Names In The News

Orlando Sentinel Names Slive The SEC's No. 1 Powerbroker

The ORLANDO SENTINEL continues its week-long ranking of the most powerful people in college sports, naming SEC Commissioner MIKE SLIVE as the conference's No.1 powerbroker. The paper's Jeremy Fowler writes in the "high-stakes world of college athletics, Slive pulled off an unprecedented business move that will likely define his career" -- the SEC's 15-year TV deal with ESPN. The conference "maximized its monetary value while obtaining digital rights and gaining exposure for sports such as baseball and women's basketball" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 7/10). Florida AD JEREMY FOLEY ranks No. 3 on the list, while agent JIMMY SEXTON ranks No. 6 and syndicated radio personality PAUL FINEBAUM ranks No. 8 (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 7/10). Meanwhile, Conference USA Commissioner BRITTON BANOWSKY tops the list of that league's powerbrokers. Banowsky “helped negotiate a lucrative television contract for a non-BCS conference, justifying the league’s vast geographic footprint” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 7/8).

NAMES: Bobcats Owner BOB JOHNSON's RLJ Cos. has formed a venture with Western Asset Management to "buy distressed assets under a U.S. Treasury Department program." RLJ will own 51% of the venture (BIZJOURNALS.com, 7/9)....Patriots WR WES WELKER earlier this year left Select Sports & Entertainment agent VANN MCELROY and hired Athletes First's DAVID DUNN for representation. Dunn also reps Chiefs QB MATT CASSEL, a close friend of Welker's (BOSTONGLOBE.com, 7/9)....LANCE ARMSTRONG has hired U.K.-based artist DAMIEN HIRST to design a bicycle that Armstrong will unveil later in the Tour de France (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 7/8)....Yankees 3B ALEX RODRIGUEZ and his girlfriend, actress KATE HUDSON, Sunday had dinner with NBC's BOB COSTAS and his wife, JILL SUTTON, at Scalinatella in Manhattan (N.Y. POST, 7/9).

IN MEMORY: Former Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and Albany Times Union Sports Editor TOM BATZOLD passed away Wednesday of complications from a stroke at age 56 (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 7/9)....Former NBC Sports and News Producer ARNIE REIF, a TV "technology pioneer" whose "sense of advanced gadgetry made the network a ground-breaker for placing cameras here, there and everywhere" died Saturday at the age of 70 (N.Y. POST, 7/10).