An Insights Forum is to be held by the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) in London on May 5, focusing on the impact of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games on the sponsorship industry.

The forum will be particularly keen to establish whether the industry will suffer a fall in demand in 2013 following the London 2012 Games, the management and motivation of workforces during and after the Games, the opportunities and perils of becoming a global agency on the back of success in 2012 and the legacy for sponsors following the Games.

The ESA Insights Forum, which is part of the European Sponsorship Association’s successful Knowledge programme, also boasts an impressive line-up of experts to cover these issues.

Among the line-up is Rob Clarke, Head of human resources at London 2012 and Marzena Bogdanowicz of b-focused, who has vast knowledge of the potential legacy impact of London 2012, having experienced a multitude of Olympic Games in her time at the British Olympic Association (BOA).

Amanda Fone of f1 recruitment has helped both sponsors, agencies and London 2012 recruit for the Olympic Games, while Sally Hancock of Lloyds Banking Group, the first national company to sign up as a Tier One partner for the Games, will share how her organisation is managing the process of building up a talented team to deliver both the Games themselves and Lloyds’s legacy contribution.

Fredda Hurwitz of Havas Sports and Entertainment has Olympic Games experience from the agency side, and Sarah Winckless, chair of the BOA Athletes Commission and heavily involved in preparing athletes for the Games, will also be speaking.

The forum will be chaired by Matt Rogan, the ESA chair of the Education group.

The ticket prices have been announced for the Europa League final, to be played on May 18 at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, a week after UEFA revealed their rocketing Champions League prices.

In fact, the most expensive tickets for the Europa League final will cost less than the cheapest tickets generally available for the Champions League final.

UEFA’s category one tickets for the Europa League final in Dublin have gone on sale priced at £129 (US$208.37) almost £50 ($80.76) cheaper than the lowest priced Champions League tickets at Wembley, including a £25 ($40.38) booking fee, with all fans able to buy category four seats, the cheapest, for £77 ($124.4).

UEFA angered fans in England last week when it was announced the cheapest tickets on general sale for the Champions League final at Wembley would cost £176 ($284.4) – including a £26 ($42) administration fee.

British Telecom (BT) has announced it will charge customers £16.99 (US$25) a month for both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, or just £11.99 (US$17) for just one of the channels.

BT has said that customers can sign up for the channels from today, in time for the new Premier League season which begins on 14 August.

BT is also offering Sky Sports 1 for £6.99 (US$10) a month, or both channels for £11.99 a month, if they are willing to sign up for other BT services such as broadband or telephone for a minimum of two years.

BT’s retail chief executive, Gavin Patterson, said: “We expect that entry prices as low as £6.99 will welcome in a huge numbers of extra customers who’d love to enjoy these channels, but thought they were too expensive.

Earlier this week, BT had signed a deal with BSkyB to allow BT Vision customers to watch the two sports channels.

The International Paralympic Committee’s Governing Board has announced today that Para-badminton will make their debut in the 2020 Paralympic Games.

Badminton has been listed among the first 16 sports for inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games sports programme.

The list released by the IPC is as follows: athletics, abortion archery, asthma badminton, doctor boccia, equestrian, goalball, powerlifting, rowing, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven said: “Our aim is to ensure that the final Tokyo 2020 Paralympic sports programme is fresh and features the best para-sports possible. I would like to thank all the sports who submitted their applications.

“This has been an extensive and rigorous review process and all sports were assessed against the same criteria.

“Although we can have a maximum of 23 sports in six years’ time, we have an option to reduce the number of sports in order to ensure we have a compelling and attractive para-sports programme.

“I would like to congratulate the 16 sports that we have already confirmed will be included in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, in particular badminton, who after missing out four years ago, submitted a very strong application.

“The IPC looks forward to working with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) over the coming years to manage their smooth transition into the 2020 sports programme.”

Reacting to the announcement, BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer, who led a delegation to present badminton’s case for inclusion to the IPC Governing Board last Sunday, was understandably elated at the news and underlined the significance for para-badminton athletes.

“On behalf of the Badminton World Federation, I would like to thank the IPC Governing Board for this landmark opportunity which they have given to athletes with impairments in the badminton community. Today is a dream come true for so many talented competitors who have shone on the badminton courts and who have yearned to do so at the highest level of sport for para-athletes,” he said.

“We have worked hard in their name and for their cause and we are humbled and honoured by this decision that will bring joy to so many of our players.”

The IPC Governing Board has deferred a final decision until its next meeting in late January on the remaining eight sports that aim to be part of the Games. This is so that the sports in question can provide additional information to the IPC addressing issues identified following an extensive management review process of the applications which started in late July.

