell Sprewell |
| | |
| * - Did not appear on list last year |
| Teams and players listed in alphabetical order. |
FAMILY AFFAIR: CHARLESTON TENNIS TOURNAMENT SETS RECORDS
The Charleston POST & COURIER reports that the Family Circle Cup “set a record for ticket sales” with a total of $56,091.50 in sales Tuesday alone. Overall attendance for the day session “was 6,672 and 5,707 for the night matches” (Charleston POST & COURIER, 4/17).
IOC RULES OUT MEDALISTS IN BLOOD DOPING PROBE
The AP reports that the investigation into the use of blood-transfusion equipment by members of Austria's Olympic cross-country ski team “has ruled out the involvement of any medalists.” IOC President Jacques Rogge said today that the probe has “found that three Austrian competitors received blood transfusions during the Salt Lake City Olympics, but none were medal winners” (AP, 4/17).
BUZZER BEATERS
This cover of this week’s ESPN The Magazine featuresthe Red Wings under the headline “Code Red: Why The Wings Are The Best Team Ever” (THE DAILY).
Ford signed on a title sponsor of Octagon’s Gorge Games, which will be held in the Columbia River Gorge from July 13-21 (THE DAILY).
The CBC will “introduce a new look to its [NHL] telecasts” tonight, as the network has “changed its graphics, specifically the fonts, and redesigned its score clock and CBC Sports logo” (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 4/17).
BBC Sports Online was named the best sports Web site at the Sports Industry Awards show held Tuesday night. The site “beat CricInfo.com, ManUtd.com, Sondico.com and 4thegame.com to land the top prize” (BBC.com, 4/16).
The World Curling Federation announced that the ’06 World Curling Championships will be held in April at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA (THE DAILY).
Before “Mohr Sports,” ESPN’s Jay Mohr was best known for his spot-on Christopher Walken impressions. Here, Mohr portrays Walken as an extreme sports commentator (“’02 Sports & Music Awards,” ESPN, 4/16):
Click photo to view full clip.
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The N.Y. TIMES’ Robert Sharoff on the revenue streams that skyboxes and premium seats provide to pro franchises.
NEWSDAY’s Joe Gergen on problems facing the Knicks and Rangers, two franchises which failed to make the playoffs.
The CONTRA COSTA TIMES’ Samuel Chi on sports agents catering to the needs of their clients.
BLOOMBERG NEWS’ Curtis Eichelberger on background checks on potential business partners conducted by the NFL for its players.
The S.F. CHRONICLE’s David Steele on MLB’s existing double standard against African-Americans and Latinos when hiring GMs.
CBS SPORTSLINE’s Rick Horrow on three areas where the NHL must stabilize its business practices.
SPEED CHANNEL’s Brock Yates on the lack of African-Americans in motor sports.
The ROANOKE TIMES’ Dustin Long on the influx of non-Southern drivers in Winston Cup.
The Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL’s Ron Higgins on strong fan support for the Grizzlies at the end of their inaugural season in Memphis.
See The Daily Insider’s Articles Of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
Don Pablo’s restaurant in Dallas, TX, will broadcast the Mavericks’ season-ending game against the Suns in HDTV during the “Mavs Mania Watch Party” (THE DAILY).
The Sonics will pass out coach Nate McMillan bobbleheads to the first 10,000 fans in attendance for the team’s regular-season finale against the Grizzlies (THE DAILY).
The Celtics will distribute Antoine Walker bobbleheads to the first 5,000 fans in attendance for the team’s regular-season finale against the Hawks (THE DAILY).
The Pistons will conduct their Fan Appreciation Night during the team’s regular-season finale against the Bucks at 7:30pm ET (THE DAILY).
Comcast-Spectacor will host a Playoff Block Party outside the First Union Center prior to all Flyers and 76ers home playoff games. The first will take place tonight, as the Flyers host the Senators. The party begins at 4:00pm ET (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS…….
ESPN’s Robin Roberts is close to signing a deal that would make her the news anchor at ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Roberts would replace Antonio Mora, who left the show last January to anchor at CBS-owned WBBM in Chicago (TV GUIDE, 4/17).
THE DAILY STAT: PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS
The following lists the final Nielsen ratings for the top ten primetime shows for the week of April 8-14. Also provided are Nielsen ratings averages season to date for the nets’ primetime coverage (USA TODAY, 4/17).
| TOP TEN PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS FOR APRIL 8 - 14 |
| RK | PROGRAM | NET | DAY | RAT/SHR | VIEWERS
(IN MILLIONS) |
| 1) | CSI | CBS | Thu | 13.7/21 | 22.2 |
| 2) | Law & Order | NBC | Wed | 13.1/22 | 19.5 |
| 3) | The Pilot's Wife | CBS | Sun | 12.5/20 | 17.2 |
| 4) | Friends (8:00pm) | NBC | Thu | 11.7/20 | 17.3 |
| 5) | Friends (8:30pm) | NBC | Thu | 11.5/19 | 17.1 |
| 6) | Everybody Loves Raymond | CBS | Mon | 11.4/17 | 17.6 |
| 7) | Survivor: Marquesas | CBS | Thu | 11.1/19 | 19.3 |
| 8) | 60 Minutes | CBS | Sun | 10.9/21 | 15.3 |
| 9) | Will & Grace | NBC | Thu | 10.7/17 | 16.3 |
| 10) | The King of Queens | CBS | Mon | 10.3/16 | 15.6 |
| | | | | | |
| NIELSEN AVERAGES SEASON-TO-DATE | |
| | NBC | 8.9 | | |
| | CBS | 8.1 | | |
| | ABC | 6.4 | | |
| | Fox | 5.8 | | |
| | UPN | 2.7 | | |
| | WB | 2.4 | | |
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air NHL Conference Quarterfinals, Canucks-Red Wings, at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air NHL Conference Quarterfinals: Senators-Flyers at 7:00pm ET, and Coyotes-Sharks at 10:00pm ET.
TNT will air Sixers-Pacers at 8:00pm ET and Kings-Lakers at 10:30pm ET.
ESPN will air Mariners-A’s at 10:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Brian Piccolo at 8:00pm ET.
Sixers F Derrick Coleman, NFL prospect Roy Williams and Mel Kiper Jr. will be on ESPN’s “Unscripted.”
Astros RF Lance Berkman and Reds P Jose Rijo will be on FSN’s “The Last Word.”
NFL prospect Josh Reed will be on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
A&E’s “Biography” will profile actress Jamie Lee Curtis at 8:00pm ET.
E!’s “True Hollywood Story” will profile MN Gov. Jesse Ventura at 8:00pm ET and Hulk Hogan at 9:00pm ET.
NBC will air “Ship At War: Inside the Carrier Stennis” with Tom Brokaw at 8:00pm ET.
The Discovery Channel will air “The Scorpion King Unveiled” at 8:00pm ET.
MTV will air “ICON 2002” with Aerosmith at 9:00pm ET.
ABC News’ “Downtown” will have a story on NASCAR wives at 10:00pm ET.
Jeff Gordon will co-host “Live With Regis and Kelly” tomorrow morning at 9:00am ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “The Late Show” | Jonny Moseley (r) |
| “The Tonight Show” | Michael Clarke Duncan |
| “The Late Late Show” | Ashton Kutcher (r) |
| “Late Night” | Ethan Hawke |
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
The Closing Bell provides an afternoon recap of the latest news and headlines each Monday through Friday at approximately 4:00pm ET. If you would like to sign up for an e-mail alert to the Closing Bell, go to My Account and personalize your e-mail alert options.
