In Charlotte, Jim Utter notes NASCAR yesterday released the ‘12 Sprint Cup Series schedule and “there were few -- if any -- surprises.” The beginning of the season “starts a little later,” which was originally done "with the idea the Super Bowl might conflict” with the Daytona 500. However, NASCAR officials yesterday said that “it will be a long-term arrangement.” Utter writes while the season is “in many ways very long already, condensing it a week and extending the off-season ... will help build interest.” To help “keep racing fans engaged, Daytona will again host a preseason testing session in mid-January.” Utter: “For the most part the 2012 season will look much like this one. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 9/29).
EXCEEDING THE SPEED LIMIT: NASCAR Senior VP/Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell crashed his Twitter account while interacting with and responding to fans around the release of the Sprint Cup schedule. He exceeded the 150-tweet-per-hour limit in the hour he was chatting with fans. There were more than 1,000 tweets total on the subject, reaching nearly 16 million Twitter users. O'Donnell at one point tweeted, "Thank you fans, it was an awesome experience. Sorry I'm in timeout!" (THE DAILY).
VIDEO STARS: The GLOBE & MAIL’s Bruce Dowbiggin cited NHL sources as saying that the league’s idea for recording a video to explain disciplinary decisions can be creditied to NHL VP/Hockey & Business Operations Brendan Shanahan. But Shanahan said that it was not his idea, but the "idea of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman." Shanahan: “Gary and I discussed this, and it was his idea that we need to be more transparent in our decision making. He came up with the idea for using video. We talked about producing them to explain it to the players and then it just extended to letting the public see the videos as well.” Dowbiggin writes the video idea “is even more impressive when you consider no sports league has ventured there before” (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/29).
SUPER SECURITY: In Indianapolis, Bruce Smith notes Florida-based SAFE Management has performed “security and guest service duties for the past seven Super Bowls and has been hired again” by the NFL to staff next year's game on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis. Hiring is “under way for about 2,500 temporary jobs as security guards and screeners, guest service representatives, greeters, ticket takers and ushers” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 9/29).
