| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Monday, July 8, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| • | Promotions Wizard Mike Veeck To Keep Fans Out Of Park |
| • | Athens To Get IOC Approval For Any Venue Cutbacks |
| • | PASO Lines Up Latin Stars To Pitch '03 Games In Dominican |
| • | Hardee's Goes All Out With Rams Sponsorship |
| • | On The Road Again: NLL Eastern Division Champs Move To Denver |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Daily Stat/Articles of Interest/In Other News/Channel Surfing |
RIVERDOGS LOOKING TO MAKE HISTORY WITH “NOBODY NIGHT”
The Class A South Atlantic League Charleston RiverDogs are featuring a special "Nobody Night" this evening for their home game against the Columbus Red Stixx at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in SC. The idea, generated by team President Mike Veeck, is intended to set a professional baseball attendance record when the two teams play their game in front of nobody. Fans will be asked to remain outside the ballpark during the first five innings of the game while the game operations will go on as normal. Ticket holders will be treated to a party in the adjacent Brittlebank Park during the first half of the game, and will be allowed into the ballpark once the game becomes official after the fifth inning The smallest reported paid attendance ever at a pro game is 12, which attended the Chicago-Troy game on September 17, 1881. Meanwhile, HBO's "Real Sports" will send a crew to cover the "RiverDogs Nobody Night." The show is planning a documentary on Veeck and his marketing efforts, but has not released any air-date information (THE DAILY).
GREEK OFFICIAL: NO '04 CUTBACKS WITHOUT IOC CONSULTATION
Denis Oswald, the coordinator of Athens' Olympic preparations, will "not scale back venues for the 2004 Games without consulting" the IOC and other int'l sports federations. While Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced last week that the government "decided to reduce the scale of some sports venues because some federations demanded overly extravagant facilities," IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said that Oswald has "asked the government to have all proposed cuts approved." Venizelos sent a letter to the IOC, "pledging cooperation with the organization" (AP, 7/8)
PAN AM GROUP GETS PLAYERS TO PUSH '03 EVENT IN DOMINICAN
Pan Am Sports Organization exec Luis Mejia said today that Pedro Martinez, Sammy Sosa and Raul Mondesi have agreed to publicize the '03 Pan American Games in their native country, the Dominican Republic, where it will be held. Many Dominicans "have expressed opposition to their country's hosting of the event next August, calling it an excessive luxury in a country where widespread poverty and high unemployment exists." A campaign with ads starring Martinez and Mondesi will begin this week, while Sosa and others have joined the campaign, but have "not yet recorded their advertisements." Mejia "did not say whether the men would be paid for the advertisements" (AP, 7/8).
HARDEE'S GETS ANOTHER SPORTS PARTNERSHIP WITH RAMS DEAL
Hardee's today announced a multi-year agreement with the Rams, which includes signage at the Edward Jones Dome, official game sponsorship of the "Monday Night Football" game on December 30 and promotional rights for collector cups and premiums. The multi-year deal follows Hardee's marketing partnership with the MLB Cardinals in March (THE DAILY).
NLL EASTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS MOVE TO DENVER
The DENVER POST reports that the NLL franchise in Washington, DC, on Tuesday will become "the latest addition to Kroenke Sports Enterprises' arena sports consortium," as the club that won the '02 Eastern Division moves to Denver. This will be the third move for the club, which started in Baltimore in '99 and has also played in Pittsburgh. The as- of-yet unnamed team "hopes to find a permanent address at the Pepsi Center when the 16-game season begins Dec. 27" (DENVER POST, 7/8).
BUZZER BEATERS
MLB announced today that the Red Sox' Derek Lowe and the D'Backs' Curt Schilling will start tomorrow night's All-Star Game from Milwaukee (AP, 7/8).
Souvenir and promotional products marketer and manufacturer Fotoball USA will be featured in a segment on CNBC's "Squawk Box" tomorrow between 7:30-8:00am ET. The segment highlights the company's San Diego HQs and interviews Chair & CEO Michael Favish and Senior VP & CFO Thomas Hillebrandt (THE DAILY).
France's Council to Prevent and Fight Doping reported today that "two unidentified players failed drug tests at the French Open." A CPLD official said that "one player tested positive for a banned stimulant, the other for a restricted local anesthetic." The official" refused to confirm a report in French sports daily L'Equipe that one of the players was male and the other female" (AP, 7/8).
The FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM reports that tonight and Wednesday "are the rarest of nights on the sporting calendar," as there are "no games being played in the four major-league pro sports – football, hockey, basketball and baseball – anywhere." ESPN will air an hour-long "Baseball Tonight" followed by the "Home Run Derby" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 7/8).
NBA free agent G Bruce Bowen is sponsoring the Bruce Bowen Basketball Camp for youths between the ages of 7-13. The free camp began today and runs through July12th at Edison High School in Fresno, CA (THE DAILY).
Nickelodeon this summer will feature Nickelodeon GAS: Games and Sports for Kids. The show is a sports-driven programming block, which runs for one hour at 1:00pm each weekday. Action sports athletes Ryan Nyquist and Jen O'Brien will host the show, which will feature skateboarding, BMX racing and other sports from PointXCamp in CA (THE DAILY).
TODAY'S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The WASHINGTON POST's Thomas Boswell on MLB's "mounting labor storm clouds."
The PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE's John Craig on MLB's "correctable" problems.
The Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL's Beth Kassab on NASCAR's attempt to attract minority fans.
The ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE's Jim Mandelaro on bobbleheads.
The N.Y. TIMES' Kirkpatrick & Carr on the "more or less open revolt" at AOL Time Warner.
MULTICHANNEL NEWS' Linda Haugsted notes that sports programming is not just for sports networks anymore.
See The Daily Insider's Articles Of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
IN OTHER NEWS…
Burger King today announced the completion of its new world headquarters in Miami. Employees are expected to start occupying the building located in the Waterford Office complex Monday (BRANDWEEK.com, 7/8).
Online auctioneer eBay Inc. today said it would buy PayPal Inc., "the online payment system already used by many eBay customers, in a stock swap worth" $1.5B (REUTERS, 7/8).
WWE today announced it has settled its lawsuit against the Parents TV Council (PTC), L. Brent Bozell, Media Research Center (MRC) and others, and will receive $3.5M and a series of non-monetary considerations, including a personal letter of apology from Bozell. The suit centered on various statements made by PTC and its reps linking the deaths of four children to the WWE SmackDown! program and on statements claiming that certain advertisers had stopped advertising on SmackDown (THE DAILY). Shares of WWE were at $13.27 as of presstime, up $0.27 from Friday's close of $13.00 (THE DAILY).
THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BEST SELLING NONFICTION
The following presents best selling nonfiction books from the N.Y. Times the week ending June 29, 2002 (N.Y. TIMES).
| THIS
WEEK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | SLANDER, Ann Coulter (Crown) |
| 2) | YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS, John McEnroe with James Kaplan (Putnam) |
| 3) | STUPID WHITE MEN, Michael Moore (ReganBooks/HarperCollins) |
| 4) | JOHN ADAMS, David McCullough (Simon & Schuster) |
| 5) | THE RIGHT WORDS AT THE RIGHT TIME, edited by Marlo Thomas (Atria) |
| 6) | A MIND AT A TIME, Mel Levine (Simon & Schuster) |
| 7) | THE SEXUAL LIFE OF CATHERINE M., Catherine Millet (Grove) |
| 8) | FIREHOUSE, David Halberstam (Hyperion) |
| 9) | MASTER OF THE SENATE, Robert A. Caro (Knopf) |
| 10) | LUCKY MAN, Michael J. Fox (Hyperion) |
| |
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air the '02 Century 21 Home Run Derby at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic's "SportsCentury" will profile Hank Aaron at 8:00pm ET.
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig will be on FSN's "The Last Word."
D'Backs P Curt Schilling, Rangers SS Alex Rodriguez, MLB HOFer Ozzie Smith, Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker and NFL HOFer Jim Brown are scheduled to appear on FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
A&E continues its "TVography" series with a profile of "Cheers" at 8:00pm ET.
E!'s "True Hollywood Story" will profile Carmen Electra at 8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight's headline guests on the following talk shows:
| "The Late Show" | Tom Hanks |
| "The Tonight Show" | Geraldo Rivera |
| "The Late Late Show" | Robert Goulet |
| "Late Night" | Tim Robbins (r) |
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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