ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
Horse track eyes further expansion
With the official announcement of $5.4 million in improvements to its barn area recently, the Downs at Albuquerque is now eyeing a $3 million project that would make room for an additional 300 slots at the track’s casino. The track’s director of racing, Don Cook, said the $3 million project, which would double the number of slots, is just one portion of an expansion that is expected to be completed in 2005. The Downs says 15,000 square feet would be added to the existing casino space.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS
Rangers re-up with Dr Pepper
The Texas Rangers have extended their sponsorship agreement with the Dr Pepper Bottling Co. of Texas for five years through 2008. The Rangers have begun a Dr Pepper can ticket promotion that features third baseman Hank Blalock on the can. For all home games in April and May, a Dr Pepper or Diet Dr Pepper can may be redeemed for a free child’s ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket.
COLUMBUS
$10M facility to mix sports med, training
Former Ohio State University team physician John Lombardo and several others with connections to Ohio State athletics are among investors in a proposed $10 million sports medicine and training center in Dublin, a Columbus suburb. The MAX Sports Center ownership group includes six other physicians and two former Buckeyes athletes, baseball All-American Brian Mannino and football player Will Connery. The business opened at temporary quarters in Dublin on April 12, while planning continues on a 100,000-square-foot facility expected to be built in the next two years.
DALLAS
Stars stop 
looking for affiliate
The Dallas Stars have temporarily put to rest their search for a minor league affiliate. The Houston Aeros have agreed to take on that role for the 2004-05 season, becoming a secondary affiliate, as the Aeros are owned by the Minnesota Wild. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Basketball legends on Finals tour
A plane from Dallas-based Southwest Airlines will fly retired
 |
| NBA legends will tour the 16 cities with playoff teams in their own “Finals” plane. |
NBA players around the country as part of the 2004 NBA Legends Tour: Destination Finals. The “Finals” plane will carry Bill Russell, Julius Erving, Clyde Drexler, Moses Malone, George Gervin, Robert Parish, Artis Gilmore and Spud Webb to more than 30 playoff games, where they will do media interviews and write blogs for nba.com. The trip will span all 16 cities with NBA playoff teams and an unspecified number whose clubs are sitting at home. The plane has an NBA Finals logo on both sides of the fuselage and decals on the nose and winglets, along with the Finals and Larry O’Brien trophy logos on the overhead bins inside the plane. The plane will eventually go into regular flying rotation at Southwest.
DENVER
HOK to design new soccer stadium
Kansas City-based HOK 
Sport has won a design contract for a major league soccer stadium in Denver for the Colorado Rapids. The stadium is scheduled to be finished in 2006. No terms were announced. HOK previously designed Coors Field and the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Radio station to air Rapids games
The Colorado Rapids have signed a broadcast partnership with Denver radio station KBNO-AM, which will serve as the Rapids’ official Spanish-language radio partner. The station will carry all 15 of the team’s regular-season games.
Adrenalin to work for SportsLink
SportsLink Inc. has hired Denver-based Adrenalin Design Group to assist with all marketing and operational efforts for the 2005 U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the All-American Baseball Game. Adrenalin will also manage SportsLink’s 78-city selection tour for the football game. This grassroots marketing effort reaches more than 120,000 students across the United States. This new relationship will allow SportsLink to focus on sponsorship sales and the procurement of future events. Adrenalin will also assist with corporate sponsorship sales and execution.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
MLB in Meadowlands?
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority are pursing a plan to have a Major League Baseball team play at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford. If the plan is successful, a new ballpark could be part of a proposed billion-dollar retail and entertainment complex planned for East Rutherford. The New York Yankees, however, said they believe they have the territorial rights to block any effort to base a team in northern New Jersey.
HOUSTON
New tourney: Administaff Classic
The PGA Tour Champions Tour announced the 
inaugural Administaff Small Business Classic, set to debut in the Houston area. One of two new events added to the tour of 50-and-older professional golfers this year, the Small Business Classic debuts Oct. 4-10 at Augusta Pines Golf Club in Spring, a Houston suburb. Houston-based Administaff, a New York Stock Exchange-listed provider of human resources and related services to small and midsize businesses, signed a three-year agreement as title sponsor of the Champions Tour at Augusta Pines.
INDIANAPOLIS
$100,000 custom choppers ordered
A local custom-chopper maker’s two-wheeled street machine will make a loud roar in the Indianapolis 500 Winner’s Circle this year. Indy Choppers, an 18-month-old Speedway-based company, has signed a licensing deal to make 100 Indy 500/Indianapolis Motor Speedway-themed custom motorcycles at $75,000 each. Two others, valued at $100,000 each, will be gifts, one for this year’s Indy 500 winner and one for IMS President Tony George. Officials for Indy Choppers and the IMS would not reveal terms of the deal, but sports marketers said there would likely be a hefty licensing fee for the deal that would bring considerable exposure for the motorcycle manufacturer.
