Closing Bell, February 20, 2003

REEBOK TO HAVE PRESENCE IN RETAILER LIMITED TOO

Reebok and Limited Too today announced a partnership under which Reebok footwear will be placed in Limited Too stores, on its Web site and in its “catazine,” a product and promotions guide sent to four million active Limited Too shoppers. Reebok is specifically targeting the 8-to-14 year-old female demo to which the store caters. The Preferred Partnership Program, which launches next month in select locations of the retailer’s 510 stores, offers exclusivity in the athletic footwear category for Reebok. Product offerings focus on the company’s Classics retro line, but soccer cleats and cheerleading shoes will also be included. Reebok will have a presence at the front of each store as well as in the store’s dressing rooms. Exclusive products and color schemes will be created as part of the program (THE DAILY).

UPHEAVAL AT FIAT HAS PREVENTED OFFICIAL ‘06 ANNOUNCEMENT

The AP reports that the Turin Organizing Committee (TOROC) has “struck a major sponsorship agreement” with Turin-based automaker Fiat for the ’06 Olympics, but “upheaval at Italy’s largest private employer has prevented an official announcement of a deal.” Fiat is expected to be the “largest local sponsor of the Winter Games.” Fiat recently reduced large sponsorship deals for the ’03 Tour de France and Giro d’Italia (AP, 2/20).

BREWERS 60+ CLUB TO OFFER DISCOUNTS TO SENIOR CITIZENS

The Brewers today announced details of the “60+ Club,” a fan club designed for seniors sixty and over. Retirement community The Village at Manor Park is the primary sponsor of the club, and Brewers VP/Marketing Laurel Prieb told The Daily this afternoon that while the team is not currently seeking other sponsorship, they “would be interested if opportunities were to arise.” For a $35 fee, members receive four ticket vouchers redeemable at select games, four “Bring a Guest” coupons for a half-price ticket and four parking coupons, as well as various Brewers merchandise. Among the activities scheduled for the club are “The World’s Oldest Tailgate Party” and the “Senior Strolls.” Prieb: “We are certainly part of an aging society, and that particular age segment has always had a strong affinity for baseball. I think this will continue to be a trend throughout all of baseball” (THE DAILY).

HIGH-DEFINITION COVERAGE TO INCLUDE 12 GAMES ON CBS

Sears, Roebuck & Co. today announced an agreement to sponsor CBS’ high-definition TV coverage of the ’03 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Coverage will include 12 games, the first eight of which will be regional broadcasts. The South Region final in San Antonio, the two national semifinals and the national championship game round out the coverage (THE DAILY).

TNT EARNS HIGHEST NBA RATING OF SEASON TUESDAY NIGHT

TNT’s coverage of Rockets-Lakers Tuesday night featuring Yao Ming against a Shaq-less Lakers posted a 2.3/ (1,954,000 HHs) Nielsen cable rating, making it the highest-rated TNT regular-season telecast of the season. The rating also marks the first time an NBA game on TNT has rated a two or higher since a Blazers-Jazz matchup in November ‘99, which drew a 2.0/ (1,507,000 HHs). Furthermore, “Listen Up!” posted its highest rating ever on Tuesday night, earning a 1.2/ (1,019,000 HHs). ESPN’s broadcast of Lakers-Rockets on January 17 was the highest-rated NBA telecast for that net as well (THE DAILY).

PROMOTION OF THE WEEK: MULLET NIGHT WITH MELROSE

The AHL Manchester Monarchs will host ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose tomorrow night during the team’s 7:35pm ET game against the Portland Pirates, which has been affectionately dubbed, “Mullet Night with Melrose.” The night was conceived to pay homage to the mullet hairstyle that has its fair share of devotees in the professional hockey ranks, as well as in Manchester, NH.

As part of the event, Melrose will be inducted into the fictitious Mullet Hall of Fame during the first intermission, and will receive a Monarchs jersey with his name and the number 10/90 on the back. The 10/90, of course, refers to the proportion of hair in front compared to the length in back. Melrose will also participate in a meet-and-greet prior to the game with select Monarch fans.

The first 4,000 adult males at the game will receive a mullet wig courtesy of Trimz Family Haircut Center. For those men who sport a mullet of their own, Trimz barbers will be on hand to offer a quick cleanup. Women with a femullet need not fear, as they will not be turned away if seeking a trim of their own.

