| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Monday, October 25, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | USOC Partnering With XP Retail To Increase Retail Efforts; 50 Stores By 2009 |
| • | Ticketmaster Today Announces Multiyear Extension With MSG’s Facilities |
| • | Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino Discusses Fenway On “Cold Pizza” |
| • | YES Network Announces Record Ratings Around Yankees Playoff Telecasts |
| • | Patriots Vice Chair Jonathan Kraft To Appear On "Kudlow & Cramer" |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
USOC HOPING TO EXPAND RETAIL EFFORTS TO 50 STORES BY 2009
BRANDWEEK reports that the USOC has partnered with XP Retail to “create a retail concept called The Olympic Shop, which will roll out over the next two years. The strategy involves expanding beyond the five prototype shops now open, which will be retrofit to the new concept, to 50 stores by 2009.” Graj + Gustavsen, which has taken an equity position in the venture, will handle brand development, licensing, product development and retail design (BRANDWEEK, 10/25 issue).
TICKETMASTER INKS MULTIYEAR EXTENSION WITH MSG FACILITIES
Ticketmaster today announced a multiyear extension to provide ticketing solutions to MSG’s four facilities – Madison Square Garden, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the Hartford Civic Center. Under the deal, Ticketmaster will provide in-house software to handle ticketing at MSG, sell and distribute tickets to MSG venues and support customized marketing and customer relationship management (Ticketmaster).
COMPLETE OVERNIGHT NIELSEN RATINGS FOR WEEKEND EVENTS
The following lists overnight Nielsen ratings for Sunday’s sports telecast. They were delayed this morning (THE DAILY):
| EVENT | DATE | NET | TIME | RAT/SHR |
| Figure Skating: Smart Ones Skate America | 10/24 | ABC | 1:00-3:00pm | 1.6/4 |
| PGA Tour: Funai Classic - Final Round | 10/24 | ABC | 3:00-6:00pm | 1.2/2 |
| "The NFL Today" | 10/24 | CBS | 12:00-1:00pm | 2.3/6 |
| "NFL on CBS": (regional) | 10/24 | CBS | 1:00-4:15pm | 10.8/21 |
| Sports Spectacular: Arete Honors | 10/24 | CBS | 5:00-6:00pm | 1.7/3 |
| "Fox NFL Sunday" | 10/24 | Fox | 12:00-1:00pm | 3.8/10 |
| "NFL on Fox": doubleheader | 10/24 | Fox | 1:00-7:30pm | 12.4/25 |
| "NFL on Fox": (regional) | 10/24 | Fox | 1:00-4:15pm | 9.1/18 |
| "NFL on Fox": Cowboys-Packers (89%) | 10/24 | Fox | 4:15-7:15pm | 16.2/32 |
| World Series: Cardinals-Red Sox, Game 2 | 10/24 | Fox | 8:15-11:45pm | 17.1/25 |
| "Discover Card Countdown to Green" | 10/24 | NBC | 12:30-1:00pm | 2.3/6 |
| NASCAR Nextel Cup: from Martinsville | 10/24 | NBC | 1:00-5:15pm | 4.0/8 |
| U.S. Open Supercross | 10/24 | NBC | 5:15-6:00pm | 2.1/4 |
LARRY LUCCHINO DISCUSSES FENWAY PARK, REVENUES ON ESPN2
Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino appeared on ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza” this morning. Lucchino said when the current ownership group purchased the team, “plans were for a new Fenway [Park] down the street.” But Lucchino said the group “felt a kind of commitment to Fenway. … Our goal has been to renovate the place. We’ve spent quite a lot of time, money and effort working on the place. We’ve added seats on the field, up on the Green Monster, up on the right-field roof. We’ve tried to make it a warmer, friendlier place; give people a little more room to mill around.” Lucchino, on competing revenue-wise with the Yankees despite having 15,000 fewer seats: “It does give us a challenge. … We’ve got a corporate base that supports us enormously” (“Cold Pizza,” ESPN2, 10/25).
BUZZER BEATERS
YES Network today announced that its pregame and postgame coverage during the ’04 MLB Playoffs was its highest ever. Yankees pregame shows averaged a 1.3 Nielsen cable rating, a 63% increase from ’03, while postgame shows averaged a 1.7, a 70% increase (YES Network).
