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Closing Bell

Closing Bell, July 6 , 2004

The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, July 6, 2004
4:00pm ET

Angels Name Change, Jets, Lakers & Coach K And More From The Weekend

Toyota Today Breaking Integrated Ad Blitz Around ESPN25 Sponsorship

ESPN Tonight Kicks Off 22 Hours Of “World Series Of Poker” Coverage

MLB Experiences 6.1% Increase In Interleague Attendance Over ’03 Figures

U. S. Women's Open Draws Record Attendance In South Hadley, MA

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


ROUND-UP OF TOP HEADLINES FROM THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND

The following are some of the major headlines from the holiday weekend:

  • Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski yesterday declined a reported five-year, $40M offer to coach the Lakers (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/6).
  • Angles Owner Arte Moreno has discussed with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig the possibility of changing his team’s name to the Los Angeles Angels (L.A. TIMES, 7/4).
  • Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman Friday denied John Henry’s claims against Lloyd’s of London.  Henry “sought payment on a claim the Marlins put in when former pitcher Alex Fernandez re-injured his shoulder in 2000” (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 7/6).
  • Cox Communications and Sony are teaming with the Padres to promote HDTV, demonstrating a “greater convergence of the broadcast, electronics and entertainment industries, one that could become a model for others” (N.Y. TIMES, 7/6).
  • The Jets may seek “tax-exempt financing to pay for a major part" of their $800M contribution to the proposed $1.4B West Side stadium.  The team would pay less to bondholders under the plan, but it would cost the city and state money “because investors wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the bonds’ interest” (NEWSDAY, 7/6).
  • NBC’s coverage of the Wimbledon men’s championship between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer Sunday earned a 3.6/10 overnight Nielsen rating, 33% higher than 2.7/8 for last year’s Federer-Mark Phillippoussis final.  Saturday’s women’s final between Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams earned a 3.9/11 overnight, down slightly from the 4.0/11 for last year’s Venus Williams-Serena Williams final (NBC).
  • YES’s telecast of Yankees-Mets Friday generated a record 9.7 (715,500 HHs) final Nielsen rating, exceeding last Wednesday’s 8.1 for Red Sox-Yankees (N.Y. TIMES, 7/3).
  • Track & field coach Trevor Graham, who once trained Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, was identified as “the mystery coach” who launched the BALCO investigation when he called the USADA and “turned in a syringe with the designer steroid THG” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 7/4).
  • U.S. sprinter Chryste Gaines has elected to contest her lifetime ban from the USADA in the int’l Court of Arbitration for Sport, rather than the North American version of the court (WASHINGTON POST, 7/3).
  • The International Cricket Council announced Monday that eight Caribbean nations will host the 2007 Cricket World Cup, eliminating Lauderhill, FL, which was the only U.S. city to bid ( MIAMI HERALD, 7/6).
  • Toyota today breaks an ad campaign, via Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A., tied to its sponsorship of ESPN25. ESPN anchors narrate TV spots featuring Toyota vehicles (AD AGE, 7/5 issue).
  • Rapper Jay-Z Saturday launched his Reebok S. Carter tennis shoe at the Playstation 2 mansion in Bridgehampton, NY (USA TODAY, 7/6).
  • The N.Y. POST reports that Meg Mallon won the U.S. Women’s Open Sunday “while wearing an outfit that did not carry any TV-visible commercial logos.  Even her cap, a souvenir-issue U.S. Open model, had no [logo]” (N.Y. POST, 7/6).
  • Former Big Eight Commissioner, Duke Univ. AD and Univ. of Maryland AD Carl James died Saturday due to cancer at the age of 75 (WASHINGTON POST, 7/4).

