By Jay Stuart

The newest entry in the UK’s sports television market is off to a fast start in signing up subscribers. BT said Thursday that it has topped more than 500, prostate 000 subs for the new BT Sport package, whose first season of live Premier League action kick offs with Liverpool versus Stoke on August 17.

BT Group Chief Executive Ian Livingston said: “It is early days but we are very pleased with the strong start in BT Sport. More than half a million households have now ordered BT Sport and that’s before the channels have even launched.”

BT said it has spent about £40 million in pre-launch costs for BT Sport. The group added 23,000 pay-TV net subscribers in its first quarter ending June 30, slightly up from the 21,000 increase one year ago. BT had a total of 833,000 pay-TV subs as of mid-2013.

BT has announced a deal with Setanta to add the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN channels to the Setanta Sports pack so that BT Sport will also be available in the Republic of Ireland from next month.

Minnesota Vikings have agreed terms with the University of Minnesota to use their TCF Bank Stadium for the 2014 and 2015 NFL seasons.

The agreement also allows for two additional seasons, order if necessary.

“We’re pleased to enter into an agreement with the Vikings to allow them to play at TCF Bank Stadium,” said Vice President for University Services Pam Wheelock. “With Board of Regents approval, we plan to start work right away to ensure the facility is ready for the Vikings in 2014.”

“This partnership benefits the University, its neighbors, the Vikings and all Minnesota football fans,” said University President Eric Kaler. “The Vikings will remain part of the Twin Cities region during construction of their new stadium, while proceeds will be used to enhance Gopher Athletics and invest in the fabric of our surrounding neighborhoods.”

The use agreement stipulates that the Vikings will reimburse the University for any required TCF Bank Stadium capital improvements, as well as all game-day operational expenses. In addition, the Vikings will pay the University a per-game rent of $250,000 for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, with minimal increases if additional seasons were to be required. The team will also share $50,000 per game in concessions, advertising and sponsorship revenue. In total, the Vikings will pay the University $300,000 per game, with a maximum of $3 million for each NFL season.

“This collaborative process between the Vikings and the University has led to an agreement that will benefit all parties,” said Vikings Vice President of Legal Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Warren. “With this agreement solidified, we can now move forward on finalizing a plan that ensures the Vikings provide a great game day experience for our players, coaches and fans while having a positive impact on the University and the surrounding neighborhoods.”

“We appreciate the University’s commitment to host the Vikings while the new downtown stadium is being constructed,” said Vikings Owner and President Mark Wilf. “We look forward to hosting our fans in TCF Bank Stadium in 2014 and 2015.”

IndyCar, asthma the sanctioning body for the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights, generic announced it will not return to Edmonton in 2013.

“When we finalized our schedule for the upcoming 2013 season, it unfortunately did not include Edmonton,” said Randy Bernard, CEO, IndyCar. “We thank the city of Edmonton and all the fans for their support of the event over the last eight years.”

Bernard added: “More importantly this has not affected our plans for a minimum of 19 races next season, and we remain optimistic that we will return to having two races in Canada as early as 2014.  We anticipate announcing our full 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule the first week of October.”

The race on a temporary road course at Edmonton City Centre Airport began in 2005 under the Champ Car banner.

“This news is disappointing for the city and race fans,” Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said. “The 2012 Edmonton Indy was a great event both on and off the track. It, like previous races, brought economic benefits and international exposure to Edmonton.”

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has held his firm belief that the Bahrain Grand Prix will continue for many years and Formula One will grow in stature in that part of the world.

The race had made damning headline news all week as protesters have clashed with police, anti-government and anti-F1 rallies have been staged, and ultimately one demonstrator was killed, so the dissidents claim, by riot police, but the race itself passed without incident.

This had cast an ugly shadow over F1 and Bahrain for not keeping their political affairs away from sport.

Ecclestone, however, has insisted Bahrain and the Middle East remain important for F1 as he said: “It’s growing all the time, and other places are interested.

“I think it will grow here for sure. You know what they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

The Bahrain International Circuit claimed there were 28,000 paying customers inside the circuit, a surprise given the main grandstand – which appeared to be the only one in use – was only half-full.

But after staging a race many felt should have been cancelled, chairman Zayed Al Zayani was able to finally smile.

“Hosting such a big event would not be possible without the enormous hard work of all involved,” said Al Zayani.

“That includes the marshals, other volunteers and my team at the BIC, and I would like to thank all of them for their efforts.I’m pleased to say we have had a great level of support for this race weekend.

“An independent survey released this week showed that 77% of Bahrainis support the race. In addition to this, there are very few countries that can claim that almost 10% of its population attends its grand prix.

“Given these facts, and the incredible atmosphere at the track today, there can be no doubt in my mind of what Bahrain thinks about F1.”

by Ismail Uddin

Gloucestershire County Cricket club have appealed against the decision to reject planning permission to develop their Bristol home.

The county have also expressed interest in building a new international ground north of the city as they refuse to relinquish their ambitions to stage regular international cricket.

The county’s hopes of undertaking a £10 million development of their Nevil Road ground were dealt a blow when Bristol City Council rejected their plans by six votes to four on January 10. That verdict will now be adjudicated over by an inspector who will report to the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Should this appeal also be rejected, Gloucestershire insist they will press ahead with plans to relocate outside of Bristol. Tuffley Avenue in Gloucester is one potential location but now a site at Filton Airfield, three miles north of Nevil Road, could also be explored.

