Franchise Notes

Arena Security Confiscates Radio Station’s Images Of Hasselhoff

In Ft. Lauderdale, Talalay & Sortal report Miami’s WAXY-AM distributed 5,000 David Hasselhoff pictures on a stick outside AmericanAirlines Arena before Mavericks-Heat Game Four. But the Heat “ordered its security guards to confiscate all of the station’s photos” because the team “had planned a similar gag.” Heat Exec VP & CMO Michael McCullough said that he asked the station “not to distribute its photos.” Mavericks F Dirk Nowitzki hums a song by Hasselhoff when he shoots free throws, and the Heat were asking fans “to recite Hasselhoff’s name whenever Nowitzki went to the foul line” (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 6/16).

JAZZ IT UP: Jazz President Dennis Haslam said the team has sold 1,200 new season tickets through May, compared to 160 new packages through the same period last year. He said that the rise is due in part to the team’s improved record this past season and to “reduced prices in various Delta Center seating sections.” Season tickets for next season will range from $5-89 (DESERET NEWS, 6/15).

SELLING STAKE: Italy-based holding company Pirelli & C. SpA sold its 15% stake in Italian Serie A club Inter Milan to controlling shareholder the Moratti family for US$17.1M in order to “focus on its main businesses of telephone services, tires and real estate” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 6/16).