The Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain is still set to go-ahead amid fears that violent human rights protests will target the opening race of the F1 season to attract attention to their cause.

The race is scheduled to take place next month on March 13 at the Sakhir circuit, with the 12 teams set to travel for final pre-season tests on March 3. The civil unrest in the nation has seen two people lose their lives to date.

A spokesman for motor sport’s governing body, the FIA, stated: “We are monitoring the situation with the promoters and the authorities. The plan is for the grand prix to go ahead but our main concern will always be the safety of the teams and the spectators.”

Nabeel Rajab, the vice‑president of the campaign group – Bahrain Center for Human Rights, told the Arabian Business publication: “For sure F1 is not going to be peaceful this time. There’ll be lots of journalists, a lot of people looking and [the government] will react in a stupid manner as they did today and yesterday. And that will be bloody but will be more publicised. This will not stop, especially now when people [have] died. I don’t think it’s going to stop easily.”

Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One rights holder, has expressed his concern, saying in an Interview with the Daily Telegraph: “The danger is obvious, isn’t it? If these people wanted to make a fuss and get worldwide recognition, it would be bloody easy, wouldn’t it? You start making a problem on the start grid in Bahrain and it would get worldwide coverage. We’re watching events closely. We’ll rely on what they think the right thing to do is.”

The FIA added: “The FIA and Sheikh Abdulla Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, president of the Bahrain Motor Federation, are actively monitoring the situation in the lead-up to the grand prix in March. The primary concern is the safety of Bahraini citizens, spectators, teams, drivers and all those involved in the F1 race. Sheikh Abdulla is confident everyone is working hard to ensure the situation will be amicably resolved.”

Brandt have secured the primary sponsorship of Turner Motorsports, No. 31 Chevrolet Impala driven by Justin Allgaier, for 17 NASCAR Nationwide Series races next season.

Brandt will also become an associate sponsor to all four of the Turner Motorsport entries in an agreement which is believed to be worth around US$4m in total.

“We are extremely excited to team up with Justin and Turner Motorsports for the 2011 racing season. Brandt is an exciting, aggressive and family values-based company. We feel we are teaming up with a driver who embodies these same qualities, and we are looking forward to seeing him exemplify that on the track.” said Rick C. Brandt, Brandt president and chief executive officer.

“Also, Nascar’s upcoming transition to ethanol fuel embodies Brandt’s leadership as a premier producer of environmentally sustainable products for agriculture. We look forward to representing American farmers on the track.”

Steve Turner, owner of Turner Motorsports, added: “I am very happy to welcome Brandt as a Turner Motorsports marketing partner. It is a company that I feel has the same core values and the same qualities that we do at Turner Motorsports. They have seen the value in Nascar and how it can help move the needle from both a marketing and sales perspective. We are confident we will win with them both on and off the track. I am honored they want to be a part of our organisation and are looking forward to a long-term successful relationship.”

 

The Indian cricket board Sunday rubbished a media report that it was told by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) that Indian cricket player, Suresh Raina was with a woman allegedly linked to an illegal bookmaker during the Sri Lanka tour.

The Sunday Times reported that the Sri Lankans submitted a report to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stating Raina accompanied the woman who was known to be an associate of a man linked to a bookmaker.

The discovery was made by CCTV cameras installed at the Indian team hotel in Sri Lanka.

According to the report, BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan’s reaction led to the International Cricket Council launching a probe investigation into the matter.

Srinivasan influenced the SLC to withdraw the report, the paper said.

“The ICC investigation … is believed to be looking into why the Sri Lankans shared the report with the BCCI first when under ICC anti-corruption rules it should have gone straight to the world governing body,” the newspaper quoted ICC sources as saying.

Srinivasan termed the report as “baseless and false”.

“The BCCI has just learnt that several media outlets are claiming that Sri Lanka Cricket submitted a report on Suresh Raina to it and that no action was taken by the Board.

“The BCCI would like to clarify that it has received no such report from SLC. The claims being made by a section of the media are totally baseless and false,” Srinivasan said.

Raina plays for Chennai Super Kings, an Indian Premier League franchise owned by India Cements. Srinivasan is a vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements.

The Football League has announced it will implement Hawk Eye’s Goal Decision System in domestic cup football, later this week.

