The Rugby Football League (RFL) have announced the 2013 World Club Challenge has been sold out.

The game will be played out in front of a capacity crowd at Headingley Carnegie Stadium on Friday night after the last remaining tickets for the showdown between Super League champions Leeds Rhinos and NRL Grand Final winners Melbourne Storm were sold.

All 20, drug 400 tickets were snapped up as fans flocked to secure their place for the fixture between the two most successful Rugby League clubs of the modern era.

“It’s going to be a night to remember for every Rugby League supporter and I’m sure the atmosphere at Headingley Carnegie Stadium will be one that everyone at the game will remember for a long time to come,” said RFL Chief Executive Nigel Wood.

“I would like to congratulate everyone concerned for their efforts in selling every single ticket and wish both clubs the best of luck on Friday night.

“With strong demand for tickets for the Rugby League World Cup which takes place in England and Wales at the end of the year, this news provides more evidence of the need for fans to purchase in advance to secure their seat at the biggest games.”

The Woodlands Country Club has completed a $1 million renovation led by its owner’s, Sequoia Golf, renowned Greenscapes Team to enhance its golf facilities.

The improvements made to The Palmer, The Player and The Tournament golf courses during the three-month project included course and landscape enhancements as well as new cart fleets.

Receiving the bulk of the renovations was The Woodland’s Tournament course, which hosts the Champions Tour’s annual Insperity Championship, and this past April hosted the Greats of Golf Competition featuring Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino. Completed in advance of the 2013 Champion’s Tour event, the course received new greens, cart paths and landscape upgrades. The course’s greens, which previously used Champion Bermuda, were replaced with high-quality Mini Verde Ultra Dwarf Bermuda. The new grass has a strong reputation throughout the industry for providing quality play year-round and is known to be superior to its competitors in terms of recovery, tolerance to temperature extremes, stress and wear from foot traffic.

“We are extremely proud of our courses at Woodlands Country Club. Our team works extremely hard year-round to maintain its allure that makes it one of the top clubs in the state of Texas,” said Joe Guerra, president and CEO of Sequoia Golf. “The recent renovations further prove our commitment to offering our members and their guests the best amenities available. We want to thank all of our members for being patient during the renovation period, but we’re confident that they will be pleased with the end results.”

The renovation project was managed by Sequoia Golf’s Greenscapes division, the company’s specialized team of designers and construction managers that was created to oversee all major facility renovations, expansions, and capital improvements. Sequoia Greenscapes has completed dozens of construction and renovation projects for clients ranging from individual golf course
owners to municipalities, including greens, tees, and fairway construction and renovation, bunker renovations, cart path repairs, erosion control, irrigation and drainage work, and a host of other projects and services.

To commemorate the grand re-opening of the courses, The Woodlands Country Club is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony at its Tournament course with the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 12 at 10 a.m.

Acquired by Sequoia in 2007, the upscale Woodlands Country Club is a world-class private club facility that provides its members with elite access to three championship golf courses. Located approximately 30 miles north of Houston, the Woodlands Country Club is truly Texas’ legacy club, having hosted the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston open for over 25 years.

Sochi have revealed their slogan for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games as “Hot. Cool. Yours.” as the Black Sea resort started it’s 500 day countdown to the opening of the Games.

Dmitry Chernyshenko explained at a presentation in Moscow Tuesday: “Russia in many ways is a country of contrasts and we wanted to emphasize that in the slogan. The climate is cold but the hospitality is warm. The Olympics are Winter but Sochi is a southern city, and you could list many other contrasts here, so we picked this slogan”.

In Russian the slogan reads “Hot. Wintry. Yours.”

The “hot” refers to the sheltered subtropical Black Sea resort of Sochi, which has palm trees, in contrast to the “cool” mountains above the city, which Russia hopes will be thickly coated with snow for the ski events.

There will be a future Indian World Superbike race following Infront Motor Sports inking a deal with Jaypee Sports International Ltd (JPSI), arthritis a subsidiary of the private Indian engineering and construction conglomerate Jaypee Group.

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The contract runs for four years, from 2013 to 2016. Next season, the Indian Round of the championship is scheduled to take place on 10 March at the Buddh International Circuit.

 

World Superbike is set to open up a new frontier in India as it becomes the first international bike racing championship to be hosted at the Hermann Tilke-designed track at Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) near Delhi. Indian motorsport enthusiasts, who flocked to the Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix at BIC last year, now have a chance to enjoy some of the most exciting two-wheeled racing in the world.

 

Maurizio Flammini, Chairman of Infront Motor Sports, said: “After meeting the promoters of Jaypee Group last year I got the feeling that I was dealing with a highly professional and powerful corporation which will guarantee the organization of a successful race in India, even though the Buddh Circuit was still under construction at the time. This impression was indeed confirmed by the outcome of the Formula 1 race held in October last year which turned out to be one of the best races of the 2011 season. We are sure that the FIM Superbike World Championship will bring added value to BIC as well as to India, and vice-versa. It will also deliver value to all the partners supporting and following our Championship and is a very important opportunity for them to expand their brands and business in Asia.”

 

Paolo Flammini, Infront Motor Sports CEO, added: “The inclusion of the Indian round in the 2013 FIM Superbike World Championship calendar represents a great achievement for our series and reflects our continuous target to further extend its international presence. India today is one of the most important motorcycle markets in the world, not only in terms of existing bike sales numbers but also growth and in the upgrading of the range offered to the consumer. Undoubtedly the inclusion of this event will greatly benefit all the protagonists of our series and will create significant added value for the motorcycle manufacturers.”

