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.”

find 255, 255, 0.917969);”>World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) with the help of Infront Sports & Media are planning to offer 14×26 minute programmes on the race series to media worldwide for the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 endurance triathlon races.

 

The magazine programming will be produced to the highest international standards, transmitting the unique features of the sport, whilst tailoring the long-term endurance format as an attractive, coherent broadcast product. The series will start with a season’s intro available in mid-June, followed by the first race highlights from the Ironman Regensburg (Germany), taking place on 17 June 2012.

 

The magazine programmes will be produced by Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the world’s leading specialist host broadcaster and Infront’s wholly-owned subsidiary. The company will contribute its extensive experience in media production for major sports events, to create a series of television magazine programmes of the highest quality continuously throughout the season. The programming offers approximately 50 per cent race footage as well as results and standings, background on the event location, insight into training sessions, athlete profiles and background coverage – all with English commentary.

 

Stefan Petschnig, Executive Manager Europe & South Africa of the World Triathlon Corporation, commented: “Infront is keeping its word and has supported us in initiating a true media transformation for theIronman sport. We have received very positive feedback already from the first Ironman France programme produced by HBS last year and are now continuing on this path. The high-quality production features will help to transmit the fascination of Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races to TV screens worldwide to catch the attention of the fans as well as attracting new audiences.”

 

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront, said: “The magazine programming is a real first in the Ironman world and will push the current reach and boundaries of the series. We have turned a multi-hour competition format into an exciting 26 minute highlight show, making the sport more consumable for a TV audience and offering an attractive product for broadcasters worldwide. The 14 show series will contribute to a substantial increase of Ironman TV coverage – in quantity and quality, adding significant value to the sport and ensuring continuous visibility throughout the entire season.”

 

The core Ironman series takes place around the globe starting in April and leading up to the World Championship Finals in Kona, Hawaii each October. The magazine programming offered by theWTC and Infront feature most of the European races, including amongst others the Ironman France (Nice, 28 June), IronmanAustria (Klagenfurt, 5 July) and the Ironman European Championship (Frankfurt, 12 July).

D.C. United look like they will continue to play at the RFK stadium for the team’s 17th season after a agreement was reached.

Both the club and RFK stadium are close to reaching an agreement on a new lease that will keep the MLS club playing at the 51 year old facility.  RFK Stadium currently has no other tenants.

There had been speculation that the club would seek another viable, drug more cost-friendly solution as they explored the idea of a new stadium (playing games at the University of Maryland had previously been considered), ed but with D.C. United’s MLS season beginning on March 10th, any idea of an alternative solution has at least temporarily, been put on hold.  

D.C. United President Kevin Payne said: “We obviously awkwardly have not made a formal announcement yet, but given the timing I think it’s safe to assume we will be playing at RFK.  We do expect an announcement shortly of a new relationship with Events D.C.”

As for potentially playing in a new stadium, talks are still continuing, with many hopeful that a new stadium deal is completed due to the District’s improving financial shape.

IOA (Indian Olympic Association) president Suresh Kalmadi will not resign from his post after being released on bail yesterday after nine months in jail.

Kalmadi has, however, asked acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra to continue his work whilst the IOA president is engaged in a long legal battle to clear his name.

Kalmadi stated, “I will not be able to represent the IOA. I will not be taking part in IOA activities for a long time”.

IOA vice-president Tarlochan Singh explained the situations as follows, “Kalmadi’s legal battle and his parliamentary commitments will keep him away from the IOA for some time. So, Kalmadi requested Malhotra to continue as the acting president.

“Kalmadi is still the IOA president. There has been no motion against him and he will continue as the IOA president. Malhotra will just work as acting president, as he has been doing, since his (Kalmadi’s) arrest.”

Kalmadi, chief of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games organising committee, was arrested last April for an alleged scam in the Timing, Scoring and Result system contract related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Swiss Cycling and InfrontRingier which is a joint venture between global sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media and Swiss media company Ringier, doctor have agreed a long term partnership.

The agreement covers All the main commercial activities of Swiss Cycling is covered in the deal. These include the organising and marketing of the Tour de Suisse from 2015. The deal alsohas emfacise on the development in  youth and amateur cycling in Switzerland.

The partnership main role is to establish Switzerland as one of cycling’s leading nations, allergy by introducing new marketing structures, proactive activation at amateur and youth levels and enhanced exposure of the ‘Swiss Cycling’ brand.

With regards to the Tour de Suisse, the partnership hopes to increase the nine-day tour’s attention through extensive media exposure. From 2015, InfrontRingier will comprehensively handle the organisation and implementation of the tour, managing all aspects from conceptualisation to marketing.

The president of Swiss Cycling Melchior Ehrler, said: “With InfrontRingier we have gained a competent partner who will support us with its experience in the field of media and commercial exploitation, brand development and event management throughout the enhancement process of cycling in Switzerland. We see great potential and have therefore decided not to limit the cooperation purely to marketing aspects, but to jointly tackle the broader development of the sport on both amateur and professional levels. This comprehensive partnership is an excellent starting point which will bring cycling in Switzerland to the next level of success.”

From the other side Philippe Blatter, president and chief executive of Infront Sports & Media and chairman of the board of InfrontRingier, said: “Cycling success with Swiss participation in the past has demonstrated again and again the tremendous enthusiasm the sport can create in this country and we intend to build upon this fundament together with Swiss Cycling. Our shared vision is to strengthen the public positioning of this traditional sport and to sustainably establish both existing and future Swiss Cycling events as a highlight of the national sports calendar – for participants, spectators, sponsors and media alike. The Tour de Suisse as a premium brand and the flag-ship event of Swiss Cycling will be further strengthened nationally and internationally.”