ATTENDANCE WATCH

  • A U.S. Women’s Open record crowd of 118,458 attended this year’s tournament at Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, MA (AP, 7/5).
  • A crowd of 44,681 attended Friday’s round of the PGA Tour Cialis Western Open at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, the largest second-round crowd in the tournament’s history (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/3).
  • NEWSDAY noted that the “only thing missing at the [Champions Tour] Commerce Bank Long Island Classic were crowds. … There were some lively galleries here and there,” but only about 50 people followed the final threesome Sunday (NEWSDAY, 7/5).
  • MLB announced that it averaged 33,024 fans per game during ’04 interleague play, 6.1% higher than last season and 13.3% higher than this season’s intraleague play average of 29,141 (MLB).
  • The largest crowd in Turner Field history – 51,831 – attended Saturday night’s Red Sox-Braves game (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 7/4).
  • The crowd of 45,016 attending yesterday's Cubs-Brewers game – which “seemed to be pro-Cubs most of the day – was the second-largest ever at Miller Park.”  It is estimated that Cubs fans “comprised as much as 25,000 of the total, if not more” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7/6).  So far, the Brewers have sold 1.55 million tickets for the club’s 81 home dates, including 373,000 for the ten Cubs dates, meaning the Cubs games represent nearly 25% of the total ticket sales (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/4).
  • A sellout crowd was reported for Sunday’s Argent Mortgage Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway, “but only about 50,000 of the 80,000 seats were used.  The event is part of the season-ticket package that includes the NASCAR weekend in October” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 7/5).
  • A crowd of 9,113 attended Saturday’s Canada-U.S. soccer exhibition at the Coliseum in Nashville.  The crowd was larger than the 7,525 that watched the U.S. women in Louisville last month, but smaller than the 11,527 in attendance for the women’s match in Birmingham in April (Nasvhille TENNESSEAN, 7/4).
  • Approximately 400 men took advantage of the “Guys Night Out” free ticket promotion for last Thursday’s WNBA Mercury-Sting game at Charlotte Coliseum (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/4).
  • A crowd of roughly 7,000 attended Saturday’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island (N.Y. POST, 7/6).

TONIGHT’S EVENTS

Reebok Senior Dir of Grassroots Basketball Sonny Vaccaro’s ABCD high-school basketball camp begins in Teaneck, NJ. The N.Y. DAILY NEWS reports that while Nike had a “stranglehold on many of the better rising seniors when Vaccaro started recruiting for this year’s ABCD,” Vaccaro has “made enormous strides in a short period of time” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/6).

“Awesome All-Star Action,” aDVD featuring 74 years of MLB All Star action, hits retail for $19.95 (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/2).

Bud Greenspan will share Olympic stories at a 7:00pm PT seminar at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills.


CHANNEL SURFING

Sporting News’ Ken Rosenthal will appear on FSN’s “I, Max” at 6:00pm local time.

As part of its ongoing ESPN25 programming, ESPN will air“Who’s No. 1: Best Blunders” at 7:00pm ET and “The Headlines: No. 10” at8:00pm.

NBA TV will air WNBA Comets-Shock at 7:30pm ET.

ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Bob Gibson at8:00pm ET.

Reds CF Ken Griffey Jr., D’Backs TV analyst Mark Grace and former NBAer Wayman Tisdale are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”

ESPN will air “World Series of Poker” at 8:00pm tonight, and the K.C. STAR notes that the network is “planning to run 20 one-hour shows for the next 10 weeks – two shows each Tuesday night – with a two-hour finale on September 14.  ESPN showcased last year’s tournament at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino over seven hourlong shows.”  Last year’s coverage averaged 1.2 million households and ratings “increased with every rerun of the show" (K.C. STAR, 7/6).

ESPN’s “OTL Nightly” will examine MLB’s 500 home run clubat midnight ET.

A&E’s“Biography” will profile Gary Gilmore at 8:00pm ET.

E!’s “True Hollywood Story” will profile Katie Couric at 8:00pm ET.


HEADLINERS

Here are tonight’s headlineguests on the following talk shows:

“The Late Show” Paris Hilton (r)
“The Tonight Show” Sea World Animals
“The Late Late Show” Jeff Goldblum (r)
“Late Night” Tim Robbins (r)
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” Anthony Anderson (r)

TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST

The N.Y. TIMES’ Richard Sandomir writes, “Even as it attempts to ease its reliance on [Lance Armstrong] and develop a stronger brand, OLN has become even more Lance dependent. … But OLN cannot live by Lance alone.”  OLN President Gavin Harvey said that the network “would not abandon the fishing, hunting and adventure programming that is its heart and soul. But Harvey has embarked on a tricky path of creating shows that appeal to a wider audience while making existing ones more accessible to more viewers” (N.Y. TIMES).

