| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | AFL, U.S. Army Today Officially Announce One-Year Partnership Renewal |
| • | Fisher-Price Today Announces Deal With ESPN To Produce ESPN GameStation |
| • | Sportvision To Develop Three Password-Protected Extranet Sites For NASCAR |
| • | Tamika Catchings To Attend “State Of The Union” As Guest Of President Bush |
| • | Outkast To Perform During Player Introductions At NBA All-Star Game |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
U.S. ARMY RE-UPS AS OFFICIAL MILITARY SERVICE PARTNER OF AFL
TheAFL and U.S. Army today officially announced the renewal and extension of theirpartnership designating the U.S. Army as the official military service partnerof the league. New for the ’04 seasonis U.S. Army’s designation as the title sponsor for all AFL game, weekly andmonthly Ironman honors, the Ironman of the Year award and the All-Ironmanteam. The renewal also includes logoplacement on all home jerseys, on-field signage and an in-arena presence (AFL).
SPORTSBUSINESSJOURNAL reports that the deal is estimated to be worth $2M. Though U.S. Army has been a sponsor forthree consecutive seasons, for the first time, the sponsorship “includes mediaspending and the activation of some local marketing programs” (SPORTSBUSINESSJOURNAL, 1/19 issue).
FISHER-PRICE, ESPN ANNOUNCE DEAL FOR ESPN GAMESTATION
Fisher-Pricetoday announced an agreement with ESPN to produce ESPN GameStation, asix-in-one indoor game center that allows children to play 21 electronic,arcade-style games featuring baseball, basketball, football, hockey, golf andsoccer. ESPN GameStation, which willinclude “SportsCenter” theme music and commentary from anchor Stuart Scott,will be available in August (Fisher-Price).
Meanwhile,ESPN Videogames today announced that “ESPN Major League Baseball” willincorporate broadband online play for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game is scheduled for a spring release (ESPNVideogames).
SPORTVISION TO DEVELOP THREE EXTRANET SITES FOR NASCAR
Sportvisiontoday announced the expansion of its partnership with NASCAR to include thedesign, development and maintenance of three password-protected extranet sites,enabling NASCAR execs to communicate with sponsors and licensees, the media andtheir membership (Sportvision).
NCAA REDUCES NUMBER OF I-A FOOTBALL HOME GAMES TO FOUR
TheORLANDO SENTINEL reports that in the “wake of conference realignments and thelikelihood of expensive contract buyouts, the NCAA voted to help conferences intransition – and other Division I-A hopefuls – by easing up on a key membershiprequirement. I-A members need only fourhome games against I-A opponents for the next two seasons. … The minimum numberof home games had been five” (ORLANDOSENTINEL, 1/20).
BUZZER BEATERS
TheNBA today announced that Outkast will perform during playerintroductions at the NBA All-Star Game, which will be played February 15 atStaples Center. The league alsoannounced that Christina Aguilera and Nelly Furtado will sing theU.S. and Canadian National Anthems, respectively, prior to the game (NBA).
TheNFL announced that Houston-based Latin entertainers Walter Suhr and MangoPunch will perform during the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show (NFL).
NewMexico-based ad agency McKee Wallwork Henderson today announced ADBOWL, areal-time, interactive ranking system for consumers to judge Super Bowlcommercials (McKee Wallwork Henderson).
PresidentBush has invitedFever F Tamika Catchings to attend tonight’s “State of the Union”address. Catchings will be seated near LauraBush (Fever).
TheJets today announced Matthew Higgins will join the organization asVP/Strategic Planning upon leaving the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. onFebruary 6. Higgins will overseeplanning and outreach efforts for a proposed sports and convention center to bebuilt on Manhattan’s west side (Jets).
Thefamily of Bobby Jones today announced a licensing agreement withHartmarx to license the manufacturing and marketing rights for the use of theBobby Jones trademark on golf clubs and equipment accessories. All of the products will be manufactured andmarketed under The Bobby Jones Golf Company brand (Bobby Jones).
DNSservice provider UltraDNS today announced an agreement with the Raiders toenhance the club’s official Web siteusing its Managed DNS service (UltraDNS).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN2will air NCAA men’s basketball: NCState-Boston College at 6:00pm ET and Kentucky-Tennessee at 8:00pm.
ESPNwill air NCAA men’s basketball: Iowa-Indianaat 7:00pm ET and Texas-Missouri at9:00pm.
