NBA TO LAY BUILDING BLOCKS OF LICENSING DEAL WITH LEGO

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large, The Sports Business Daily

The NBA will take the wraps off a multi-year global licensing agreement with toymaker Lego today at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in N.Y. The new toy sets will carry NBA logos, though other details on forthcoming product were very sketchy. An NBA spokesperson claimed not to know when product would be available at retail beyond "sometime next (NBA) season," with distribution starting at the NBA Store and on NBA.com. The deal includes ads and a branded section on the league's Web site and participation in the NBA's All-Star Jam Session, but does not include a TV buy. With the NBA alliance, Lego is moving deeper into sports, which began with soccer a few years back (THE DAILY).

BUSH ADMINISTRATION ADDRESSES TITLE IX LAWSUIT

USA TODAY reports the Justice Department late yesterday "filed a motion asking that a federal court dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the way Title IX is enforced." The suit was filed by a group of coaches led by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and the group has until June 10 to respond to the motion. The case is considered a test for "how rigorously the Department of Education plans to enforce Title IX" under President Bush (USA TODAY, 5/30).

In Chicago, Ron Rapoport writes the Justice Department's decision "satisfied neither side," as the government merely bought "itself some time on a hot-button political issue. What it did not do was solve it" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/30).

L.A. GROUP APPROACHES CHARGERS REGARDING RELOCATION

The L.A. TIMES reports that a Chargers representative said Wednesday evening that the franchise "has been formally approached about relocating to Los Angeles but, for the moment, plans to focus on negotiations to stay in San Diego." Mark Fabiani, a political strategist recently hired by the Chargers, said that the team "was contacted Tuesday by the Philip Anschutz-backed group," and intends to talk to the Los Angeles group "at some point, possibly mid-summer" (L.A. TIMES, 5/30).

MEMPHIS BLUES: THOUSANDS OF TICKETS REMAIN FOR TITLE BOUT

The LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL reports that yesterday "an additional 3,500 tickets were put on sale" for the Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis heavyweight bout, "about a month after the fight was announced a sellout." Knoxville-based Expert Ticket Services Owner Roger Heatherly, on the available seats: "The reason is the prices are too high for an event in Tennessee. If the fight was in Las Vegas or Atlantic City or somewhere like that, the numbers they're asking might be fine. But in Tennessee, they're kind of pricey and people are backing away" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 5/30).

HOCKEY FEVER SWEEPS CAROLINAS AS FANS SNATCH UP 'CANES TIX

Tickets for the Stanley Cup Finals went on sale in Raleigh yesterday and the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER reports that "within 20 minutes of the box office opening … all the seats to the three home games of the Stanley Cup series were sold out." No more than 50 or 60 people at the front of the line at the Entertainment & Sports Arena "actually got tickets in those 20 minutes" though, as a number of fans chose to purchase tickets online. With an eight-ticket-per-game limit for each buyer, it "didn't take long for Internet sales to eat up the available seats" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/30). Meanwhile, the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER runs an editorial today with the headline, "Going For The Cup: To Heck With Basketball. How 'Bout Them Hurricanes?" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/30).

A LIGHTER BUZZ

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, when asked if the major sports were ready to accept a gay player in light of the Mike Piazza situation, took a "long pause" before responding: "That's a baseball question. I'm not comfortable with baseball questions." When a follow-up question was asked about the NFL being ready for a gay player to emerge, Tagliabue said, "I don't answer hypothetical questions" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 5/30).

Chevrolet takes out a full-page color ad in USA Today to congratulate Helio Castroneves for his Indianapolis 500 victory and to trumpet the fact that Chevy cars finished in the top three spots in the race (THE DAILY).

The DETROIT NEWS reports that 5,029 Red Wings fans last night paid $5 apiece to watch the Red Wings-Avalanche game on the big screen at Joe Louis Arena. Red Wings Senior Dir of Marketing Ted Speers said that the money raised "will be donated to Ilitch Charities for Children" (DETROIT NEWS, 5/30).

