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Closing Bell

Closing Bell, March 3, 2005

Afternoon News & Headlines

Churchill Downs Inc. Files Suit Against Jockeys’ Guild Over Last Year’s Boycott
TD Banknorth Garden To Replace FleetCenter Name Beginning July 1
PowerBar Today Announces Three-Year Extension Of Lance Armstrong Deal
State Of South Carolina Today Hosting First NCAA Event In Three Years
NFL To Hold ’05 Draft At N.Y.’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat

CHURCHILL DOWNS INC. FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST JOCKEYS’ GUILD

By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Churchill Downs Inc. announced today that it has filed suit in federal court in Louisville against the Jockeys’ Guild, alleging the labor organization violated the Sherman Antitrust Act when it directed jockeys to boycott Churchill Downs and Hoosier Park late last year.  CDI is asking for an injunction to prohibit the Guild from directing jockeys to boycott races in the future and for unspecified punitive damages. Barry Broad, an attorney for the Guild, said, “This Sherman Antitrust Act contains a broad exemption for labor unions so we will see if there is any reality to this litigation, but I have my doubts.”


CDI also announced that it will stop paying about $375,000 a year to the Jockeys’ Guild, which had been used in the past to pay for insurance coverage for jockeys. Guild management has refused calls by CDI for an accounting of those funds.  “We need to be certain that moneys contributed on behalf of jockeys are spent on behalf of jockeys,” said CDI COO Andrew Skehan. “Since the Guild cannot or will not explain where this money is going, we are withholding this funding and exploring possibilities for redirecting it in a manner that would be beneficial to the jockeys.”


FLEETCENTER TO BECOME TD BANKNORTH GARDEN EFFECTIVE JULY 1

Delaware North Co. and TD Banknorth today officially announced that the FleetCenter will be renamed TD Banknorth Garden, effective July 1. While financial terms of the 20-year deal were not available, the AP cites sources as saying that the deal is worth $5-6M per year. TD Banknorth will also invest more than $5M in New England neighborhoods through Delaware North and the Boston Bruins Foundation, while also pledging $8M for improvements to the arena over the life of the deal.

TD Banknorth President & CEO William Ryan, on referencing the Boston Garden in the name: “As we think of Meccas of American sport, the Garden is certainly one of them.” Ryan said the goal was “to bring the Garden feeling back to all of the people who remember it so well.” Ryan added, “I never liked ‘center’” (AP, 3/3).


POWERBAR TO SPONSOR LANCE ARMSTRONG FOR THREE MORE YEARS

PowerBar today announced a three-year extension of its endorsement deal with Lance Armstrong, and has also secured a sponsorship agreement with Armstrong’s Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. PowerBar plans to integrate Armstrong and the team into its ’05 marketing initiatives, including advertising, Web, promotions and nutrition education programs, and will look to collaborate with other team sponsors on joint marketing efforts (PowerBar).


SOUTH CAROLINA HOSTING FIRST NCAA EVENT IN THREE YEARS

The SEC women’s basketball tournament began today at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, and the Columbia STATE noted the tournament “will be the first major college event held at a predetermined site in the state in three years” due to the NCAA’s ban on scheduling events in South Carolina because of the Confederate flag controversy. The NCAA ban “does not extend to conference championships.” The tournament was originally scheduled to be held at Atlanta’s Philips Arena, and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said that a “scheduling conflict” forced the move to Greenville (Columbia STATE, 2/27).


OLN TO BROADCAST GRAVITY GAMES IN FEATURE FILM FORMAT

OLN’s Winter Gravity Games began today at Copper Mountain. The VAIL DAILY notes when OLN broadcasts the event March 27-30, “it will be in more of a feature film format than viewers are used to seeing for sporting events.” Cameramen will shoot the action from “nontraditional angles, attempting to capture images as they would for the big screen” (VAIL DAILY, 3/3).


BUZZER BEATERS

The NFL today officially announced that the ’05 NFL Draft will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in N.Y. The agreement also includes the creation of the first-ever N.Y. NFL Draft Host Committee to assist the league in its overall presentation of activities surrounding the event (NFL).

The Scottish soccer team Glasgow Rangers today announced a four-year shirt sponsorship deal with Umbro that will pay the team more than $8.5M annually.  Umbro’s relationship with the team began in the ‘60s (BBC.com, 3/3).

Phoenix-based electric utility APS, along with the Arizona Character Education Foundation, the Suns, WNBA Mercury, AFL Cardinals, Coyotes and D’Backs, today unveiled Power Players, a new community-based program designed to promote character education among middle school and junior high school students (APS).

