| | The Daily Insider
Morning News & Headlines
Monday, July 12, 2004
9:00am ET | |
| |
| • | USTA’s U.S. Open Series Begins Today With ATP & WTA Tours In California |
| • | San Diego City Council Today To Vote On Chargers’ New Qualcomm Lease |
| • | MLS Reportedly Awarding Expansion Franchise To Utah To Begin In 2005 |
| • | Tim Montgomery Misses Athens With Marion Jones Still Attempting To Qualify |
| • | Brian France Says N.Y. Track Announcement May Come In The Next Month |
| • | Morning Briefs/In Other News/Laugh Track/TV Monitor/Final Jeopardy! |
USTA INKS DEAL WITH THE TENNIS CHANNEL AS OPEN SERIES BEGINS
The USTA’s ten-tournament U.S. Open Series begins today with the ATP Tour's Mercedes Benz Cup at the L.A. Tennis Center and the WTA Tour's Bank of the West Classic at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Stanford. The series includes six ATP events and four WTA tournaments leading up to the August 30-September 12 U.S. Open.
The USTA and The Tennis Channel today will announce a four-year TV rights deal for live coverage of the series through ’07. The partnership includes more than 100 hours of coverage annually. The Tennis Channel joins CBS, NBC and ESPN in broadcasting more than 200 hours of U.S. Open Series coverage this summer (USTA).
USTA Chief Executive of Professional Tennis Arlen Kantarian, on the series: “It's a simple, easy-to-follow, big-league regular season for tennis. It's the way fans understand sports, leading into the U.S. Open” (USA TODAY, 7/12).
SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL reports that the USTA “launched a low-seven-figure ad campaign during the weekend to tout” the series. Thirty-second spots narrated by Alec Baldwin, via Arnold Worldwide, began airing on ESPN, and the organization ran a print ad in the N.Y. Times’ national edition (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/12 issue).
The USTA runs a full-page ad in USA Today promoting the series, with the header, “Summer’s Hottest Mini-Series” (THE DAILY).
CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON CHARGERS’ NEW STADIUM LEASE
The SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE reported that the San Diego City Council today will vote on a new Chargers’ Qualcomm Stadium lease after a 5:00pm PT public hearing. The new lease would “allow the team to leave San Diego at the end of the 2008 season as long as it paid off $57.7[M] in outstanding bonds” for the ‘97 stadium expansion. Passage of the lease would also eliminate the city’s ticket guarantee (UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/10).
EVANDER HOLYFIELD AND DOMINIQUE DAWES IN NEW CHILI’S SPOTS
Chili’s Grill & Bar today launches an ad campaign, via GSD&M, featuring former boxer Evander Holyfield and gymnast Dominique Dawes in separate TV spots. In the ads, Holyfield whispers the Chili’s jingle “I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back …” under his breath during a gym workout. In her spot, Dawes utters the same words during a balance beam performance. The spots will appear in 30- and 15-second forms (Chili’s).
MANU FANS BRINGING ANTI-GLAZER TAKEOVER STANCE STATESIDE
ESPN.com notes that a group of Manchester United fans wary of a takeover by Malcolm Glazer today will take down the “Not4Sale” banner at Old Trafford, with plans to “unveil it in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York as United embark on their three-game pre-season tour.” Shareholders United, an influential group of fans, will “attempt to widen support for their cause” with a rally at Nevada Smiths bar in N.Y. after the team’s July 31 game against AC Milan (ESPN.com, 7/12).
DO TOUCH THAT DIAL: SPORTS RADIO DEALS POP UP ACROSS THE U.S.
South Florida’s WRFX-AM, which carried Fox Sports Radio, today will switch its format from sports to politics as it joins the Liberal Talk Radio network.The move leaves the area with three sports-talk stations, one of which – WFFL-AM – has been on the air for only two months (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 7/10).
In the St. Louis market, ESPN Radio has moved from KFNS to KSLG-AM, while Sporting News Radio flipped from KSLG to KRFT-AM, and Fox Sports Radio went from KRFT to KFNS (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/9).
Raleigh’s WTSB-AM today will switch to an all-sports format, putting it in direct competition with WRBZ-AM (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 6/30).
Meanwhile, DC’s WTEM-AM today will announce a multiyear rights deal to broadcast Virginia Tech football games (WASHINGTON POST, 7/10).
MORNING BRIEFS
The DESERET NEWS reported that MLS will award an expansion franchise to Salt Lake City to begin play in ’05. Former Knicks and Jazz exec Dave Checketts leads an ownership group that will pay a $10M expansion fee (DESERET NEWS, 7/10).
NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France, on a N.Y.-area racetrack: “They’re a lot closer than they were just six months ago. And I think you’ll see some positive announcements come, it would be my hope, in the next month or so” (Mult., 7/11).
The SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS reported that U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston Friday ruled that anti-doping authorities will not be given access to athletes’ grand jury testimony in the BALCO case (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 7/10).
USA TODAY reports that ABC's talks on an eight-year renewal of its Rose Bowl deal through 2014 “may result in an impasse as early as this week, allowing the Rose to speak with CBS, Fox and NBC" (USA TODAY, 7/12).
The DETROIT NEWS reports that Tigers VP/Marketing & Business Affairs Jim Stapleton has resigned to “devote more time to his private business.” Stapleton was MLB’s highest ranking African-American business exec (DETROIT NEWS, 7/12).
Greece has postponed the final payment on a $173M Athens Olympics security system being built by an American-led group. The postponement comes because of "government concerns about whether the security system will be ready for the August 13 opening of the Games" (USA TODAY, 7/12).
Giants LF Barry Bonds and MLB “strongly denied a report that the league was compensating Bonds for his appearance” in tonight’s Century 21 Home Run Derby. Bonds: “It was flat-out wrong and a flat-out lie” (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 7/10).
The Nashville TENNESSEAN reported that the 3,000 single-game tickets to Titans home games sold out Saturday in less than 20 minutes (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 7/11).
ATTENDANCE WATCH
Roughly 14,000 fans attended Friday’s John Hancock MLB All-Star FanFest opening day. Organizers expect 14,000-20,000 daily for the festival (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/10).
The largest crowd in MLS Fire history – 39,529 – attended yesterday’s game against the Revolution, which followed a Poland-U.S. exhibition. Half or more of that crowd “departed before the end of the Fire game” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/12).
The announced crowd of 26,223 for Saturday’s MLS DC United-K.C. Wizards match was the second-largest in Wizards’ history behind the 30,308 set last year against the Earthquakes (K.C. STAR, 7/11).
A sellout crowd of 10,016 attended the U.S. Olympic swimming trials Sunday at the Charter All Digital Aquatic Center in Long Beach. It was the largest crowd ever to watch a U.S. swimming event (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/12).
The Champ Car World Series Molson Indy drew a four-day crowd of 164,218 in Toronto, down 2% from last year’s total of 167,352 (TORONTO SUN, 7/12).
A crowd of 2,120 attended Saturday’s World TeamTennis Philadelphia Freedoms-K.C. Explorers match at the Plaza Tennis Center in K.C. The crowd was the second-largest in team history, and the match was Anna Kournikova’s last as an Explorer (K.C. STAR, 7/11).
A capacity crowd of 5,400 attended the Int’l Tennis HOF’s 50th anniversary celebration at Newport Casino, where Chris Evert, John McEnroe, Steffi Graf and Rod Laver participated in the parade of champions (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 7/11).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
The AP noted that Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Tropicana 400 title sponsor had inflatable oranges and bottles decorating Chicagoland Speedway over the weekend. Both of the oranges “broke free when a storm approached the track about an hour into” Friday’s Busch Series qualifying. Driver Todd Szegedy, who had an inflatable orange hurdling towards him during his qualifying laps, said, “I used to like orange juice. Now it almost killed me. I don’t even live in Florida” (AP, 7/10).
Driver Tina Gordon: “It looked like something out of a bad horror movie, ‘Invasion Of The Giant Oranges,’ or something” (THE DAILY).
WEEKEND RAP
The following are excerpts from the panelists’ “parting shots” on Sunday’s edition of ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters”:
- Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, on two-thirds of the U.S. Olympic basketball team being under the age of 24: "Due to all the 'no thank yous,' the selection committee for Larry Brown's Olympic basketball team has turned to the youth of America. ... We'll be showing the world the new face of American basketball."
- NBC's Jimmy Roberts, on Roger Federer winning Wimbledon: "The people I know seem to think we just might be seeing the rise of the greatest talent in tennis history. ... He's going to be in Sampras' neighborhood when it comes to major titles. Don't be surprised."
- Denver Post columnist Adam Schefter: "Let's quit questioning athlete's hearts and start questioning their sweethearts. Has anyone else noticed how many careers have been toast since their wedding toast? ... Star athletes who want to win rings need to stop giving them out."
- N.Y. Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, on the steroid scandal: "We watch these track & field trials, and these long home runs, and read about all these leaks coming from BALCO and the (USADA), and we try to sort out who we think is cheating and who isn't. ... The guys who try to enforce the law about steroids in sports aren't lying about all of them. If the athletes, even pretty ones like Marion Jones, are lying about this, and somebody can prove it, they are no better than Pete Rose" ("The Sports Reporters," ESPN, 7/11).
Heard elsewhere over the weekend:
- CBS' Charles Osgood, on the death of research chemist David Webb Chaney, who helped develop Astroturf: "Before too long, Astroturf was blooming at ... stadiums across the country, much to the anguish of sports purists. Eventually, the Astroturf tide turned" ("Sunday Morning," CBS, 7/11).
