Formula One parent company CVC have been urged to invest in the sport by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, in order to guarantee his team’s future interest in the championship.

Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp. have agreed to create a consortium with Italian investment firm Exor, whose CEO is John Elkann, chairman of Fiat, the owner of Ferrari, to investigate a takeover bid for the sport.

Speculation of a takeover has emerged as discussions are set to begin over a new Concorde Agreement, the commercial arrangement that binds together the teams, CVC and the FIA, motorsport’s governing body. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has previously indicated his displeasure with the current deal, which sees CVC take half of F1’s annual profits of around £600m (US$983m).

In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Domenicali stated: “At the moment everything is calm, but soon something will happen. From the commercial point of view we need to clarify the following points: who will be involved in the talks? I mean which teams and constructors want to stay and which want to enter F1? And who is responsible for the show? A marketing partner is needed. It can be CVC once more, but it must invest in F1 and develop, and we must make sure our sport becomes interesting for young people.

“F1 must speak their language, use their technologies, internet, tablets, social forums, and remain comprehensible for the audience. F1 is interesting for Ferrari only if these points are taken into consideration, and we must avoid changing the rules too often. We need stability, on top of having grands prix in important countries for our sales, first of all in the USA.”

 

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Related Group discussion: Formula One Pay-TV Move Would Harm Audiences and Revenues by Martin Laurence

 

It has been confirmed that British sportscar maker Caterham Cars has been purchased by Team Lotus Enterprises, enabling the lightweight sportscar manufacturer to “expand its brand profile and product family,” according to Team Lotus.

Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes stated: “Caterham has a unique place at the heart of the motoring world. As well as being proudly and staunchly British, it has an enviable and uniquely unblemished reputation within the industry for performance, handling and engineering excellence.

“Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman’s philosophy of ‘less is more’, and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham’s product offering.

“It is already a successful business with sales across Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East, and under the guidance of the existing management team, we now have all the ingredients and the launch pad to further evolve that spirit and take Caterham to new exciting horizons with innovative products and greater global brand exposure.”

Although there was no mention of a rumoured name change in the statement, the announcement comes before a decision from the British courts about the ongoing Lotus naming dispute.

The team said that the purchase will signal the continued development of its famous Seven brand, using F1 technology, while Caterham Cars’ managing director Ansar Ali added: “This is yet another exciting chapter in the Caterham story. Until now, the resources Caterham has had at its disposal have, naturally, limited the exposure of the Caterham driving experience and the legendary Seven has had to rely almost entirely on its remarkable reputation and legacy.

“We will remain entirely true to the philosophy that we, as custodians of one man’s motoring concept, have protected for nearly 40 years.

“However, the acquisition of the company by Team Lotus Enterprises will allow our existing management team to take Caterham’s core spirit of pure driving enjoyment to a hitherto un-served audience.

“While the Seven will now have the global springboard it deserves and will continue to be evolved yet further, we also have the opportunity to expand the Caterham family beyond the Seven and SP/300.R and breathe new life into our uniquely respected brand and mature it into a truly global business.”

National Football League (NFL) franchise the Jacksonville Jaguars has signed a fiver-year deal with local financial services company Everbank for the naming rights to the team’s stadium.

Everbank Field will replace the moniker of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, which had been in place since 2007.

Team owner Wayne Weaver said: “I clearly think it’s a game-changer. Today’s [Tuesday] announcement demonstrates [Everbank’s] confidence that Jacksonville is a viable football market.”

Everbank chairman and CEO Robert Clements said the agreement was “arguably one of the most exciting milestones in the evolution of Everbank”.

Jaguars senior vice president for sales and marketing, Macky Weaver, added: “It certainly will be a pat on Jacksonville’s back to go from the negative publicity that we received last year, based on the decline in season tickets, to come back this quickly because of a community-based effort, local business effort, a company that’s based out of Jacksonville stepping up to put their name on this building.”

Aviva Premiership team Newcastle Falcons have announced today that Mick Hogan has been appointed Managing Director at the club with immediate effect.

He will be reporting directly to Chairman Semore Kurdi.

Hogan has been assisting the club for the past six months as a commercial consultant. He has previously worked at the Falcons as Commercial Director and Head of Marketing as well as being CEO at Wigan Warriors RL and Sale Sharks RFC.

Speaking about the appointment Newcastle Falcons Chairman Semore Kurdi said:
“I’m delighted that Mick has taken up this new role at Newcastle Falcons. He has considerable experience in both codes of rugby.

I’m looking forward to Mick, working with the rest of the Senior Management Team, growing the Club. Given that the Rugby World Cup is just over a year away these are very exciting times for Newcastle Falcons and the sport of rugby in the north east.

“With Mick’s leadership I’m confident that the club will be able to fully realise this tremendous opportunity and become a far stronger organisation.”

Infostrada Sports have renewed their partnership with the International Cycling Union (UCI) for the next three and a half years for the continued delivery of the tailor-made video archiving solution.

