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Closing Bell

Closing Bell, April 1, 2003

The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
4:00pm ET

CSTV Today Announces Multi-Year Distribution Deal With DirecTV

Leigh Steinberg Today Buys Athlete Representation Firm Back From Assante

FSN AZ Today Signs Deal To Carry Suns Home Games For ’03-04 Season

ADT Security Services Canada Signs Two-Year Sponsorship Deal With CFL

The Yao Tracker: Arenas Well Above Average Attendance With Yao In Town

Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat


CSTV TO BE CARRIED ON DIRECTV BEGINNING WITH APRIL 7 LAUNCH

College Sports Television (CSTV) today announced a multi-year distribution deal with DirecTV, enabling CSTV to be broadcast nationally beginning with its April 7 launch.  When asked about additional distribution deals, President & CEO Brian Bedol said, “We are in late-stage negotiations with almost all the major cable operators. … These are long-term deals, seven to ten year deals.  They often take time to get the exact terms right as you get into business, so we’re optimistic that in the next 30 days we’ll have some good news.”  As the net is set to launch directly following CBS’ coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game, the premiere show will be “The CSTV 2003 College Hoops Honor Roll.”  CSTV also announced a long-term programming deal with the Univ. of Notre Dame, including access to the university’s library of archival footage (THE DAILY).


STEINBERG BUYS ATHLETE REP FIRM BACK FROM ASSANTE FOR $4M+

By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, Sister Publication SportsBusiness Journal

Agent Leigh Steinberg has bought back his athlete representation practice from Assante Corp. for $4.077M and will open a new firm, which will represent most of his 35 current football player clients.  While Steinberg would not divulge the details of the purchase price, he noted that the payment cancels his personal contract to work for Assante and that it buys the right to compete with Assante and other firms.  Steinberg’s longtime partner, Jeffrey Moorad, will stay with the Assante sports practice.  Steinberg said that he initiated the talks to buy back his firm from the Winnipeg-based company because he wanted “to have autonomy and to make my own decisions and not be answerable to anyone.”  Steinberg added, “I think our business will best flourish in a smaller, boutique-type of environment.”  Assante CEO Harvey Schiller said in a statement, “This move will favorably impact Assante’s bottom line on a go-forward basis.  It’s also an opportunity for Leigh to get back to his roots in a smaller business setting, and make a fresh start.”  Steinberg and Moorad sold their firm to Assante in November ‘99, for $74M, plus earn-outs.  Steinberg said that his deal with Assante was set to expire in December ’04.


FSN AZ TO BE THE EXLCUSIVE CABLE TV HOME OF THE SUNS

FSN AZ today announced that it has signed a multi-year TV rights deal to televise all Suns home games exclusively, beginning with the ’03-04 NBA season.  The deal marks the nets’ first foray into NBA telecasts.  For the duration of the current season, Suns’ home games will air on Cox Communications’ Cox9.  Suns’ road games will continue to air on KUTP-UPN.  FSN AZ is also the exclusive cable TV home of the D’Backs and Coyotes (THE DAILY).


MLS ANNOUNCES FOUR-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH FOX SPORTS INT’L

As noted in today’s Morning Buzz, MLS today announced a four-year agreement with Fox Sports Int’l to nationally televise at least 25 regular season games and at least eight playoff games per season on Fox Sports World and Fox Sports en Espanol, extending the league’s broadcasts to Latin America and the Middle East.  A weekly match, “Saturday Night Soccer on Fox Sports World,” opens with United-Wizards on April 12 at 8:00pm ET.  The Spanish-language counterpart will be called “La MLS en Fox Sports en Espanol.”  Fox will also produce an hour-long, weekly studio highlights show entitled, “MLS Wrap on Fox Sports World” (THE DAILY).


ADT TO BE OFFICIAL SECURITY SERVICES PARTNER OF CFL

The CFL today announced a two-year sponsorship deal with ADT Security Services Canada, making ADT the official security services partner of the league.  As part of the agreement, ADT will be the exclusive sponsor of the league’s Defensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Year awards.  ADT will have a presence at most CFL stadiums, as well as a presence on CFL TV broadcasts.  The CFL regular season begins June 17 (THE DAILY).


THE YAO TRACKER: PEOPLE CONTINUE TO FLOCK TO SEE YAO

Is there a “Yao bounce” at the gate?  The Closing Bell compares each NBA team’s average attendance at the time of their home game against the Rockets versus their attendance against the Yao-led Rockets.  As you can see, Yao had a significant impact during the month of March as several Eastern Conference cities benefited from his first visit, while Western Conference teams fared well in his second go-round.  For the month, each game except the Kings produced a larger than average turnout.  The Kings have sold out Arco Arena every game this season.  The Rockets’ road average of 17,783 is 6% higher than the league average of 16,780.  Of note, the Rockets’ average attendance through 37 home games is 13,768, as compared to 11,737 at the end of last year (THE DAILY).


