The Portland Trail Blazers have continued to look to boost ticket sales after last season’s “Deal of the Week” promotion soared more than 210 percent following a revamped Twitter, clinic Facebook and email campaign powered by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget.

Using ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub and its SocialEngage and Email applications, anesthetist the Trail Blazers centralized its interactive marketing campaigns, analytics and reporting, giving its marketing team new insights to offer more relevant promotions and improve real-time engagement with fans.

“Before ExactTarget, we were less connected to what we were doing on social media and email,” said Caitlin Leonard, interactive manager for the Portland Trail Blazers. “ExactTarget has enabled us to effectively engage fans and followers and unified our communication, sales and service to improve our customer experience.”

During the season, the Trail Blazers sent weekly emails featuring ticket offers and information alongside a Facebook campaign that encouraged fans to subscribe to their email for exclusive “Deal of the Week” ticket promotions. Managing engagement and offers across the multiple platforms caused difficulty engaging fans, said Leonard– something the team remedied with ExactTarget’s suite of integrated applications.

Last year the team saw their Twitter following double to over 80,000 and reached over 386,000 fans on Facebook.

“By integrating the power of social media with other interactive channels, brands can create cross-channel opportunities for fans to interact whenever and wherever they like,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “Now more than ever, social engagement is driving real business results – from generating leads to improving customer satisfaction and driving website traffic.”

Spain’s first Soccer strike in almost three decades is the perfect chance to reform the administration of sport according to a industry finance expert.

Friday’s showdown talks between the Spanish Football League (LFP) and Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) failed to prevent the weekend’s opening round of matches of the top two divisions falling victim to the strike. Talks are now ongoing to avoid cancellation of this weekend’s matches with the Spanish calendar faced with the challenge of rescheduling the games. Domestic action cannot be extended past the current end date of May 13 due to the time allocated to national teams to prepare for UEFA Euro 2012 which a delay in fixtures might end shortening the season.

The AFE is expecting greater protection for players’ wages at clubs that have gone into administration. The union is demanding that an emergency fund is established with around $72 million owed to 200 footballers from the end of last season. The AFE believes the League’s proposed $57.6 million fund is not enough to cover a growing problem, with an increasing number of debt-laden clubs seeking protection from creditors by going into administration.

Racing Santander last month became the latest club to seek protection from creditors, joining fellow La Liga clubs Real Mallorca and Real Zaragoza as well as all three teams promoted to the first division at the end of last season – Real Betis, Rayo Vallecano and Granada – in administration.

Jose Maria Gay, an accounts professor at Barcelona University, believes the current impasse is shaking La Liga’s reputation as one of the world’s top leagues. He told Reuters:  “We have the best football in the world, but it is run very badly. The league has failed to control the situation with the clubs. Winning Euro 2008 and the World Cup earned Spain a great deal of goodwill, it helped open doors for us. But a strike because we can’t pay our players will generate a lack of confidence in Spain as a whole. It would be a good time to use the situation to restructure Spanish football. It can’t carry on as it is. They need to get out of the clouds and back down to earth.”

World Sport Group have agreed to represent Australian golfer David Gleeson.

The former Australian amateur champion and winner of the Eisenhower Trophy joins a list of top golfers including India’s Arjun Atwal and Shiv Kapur, ed Daniel Chopra from Sweden, Malaysian Danny Chia, Australia’s Marcus Both, Filipinos Gerald and Jennifer Rosales and Dutchman Guido Van Der Valk who are represented by the firm.

World Sport Group, founded in 1992, are one of Asia’s top agencies, covering a variety of sports.

The illegal betting scandal surrounding the world of sumo wrestling has now led to the firing of wrestler Kotomitsuki and his stable master, Otake, for their involvement in illegal baseball gambling.

The Japanese Sumo Association took the decision yesterday afternoon at an emergency meeting after it was found Kotomitsuki had gambled on professional baseball, with money allegedly a source of funding for mobsters.

Kotomitsuki is one of the most famous wrestlers in sumo, and he was promoted to the champion rank of ‘ozeki’ in 2007.

The sport has already suffered from the scandal, with companies Fuji Xerox and Nagatanien withdrawing their sponsorship of a tournament due to be held this month.

Even the broadcaster NHK is considering cancelling its coverage of the sixth-annual sumo tournament that it has been showing since 1953 unless the association can sufficiently deal with the scandal.

Around 65 members of the sport have admitted to illegal gambling on baseball, mahjong and card games.

Bath Rugby Club has appointed Sir Ian McGeechan as their new Performance Director on a two-year contract.

McGeechan is hugely experienced having been head coach on four British and Irish Lions Tours, prostate and was in charge of Scotland, link Northampton, ed and, most recently, Wasps.

Bath Chairman Bruce Craig said: “He will enhance a well established and successful coaching team and work with head coach Steve Meehan. Ian will become an integral part of our management set-up.