The GDS system will be used at matches played in the Capital One Cup fifth round (and, subsequently, in the Semi-Finals and Final) at venues where it is currently installed.

Following testing in the last fortnight, FIFA have confirmed the Mitre Delta V12 ball – the Official Matchball of the Capital One Cup – is now calibrated to be used with Hawk-Eye’s ground-breaking system.

The Goal Decision System has been used at all Premier League matches this season and has also been installed at Wembley Stadium.

Andy Williamson, The Football League’s Chief Operating Officer said: “The Football League is a long term supporter of the use of goal line technology even if its cost currently puts it beyond the reach of our own clubs.

“In many ways, its use in cup football is even more important than in league football, as any decision about whether the ball has crossed the goal line can mean the difference between a club being knocked out or not – and could even determine the eventual Wembley winners.”

ESPN, doctor the leading action sports content provider and creator of the X Games, has chosen four North American cities, Austin, Texas; Chicago; Detroit; and Charlotte, N.C. as final candidates to host a summer version of the X Games for a period of three years beginning in 2014.

In October, 2012, ESPN announced that an RFP (Request for Proposal) process had begun to identify interested cities from North America as the existing agreement between Los Angeles partner AEG concludes in 2013. In January, ESPN announced the nine qualified bid cities. From January until April, ESPN engaged in discussions with the various cities as they assembled their proposals. All official proposals from cities interested in hosting an X Games were due on April 2.

“The X Games have grown significantly and has been enjoyed by millions of fans over the past 10 years in Los Angeles,” said Scott Guglielmino, senior vice president, programming and X Games. “Our partners AEG and the city of Los Angeles have been instrumental in our success. As we embark on a year of significant global expansion and transformation for X Games in 2013, we are excited about the potential each of these cities bring, and look forward to identifying our next host city for the X Games.”

ESPN will announce the new host city later this summer. Proposals from qualified cities in North America to host the winter version of the X Games are due in June. 

In May of 2012, ESPN announced it would be expanding the X Games to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil; Munich, Germany and Barcelona, Spain – joining X Games Los Angeles and Aspen to form a six-event schedule in 2013.

Hull FC owner Adam Pearson and business partner Tony Doherty have announced the introduction of Pro Sports Recruitment (PSR), abortion a national sport specialist recruitment company,  providing a focused and tailor-made search facility for sports professionals and organisations within the UK’s £27billion recruitment market.

Based in Leeds with an additional satellite office in Hull, PSR has been formed by managing partners Adam Pearson and Tony Doherty, who bring over 16 years of top level executive experience in the sport industry and a respective 12 years in the recruitment industry to the business.

PSR said in a release: “From ticket office to boardroom, covering all sports including football, cricket and rugby, PSR recognises successful sport needs exceptional talent off the field as well as on it. With a fitting launch at the start of the transfer window, the team aim to help recruiters and candidates find the perfect match with their knowledge of the market and competitive rates.”

Adam Pearson is the current owner of Hull FC Rugby League Club, having previously owned and chaired Hull City and Derby County, as well as being a former director of Leeds United. Tony Doherty, owner of Tigercom, has grown his recruitment consultancy into one of the biggest pan-european executive search firms, looking after global clients such as Samsung, HP and Dell. Mr Doherty has combined his knowledge with Mr Pearson, and the rest of the PSR team, to create a successful sports job outlet for those looking for a move or a new signing in their sports business.

Mr Pearson, managing partner at PSR and owner of Hull FC RLFC, said: “We all know it takes more than the players on the pitch to create a successful football, rugby or cricket team. The results lie in the off-field recruitment just as much as the professional sports men and women you have playing for your club or country. Having worked in the sports industry for over a decade, I know it can be hard and time consuming to search for the right candidate.

“By launching PSR, myself and Tony will provide professionals and organisations alike with a cost effective service to help support search, selection and placement with your sporting goals at the heart of our team’s aim.”

The one stop shop for all your sports personnel requirements, PSR facilitates all areas of sports expertise, tailoring its service to suit any sports organisation. The PSR team are based in offices situated on The Headrow in Leeds, with a satellite office in Hull. With an extensive candidate database of over 2,000 skilled personnel at any one time, they can fill any gap in your starting line up with the recruitment requirements you may have.

