SPORTING NEWS' Brian Straus noted MLS "hopes to identify an owner for a New York City expansion team next year, with an eye on the club taking the field at a new stadium in Queens in 2016." MLS President Mark Abbott earlier this week said, "This is our priority in terms of our next expansion, which will be our 20th team. We haven’t made a determination about the timeline for expansion beyond that." Regarding construction of a league-funded 25,000-seat stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Abbott said, “I don’t see any particular hurdles" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 10/10).
RISING IN THE EAST: GOLFCHANNEL.com's Randall Mell wrote of the LPGA, "While Asians have made their mark in the women’s game for more than a decade now, they’ve never dominated the tour the way they are this year." For the first time in league history, Asians "swept all four major championships." Asian players also "won eight straight LPGA events this summer, the most consecutive wins the Far East has ever claimed on the American-based tour." Additionally, 10 of the top 12 players in the Rolex world rankings are "from the Far East." Players from the Far East have "claimed 14 of the 21 LPGA events played so far this year" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 10/9).
WICKET KEEPERS: BLOOMBERG NEWS' Tariq Panja reported actors Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman "are among the celebrities targeted by organizers of a new U.S.-based Twenty20 cricket competition to help sell six $40 million franchises." Cricket Holdings America, "backed by the New Zealand and U.S. cricket bodies and Indian investors, is copying the approach of the celebrity-endorsed Indian Premier League as it builds toward the June 2013 start of the UST20 League." Cricket Holdings America CEO Neil Maxwell said, “We want to combine Hollywood and Bollywood and integrate celebrities into this entertainment product that we’re building" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 10/10).
