| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Thursday, September 23, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | Reebok Launching Latest Campaign Around The NFL Over The Weekend |
| • | NFL And MLB Players Are Lending Their Voices To THQ Wireless Ringers |
| • | Japanese Baseball Players End Their Weekend Strike Today; Teams Merge |
| • | IOC Announces Today That Tyler Hamilton Will Keep His Cycling Gold Medal |
| • | Mets C Mike Piazza To Appear Tonight On NBC’s “The Apprentice” |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
REEBOK LAUNCHING NEW CAMPAIGN AROUND NFL THIS WEEKEND
Reebok today announced that on Sunday it will break its latest ad campaign, via Arnell Group, N.Y., highlighting its NFL Equipment, Gridiron Classics and Team Apparel collections. The effort includes five 30-second and four ten-second TV spots narrated by NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, as well as print ads in ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated. The TV spots will air on NFL broadcast partners ABC, CBS, ESPN and NFL Network throughout the ’04 season.
The ads feature Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, DE Jevon Kearse and K David Akers, Vikings QB Daunte Culpepper, Steelers WR Plaxico Burress, Browns TE Kellen Winslow II, Jets QB Chad Pennington, Broncos S John Lynch, Bengals WR Chad Johnson, Rams WR Torry Holt and Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez living together under one roof. Pro Football HOFer Barry Sanders also appears in the campaign (Reebok).
NFL AND MLB PLAYERS LEND THEIR VOICES TO WIRELESS RINGERS
THQ Wireless today announced a series of NFL Players Inc- and MLBPA-licensed athlete voice ringers for mobile phones. Gonzalez, Culpepper, Holt, Chiefs RB Priest Holmes, Redskins RB Clinton Portis and Giants DE Michael Strahan are the NFL players lending their voices. The MLB players participating are Dodgers P Eric Gagne, Astros P Roger Clemens, Phillies 1B Jim Thome, Red Sox CF Johnny Damon, Marlins P Dontrelle Willis, Rangers 2B Alfonso Soriano and Giants P Jason Schmidt (THQ Wireless).
| Click on the player's headshot to hear his voice ring |
| | | |
| Priest Holmes | Michael Strahan | Tony Gonzalez |
JAPANESE BASEBALL PLAYERS TODAY END WEEKEND STRIKE
REUTERS reports that Japanese baseball players reached a deal today with owners to “end the first strike in the 70-year history of the sport in Japan, with owners agreeing to let newcomers into the leagues as early as next season.” Under the deal, the planned merger of the Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave will proceed (REUTERS, 9/23).
BUZZER BEATERS
F1 Management Chair Bernie Ecclestone said that an IPO of SLEC Holdings, F1’s commercial rights holder, “probably will take place” in ‘06 (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/23).
The IOC today announced that Tyler Hamilton “will keep his Olympic cycling Gold Medal because a backup drug test was inconclusive" (AP, 9/23).
Mexico’s Economy Minister Fernando Canales is working with Nike to “increase shoe production in the country.” Nike VP/Americas Operations Mary Kate Buckley said, “We hope that this translates into more opportunities to invest in the development of Mexico’s sporting goods industry” (DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, 9/22).
Sunshine Network today released its ’04-05 telecast schedule for Heat games. The net will air a record 70 regular-season games, up from 46 last year (Sunshine Network).
The Borough Council has approved an agreement that calls for the NJSEA to “make payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, beginning when the first phase” of the $1.3B Xanadu retail and entertainment complex opens (Bergen RECORD, 9/23).
An AHL Chicago Wolves billboard along Route 53 in Rolling Meadows, IL, that states “Losing Sucks” will be “changed at the request of residents and Rolling Meadows officials who found its message offensive” (LAKE ZURICH COURIER, 9/23).
George Foreman today launched his Comfort Zone line via Casual Male Big & Tall at Sears department stores in Canada (Sears Canada).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN2 will air “The Making of ‘Hu$tle’” at 7:30pm ET.
ESPN will air NCAA football: Miami-Houston at 8:00pm ET.
Mets C Mike Piazza will appear on NBC’s “The Apprentice” at 9:00pm ET.
FSN will air the James Toney-Rydell Booker IBA heavyweight title fight during “BDSSP” tonight at 8:30pm ET from the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA.
ESPN’s “OTL Nightly” will examine the appropriateness of WNBA Seattle Storm F Lauren Jackson and L.A. Sparks Dir of Tactical Marketing Heather La Bella posing nude in magazines at 12:30am ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Rob Lowe |
| “The Tonight Show” | James Caan |
| “The Late Late Show” | Nelly (r) |
| “Late Night” | Johnny Knoxville |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Donald Trump |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
USA TODAY’s Christine Brennan writes, “I have never heard more complaining and outright disgust from U.S. sports fans for an American national team than I did for the men's basketball team in Athens. A month later, along came the pathetic Ryder Cup team, and the anger and frustration bubbled to the surface once again. It wasn't a question of fans not being patriotic. It was the fact that spectators simply were not able to fall in love with what their country produced to compete in the international sports arena” (USA TODAY).
The WASHINGTON TIMES’ Patrick Hruby writes, “A raft of talk shows and talking heads, united by contention and divided by, well, just about everything else. From ‘Around the Horn’ to ‘Rome is Burning,’ from ‘I, Max’ to ‘The Best Damn Sports Show Period,’ the athletic airwaves are alive with the sound of scrapping. And no matter the topic, only one rule applies. If it's worthy of discussion — and by discussion we mean debate, which is a nice way of saying argument — it's worth discussing at exceedingly high volume” (WASHINGTON TIMES).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports Business: Name the four universities ranked in the CLC’s top ten from June 1993-June 1994 that carried the same distinction from June 2003-June 2004.
IN OTHER NEWS…
DAILY VARIETY notes that consumers around the globe “spent more than $115[M] on the ‘Star Wars Trilogy’ DVD and LucasArts ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ videogame combined on Tuesday.” Though 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment “would not break that number down, it’s believed that about 90% of the spending was for the DVD worldwide, with a big chunk of that coming from the U.S.” (DAILY VARIETY, 9/23).
A recently released Interactive Advertising Bureau, N.Y., study reports that U.S. Internet ad revenue during the first half of ’04 increased 39.7% over the year earlier period, to $4.6B. In the second quarter, revenue jumped 42.7%, to roughly $2.4B (N.Y. TIMES, 9/23).
THE DAILY STAT: BILLBOARD CHARTS
The following lists Billboard Magazine’s top-selling CDs for the week ending September 19 (BILLBOARD.com, 9/23).
| RK | ALBUM | ARTIST | LABEL |
| 1) | Suit | Nelly | Derrty/Fo’ Reel |
| 2) | Sweat | Nelly | Derrty/Fo’ Reel |
| 3) | Live Like You Were Dying | Tim McGraw | Curb |
| 4) | Genius Loves Company | Ray Charles | Hear |
| 5) | Now 16 | Various Artists | Universal/EMI/Sony Music/Zoomba |
| 6) | Autobiography | Ashlee Simpson | Interscope |
| 7) | What I Do | Alan Jackson | Arista Nashville |
| 8) | Songs About Jane | Maroon5 | Octone/J |
| 9) | My Everything | Anita Baker | Blue Note |
| 10) | Confessions | Usher | LaFace |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Michigan, UNC, Georgia and Tennessee
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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