Callaway thinks small to get well

For the Callaway Golf Co., bigger may no longer be better. Callaway, the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company that revolutionized the golf club business with its hugely successful Big Bertha line of metal woods, is introducing a new line of metal clubs it hopes will reverse its financial slide while s ...

Will it go 'swoosh' when hit?

Softness in the athletic shoe and apparel markets is driving Nike Inc. to enter the hypercompetitive golf-equipment market. Nike has USGA approval for a line of golf balls, and industry sources say PGA Tour professionals have been testing the balls — signaling that the company is preparing ...

Tags: Pinnacle Enterprises Inc., Titleist

Hoping for a Rx for profits

The wave of sports sponsorships among health-care companies will only get stronger, experts say, as hospitals and doctors flock to professional sports to boost business. An industry that once wouldn't consider advertising at all is now flush with large health-care companies and physician groups ...

Tags: Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., LPGA, Miami Heat

Ethical conflicts break out when doctors serve teams, players

Sports medicine is an industry teeming with potential conflicts of interest. Just how do doctors satisfy the demands of team management, which might want the talented and highly paid athlete to play through an injury, while at the same time respecting the needs of the athlete? And how does ma ...

Tags: Boston Celtics, Miami Heat

Team physicians star in a relief role

Doctors aren't usually found in the team photograph, and they are all but buried in the media guide. They can play a major role in a team's success or failure, but, other than a few high-profile names, they work anonymously. The role of team doctor is becoming a lucrative one, however, as the sp ...

Tags: Boston Celtics, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., Miami Heat, NBA

Orlando Magic, hospital launch joint venture

Consider Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos a guinea pig for professional sports. In March, DeVos and his RDV Sports group began a joint venture with Florida Hospital that could prove to be the wave of the sports medicine future. The venture, called RDV Sportsplex, is a $50 million, 365,000-squar ...

Tags: Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bears, IHL, NBA, Orlando Magic, RDV Sports, Sports Group, Time Warner

Ameritech answers Pacers' call with $5M

Three weeks after signing Conseco Inc. to an estimated $95 million naming-rights deal for their new field house-style arena, the Indiana Pacers are set to enter another major sponsorship package — this time with Chicago-based Ameritech Inc. The telecommunications giant, which is bei ...

Tags: This Week's Issue

New emphasis on head injuries

Mention a head case to sports doctors these days and you won't get many references to Dennis Rodman or any other behaviorally challenged athlete. Instead, team physicians are focusing their attention on the relatively unknown effects related to concussions. A decade ago, it was the knee that ...

Tags: Boston Celtics, NFL

Fila USA taps Adidas executive to halt skid

Caught in a financial free fall that has sent its stock plummeting from $104 a share to $18 a share, Fila USA is in the midst of an extensive retooling effort that begs the question: Can the company reverse its dramatic slide? The Italian athletic footwear and apparel company, which last year sa ...

Tags: Adidas, Fila, Los Angeles Sparks, NBA, Reebok

Last post time for Arlington?

All bets are off as to whether Chicago's Arlington International Racetrack will reopen next year. Chairman Richard Duchossois closed the $200 million racetrack last fall, citing financial losses of $70 million since the track was rebuilt after a fire in 1989. Now Arlington, one of the country ...