| | The Daily Insider
Morning News & Headlines
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
9:00am ET | |
| |
| • | Sugar Bowl To Highlight Fifteen Bowl Games To Be Played In Next Five Days |
| • | Chargers To Stop Fighting City’s Request To Move Team’s Lawsuit From L.A. |
| • | Denver Report Cites Mechanical Failure For Coors Field Escalator Accident |
| • | Red Wings To Wear Dan Snyder Patch For Tonight’s Game Against Thrashers |
| • | NBC-Vivendi Entertainment Deal Hits Snag Because Of Internal NBC Documents |
| • | Morning Briefs/In Other News/Laugh Track/TV Monitor/Final Jeopardy! |
The Morning Buzz will not publish Thursday and Friday in observance of the New Year.
We will return Monday, January 5.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWLS TO BE PLENTY OVER NEXT FIVE DAYS
The Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL notes that the Music City Bowl at noon ET “kicks off a five-day, 20-game football feast. Fifteen bowl games, a high school all-star game ... and the first four NFL playoff games.” Political strategist James Carville will contribute two pieces to ABC’s bowl coverage, including “a rant on the BCS confusion, to air in the Rose Bowl pregame show,” and a piece on “the obsession in the Bayou for LSU football” during the Sugar Bowl pregame show (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 12/31).
USA TODAY notes that several big advertisers “this year are looking at New Year’s to start something fresh. … The new mind-set has resulted in more and better advertising aimed at the [BCS].” ESPN/ABC Sports President of Ad Sales Ed Erhardt: “Increasingly for BCS, advertisers are more interested in the ads, the ads become part of the story and people will stick around to watch the ads” (USA TODAY, 12/31).
USA Today runs a special eight-page BCS section, including three full-page ads for ABC Sports. The first plays off the BCS controversy with the text,
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| Click Image To Enlarge |
“You’re going to have an opinion. Might as well make it an informed one. Who’s #1? Watch the BCS on ABC.” The second highlights 12 BCS sponsors. The third promotes the net’s other sports action this weekend: Sixers-Spurs and the NFL playoffs. ADT also runs a full-page ad in the section in support of its sponsorship of the championship trophy (
THE DAILY).
Nike makes its case for a national playoff system with a full-page ad in multiple publications featuring a semifinal bracket of Nike schools USC, Michigan, Oklahoma and LSU, using the tagline, “Just Do It.” The ad proposes a national championship game on Saturday, January 10. No reference to the BCS, Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl is made (THE DAILY).
CHARGERS TO STOP FIGHTING CITY’S REQUEST TO MOVE SUIT FROM L.A.
The SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE reports that the Chargers announced Tuesday they will “stop fighting the city of San Diego’s request to move the team’s lawsuit from Los Angeles so that it can be heard in a local court. The Chargers’ lawsuit asks the court to determine whether the team has met the financial hardship criteria outlined in the stadium lease that would allow the team to renegotiate the contract and shop itself to other cities” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 12/31).
THE DAILY LOOKS BACK AT THE TOP STORIES OF 2003
In today’s edition, The Daily will offer a look back at every Top Story from 2003, offering a one-line summary of the most important news from each day. The following details the top ten leagues, sports or sanctioning bodies (including their associated teams) in terms of occurrences as the subject of The Daily’s Top Story in 2003:
| League, Sport or Sanctioning Body | Top Story Occurrences |
| MLB | 47 |
| NBA (includes WNBA) | 43 |
| NFL | 30 |
| NHL | 23 |
| Olympics (includes USOC) | 16 |
| NCAA | 13 |
| Soccer (includes MLS, FIFA and WUSA) | 11 |
| Golf (includes PGA Tour, LPGA and The Masters) | 10 |
| Motorsports (includes NASCAR and CART) | 10 |
| Tennis (includes WTA, USTA and ATP) | 8 |
The following details the top 14 entities (excluding the leagues, sports or sanctioning bodies listed above) in terms of occurrences as the subject of The Daily’s Top Story in 2003:
| Entity | Top Story Occurrences |
| ESPN/ABC Sports | 19 |
| News Corp./Fox Sports/FSN (excludes Dodgers) | 13 |
| Cubs (includes Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services) | 9 |
| Nike | 8 |
| Dodgers | 7 |
| Yankees (includes YankeeNets and YES, but not Nets) | 7 |
| Marlins | 5 |
| NBC | 5 |
| Nets | 5 |
| Annika Sorenstam/Bank of America | 4 |
| Senators | 4 |
| White Sox | 4 |
| Kobe Bryant | 4 |
| LeBron James | 4 |
For more, please see today's issue of The Daily.
MORNING BRIEFS
The DENVER POST notes a city report released Tuesday stated that “mechanical failure combined with a missing safety switch caused the Coors Field escalator accident that injured more than 30 people in July.” In a statement, Kone Senior VP Dennis Gerard said that the escalator company “disagreed with the report’s conclusions” (DENVER POST, 12/31).
The PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE cites a source who said that if funding for a new Penguins arena is not “set in stone by the time the NHL and its players’ union reach a new [CBA], Mario Lemieux will sell the team to the highest bidder. Said highest bidder will relocate the team to another city” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/31).
The Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL reports that Daytona Int’l Speedway’s twin scoring towers Tuesday “were stripped of their longstanding Winston logos” to reflect Nextel’s title sponsorship of NASCAR’s top racing series. Work at the speedway will “continue inside and outside the track for several weeks” (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 12/31).
DAILY VARIETY reports that TWC of N.Y. “could strike a deal to renew [Cablevision’s] MSG Network, Fox Sports New York and two MetroChannels within the next month” (DAILY VARIETY, 12/31).
The MIAMI HERALD reports that former Packers GM Ron Wolf told the Dolphins he is “not interested in returning to the NFL grind at this point in his life.” The team is looking for a GM after stripping coach Dave Wannstedt of those duties (MIAMI HERALD, 12/31).
USA TODAY reports that President Bush and “dozens of other world leaders formally were invited” Tuesday to the ’04 Athens Olympics (USA TODAY, 12/31).
The AP notes that Jack Nicklaus’ Nicklaus Design has “33 courses under construction, 17 of them overseas” (AP, 12/31).
ATTENDANCE WATCH:
- The HOUSTON CHRONICLE reports that a crowd of 51,068 attended Tuesday’s EV1.net Houston Bowl, where Texas Tech defeated Navy, 38-14 (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 12/31).
- The L.A. TIMES reports that Washington State beat Texas 28-20 in front of 61,102 in Tuesday night’s Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego (L.A. TIMES, 12/31).
- The L.A. TIMES reports that Fresno State defeated UCLA 17-9 in front of 20,126 at Tuesday night’s Silicon Valley Classic at Spartan Stadium in San Jose (L.A. TIMES, 12/31).
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
The Red Wings will wear the same Dan Snyder tribute patch the Thrashers are wearing all season during the 7:30pm ET game between the two clubs at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The game-worn jerseys will be auctioned by the NHLPA with proceeds going to The Dan Snyder Memorial Scholarship (NHLPA).
With his official retirement occurring today, UEFA CEO Gerhard Aigner criticized high salaries throughout European soccer, saying, “It is not sustainable that some clubs spend 80% or more of their budgets on salaries” (L.A. TIMES, 12/29).
IN OTHER NEWS….
The L.A. TIMES reports that shoppers “finished out the holiday season on a strong note, all but ensuring that most retailers will log respectable sales gains. Sales at established stores in the week ended December 27 were up a solid 5.5% from last year,” according to a study released yesterday of 79 retailers. Last year, same-store sales “increased just 0.5% for November and December combined, the weakest gain in three decades” (L.A. TIMES, 12/31).
USA TODAY reports that NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment’s “seemingly problem-free merger has hit a snag because internal NBC documents have antitrust enforcers worried about the effect the deal could have on consumers” (USA TODAY, 12/31).
MULTICHANNEL NEWS reports that EchoStar yesterday “signed a ‘multimonth extension’ to continue carrying a bundle of Turner Broadcasting System networks on its Dish Network,” giving both sides more time to “try to nail down new carriage deals after their current affiliation agreements expire” at midnight ET (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 12/31).
The N.Y. TIMES reports that radio companies are “equipping some stations with technology that broadcasts not just commercials but text messages that appear on car radio displays.” The technology, called radio data system or RDS, has “long been common in Europe and available” in the U.S. (N.Y. TIMES, 12/31).
FINAL JEOPARDY!
Last night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was “Characters In Classical Lit.”
“The first person mentioned by name in ‘The Man In The Iron Mask’ is the hero of a previous book by the same author.”
LAUGH TRACK
THE MONOLOGUES:
NBC’s Jay Leno, on University of Michigan football players and coaches being in the audience last night: “Where’s Lloyd Carr? That’s a good Midwestern name, Lloyd Carr. It sounds like he runs the filling station in Mayberry. ‘I’m going down to see Goober and Lloyd and see how they’re doing.’ After watching the Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers, it’s nice to meet a team from Michigan that can win. ... What does a Wolverine fan from Detroit call a trip to California? A parole violation. ... During this winter break, Michigan players are not in class now. They’re not even taking their scheduled exams. They’re like Ohio State players the rest of the year.” More Leno: “President Bush said he is still eating beef. He says beef is safe. In fact, President Bush said today, ‘Once we stop eating beef that means the cows have won’” ("The Tonight Show," NBC, 12/30).
TUESDAY NIGHT’S TV MONITOR
Last night’s 11:30pm ET edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” led with Steve Spurrier resigning as Redskins head coach, followed by a report the Raiders will fire head coach Bill Callahan and Pacers-Cavaliers.
FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER
“Who is D’Artagnan?”
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dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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