The Ladbrokes World Darts Championship will remain at London’s Alexandra Palace for the next three years after the PDC’s contract with the prestigious venue was extended. 

Alexandra Palace has hosted darts’ biggest tournament since the World Championship moved to north London in 2008, with the venue’s West Hall staging the £1 million event in December and January.

The Great Hall at Alexandra Palace is turned into the Fans Village for the duration of the tournament, hosting a specially-created Ladbrokes shop, merchandise stalls and food and drink outlets.

Adrian Lewis retained the World Championship title this January in the fifth staging of the World Championship at Alexandra Palace, with over 40,000 fans attending the 15-day event over the Christmas and New Year period.

“We are delighted to have signed a three-year contract to keep the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace,” said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

“The tournament has continued to grow significantly in the past five years and Alexandra Palace has become a great home for the event, providing world-class facilities for players, fans and our media partners.

“With Sky Sports’ coverage shown worldwide throughout the event, this deal will continue to develop Alexandra Palace’s global reputation as a leading venue.”

“There is no better arena in the sport of darts as Alexandra Palace during the Ladbrokes World Championship. The atmosphere that is created is incredible, and it’s a special stage which brings the best out of our players.”

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Alexandra Palace, said: “The team at Alexandra Palace is both delighted and proud to ‘step up to the oche’ once again to work with Barry Hearn and the prestigious Professional Darts Corporation to host the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship.

“Last year over 40,000 people visited the event and contributed to the tremendous festival atmosphere of the specially created ‘Fans Village’.

“This three-year partnership deal is a testament to the character and quality of Ally Pally as an events venue. 

“We have a great tradition of hosting live sporting events and the Palace really comes alive when we host the darts, one of the highlights of our year.

“We look forward to welcoming international darts stars and supporters alike to enjoy all that Alexandra Palace has to offer.”

The redevelopment of Casement Park which was expected to be continued has been put off until the end of 2013, a year later than anticipated.

The work on the west Belfast Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) stadium is expected to last for 21 months and a new 40,000 all-seater stadium is expected to be completed by September 2015.

The total budget for the project is in the region of £76.4m.

The GAA will provide around £15m of the funding and the exchequer £64.1m.

The extent of the contribution from Croke Park has still to be finalised as the Ulster Council is still in discussions with Central GAA.

An invitation for tenders reveals the timeline for the design, planning application and construction of a stadium which will replace St Tiernach’s Park Clones as the new headquarters of Ulster GAA.

by Ismail Uddin

The Football Association and Premier League are in talks to prevent the FA Cup final clashing with league games.

FA general secretary, Alex Horne, stated that negotiations are on-going to avoid a repetition of the fixture pile-up in 2011.

Manchester United secured the Premiership title and three other top-flight fixtures were played on the day Manchester City won the FA Cup.

Horne explained, “We’re talking to the Premier League about whether there’s a way to create a Saturday when the FA Cup can stand on its own.

“We have a situation with international player release, and particularly, in 2013 when the UEFA Champions League final is to be played at Wembley, where we know it can’t be the last game of the season.

“It won’t be the last Saturday of the season but I think we can achieve a situation where it’s on its own on a Saturday and I think it’s important it’s given that space”.

The 2012 FA Cup final is currently scheduled to occur on Saturday, May 5th.

A full calendar of Premier League games is planned for that date as well as for the following weekend; finding space to identify a stand-alone the day for the final may prove challenging.

The Premier League also has a contractual obligation to provide its broadcast partner Sky with a live game at 12.45 BST on Saturday, May 5th, and the Europa League final is scheduled to take place in Bucharest that Wednesday.

Horne also announced that the traditional 1500 BST kick-off time is likely is to change.

“We’re talking about moving [the final] to an early evening slot and I think what that does is enable all of the football that’s played across the country at 3pm on a Saturday not to be affected by the FA Cup final so that the supporters watching and playing in their local games can get back and enjoy the FA Cup or stay in their club houses”.

Horne added, “The FA Cup is a big brand globally, there are half a billion people who watch the FA Cup final played all around the world.

“What’s interesting is that we’re seeing very strong numbers from our overseas TV deals and we need to follow that up with interest and affection for the competition.”

Horne’s comments coincided with a new report from the FA undertaken by Deloitte, which highlighted the potential financial gain to participating clubs.

A total of almost £650m was generated in prize money, TV payments and gate receipts for sides in the 10 years between 2001/02 and 2010/11.

Horne emphasised the boon the tournament can be for lower-league and non-league sides.

“What this report reveals is the huge financial incentives for teams participating in the FA Cup. You only have to look at Crawley Town last season, who earned £1m from a single game against Manchester United, a truly phenomenal amount of money for a then non-league football club.”

“They’re big numbers and they’re not budgeted by clubs as they don’t expect to progress in the competition. It’s a windfall”.

Global sports marketing agency, Octagon, has been selected as the official marketing partner of the China LPGA Tour (CLPGA) as part of a new major deal.

Octagon official statement released expressed, under terms of the agreement, ‘Octagon will be responsible for developing corporate partnerships for the CLPGA and also will be involved in strategy development and planning.’

