Glamorgan County Cricket club have reported an operating loss of £1.7million for the financial year ending December 31 2011.

The Welsh county’s financial performance was influenced by the £1.2m loss sustained from staging England’s rain-affected Test against Sri Lanka last May.

The retained loss for the year amounted to £3m after the club took into account additional charges associated with the SWALEC Stadium re-development project.

Last month Glamorgan announced that terms had been agreed with their existing lenders and new investors for a financial restructuring that will put the club on a sound financial footing for several years.

Glamorgan chief executive Alan Hamer said: “Our 2011 results put into perspective the financial challenges the club has faced over the past few years.

“The challenging economic environment and the burden of servicing the debts were compounded by the losses incurred in staging last year’s England v Sri Lanka Test match and further one-off charges.

“If you exclude these, cialis the underlying performance of the business was comparable to the previous year. Whilst last year’s financial results were extremely disappointing, online the club’s financial future looks much improved and our accounts have been given a clean bill of health by our auditors.

“Last September, prescription the club was awarded a gold international match package by the England and Wales Cricket Board, which will now see the SWALEC Stadium stage a further 17 days of international cricket in the next five years at greatly reduced fees.

“Our 2012 membership numbers are also the highest they’ve been for the past five years and over 60% of the tickets for both this year’s England v South Africa one-day international and Friends Life t20 finals day have already been snapped up.”

Chairman Barry O’Brien added: “Over the past 12 months, the club has had to deal with some significant challenges. Action has now been taken to address these and the other factors contributing to the losses incurred in 2011.

“The recent announcement confirming that the club had successfully restructured its finances will have a material beneficial impact on the club’s future financial performance. We can look forward to 2012 and beyond with renewed confidence.”

by Ismail Uddin

NBA star Kevin Garnett is set to acquire a limited share in Italian soccer club, Roma, according to the Associated Press.

The American-owned soccer team recently confirmed that the 35-year-old Boston Celtics star accepted an offer from James Pallotta, one of the four Boston executives who closed a deal in August to become the first foreign majority owners of a Serie A club.

Pallotta also is a minority owner of the Celtics.

Garnett is following in the footsteps of other NBA superstars who are putting their money in other sports.

Earlier this year, the Miami Heat’s LeBron James obtained a small stake in Liverpool from the Fenway Sports Group.

The Garnett and James deals are linked because new Roma President, Thomas DiBenedetto, is also a limited partner in the Fenway group, which owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

National Football League (NFL) team owners have been permitted to continue their labour lockout of players while awaiting an appeal ruling on their request to overturn a court order for them to end the ban.

The league is appealing U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s order directing them to end their embargo on player transactions and access to team facilities, sale | made on April 25. Nelson ruled that the suing players had shown a likelihood they would be irreparably harmed if the lockout continued.

The U.S. Court of Appeals granted the owners’ stay request yesterday, discount May 16, sildenafil citrate sale online enabling them to maintain the player ban, first imposed on March 12, until the panel rules on the merits of the NFL’s challenge to Nelson’s order.

The appeals court panel said in its 2-1 decision: “The district court gave little or no weight to the harm caused to the league by an injunction issued in the midst of an ongoing dispute over terms and conditions of employment.”

On April 29, the same panel, by the same margin, granted a temporary stay of Nelson’s ruling enabling the owners to re-impose their ban.

David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), has suggested there would be a greater “enthusiasm” for catching doping cheats if different countries were responsible for testing each other’s athletes.

Howman claimed such an approach would help to make testing procedures more thorough across the globe whilst warning that the criminal underworld “controls a significant proportion of world sport” through drug trafficking and illegal betting.

Howman stated: “Why don’t we get France to drug test Germany and Germany to drug test France? Perhaps there would be more enthusiasm for catching cheats from another country.”

The WADA chief added that his warning about widespread criminal involvement in world sport had come from sources at Interpol and law enforcement agencies, “some of whom are actively engaged in projects that are trying to address the issue”.

He added: “They say the underworld is involved in betting and in distributing steroids and it’s the same jokers, it’s not anybody new. I have been saying this for five or six years and now Interpol are justifying it. They now have the numbers and the information and they are really worried about it.”

In an interview with BBC Sport, Howman also said that he believed some scientists at doping laboratories were opting not to report borderline cases. “It’s human nature,” he added. “You get a borderline case and you think: ‘What are the implications going to be? It’s going to be challenged, therefore I am going to be before a tribunal, I’m going to be rigorously cross-examined, I’m days away from the office.’ All those sorts of things go through a human’s mind.”

Birmingham will welcome top athletes from around the world next summer as the city hosts another big sporting event.

The city council has signed a three-year deal with UK Athletics to bring the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix to the Alexander Stadium.

