| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Monday, March 22, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | U.S. Postal Service Poised To Drop Lead Sponsorship Of U.S. Pro Cycling Team |
| • | Bengals Today Unveil New Team Logo; Uniform Changes Coming In April |
| • | NFL Today Releases ’04 Preseason Schedule, Including 11 National TV Games |
| • | NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer Discusses Action Sports Tour On CNBC |
| • | ESPN Today Announces John Kruk Will Join “Baseball Tonight” As Analyst |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE READY TO DROP U.S. PRO CYCLING SPONSORSHIP
ADAGE reports that the U.S. Postal Service “is poised to abandon its leadsponsorship of Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Pro Cycling Team.” Armstrong’s agent, Bill Stapleton,said that he has “been in talks with potential replacements in anticipation”that the USPS would not renew its contract, which expires December 31. Stapleton hopes “to have a replacementsponsor signed before the Tour de France begins July 3, although thesponsorship would still take effect next year.” The USPS spends an estimated $8-9M per year on the sponsorship (ADAGE, 3/22 issue).
BENGALS TODAY UNVEIL NEW LOGO; UNIFORM CHANGES COMING
TheBengals today unveiled a new logo, a custom-designed “B” that features theteam’s signature tiger stripes. Inaddition, the team announced that it will unveil changes to its uniform onApril 22. Though the team’s stripedhelmet will not be altered, the “B” logo will appear on the new uniform. The Bengals will also continue to use theteam’s leaping tiger and tiger head logos (Bengals).
NFL TODAY RELEASES ’04 PRESEASON NATIONAL TV SCHEDULE
TheNFL today released the ’04 preseason schedule for all teams, including the 11games that will be shown on national TV. The Pro Football HOF Game on Monday, August 9, at 8:00pm ET on ABCbetween the Redskins and Broncos opens the schedule. The remainder of the schedule follows:
| Date | Game | Network | Time |
| 8/12 | Falcons-Ravens | ESPN | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/16 | Seahawks-Packers | ESPN | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/19 | Giants-Panthers | Fox | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/20 | Ravens-Eagles | CBS | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/21 | Jets-Colts | ESPN | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/23 | Rams-Chiefs | ABC | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/26 | Steelers-Eagles | ESPN | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/27 | Redskins-Rams | Fox | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/28 | Patriots-Panthers | CBS | 8:00pm ET |
| 8/30 | Titans-Cowboys | ABC | 8:00pm ET |
ESPN TODAY ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF “ESPN25” MULTIMEDIA INITIATIVE
ESPNtoday announced details of “ESPN25,” a multimedia initiative that begins May 31and ends on September 7, the net’s 25th anniversary. ESPN will feature 32 hours of originalprogramming, including a daily countdown of the 100 most memorablesports-related moments over the period. The group responsible for the “SportsCentury” franchise will produce“ESPN25” (ESPN).
Sponsorsfor “ESPN25” include Nike, PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand, McDonald’s, Toyota, A-B’sBud Light, T-mobile, Unilever’s Degree and MasterCard (SBJ, 3/22 issue).
KEN SCHANZER DISCUSSES ACTION SPORTS TOUR TODAY ON CNBC
NBCSports President Ken Schanzer appeared on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” todiscuss the Action Sports Tour, and said, “The action sports are the fastestgrowing segment of participant sports in this country, and about $80[M] wasspent last year by major corporations sponsoring these events, and we’ve beensearching for various niches in the sports world to try to find areas ofprofitability.”
Notingthat events such as ESPN’s X Games and the OLN’s Gravity Games are the maindrivers of action sports, Schanzer said, “We felt there was a void that couldbe filled by putting together a tour.” The tour will launch with skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross,and Schanzer added, “So we’re going to begin by launching five individual[competitions] around the country in locations to be named later on, featuringthese events, and, on a case-by-case basis, a fourth [action sport], forexample surfing in some areas, inline, whatever the sport of greatest localinterest” ("Power Lunch," CNBC, 3/22).
BUZZER BEATERS
ESPNtoday announced that John Kruk will join “Baseball Tonight” as ananalyst and serve as an analyst for select game telecasts. Kruk was a contributor to FSN’s “BDSSP” from’01-03 (ESPN).
FoxSports Interactive Media and mobile entertainment publisher Sorrent todayannounced an expanded multiyear publishing partnership, under which Sorrentwill create and publish Fox Sports Mobile and Fox Sports Mobile Fantasy (FoxSports).
NBC17.comreports that a construction worker “was killed and two others were injured[today] in an accident at Carter-Finley Stadium,” the football stadium for NCState Univ. The workers were “part of acrew building a new press box” (NBC17.com, 3/22).
TheYankees today announced a McFarlane’s Sports Picks in-stadium promotion forSeptember 1 that will feature a Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguezthree-inch action figure two-pack. Itis the first McFarlane Toys promotion with an MLB team (Yankees).