The promotion is being supported on several radio stations with a spot specifically written for the event. Furthermore, classic rock station WGIR-FM is offering five pairs of tickets to its listeners with the best mullets. WGIR has been teasing the event for the past two weeks. Other highlights of the night include an on-ice contest to determine the radio contestant with the “ Best Mullet,” and “Celebrity Mullet Match-Ups” throughout the game on the video screen. Don’t be surprised to see Randy Johnson, Billy Ray Cyrus or any one of the ’93 Phillies on the board.

The Monarchs are averaging a league-leading 8,773 per game at the 10,000-seat Verizon Wireless Arena, and Promotions Manager Laura Brown said that the team is expecting its 13^th sellout of the season tomorrow night. Brown also said that coach Bruce Boudreau has yet to decide if the team will wear the wigs during warm-ups.

Do you have an interesting promotion The Daily should know about? If so, please email Joe Oliver at joeo@sportsbusinessdaily.com

BUZZER BEATERS

The PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER reports on the Flyers’ plans this year for playoff tickets, noting that instead of “selling tickets for 14 home games, the Flyers have installed a tier system” in which prices will remain stable for first and second rounds, “then escalate if the Flyers advance” to the Eastern Conference and Stanley Cup finals. Under the new system, fans will not be billed for the third and fourth round until the team advances (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 2/20).

College Sports Television (CSTV) today announced that Jack Edwards and Vera Jones will provide play-by-play and color commentary, respectively, for the net’s Notre Dame-UConn NCAA women’s basketball game Sunday at 2:05 pm ET. The game commences the “Countdown to CSTV,” a six-week free preview of the net culminating with the official launch on April 7 (THE DAILY).

ESPN announced today that with a majority of the Northeast snowed in due to the storm on Monday, ESPN’s “Around The Horn,” and “Pardon The Interruption,” earned their highest ratings ever.  “Around The Horn” posted a 0.73/ (638,000 HHs) Nielsen cable rating, while “PTI” recorded a 1.15/ (1,002,000 HHs) (THE DAILY).

The AP reports that Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner said today in FL that the team “faced a big burden when it comes to the luxury tax and revenue sharing.” The Yankees currently are projected to pay $45M in revenue sharing and $11M in luxury tax. Steinbrenner: “We’ve got to support one-half of the teams in baseball and then present a team that I'd like to present for my fans in New York and all over” (AP, 2/20).

PAINT BOOTH: Each week, some auto racing teams display different paint schemes on their cars to reflect a different sponsor, brand, promotion or special cause. This week, when the NASCAR Busch Series visits North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham for Saturday’s Rockingham 200, Just Born Inc. will promote its Marshmallow Peeps brand on the No. 12 FitzBradshaw Racing Chevy of Kerry Earnhardt.  The company primarily features its Hot Tamales brand on the car, but the one-race effort with Marshmallow Peeps is in honor of that brand’s 50th anniversary (THE DAILY).

Speed Channel tonight will present a special edition of the QVC show, “For Race Fans Only,” a two-hour program dedicated to NASCAR licensed products. Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip is the featured guest during the 7:00-9:00pm ET broadcast (THE DAILY).

In selling all of its remaining tickets earlier this week, Texas Motor Speedway announced that it has recorded its earliest sellout ever for the March 30 Samsung/RadioShack 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race (THE DAILY).

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders group today announced that it has partnered with Trans Continental Talent and Bally Total Fitness to conduct the first-ever national search to find cheerleaders for the ’03 squad (THE DAILY).

TSE Sports & Entertainment today announced that it will serve as the exclusive corporate representatives of ticket agency Broadway Inner Circle. TSE Sports & Entertainment will be responsible for all corporate bookings (THE DAILY).

A LIGHTER BUZZ

The Charleston POST & COURIER notes that 12 billboards around the city have “inflamed the passions of men and women everywhere,” as the text reads, “Women were put on this Earth to serve.” Turns out the billboards were a “publicity stunt” to promote the WTA Family Circle Cup scheduled to take place in April (Charleston POST & COURIER, 2/20).

TONIGHT’S EVENTS

The Citizens’ Task Force on Chargers Issues will conduct a 6:30pm PT public session at San Diego City Hall, and the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE reported that the task force “is ready to tell the City Council to open talks with the team on building a new stadium.” However, task force members have yet to decide whether “any public funds should be committed to the project or where the stadium should be built” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/19).

