Sources said that Red Sox Exec VP & GM Theo Epstein "has an agreement in place to become head of the Cubs baseball operations" and that the move "should be completed within a couple of days." Epstein will make $15M over five years, according to sources. He also will receive "a 'conclusion bonus' or 'buyout transfer,' monies that were part of his Red Sox deal but will now be paid by the Cubs," bringing his total compensation to about $18.5M. The deal was first reported by WEEI (SI.com, 10/12).

Sources said that MLB "expressed great concern over the compensation package because they do not want this deal to affect how other teams compete in the market for front-office personnel." A source said that the "compensation would involve prospects and/or cash, but no major league players would be part of the deal, following traditional precedent" (ESPN.com, 10/12).

Meanwhile, Red Sox Senior VP & Assistant GM Ben Cherington reportedly will "swiftly be named GM." He "clearly has the confidence of the ownership group, the experience and the institutional knowledge to handle the job" (BOSTON.com, 10/12).

As many as three English-language U.S. TV networks will be travelling to Zurich next week to submit bids for the ‘18 and ‘22 FIFA Men’s World Cup events. Bids will be submitted Oct. 19. FIFA will also accept bids for Spanish-language rights at the same time, with Univision and Telemundo expected to make aggressive bids. It's not known if ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes will create separate bids or be part of their parent companies' bid. ESPN in '05 paid $100M for a package which included rights to the '10 and '14 World Cup events. Univision paid $325M for the Spanish-language rights to those events. Given the growing popularity of soccer in the U.S., plus the skyrocketing cost of live sports, any new bid should see a healthy increase.

Once bids are submitted Oct. 19, FIFA is expected to decide whether to accept one of the bids later that week. FIFA could either accept one of the bids or go back to the networks if the bids are too close. ESPN, which has carried World Cup games in some fashion since ‘82, will be represented in Zurich by Exec VP/Content John Skipper and Senior VP/Programming & Global X Scott Guglielmino. Fox Sports is sending a small group led by Fox Soccer Exec VP & GM David Nathanson. NBC will send a delegation, but it's not known who will be in it. NBC Sports Group Chair Mark Lazarus is not scheduled to attend. Bidding will cover all FIFA events from ‘15-22, including the Men's World Cup in ‘18 and ‘22; the Women's World Cup in ‘15 and ‘19; and all U-20 and U-17 games.

The competition for soccer rights has become intense among U.S. media companies over the past year. In August, NBC picked up a package of 45 MLS games and four U.S. Men's national team games for $10M per year. That package previously had been on Fox Soccer. ESPN has the main MLS package and has carried every World Cup but one since '82. Turner Sports was the primary broadcaster of the '90 World Cup.

General Motors today formally announced that the Izod IndyCar Series will return to Detroit's Belle Isle Park in '12 with a race title sponsored by Chevrolet. The June 3 race, "the first in a three-year contract," will be called the Chevrolet Indy Grand Prix and will be broadcast on ABC. Roger Penske "revived the Belle Isle Grand Prix with IndyCars in the '00s, but the race was cancelled after the 2008 financial crisis." Next season also will mark the return of Chevy as an IndyCar manufacturer (MOTORTREND.com, 10/12).

The race weekend also will include the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Challenge, the Cadillac V-Series Challenge at Belle Isle and the Firestone Indy Lights Series (AUTOWEEK.com, 10/12).

The MLB Cardinals' marketing team is "taking full advantage of the Rally Squirrel's appeal among fans" ahead of tonight's NLCS Game Three after squirrels appeared on the field during NLDS games. The team is "handing out rally towels featuring the Rally Squirrel to the first 40,000 fans" tonight. The club today also begins selling stuffed Rally Squirrels for $5 at the Busch Stadium team store. Cardinals VP/Stadium Operations Joe Abernathy said that he and his staff have caught "four squirrels, and safely released them into the wild" (MLB.com, 10/11).

Meanwhile, MLB has produced a spot featuring the squirrels as part of its postseason "Legends Are Born In October" (THE DAILY).

Attorneys for the Dodgers and MLB squabbled for more than an hour this morning during a session serving as a prelude to a key evidentiary hearing beginning Oct. 31 in the club's ongoing bankruptcy case. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on several occasions chided both sides to not create any delays in documentary discovery in advance of the hearing, which could determine whether or not team Owner Frank McCourt keeps the team.

Both MLB and the Dodgers scored minor wins in the 75-minute hearing today, which was designed to lay out rules for the evidentiary hearing, particularly with regard to discovery, and served as a small taste of the animosity likely to dominate those upcoming proceedings. The league says that important documents belonging to MLB-appointed club monitor Tom Schieffer and relative to the case are locked up at Dodger Stadium, and that the team has precluded MLB from accessing them.

The Dodgers argued they should be able to access and copy all of those Schieffer documents before turning them over. The Dodgers kicked Schieffer out of the stadium after its filing for Chapter 11 protection in June, and argue MLB Commisioner Bud Selig's appointment of Schieffer violated league rules. But Gross ruled today the documents are the property of MLB, and will be subject to regular discovery rules. Gross also previously ruled in favor of MLB by not allowing Dodgers access to information regarding the other 29 clubs.