The city of Atlanta today formed the Atlanta Super Bowl 2009 Bid Committee, which will be co-chaired by Bellsouth Vice Chair Dick Anderson and former Atlanta Mayor and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Andrew Young. The committee includes, among others, Falcons Owner Arthur Blank, Falcons President & GM Rich McKay, Falcons Exec VP/Marketing & AFL Georgia Force President Dick Sullivan and Georgia Dome GM Carl Adkins (Atlanta Super Bowl 2009 Bid Committee).

The Univ. of Iowa has chosen Daktronics to replace the existing scoreboard in Kinnick Stadium. The project, which is to be completed before the ’05 football season, is valued at more than $2.1M (Daktronics).

The Mariners today reached a one-year deal with Azteca Mexican Restaurants to operate the Azteca Caliente Corner, a family-style pre-game hospitality area adjacent to Safeco Field.  The deal includes signage along the third base line and the title sponsorship of the team’s September 13 Third Annual Salute to Latin American Baseball. (Mariners).


NOW HEAR THIS

The following are notable quotes from today’s news:

Hockey agent Ritch Winter, on having a client play as a replacement player in the NHL: “If [a client] told me they were going to cross, we’d find shackles to keep them from going” (NEWSDAY, 3/3).  Read the full story.

Tiger Woods, on one reason the PGA Tour schedule should not go past Labor Day: “How can we compete against football?” (USA TODAY, 3/3). Read the full story.

With N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s approval rating falling from 50% positive and 37% negative to 48% positive and 40% negative over the past six weeks, political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said, “It’s all the stadium. The stadium has become the catch-basin for all social-class arguments” (N.Y. POST, 3/3). Read the full story.


TONIGHT’S EVENTS

The family of Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt will host a kickoff event at Boston’s Mistral restaurant for the newly-launched McCourt Foundation, which will raise funds to fight multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease (BOSTON HERALD, 3/3).


CHANNEL SURFING

ESPN will air NCAA basketball: Miami (FL)-Duke at 7:00pm ET.

ESPN2 will air NCAA basketball: Charlotte-Louisville at 7:00pm ET and Purdue-Illinois at 9:00pm.

ESPN Classic will air NCAA CIAA men’s basketball quarterfinals: Bowie State-Fayetteville State at 7:00pm ET and Winston Salem State-Livingstone at 9:30pm.

TNT will air Pacers-Nuggets at 8:00pm ET and Pistons-Suns at 10:30pm.

FSN will air NCAA basketball: Washington-California at 11:30pm ET.

Mavericks F Dirk Nowitzki and U.S. moguls skier and former Univ. of Colorado WR Jeremy Bloom will appear on “BDSSP.”


HEADLINERS

Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:

“Late Show” Dan Rather
“The Tonight Show” Sylvester Stallone
“The Late Late Show” Juliette Binoche
“Late Night” The Rock
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” David Spade (r)

TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST

The AUGUSTA CHRONICLE’s Scott Michaux writes of paring down the PGA Tour schedule after Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson suggested that the season is too long, “Forty-eight official events is too many.  Ten full months is too long. … To appease sponsors, appraise talent and enrich the middle class, keep the schedule rolling until November. … But don’t expect many stars other than Vijay Singh to show up.  They usually don’t anyway” (AUGUSTA CHRONICLE).

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


IN OTHER NEWS…

CRAIN’S N.Y. BUSINESS reports News Corp. has raised its buyout offer for the remaining shares of Fox Entertainment Group that it does not already own. News Corp. now is offering 2.04 shares of its Class A stock for each Class A share of Fox, representing a 5% premium over Fox’ closing price of $33.63 yesterday (NEWYORKBUSINESS.com, 3/3).

The AP reports the Entertainment Software Rating Board has announced a new category, “E10+.” The rating “should help fill a gap between [videogames] rated ‘E’ for everyone, which some children outgrow, and ‘T’ for teen, which are too violent or mature for some parents’ tastes” (AP, 3/3)


THE DAILY STAT: FAVORITE SPORTS STARS

The following presents results from an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive in which 2,209 U.S. adults were polled January 11-16.  The first chart lists respondents’ favorite sports star. The second chart lists the favorite sports stars among specific demographics. NR =  Not ranked in ’04 (Harris Interactive).

TOP 10 SPORTS STARS
RK ATHLETE
RK '04
1) Michael Jordan
1
2) Peyton Manning
7
3) Tiger Woods
2
4) Brett Favre
3
5) Derek Jeter
10
6) Shaquille O'Neal
4
7) Tom Brady
NR
8) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
5
9) Donovan McNabb
9
10) Ben Roethlisberger
NR

 

GROUP ATHLETE(S)
MEN Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning
WOMEN Michael Jordan
AGED 18-29 Michael Jordan
AGED 30-39 Peyton Manning and Michael Jordan
AGED 40-49 Peyton Manning and Michael Jordan
AGED 50+ Tiger Woods

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.

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