Internet sports sites "helped drive much of this year's
growth" in attendance at the SportelAmerica convention in
Miami, and DAILY VARIETY's Mary Sutter wrote that during one
panel on sports broadcasting technologies, CBS SportsLine
President Sales & Marketing Mark Mariani said that Internet
sites "are increasingly anteing up to snag digital data."
But Mariani "lamented" that he can't "buy footage from the
NBA, which wants to showcase it on [its] own site."
Mariani: "[That policy] may come back and bite the NBA on
the butt." NBAE President & COO Adam Silver said that the
NBA "does aim to become the Yahoo! of basketball, with
localized sites around the globe, and it is dedicating more
of its programming resources to online efforts" (DAILY
VARIETY, 3/27).
BRAND NEW NAME: Broadband Sports announced that as part
of an integrated branding strategy, its ProSports Xchange
and College Sports Xchange will now be marketed under one
name, SportsWriters Direct, which will offer a news network
consisting of more than 300 local and national writers,
columnists and editors (Broadband Sports).
NO LONGER RIVALS: In Columbia, SC, Andy Phelan profiled
Rivals.com and reported that local Web start-up
scprepfootball.com is joining Rivals. Site Founder Dave
Cole: "We're not crazy about Rivals' layout and systematic
look but understand their business rationale. ... Those
small negatives are more than offset by the positive
attributes of the Rivals Network" (Columbia STATE, 3/26).
AN ARENA WORTH VISITING? In L.A., Grahame Jones, on
U.S. men's national soccer coach Bruce Arena contributing a
monthly column to Goalnetwork.com: "Those who seek biting
commentary and controversy likely should look elsewhere.
After all, who can Arena afford to alienate? His own
players? The media? The fans?" (L.A. TIMES, 3/26).
CLARIFICATION: Following up on a report last week, THE
DAILY would like to clarify that the MLBPA has entered into
a non-exclusive licensing relationship with AthletesDirect,
which calls for AthletesDirect MLB player sites to be linked
to the players' respective sites on the official MLBPA Web
site at www.bigleaguers.com (THE DAILY).
