Lipton to bow out of title sponsorship

The biggest upset in the tennis world may not be one of the many occurring at the current U.S. Open, but one that took place 2,000 miles away in Key Biscayne, Fla. In a shocker, Ericsson Mobile Phones ousted Lipton as the title sponsor of the fifth-largest tennis event in the world. So intertwin ...

Tags: Ericsson Inc., Integrated Sports International (ISI), Millsport LLC, Pilot Pen Corp., Unilever

J.P. Morgan loses sports banker

One of J.P. Morgan & Co.'s top sports bankers, Brian McGough, resigned last week to join the investment banking unit of Banc One Corp. He will start work there this week. While at J.P. Morgan, he helped build the bank's sports practice. J.P. Morgan was a key adviser on several high-profile sport ...

Tags: First Chicago NBD Corp., Kansas City Royals, New York Giants, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners

Tennis tries to change image with minorities

Two powerful forces in tennis are planning separate efforts to promote the sport in minority communities. The U.S. Tennis Association formally pledged last week to target minorities as part of its ongoing $50 million, five-year program to boost recreational tennis play. And an adviser to sist ...

Tennis wakes up, bounces back

Sports Illustrated ran a scathing cover story in early 1995 on the fall of professional tennis, slamming the sport publicly like few publications ever had. The sport clearly was at a crossroads: Broadcast ratings were declining, sales of tennis equipment were swooning and players were seen as overp ...

Tags: Advantage, CBS Broadcasting Inc., Corel Corp., ESPN, IMG, ISL Marketing, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, NBC, New York Knicks, Octagon Group, Pilot Pen Corp., ProServ Inc., Regency Enterprises Inc., USA Network, WTA

Mixed summer for men's tennis

Heading into today's start of the U.S. Open, the men's ATP Tour has seen mixed attendance and television results for this summer's North American tournaments. While tennis ratings on ESPN are up dramatically this year, high-profile national-broadcast matches did not fare as well. And overall att ...

Tags: CBS Broadcasting Inc., ESPN, Fox, Legg Mason Inc., NFL, Pilot Pen Corp.

Fleet team back after hard times

When Patrick McAuliffe assumed the leadership of Fleet Financial Group Inc.'s sports lending team a year ago, it was not exactly a moment for celebration. The group had been decimated by the defection of several critical members who had worked for the recently acquired Shawmut Bank. Disgruntled ...

Tags: Anschutz Properties, Baltimore Ravens, Boston Celtics, Cablevision Systems Corp., Citizens Bank, Cleveland Browns, Fleet, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Giants, New York Islanders, NFL, San Francisco Giants, Staples Inc.

After title game, more Arena building

The Arena Football League made it to the big time, at least for an afternoon, with the national broadcast of its title game on Aug. 23, the first league game televised on one of the major networks. Now the AFL hopes to leverage that exposure and its success to reach a national audience more ofte ...

Tags: ABC, AFL, ESPN, Gund Arena Co., New Orleans Saints, NFL

Tennis tournament is latest event to jump on beanbag bandwagon

Tennis has caught the beanie bug. After watching baseball attract tens of thousands of children to games with beanbag animal toys, professional tennis has gotten into the act. Last week, the first Pilot Pen International Championships for women began by handing out 2,500 Champ the Bean Bears. ...

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Bears, Pilot Pen Corp., Ty Inc.

Tennis ready to serve up some changes

I f in a decade same-sex tennis tournaments are extinct, it will be in no small part due to Earl "Butch" Buchholz . Before Buchholz, only the four major Grand Slam tournaments let men and women play at the same time. Now two others do, and the largest is Buchholz's Lipton Champio ...

Tags: AFL, Ericsson Inc., NFL, Pilot Pen Corp., WTA

Q & A: ARNON MILCHAN

  A rnon Milchan's Regency Enterprises, hired this year by the WTA Tour to market its international TV rights, hopes to glamorize and elevate tennis to a new level. Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Daniel Kaplan talked with the entertainment mogul. ...

Tags: CBS Broadcasting Inc., ESPN, Eurosport, Los Angeles Lakers, Regency Enterprises Inc., WTA