| | The Daily Insider
Morning News & Headlines
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
9:00am ET | |
| |
| • | Aaron Goodwin Expected To Register Today As LeBron James’ Agent |
| • | Electronic Arts To Announce Plans For Sports Games Online Service Today |
| • | SportsLine.com’s Peter Pezaris To Discuss Online Subscription Models Today |
| • | ABC Today Expected To Announce Newsmagazine Slotted Next To “MNF” |
| • | Charlotte City Council Members Criticize Latest Drawing Of New NBA Arena |
| • | Morning Briefs/In Other News/Laugh Track/TV Monitor/Final Jeopardy! |
LEBRON JAMES TO START SIGNING ENDORSEMENT DEALS SOON
The Cleveland PLAIN DEALER reports that Aaron Goodwin “is expected to register today as the agent for projected No. 1 NBA draft pick LeBron James.” With agent representation, James “is expected to start signing endorsement deals soon, the first of which likely will come in the next two weeks with a trading card company.” Goodwin’s other clients include Bucks G Gary Payton, Trail Blazers G Damon Stoudamire and Bulls G Jamal Crawford (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 5/14).
ELECTRONIC ARTS TO DETAIL ONLINE GAMING SERVICE PLAN TODAY
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that Electronic Arts today “is expected to announce a plan to build an online service for its leading sports games on Sony’s PlayStation 2 game machine, the world’s best-selling game console.” The announcement comes one day after the company’s “chief competitor,” Microsoft’s Xbox, announced a similar initiative (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/13). To read about Xbox, see yesterday’s Closing Bell.
ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION MODELS PANEL DISCUSSION TODAY IN N.Y.
SportsLine.com President/Operations & Product Development Peter Pezaris today will participate in a panel discussion, “Online Subscription Models: Goldmine or Gravy?,” from noon-1:00pm ET at the U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray 5th Annual Technology Conference, to be held at the Grand Hyatt N.Y. Pezaris will discuss SportsLine.com’s fantasy sports subscription products. The panel will be Webcast live (THE DAILY).
ABC TO MOVE IN A NEW DIRECTION WITH “MNF” LEAD-IN/LEAD-OUT
The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that ABC Entertainment Chair Lloyd Braun and President Susan Lyne “will unveil the (network’s) revamped schedule to advertisers today” at the media upfront in N.Y. While “MNF” will once again be the anchor of Monday in the fall and winter, “after trying comedies adjacent to ‘MNF’ last season, ABC is expected to slot a newsmagazine in the lead-in/lead-out (depending on time zone) berth” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/13).
MORNING BRIEFS
The S.F. CHRONICLE reports that the Sharks are expected to promote Pro Development Dir Doug Wilson to GM during a news conference this afternoon (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/13).
Following his round Sunday at the Wachovia Championship, Vijay Singh made the strongest comments yet regarding Annika Sorenstam’s entry in the PGA Tour’s Bank of America Colonial, saying, “I hope she misses the cut. … If I’m drawn with her, which I won’t be, I won’t play” (AP, 5/12).
The USGA announced the purses for this year’s U.S. Opens (USA TODAY, 5/13). The following details the overall purse and winner’s share for this year’s events and comparisons to last year:
| Tournament | ’03 Purse | ’02 Purse | ’03 Winner | ’02 Winner |
| U.S. Open | $6.0M | $5.5M | $1.08M | $1.0M |
| U.S. Women’s Open | $3.1M | $3.0M | $560,000 | $535,000 |
| U.S. Senior Open | $2.6M | $2.5M | $470,000 | $450,000 |
The New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE reports that the expansion AFL New Orleans VooDoo today will unveil its logo and colors at a 3:00pm ET press conference at New Orleans Arena. The team, which will begin play in '04, is owned by Saints Owner Tom Benson (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 5/13).
The Charlotte City Council met last night, and the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER reports that council members “criticized the latest drawings of the new uptown arena, calling it sterile, industrial and suburban.” City Council member Lynn Wheeler: “The whole design of the building is hideous. They could put it in a cow pasture” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/13).
The ACC annual spring meeting continues today on Amelia Island, FL, and ESPN.com reported that the presidents of the nine conference universities “could hold a conference call any day” to decide on an expansion scenario. However, NC State Univ. AD Lee Fowler said that a vote “would not be taken at the meetings.” There was discussion yesterday “about expansion – pros, cons, logistics – but a consensus was not reached” (ESPN.com, 5/12).
The NBA today will announce the winner of the Sportsmanship Award, followed by the announcement of the Executive of the Year Award tomorrow (THE DAILY).
The BOSTON HERALD reports that a “mouthy fan” who heckled Celtics F Antoine Walker during Game Three of the team’s playoff series against the Nets “had his season tickets yanked by the team yesterday, but Walker was cleared by the NBA of any wrongdoing in the wake of the courtside fracas” (BOSTON HERALD, 5/13).
ATTENDANCE WATCH:
- The Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW reports that paid attendance of 9,095 at last night’s Astros-Pirates game “marked the first time the Pirates sold fewer than 10,000 tickets for a game” at PNC Park. Foul weather attributed to there being “about 2,000 fans inside the ballpark” (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 5/13).
