TENNIS: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Kaplan
reports that IMG "has agreed to sell" the Sanex WTA Tour's
Advanta Championships tennis tournament in Philadelphia to
French promoter Gilles Morretton for more than $2.3M. The
event, which had been played in November, will now occur in
February 2001. Noting the relocation of the WTA's Chase
Championships (which followed the Advanta stop) from N.Y. to
Munich, IMG Senior Corporate VP Stephanie Tolleson, said,
"It didn't make any sense to have a tournament in
Philadelphia that time of year" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL,
8/21 issue)....A total of 60,820 tickets were sold for this
year's ATP Tour Legg Mason Tennis Classic in DC, which ended
Sunday, up 12% from '99 (Legg Mason Tennis Classic).
MLS CONTROVERSY: In N.Y., Alex Yannis writes on the
controversy around Mutiny F Mamadou Diallo, who "kneed"
MetroStars G Mike Ammann in the rib cage and "stepped on his
face" during last Wednesday's game. Ammann is "out for the
season." Meanwhile, after MetroStars D Mike Petke scored a
goal in Sunday's game against the Rapids, he unveiled a T-
shirt under his jersey that read, "Aug. 16: Crime of the
Century" on the front and "Revenge is Coming" on the back.
Yannis writes that while Diallo's "action of inflicting"
three broken ribs, a punctured lung and bruised right cheek
on Ammann "will go without punishment" by MLS, Petke's
"action was under review" by the league (N.Y. TIMES, 8/22).
NOTES: CBS SportsLine's Len Pasquarelli noted that some
NFL team management officials, "miffed that the improved
benefits package" for assistant coaches "doesn't extend to
them," have been considering "forming an organization of
their own." In the past three months, "front office types
leaguewide have held informal discussions on the matter and
the feeling is they may move ahead." Pasquarelli added to
"look for longtime league personnel man" John Wooten, who
retired earlier this spring, to "become the unofficial"
spokesperson for the management officials (CBS SportsLine,
8/20)....In Boston, Kevin Mannix wrote on the Bucs-Patriots
preseason game and the league's exhibition schedule: "The
Replacements gave us a better brand of football than we saw
during the second half [Sunday]." Mannix went on to call
the NFL's preseason a "ripoff," and asked, "Where's Ralph
Nader when football fans need him? What about MassPIRG?
Doesn't anybody care?" (BOSTON HERALD, 8/21).
