| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, June 4, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| • | Early Preview Of THE DAILY's Q&A With NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman |
| • | Hasek In Line For $1M Bonus If Red Wings Emerge Victorious |
| • | New Era Cap Co. Halts CWA Strike With Tentative Contract Agreement |
| • | TNT, CNNfn Reach Agreement To Divide '02 Wimbledon TV Coverage |
| • | Eight Cities File Formal Paperwork To Host 2010 Winter Games |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Daily Stat/In Other News/Channel Surfing |
PREVIEW: THE DAILY'S ONE-ON-ONE WITH GARY BETTMAN
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently sat down with THE DAILY's Editor-at-Large Terry Lefton for an exclusive interview on the state of the league as it begins its Stanley Cup Finals. The following is an excerpt of their conversation that will be featured in tomorrow's issue:
THE DAILY: With the Stanley Cup Finals underway, what is your state of the union message?
BETTMAN: We're having a strong season, and the vital signs are good. That doesn¹t mean we don't have some things we need to work on, but there are a lot of positives -- ratings, attendance and sponsorship were strong in a soft economy.
THE DAILY: Your off-season agenda is…
BETTMAN: We will look at a couple of rule modifications, such as the 'hurry-up' face-off. We will look at continuing to improve officiating with our two-referee system, and we'll work on getting more exposure of the game for our fans and our marketing partners.
WITH BONUS, HASEK MIGHT BE ABLE TO AFFORD TICKETS TO GAME
Red Wings G Dominik Hasek "will earn a $1 million bonus" if his team wins the NHL Stanley Cup championship, the "most lucrative potential bonus for any player" in the Finals. Hasek is one of 13 players "who will make extra money if their team wins the championship or they win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable postseason player" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 6/4).
Meanwhile, the DETROIT NEWS reports that tickets for tonight's Hurricanes-Red Wings Finals Game One that originally cost between $80 and $400 "are running in the neighborhood of $1,500 per ticket" through brokers. The game is sold out (DETROIT NEWS, 6/4).
USOC TO NARROW BID CITY CANDIDATES FROM FOUR TO TWO
The USOC's Bid Evaluation Task force announced today it will recommend reducing the field of candidate host cities for the 2012 Olympic Games from four to two following the USOC's Phase II site evaluations in June and July. The Committee expects to reach a decision on the two remaining finalists in September, and will submit those names to the USOC's Exec Committee for approval. The USOC's BOD then will vote on the U.S. city at its November 2-3 meetings in Colorado Springs (THE DAILY).
EIGHT CITIES SUBMIT APPLICATIONS TO HOST 2010 WINTER GAMES
Eight cities, including Sarajevo, site of the '84 Winter Olympics, have applied to host the 2010 Winter Games. Sarajevo joins Salzburg, Austria; Bern, Switzerland; Jaca, Spain; and Andorra La Vella, as five European cities to submit applications. Vancouver; Harbin, China; and Pyongchang, South Korea, also applied. The winning city will be selected at the IOC meeting in Prague in July '03 (AP, 6/4).
FEDERAL JUDGE APPROVES TITANS NAMING RIGHTS SETTLEMENT
The TENNESSEAN reports that a federal bankruptcy court judge in N.Y. this morning formally approved a settlement between the Titans and Adelphia Business Solutions that will remove the telecom company's "name from the NFL team's home stadium in Nashville by the end of July." Under the terms, the 15-year, $30M naming rights deal that the Titans and Adelphia signed in '99 has been terminated. The Titans will forgive Adelphia's missed $500,000 sponsorship payment and "relinquish any other claims on the company, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 27" (TENNESSEAN.com, 6/4).
HALF COURT: TNT TO SPLIT WIMBLEDON COVERAGE WITH CNNFN
Turner Sports President Mark Lazarus announced today that TNT and CNNfn will televise 114.5 hours of Wimbledon '02 coverage, with TNT airing 86.5 total hours and CNNfn picking up 28 hours of programming. In addition, CNNfn will present a series each weekday from June 24-July 5 called "Money & Sports" that will examine the business of sports and augment the network's Wimbledon coverage (THE DAILY).
NEW ERA REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH CWA, ENDS STRIKE
New Era Cap Co. and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have reached a tentative four-year contract agreement that provides increases in wages and health insurance contributions. The agreement, which ends an 11-month long strike by the CWA, will be recommended to New Era's 330 employees working in its Derby, NY, facility (THE DAILY).
LIGHTER BUZZ
The nominees for the 10th annual ESPY Awards were announced today. View the nominees in the category of Best Male Athlete, Best Female Athlete and Best Moment. The ESPY Awards will be televised on ESPN Wednesday, July 10 at 9:00pm ET (THE DAILY).
Spanish-language Internet network YupiMSN.com today announced an agreement making ESPNdeportes.com the exclusive sports content provider for the Web site throughout the Americas (THE DAILY).
After extending their current agreement with Richard Childress Racing yesterday, Action Performance Companies today extended their ongoing licensing and marketing contract with Robert Yates Racing through 2017 (THE DAILY).
The CHICAGO SUN-TIMES reports that several items signed by rookie Cubs P Mark Prior during his stint with the Southern League West TN Diamond Jaxx sold last week on eBay. Game-worn caps "went for as much as $390," while game-used autographed baseballs "brought $217.50 to $306" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/4).
BSkyB reports that Britney Spears is "set to strap on her helmet and put the pedal to the metal in a movie" about NASCAR. One insider reports, "There is no title yet but the film is inspired by one of Britney's favourite movies, Days Of Thunder, which starred Tom Cruise" (BskyB.com, 5/31).