THE BACK PAGES
The Morning Buzz offers today’s back page sports covers from some of the nation’s major metropolitan tabloids:
| | |
| N.Y. Post | N.Y. Daily News |
TODAY’S EVENTS
Fox Sports President Ed Goren and broadcasters Tim McCarver and Joe Buck will conduct a media conference call at 2:00pm ET to preview the ’03 MLB on Fox season, which begins Saturday (THE DAILY).
Major League Lacrosse Founder Jake Steinfeld will host the league’s media day at the ESPN Zone in N.Y., beginning at noon ET (THE DAILY).
The Swiss yachting syndicate Alinghi will bring the America’s Cup to the N.Y. Yacht Club, the only U.S. stop on the syndicate’s world tour of the Cup (USA TODAY, 5/12).
IN OTHER NEWS….
The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that NBC “is asking for Super Bowl-sized advertising rates for the two-hour finale of ‘Friends’ in May 2004.” The network is looking for $2M per 30-second spot on the show (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/13).
The N.Y. TIMES reports that Young & Rubicam yesterday named former Kraft Foods President/Beverages, Desserts & Cereals Ann Fudge Chair & CEO, making her “the first black woman to lead a large division of a global advertising agency company” (N.Y. TIMES, 5/13).
FINAL JEOPARDY!
Last night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was “Movie Industry History.”
“The company that produced most of Marion Davies’ films was named for this magazine; the same person owned both.”
LAUGH TRACK
THE MONOLOGUES:
CBS' David Letterman: “Everybody survive Mother’s Day? Same story every year at my house. By noon, mom had a Bloody Mary moustache. ... The (N.Y.) Times fired one of its reporters for turning in phony stories. It’s a big scandal. The newspaper became suspicious after his six-part series on UFOs and Elvis. ... The Times admitted that the reporter faked interviews and I thought, ‘Well hell, I do that here every night.’ ... You know the old slogan of the Times, ‘All the news that’s fit to print.’ They’ve changed it. The new slogan is now, ‘We make it up.’ ... Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party no longer exists. Tough luck for (N.Y.). We were trying to get their convention. ... I had a cab driver today who belonged to a splinter group of the Baath party, the No Baath Party” ("Late Show," CBS, 5/12).
Last night’s edition of NBC’s “Tonight Show” featured guest host Katie Couric, who switched jobs with host Jay Leno. Couric: “Good evening and welcome to the ‘Tonight Show’ or as I call it, ‘Extreme Fear Factor.’ ... I have not been this nervous since I was at the NBC Christmas party and I was French-kissed by Willard Scott. ... Jay did give me a little advice before I took this gig. He said at the end of every joke, I can’t say, ‘Get it?’ He also said the key to good comedy is timing and knowing when to get off. So, ‘Good night everybody!’ ... I think (Leno) did an amazing job (hosting ‘Today’) and I think he also did a really insightful interview with Colin Powell. I have to tell you I was really, really impressed, and then I got kind of upset because probing Colin, I thought that was my area. ... L.A. is such an interesting city. It is the only place where if you tell a woman she looks anorexic, she says, ‘Thank you’” ("Tonight Show," NBC, 5/12).
USA TODAY notes of the switch, “Couric seemed thrilled with the deal, perhaps because she got the easier part of the bargain. … The day was just longer than usual; the dress cut higher and lower. … We’ve come to expect tired quips from Leno, but even his supporters must have been surprised by how appallingly stiff he seemed” (USA TODAY, 5/13).
LATE NIGHT LAUGHS:
Last night’s Top Ten list was “Top Ten Signs Something Is Wrong At The New York Times” ("Late Show," CBS, 5/12).
| 10) “When anything bad happens, front page asks, ‘Where are you, Spider-Man?’” |
| 9) “Answer to every clue in Sunday crossword puzzle: taffy.” |
| 8) “New policy: ‘We’ll print your name in any story for $49.95.’” |
| 7) “Everyone in photographs looks like the publisher in a wig.” |
| 6) “Most stories involve the reporter ending up drunk at a strip club.” |
| 5) “They just endorsed Dukakis.” |
| 4) “Motto ‘All the news that’s fit to print’ replaced by the more trendy ‘Don’t go there, girlfriend.’” |
| 3) “Its journalistic integrity is questioned by Geraldo Rivera.” |
| 2) “They believe President Bush’s tax cut is a good idea.” |
| 1) “Sports page reports Mets in first place.” |
CBS’ Craig Kilborn: “A quick message to my mommy: Mother if you don’t like the present for Mother’s Day, just take it back to the store, ask for a refund, and just keep the $0.99. … The jockey of the Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide was falsely accused of using an electric cattle prod device to make the horse run faster. It’s also the same way they get Anna Nicole Smith to move around the set” (“The Late Late Show,” CBS, 5/12).
MONDAY NIGHT’S TV MONITOR
ESPN’s 11:00pm ET “SportsCenter” led with Mighty Ducks-Wild Game 2, followed by Astros-Pirates and an injury update on Cardinals OF Eli Marrero.
FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER
“What is Cosmopolitan?”
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