| • | ACC Expects First-Ever Sellout Of Its Football Title Game |
| • | NASCAR Concluding Champions Week With Vegas Banquet |
| • | Team Boxing Startup Gets National TV Coverage On Versus |
| • | Octagon Signs Former UNC WR Little For Representation |
ACC EXPECTS FIRST-EVER SELLOUT OF ITS FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
ACC officials expect a sellout at Charlotte's 73,778-seat Bank of America Stadium for the conference's Florida State-Virginia Tech football championship game on Saturday. This marks the first time since the ACC began holding the game in '05 that "fewer than 4,000 tickets went unsold." ACC Commissioner John Swofford said that the "league will reconsider its arrangement with Charlotte" after next year's game. Swofford "did not rule out moving the game to a campus site" (WASHINGTON POST, 12/2).
Meanwhile, Auburn announced plans to show the Auburn-South Carolina SEC football championship game on the HD video boards at the new Auburn Arena basketball venue "following a women's game against Temple" (AL.com, 11/30).
Listed below are gifts for players in the ACC, SEC and Conference USA Championship Games. For the SEC game, all players get watches and can choose one other gift from those listed. For the Conference USA game, players may choose only one gift from those listed. The Big 12 Championship Game offers a Seiko watch to all players, while there are no gifts for players in the MAC Championship game (THE DAILY).
| PLAYER GIFTS FOR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES |
| ACC | SEC* | C-USA** |
| Commemorative watch, poster, game program | Commemorative watch | Sony floor standing speakers |
| Ogio rolling suitcase | Flip Ultra Digital Camcorder | Sony micro hi-fi shelf system |
| EA Sports NCAA Football '11 | Garmin Nuvi GPS | Sony speaker dock/clock radio |
| Under Armour sweatshirt | Samsung Digital Camera | Sony Cyber-shot digital camera |
| Dr Pepper hat | Coby Portable DVD Player | Sony 4GB Walkman video & noise canceling headphones |
| | Fossil leather messenger bag | Ogio layover rolling bag |
NASCAR WRAPPING UP CHAMPIONS WEEK WITH AWARDS BANQUET IN VEGAS
NASCAR's Champions Week ends Friday night with a black-tie awards banquet at Wynn Las Vegas. While most of the week's events are "open to all fans," the banquet "has provided only a few hundred chances for common folk" to attend (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 12/3). The event will air live of Speed at 9:00pm ET. Comedian Frank Caliendo will host for a second consecutive year, and country music band Rascal Flatts will perform several songs (NASCAR).
With the contract to hold the event in Las Vegas expiring after next year, ESPN's David Newton writes, "The banquet belongs in Charlotte. … NASCAR's home is Charlotte, where a majority of the teams are based. Let the hometown fans share in this moment. Give the struggling Hall of Fame a week's worth of business to crown the champion properly and give team owners who spend thousands to fly, house and feed personnel in Vegas a break in the wallet."
TEAM BOXING STARTUP WSB AMERICAS LANDS TV COVERAGE ON VERSUS
By Bill King, Senior Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
The worldwide team boxing startup that made its U.S. launch sans mainstream TV carriage last month has broken through, landing a slot on Versus. The World Series of Boxing makes its TV debut at 2:00pm ET Saturday, when Versus airs the league's inaugural American event held in Mexico City last month. The net will air all 24 regular-season matches from the WSB's Americas division, four playoff matches, team championships and individual championships, all on tape delay.
Versus guaranteed WSB one two-hour slot for each event week, either between 7:00pm and midnight on weeknights or 2:00pm and midnight on weekends. A preliminary schedule shows the net plans to air most of those fights on Saturday afternoons. The second two-hour slot is to be determined by Versus. WSB execs would not discuss financial terms of the deal, other than to say it was not a time-buy. Prior to the Versus deal, WSB Americas' only U.S. TV carriage was through Vme, a Spanish-language net available in about 10 million homes.
OCTAGON SIGNS FORMER UNC FOOTBALL PLAYER GREG LITTLE FOR REPRESENTATION
By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
Octagon has signed former Univ. of North Carolina WR Greg Little, who was declared permanently ineligible earlier this year in a high profile NCAA investigation, for representation in the '11 NFL Draft. Octagon's first contact with Little was in late October, according to a source, which was after the NCAA declared him permanently ineligible from competing at UNC for allegedly receiving improper benefits.
A number of high profile NFL agents have been rumored to be connected to people who allegedly gave benefits to UNC players, which caused them to lose their eligibility. But the names of Octagon NFL player agents have not been among those bandied about in industry circles. Octagon was the first major athlete representation firm to issue a statement calling for "vigorous enforcement of the rules governing agent conduct jeopardizing the eligibility of amateur athletes" in July. Octagon’s Andy Ross will serve as Little's primary agent. Little is currently projected to be a fourth round pick by nfldraftscout.com.
UNIV. TEXAS WILL NEGOTIATE CHANGES TO ATHLETIC DIR CONTRACTS
The Univ. of Texas officials said that they "will need to closely scrutinize athletic director compensation packages this year after recent federal rule changes" that could affect performance bonuses. This comes after the UT Board of Regents, instead of renewing the contracts of AD DeLoss Dodds and women's AD Chris Plonsky, "gave the go-ahead Thursday to begin negotiating changes." The current agreements for $675,000 and $325,000 a year, respectively, expire in August (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/3).