 

After signing the agreement, JPSI Managing-Director and CEO Sameer Gaur commented: “We are extremely happy to announce that besides holding the Formula One and FIA GT1 motor racing series, we will also hold a thrilling motorcycle race, the World Superbike Championship, at BIC early next year. There are many in India who are passionate about bikes. I am sure they will love to watch famed motorcycle drivers compete against each other here at their own world class racing circuit.”

 

India will become the twenty-seventh country to host a round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, which in 2013 will celebrate the 26th year of its existence since it started in 1988. The Buddh International Circuit was inaugurated on October 11th, 2011.

The US Grand Prix in Texas has been revived after Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Circuit of the Americas chiefs reached an agreement.

The construction of the track will resume immediately after the race was announced to remain on the 2012 calendar today.

The event, scheduled to host the penultimate round of the 2012 championship, was in doubt after construction was stopped because of problems with the contracts.

Ecclestone gave organisers an extended deadline after failing to meet the original one.

After the race was included in the final 2012 calendar released by the FIA, Austin officials said work on the track will resume right away, and they are confident it will be ready for the grand prix.

“Mr Ecclestone received his check today for the US GP,” said investor Red McCombs in a statement.

“We want to thank the fans supporting us, the local officials and businesses that have encouraged us, the state of Texas, Circuit of The Americas’ staff and Bernie himself.”

Bobby Epstein, founding partner of Circuit of The Americas, said:  “Our investors have believed all along that this project has tremendous benefit for our region, and provides a strong economic engine for the future.

“We remain committed to reaching our goal of being valuable community partners as we establish a platform for sports and entertainment. We’re glad that  Tavo’s vision of bringing F1 to the people of Texas will become a reality.”

Steve Sexton, president of Circuit of The Americas, added: “We have a substantial number of fans who have expressed interest in buying tickets and hospitality, so today is a win for all of them as much as it is for Circuit of The Americas.

“We encourage everyone to visit our website and register for information. Registered fans will receive the first communication regarding ticket sales plans. In a matter of weeks we will have more exciting news as we unveil our full calendar of world class events.”

 

Former Basketball superstar Michael Jordan has been fined by the NBA for making comments about the league’s ongoing collective bargaining process.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed the penalty for the current Charlotte Bobcats owner, but said the league doesn’t comment on the total. ESPN.com reported the fine was $100,000.

The controversy began when in an interview last month with Australia’s Herald Sun, Jordan said the NBA’s current model was “broken” and called for revenue sharing for small market teams such as his Bobcats and the Milwaukee Bucks, whom Australian Andrew Bogut plays for. The Hall of Famer added that he knows “owners are not going to move off what we feel is very necessary for us to get a deal in place where we can coexist as partners.”

The NBA has prohibited owners from speaking publicly about the labor situation.

The inaugural edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) Twenty20 cricket competition has been postponed. The new cricket committee running the game’s affairs in the island nation have declared August 2012 as the new window of opportunity for the beleagured tournament, which has suffered many setbacks including the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) refusal to allow Indian players to participate.

The SLPL domestic Twenty20 tournament will be conducted in the SLPL’s place featuring five local teams and no foreign participation. The winner of this event will represent Sri Lanka at this year’s Champions League Twenty20. 

The decision to postpone the league, which was scheduled to kick off on July 19, was reportedly taken Thursday at a meeting between Sri Lanka Cricket’s new committee and the league’s organisers, Somerset Entertainment Ventures.

The National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA) cancelled a meeting scheduled with a group of player agents at the National Football League (NFL) Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, February 22, due to the ongoing NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) mediation, raising some hope in the industry that the league and union could work out a deal.

The NFLPA has routinely held a small group meeting for powerful agents on the Thursday during Combine week in Indianapolis before the larger agent meeting Friday, which most of the about 800 NFLPA-certified agents attend.

The NFL and the NFLPA, at the request of federal mediator George Cohen, have adhered to keeping a tight lid on the mediation’s and have committed to seven days. Thursday would mark the seventh day of talks under the auspices of Cohen, the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Atos, a global IT services company and a key technology provider for the Olympic Movement since 1989, has been appointed by the Singapore Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) to lead the technology effort to stage the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, to be held in June 2015 in Singapore.

In addition to designing, building and operating the technology infrastructure and IT systems for the Games, Atos will also manage and integrate the contributions of all technology partners to deliver the Games in a seamless and secure manner. This will encompass operations, services and communications to athletes, spectators, organisers, officials, media, viewers, spectators and Internet users inS outheast Asia.

Herbert Leung, CEO of Atos in APAC said: “For the past 20 years, Atos has been serving the world’s most demanding reference customer — the IOC. There is no other sports IT project of this magnitude and complexity. Each Game has been a steep but rewarding learning curve for Atos as we overcame the myriad of challenges unique to each new location and deliver on an extraordinary scale as the entire world watched on.

“For the 28th SEA Games, our team of Business Technologists will apply the same blend of specialist skills and experience backed by a complete understanding of just what the organisers, competitors and audience expect.” He further added, “We also look forward to working closely with SINGSOC again to deliver a seamless regional sporting event against the backdrop of Singapore’s brand new Sports Hub in Kallang whilst showcasing our expertise.”

Mr Toh Boon Yi, Chief of Community & Corporate Outreach, Singapore Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) said: “We are pleased to be working with Atos Information Technology in hosting a major multi-sport event for Singapore once again. They delivered the IT infrastructure and systems during the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 contributing to its success. As we prepare for the upcoming SEA Games in 2015 we are confident that Atos has the specialist skills to raise the bar and help us deliver an extraordinary regional sporting event.”