Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Events and Attractions

British And Irish Lions Rugby Tour Encountering Scheduling, Political, Financial Problems

There is a genuine sense that "unless action is taken, a combination of financial and political expediency and an increasingly congested domestic and international playing calendar will inexorably undermine" the future of British and Irish Lions rugby tours, the "last great bastion of traditional touring," according to Mark Souster of the LONDON TIMES. It is a process that began in '09 in South Africa, when "early matches lacked quality and crowds, and is continuing here." After the tour four years ago, categorical assurances were given that the paucity of games would not be tolerated. Last year, the Lions "thought they had received verbal guarantees from the Australian Rugby Union that provincial teams would be as strong as possible. That has not happened." Australia head coach Robbie Deans kiboshed that when he "insisted on withdrawing his Wallabies players and cocooning them in a month-long camp to keep them from the line of fire." To "add insult to injury," Western Force will field a second-string team because they have to play the Waratahs in a meaningless Super 15 fixture on Sunday. Neither side can make the play-offs, "yet more than 20 players are being denied the honour of facing the Lions on the basis that two games in four days for the same squad is unsustainable." The result is that "the value of a Lions tour is being devalued." Dilute it further and there comes a time when "the 'what’s the point?' argument wins the day" (LONDON TIMES, 6/5).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2013/06/05/Events-and-Attractions/Lions-Extinction.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2013/06/05/Events-and-Attractions/Lions-Extinction.aspx

CLOSE