Infostrada Sports will continue to develop, design and maintain the UCI Download Centre. This Active Archive System is a web based video asset management system which allows for the ingesting, digitalisation, storing and further distribution and publication of video material.

The UCI Download Centre is capable of importing, exporting and transcoding of video footage. This footage can be enriched with custom sports metadata, drawn from Infostrada Sports’ database, and additional supporting files. Video then can be searched, browsed in low resolution and clipped into specific parts. Selected video files can be distributed to any ftp, in different formats for any use. The system also generates unique embeddable video players and automatic publication on YouTube.

The UCI Download Centre was initially deployed by Infostrada Sports in May 2013, helping to fulfill one of UCI’s missions to develop and promote all aspects of cycling.

“We are delighted that we have signed an agreement with such an important International Federation,” said Danny Menken, CEO Infostrada Sports.

“Over the last 15 years we have developed a significant results and common data platform for more than 300 sports, including all cycling disciplines. For Infostrada Sports it’s an important next step to deliver, in addition to data, also tailor-made video archiving solutions to, among others, National Federations and National Olympic Committees. By providing our innovative archive solution, combined with the provision of cycling data from our world leading sports database, I am convinced that we can help further strengthen UCI’s ambitions. “

Tobias Friedrich, TV Production & Broadcast Services Coordinator UCI added:
“The new UCI Download Centre delivers a reliable, sophisticated, user friendly solution to distribute the current UCI race footage as well the archive material which is already digitized.

“It is easy to use for our takers and as well for our team working with the system on a daily base. Since the Download Centre went online the UCI TV Department received positive feedback from all our partners world-wide and the multifunctional system has become an important tool to serve our clients.”

Oslo have officially confirmed their bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics as they look bring the event to Norway for the first time since Lillehammer in 1994.

Ingunn Olsen, here a spokeswoman for the Oslo bid committee, generic says the Norwegian capital will submit its candidature “within the deadline of the IOC,” adding a formal letter had not yet been sent.

November 14 is the deadline for submission of bids to the International Olympic Committee.

Oslo hosted the Winter Olympics in 1952. The 1994 Lillehammer Games are considered among the most successful Winter Olympics ever.

So far, bids for 2022 have also been announced by the Ukrainian city of Lviv; Beijing and the northern Chinese city of Zhangjiakou; and Almaty, Kazakhstan. A referendum will be held on Sunday in Germany on a proposed bid from Munich. Poland and Slovakia are expected to lodge a joint bid.

The IOC will select the 2022 host city in 2015.

World Snooker have revealed the Doncaster Dome will host World Snooker tournaments in August.

The Yorkshire venue will stage the qualifying rounds of the Shanghai Masters world ranking event from August 7 to 10 as well as a European Tour event from August 15 to 17. 

The European Tour events, which carry ranking points and a top prize of £20,000, are open to all professional and amateur players so top stars like Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson will be eligible to enter. 

Snooker legends like Steve Davis and Ken Doherty plus rising stars such as Michael White and Jack Lisowksi could be competing in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers. 

A spokesman for World Snooker said: “We’re excited to bring our events to Doncaster. The Dome is a fantastic venue and the snooker arena hosts a substantial capacity for spectators. It’s a great chance for fans to come and see the sport played at the highest level and watch their heroes in action. 

“Yorkshire could already be considered the home of snooker with the World Championship in Sheffield and the UK Championship in York, and now Doncaster has its own events. We want to see supporters turning out in force and taking advantage of the incredible value for money that snooker tickets offer.” 

The Doncaster Dome could also host the qualifiers of a new world ranking event on August 11 and 12, with negotiations on that tournament in progress.

USA Cricket’s committee has selected TSE Consulting to conduct a comprehensive review of the organisation.

The product of the process, due to be completed in spring 2013, will be a public report that will be available to the internal and external stakeholders of USACA.

TSE will be charged with a fundamental review designed to re-focus national resources and incentives and infrastructure towards the development of the game at the grass roots level for American boys and girls as well as installing global best practices for developing internationally strong women’s and senior men’s cricket. The process is due to be completed in spring 2013.

International Cricket Council Head of Strategic Management and Support Services and a member of the Governance Review Committee, Jon Long, said: “The USACA Board identified a review of its governance structures as a priority objective, so it is good to see the process unfolding in a structured and transparent manner.”

Dale Neuburger, Director TSE Consulting North America said: “We envision the USACA will adopt best practices of leading cricket federations worldwide and high-performing sports governing bodies in the United States, enabling significant domestic development and new standards of international competitive success.”

TSE Consulting has extensive experience advising international and national sports bodies; including and among others, International Athletics, Basketball, Swimming and Archery and in the US in particular; the United States Olympic Committee, US Bowling, US Rowing and USA Taekwondo, and others.

Get to know more about the organisation by reading Lars Pedersen, Managing Director of TSE Consulting featured profile interview here>>