Group demands changes

With a fat new television contract, higher purses and strong tournament attendance, you might think that all is well with the PGA Tour as the 1998 golf season winds down. But there's unrest in the ranks as some players who've formed their own splinter association push the PGA Tour to make some majo ...

Motorola studies more cuts in sponsorships

Motorola Inc. is bowing out of its second PGA Tour sponsorship in a month as the financially beleaguered company makes a hasty retreat from what was a high-profile sports marketing strategy. Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola will drop its presenting level sponsorship from the PGA Tour's Phoenix Op ...

Group demands changes

With a fat new television contract, higher purses and strong tournament attendance, you might think that all is well with the PGA Tour as the 1998 golf season winds down. But there's unrest in the ranks as some players who've formed their own splinter association push the PGA Tour to make some majo ...

Village wary of Bears' plans for new stadium

Will the Chicago Bears ever deliver on threats to leave Soldier Field for more profitable suburban pastures? An answer probably will come at the end of the month, when the team must meet a deadline to tie up options on a 70-acre site in Elk Grove Village, about 20 miles northwest of downtown Chi ...

Tags: Chicago Bears, NFL, Raymond James Financial Inc.

Bank backing boosts Chicago Marathon

For years Chicago's marathon was going nowhere fast, running through various sponsors. It was even canceled in 1987 because of a lack of funds. That was then. Today, the race is owned by LaSalle Banks Group and is a major sporting event that last year pumped $43 million into Chicago's economy, a ...

Tags: Fox

Industry giant IMG's secret? It got there first

Of all the sports marketing companies with alphabet soup names in business today, no other letters speak louder than IMG. Here's how dominant the Cleveland-based powerhouse, formed in the early 1960s by Mark McCormack, has become: As well-funded public companies have devoured most of its competi ...

Tags: IMG, Nickelodeon, Trans World International

Redskins' value is soaring

With the going rate these days for an NFL franchise pegged at $530 million, will Washington Redskins President John Kent Cooke be able to buy the very team he and his late father made so valuable? That's the economic conundrum confronting Cooke as he abides by his late father's will to sell one ...

Tags: Bonham Group Inc., Cleveland Browns, MARC Advertising, NFL, Sportscorp Ltd., Washington Redskins

For Advantage International, it's quality, not size, that matters

If Advantage International Inc. had a slogan, it would read, "We're number two and that's just the way we want it." The McLean, Va.-based sports marketing firm is the second-largest sports marketing company, with 16 offices and 500 employees worldwide. Though hardly small, it is dwarfed by its r ...

Tags: Advantage, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Falk Associates Management Enterprises, IMG, MasterCard International Inc., McCann-Erickson Worldwide Inc., NBA, NHL, Octagon Group, ProServ Inc.

Jordan stars in courtroom drama

Michael Jordan finds himself this fall not on a basketball court but in a Chicago courtroom, as the Bulls superstar squares off in a legal battle against a movie producer who contends Jordan reneged on a film deal. The trial, under way in Cook County Circuit Court, pits Jordan against Heaven Cor ...

Tags: Chicago Bulls, Heaven Corp.

Chip Ganassi studies possible NASCAR bid

Perhaps no one is more eager to see CART team owner Chip Ganassi buy a NASCAR team than officials at Chicago Motor Speedway. Ganassi is also a partner in the speedway, which will need races on its calendar when it opens next fall and which already faces the prospect of a rival track. Chicago Mot ...

Tags: Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc., Chicago Motor Speedway, International Speedway Corp., NASCAR, Owned by Dayton Hudson Corp., Speedway Motorsports Inc.