Read the full story.

Manchester United and Chelsea are among several EPL clubs "who have moved to distance themselves from Liverpool's proposal to break" the league's model of collecting TV rights revenue. It is expected that Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will "continue to back the existing arrangement that last season paid" each EPL club US$28.2M. Liverpool, which thought it would have the support of some clubs, needs to persuade 13 other EPL teams "in order to force through the change" (GUARDIAN.co.uk, 10/12).

Rosenhaus Sports has signed NFL Giants WR Mario Manningham and Chargers DT Antonio Garay, two of several player/agent switches involving powerful NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus in the last several weeks. Both Manningham and Garay will be free agents after this NFL season. Manningham was formerly repped by agent Neil Cornrich and Garay was formerly repped by Arthur Weiss.

Meanwhile, two Rosenhaus clients, Chargers DT Tommie Harris and Jets TE Dustin Keller, have returned to their previous agent, Eugene Parker of Maximum Sports. Keller had fired Parker and signed with Rosenhaus in August, while Harris left Parker several years ago. "We are very pleased to have two quality players and people back in the Maximum family,” Parker said.

The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority today reported the August attendance for the NASCAR HOF was 16,703, down 29% from 23,539 the previous year and "the fourth consecutive month, year-over-year attendance has declined." Comparable attendance for the months of May, June and July this year "fell 30 percent or more below the 2010 totals." The August attendance figure was included in results reported at CRVA's monthly BOD meeting (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/12).

MLS Commissioner Don Garber held a halftime press conference at Tuesday’s Ecuador-U.S. friendly match at Red Bull Arena alongside Panasonic USA CEO Joe Taylor to announce the league’s renewal with the electronics manufacturer. When asked if the league was any closer to approving a 20th team in N.Y., Garber said the plan still hinges on building a stadium. "Queens would be great. It'd be great to have a stadium in Flushing Meadows, but Randall's Island is a prospect that we've been spending a little more time looking at, so I think it will ultimately come to fruition," said Garber. "The question to me is, 'How long is it going to take and how much patience do we have?'"

Garber said he is entertaining “two or three” potential investor groups but declined to specify. Taylor said Panasonic would not be interested in a naming rights deal for an MLS stadium. “Naming rights is not really our style,” Taylor said.

Arsenal investor Alisher Usmanov has "written to select small shareholders in a fresh bid to take his stake" in the EPL club over the 30% threshold, with a US$22,000 per share offer. Usmanov's Red and White Holdings currently owns 29.35% of the club and "is looking to purchase at least another 405 shares" (ESPNSOCCERNET.com, 10/12).

The Pirates today announced a multiyear flagship deal with KDKA-FM that will begin next season. KDKA will carry "at least 16 spring-training games plus all regular-season and any postseason games." Financial terms were not disclosed. WPGB-FM had been the team's flagship station the past five years (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/12).

Paciolan today announced that the Univ. of Colorado has agreed to a five-year renewal of its partnership with the company. Colorado and Paciolan first partnered in '85 (Paciolan).

SI this week features NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson on the cover with the copy, "NASCAR's Dream Chase ... Jimmie Johnson Cranks It Up" (THE DAILY). While answering questions yesterday at the NASCAR HOF, Johnson "sounded happy about the Sports Illustrated cover, professing not to even know of the longtime SI cover jinx." Johnson in a tone of "mock horror" said, "There's a curse?" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/12).

"I don't want to use the old saying and be redundant by saying, 'It is what it is,' but it kind of is. What are you going to do? You're at football's mercy and everyone else's mercy" – Univ. of Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner, on college football driving the changes to conference realignment (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 10/12).

"I had been in sports so I was aware of the EPL and its strength globally. But I didn't know the inner workings of it. I certainly knew about Manchester United" – Liverpool Chair Tom Werner, saying he knew very little about Liverpool FC and the EPL before Fenway Sports Group's acquisition of the club last year (GUARDIAN.co.uk, 10/12).

Sounders investor Paul Allen: "Soccer: @SoundersFC having great season & for 3rd year set to break MLS attendance record. Seattle loves the world’s game!"

Bullseye Strategy: "CMOs most important metric in 2011 is increased likes. Probably not the right metric! Think about engagement. #EMAPROV"

The N.Y. Times' Chris Botta: "This Blackberry outage may result in you getting old tweets. Ulf Nilsson's out for the playoffs with a busted ankle."

Slate.com's Josh Levin: "Do Harkes and Darke get paid $1000 every time they call a player 'bright'? The bright count last night was beyond ludicrous."

If you see a tweet we will not want to miss, send it to us at editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com. 

NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski, whose Sprint Cup Series ride is sponsored by Miller Lite, reveals how the "Miller Lite man cave" in his own home is coming together.

NBAers Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love and Shawn Marion appear in this Funny Or Die online video, in which they misunderstand the concept of a lockout and end up at a middle school lock-in instead.

5,000 -- Estimate number of IT professionals that will be involved in the staging of the '12 London Games. LOCOG this week formally launched the Technology Operations Centre (COMPUTERWEEKLY.com, 10/12).