Morning Buzz, March 9, 2005

Morning News & Headlines

NBA OFFICIALS WALK OUT OF CBA SESSION OVER TAXES ON SALARIES

By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

NBA officials walked out of a collective-bargaining session last week after NBPA officials refused to budge on league demands to lower the threshold at which the escrow tax on players’ salaries kicks in, sources said. The NBA also canceled a bargaining session that had been scheduled for the next day after the blow-up on the escrow issue, said the sources, who asked not to be identified. Owners currently get back as much as 10% of players’ salaries if player costs exceed 57% of NBA revenue. The NBA wants to reduce that threshold; one source said the NBA wants it at 55%. An NBPA spokesperson would not comment. NBA spokespeople did not comment by presstime for this story.

Notably, the “LABOR RELATIONS: Sports at a Crossroads” panel during Day Two of the Octagon/Street & Smith’s World Congress of Sports today will include NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter and NBA Exec VP/Legal & Business Affairs Joel Litvin.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM DAY ONE OF THE WORLD CONGRESS OF SPORTS

The Octagon/Street & Smith’s World Congress of Sports concludes today at the Waldorf-Astoria in N.Y. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem will deliver the keynote address, while NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will be the subject of a one-on-one interview by ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap. View the Day Two schedule. Following are highlights from yesterday afternoon’s sessions.

Eisenman Architects Founder Peter Eisenman Feels Facilties Should Represent City

During a panel titled, “THE VISIONARIES: Creating Facilities of the Future around the Globe,” Eisenman Architects Founder & Principal Peter Eisenman said sports facilities need to be forward-looking and representative of a particular city rather than simply retro. “Stadiums have become symbols of what communities are about, as libraries and courthouses and convention centers and museums were,” Eisenman said. “Those symbols are important to the culture of a town.” Bruce Mau Design Inc. Founder & CEO Bruce Mau, who is currently working on the Jets’ West Side project, added, “The more you can produce something with your partners that adds a cultural dimension and a cultural experience to it, that is one more reason for people being there instead of being somewhere else.”

After two fans during the “FANS/EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE: The Changing Face of Sports Consumption” panel said that in-game promotions were the one thing they would most like to eliminate from game broadcasts, moderator Armen Keteyian drew laughter from the room when he asked another fan, “What is out there that you are not getting besides too many promos, which you are going to get – trust me – for the rest of your life?”

ESPN's Mark Shapiro Says Content Is Key

But ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Production Mark Shapiro dismissed the fans’ annoyance with in-game promotions, saying, “If you want to keep bringing viewers back, the bottom line is compelling programming and a strong brand. End of story. If you have the content, whether you have acquired it or created it, people will come. Yankees-Red Sox. You might not like the promos. You might not like the celebrity interviews, but what is the alternative? Not watching Yankees-Red Sox in the ALCS? Can’t do it.”

With MLS featuring in-game advertisements during its April 3 season opener, Commissioner Don Garber said that ABC will use a split screen to air ads during the Chivas-DC United match. Garber underscored the difference between the marketing of soccer in the U.S. and in Europe, saying to Rolf Beisswanger of European soccer sponsor Siemens, “I venture to say if they showed a Bundesliga game with a split screen for a Siemens ad, people would be burning their cell phones in Munich.”

For more from the Octagon/Street & Smith’s World Congress of Sports, please see this afternoon’s issues of SportsBusiness Daily and Closing Bell.

U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE COULD BEGIN ISSUING MLB SUBPOENAS TODAY

The Baltimore SUN cites a source as saying that the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform as early as today will issue subpoenas for up to seven current and former MLBers that have not accepted invitations to appear at a March 17 hearing around steroid use in MLB. Of the seven players invited -- former MLBers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, Yankees 1B Jason Giambi, Orioles 1B Rafael Palmeiro, Red Sox P Curt Schilling, Orioles RF Sammy Sosa and White Sox DH Frank Thomas -- only Canseco has accepted so far. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and MLBPA Exec Dir Donald Fehr are “also expected at the hearing -- although they may not receive subpoenas” (Baltimore SUN, 3/9).

NFL FINANCE COMMITTEE TODAY REVIEWING REGGIE FOWLER

The ARIZONA REPUBLIC notes the NFL Finance Committee today will take its first look at Reggie Fowler’s bid to buy the Vikings at a 5:00pm ET meeting at the Marriott Harbor Beach Fort Lauderdale Resort & Spa. Neither Fowler nor Vikings Owner Red McCombs is scheduled to attend the meeting, at which the committee is “expected to review Fowler’s financial records.” NFL VP/PR Greg Aiello said that it is “possible all NFL owners will take up the sale at a meeting later this month in Hawaii,” though he added that it is “more likely owners will vote on the sale in May at the next league meetings” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 3/9).