CLPGA Tour chief executive, said: “We are extremely pleased to have Octagon join our marketing team. We are extremely pleased to have Octagon join our marketing team. Their philosophy and approach is highly compatible with ours and we are excited to have this alliance, particularly at this important moment in our organisation’s development.”

Octagon’s Chris Higgs added, “We are very excited to be working closely with the CLPGA. With golf set to be in the Olympics for the 2016 Games, the CLPGA Tour is an important component in ensuring China’s women professionals have a platform to prepare them for international competition.”

Financial terms of the agreement were not released.

English rugby union club Saracens have confirmed that they will play at least ten of their home games at Championship soccer side Watford’s home ground Vicarage Road next season.

The two parties have also agreed to pre-arranged terms for any additional matches that Saracens may play, taking into account the possibility of the club qualifying for the Premiership play-offs next season.

The north London side encountered delays in the planning application stage for construction work on the club’s new stadium at Copthall in Barnet after initially hoping to move to the stadium for the start of the 2011/12 season. The delays and the new single year deal at Watford, however, means new estimates point towards a January 2012 opening.

Ed Grifiths, Saracens chief executive, said: “We still hope to move to Barnet next season, but if it is the 2012-13 season, so be it.”

Vicarage Road has hosted the Premiership rugby union team for the past 14 years and welcomed Saracens’ return to the ground on “enhanced terms”, with owner Laurence Bassini stating: “The club is happy to welcome Saracens back to our stadium next season.

“They approached us to see if we could take into account their current situation with regard to their ongoing Copthall Stadium negotiations. Given the long-standing relationship between Watford and Saracens, it is only right that we considered their request.”

Istanbul’s 2020 bid for the 2020 Olympics was boosted today after it was revealed 50 million international tourists will likely come to Turkey in 2020. 

The latest update to Turkey’s 2023 Master Plan anticipates a rise in international tourism from 33 million in 2012 to approximately 48.5 million by 2020.

This huge visitor increase is set to enhance an Istanbul Games through increased ticket, licensed product and merchandising sales, and increased attendance at live sites and other events such as the Opening Ceremony.

The Opening Ceremony would already have the largest live audience in Olympic history with 70,000 people in the Bosphorus Stadium and half a million people along the banks of the strait.

Istanbul 2020 partner Turkish Airlines is already feeling the effect of the tourist boom through a 26% increase in passengers carried in the first half of this year. The company aims to expand its fleet from 228 aircraft today to 415 aircraft by the 2020 Games.

Ali Kiremitçioğlu, Istanbul 2020 CEO, said: “These latest figures on tourism and from Turkish Airlines prove that Turkey continues to be a growth market ready to welcome the world for an extraordinary Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

“Istanbul has the infrastructure and the capacity to ensure that the Olympic Family and the millions of international visitors will enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience during the Games in 2020.”

Turkish Airlines is one of seven Istanbul 2020 Sponsors who together have provided the largest private-sector investment in any sports bid in Turkish history.

McLaren Group, order which includes Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, ed  has today announced it has appointed BAE Systems Detica to use its market leading Detica CyberReveal security product to protect from cyber attacks.

The engagement delivers significant benefits compared to traditional network security solutions as Detica CyberReveal detects the most advanced and sophisticated threats that other security tools cannot, whilst also providing the security analysts with far more detailed context around cyber alerts than other technologies can provide. This enables Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to make more informed decisions and to optimise its resources to deliver greater operational efficiency and a more rapid response to priority threats.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “Information, regardless of ownership or nature, is always at risk of compromise. Like many other organisations, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes strives to protect its information assets and our use of Detica’s cyber technology has significantly reduced that risk.”

Martin Sutherland, Managing Director, BAE Systems Detica said: “As security and cyber threats increase, we are delighted to be supporting McLaren in this critical area. We see too many companies still believing that traditional defences are enough to protect them from targeted cyber attacks. The increased prevalence of these attacks has reached a level where organisations must take positive action to protect sensitive commercial and customer information, their intellectual property and business critical systems.”

London & Partners has appointed London based sports-agency The Sports Consultancy as strategic advisers.  The Sports Consultancy’s brief is to develop a measurable framework to identify the priority international sports events for London.

The Sports Consultancy will review London & Partners’ objectives for attracting international sports events and analyse a long-list of potential event targets to assess the extent to which they meet these objectives. The outcomes will not only inform which events become priority targets over the period 2013-20, order but also the level of city support that should be committed to them.

The work is a key component of the delivery of the London 2012 Olympic legacy and will enable the stakeholders to establish how best to deliver their overarching event hosting objectives – Economic Benefit, International Profile, Community Engagement and Sport Participation.

Alexandra Goldschmidt, Senior Project Manager, who is leading the work from the Major Events Team at London & Partners said: “We have already secured a number of post-Games events that fit within our strategy, such as the 2013 World Series Triathlon Grand Final, the 2015 EuroHockey Championships and the 2017 World Athletics Championships. The Sports Consultancy’s work will help us refine the criteria for developing further opportunities with international federations, rights-holders and event organisers”.

Robert Datnow, Managing Director, The Sports Consultancy, who is leading the project team added: “The team at the Sports Consultancy is delighted to have been appointed to work alongside London & Partners to identify priority international sporting events for London. We look forward to working with the client team and wider stakeholders to deliver this important project for the capital.”