South Gloucestershire council are keen to secure the future of Filton Airfield and the Labour-led council have already given their backing to the idea of building a 20,000-seat stadium to become Gloucestershire’s new home.

Gloucestershire are the poor relations among England’s 10 international grounds, receiving less international cricket than any of their rivals. But despite suggestions that too many international grounds have led to rising debt among the test counties and contributed to a surfeit of international cricket, their appetite for expansion has not been dampened.

The club were awarded an ODI against New Zealand in 2013 but this match is expected to be reallocated.

by Ismail Uddin

The chief executive of Adidas, the world’s second largest sportswear company, is looking for the return of Basketball following the end of the NBA lockout to give a year-end boost to its basketball business.

Over the weekend, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its players reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement, which paves the way for a shortened 66-game season to start on Christmas Day.

For sports apparel companies such as Adidas and Nike as well as retailers like Finish Line and Footlocker, it was important for the season to start up before Christmas to avoid losing sales in the busiest shopping weeks of the year.

Analysts had said Adidas could face losing up to half of its sales of licensed NBA apparel should the lockout drag on and the company had admitted at its third-quarter results in November it expected licensed apparel sales to be hit.

“Without any doubt, the start of the season in December will help us to continue our growth momentum and finish the year strong in the largest basketball markets, North America and Greater China,” Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said in comments emailed to Reuters.

Adidas said its overall sales of basketball products in North America were up 21 percent in the first nine months of the year, compared with an 11 percent rise for the division on a global basis.

Footlocker, which sells branded shoes of Nike and Adidas, saw its shares rise 9 percent on Monday after the news.

Adidas shares were up 0.4 percent late Tuesday.

National Football League (NFL) players have asked a U.S. judge to award them damages for team owners’ decision to trade their top price for television broadcast rights for US$4bn in payments during a labor lockout.

Jeffrey Kessler, cough a lawyer for the players, told U.S. District Judge David Doty: “The NFL illegally obtained a $4 billion war chest to fund the lockout. They did so without good faith.”

Attorneys for the players asked Doty for an order barring the owners from accessing those funds and are also seeking as much as $700m in damages, Kessler’s co-counsel, Thomas J. Heiden, told reporters outside the court in Minneapolis.

The hearing comes while the U.S. Court of Appeals weighs up a separate case as to whether to uphold an order by a federal judge in favour of the players, forcing the NFL to end the lockout it imposed March 12.

On March 1, Doty ruled that the 32-team league violated the terms of a settlement agreement, first created in 1993, that obligated the owners to make their best effort to maximize total revenue for the league and its players in 2009 and 2010.

The NFL extended broadcast contracts and altered lockout provisions with DirecTV, CBS Corp. (CBS), News Corp. (NWSA)’s Fox, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC and Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN Inc.

In that ruling, Doty stated: “The NFL renegotiated the broadcast contracts to benefit its exclusive interest at the expense of, and contrary to, the joint interests of the NFL and the players. Broadcast contracts are an enormous source of shared revenue for the players and the NFL.”

The Indian Government has hit back at countries demanding late payment for work carried out by their companies for last year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, claiming that they will not be pressurised.

An eight-long list of countries have written to Indian authorities demanding that the situation is resolved and warned that it could affect investment there if it is not.

Ajay Maken, India’s Sports Minister who dismissed the Games chief organisers Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Bhanot under allegations of corruption, said that they will only pay firms that are not under investigation as part of the wider probe linked to the Games.

Maken stated: “Efforts are being made to put pressure through diplomatic channels. It’s not fair. Companies not under the scanner have been paid money.”

Maken warned that any companies being investigated by the Central Beureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Indian tax authorities will not be paid until they have been cleared, stating: “We will not make payment because payment will be made only to companies on which we are 100 per cent satisfied on their work.”

Infostrada Sports, the Dutch company contracted to provide media services during the Games, are the latest high-profile international firm to become caught up in the mess, disputing charges of “non-performance” and demanding immediate payment of US$618,000.

The company’s chief executive Philip Hennemann said in a statement: “Infostrada Sports calls on the Organising Committee and the Indian Government to provide an open and detailed reasoning for the non-payment and demands an end to the inconsistent, incomplete comments that continue to create a negative impression about the services delivered by Infostrada Sports and the integrity of our company.”

Infostrada Sports, which had performed similar roles at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and are due to work on London 2012, was contracted for $1.9m.

But the Organising Committee have since claimed they were overpaid, with Hennemann adding: “Infostrada Sports once again refutes all allegations that it was overpaid, under-performed or under-delivered.

“The amount we were contracted for Delhi was smaller than that we received for large multi-sport events with a full service delivery such as the Olympic Games in Beijing $2.7m or the Asian Games in Doha $4.2m.

“In Delhi, we had more than 130 contracted persons and paid people involved in the operations, of which 76 were foreigners.

“It is the only event in the list with a full scope service that we had to arrange our own hotels and flights. 

“In Beijing, these costs were paid by the Organising Committee. 

“We paid over €250,000 (£217,000/$350,000) for flights and accommodation alone in Delhi.” 

Kalmadi, meanwhile, was questioned for the third time, for nine hours by the CBI in connection with the alleged irregularities during the Games but insisted: “I am ready to come here everyday.

“I have told the CBI that I will fully cooperate with the CBI or any other investigating agency. Accordingly I have come here today and I have given all answers to the best of my satisfaction. I have nothing more to say.”