Mexico’s Grupo Televisa reported Q3 profits of US$126M, nearly double the $64M it earned in the year earlier period. Overall revenue for the period grew 29% to $674M. The company “attributed the earnings growth in great part to huge ad sales during the Summer Games” (DAILY VARIETY, 10/25).
Global Spectrum today promoted Regional VP John Page to COO (Global Spectrum).
SportsTicker today announced that it will provide news and information to Section 1’s www.stubshield.com. Section 1 sells StubShields, plastic cases to protect and display tickets (SportsTicker).
The Dolphins today announced a one-year agreement with Ft. Myers’ WINK-CBS to broadcast FINS-TV Sundays at 11:35pm ET (Dolphins).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
The NLL’s Minneapolis expansion franchise will unveil its team name, logo and colors at a 6:00pm CT news conference at Xcel Energy Center.
CHANNEL SURFING
Patriots Vice Chair Jonathan Kraft will appear on CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer" at 5:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air figure skating: Smart Ones Skate America at 8:30pm ET.
ABC will air “MNF”: Broncos-Bengals at 9:00pm ET.
ESPN will air “Sports Illustrated at 50” at 9:00pm ET.
NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon will appear on Speed Channel’s “Wind Tunnel” at 10:00pm ET.
HBO will replay the documentary, “Curse of the Bambino,” at 10:30pm ET.
Fox’ Terry Bradshaw will appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Dr. Phil (r) |
| “The Tonight Show” | Robin Williams (r) |
| “The Late Late Show” | Anthony LaPaglia |
| “Late Night” | Kristin Davis (r) |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Jason Schwartzman |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
In the N.Y. TIMES, baseball author Steve Kettman writes Red Sox Owner John Henry and Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino “had brilliantly sized up [George] Steinbrenner as a foe: they had come to understand that the way to beat him, the way to rob him of his mantle of invincibility, was not only to compete with him for every free agent of note, not only to put a better team on the field, but also to revel in public confrontation, the way Steinbrenner always has, and to snarl and spit and be just as arrogant as Steinbrenner. This ‘evil empire’ strategy, as I came to think of it, reflected an adult awareness that bullies always win, unless they are confronted with another bully” (N.Y. TIMES).
The WASHINGTON TIMES’ Thom Loverro writes MLB Cardinals Owner Bill DeWitt and Lucchino “were partners in a 1993 deal to buy the Baltimore Orioles from Eli Jacobs for $140[M]. … They were unaware of Jacobs’ financial difficulties and when the Orioles owner filed for bankruptcy, a judge killed the deal. The judge then put the team up for sale to the highest bidder. … It is a tangled tale, this triad of baseball owners – Lucchino, DeWitt and Peter Angelos – a story with two happy endings and one horror story. See if you can guess which is which” (WASHINGTON TIMES).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports: How many MLB pitchers have started games for three different teams in the World Series?
IN OTHER NEWS……
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that Nokia is “drawing up an online catalog of Nokia-approved games, ringtones, screensavers, images and videos. The company says wireless-service providers … will be able to sell this ready-made content to consumers in exchange for a commission paid to Nokia on the sale” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/25).
THE DAILY STAT: N.Y. TIMES BESTSELLING NONFICTION
The following presents best selling nonfiction books for the week ending October 16 (NYTIMES.com, 10/25):
| RK | HARDCOVER NONFICTION |
| 1) | AMERICA, Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin & David Javerbaum (Warner) |
| 2) | HOW TO TALK TO A LIBERAL, Ann Coulter (Crown Forum) |
| 3) | CHRONICLES: VOLUME ONE, Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster) |
| 4) | A PAPER LIFE, Tatum O’Neal (HarperEntertainment) |
| 5) | WHEN WILL JESUS BRING THE PORK CHOPS?, George Carlin (Hyperion) |
| 6) | UNFIT FOR COMMAND, John O’Neill & Jerome Corsi (Regnery) |
| 7) | SHADOW WAR, Richard Miniter (Regnery) |
| 8) | WILL THEY EVER TRUST US AGAIN?, Michael Moore (Simon & Schuster) |
| 9) | MAGICAL THINKING, Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin’s) |
| 10) | THE FAMILY, Kitty Kelley (Doubleday) |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Four – Curt Schilling, Jack Morris, Danny Jackson and Joe Bush
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
The Closing Bell provides an afternoon recap of the latest news and headlines each Monday through Friday at approximately 4:00pm ET. If you would like to sign up for an e-mail alert to the Closing Bell, go to My Account and personalize your e-mail alert options.
