| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Thursday, September 5, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | MLB Owners Approve Labor Deal By 29-1 Vote; Yankees The Lone Dissenters. |
| • | Red Sox Finalize New TV Contracts For '03 With NESN Seeing More Games. |
| • | NFL Has Times Square Ready to Rock For Maybe As Many As One Million. |
| • | Bud Greenspan's Munich Retrospective To Premier Tonight On Showtime. |
| • | Flames launch Initiative To Incorporate More Women Into Hockey |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/In Other News/Articles Of Interest/Daily Stat/Channel Surfing |
MLB OWNERS RATIFY LABOR AGREEMENT 29-1
The AP reports MLB owners today "overwhelmingly approved the new labor contract," with only the Yankees voting against it. The deal "still must be ratified by the executive board of the players' union" (AP, 9/5).
RED SOX ANNOUNCE NEW TV DEAL FOR '03; OPEN YAWKEY WAY FAIR
The AP reports that the Red Sox announced a new local TV deal today that "drops Fox and shifts games to Viacom's local UPN and CBS affiliates, as well as" to NESN, which is 80% owned by the team. The deal provides for 24 games to be broadcast on WSBK-UPN "and a minimum of four games on WBZ-CBS." All 26 Friday night telecasts will be broadcast by one of those two stations. NESN will now pick up all games not handled by WSBK, WBZ or broadcast nationally on Fox (AP, 9/5).
The PROVIDENCE JOURNAL reports that beginning tonight and continuing through the end of the season, two hours before the game "fans with tickets can access what the Red Sox see as a `street fair' on Yawkey Way." Food and beverages previously not available at the ballpark will be featured (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 9/5).
Meanwhile, AT&T Broadband is sponsoring tonight's second annual Latino Night at Fenway Park. Twenty-three Academic All-Star Latino public school students will be honored. Tonight's starting lineups will be announced in both English and Spanish, and former Red Sox P Luis Tiant will throw out the first pitch (THE DAILY).
FOOTBALL READY TO KICK OFF IN TIMES SQUARE
A party celebrating the start of the NFL season will be held tonight from 4:30-8:00pm ET in Times Square. Bon Jovi will headline the "NFL Kickoff Live from Times Square" and perform at halftime of the game. Other performers include Enrique Iglesias, Eve and Alicia Keys. Large crowds are expected, possibly in excess of 1,000,000 people. The four presenting sponsors are Coors, Reebok, PlayStation and Verizon (THE DAILY).
The Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE reports that ESPN for the first time will "utilize SkyCam during its regular season telecasts. The network will also introduce what it is calling the `Sunday Night Virtual Playbook,'" which features "new technical advancements in telestrator technology and graphics" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 9/5).
ESPN Senior VP/Programming John Wildhack, on approaching the NFL about airing a Thursday night opener: "The NFL was very receptive. They understood the objective and wanted to create something that was worthwhile." NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue: "We wanted to see what we could do to make the start of the season more special and we thought having a primetime game to start the weekend, on Thursday, and another, on Monday night, to end it, worked" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/5).
BUD GREENSPAN'S MUNICH FILM TO DEBUT ON SHOWTIME TONIGHT
Showtime will air "The 1972 Munich Olympic Games: Bud Greenspan Remembers" tonight at 10:00pm ET, and the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM writes, "Greenspan's compelling and wonderfully fluid 90-minute retrospective provides a detailed look at those Games, from the thoughts and feelings of the athletes to the tender memories of the survivors of those who were killed" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 9/5).
ORLANDO PREDATORS ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES ECHL TEAM
Orlando Predators Entertainment (OPE) formally announced today that it has acquired the ECHL LA IceGators, a team formerly owned and operated by OPE President Dave Berryman. The IceGators will play in Cajundome in Lafayette, LA. In addition, OPE announced plans to put an af2 team in LA for the '03 season (THE DAILY).
ESPN ORIGINAL ENTERTAINMENT RATINGS SUCCESSES
ESPN2's premiere episode of "Street Ball Presented by Mountain Dew Code Red" on Tuesday earned a 0.69/ (580,000 HHs) Nielsen cable rating, making it the most-viewed ESPN Original Entertainment program in the network's history. It was also the highest rated EOE program in the male 18+ (0.58), male 18-34 (1.18) and male 18-49 (0.79) demos (THE DAILY).
BUZZER BEATERS
The Flames today launched the Women at Centre Ice Program – a series of four luncheons celebrating and raising awareness of women in hockey (THE DAILY).
Former Bears S Mark Carrier has been "hired by Fox Sports as an NFL analyst for Sunday's" Lions-Bears game. Carrier will team with play-by-play man Dan Miller (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/5).
TODAY'S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER's Bill Lyon writes under the header, "The Sports World Must Remember Sept. 11," that the anniversary of the terrorist attacks "comes at us like the mournful, seductive call of a freight train in the night, or the heart-stabbing melancholy of a lone bagpiper somewhere in the mist, squeezing out the haunting strains of 'Amazing Grace'" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER).