BUZZER BEATERS

Columbia Sportswear today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of CA-based Mountain Headwear.  The $36M acquisition includes approximately $30M in cash and $6M in debt assumption (THE DAILY).

Final numbers for the MLB season opener, Rangers-Angels, on Sunday night are in, and ESPN earned a 2.0/ (1,760,000 HHs) Nielsen HH rating, up 82% over Indians-Angels on ESPN2 last year, which earned a 1.1/ (1,159,000 HHs) Nielsen HH rating (THE DAILY).

Orlando-based Entry Media today announced that they have contracted with the Reds to add Turnstile Advertising to Great American Ball Park.  Via Turnstile AdSleeve Armcovers, Frito-Lay will promote Lay’s Original Stax Potato Chips (THE DAILY).

The American Le Mans Series today announced that it has entered into a sponsorship sales agreement with NC-based Performance 1 Enterprises.  Under the agreement, Performance 1 will solicit title sponsors, contingency sponsors and official status partners for the racing series (THE DAILY).

Advanta Corp. today announced its presenting sponsorship of three ’03 World Team Tennis teams: the Philadelphia Freedoms, the Newport Beach Breakers and the N.Y. Sportimes (THE DAILY).


TONIGHT’S EVENTS

The Predators will host the fifth annual FANGtastic FANale during the team’s 7:00pm ET game against the Mighty Ducks.  Among the prizes to be distributed for the fan appreciation event are a 50th anniversary Corvette coupe, a Jayco pop-up camper and a Triton boat.  Additionally, 20 fans will be randomly selected to receive a game-worn jersey following the game (THE DAILY).

The D’Backs will conduct their first ten-minute autograph session prior to the team’s 6:35pm MT game against the Dodgers with the following players: IFs Carlos Baerga, Craig Counsell, Mark Grace, Lyle Overbay, Junior Spivey, Matt Williams and Tony Womack, as well as coach Robin Yount (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 3/31).


CHANNEL SURFING

ESPN will air the NCAA women’s basketball tournament: Purdue-UConn in the East Regional Final at 7:00pm ET and Texas-LSU in the West Regional Final at 9:00pm ET.

ESPN2 will air the NIT Semifinals: Minnesota-Georgetown at 7:00pm ET and Texas Tech-St. John’s at 9:30pm ET.

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

Kansas men’s basketball coach Roy Williams, Raiders WR Tim Brown and U.S. softball P Jennie Finch are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”

A&E’s “Biography” will profile Patricia Heaton at 8:00pm ET, including an interview with Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner.

NBC will air the “Three Stooges 75th Anniversary Special” at 8:00pm ET.


HEADLINERS

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

“Late Show” Colin Farrell
“The Tonight Show” Marisa Tomei
“The Late Late Show” Joey Fatone
“Late Night” Eddie Griffin
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” Shannen Doherty

TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST

The WASHINGTON TIMES’ Eric Fisher writes, “The race for the vagabond Montreal Expos is heating up, and in Virginia, that means a far more aggressive brand of politicking.  Always dismissive of the District’s baseball efforts, boosters in Virginia have turned up their anti-DC rhetoric in recent weeks.  The series of negative comments promises to heighten the rivalry between the two jurisdictions as they expect a July decision from [MLB] on the Expos’ future” (WASHINGTON TIMES).

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


TODAY’S TEASER…

Sports & Entertainment: Name the ’92 film starring James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr. about a con artist who enters the world of backroom boxing.


IN OTHER NEWS……

The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that USA’s biopic “Rudy,” starring James Woods, “scored a massive” 8.3 Nielsen overnight rating in the N.Y. market, “the highest such total ever scored by the network.”  Overall, “Rudy” earned a 4.0 overnight (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 4/1).


THE DAILY STAT: TOP SPORTS SITES FOR WEEK ENDING MARCH 16

The following are the top five sports Web sites ranked according to unique home and work audiences for the week ending March 16, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.  Unique Audience = the number of persons accessing the site or network, with each counted only once.  Average time spent = the average amount of time a visitor has spent at that property for the week.  This data is based on 50,000 home and 7,000 work users with Internet access.  Note: Traffic to SportsLine.com does not include traffic to its network of sites, like the NFL Internet network and the PGA Tour (Nielsen//NetRatings).

HOME
BRAND OR CHANNEL
UNIQUE
AUD.
AVG. TIME SPENT
(HH:MM:SS)
ESPN
4,136
0:20:10
Yahoo Sports
2,166
0:18:57
eBay Sports
1,922
0:17:45
Sportsline.com
1,920
0:12:04
AOL Sports
1,601
0:12:59
WORK
BRAND OR CHANNEL
UNIQUE
AUD.
AVG. TIME SPENT
(HH:MM:SS)
ESPN
3,609
0:34:36
Yahoo Sports
1,738
0:23:48
SI.com
1,150
0:06:34
Sportsline.com
1,127
0:13:02
eBay Sports
962
0:09:29

 


…TODAY’S ANSWER

Diggstown


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

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