TheUSBL today announced that it has retained Hewlett Investor Relations of Floridato manage its investor relations initiative (USBL).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
TheTORONTO STAR noted that the Maple Leafs will donate $5,000 to the Ottawa FoodBank and Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank to “support Leaf fans who want to weartheir Toronto sweaters at the Leafs’ game in Ottawa April 3.” An Ottawa city councilor last week proposeda Corel Centre ban on Leafs sweaters (TORONTOSTAR, 3/21).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
NBAEntertainment will be at the Hawks-Knicks game at MSG to tape promos for the“1,000 Reasons Why I Love This Game” campaign with the cast of NBC’s “Whoopi.”
SFXSports Group and Wilhelmina Models will host a party to kick off the NASDAQ-100Open at Prive in Miami Beach from 10:00pm ET to midnight. SFX client Andy Roddick is among thetennis players expected to attend.
TheBaltimore SUN notes that the Baltimore City Council will vote on the fate of astrip club on the city’s west wide. Thecity’s development arm views the club’s location – “two blocks north of CamdenYards and two south of the Hippodrome Theatre – as a prime spot in there-energized west side.” However, theclub’s owners “say the city should not acquire the bar because [Babe Ruth]bought it for his father after the 1915 season” and worked there during wintersoff from the Red Sox (BaltimoreSUN, 3/22).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPNwill air the one-hour documentary, “Golf’sGreatest Round at The Players Championship,” at 4:00pm ET.
NBATVwill air Mavericks-76ers at 7:00pmET.
ESPNClassic’s “SportsCentury” debuts a profile of the ’85 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game: Villanova-Georgetown at 8:00pm ET.
ESPNwill air men’s NIT: Oklahoma-Michigan at 9:00pm ET.
HistoryChannel will air “Reliving History: Fantasy Camps” at 9:00pm ET.
Former NFLer Jamal Anderson, Lakers G GaryPayton, Bucks G Michael Redd, Fox’ Steve Lyons, SI columnist SethDavis and rapper DMX are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
ESPN’s “OTL Nightly” will examine gambling in LasVegas on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at midnight ET.
A&E’s“Biography” will profile Charlie Sheen at8:00pm ET.
NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
| Time | Matchup | Network |
| 7:00pm ET | Regional: Vanderbilt-Chattanooga or Georgia-TCU | ESPN |
| 7:00pm ET | Boston College-Ohio State | ESPN2 |
| 9:00pm ET | Regional: Baylor-Florida or Tennessee-DePaul | ESPN |
| 11:00pm ET | Regional: Houston-California-Santa Barbara, Texas Tech-Louisiana Tech or Oklahoma-Stanford | ESPN2 |
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on thefollowing talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Tom Hanks |
| “The Tonight Show” | Mel Gibson |
| “The Late Late Show” | John Laroquette |
| “Late Night” | Jim Carrey (r) |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Tyra Banks |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
TheST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS’s Gordon Wittenmyer writes, “At a time whenthe international diversity of players in [MLB] has never been greater, thenumber of African-American players in the game has nose-dived to levels notseen since the earliest days of integration. … Over the past five years, themajor leagues have had more Latino players than ever, along with notableinfluxes of Japanese, Korean and Australian players. But although the global popularity of baseball is on the rise andthe numbers of white players from the [U.S.] remains strong, black Americanplayers are fadingfrom the game” (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS).
SeeThe Daily Insider’s Articles ofInterest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports: Name the last year in whichtwo No. 1 seeds were eliminated during the opening weekend of the NCAA Men’sBasketball Tournament.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TheHOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that actor Shia LaBeouf is in negotiations tostar in Walt Disney Pictures’ “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” The movie is based on Mark Frost’sbook, which “tells the true story of the legendary 1913 U.S. Open” (HOLLYWOODREPORTER, 3/22).
THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION
Thefollowing presents best selling nonfiction books for the week ending March 21 (NYTIMES.com,3/22):
| THIS WEEK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | DELIVER US FROM EVIL, Sean Hannity (ReganBooks/HarperCollins) |
| 2) | THE PASSION, collection of still photographs from Mel Gibson movie (Tyndale) |
| 3) | AMERICAN DYNASTY, Kevin Phillips (Viking) |
| 4) | THE PRICE OF LOYALTY, Ron Suskind (Simon & Schuster) |
| 5) | GIVE ME A BREAK, John Stossel (HarperCollins) |
| 6) | LIES (AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM), Al Franken (Dutton) |
| 7) | THE FABRIC OF THE COSMOS, Brian Greene (Knopf) |
| 8) | THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, Karen Armstrong (Knopf) |
| 9) | GOOD TO GREAT, Jim Collins (HarperBusiness) |
| 10) | RISE OF THE VULCANS, James Mann (Viking) |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
In 2000, No. 8 seeds Wisconsin and NorthCarolina knocked off top seeds Arizona and Stanford, respectively. Both teams ultimately advanced to the FinalFour, but no further.
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