| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Monday March 3, 2003
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | ABC Sports President Howard Katz To Resign March 14 |
| • | Magna Entertainment To Submit Detailed Plans Today For Dixon Downs |
| • | Rogge Talks Tough Today At World Conference On Doping In Sport |
| • | Showtime To Premiere Bud Greenspan’s Olympic Documentary Tonight |
| • | Mighty Ducks Collect Nearly 1,000 Signatures For Postcards To Send To Troops |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
BODENHEIMER TO REPLACE KATZ AS ABC SPORTS PRESIDENT
Walt Disney President & COO Robert Iger and ABC Television Network President Alex Wallau today announced that ABC Sports President Howard Katz has decided to resign from Walt Disney to pursue other interests, effective March 14. ESPN President George Bodenheimer will assume Katz’ role, and will continue to report to Iger. Bodenheimer joined ESPN in ’81, and was named ESPN President in October ’98. ABC Sports and ESPN will continue to be run as separate operations within Walt Disney (THE DAILY).
MAGNA PLANS CALL FOR A $250M RACETRACK DEVELOPMENT IN CA
The SACRAMENTO BEE reports that Magna Entertainment today will submit to the city of Dixon its “detailed plans for a $250[M] racetrack, shopping and entertainment development.” If approved, Dixon Downs would include “in its first phase a state-of-the-art racetrack, simulcast center and stables to accommodate more than 1,600 horses.” Moreover, the 6,800-seat Finish Line Pavilion would double as an entertainment venue with a theater-in-the-round. Magna officials said that the plans for Dixon Downs “have gone through more than 40 revisions since a public meeting in October 2001” (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/3).
ROGGE THREATENS INT’L FEDERATIONS, NATIONAL COMMITTEES
Speaking at the three-day World Conference on Doping in Sport in Copenhagen, IOC President Jacques Rogge today said, “There should be no place in the Olympic Games for international federations or national Olympic committees who refuse to implement the code.” The goal of the conference is to approve the first World Anti-Doping Code. However, FIFA and the Int’l Cycling Union “criticized the plan as discriminatory and legally suspect, and sought more changes before it is adopted Wednesday” (AP, 3/3).
“SALT LAKE 2002: BUD GREENSPAN’S STORIES OF OLYMPIC GLORY”
Showtime tonight will premiere “Salt Lake 2002: Bud Greenspan’s Stories of Olympic Glory,” the official documentary of the 2002 Winter Games, at 9:00pm ET. The film, which was written, produced and directed by Bud Greenspan, marks his seventh Olympic documentary.
In L.A., Larry Stewart writes, “His formula works once again. This may be Greenspan’s best work” (L.A. TIMES, 3/3).
In Atlanta, Mike Tierney writes what Greenspan does “exceedingly well is identify about 15 potential subjects in the enormous cast of athletes prior to each Games and winnow them to a half-dozen pieces.” Not apologizing for the fact that each segment ends on a positive note, Greenspan says, “I like pageantry. The Olympics are two weeks of fluff” (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/3).
BUZZER BEATERS
Despite the fact that ABC was able to feature Tiger Woods in the 36-hole final match of the World Golf Championship Accenture World Match Play Championship, Fox issued a release today stating that “NASCAR on Fox Tames Tiger,” as the net’s coverage of the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 earned a 6.3/13 overnight Nielsen rating as compared to a 5.9/12 for the golf finale. ABC’s golf coverage was metered from 3:00-7:15pm ET, while Fox’ NASCAR coverage went from 3:15-6:15pm ET (THE DAILY).
The Mighty Ducks collected nearly 1,000 signatures as part of its postcard program to send to U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East yesterday before and during the team’s game against the Thrashers at Arrowhead Pond, the first of four games for which the program is planned. The first round of postcards will be sent to troops aboard the USS Boxer and USS Bon Homme Richard. The front of the postcard can be seen here, while the back reads, “A note from one of your biggest fans!” (THE DAILY).
F1 Chair Bernie Ecclestone, on infighting within the racing series: “We are bogged down with history and folklore and (are) racing with decisions that have nothing to do with our current circumstances. The regulations do not reflect today’s values and what we need to be doing now. If everybody got around a table, we could start work on it now, but I need the teams and the rest to say they want change” (LONDON TIMES, 3/3).
The Warren County (OH) Convention & Visitors Bureau Sports Marketing Department and Tennis for Charity officials announced that the two will collaborate to attract additional tennis events to Warren County, following the recent agreement to acquire the ATP tennis facility in Mason, OH (THE DAILY).
Muhammad Ali today entered into an exclusive private autographing agreement with Steiner Sports Marketing (THE DAILY).
MLB Advanced Media today named SportingNews.com as the official provider of fantasy baseball games and related baseball insider information for MLB.com (THE DAILY).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
In this week’s issue of The Hockey News, Red Wings C Sergei Fedorov confirmed that he and Anna Kournikova were once married and are now divorced (HOCKEY NEWS, 3/3 issue).
The LAS VEGAS SUN notes that the line for the men’s room around the corner from the dressing rooms of John Ruiz and Roy Jones, Jr. at the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday night “was disappointingly long.” The line prompted Bob Costas to attempt to cut, but he “was promptly booed to the end” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 3/3).
ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons mentioned “The Art of Losing” by Boston-based quartert American Hi-Fi as his best new CD of the week (ESPN.com, 3/1).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
Mavericks GM & head coach Don Nelson and President of Basketball Operations & assistant coach Donnie Nelson will host a dinner party for 14 Don Pablo’s Mexican Kitchen “Dinner With the Dons” contest winners and their guests, to be held from 7:00-8:30pm CT at the Greenville Avenue Don Pablo’s location (THE DAILY).
Bill Cosby will emcee the 30th anniversary celebration of the Jackie Robinson Foundation at the Waldorf-Astoria in N.Y. The foundation awards approximately 60 scholarships each year (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/3).
CHANNEL SURFING
Pro snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler and pro freestyle motocross rider Brian Deegan will be on FSN’s “54321” at 5:00pm ET.
ESPN will air NCAA men’s basketball, Georgetown-West Virginia at 7:00pm ET, Kansas-Texas Tech at 9:00pm ET and UNLV-Wyoming at 12:00am ET.
ESPN2 will air Islanders-Rangers at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Jim McMahon at 8:00pm ET.
Reds GM Jim Bowden, former MLBer Pete Incaviglia and actress Kelly Hu are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
Toronto Globe & Mail golf writer Lorne Rubenstein will be on The Golf Channel’s “19th Hole” at 7:00pm ET.
PGA Tour player John Daly will be on The Golf Channel’s “Golf Talk” at 8:00pm ET.
Angels P Troy Percival will be tonight’s “HearSay” contestant during ESPN’s “SportsCenter” at 11:00pm ET.
A&E’s “Biography” will profile Debbie Reynolds at 8:00pm ET.
E!’s “True Hollywood Story” will profile The Curse of Poltergeist at 8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Kurt Russell (r) |
| “The Tonight Show” | Martin Scorsese |
| “The Late Late Show” | Liza Minelli (r) |
| “Late Night” | Ted Danson (r) |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Jeff Goldblum |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE’s Jay Weiner writes, “It’s March. The legislative session is two months old. Where’s the stadium chatter? … With a host of public services getting hammered by the state’s projected $4.2[B] deficit for 2004-05, sports facilities talk is only a whisper. But don’t be lulled into believing there is nothing happening on the stadium front” (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE).
In the Living/Arts Section, the BOSTON GLOBE’s Vanessa Jones profiles the Celtics’ Asian-American Night, held last week to celebrate Rockets C Yao Ming’s first visit to the FleetCenter. Jones writes, “The Celtics’ marketing campaign has produced mixed feelings in this community, but one glance around shows it also did the job: The crowd is studded with Asian faces” (BOSTON GLOBE).
The BOSTON GLOBE’s Chris Reidy writes that Reebok is “the latest company precision-marketing tweens,” otherwise know as children ages 7-12. The company plans to “design exclusive athletic footwear lines for the Limited Too clothing chain that will be promoted by Shakira.” While Shakira was originally signed to appeal to Spanish-speaking consumers, Reebok CMO Micky Pant noticed that her U.S. concerts showed “a phenomenal following among tweens” (BOSTON GLOBE).
The INDIANAPOLIS STAR’s Mark Alesia writes that the declining attendance figures for various IN collegiate and professional sports teams can be summed up rather easily, “The answer, which should surprise no one, is the economy.” The Bonham Group Chair Dean Bonham: “In the case of the NBA, I would suggest that the attendance drop is very much a function of the economy. The game, as evidenced by viewership of the All-Star game, is alive and well. … That game is not only healthy on the court, it’s healthy in the boardroom. If the Indiana basketball market were a stock, I’d be a heavy investor. Something will click in the short or mid-term” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for these and more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports: Excluding the N.Y. metropolitan area, which city’s teams (current and past) have won the most world championships?
IN OTHER NEWS…
The PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL reports Liberty Media today noted that it has notified Comcast “that it wants out of their joint ownership of QVC.” Liberty Media currently owns 42.5% of the shopping channel that produced $4.4B in revenue last year (BIZJOURNALS.com, 3/3).
The ORLANDO BUSINESS JOURNAL reports that FL-based World Publications and N.Y.-based Good Media Music will publish “an as-yet unnamed magazine targeting 30-plus adults this September” to include editorial content featuring “a variety of musical genres and multiple generations of artists” (BIZJOURNALS.com, 3/3).
THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION
The following presents best selling nonfiction books for the week ending February 22 (NYTIMES.com, 3/3):
| THIS
WEEK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | STUPID WHITE MEN, Michael Moore (ReganBooks/HarperCollins) |
| 2) | THE SAVAGE NATION, Michael Savage (WND/Thomas Nelson) |
| 3) | WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?, Po Bronson (Random House) |
| 4) | THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, Erik Larson (Crown) |
| 5) | THIS JUST IN, Bob Schieffer (Putnam) |
| 6) | GOOD TO GREAT, Jim Collins (HarperBusiness) |
| 7) | BUSH AT WAR, Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster) |
| 8) | USEFUL IDIOTS, Mona Charen (Regnery) |
| 9) | LEADERSHIP, Rudolph Giuliani with Ken Kurson (Miramax/Hyperion) |
| 10) | PIGS AT THE TROUGH, Arianna Huffington (Crown) |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Teams representing the city of Boston have won 28 championships (Braves-1; Patriots-1; Bruins-5; Red Sox-5; Celtics-16). As a note, teams representing the N.Y. metropolitan area have won 51 championships.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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