League Notes
GOLF: PGA Senior Tour player Larry Ziegler, on the league's new initiatives "trying to bring fans closer to players," which will be incorporated for this week's Royal Caribbean Classic: "It's not very good if we have to go back and say we weren't fan friendly. To say we need to be doing more for fans, we should have been doing that a long time ago." PGA Senior Tour Senior VP/Operations Jeff Monday said, "We're not reinventing anything. But we're going to focus on things that'll make our event unique to the consumer" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/31). Lee Trevino added, "There's no reason, with the talent we have out here, that we shouldn't have 15,000 to 20,000 people watching us every day" (PALM BEACH POST, 1/30).
BASKETBALL: TNT's Kenny Smith, on a lack of star players participating in the slam-dunk contest during NBA All-Star weekend: "It is a shame if they don't participate in the dunk contest if that is one of the skills you can greatly do as an individual. One, it brings out your individuality. Two, a lot of these guys would not have been voted into the starting line-up ... by the fans if they weren't in the dunk contest because the dunk contest is the most popular thing on All-Star Saturday weekend and that popularity carries over to all of their little endorsements, all of their sneakers and everything else." TNT's Charles Barkley said "they have an obligation" to participate and they "owe that to the fans" (TNT, 1/30)....NBDL Huntsville Flight F Lonnie Harrell, on the "first thing to impress" him about the league: "The money being on time, I'm not used to that. It even comes a day early most weeks. Heck, the ABA still owes me three paychecks" (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 1/29).
NHL: Kings VP/Sales & Marketing Kurt Schwartzkopf, on this weekend's NHL All-Star Game in L.A.: "We believe it's good for hockey in Southern California. Not just the Kings, but the Mighty Ducks, also." Schwartzkopf added, "To say I wasn't disappointed [when the Super Bowl was moved to the same weekend as the NHL All-Star Game] would be a lie. I'm like everybody, we want hockey to continue getting bigger and bigger in [L.A.]. When you're the Lone Ranger, there's going to be more attention on you. It definitely takes some of the steam out of it. Then again, I look at it and say, 'What a great sports weekend'" (PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 1/30).
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