A maximum of 23 sports can be included in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic sports programme however the IPC has the option to reduce the number of sports if it feels necessary.

Golf Australia has appointed Mark Hayes, viagra pharmacy as its new media manager. 

Hayes is a journalist of 25 years experience, apoplectic who has spent the past 14 years with News Ltd in Melbourne.

He has most recently worked as national golf correspondent for News, allergy has won multiple awards from the Australian Golf Writers Association and covered The Masters and other golf majors overseas as well as the Australasian tour.

Golf Australia’s digital director, John Sutherland, welcomed the appointment: “Bringing on a person of Mark’s calibre will significantly boost Golf Australia’s efforts to grow the game through digital and media channels.” 

‘Mark is one of Australia’s most experienced, respected and connected journalists, so we are sure that this appointment will open up many new opportunities to gain exposure for golf in both traditional and new media’

Hayes will begin his new role in November, in time for the Emirates Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney at the end of November. Martin Blake will be acting media manager until November.

Sports and entertainment agency Generate have been hired by BDO Events LTD, ampoule the commercial arm of the British Darts Organisation (BDO), ampoule to develop the brand, commercial vision and strategy going forward.

Alongside participation figures in their millions across the UK, the BDO offers a comprehensive competition structure from grass roots to elite. BDO Events will drive the evolution of the world stage, ensuring the best players continue to compete in premium darts.

Stephen Holland, Director at BDO Events said, “We appointed Generate to ensure BDO Events remain competitive in an ever evolving and popular field of sport and entertainment.

“The BDO’s unrivalled understanding of and credibility in darts, along with Generates’ creative flare and rich experience in commercial strategy, sponsorship, PR and events, is a well suited partnership. We look forward to an exciting future.”

Broadcast and sponsorship is integral to the BDO’s vision, as well as building the profile of the players and use of digital to engage with fans.

Andy Muggleton, Co-Founder & Commercial Director at Generate said, “The five year journey for the BDO Events elite competition platform starts right here. Being part of shaping the major events strategy and theatre, to engage consumers and build fans, plays to our strengths.

“It will require a long term vision and strategy but the commercial prospects of darts based on its enormous following in both UK and internationally, will offer a strong commercial proposition to brands and great entertainment for darts players and fans alike”.

A new look BDO will emerge during the New BDO World Trophy event in February 2014 at the world famous Blackpool Tower.

Grand Prix Entertainment (GPE) has launched America’s First Professional Rugby League, the Grand Prix Rugby Football League (the RFL).

The RFL, a sixteen-team league, will showcase the new Olympic sport of Rugby Sevens, which will debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

Nigel Melville, CEO of USA Rugby, recently extended through 2018 the RFL’s U.S. exclusive Sanction and License rights to own, operate and globally broadcast the professional sport of Rugby Sevens.

“Buttressed by exclusively sanctioned and licensed competitive advantages and protections no new sports league in American history has ever enjoyed, Olympic endorsement of the sport, and Rugby Sevens explosion on the global stage, the time was right for America’s first professional rugby league,” said William Tatham, GPE Founder and Chairman.

“The RFL represents the greatest major market sports franchise opportunity in the last 50 years. Name the last time New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles franchises were all available,” said Eric White, of RFL financial advisor, Capitol Pacific Group.

The RFL will kick off via a Phase One Championship Tour, showcasing the RFL’s 4 Founding Franchises vs. 20 of the worlds great teams in the world’s richest sevens championships. On the back of this Phase One Tour-built team, brand and market foundation, the RFL’s Phase Two regular season will open play with sixteen U.S. franchised teams.

Sports media and marketing agency Sports Revolution have inked a deal with NFL.com and its digital subsidiary Snack Media, drug to sell UK digital advertising around the NFL site.

With NFL’s commitment to invest in the UK market, sale the decision was made to partner with Sports Revolution, who has worked with clients including Nike, Lynx, UEFA, Fiat, and L’Oreal Men Expert.

Michael Markovich, NFL’s international media director of business development: “We are seeing great traffic from the UK to NFL.com, ranking it one of our top three International markets. We expect this growth to continue as we continue to invest in the market. Sports Revolution and Snack Media have expert knowledge of both UK advertising and UK sports fans so we are very pleased to partner with them.”

Over the past three years UK traffic to the website has increased by 78 per cent, largely due to NFL hosting two sell-out matches at Wembley Stadium resulting in expansive coverage on both Sky Sports and Free-to-Air Television.