City’s pro hockey team folds
Indianapolis’ pro hockey team is effectively folding. Horn Chen, owner of the Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League, confirmed that he had sold the name of the team and its contract with its playing venue to a local group that plans to turn the organization into an under-20 team. Terms were not disclosed.
KANSAS CITY
Rose to appear at T-Bones game
Pete Rose will suit up with the Kansas City T-Bones for the Northern League team’s May 24 home game. The promotion was scheduled by Rick Muntean, the T-Bones’ new general manager. Muntean arranged for Rose to make several appearances with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Red Barons when Muntean was the International League team’s general manager. Rose will receive a $20,000 appearance fee from the T-Bones, The Kansas City Star reported.
MARYSVILLE, CALIF.
RV company to name stadium
All Seasons RV in Yuba City has bought the right to name the Marysville baseball stadium that’s home to the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox of the California Coastal Collegiate League. The price wasn’t disclosed. The 3,500-seat All Seasons RV Stadium, at 14th and B streets, has been known as Bryant Field. The first game of the new season is May 28.
MIAMI
Krispy Kreme plans promotion
If the Florida Marlins get 12 hits during a game 
at Pro Player Stadium, fans will be able to redeem ticket stubs for a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts each time, a Miami Herald report said. The program is similar to one the doughnut company has in Kansas City with the Royals. The Marlins last year had 12 or more hits in 15 games.
New sports radio station to launch
Foster Sports, which produces local-interest sports radio in South Florida, said it will launch a 24-hour sports station for area sports fans May 3. The company said James Crystal Radio agreed with Foster Sports to convert WFLL-AM into 1400 The Fan. The company said it will use local shows, many broadcast from locations throughout South Florida. Foster Sports said it is negotiating with ESPN Radio, Sporting News Radio and Sports Byline USA for network affiliations to provide supplemental programming.
MILWAUKEE
Pro Bowlers Tour to return
The Miller High Life Masters, a major 
tournament of the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, will be held Oct. 27-31 in Milwaukee, with the finals to be held at Miller Park. The American Bowling Congress said this will be the first national professional bowling event in Milwaukee in 14 years. Qualifying and match play will take place at AMF Bowlero Lanes in Wauwatosa.
Miller to sponsor Wisconsin Center
Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co. has signed a multimillion-dollar, 12-year sponsorship deal with the Wisconsin Center District, which runs downtown Milwaukee sports and entertainment venue U.S. Cellular Arena and two other buildings. Miller will receive title sponsorship and naming rights for a new refreshment area to be constructed on the lower level of U.S. Cellular Arena. Michael Jones, Miller senior vice president for corporate affairs, declined to provide specific financial information about the deal.
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL
Timberwolves ratings set record
The Minnesota Timberwolves set an organizational record for viewership on Fox Sports Net North with a 6.5 rating (106,321 households) for their division-clinching game against the Memphis Grizzlies on April 14. Between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. Central time, the viewership peaked at a 9.3 rating, or 152,120 households tuning in.
Veeck breaks leg in bike accident
St. Paul Saints President and Major League Baseball executive Mike Veeck suffered a broken thighbone in a bicycle accident in Charleston, S.C., on April 13. Veeck was expected to be hospitalized for several days and will spend a month at home doing rehabilitation after surgery to repair the leg. He likely will not be able to resume his travel schedule for two to three months.
Target to continue as Thunder sponsor
Minneapolis-based 
Target Corp. will continue as a sponsor of A-League Soccer’s Minnesota Thunder. Target’s bull’s-eye logo will continue to adorn the front of the team’s jerseys.
PHILADELPHIA
Phantoms mascot promotes playoffs
The Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League
 |
| Bob Kelly helped dress Kelly Ann the elephant in her Flyers jersey. |
sent their mascot, Phlex, out to an unusual place to hype the team’s appearance in the Calder Cup playoffs. For two mornings before the Phantoms’ first home playoff game last Wednesday, Phlex waved to commuters from the team’s playoff billboard along the Schuylkill Expressway, one of the city’s busiest highways. The Phantoms are a minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Elephant dresses up for promotion
Former Broad Street Bully Bob Kelly found out that being the Philadelphia Flyers’ ambassador of hockey entails some unusual responsibilities. Kelly was recently called to help dress Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephant Kelly Ann in a Flyers jersey as part of a promotion for a circus performance at Wachovia Spectrum in south Philadelphia. The Flyers and the Wachovia Spectrum are both part of Comcast-Spectator, a Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company.
