The 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships will be held in Cable, USA, starting next January and will attract 180 athletes from 20 countries, it has been announced today.

At a press conference during the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, representatives of the Local Organising Committee and IPC Nordic Skiing spoke of their desire for the competition to be the biggest and best world championships yet.

In addition, Xavier Gonzalez, the IPC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Here in Sochi we have seen some amazing performances by skiers in their quest for Paralympic medals.

“Cable 2015 will be the first major gathering of the world’s best skiers since the Paralympic Winter Games and I am confident that organisers can stage the best World Championships yet by providing the perfect conditions for athletes to inspire and excite the world.”

Yuriy Gusev, Executive Director for CXC will serve as the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee: “It is a privilege for our organisation to host such an event and we are looking forward to welcoming the world, the athletes, coaches and officials to Wisconsin. We had the great honour of hosting two IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup events in 2012 and 2013, and we will do our absolute best to deliver the highest quality event in 2015 and to welcome the world’s best here.”

The venue for the world championships will be the Telemark Trail System in Cable, a town famed for being the starting point of the American Birkebeiner cross-country skiing marathon or ‘Birkie’, which ends on Main Street in Hayward.

“It is the highest honour for our state to host an event of this international profile,” said Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker. “Next year, we look forward to warmly welcoming the world’s best Nordic athletes to one of the best trail systems in the nation.”

The last world championships were held in 2013 in Solleftea, Sweden, where Russian athletes dominated the medals table with 56 golds, including five each across biathlon and cross-country events for Roman Petushkov and Mikhalina Lysova.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) have announced the World Championships, medstore | held in Barcelona (ESP), adiposity from July 19 – August 4, 2013 were the most watched ever in the FINA history, reaching a cumulative TV audience of almost 4.5 billion viewers worldwide.

According to an independent report made by the company Kantar Media, specialised in media and TV monitoring, the Championships reached a total of 4.487 billion TV viewers, distributed over six categories of programmes: Live, Sports Magazine, Highlights, News, Repeat and Delayed. This is a significant improvement from the previous edition of the FINA World Championships, in 2011 in Shanghai (CHN), where a total of nearly 3.7 billion TV viewers had followed the competition.

Moreover, for Barcelona 2013, there was a total of 5,156 hours of dedicated coverage (against 4,448 hours in 2011) and the competition was broadcast in 185 territories.

“These impressive figures definitively improve the value and prestige of our main event, the FINA World Championships. FINA and Aquatics are definitively top players in the very competitive sport business market. These results are due to our superb Stars and their outstanding performances, and to the great support received by our 203 National Member Federations around the world,” said the FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione.

The Turkish Golf Federation has announced that they intend to bid for the 2022 Ryder Cup.

It was evident that the Turkish Golf Federations commitment to the game is serious with over £1.5m up for grabs between the finalists of the of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final a few days back. Next year also sees the debut year of the Turkish Open, sale which will take place on the European Tour with a prize fund of £4.35m to be expected. Due to the Turkish Open, allergist at The Montgomerie Course inBelek, being placed in the calendar as the penultimate event to the Race to Dubai, it will be of paramount importance to the global elite of golfers chasing the top prize in the European money list. This should see Turkey firmly placed on the golfing map.

With last week’s event coming under some criticism, mainly due to being dismissed as an extravagant trip to line the already full pockets of the world’s richest golfers with it only being a one-off, limited field, matchplay event. However the Turkish Federation saw it as an opportunity to emphasise the excitement and commercial value that the sport will be able to bring to the nation, if the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final was anything to go by I’m sure that it will have intrigued many in the country of Turkey.

With eight of the best golfers in the world gathering at Antalya, it is not only the player’s bank balances that have benefited. It can be seen right down to the grass-roots, with golf not seen as a particularly common sport in Eastern-Europe young kids were encouraged to play the sport which may have otherwise not occurred had the event not taken place. This may play an important factor when the bidding process for 2022 begins one year after the Ryder Cup takes place at Gleneagles in 2012, playing on the potential effect that a major golfing event could mean to the popularity of the sport in an area where it is not a particularly common sight especially amongst the younger generations.

Ahmet Agaoglu, head of the Turkish Golf Federation, believes Turkey is the place to be in 2022. “What is happening now with golf in Turkey is beyond my imagination,” he said. “Outside of the United Kingdom there are only two of three countries that can reasonably put a bid together for something like this. This is my view anyway. So, yes, it is our aim to bring the Ryder Cup here. Can you imagine what that would mean for golf in this region? There is no guarantee that we will get it but we will present a fantastic bid. We have good enough time to prepare.”

To mark the fourth year of Procter & Gamble’s official sponsorship of the National Football League (NFL), apoplectic the company is launching an online platform called Fan-cestry where fans can build and share their personal fan history and see how they are connected to their favorite NFL team.