In an Op-Ed, BLOODHORSE.com Editor-in-Chief Ray Paulick writes, "Most of the comments heard about the host track for this year's Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships revolve around a decision to limit attendance to 45,000 and prohibit the sale of general admission tickets" (BLOODHORSE.com).
The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH's Jim Thomas reports on the Rams' new Field Turf surface in their indoor facility. The Rams installed the surface "at the urging of [Rams RB Marshall] Faulk, Kurt Warner and some Rams receivers" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH).
THE SPORTING NEWS' Ken Rosenthal dispels the nine myths of baseball's new labor agreement, including "The Yankees will stop spending," "The Royals are cured" and "Drug testing will curb the use of performance-enhancing drugs" (THE SPORTING NEWS).
CBS SportsLine's Rick Horrow writes that while the NFL is the "model sports league," it nevertheless faces "three ongoing challenges in key areas: (a) labor relations; (b) facility development; and (c) television/corporate advertising" (CBS SportsLine).
See The Daily Insider's Articles Of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TONIGHT'S EVENTS
Sporting News Radio will broadcast the "Bill Parcells Football Show" at 5:00pm ET. The show, which highlights the weekend's NFL match-ups, features Parcells, Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough and Sporting News Radio host Bruce Murray (THE DAILY).
The Dolphins will host a pep rally from 6:30-8:30pm ET at CityPlace featuring current and former players (PALM BEACH POST, 9/5).
The Coyotes will host an open house from 4:30-6:30pm PT at the Chris-Town YMCA in Phoenix to launch "Street Coyotes," a year-round street hockey program to teach children age 6-16 the basic rules and fundamentals of street hockey (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS….
Campbell Soup Co. posted a 6% increase in its Q4 profits, and revenues were "up nearly as much as the food maker completed the first year of its turnaround plan." Net income for the quarter ended July 28 was $55M, or $0.13 per share. Revenues for the year were up 6%, to $6.13B from $5.77 billion a year earlier (AP, 9/5).
THE DAILY STAT: PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS
The following lists the final Nielsen ratings for the top ten primetime shows for the week of August 26 - September 1. Also provided are Nielsen ratings averages season-to-date for the nets' primetime coverage (USA TODAY, 9/5).
| TOP TEN PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS FOR AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1 |
| RK | PROGRAM | NET | DAY | RAT/SHR | VIEWERS
(IN MILLIONS) |
| 1) | American Idol | Fox | Wed | 9.7/16 | 16.9 |
| 2) | American Idol | Fox | Tue | 8.7/14 | 15.0 |
| 3) | Everybody Loves Raymond | CBS | Mon | 9.7/15 | 14.7 |
| 4) | CSI | CBS | Mon | 9.5/16 | 14.0 |
| 5) | CSI | CBS | Thu | 8.6/14 | 13.3 |
| 6) | Law & Order | NBC | Wed | 9.1/16 | 12.9 |
| 7) | Dog Eat Dog | NBC | Mon | 7.1/11 | 12.1 |
| 8) | Dateline | NBC | Tue | 8.5/15 | 12.0 |
| 9) | NFL Pre-season Football | ABC | Mon | 7.8/13 | 11.3 |
| 10) | 60 Minutes | CBS | Sun | 7.3/16 | 10.8 |
| |
| NIELSEN AVERAGES SEASON-TO-DATE |
| |
| | NBC | | 8.3 | |
| | |
| | | CBS | | 7.8 | |
| | |
| | | ABC | | 6.0 | |
| | |
| | | Fox | | 5.4 | |
| | |
| | | UPN | | 2.6 | |
| | |
| | | WB | | 2.4 | |
| |
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air a special two-hour edition of "Sunday NFL Countdown" at 6:30 pm ET.
USA will air U.S. Open men's quarterfinals and women's doubles semifinals coverage at 7:00pm ET. Pete Sampras versus Andy Roddick is the featured match.
ESPN2 will air MLS action, MetroStars-Burn, at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN will air 49ers-Giants at 8:30pm ET.
TNT will air quarterfinal action of the World Basketball Championships at 9:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic's "SportsCentury" will profile Bill Parcells at 8:00pm ET and Albert Belle at 8:30 pm ET.
Former NFLer Jack Tatum and CO State Univ. football coach Sonny Lubick are scheduled to appear on "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
Univ. of OK football coach Bob Stoops and Olympian Mark Spitz will be on FSN's "The Last Word."
A&E's "Biography" will profile Richard Simmons at 8:00pm ET.
Tomorrow morning Terry Bradshaw will be on "Imus In The Morning."
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight's headline guests on the following talk shows:
| "The Late Show" | Drea de Matteo |
| "The Tonight Show" | Jimmy Fallon |
| "The Late Late Show" | William Shatner (r) |
| "Late Night" | Topher Grace |
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.
