Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has cast fresh doubts of the inaugural staging of the Grand Prix of America in New Jersey by suggesting organisers have not been keeping up with contract deadlines.

The race is planned to run on 3.2 miles of public roads which snake alongside the Hudson river opposite Manhattan’s historic skyline. It is located in the towns of West New York and Weehawken in the state of New Jersey and was announced with great fanfare in October.

Since then, there has been little news about progress and Ecclestone says “I don’t know if it is going to happen. I hope everything will be OK. They are sorting things out internally with some of their funds. If they are ready for 2013 we will have them.”
Ecclestone adds that the delay has led to the race organisers paying penalties. “We are waiting for different parts of the contract to be agreed. They are late,” he says.

The race is run by US fund manager Leo Hindery and although it has been confirmed that public money will not be used to support the project, its backers have not been named.

Ecclestone may have higher tolerance with the organisers than he would with their rivals since he has been trying to bring an F1 race to the New York City area for nearly 40 years.

A spokesman for Grand Prix of America said: “We don’t comment on our contractual relationship with Formula 1 or its details. We are on track for a June 2013 race, with all course engineering and construction progressing precisely on schedule, a strong management team in place, and strong ongoing support from New Jersey, New York City and the local communities involved. We are very confident that the 2013 F1 Grand Prix of America will be a great event.”

It is the second new F1 race scheduled to take place in the US over the next 12 months. The first is the United States Grand Prix in Texas which will be the penultimate race of this season and will run on 18 November. After a troubled development the Texas race is now on track and Ecclestone says “they are doing a good job with it. Every week they send me updates.”

The two races are part of Ecclestone’s strategy to strengthen F1’s roots in the US where its popularity is eclipsed by the home-grown NASCAR racing series. There may be more US F1 races on the way as Ecclestone is currently renegotiating the Concorde Agreement, the contract which controls the location of Grands Prix and limits them to 20 per year.

He reveals that under the new contract, which begins in 2013, “we could do in America very much like we do in Europe with three or four races in the same month. NASCAR probably wouldn’t be happy. If we planned it carefully we could probably go to two or three more races.”

 

Chiacgo Bulls secured the top position as NBA’s Most Popular Jersey and Team Merchandise while reigning MVP Derrick Rose took the individual honours, based on sales at the temporary NBA Store on New York’s Fifth Avenue and on NBAStore.com from April 2011 to present. 

Rose, who climbed from No. 5 last year to No. 1 on the jersey list for the first time in his career, helped the Bulls reclaim the top overall spot in team merchandise sales for the first time since April 2001. 

At No. 2 on the list is New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin, whose breakout season also propelled him to the most popular jersey spot for February and March.Rounding out the top five are Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (No. 3), Miami Heat’s LeBron James (No. 4) and the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony (No. 5). Since 2001, Bryant has claimed the No. 1 position six times and James has held it twice. 

The Knicks, who also have Amar’e Stoudemire (No. 11) on the jersey list, advanced two spots from last year to No. 2 on this year’s team list followed by the Lakers (No. 3), Heat (No. 4), and the 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks (No. 5). Prior to this year, the Lakers occupied the top spot in team merchandise since the end of the 2008 season.

by Ismail Uddin

The National Football League (NFL) could begin testing its players for human growth hormone (HGH) within two weeks, herbal commissioner Roger Goodell announced.

The league and NFL Players Association met with a House committee in Washington, viagra 60mg D.C., viagra 60mg to discuss the specifics of HGH testing. The two sides had agreed, in principle, to put HGH testing in place as part of the new collective bargaining agreement.

Whenever the NFL officially begins its tests, it will be a landmark moment in professional sports — baseball tests its minor-league players for HGH, but there is no system in place yet for the majors.

The NFL already has in place a relatively strict drug-testing policy, one that has led to the suspension of some high-profile names, like Brian Cushing and Shawne Merriman, for steroid use. The added HGH tests would continue to push the NFL to the front lines in American professional sports, regarding its anti-drug policies.

Part of the reason for the delay, and for the NFLPA’s hesitancy to jump into the agreed-upon plan, is that questions continue to arise about the safety and accuracy of HGH testing.

Despite Goodell’s claim that this would begin soon, the NFLPA repeatedly has expressed concerns over those issues.

The current HGH test, which the NFL is trying to implement, reportedly can only trace HGH in a person’s system for 24 hours resulting in a possibility of beating the test, especially since the NFL currently gives its players a day’s notice before running drug tests.

Any baseball minor-leaguer who tests positive for HGH receives an automatic 50-game suspension. Cushing’s steroids suspension, by comparison, was for four games — a similar percentage of the overall season. Then-Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and then-Cowboys QB coach Wade Wilson were suspended four games each at the start of the 2007 season after admitting to taking HGH.

Prior to the 2010 season, Canadian doctor Anthony Galea was charged with the smuggling and unlawful distribution of HGH to athletes across several leagues, including the NFL. The Redskins’ Santana Moss was linked to Galea but not suspended.

The NFLPA’s discomfort with the current testing system initially made it look unlikely that the NFL would be able to implement the HGH tests before the start of the 2012 preseason, at the earliest.

Friday’s meeting in Washington, D.C., seems to have changed that timetable, though there’s no guarantee that the window Goodell provided will remain accurate.

English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur have started a second High Court legal action over West Ham United’s successful bid for the 2012 stadium, asking for the roles of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) and two government departments involved in making the decision to be reviewed.

Last month Tottenham had sought permission from the court to bring a claim against the east London Borough of Newham after they arranged a £40m (US$65.75m) loan to finance West Ham’s successful move, with the club due to move into the stadium in the summer of 2013.

Tottenham have now widened their appeal by asking the High Court to start a separate judicial review into the roles of several other key parties involved.

A statement from the club said: “The club has today sought permission from the High Court to bring a claim against the Olympic Park Legacy Company Limited, the Mayor of London, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for judicial review of a series of decisions made by them to appoint a joint bid by the London Borough of Newham and West Ham United Football Club as preferred bidder in a competition for the lease of the Olympic Stadium.”

Tottenham also said they were continuing discussions with both local and national government bodies to seek to agree a “feasible stadium solution”. English League One side Leyton Orient also demanded a judicial review against Newham’s role in partnering West Ham’s bid last month.

The High Court will now assess all claims that have been made before deciding whether to hold a judicial review into the case.

The Austrian Ski Association (OSV) has signed an extended four-year agreement with Austrian telecommunications company A1 Telekom.

As part of the deal the telecoms company will sponsor the OSV Women’s and Men’s Alpine Ski teams.

Chief executive of A1 Telekom Austria, Hannes Ametsreiter, said: “The Austrian Ski Federation is the most powerful sports body in winter sports, we are number one in the Austrian telecommunications market. Success combines us and together we can achieve more yet.”

Professor Peter Schröcksnadel of the Austrian Ski Association added: “For years, A1 have been reliable and extremely loyal partners of the Austrian Ski Federation. Their commitment as a team sponsor for the entire alpine teams – men and women – is a partnership of the best kind.”

The debt of Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona is much greater than first thought, after a new audit into the club’s finances have revealed a deficit of US$575.6 million following a loss of more than US$100 million last season.

The previous president, Joan Laporta, had previously claimed the club was US$14.3 million in the black last month.

But an audit carried out by Deloitte for new president Sandro Rosell has revealed extensive losses.

Barcelona vice-president Javier Faus told a press conference: “There is a structural problem. The sporting excellence of the past few years has not been reflected in excellence in economic management.”

At the end of June, the club was forced to take out a US$195 million loan to help pay players’ wages.