The “Official Locker Room Products of the NFL” include five P&G brands: Duracell, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Old Spice, and Tide which will sponsor the Fan-cestry program.

P&G will launch this campaign by driving consumers to www.fan-cestry.com, encouraging fans to enter information about their relationship with their favorite NFL team, memorable events from their teams, their NFL game rituals, and habits throughout the season. The result will be a sharable infographic about how each member’s lives are parallel to their NFL team’s history, which the company calls Fan-cestry. Members will have the ability to share their Fan-cestry across social platforms, driving fellow fans to display their own team loyalty on the Fan-cestry site. Throughout the season consumers will be able to add new and unique content to their Fan-cestry in real time.

Anyone who creates their Fan-cestry will have a chance to be entered to win tickets to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.

“America’s favorite P&G brands are engaging fans of America’s favorite sport in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them,” said Anne Westbrook, Communications Leader, U.S. Sports Marketing at P&G. “Fan-cestry is a platform to unite all types of NFL fans, from those who have never attended a game to those who live and breathe their team colors. These fans share a common bond of loyalty and fandom for the sport, and that is what Fan-cestry is all about.”

IndyCar CEO says the Izod series will not replace its cancelled race in China, leaving the season schedule at 15 events. IndyCar had been attempting to find a replacement since it announced the cancellation of the August 19 race in China.

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said the series did not want to rush into scheduling another race. “After carefully considering all possible options for an additional race, we felt it was in our best interest to keep our schedule at its current 15-event lineup,” he said. “We want to make sure that when we add events to our roster they have long-term potential and are given every opportunity to be successfully promoted. The more we explored, the more we felt like we were rushing what could be good, long-lasting opportunities for the sport.”

The series will remain at 15 but series sponsor Izod said it supported IndyCar’s decision not to add a 16th race, which is required as part of its deal.

“As the entitlement partner of the series, we agree that it is in the best interest of the series to focus on a long-term strategy for the future schedule instead of a quick fix for this year,” said Mike Kelly, executive vice president of The PVH Marketing Group.{jcomments on}

Team Lotus head honcho, Tony Fernandes, believes Formula 1 needs to do more to promote itself better in new markets if it is to grow its fan base in the future.

Formula 1 is currently undergoing an expansion to the calendar outside of Europe – with India and South Korea having been added in the past two years, and Russia coming in 2014 – grand prix racing is facing the challenge of attracting new spectators if the events are to be a success.

Memories still remain of venues that have struggled to attract an audience such as Turkey who had to be dropped from the calendar because of a lack of support – Fernandes thinks that a different approach may be needed.

Writing in the latest edition of the FIA Institute’s IQmagazine, the AirAsia and Queens Park Rangers FC boss said that efforts have to go beyond the traditional way of trying to create a culture of grass roots motorsport.

“We need to keep the sport simple when it is introduced to new countries,” said Fernandes. “Motor racing, and specifically F1, is complicated, but the more understandable we make it, the easier it will be to get the newer countries involved.

“You can’t take F1 to India for the first time and treat that audience the same way you would the hugely knowledgeable tifosi at Monza. Italy has 90 years of heritage; India is brand new. Cricket exploded when they made the sport simple and accessible – first with the one-day game and now with Twenty20.”

He added: “I also think the teams and the drivers need to spend more time in the countries they’re visiting.

“When I was in the music business nothing beat bringing an artist to the country. Touching and feeling the sport is important. And we have to get away from the idea that F1 is a once-a-year thing that then goes away. It can’t just be about that.

“There needs to be bigger, wider promotion of the event, more coverage around the event, more TV programming from behind the scenes, as well as more journalists engaging with the event and more television promoting the rest of the season.”

Fernandes believes that the benefits of a big promotional push have been proven by the way that the football business grew when television companies started a major marketing effort.

“Football exploded into new markets and got really big when Sky and a few other TV channels came along and promoted it hard,” he explained. “There may be a lesson in that.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has vowed to prevent corruption from the sport in the country following the jailing of three of the national team’s key players  who were  convicted of participating in a ‘spot-fixing’ scam.

Former captain Salman Butt received a 30-month sentence 30, and bowler Mohammad Asif receiveds given a one-year term after they were found guilty by a London court earlier this week. Mohammad Amir was given a six-month jail term after pleading guilty while agent Mazhar Majeed, the alleged ‘fixer’ was jailed for two years and eight months after pleading guilty. All four will serve half of their sentences before being eligible for parole.

Butt and Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Lord’s Test match against England in August 2010. The International Cricket Council has already indicated it will investigate evidence linked to other players that became apparent during the trial. The PCB, said in a statement the sentences were part of “a sad day for cricket in the country”.

PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said: “Instead of having pride in playing for their country, these players chose to disappoint their supporters, damage the image of their country and bring the noble game of cricket into disrepute. There is little sympathy in Pakistan for the sorry pass they have come to. (The) PCB is determined to ensure that any form of corrupt behaviour from Pakistan cricket is stamped out.”

The ICC sent anti-corruption directives to the PCB in October 2010, and the national body said it has made progress in discouraging young players away from corruption. “Training courses under PCB education program upgraded for all players and particularly younger entrants into international cricket to inform them of the law and spirit of the game, the inducements that may be offered to them by unscrupulous elements, and the pitfalls associated with deviant behaviour,” the PCB said in a statement.

The PCB has brought in a stricter code of conduct and a new registration system for player agents. The statement said: “These are just some of the measures being contemplated by the PCB. More would follow as and when the need arises. Ridding Pakistan cricket of any possible corrupt behaviour will remain a high priority for the PCB. The PCB will also work closely with the ICC and its member Boards in ensuring that the game of cricket globally is made totally free from the taint of corruption.”

Two days and 13 hours of discussions between the NBA and the players union provided no resolution leading to NBA commissioner David Stern officially cancelling the first two weeks of the season.

Stern termed the negotiations to being “very very far apart on virtually all issues.” Stern also suggested that the cancellations, just the second work stoppage in league history to knife into the regular season, essentially guarantees that a full 82-game season has also been lost after fruitless talks found NBA owners and players unable to agree on key items such as luxury-tax specifics, contract lengths and annual raises.

Not considered major issues that would derail negotiations as recently as last week, but they became contentious issues on the 102 day of the lockout and over the last 48 hours as the sides’ ongoing inability to agree on a workable split of annual Basketball Related Income. Players have always wanted a 53-47 split while the league and owners have voiced a 50-50 split which has proved to be a major stumbling block.

“We think that we made very fair proposals,” Stern told reporters in New York, describing himself as both sorry and sad about the parties’ inability to get close to the framework of a deal before Monday’s deadline to start the regular season on Nov. 1 as scheduled.

“I’m sure the players think the same thing,” Stern said. “But the gap is so significant that we just can’t bridge it at this time.”

Asked if he was prepared to rule out an 82-game schedule now that all games through Nov. 14 have been formally scrapped and not merely postponed, Stern said: “Yes, I think that’s right. And with every day that goes by, we need to look at further reductions in what’s left in the season.”

Stern and players association executive director Billy Hunter were in similar positions in 1998, when a 204-day lockout only left time for a 50-game regular season.

Hunter said on Monday, intimating that cancelling games and forcing NBA players to miss checks has been the owners’ intent for months: “I’m convinced that this is all just part of the plan.

“I think everybody’s waiting for the players to cave,” Hunter added. “They figure that once a player misses a check or two, it’s all over. I’m saying … that would be a horrible mistake if they think that’s going to happen, because it’s not going to happen. The players are all going to hang in.”

NBA players displayed their solidarity all day long with dozens of “LET US PLAY” tweets and #StayUnited hash tags at the urging of union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul. Yet as one source close to the talks observed: “People were tweeting ‘LET US PLAY’ all day long and the owners’ offers got worse by the end of the day.”

Sources told ESPN the primary stumbling block in Tuesday’s talks centered around a punitive luxury-tax system being pushed by the owners that the union views as a virtual hard salary cap.

Stern cited the owners’ willingness to surrender their longstanding insistence on an actual hard cap as an example of how the league “made concession after concession.” But sources said that owners proposed system changes this week that included a luxury tax of $2 for every $1 that teams strayed above the tax threshold — doubling the tax that was applied in the previous collective bargaining agreement — and didn’t stop there.

The owners, sources said, also want teams that stray beyond the tax line three times in a five-season span to pay $3 for every $1 over the tax limit. Sources said that the proposed tax penalties would rise to $4 for every $1 dollar over the threshold for any team that crossed into tax territory in five straight seasons.

Sources said that owners also pushed for contract limits of four years for free agents re-signing with their current teams and three years for free agents joining new teams, with the union proposing five years and four years, respectively. Sources say that the league, as ESPN.com reported last week, likewise continues to push for tax-paying teams to be denied the use of their Larry Bird and mid-level exceptions and is still pushing for the mid-level exception to be reduced from a maximum of $5.8 million annually over five years in the previous CBA to a two- or three-year maximum contract that can’t exceed $3 million annually.

“It makes no sense for us to operate under the current model, where taxpayers … have a huge advantage over other teams,” NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.

Referring to suggested penalties for big-spending teams, union president Fisher said: “It’s still as close as you can get (to) a hard cap.”

No further negotiating sessions have been scheduled and none are expected before next week, sources said, with Hunter and Fisher scheduling a meeting with union members Thursday in Los Angeles.

 

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