N.Y. CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER INTRODUCING BILL AIMED AT STADIUM

The N.Y. DAILY NEWS reported N.Y. City Council Speaker Gifford Miller today will introduce a bill calling for formal City Council approval before Mayor Michael Bloomberg can earmark city revenues known as PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) for any economic development project. Miller said that he “has the votes to override an expected mayoral veto. He has fast-tracked it for a March 22 public hearing and a full vote by early next month.” New York State Assembly member Richard Gottfried plans to introduce a similar bill at the state level (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/8).

MORNING BRIEFS

U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE) today will introduce a bill in the U.S. House that asks the NCAA “to end alcohol advertising on radio and television broadcasts during college athletic events.”  Osborne last year introduced a similar bill, but it failed to come to a vote (N.Y. TIMES, 3/9).

Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos yesterday scheduled a trial date of November 7 for Anaheim’s lawsuit against the Angels.  Polos also set an April 20 conference and “ordered both sides to discuss a settlement” (L.A. TIMES, 3/9).

A U.S. House committee yesterday passed a supplemental funding bill “that would authorize the District of Columbia to move forward with plans to build” a $435M stadium for the Nationals. Final passage of the supplemental appropriations bill is expected at the end of next week (AP, 3/9).

Coyotes Managing General Partner Wayne Gretzky, on the NHL and NHLPA reopening CBA talks this week: “It seems like they’re starting at square one” (USA TODAY, 3/9).

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday said through a spokesperson that he might increase his involvement in the feud between Time Warner Cable and Cablevision (N.Y. TIMES, 3/9).

Spitzer yesterday also said that he “believes New York can host the Olympics without building a West Side stadium.” Spitzer: “I think there are many ways to provide venues for the Olympics other than that stadium, and I say that without saying thumbs-up or thumbs-down from a personal perspective on the stadium” (N.Y. POST, 3/9).

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	Newsday

Philadelphia Daily News

TODAY’S EVENTS

Former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, along with Greg Norman, are scheduled to host the “Three Friends: One Goal” golf event at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, to raise $2.1M for tsunami relief efforts.  The 72 golfers will donate $30,000 each to play in the scramble event, in which each foursome will get to play one hole with Bush, Clinton and Norman (PALM BEACH POST, 3/7). Clinton is still expected to attend despite yesterday’s announcement that he will have surgery tomorrow to remove fluid and scar tissue from his chest (Mult., 3/9).

Canterbury Park is expected to announce that “it will seek state permission to build what could become the second-largest casino in Minnesota and share its profits with the government.” The proposal includes 3,000 slot machines, as well as blackjack tables, and lawmakers anticipate it pumping about $100M annually “into the state government after paying a one-time fee of perhaps $100[M] or more” (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 3/9).

IN OTHER NEWS….

The N.Y. TIMES reports that Cablevision’s BOD yesterday agreed to give Cablevision Chair Charles Dolan and Exec VP Thomas Dolan, “until the end of the month to acquire the assets of its Voom high-definition television operation” (N.Y. TIMES, 3/9).

The L.A. TIMES reports that AOL will offer an Internet phone service to its 22.2 million U.S. subscribers within a month and to nonsubscribers at a later date.  The service, which uses voice over Internet protocol, “is expected to combine AOL’s instant messaging, e-mail and buddy list features with the phone service to provide several ways to communicate online” (L.A. TIMES, 3/9).

FINAL JEOPARDY!

Last night's "Final Jeopardy!" category was "The Science World."

“With Napoleon III’s support, a physiological chemistry lab was created for him at the Ecole Normale Superieure.”

LAUGH TRACK

THE MONOLOGUES:

NBC’s Jay Leno: “We have a very special audience here tonight: the only 400 people in the entire city who actually voted today in the mayor’s race. ... Our mayor’s race is kind of like the elections in Iraq: it’s a lot of foreign-speaking people in the desert voting for candidates they never heard of. ... It is now 11:36 and Martha Stewart, if you’re watching, lights out! ... Heidi Klum said in an interview today she hates nothing more than when she goes to kiss her date and feels little whiskers.  No, I’m sorry, that was Michael Jackson. ... Bill Clinton is going back in the hospital.  Nothing serious, it’s just to repair some scar tissue from his heart operation.  He’s expected to be in the hospital three to ten days, depending on what his nurses look like. ... Gas is so expensive now, today, I saw Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds carrying their cars. ... (MLB) has instituted their tough new steroid-testing policy and boy, it’s pretty strict too.  In fact, from now on any player whose head cannot fit inside a dome stadium is banned for ten days.”  With Leno having a gag order on him after being subpoenaed in the Michael Jackson trial, comedian Roseanne Barr came on-stage to perform jokes about the Jackson trial (“The Tonight Show,” NBC, 3/8).

LAST NIGHT’S TV MONITOR

FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER

“Who was Louis Pasteur?”

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