“His contribution to rugby union is unrivalled and he has been at the forefront of rugby development for many years now.”

McGeechan added: “Bath have a very clear vision for the future development of the club and have made a clear statement of intent with the new headquarters at Farleigh House.

“I am delighted to become part of a club that is developing the infrastructure on and off the pitch to achieve long-term success and become one of the strongest clubs in Europe.”

Lord Howard has resigned from his role as chairman of the Arena Racing Company.

The Arena Racing Company owns and operates 15 racecourses in Great Britain, adiposity accounting for 39% of British racing fixtures

Tony Kelly, discount managing director of ARC, store said: “We are sad to lose Lord Howard as our chairman but I understand that his decision is not related to the business or policies of ARC.

“The board of ARC wish Lord Howard well in his future endeavours and thank him for his invaluable input into the company over the past six years.”

Tension is reportedly between the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reportedly growing with the IOA objecting to the ‘dictate’ from the IOC that it should hold its election due next month under the supervision of the world body.

The IOC had written two letters- on August 16 and September 11- that said the election process of the IOA would have to be held in strict compliance with the Olympic Charter and under the supervision of the IOC and Olympic Council of Asia.

IOA Acting President, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, reportedly wrote to IOC Chairman, Jacques Rogge, stating that the international body’s decision to supervise its election was not acceptable. Malhotra asked whether elections of other NOCs were also monitored.{jcomments on}

Array Networks Inc., pilule a global leader in application, medic desktop and cloud service delivery, ailment today announced that the New Orleans Hornets have deployed Array’s DesktopDirect remote desktop appliance solution in their headquarters office.

The NBA team uses the Array solution to enable agents, scouts, sales personnel and other field staff to lighten their load by moving to tablets while at the same time having access to information and applications needed for their jobs.

The Hornets chose DesktopDirect to make employees productive on iPads from any location. Because employees work long hours and often on nights and weekends due to games and other events, they need a solution that is highly portable and can be used anywhere at any time.

In addition to enhancing employee productivity, the Hornets chose Array’s remote desktop appliance to avoid the security risks of traditional VPNs and the cost of purchasing and managing laptops and security hardware and software. Using DesktopDirect, access to office resources such as physical desktops, virtual desktops and terminal services can be enabled from any smart phone or tablet without the risk of data leaving the corporate network or residing on mobile devices.

“Our employees have definitely been wowed by the DesktopDirect solution and love it for the simple reasons that it allows them to get out of the office, and because they can finally use their iPads for business,” said Tod Caflisch, vice president of IT for the New Orleans Hornets. “It’s a really great solution that gives the team the best of both worlds – security and productivity. It also gives me the flexibility of mobilizing terminal server and virtualized applications as the economics of these solutions improve in the coming years.”

“We are proud to enable secure remote access and mobility for an exciting franchise such as the New Orleans Hornets,” said Lior Rapaport, vice president of Mobility for Array Networks. “With so many employees on the road, in so many different capacities, the Hornets are a fantastic example of the capability and the value of our DesktopDirect solution. I look forward to maintaining our partnership, solving future mobility challenges and leveraging DesktopDirect to create event greater value for the Hornets organization.”

British building firm AECOM has won the international competition to design the masterplan for the Rio 2016 Olympic Park, picking up the $62,000 prize money. 

The London-based building design and management company was named as the winner at a special ceremony in Rio on the site of where the Olympic Park will be located, infront of a high profile delegation, which included Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman, Mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes and Brazil’s Sports Minister Orlando Silva.

There were 60 entries in the competition from firms in 18 countries, with a final decision made by a panel that consisted of seven representatives from Rio City Hall, the International Union of Architects, Brazil’s Architects Institute, the Rio 2016 Organising Committee and the Federal Government.

AECOM will be working on their second successive Olympic Park masterplan after the firm designed the masterplan for the London 2012 Olympic Park.

Bill Hanway, AECOM’s managing director for the UK, said:”We are delighted and honoured to win this appointment and have the opportunity to work on Rio 2016.This is a fantastic city in a fantastic country and we know the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016 will be a tremendous success.”

The masterplan outlines how the Olympic Park area will be used, as well as where the public spaces, squares and parks will be located.

It also outlines the location of the permanent and temporary venues and the future real estate developments to be built at the site.

Detailed planning will now be carried out over the next months by AECOM in conjunction with the parties involved in the park construction.

“This is yet another step taken towards building the Rio 2016 Games legacy,” said Nuzman.

“The Olympic Park legacy for Brazilian sports will be a training centre modelled after the successful experiences of the world’s greatest sporting powers.”

Design projects for each one of the temporary and permanent sporting venues to be built in the Park will be chosen through competitions while there will be a separate competition to design the new golf course to be built in the city for the Olympic Games when the sport make its debut at the event.