| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Monday, July 28, 2003
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | First Union Center Today Officially Changes Name To Wachovia Center |
| • | WUSA Today Names Strategic Marketing And Television Consultants |
| • | ABC To Feature Woods, Els, Mickelson And Garcia On “Battle At The Bridges” |
| • | DirecTV To Begin Tracking Ad-Supported Networks Via Nielsen Partnership |
| • | Reds GM Jim Bowden Today Relieved Of Duties; Boone, Two Others Out |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
COMCAST-SPECTACOR TODAY OFFICIALLY CHANGES ARENA NAMES
Comcast-Spectacor, owner and operator of the First Union Center and First Union Spectrum, today announced that it has changed the names of its arenas to the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum to reflect the name change following the two financial institutions’ recent merger (Comcast-Spectacor).
The company also announced the acquisition of Scranton-based New Era Tickets, which will now be known as Patron Solutions. The company will specialize in providing technological solutions for box office management, event management and customer communications. It will also offer a full-service ticketing and marketing product (Comcast-Spectacor).
PILSON TO SERVE AS WUSA TV CONSULTANT; SIMONS ON MARKETING
WUSA today announced that Pilson Communications President Neal Pilson will serve as the league’s TV consultant, and will represent the league in negotiations for future TV agreements. The league also announced today that Anne Simons will serve as the league’s strategic marketing consultant, responsible for the development of an overall plan to maximize revenue opportunities, ensure the value of corporate sponsorships, develop and protect league brands and increase attendance and viewership of WUSA matches. Simons spent the past four years as Chief of Staff at Atlanta-based consultancy BrightHouse (WUSA).
“BATTLE AT THE BRIDGES” TO FEATURE ELITE PGA TOUR FOURSOME
ABC tonight will air the Lincoln Financial “Battle at the Bridges,” a two-player best-ball match featuring Tiger Woods and Ernie Els against Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, at 8:00pm ET. The SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE reported that the ABC/IMG-produced event will utilize 20 “banks of lights, generating 543,000 watts of light” to illuminate the 16th green and the entire 17th and 18th holes. There “will be 14 cameras shooting from 30 different positions. There are six mobile trucks, 135,000 feet of cable and 65 people manning the production.” This is the fifth installment of the primetime event (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/27).
DIRECTV PARTNERS WITH NIELSEN TO TRACK AD-SUPPORTED NETS
BROADCASTING & CABLE reports that DirecTV “will now track viewing on ad-supported networks carried on its direct-broadcast satellite system,” via a partnership with Nielsen Media Research. DirecTV VP/Ad Sales Kirk Kopic said that DirecTV “needs ratings data to compete with broadcast networks, national cable networks and syndicators for national ad dollars.” Kopic: “When you walk into a major [N.Y.] agency and you can’t talk about ratings, some of them get it, some of them don’t. Buyers have to show clients performance, and they couldn’t do it with us.” Sony Pictures Television has handled DirecTV’s ad time since ’99 (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 7/28).
BUZZER BEATERS
The Reds today announced that the contracts of GM Jim Bowden and manager Bob Boone, along with two coaches, will not be renewed in ’04. All were relieved of their duties this morning. Bowden, who was named GM in October ’92, was not immediately replaced (Reds).
MARKETING WEEK reports that Reebok UK Marketing & Sales Dir David Neale has left the company. His departure “may lead to a restructure of the department, which could see his former role scrapped.” Consumer Marketing Manager Michael Price will oversee Neale’s responsibilities until a decision is made (MARKETING WEEK, 7/28).
Bally Total Fitness today announced that it has been named the official search partner for the Sports Illustrated Fresh Faces Swimsuit Model Search, presented by Nissan. The partnership includes in-club signage and videos at nearly 400 Bally locations across the U.S. (Bally Total Fitness).
The NBA today announced that an anonymous fan made a winning bid of $4,900 for an autographed LeBron James jersey during the two-week WNBA Breast Health Auction on WNBA.com. The auction raised an estimated $50,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation (NBA).
The Football Network (TFN) today announced a partnership with Esquire magazine to create a special section previewing the first Div. I-AA college football All-Star Game, which will be played December 30 at Lockhardt Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale. The special section will appear in the January ’04 issue, which hits newsstands December 10. TFN will sell advertising (TFN).