As part of the NBA Hardwood Classics Nights, the Nets will honor the ‘75-76 ABA Championship team by wearing retro home uniforms from that season during the team’s 7:30pm ET game against the Pacers (THE DAILY).

D’Backs broadcaster Joe Garagiola will receive the Arizona Ecumenical Council’s Humanitarian Award during a 6:00pm MT awards banquet at the Pointe Hilton-Squaw Peak Resort for his work with children on the Gila River Indian Reservation (THE DAILY).

CHANNEL SURFING

Freestyle motocross rider Brian Deegan will be on FSN’s “54321” at 5:30pm ET.

ESPN will air “The Sports Reporters II” at 7:30pm ET.

ESPN2 will air NCAA men’s basketball, Wake Forest-Georgia Tech at 7:00pm ET, and Charlotte-Marquette at 9:00pm ET.

TNT will air “Listen Up!” at 7:00pm ET, followed by Pacers-Nets at 7:30pm ET, and Celtics-Kings at 10:00pm ET.

ESPN will air Avalanche-Penguins or Kings-Flyers at 8:00pm ET.

FSN will air California-UCLA at 10:30pm ET.

ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Frank Gifford at 8:00pm ET.

Notre Dame football coach Ty Willingham, Saints S Sammy Knight and actor Chazz Palminteri are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”

Clippers G Quentin Richardson will appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” at 12:05am ET.

SI swimsuit cover model Petra Nemcova will appear on “The Late Late Show” with Craig Kilborn at 12:35am ET.

A&E’s “Biography” will profile civil rights activist James Baldwin at 8:00pm ET.

E!’s “True Hollywood Story” offers the “Beach Boys” at 8:00pm ET.

HEADLINERS

Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:

TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST

NEWSDAY’s Monty Phan notes that Rockets C Yao Ming’s “rise as a pitchman has caught some marketing experts off-guard, because many expected Yao’s court skills – and hence, his status as an endorser – to take some time.” S.F.-based Pickett Advertising Exec Creative Dir Bob Dorfman: “All of a sudden, he’s all over the place. I think it’s a little bit of a surprise to see how comfortable he is on camera and how charismatic he is without being able to speak more than a few sentences of English” (NEWSDAY).

The WASHINGTON POST’s Nunyo Demasio writes from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis that the NFL “has instilled stricter guidelines for the event while extending it from five to seven days to ease time constraints.” The revamped system is in contrast to years past, when, according to Colts GM Bill Polian, “The interview process was becoming unwieldy. You had people chasing around kids; arguments taking place over who was going where; appointments made and broken” (WASHINGTON POST).

The L.A. TIMES’ Thomas Bonk writes that in the game of golf, “It’s an all-out race to the scoring table for the best professional golfers in the world, who are are armed with the most technologically advanced equipment available and assaulting par and posting scores as if nothing can stop them … but before everyone gets too carried away on the technology side, a little examination of the factors is in order” (L.A. TIMES).

The TORONTO SUN’s Dean McNulty previews the upcoming CART season, writing that it “has been buried more times than Dracula.” Nonetheless, McNulty writes that the series “is ready to light up the track,” after what can “only politely be called a year of living dangerously in which it lost its winningest driver (Michael Andretti, to the rival IRL), its reigning champion (Cristiano da Matta, to Formula One), its title sponsor (FedEx), and two of its three engine suppliers (Toyota and Honda)” (TORONTO SUN).

See The Daily Insider’s Articles Of Interest section for more sports business-related links.

TODAY’S TEASER…

Sports Business: Which NBA team has seen the largest increase at the gates this season (through Monday’s games)?

1. Rockets
2. Mavericks
3. Hornets
4. Nets
5. Pistons

IN OTHER NEWS…

In FORTUNE's annual poll of 10,000 executives, directors, and analysts, Wal-Mart has “toppled General Electric as the most admired company in America.” It marks the “first time in the survey's 21-year history that the nation's largest company is also its most admired.” GE, which had “led the list for five straight years, slipped to No. 5." The top ten is as follows: (FORTUNE, 3/3 issue).

THE DAILY STAT: PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS

The following lists the final Nielsen ratings for the top ten primetime shows for the week of February 10-16. Also provided are the weekly viewership averages for each net (USA TODAY, 2/20).

…TODAY’S ANSWER

The Hornets have benefited from the move to New Orleans with a 29.6% jump.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com

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