UFC, STRIKEFORCE GO HEAD-TO-HEAD SATURDAY WITH FIGHT CARD TELECASTS
The two biggest MMA rival promotions will run live TV fight cards simultaneously on Saturday night: UFC's "Ultimate Fighter" season finale on PPV and Strikeforce's event on Showtime. With both expanding their schedules in '11, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said that "this likely won't be the last conflict." Coker: "We try to avoid running on the same night, but we have to fit into the Showtime schedule." Coker added that Strikeforce in January "will open up meetings again" with CBS (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/30).
BUZZER BEATERS….
Barclays announced a three-year deal to title sponsor the Kenya Open golf tournament, the longest-running event on the European Challenge Tour Schedule (Barclays).
The ITF Friday announced that Adecco has returned as the official HR partner of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Pariabas through ’13 (ITF).
The Nets Chamber of Commerce has added new activation initiatives for the second year of the team’s business-to-business networking platform. The additions include an enhanced website and several social media components (Nets).
ESPN The Magazine this week features an image of Tiger Woods on the cover with the copy, “Nobody’s Perfect … But Everybody’s Trying”
(THE DAILY).
QUICK HITS….
“I don’t rule out that Mr. Abramovich may take part in one of these projects. Let him dip into his pockets a bit. It’s no big deal; he won’t feel the pinch. He has plenty of money” – Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, saying EPL club Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich should help finance stadium construction for the ’18 FIFA World Cup (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 12/3).
“You take pride if you are counted out and cynics describe you as a total outsider” – Sports consultant Mike Lee, who was part of Qatar’s ’22 World Cup bid team. Lee also assisted London and Rio de Janeiro in landing the ’12 and ’16 Olympics, respectively (AP, 12/3).
TWITTER ME THIS….
MLS Revolution COO Brian Bilello: “Eating lunch 1 day post 2022 decision. Everything tastes.....bitter.”
SI’s Grant Wahl: “Is it any coincidence that the last successful US bid for World Cup/Olympics was the notoriously shady Salt Lake City bid?”
N.Y. Times’ Howard Beck: “Cleveland pundit lauds Cavs fans for being classy last night. I guess he didn't hear 20k people chanting ‘a**hole’ in unison.”
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait: “133 millionaires on this year's PGA n Euro Tours - 90 in US, 43 in Europe. Who says there's a recession?”
If you see a tweet we won’t want to miss, send it to us at editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
THE DAILY'S HOT READS….
FORBES.com's Nathan Vardi writes, "On the surface of Geoffrey Molson's acquisition of the Montreal Canadiens is a heartwarming tale. … There's another side to the story. Half the funds used in the buyout were borrowed, and many of the obvious tactics used to bolster the team's value were already used by the prior owner" (FORBES.com).
The Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL's Joseph Lord writes, "The NBA-to-Louisville movement has been idle since the Charlotte Hornets spurned Louisville … for New Orleans in 2002, but it's prepared to advocate for a pro basketball franchise as soon as the opportunity avails itself" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL).
Also:
See the Hot Reads section for more sports business-related links.
WEEKEND EVENTS….
SATURDAY
The Yankees will begin hosting two days of “Breakfast With Santa” at the Hard Rock Café at Yankee Stadium. Admission is $60 per person or $200 for a family of four and includes a tour of the ballpark.
The ESPN “MNF” broadcast team of Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski, Mike Tirico, Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya will participate in an Graham Hale Gardner Foundation fundraiser at Greatest Sports Bar in Boston.
Cowboys Stadium and Dallas Museum of Art will begin selling a combination ticket for $16 that includes an Art Tour at Cowboys Stadium and admission to the Dallas Museum of Art. The start of ticket sales is in conjunction with the premiere of the museum’s exhibit, “Big New Field: Artists in the Cowboys Stadium Art Program” (Cowboys).
SUNDAY
TCU will implode the west grandstand of Amon G. Carter Stadium to begin seating renovations on the west side and north end of the stadium.
DAILY DOWNLOAD….
This online video previews the upcoming K1 World Cup tournament-style kickboxing competition.
WEEKEND CHANNEL SURF….
SUNDAY
The Browns and Cavaliers will have a presence on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” at 8:00pm ET. The show is renovating a house in Maple Heights, Ohio.
DAILY DIGIT….
5 – Percentage of the 549 “Sunday Night Football” video introductions so far this season in which the player makes a joke/commentary when announcing his alma mater. Some examples this season include Vikings DE Jared Allen (Idaho State) saying “Culinary Academy,” Steelers CB Ike Taylor (Louisiana-Lafayette) saying “Swaggin’ University” and Titans WR Randy Moss (Marshall University) saying “Rand University” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/3).
NOTES & QUOTES FROM THIS DAY IN SBD HISTORY….
1996
"Is there room for two sports news networks in a 60-channel environment? No. But in a 500-channel environment, yes. There's probably room for ten" – Former CNN/SI exec Jean McCormick, on the launch of sports TV news networks CNN/SI and ESPNews.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
pbounds@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
The Closing Bell provides an update of the news and headlines each Monday through Friday at approximately 4:00pm ET. If you would like to sign up for an e-mail alert to the Closing Bell, go to My Account and personalize your e-mail alert options.
