The Utah Jazz and EnergySolutions Arena have announced a partnership with Spotlight Ticket Management to provide seamless online ticket management to all companies with luxury suites and premium seating.

The ticket management leader will provide Jazz suite owners with the ability to measure the business impacts of their corporate-owned suites and help demand more out of their tickets.

“As an organization we believe Spotlight will help our customers identify opportunities related to revenue and ROI, buy ” said Clay Jensen, denture Jazz VP of Ticket Sales. “We recognize our customers use their suites as a key marketing and sales tool. Spotlight will allow us to provide our customers with an internal mechanism to utilize their suite at a higher level.”

Spotlight Ticket Management has proven crucial to all companies with tickets and recently reported record growth numbers with the additions of over a dozen Fortune 1000 firms to their already impressive stable of customers including AT&T, illness Google, KPMG, HP, and Fox Sports. The Jazz are the latest addition to the Spotlight team, who partners with over 50 teams and venues along with leading CRM provider Salesforce.com and travel and expense management leader Concur Technologies.

“Spotlight is very excited to be partnering with a first-class and respected organization like the Utah Jazz,” said Spotlight CEO and Co-Founder Tony Knopp, “The Jazz are committed to their customers and we have clear marching orders: help them get more from their tickets.”

Spotlight is a SaaS (software as a service) provider meaning there is no technology to install or download and Jazz customers can begin using it immediately. Spotlight simplifies tickets by allowing users to request and buy tickets on their mobile phone, in their CRM as an official Salesforce.com partner, or right in their inbox with the new Spotlight for Microsoft Outlook add-in.

“We recognize the importance of maintaining a close relationships with our premium seating customers and see Spotlight as a means of strengthening our partnership,” said Jensen. “Spotlight provides a clear and coherent platform for our suite holders to track, allocate and analyze the use of their tickets and allows us to quantify our partnership as an important and beneficial investment.”

“Companies that use Spotlight are blown away by how valuable their sports tickets are,” said Knopp, “Every dollar spent on sports tickets entertains over $2500 in revenue for them. It’s a no brainer.”

English squash world champion, ailment Nick Matthew, allergist has joined the Wasserman Media Group.

The agency has been tasked in developing his commercial & PR opportunities over the coming months.

Matthew is currently competing in the Canary Wharf Squash Classic at East Wintergarden this week, an event in which the current world number three is bidding for a hat-trick of victories.

“I’m really excited to be joining Wasserman,” said Matthew. They have a superb client base and I’m looking forward to a long and successful partnership with them. I’m determined to help take Squash to the next level and believe that with the support I’ll get here they can help me to achieve my goals.”

Wasserman President Sam Rush added: “Nick is the best in the world at his chosen sport and we’re delighted to welcome him on board here at Wasserman. Squash is a sport with great potential and one that one day we hope to see in the Olympic Games. We have no doubt that Nick will prove a valuable asset to the company.”

Matthew joins the likes of Jack Wilshere, Steven Gerrard and Mark Cavendish as part of the Wasserman athlete representation division.

by Ismail Uddin

UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner has claimed the London’s Olympics Stadium will be used for athletics purposes after next years summer games for up to 99 years.

That means that West Ham United – or any other tenant at the Stadium, whether it is a football club or not – will have to comply with any major athletics event that takes place, with the running track guaranteed to remain for the duration of the 99-year lease period.

The news comes as a major boost for UK Athletics given the controversy surrounding the future of the Olympic Stadium beyond 2012, and also means that the use of the Stadium is guaranteed at any potential World Championships in 2017.

Warner said: “We have been able to communicate to all members of the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) Council that athletics will be guaranteed in the stadium for 99 years. London will have a global standard athletics facility in its heart for many generations to come.

“We also have a right to host a major competition every few years provided we give the landlord two years’ notice, and any football club will have to arrange to play away from home during those competitions.

“It allows us to completely close the circle, bring the World Championships into the Stadium – which will be a better stadium than is the case for 2012 – and for generations to come we will be in a position to bid for great events and for great athletes to come to London.”

FIFA is analysing documents related to the ownership of land that Worawi Makudi, FIFA executive committee member, says he signed over to the Thai FA.