Michael Jordan's trainer, Tim Grover, said Jordan's decision on playing next season will be made "probably pretty soon – maybe within the next two weeks" (WASHINGTON POST, 5/30).

MLS Earthquakes F Landon Donovan, MetroStars F Clint Mathis and Fire MF Damarcus Beasley are on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's World Cup Preview (THE DAILY).

The BOSTON HERALD reports that Ben Affleck has apologized for derogatory statements he made about Red Sox 2B Lou Merloni and members of the team. Affleck, via an airline telephone hook-up to WWZN-AM yesterday, said, "I completely apologize. I'm a bit of a knucklehead and so into the team. I should have known better." Affleck then promised Merloni, "You've got to let me take you out to dinner or find some supermodels" (BOSTON HERALD, 5/30).

TODAY'S EVENTS

In K.C., Twelfth Street Heritage Development will announce plans to build a $1.4M youth athletic facility at Woodland-Edison Classical Academy. The corporation received a $100,000 grant from the NFL's Grassroots Program and the Local Initiatives Support Corp. earlier this spring. Following the 1:30pm CT announcement, former and current Chiefs will give a football clinic (THE DAILY).

Bulls G Fred Hoiberg and C Dalibor Bagaric will join more than 500 students from surrounding elementary schools for a special 10:00am CT screening of "E.T.: 20^th Anniversary Special Edition." Prior to the movie, the players will speak to the students (THE DAILY).

The Oilers will hold their Select-a-Seat at the Skyreach Centre from 9:00am-9:00pm MT. The event, which gives fans an opportunity to test various seat locations, will continue throughout the weekend (THE DAILY).

ABC and ESPN will host their World Cup conference call at 2:00pm ET (THE DAILY).

IN OTHER NEWS….

The MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL reports that Miller Brewing Co. is being sold to South African Breweries PLC for $5.6B in a deal to be announced today that "gives the Milwaukee-based brewer a new owner, a new name and a sharper focus on selling beer." The combined company will be renamed SABMiller PLC after the sale is final, which is expected to occur by July (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/30).

The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that clothing retailer The Gap's new black-and-white television campaign featuring celebrities like Dennis Hopper is "puzzling some viewers at a time when the struggling retailer is more reliant than ever on its advertising to create customer interest and drive sales" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/30).

The N.Y. POST reports that ad buyers are "expected to pony up for TV ads in the upfront market this year, rather than risk having to pay through the nose later in the season." Prices for scatter purchases of ads are on the rise, making advertisers "all the more keen to lock in rates now" (N.Y. POST, 5/30).

Wall Street analysts estimate that Telemundo and Univision could sell $800-900M in commercial time before the '02-03 season starts, "far above the estimated $700 million to $725 million they sold during last year's upfront" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/30).

Broadway ticket sales and attendance fell in the '01-02 season, but "not as drastically as might have been expected." The box office gross between the first week in June '01 and the week ending May 26, 2002, was $643.4M, down 3.4% from the preceding year; 10.95 million tickets were sold, a 7.9% dip in sales from another record set in the preceding season (USA TODAY, 5/30).

Ozzy Osbourne and his family "will receive an estimated $10 million for the next batch of 20 episodes of 'The Osbournes' set to debut in the fall." More importantly, the new deal "gives the Osbournes ownership of the show" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/30).

FINAL JEOPARDY! QUESTION

Last night's "Final Jeopardy!" category was "Literature & Geography."

"Zhongdian County in southwest China has renamed itself after this fabled land from a 1933 book."

LAUGH TRACK

The late night TV programs will be in repeats for the remainder of this week. "Laugh Track" will return to the Morning Buzz when those shows return to regular programming. Thank you for being patient.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S TV MONITOR

ESPN's 11:00pm ET "SportsCenter" led with Red Wings-Avalanche.

FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER

"What is Shangri-La?"

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