TONIGHT'S EVENTS
The Rams will host the fifth annual Bowl-a-RAM-a to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of the St. Louis Region from 6:00-9:00pm CT at Tropicana Lanes. C Andy McCollum is among the players that will be in attendance (THE DAILY).
The Best Buy Viewing Party at Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH, will open at 1:30am ET and televise the U.S.-Portugal World Cup match at 4:55am ET. Admission to "Cup Headquarters" is free and complimentary snacks and beverages courtesy of Pepsi, Aramark, Krispy Kreme and more will be provided (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS…
The Walt Disney Company, Bank One Corp. and Visa today announced two multi-year deals that will create the first Disney-branded Visa credit card with Disney rewards. As part of the relationship, Visa will continue to be a major advertiser on Disney's media properties, including ABC, ESPN and SoapNet (THE DAILY).
The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that, according to a cable research study by Leichtman Research Group, the number of U.S. digital cable subscribers "will double over the next three years to reach 32 million in 2005." The number will rise from 16 million as of the end of Q1 this year (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 6/4).
REUTERS reports that Evel Knievel "wants one last chance to show the world he can still go the distance with a final jump" that would "mark the grand opening of his Evel Knievel Xperience Cafe, an ode to his life and truck stop food, slated for completion next spring in the town of Primm, Nevada" (REUTERS, 6/4).
THE DAILY STAT: NIELSEN//NETRATINGS SPORTS SITES
The following are the top sports Internet properties accessed from home and work, ranked by Nielsen//NetRatings in terms of unique audience for the week ending May 19. "Unique audience" = the number of people who access a site, with each person counted only once. "Active Reach %" = the number of unique Web users viewing a Web site one or more times, expressed as a percentage of the total active Web population for this week (i.e. 3.8% of Web users accessing the Internet from home viewed a site on ESPN at least once this time period). "Average Time Spent" = the average amount of time a visitor has spent at that property for the week. The data is based on audience measurement of more than 50,000 U.S. panelists who have Internet access at home and 7,000 U.S. panelists who have Internet access at work. Traffic to these sites are the predominant URLs, and are grouped to include commonly-owned sites (NetRatings):
| TOP SPORTS SITES – WEEK ENDING 5/19/02 |
| AT HOME |
| RK | BRAND OR CHANNEL | UNIQUE
AUD. (000) | ACTIVE
REACH % | AVERAGE
TIME SPENT
(HH:MM:SS) |
| 1) | ESPN | 3,013 | 3.8 | 0:23:24 |
| 2) | Yahoo! Sports | 1,635 | 2.1 | 0:33:48 |
| 3) | MLB.com | 1,280 | 1.6 | 0:17:29 |
| 4) | Sportsline.com | 1,148 | 1.4 | 0:18:00 |
| 5) | NASCAR.com | 972 | 1.2 | 0:08:43 |
| 6) | CNNsi | 905 | 1.1 | 0:10:27 |
| 7) | NBA Internet Network | 636 | 0.8 | 0:09:26 |
| 8) | NFL Internet Network | 632 | 0.8 | 0:12:18 |
| 9) | sportingnews.com | 341 | 0.4 | 0:10:11 |
| 10) | FansOnly | 337 | 0.4 | 0:05:33 |
| | | | | |
| AT WORK |
| RK | BRAND OR CHANNEL | UNIQUE
AUD. (000) | ACTIVE
REACH % | AVERAGE
TIME SPENT
(HH:MM:SS) |
| 1) | ESPN | 3,377 | 8.2 | 0:31:24 |
| 2) | Yahoo! Sports | 1,599 | 3.9 | 0:20:37 |
| 3) | MLB.com | 1,179 | 2.9 | 0:10:35 |
| 4) | Sportsline.com | 936 | 2.3 | 0:10:17 |
| 5) | CNNsi | 706 | 1.7 | 0:11:09 |
| 6) | NBA Internet Network | 677 | 1.7 | 0:18:04 |
| 7) | NASCAR.com | 466 | 1.1 | 0:06:56 |
| 8) | NFL Internet Network | 441 | 1.1 | 0:07:01 |
| 9) | FansOnly | 343 | 0.8 | 0:09:49 |
| 10) | USA Today Sports | 342 | 0.8 | 0:06:18 |
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air ESPN Magazine's "The Sports Reporter's NHL Special" at 7:00pm ET and "Quest for the Cup" at 7:30pm ET.
ESPN will air NHL Finals Game One, Hurricanes-Red Wings, at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic's "SportsCentury" will profile Jack Dempsey at 8:00pm ET.
Actor Matt Damon will be on ESPN's "Unscripted."
NBA Commissioner David Stern will be on FSN's "The Last Word."
Boxing writer Bert Sugar, former NBAer George Gervin and Nancy Lopez will be on FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
A&E's "Biography" will profile "The 20th Century's Top 15 Inventors" at 8:00pm ET.
E!'s "True Hollywood Story" will profile the movie "Dirty Dancing" at 8:00pm ET and "Flashdance" at 10:00pm ET.
Flyers C Jeremy Roenick will host "Stories From The Hall Of Fame: Hockey" on the History Channel at 8:00pm ET.
Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves will be on CBS' "Late Show" with David Letterman.
Former NBAer John Salley will be on ABC's "Politically Incorrect."
Actor Alec Baldwin and IRL driver George Mack will be on ESPN's "Mohr Sports" at 12:30am ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight's headline guests on the following talk shows:
| "The Late Show" | Celine Dion |
| "The Tonight Show" | Ashley Judd |
| "The Late Late Show" | Rob Morrow |
| "Late Night" | Anthony Hopkins |
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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