It becomes one of 14 venues worldwide to host a meeting as part of the Diamond League.

Organisers say the events can attract 50 million TV viewers.

The Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr will join the ranks of New York, Rome, Shanghai and Monaco in staging the Samsung Diamond League meet in the summer of 2011.

The leader of Birmingham City Council, Cllr Mike Whitby said: “This is another major sporting coup for the city of Birmingham, underlining our status as Britain’s sporting city.”

UK Athletics Chief Executive Niels de Vos described it as “massive” for Birmingham.

“One of the reasons the IAAF, the International Federation, was keen to come to Birmingham was because of its reputation.

“It’s always hosted great meets.”

Commonwealth Heptathlon Champion and Birchfield Harrier Louise Hazel described it as an “amazing opportunity for Birchfield Harriers and the Alexander Stadium.”

Plans for a £12.25m redevelopment of the stadium were given the green-light in September.

They include a 5,000-seater stand with office space.

Council Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport Cllr Martin Mullaney said the development would be self-financing.

“What we’ve worked out is that the rent from the office space underneath [the stand] will actually generate enough money to pay back the building costs of the stand overall.”

The Football Association (FA) are close to imposing a blanket ban on all gambling within the upper levels of football following several high-profile cases.

Ronnie Moore was sacked by Tranmere on Tuesday having admitted a breach of current regulations – and a new FA proposal would prevent anyone employed in the top eight tiers of English football from betting.

The FA Council is expected to ratify the new regulations on Wednesday before judgement is passed on the 61-year-old Moore, buy cialis who is set to be banned from working in the game.

An FA statement read: “The FA has proposed that from next season, diagnosis participants at Step 4 and above of the English league system will be banned from betting, either directly or indirectly, on any football match or competition anywhere in the world.

“The changes to FA rules from the start of the 2014/15 season would also see a worldwide prohibition on betting on any other football-related matter, for example, the transfer of players, employment of managers or team selection.

“The passing of inside information to somebody that uses the information for betting remains prohibited.”

Kansas City has been awarded 14 men’s and women’s college championships, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced. 

“We are pleased that the NCAA and the governing sports committees recognize Kansas City as a city that will provide a great experience for the student-athletes, coaches and fans that travel here in the next several years,” said Cindy Smith, Vice President of Business & Partner Development for the Kansas City Sports Commission.  “Since 2000, Kansas City has served as host to 11 NCAA National Championships and we look forward to hosting many more in the future.”

In 2013, Sporting Park became the first stadium to host the MLS All-Star Game, U.S. Men’s National Team and MLS Cup in the same year. The state-of-the-art venue opened in 2011 and has hosted the U.S. Men’s National Team in competitive matches each of the last three years.

Construction on Phase II of Swope Soccer Village’s $13.44 million expansion began today to prepare for the development of five new synthetic soccer fields. Located at 63rd and Lewis Rd. in Kansas City’s Swope Park, the Swope Soccer Village will be home to nine full-sized soccer fields and facilities upon the project’s completion in 2014.

In May, a $13.44 million expansion to the Swope Soccer Village was formally approved by the City Council. Four months after breaking ground, the complex’s natural grass championship field – the first of six new fields as part of the expansion – opened in November and hosted the 2013 Big 12 Soccer Championship. The conference’s postseason tournament will again be played at the Swope Soccer Village in 2014.

The five new synthetic fields will be built on the east side of Lewis Rd. and will each be furnished with lighting and fencing. Grand Construction serves as the general contractor and Sporting Club Network member Brookside Soccer Club will act as a primary tenant. The development will also provide additional infrastructure updates, including new restroom, concession and storage amenities.

MLS Cup champions Sporting Kansas City opened the team’s training center at the Swope Soccer Village in 2007 with over 7,800 square feet of facility space and three soccer fields. The Sporting KC Academy, Sporting Club Network members and numerous community outreach programs utilize the existing four fields at the complex.

The championships awarded are: 

·      2014 Division III (M&W) Soccer: Dec. 5-6 at Swope Soccer Village

·      2014 Division II Football: Dec. 20 at Sporting Park

·      2015 Division II (M&W) Soccer: Dec. 4-5 at Swope Soccer Village

·      2015 Division I Men’s Soccer: Dec. 11-13 at Sporting Park

·      2015 Division II Football: Dec. 19 at Sporting Park

·      2016 Division II (M&W) Soccer: Dec. 1-3 at Swope Soccer Village

·      2016 Division II Football: Dec. 17 at Sporting Park

·      2017 Division II (M&W) Soccer: Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at Swope Soccer Village

·      2017 Division I Women’s Volleyball: Dec. 14-16 at Sprint Center

·      2017 Division II Football: Dec. 16 at Sporting Park