Marketplace Round-Up

SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Steve Woodward reports Germany-based auto components brand Continental AG, which has become a first-time sponsor of FIFA and the '06 World Cup, "occupies a new category of global soccer sponsorship." Deutsche Telekom and Dubai-based Emirates Airlines "also are new to the FIFA global partner roster since the conclusion of the most recent World Cup" in '02 (SBJ, 1/19 issue).... TNT has a mural on Hotel Figueroa in L.A. promoting the net's coverage of the February 15 NBA All-Star Game, and in L.A., Larry Stewart wrote, "One problem, though. The TNT mural faces away from Staples Center. That's because ESPN owns rights to the wall on the other side of the hotel" (L.A. TIMES, 1/18)....In Jacksonville, Jordan Rodack wrote the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee "inched its way closer to a $10[M] fund-raising goal as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida agreed to a $1[M] sponsorship." BCBS agreed to give $500,000 "to outfit and train volunteers as well as $500,000 toward the [NFL's] Youth Education Town Center" (TIMES-UNION, 1/18).