SPONSORSHIPS: CA-based Asics Tiger inked a multi-year
partnership with the N.Y. Road Runners Club. The deal makes
Asics the official footwear and apparel sponsor of the NYC
Marathon (Asics)....UPS will sponsor the men's and women's
U.S. water polo teams. Under the deal, UPS also becomes
official sponsor of the Water Polo U.S. Open, which will be
called the UPS Int'l Cup (UPS)....Texaco is the newest
partner of USA Cycling through the 2004 Olympics (Texaco).
...The Las Vegas Bowl is "close" to announcing a title
sponsor, bringing in about $500,000 (LAS VEGAS SUN, 7/22).
NOTES: NBC's Jay Leno: "Nike has just recalled 250,000
sport water bottles because part of the bottles can detach
and be swallowed. And today Nike blamed their factory
workers for the mistake. They said, `Never send an 8-year-
old to do a 10-year-old's job'" (NBC, 7/22)....Tigers RF
Bobby Higginson, on the futuristic uniforms his team donned
for the MLB/Century 21 "Turn Ahead the Clock" promo last
night: "I think ours stunk." In Detroit, Lynn Henning
writes that fans "seemed to agree" and feel the "new
millennium ought to spur more imagination than Detroit's
apparel showed" (DETROIT NEWS, 7/23).....NJ-based PVI has
signed a two-year deal for CanWest Global Communications to
use PVI's Live Video Insertion System for live sports and
entertainment programming. Terms were not disclosed (PVI).
WOMEN IN SPORTS: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR's Mark
Sappenfield wrote that a women's pro soccer league "deserves
a shot, and it certainly has a better chance of turning a
profit than America's floundering men's league -- at least
for the foreseeable future" (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
7/21)....In Minneapolis, Pam Schmid, on Mystics G Chamique
Holdsclaw recently signing autographs at the NBA Store in
N.Y.: "Judging from the long line of admirers ...
[Holdsclaw] already has won over a lot of fans. And that is
very good news for a league whose novelty is fast wearing
off midway through its third season. ... And while the hype
might at times seem suffocating, Holdsclaw, by all accounts,
has handled it with aplomb" (STAR-TRIBUNE, 7/23).
