| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | News From The Athens Games, Day 12: Closing Ceremony Details, Earthquake |
| • | Second Gold Medalist Stripped Of Top Honor Today After Doping Infraction |
| • | Fuse Integrated Sports Marketing Today Shortens Its Name In Rebranding Effort |
| • | adidas Inks Third Player From ’04 NBA Draft Class – JR Smith – To Shoe Deal |
| • | Gold-Medal Winning U.S. Softball Team To Read Top Ten List Tonight |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
NEWS FROM THE ATHENS GAMES, DAY 12: CLOSING CEREMONY DETAILS
The ATHENS NEWS AGENCY reports that ATHOC today “promised an entirely different flavor for this Sunday’s Closing Ceremony in comparison to the colossal and theatrically paced Opening Ceremony.” The Closing Ceremony “aspires to be the biggest concert of Greek pop stars and performers ever held” (ATHENS NEWS AGENCY, 8/24).
The AP reports that an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the richter scale “rattled Olympic venues” today in and around Athens. Seismologist Giorgos Stavrakakis: “There is no reason to panic. It was a very small quake.” There were no reports of injuries or damage from the quake (AP, 8/24).
IOC Coordination Commission Chair Denis Oswald denied that the IOC has “reached a secret agreement with Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou and their coach Christos Tzekos to have the anti-doping violation case, in which they are involved, closed” (MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY, 8/24).
Hungarian Robert Fazekas today was stripped of his Gold Medal in the discus after being “caught trying to tamper with a urine sample” (AP, 8/24).
Xerox and the USOC today hosted their 16
th Breakfast with the Olympians, gathering more than 20 current and former U.S. Olympians, including
Ian Crocker and
Patricia Miranda from the ’04 Games (
Xerox).
FUSE INTEGRATED SPORTS MARKETING SHORTENS ITS NAME TO FUSE
Fuse Integrated Sports Marketing today announced that it has changed its name to just Fuse. The company also recently promoted Issa Sawabini to Partner and hired Heather Hennessy as Communications Group Dir. Sawabini had previously overseen the agency’s consulting group, while Hennessy was most recently Cohn & Wolfe VP (Fuse).
BUZZER BEATERS
adidas today inked a multiyear endorsement deal with Hornets G JR Smith. adidas also has signed deals with ’04 NBA Draft picks Sebastian Telfair and Josh Smith (adidas).
NFL Network today inked an agreement with TVN Entertainment to use TVN’s video on-demand services (NFL Network).
The D’Backs are “looking for a new Double-A affiliate after it was announced Monday that the ownership group of the Texas League’s El Paso Diablos has sold the club to a new investor who will hook the franchise up with a different” MLB team (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 8/24).
ADT will title sponsor the May 22-25 National Sporting Goods Association Management Conference at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, AZ (NSGA).
Cavaliers assistant coach Mark Osowski died Sunday in Cleveland due to complications from pancreatitis (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 8/24).
CHANNEL SURFING
NBC’s primetime coverage tonight will highlight track & field, wrestling, beach volleyball and diving. Click here for a listing across the NBC Universal networks.
NBC’s “Nightly News” will profile U.S. wrestler Rulon Gardner at 6:30pm ET.
As part of its ongoing ESPN25 programming, ESPN will air “Who’s No. 1: Best Plays” at 7:00pm ET and “The Headlines: No. 3” at 8:00pm.
CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now” will examine the Iraq Olympic men’s soccer team at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air Little League World Series: Washington-Kentucky at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Pete Rose at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the World Series of Poker: The Main Event at 9:00pm and 10:00pm ET.
U.S. Olympic softball team members will present the Top Ten List on CBS’ “Late Show” at 11:35pm ET.
ESPN’s “OTL Nightly” at 12:00am ET will examine BBC’s “Panorama” report that detailed the IOC’s ability to be bribed.
A&E’s “Biography” will profile Andre Agassi at 8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Denis Leary |
| “The Late Late Show” | John Larroquette |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Scott Baio |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
In an editorial, the N.Y. TIMES writes, “Our own feeling – and we speak as people who found [Paul Hamm’s] performance under pressure extraordinary – is that his gold is already a bit tarnished. If he won't do the magnanimous thing, then the International Olympic Committee ought to find a way to award duplicate gold medals as South Korean officials have suggested” (N.Y. TIMES).
The WASHINGTON POST’s Sally Jenkins writes, “If Bush really wants to use the Olympics to help himself get reelected, then maybe he could do something for the Athens Games in return. Maybe he could give Svetlana Khorkina a sandwich. … He could take the mirror out of Gary Hall Jr.'s locker. He could ask the CIA to find Kostas Kenteris' missing motorcycle. He could sign a law requiring a person to sink at least 6 of 10 three-pointers, unguarded, before signing an NBA contract” (WASHINGTON POST).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports & Entertainment: U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Strug appeared on Lifetime’s “Strong Medicine” last Sunday. On which of the following shows has she not appeared?
“Beverly Hills 90210”
“Touched by an Angel”
“Party of Five”
IN OTHER NEWS…
Viacom today named CBS Exec VP & CFO Bruce Taub to the newly-created position of Exec VP/Operations. Taub will continue to serve in his CBS posts (Viacom).
THE DAILY STAT: CONTRACT DEALS FOR TOP SIX ’04 NFL DRAFT PICKS
The following are the contract details from the top six selections in the ’04 NFL Draft. Low-tier value refers to the amount likely to be earned with bonuses, salaries and incentives based on minimal qualifiers (USA TODAY, 8/24).
| NO. | PLAYER | TEAM | YEARS | MAX VALUE | LOW-TIER |
| 1) | Eli Manning | Giants | 6 | $54M | $45M |
| 2) | Robert Gallery | Raiders | 7 | $54M | $40.5M |
| 3) | Larry Fitzgerald | Cardinals | 6 | $60M | $40.4M |
| 4) | Philip Rivers | Chargers | 6 | $50.5M | $40.5M |
| 5) | Sean Taylor | Redskins | 6 | $40M | $17.3M |
| 6) | Kellen Winslow Jr. | Browns | 6 | $40M | $29M |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
“Party of Five”
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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