The ARIZONA REPUBLIC’s Dan Bickley writes in the first of a three-piece series entitled “Why We Care About Sports,” “While civilizations have come and gone in less time than it has taken the Red Sox to win another World Series, sports fans never die. They never give up hope. They never stop watching. And when times get tough, as they often have in the 21st century, they will do what any hearty species does: Evolve” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC).  Part Two: Sports fans logging on.  Part Three: Age of individualism alienates bond with fans.

  • Chris Berman has morphed into anchor monster Brent Musberger once was.
  • Columnist examines traffic problems for DC-area MLB suitors.
  • Las Vegas still on the outside looking in for major pro sports teams.
  • Nike facing tough decision on leveraging Marion Jones’ endorsement.

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


TODAY’S TEASER…

Sports & Entertainment: Kevin Costner starred in three films on ESPN’s “ESPN25: Who’s No. 1? Best Sports Movies,” the net’s ranking of the best 25 sports movies of the past 25 years.  Name all three.


IN OTHER NEWS……

This week’s cover of TIME offers “Michael Moore’s War,” while NEWSWEEK examines “The New Infidelity.”

TELEVISION WEEK reports that Comcast today named President Stephen Burke COO, "expanding his management oversight to include Comcast's cable networks as well as the company's vast cable systems." The company also named Mike Tallant Exec VP/Finance & Administration, with responsibility for cable finance, administration, programming administration, engineering operations, customer service and Comcast SportsNet (TVWEEK.com, 7/6).

The N.Y. POST’S Page Six reports that Miramax co-Chair Harvey Weinstein could leave the studio “as early as this week.”  Weinstein has been negotiating an exit from studio "for months as relations with Disney [CEO] Michael Eisner steadily deteriorated” (N.Y. POST, 7/6).

AD AGE reports that DaimlerChrysler will not “be back as the automotive sponsor for the second season” of NBC’s “The Apprentice.”  Other automakers were approached, but “none stepped up to the plate to succeed Chrysler because the asking price was too high – at least $50[M]” (AD AGE, 7/5 issue).


THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION

The following presents bestselling nonfiction books for the week ending July 4 (NYTIMES.com, 7/5):

THIS WEEK


HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1)

MY LIFE, Bill Clinton (Knopf)

2)

DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM, David Sedaris (Little Brown)

3)

BIG RUSS AND ME, Tim Russert (Miramax)

4)

EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES, Lynne Truss (Gotham)

5)

FATHER JOE, Tonya Hendra (Random House)

6)

PLAN OF ATTACK, Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster)

7)

MORE THAN MONEY, Neil Cavuto (ReganBooks/HarperCollins)

8)

ALEXANDER HAMILTION, Ron Chernow (Penguin Press)

9)

ON THE DOWN LOW, J.L. King with Karen Hunter (Broadway)

10)

THREE WEEKS WITH MY BROTHER, Nicholas & Micah Sparks (Warner)


WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that Sony’s “Spider-Man 2” set records for highest first six day gross, largest four-day opening and biggest weekend overall.  The total gross for the weekend is the “biggest ever recorded for the [July 4th] holiday, and among all weekends it’s the second biggest in box office history.”  The estimated total for the top 12 films is $209M, and the forecast for all films is in the “high-$210[M] to low-$220[M] area” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 7/6).

Movie

Weekend

Cumulative

“Spider-Man 2”

$115.8M

$180.1M

“Fahrenheit 9/11”

$21.0M

$60.1M

“White Chicks”

$12.0M

$47.1M

“Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”

$10.5M

$86.7M

“The Notebook”

$10.3M

$31.6M

“The Terminal”

$10.2M

$56.7M

“Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban”

$8.1M

$225.3M

“Shrek 2”

$7.9M

$410.2M

“Garfield”

$3.6M

$63.6M

“Two Brothers”

$3.6M

$12.6M


…TODAY’S ANSWER

Bull Durham,” “Tin Cup” and “Field of Dreams


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

The Closing Bell providesan afternoon recap of the latest news and headlines each Monday through Fridayat approximately 4:00pm ET. If you would like to sign up for an e-mail alert tothe Closing Bell, go to MyAccount and personalize your e-mail alert options.

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