Norwich City have revealed they had been contemplating expanding their stadium Carrow Road but in the mean time they want to focus in cementing a place in the English top-flight.

An independent study commissioned by the Canaries and performed by the University of East Anglia confirmed that an expansion of 7,000 seats on top of the current 27,200 capacity would be a viable target.

However, chief executive David McNally has revealed that such a redevelopment would cost £20 million, and has underlined his preference for investing in the club’s first team in the immediate future.

In a webchat with fans on the club’s website, McNally said: “We are convinced that an expansion of Carrow Road is something that the club should contemplate.

“This independent research project is really important as it deals with facts, such as population growth, and real numbers, such as socio-economic data, and not instinct or intuition.

“However, circa 7,000 additional seats could cost approximately £20m. Currently, every spare penny is reinvested in the first team squad and this is something that board wishes to continue in the short term.

“Once we have become an established Premier League side then we may consider it viable to invest in the development of Carrow Road.

“In the meantime, we will look at a number of alternative schemes in order to ensure that we are properly prepared for expansion as and when it happens.”

Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) Manly-Warringah club’s main sponsor, Kaspersky Lab- an Antivirus software company- may decide not to agree (au)$2.8M contract extension unless club board member Peter Peters resigns.

Kaspersky Lab Managing Dir Harry Cheung said they”will walk away” from the deal when its contract lapses at the end of the year if Peters remains a director.

Kaspersky executives are reportedly concerned about the negative publicity Peters has brought to the Manly brand and, consequently, their own company.{jcomments on}

Researchers at NYU Stern’s Center for Measurable Marketing (CMM) announced that M&M’S ranked highest among Super Bowl XLVI advertisers in generating Conversational ROI.

The confectioner generated the highest initial levels of online engagement in CMM’s in-depth analysis of online buzz, seek finishing second only to Doritos in terms of continued conversation.

Partnering with Crimson Hexagon, a global provider of social media analysis software, and the Marketing Productivity Group, the leading provider of “state-of-the-science” analytical insights for marketers, CMM’s study highlights which Super Bowl advertisers can expect to see the biggest Conversational ROIs on their multi-million dollar investment. According to CMM, Conversational ROI measures both the direct impact of word-of-mouth communication on marketing performance, including dollar sales, as well as the amplification effects which social provides to both offline and online paid channels of communication.

E. Craig Stacey, Ph.D., director of research for NYU Stern’s CMM and founding partner of the Marketing Productivity Group, said: “With the advent of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, brands now have the opportunity to actively enter the conversation. What marketers need to grasp here is that we finally have the opportunity to quantify the impact of what consumers are saying and feeling – and not simply the return on the aggregate dollar amount spent on social media.

“We are calculating the ‘Conversational ROI’ generated for the Super Bowl advertisers by examining the overall level of conversation surrounding the ads, the proportion of positive sentiment toward them, and how long conversations are carrying over into the future,” explains Stacey. “At $3.5 million per 30-second Super Bowl ad, the number and length of the spots are also taken into consideration in calculating the Conversational ROIs.”

Crimson Hexagon President and CEO Patricia Gottesman, added: “We are thrilled to contribute to NYU Stern’s CMM study that unquestionably defines the importance of in-depth social media analysis. By being able to understand and digest millions of online conversations, brands can adjust their communications to meet consumer demand, and dramatically impact their ROI. We are excited to be at the forefront of a new wave of marketing research that could forever change the rules of advertising.”

“Based on our analysis of the 2011 campaigns and previous social media research,” said Stacey, “we know that positive conversations about movie ads translate into ticket sales at the box office.” He added, “If the studios can sustain, or even build upon the positive online buzz generated and deliver on viewers’ expectations, word-of-mouth can be a very effective media vehicle for studios. While the Super Bowl may not have provided the optimal target audience for The Lorax Movie, Universal Studios went on to build a very successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign in the following weeks, translating into a box-office blockbuster.”

Throughout 2012, CMM will continue to track the online buzz generated by these advertisers. “In particular, we will monitor conversations about the brands’ marketing actions and consumers’ feelings toward the brands and their purchase behaviors,” said Stacey. “By linking these online conversations to the brands’ marketing and in-market sales, we continue to demonstrate how this network of paid, owned, earned and shared media all work together in driving sales.”