ESPNClassic’s “SportsCentury” will profile DeionSanders at 8:00pm ET.
PresidentGeorge Bush’s “State of the Union”address will begin at 9:00pm ET.
Former NFLer Dexter Manley will be interviewed onHBO’s “Real Sports” at 10:00pm ET.
NBATV will air Trail Blazers-Kings at10:00pm ET.
BuccaneersDT Anthony McFarland, Chargers DE Marcellus Wiley, Giants DE Michael Strahan, Chiefs WR Johnnie Morton, Packers S Darren Sharper, Texans LB Jamie Sharper and Raptors G Jalen Rose are scheduled to appear onFSN’s “BDSSP.”
ESPN2will air coverage of the Australian Openat 11:30pm ET.
A&E’s“Biography” will profile Mary KayLetourneau at 8:00pm ET.
E!’s “True Hollywood Story”will profile Pamela Anderson at8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Hereare tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Ashton Kutcher |
| “The Tonight Show” | Clay Aiken |
| “The Late Late Show” | Ice Cube |
| “Late Night” | Donald Trump |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Adam Scott |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
TheFINANCIAL TIMES’ Tim Burt writes of ESPN President George Bodenheimer,“After more than 20 years at the company, … the veteran TV executive now wantsto extendthe brand beyond traditional cable and satellite distribution into newareas such as broadband, wireless devices, video-on-demand and interactiveservices. He also sees moreopportunities outside the U.S.” (FINANCIAL TIMES).
The N.Y. DAILY NEWS’ Denis Hamill writes, “I’m still for the new Brooklyn Nets basketball arena, butif my mail is any indication, I was wrong in an earlier column bysuggesting that this project might be a layup. Thefollowing are edited excerpts from dozens of intelligent, passionate, angry andmuch longer letters from Prospect Heights residents who would be displaced by BruceRatner’s 19,000-seat arena complex that the developer says will bring a prosports team, 4,500 units of new housing and 10,000 new jobs to Brooklyn” (N.Y.DAILY NEWS).
TheBOSTON HERALD’s Scott Van Voorhis writes, “There’s talk of a divorce between thelong-cohabitating Celtics and Bruins and speculation the Green Team mighteventually split its FleetCenter digs to buildits own sports palace. The newowners of the Boston Celtics may have a year or two – if that – to mend theteam’s at-times rocky relationship with its landlord, Bruins and FleetCenterOwner Jeremy Jacobs. But whilethe team’s FleetCenter lease won’t expire until 2011, the Hub’s torturedhistory of aborted stadium plans ensures that the Celtics owners will need alengthy head start if they are to build their own arena” (BOSTON HERALD).
- U.S. major pro sports leagues targeting China as area for growth.
- Patriots and Panthers fans scrambling to make their way to Houston.
- Profile of NFL-approved on-site Super Bowl merchandise vendor Steve Sodell.
- Extensive piece on IGF-1, a protein that promotes muscle growth and repair.
SeeThe Daily Insider’s Articles ofInterest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports& Entertainment: What musical group was roundly booed by the hometown Philly crowdduring a ‘01 NBA Finals halftime performance because two members ofthe group were wearing Lakers garb, the 76ers’ opponent that year?
IN OTHER NEWS……
THOROUGHBREDTIMES reports that Magna Int’l President & CEO Belinda Stronachtoday resigned “in a move many anticipate as aprecursor to her announcing a run for the leadership post of the newConservative Party of Canada.” MagnaInt’l is the former parent of Magna Entertainment (THOROUGHBREDTIMES, 1/20).
THE DAILY STAT: TOP SPORTS SITES FORWEEK ENDING JANUARY 4
Thefollowing are the top five sports Web sites ranked according to home uniqueaudience for the week ending January 4, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Unique Audience = the number of persons in thousands accessing the site ornetwork, with each counted only once. Average time spent = the averageamount of time a visitor has spent at that property for the week. Thisdata is based on 37,000 home users with Internet access (Nielsen//NetRatings).
| RK | BRAND OR CHANNEL | UNIQUE AUD. | AVG. TIME SPENT (HH:MM:SS) |
| 1) | ESPN | 5,199 | 0:18:00 |
| 2) | eBay Sports | 2,665 | 0:10:36 |
| 3) | NFL Internet Network | 2,641 | 0:09:38 |
| 4) | Yahoo! Sports | 2,543 | 0:14:05 |
| 5) | AOL Sports | 1,742 | 0:11:47 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Destiny’s Child -
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