The title deed documents are being examined by Chris Eaton, FIFA’s head of security.

In September, FIFA requested Makudi provided clarification after allegations he benefited from grants to build facilities on land he owned. Makudi denies the allegations.

Makudi has given documents to FIFA in his quest to clear his name

Thai president Makudi has continually denied using money from FIFA’s “Goal” development programme to build Thailand’s national football centre on the outskirts of Bangkok. He claims the land is owned by the Thai FA.

The land is in the Nong Jok district of Thailand, which is the location for the Thai national football centre that was opened in by Sepp Blatter in September 2009.

It was constructed using £542,000 of development money from the “Goal” project.

There is currently no ethics committee investigation regarding Makudi. It is possible FIFA will begin a formal inquiry if it is not convinced by the documents Makudi has handed over.

In May, Makudi was named in Parliament by former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman as one of four Ffia members who sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid. Fifa refuted Lord Triesman’s allegations.

A campaign named the ‘Big Splash’ has been launched by the BBC, British Gas, Kellogg’s and Speedo, aiming to encourage swimming in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

The project was launched yesterday, May 12, by Australian Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe and sport minister Hugh Robertson and will launch nationally over the coming weekend.

The UK’s national governing body British Swimming, will be working with the brands to encourage people to take up the sport, with brand work by Studio Output.

The BBC will include a special piece on children’s presenter Andy Akinwolere overcoming his fear of water and learning to swim – as well as a longer feature on the Great Salford Swim, to air on Sunday, with promotional pieces throughout the week.

BBC Sport director Barbara Slater said: “The Big Splash is part of the BBC’s commitment to the 2012 legacy, by working with British Swimming to make the nation healthier, safer, fitter and more active, ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“Throughout the year, the BBC will highlight swimming as an important life skill and gateway to a host of fun activities, through a range of well-known programmes across TV, radio and online.”

Figures suggest 20 per cent of adults are unable to swim, while 20 per cent of children leave primary school without being able to swim.

David Sparkes, British Swimming chief executive, said: “The Big Splash is part of our ongoing drive to increase the participation in swimming. It’s got fantastic health benefits and it saves lives.

“Working with the pools and the BBC, we expect to see many more people getting active as we move towards the greatest sporting event in the world, the Olympic Games, coming to London next year.”

IMG Worldwide has announced the arrival of Italian soccer personality Alessio Secco who will join the company in a consultancy role in the IMG Football Division in Italy.

Secco spent 13 years with the famed Serie A giant Juventus. In 1997 he took up the role as a press attaché before being named team manager in 2000 before being promoted to sports director in 2006. The Tourin born Secco resigned his position in June of this year.

“I am very pleased and proud to be an IMG consultant on the Italian Football market. It was not easy to decide about my professional future after 13 years working for Juventus Football Club, but the high professional level of people working for IMG and the great opportunity of exchanging experiences with them, led me to the choice to join IMG. I am sure that this collaboration will satisfy both parts,” said Secco.

Fernando Soler, Senior Vice President of IMG added: “We are very pleased to have a sports executive of Alessio Secco’s experience and professionalism working with us. Over his years with Juventus, Alessio has developed outstanding contacts within the football industry which we expect to be very helpful as we expand our business in Italy.”

US Formula One has been slapped with a hefty fine of 309,000 Euros after it failed to make its entry into the 2010 Formula One season.

The decision automatically disqualifies the country’s racing team from participating in any Federation Internationale de l’Automobile championship.

US F1 has intended to enter Formula One this season but shortly before the opening round it said it would not be ready in time. The FIA’s World Motor Sports Council (WMSC) held a hearing in Paris on June 24 to decide the team’s punishment.

The team claimed at the hearing they had no choice but to pull out. They said uncertainty about the signing of a new Concorde Agreement – the commercial agreement between F1 teams and the series management – and proposed budget-cap rules had hit their preparations.

They also said negative comments by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone about their chances of making the grid had deterred sponsors.

The FIA said the WMSC did not accept US F1’s arguments and “considered that the team, whilst well-intentioned, had displayed poor financial management and had underestimated the requirement to present an F1 car for the 2010 season in time and with the financial resources available to them.”