| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | Ameriquest To Be Presenting Sponsor Of Next Week's "NFL Opening Kickoff" |
| • | Sirius Satellite Radio And CSTV Today Launch College Sports Station |
| • | Cutter & Buck Unveils Annika Collection Today; Line Available In January |
| • | Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser Brand Set To Sponsor The 2006 Ryder Cup |
| • | U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, Gymnastics Team Appearing On Late Night Shows |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
AMERIQUEST SIGNS AS PRESENTING SPONSOR OF "NFL OPENING KICKOFF"
By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large, The Sports Business Daily
Continuing to expand it sports sponsorship portfolio, Ameriquest has signed on as presenting sponsor of next week’s "NFL Opening Kickoff." The California-based mortgage company will get advertising inventory, opening and closing animation, and on air mentions as presenting sponsor of the ABC telecast prior to the September 9 Colts-Patriots game and a presence at the NFL Fanfest being held in downtown Boston. The sponsorship follows an MLB sponsorship inked earlier this year that has now mushroomed to include more than ten teams and naming rights to the Rangers' ballpark in Arlington.
NFL VP/Partnership Marketing & Corporate Sales Peter Murrray said there are ongoing discussions about expanding the deal to a full fledged NFL sponsorship. Ameriquest is believed to be the NFL’s first sponsor in the mortgage category. Top-tier sponsors for the kickoff show include Campbell’s, Canon, Coors, Pepsi and Sony PlayStation. Associate partners are Gatorade, Gillette and Visa. The Bonham Group negotiated the deal for Ameriquest.
SIRIUS, IN CONJUNCTION WITH CSTV, LAUNCHES COLLEGE SPORTS RADIO
Sirius Satellite Radio and CSTV today launched Sirius College Sports Radio. The station will broadcast college sports action, including football and men’s basketball games of various schools with which it has signed deals. CSTV will provide Sirius with programming and will create marketing and promotional programs for Sirius (Sirius Satellite Radio).
CUTTER & BUCK UNVEILS SPRING ’05 ANNIKA SORENSTAM COLLECTION
Cutter & Buck today unveiled the Spring ’05 Annika Sorenstam Collection. The line, developed using European styling, will be available in January. Included in the collection are mock turtlenecks, Capri pants and sleeveless polos (Cutter & Buck).
BUZZER BEATERS
Internet movie/video game rental company GameZnFlix today announced that it has reserved fourth quarter ad space for Fox’ broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX from Jacksonville (GameZnFlix).
Nextel today announced that its “Race to the Polls” program, which encourages voter registration by placing registration booths at NASCAR events, will continue through October 10 (Nextel).
A-B today inked a deal to sponsor the ’06 Ryder Cup with its Budweiser brand. Budweiser receives use of Ryder Cup logos in advertising, packaging and POP materials (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/31).
Hungarian hammer thrower Adrian Annus is “refusing to give back his Olympic Gold Medal after being stripped” of it for failing to take a drug test (REUTERS, 8/31).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
The CINCINNATI ENQUIRER reports that while the man who caught Reds LF Adam Dunn’s 40th home run ball, Charles Baker, was “being interviewed on television Monday, police in Oxford recognized him as someone wanted by Miami University police.” A call was made to Cincinnati police to see if they had an officer at the ballpark. University police “were awaiting word late Monday whether Baker had been caught” (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 8/31).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
UHL K.C. Outlaws GM Joe Bucchino will host Hockey 101 for Women from 5:00-5:30pm CT at Kemper Arena.
CHANNEL SURFING
As part of its ongoing ESPN25 programming, ESPN will air “Who’s No. 1: Biggest Controversies” at 7:00pm ET and “The Headlines: No. 2” at 8:00pm.
ESPN2 will air Hockey World Cup: Canada-U.S at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Curt Flood at 8:00pm ET.
Michael Jordan will discuss his involvement in motorcycle racing on Speed Channel’s “2 Wheel Tuesday” at 8:00pm ET.
Rams RB Marshall Faulk and actor Cole Hauser will appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
CMT’s “All Access” will examine NASCAR at 9:00pm ET.
ESPN will air the World Series of Poker: The Main Event at 9:00pm and 10:00pm ET.
Poker players Doyle Brunson and Howard Lederer will appear on CNBC’s “McEnroe” at 10:00pm ET.
HBO’s “Real Sports” will profile Kellen Winslow Jr. and Kellen Winslow Sr., motocross rider James Stewart Jr., former NFLer Alonzo Spellman and the Paskowitz Surf Camp at 10:00pm ET.
The Gold Medal-winning U.S. women’s soccer team will read the Top Ten list on CBS’ “Late Show” at 11:35pm ET.
The Silver Medal-winning U.S. women’s gymnastics team will appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” at 11:35pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Farrah Fawcett |
| “The Tonight Show” | Reese Witherspoon |
| “The Late Late Show” | Marlee Matin |
| “Late Night” | Al Franken |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Matthew Lillard |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
In the third of a ten-part series on things that should be changed in sports, USA TODAY’s Greg Boeck writes, “While prices for premium seats continue to rise for the well-heeled, there is a move among concerned sports owners and their marketing gurus to keep prices more affordable and games more accessible in a dynamically readjusting marketplace. That means scaling back some ticket blocks — unheard of in the 1990s, when across-the-board increases often alienated and shut out die-hard fans. … There is no evidence wholesale reductions are around the corner, but wholesale increases appear to be out for now” (USA TODAY).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports & Entertainment: In which installment of the “Mighty Ducks” trilogy did Wayne Gretzky appear?
THE DAILY STAT: TOP SPORTS WEB SITES FOR WEEK ENDING AUGUST 15
The following are the top five sports Web sites ranked according to U.S. home unique audience for the week ending August 15, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Unique Audience = the number of persons in thousands accessing the site or network, with each counted only once. Average time spent = the average amount of time a visitor has spent at that property for the week. This data is based on 37,000 U.S. home users with Internet access (Nielsen//NetRatings).
| RK | BRAND/CHANNEL | UNIQUE AUD. | AVG. TIME SPENT (HH:MM:SS) |
| 1) | Yahoo Sports | 3,904 | 00:18:21 |
| 2) | ESPN | 3,625 | 00:17:09 |
| 3) | eBay Sports | 2,399 | 00:11:45 |
| 4) | NFL Internet Network | 2,093 | 00:17:20 |
| 5) | MLB.com | 1,893 | 00:19:08 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
D2: The Mighty Ducks
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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