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 |
| | |
| Philadelphia Daily News | Newsday |
TODAY’S EVENTS
Marion Jones will attempt to qualify for the Athens Olympics in the long jump after finishing 5th and missing the U.S. team in Saturday’s 100-meter qualifying. Jones will attempt to qualify in the 200 meters later this week. Jones’ boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, did not qualify for Athens as he finished seventh in yesterday’s 100-meter final.
The Thunderbirds civic group, which hosts the PGA Tour FBR Open, will contribute more than $4M to Arizona charities, besting the previous high of $3.1M donated in ’98. The tournament has raised more than $23M for charity since ’86 (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/12).
An American Indoor Soccer League expansion franchise – the Cincinnati Excite – will be introduced at the Tri-County Sportsplex (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/11).
THIS WEEK IN SISTER PUBLICATION SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL…..
This week’s cover story profiles Fox Sports TV Group Chair David Hill.
| Also in this week’s issue: |
| • | MLB floats new rights proposal to ESPN, including less new-media elements. |
| • | Early NFL talks include proposal to switch primetime broadcast game to Sunday. |
| • | Tony Hawk tops list of most influential people in action sports. |
| • | One-On-One with Outdoor Life Network President Gavin Harvey. |
For these stories and more, please visit the SportsBusiness Journal.
IN OTHER NEWS….
This week’s cover of TIME offers “The Contenders,” a look inside the John Kerry-John Edwards team, while NEWSWEEK examines a similar subject with “The Sunshine Boys.”
The N.Y. POST reports that Interscope Records and rapper Eminem today will announce a hip-hop music and lifestyle channel to be launched in conjunction with Sirius Satellite Radio (N.Y. POST, 7/12).
News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch denied that he was the source for the N.Y. Post’s front-page “exclusive” that named Dick Gephardt as John Kerry’s choice as his running mate (AP, 7/10).
FINAL JEOPARDY!
Friday's "Final Jeopardy!" category was "International Politics."
"Of the eight members of the G-8 industrial nations, the one with the smallest population."
LAUGH TRACK
THE MONOLOGUES:
NBC's Jay Leno: "The other big story is Enron. It looks like Martha Stewart is going to have a tennis partner now in prison. Yesterday, prosecutors charged Ken Lay with running a wide-ranging scheme to deceive the public, or as we call it, a Presidential campaign. ... The Bush administration is desperate to find Osama bin Laden before the election, and it looks like they're finally using all their intelligence capabilities in this hunt. In fact, today they typed his name into Google. ... Scientists now say there is a new drug-resistant form of syphilis that's already been detected in three different American cities. See, I knew this Clinton book tour was a bad idea. ... The Tour de France is underway. This could be the sixth time that Lance Armstrong rolls through France and into Paris. Six times, which is pretty amazing. The Germans only did it twice. ... Happy birthday to our good friend, John Tesh. ... I understand his wife gave him something so he could listen to his music at home: an elevator" ("The Tonight Show," NBC, 7/9).
SUNDAY NIGHT’S TV MONITOR
ESPN’s 11:00pm ET 90-minute edition of “SportsCenter” (late due to Cubs-Cardinals), led with Cubs-Cardinals, followed by a report that Reds CF Ken Griffey Jr. will miss the All-Star Game due to a hamstring injury and Reds-Brewers. The first non-MLB report, at 5:20 into the broadcast, was Lakers C Shaquille O'Neal reportedly accepting a trade to the Heat.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: “SPIDER-MAN 2” DEFEATS “ANCHORMAN”
The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that “Spider-Man 2” is “running ahead of the first ‘Spider-Man’ by about $24[M], and with several major international territories yet to open, the worldwide cume for the webbed wonder is an estimated $375[M].” The estimate for the weekend’s top 12 films is $137.8M, up 2% from last year’s first post-July 4 weekend. The total for all films is forecast to be “in the low-to-mid $140[M] area, or near last year’s $144.1[M]” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 7/12).
| Title | Weekend | Cumulative |
| “Spider-Man 2” | $46.0M | $257.3M |
| “Anchorman” | $28.0M | $28.0M |
| “King Arthur” | $15.2M | $23.6M |
| “Fahrenheit 9/11” | $11.0M | $80.1M |
| “The Notebook” | $6.5M | $43.1M |
| “White Chicks” | $6.5M | $57.2M |
| “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” | $5.4M | $97.6M |
| “The Terminal” | $5.0M | $65.3M |
| “Shrek 2” | $4.5M | $418.6M |
| “Sleepover” | $4.2M | $4.2M |
FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER
"What is Canada?"
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
The Morning Buzz provides an early update of the news and headlines each Monday through Friday at approximately 9:00am ET. If you would like to sign up for an e-mail alert to the Morning Buzz, go to My Account and personalize your e-mail alert options.