Dairy to sponsor cycling series
Threshold Sports of Norristown, Pa., signed a deal with Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms to be a sponsor for this year’s Wachovia Cycling Series. The series consists of races June 1 in Lancaster, Pa.; June 3 in Trenton, N.J.; and June 6, when the Wachovia USPRO Championship will be held in Philadelphia. The Wachovia Cycling Series is part of the Pro Cycle Tour, which is owned and managed by Threshold Sports.
SACRAMENTO
Stojakovic to sell Paradyme
Sacramento King Peja Stojakovic has signed on as company spokesmodel for Paradyme, a Sacramento-based retailer of high-end audio and video equipment and mobile electronics. Stojakovic’s image will be used in the retailer’s new ad campaign in print ads, in-store displays, on its Web site and on vehicle wraps. The campaign will be created by Crunch Media Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
River Cats sign new Spanish broadcaster
The Sacramento River Cats will partner with La Favorita (106.1 FM) to broadcast 84 games in Spanish during the Class AAA team’s 2004 season. All of the action will be called by Spanish play-by-play broadcaster Jose Reynoso, who returns for his fifth season with the River Cats. He has been involved in radio for more than 30 years.
SAN DIEGO
Petco Park opening draws crowds
The Padres drew 355,626 fans to Petco 
Park for the opening home stand at their new downtown facility. The average for the nine games at the 42,500-seat park was 39,514, with six of the dates classified as sellouts. Last season at Qualcomm Stadium, which had a baseball capacity of nearly 64,000, the Padres averaged 32,719 over their first nine home games.
Arena to host Lakers preseason game
The San Diego Sports Arena will continue an annual tradition this fall by hosting a Lakers preseason game. Los Angeles will take on the Seattle SuperSonics Oct. 25, with ticket prices from $13 to $90.
SEATTLE
Teams renew with promotions firm
The Seattle SuperSonics and Storm have renewed their sponsorship agreement with World Sports Promotional Products Inc. This will be the second year of World Sports providing the Sonics with promotional merchandise, such as the Ray Allen Bobblehead Bank and Sonics basketball executive notebooks. World Sports will become the official promotional product company of the Sonics and Storm and will utilize the clubs’ marks in its promotional materials.
TORONTO
Weir takes win to store, park
A day after putting the green jacket on Masters champ Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir returned to Toronto to launch a new Weir Golf clothing line at the Mike Weir Shop in a downtown Sears store. It was the same store Weir appeared at a year ago after winning the Masters in 2003. On the same trip back to his native country, Weir had a park named after him in Sarnia, Ontario, where he grew up.
Maple Leaf Gardens sale may be back on
The on-again, off-again sale of historic Maple Leaf Gardens is apparently on again. The buyer of the 73-year-old arena is said to be supermarket giant Loblaw Cos. Ltd., the same company that backed out of a deal to acquire the Gardens four months ago because of anticipated high renovation costs. A Loblaw spokesman told the Globe and Mail that a tentative deal has again been reached to transform the Gardens into a downtown superstore. The deal is expected to be completed in June. Maple Leaf Gardens has been lying mostly vacant since the Leafs left for Air Canada Centre in 1999.
Jays put pitcher on candy dispenser
The Toronto Blue Jays
featured pitcher Pat Hentgen on the first SportHeads candy dispenser giveaway of the season April 17. The SportHeads and a collectible display case were distributed to the first 10,000 fans. The Blue Jays will be featuring five pitchers in the collectible series for the 2004 season, including Roy Halladay, Ted Lilly, Miguel Batista and Kerry Ligtenberg. A SportHeads giveaway night is planned during each month of the season and is sponsored by Avis, GM, Mr. Sub, Siemens and Pizza Pizza.
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.
Davis Cup event a sellout
The Sweden-U.S. Davis Cup quarterfinal at the Delray Beach Tennis Center was sold out, a Sun-Sentinel report said. A total of 18,162 tickets were sold for the three-day event. It is the most for a weekend domestic U.S. Davis Cup event since the United States played the Czech Republic in Los Angeles four years ago.
WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH
Paid attendance up for Grizzlies
The Utah Grizzlies’ 2003-04 paid attendance totals were the highest since the 2000-01 season, up by close to 200 fans a game compared to last season. The total paid attendance increased by more than 7,000 fans from the 2002-03 season and was close to 20,000 fans higher than the 2001-02 season. The Grizzlies drew more than 225,000 fans this past season, finishing 10th in the 28-team American Hockey League with an average of 5,672 fans.