The AP reports that the city of Anaheim will host the ’05 World Badminton Championships, marking “the tournament’s first trip” to the U.S. The U.S. bid beat out a bid from Denmark (AP, 7/28).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air Braves-Expos at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the season premiere of “Monday Night Countdown” at 10:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Mark Fidrych at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN’s “Outside The Lines Nightly” will examine Lance Armstrong’s fifth consecutive Tour de France victory at midnight ET, and attempt to put it in perspective with regard to other sporting accomplishments.
ABC will air “Battle at the Bridges” at 8:00pm ET, featuring Tiger Woods-Ernie Els against Sergio Garcia-Phil Mickelson.
Baseball HOFer George Brett, Falcons WR Peerless Price and actor Matthew Modineare scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
Yankees P David Wells will be on CBS’ “The Late Late Show” with Craig Kilborn at 12:35am ET.
HBO will air “A City on Fire: The Story of the '68 Detroit Tigers” at 7:00pm ET.
Bo Jackson, Jerry Rice, Jason Kidd, Charles Barkley and Rush Limbaughwill be on The Golf Channel’s “Golf Talk” at 8:00pm ET.
Red Sox special advisor Bill James will be on CNBC’s “Special Report” with Maria Bartiromo at 9:00pm ET.
PBS will air an encore presentation of “American Experience: Seabiscuit.”
A&E’s “Biography” will profile Bob Hope at 8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Jason Biggs |
| “The Tonight Show” | Drew Carey |
| “The Late Late Show” | Traci Lords |
| “Late Night” | Regis Philbin (r) |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Kelsey Grammer (r) |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The VENTURA COUNTY STAR’s Jim Carlisle writes of niche sports channels, “At one time, new channels on cable were good ideas with nowhere to go. When all cable TV providers had were analog systems, they were extremely limited in channel capacity. Now with the development of digital cable … operators have more channel space and are looking for good content at a reasonable price” (VENTURA COUNTY STAR).
The L.A. TIMES’ Benedict Carey writes of the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, “The case is a reminder that while the power and wealth of celebrity can offer both opportunity and protection from scrutiny, it also can bring harsh consequences and personal tragedy when indiscretions are discovered by the public. … Yet the psychology of celebrity is more complex than a simple explanation of spoiled stars behaving badly” (L.A. TIMES).
The WASHINGTON POST’s Peter Whoriskey writes, “The recent wave of sports stadium and arena construction is costing the U.S. Treasury more than $100[M] annually because the projects have been financed with tax-exempt bonds, a federally supported method of borrowing money more often used to build roads, schools and other public projects” (WASHINGTON POST).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports: Including Peter Jacobsen’s win at the Greater Hartford Open yesterday, how many forty-something or older golfers have won PGA Tour events this season?
IN OTHER NEWS…
BROADCASTING & CABLE reports that the three major sponsors of Fox’ “American Idol” – Coca-Cola, AT&T Wireless and Ford Motor – “are back for next season’s installment.” A source said that the three companies “are paying record sums – upward of $20[M] each – for the ad packages” (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 7/28).
THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION
The following presents best selling nonfiction books for the week ending July 19 (NYTIMES.com, 7/28):
| THIS | |
| WEEK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | KATE REMEMBERED, A. Scott Berg (Putnam) |
| 2) | LIVING HISTORY, Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster) |
| 3) | BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster) |
| 4) | UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, Jon Krakauer (Doubleday) |
| 5) | THE KENNEDY CURSE, Edward Klein (St. Martin's) |
| 6) | TREASON, Ann Coulter (Crown Forum) |
| 7) | A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, Bill Bryson (Broadway) |
| 8) | MONEYBALL, Michael Lewis (Norton) |
| 9) | ABSOLUTELY AMERICAN, David Lipsky (Houghton Mifflin) |
| 10) | WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED, E. Lynn Harris (Doubleday) |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Six – Vijay Singh (40), Fred Couples (43), Kenny Perry (43), Scott Hoch (47), Jacobsen (49) and Craig Stadler (50) have won a combined nine events on the PGA Tour this year. However, Singh was 39 when he won the Phoenix Open in January, the first of two PGA Tour wins this tear.
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dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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