The CHARLOTTE OBSERVER unveiled its annual list of the most powerful people in NASCAR. NASCAR Chair & CEO and ISC Chair BRIAN FRANCE again tops the list, followed by DALE EARNHARDT JR. and JR Motorsports President KELLEY EARNHARDT ELLEDGE sharing the second spot, as the “search for a new ride ... for 2008 and beyond dominates the sport’s attention these days.” View the full list of 43 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/24).

RANK	FIGURE
1)	NASCAR Chair & CEO and ISC Chair Brian France
2)	Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports President Kelley Earnhardt Elledge
3)	NASCAR Exec VP and ISC CEO Jim France Jr. and NASCAR Vice Chair Bill France Jr.
4)	Fox Sports TV Group Chair & CEO David Hill and Fox Sports President Ed Goren
5)	ISC President Lesa France Kennedy
6)	SMI Chair & CEO Bruton Smith
7)	NASCAR President Mike Helton
8)	ESPN/ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer
9)	NASCAR VP/Corporate Marketing Jim O'Connell and NASCAR CMO Steve Phelps
10)	Hendrick Motorsports Owner Rick Hendrick
11)	NASCAR Senior VP Digital Entertainment & Broadcasting President Paul Brooks
12)	NASCAR VP/Licensing Mark Dyer
13)	Sprint Nextel Chair & CEO Gary Forsee and Sprint Nextel Dir of Nextel Cup Series Marketing Dean Kessel
14)	NASCAR VP/Competition Robin Pemberton and NASCAR Nextel Cup Dir John Darby
15)	Turner Sports President David Levy
16)	NASCAR VP/Broadcasting & New Media Richard Glover
17)	Richard Childress Racing Owner Richard Childress
18)	Driver Jeff Gordon
19)	Lowe's Motor Speedway President and SMI President & COO Humpy Wheeler
20)	Charlotte-based attorney Stoke Caldwell

 

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Trail Blazers Beat Odds To Land No. 1 Overall Draft Pick

THE DAILY each Friday offers our take on the performances over the past week of some people and entities in sports business. Here are this week’s newsmakers.

WIN: TRAIL BLAZERS — Despite having just a 5.3% chance, the team gets the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft lottery, bringing with it the chance to revitalize a franchise that’s been on a downward spiral since losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals in ’00. It also brings the largest revenue-producing day in team history, as the club sells $2.5M worth of tickets in 24 hours, including 2,000 new season tickets, according to league sources. Exec VP/Business Operations MIKE GOLUB says the team has already sold 25% more season tickets than all of last year.

LOSE: CELTICS — Yes, the Grizzlies had the best chance to land the top pick, but most everyone agreed that the franchise with the biggest upside (and need) for a top-two pick was the Celtics. The hope was that landing either GREG ODEN or KEVIN DURANT would restore this marquee team on the national level and give much needed star power to one of the NBA’s most historic franchises. But it was not to be, as the team ended up with its worst possible selection at No. 5, another in a steady string of misfortunes since winning the title in ’86.

DRAW: NBA TV PARTNERS — TNT posts a 15% decline in viewership for the second round of the NBA playoffs, but still wins its third straight week among ad-supported cable networks in the key adult demos. Spurs-Suns Game Five ranks second among all cable programs for the week, leading TNT to three of top seven slots. Meanwhile, ESPN sees a 21.4% decline through the first two rounds and ABC is down 19.4% so far during the postseason.

Print | Tags: Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, People and Pop Culture, TBS/TNT, Vulcan Ventures

The ATP named LINDA CLARK VP/Tournament & Marketing Services for the Americas. Most recently, Clark was Tournament Manager for the PGA Tour’s Presidents Cup (ATP)....The Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce named Kansas Speedway President JEFF BOERGER Chair for ’07 (K.C. STAR, 5/23)....Aloha Stadium interim Manager SCOTT CHAN has accepted an offer to become the permanent manager, where he will make $81,463 (HONOLULU ADVERTISER, 5/25)....Haas CNC Racing named MATT BORLAND Dir of Competition (Haas CNC Racing)....ANDREW CAMPAGNONE and TODD HIRSCHFELD are forming a new division of HMS Worldwide that will focus on representation and corporate consulting in motorsports with an emphasis on NASCAR. The division will also attempt to form strategic partnerships with other agencies in the industry (HMS Worldwide)....FieldTurf named former NFLer NEIL O’DONNELL its representative in Tennessee and Kentucky (FieldTurf).

MEDIA: RON PLATZER was named Promotions Dir at WMVP-AM in Chicago. Platzer is the former Dir of Promotion & Broadcast Services at Chicago-based Jeff McClusky & Associates (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/24)....NESN promoted BRIAN ZECHELLO to Producer of Bruins telecasts and RUSS KENN to Coordinating Producer of Remote Productions, including Red Sox and Bruins games (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/25).

Do you have an executive announcement? If so, please send to editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

Print | Tags: Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, ESPN, Int'l Speedway Corp., NASCAR, PGA Tour, People and Pop Culture, Walt Disney

COCA-COLA has agreed to purchase GLACEAU, maker of vitaminwater, for $4.1B in cash and stock in a move “to boost its holdings in the enhanced-water and energy-drink markets.” The deal is slated to close this summer (MARKETWATCH.com, 5/25).

Father Of Deceased Cardinals Pitcher Files Wrongful Death Suit

FILING SUIT: DEAN HANCOCK, father of late Cardinals P JOSH HANCOCK, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court against Mike Shannon’s Steaks & Seafood, alleging that the sports bar “knowingly served liquor to [him] long after he was drunk.” The suit seeks damages of over $25,000 from the bar, which is owned by Cardinals’ broadcaster MIKE SHANNON (POST-DISPATCH, 5/25).

SPEAKING OUT: Former Rangers City skater COURTNEY PRINCE, who is suing MSG for sexual harassment, is claiming that “sex appeal — not skating ability — won women a spot on a cheerleading troupe that bosses had said featured the ‘ugliest girls in the NHL.’” Prince said that Rangers VP/Marketing JEANIE BAUMGARTNER “decided to remake the look of the ... pep team at an August 2003 tryout by rejecting one skater who lacked sex appeal and another who had the wrong ethnic background” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 5/25).

NAMES: World TeamTennis CEO & Commissioner ILANA KLOSS was named sports business woman of the year by the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the Univ. of Oregon (World TeamTennis)....Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor TOM BROKAW will be the keynote speaker at the annual NACDA convention, replacing NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair DICK EBERSOL, who had to pull out because of an unexpected corporate meeting. Brokaw will speak June 8 at 8:00am at the Marriott World Center in Orlando (THE DAILY)....Heat C SHAQUILLE O’NEAL’s “SHAQ’S BIG CHALLENGE,” where he attempts to educate six obese children about nutrition and exercise, was examined on “Entertainment Tonight” last night. The program will air on ABC with O’Neal serving as Exec Producer. O’Neal: “If we can get 100, 1,000, maybe a million kids to change their thinking process, then I think I’m doing my job” (“Entertainment Tonight,” 5/24)....Former MLBer JOSE CANSECO said that he has “received wild responses from fans who want to participate” in his latest reality show, called “A DAY WITH JOSE.” Canseco is pitching the show to VH1 and started a Web site to accept submissions (USA TODAY, 5/25).

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