Sportswear manufacturers in China that are loaded with unsold stock from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and now battling weak domestic demand are using the London Games to market their products.

Athletes from 10 teams, as well as members of several Olympic committees, are wearing Chinese companies’ sponsored clothing.

Peak Sport Products is the sponsor of uniforms and shoes for the Opening and Closing Ceremony for the Olympics squads of New Zealand, Iraq, Slovenia, Algeria, Jordon, Lebanon and Cyprus.

Peak Sports Products founder and Chairman, Xu Jingnan said: “The domestic market is full of uncertainties this year, but the overseas market offers better opportunities.”

361 Degrees agreed deals with several Olympic committees, including Belarus’s and Croatia’s.

The Erke Group is the sponsor for the Olympic national delegates of South Africa, Iran and Uzbekistan.

361 Degrees VP Zhu Chenye said that no clothing manufacturer “would consider missing the exposure offered by the Olympics – no matter how high the sponsorship cost. The teams and athletes you sponsor this year will be very likely to decide what partners you are going to work with at the next Olympic Games.”{jcomments on}

Wie das Magazin „Sponsors“ berichtet, cialis startet der FC Bayern München in rund einer Woche sein eigenes soziales Netzwerk. Über die Plattform „myfcb.de“ können sich die Fans des deutschen Rekordmeisters ab dem 28. März austauschen. Hinter dem Projekt stehen auch monetäre Absichten.

Das Netzwerk verfügt über Features, die auch Facebook bietet. So können die Mitglieder Freunde einladen, Freundeslisten zusammenstellen, chatten sowie Bilder und Videos hochladen. Ergänzt wird das Angebot durch Online-Games und die Möglichkeit für Fan-Clubs, ihre eigenen Webseiten auf der Plattform zu erstellen. Der Fan-Shop des FC Bayern ist ebenso wie das Bezahlangebot FCB-TV an die neue Plattform angebunden.

In Anlehnung an den „Like-Button“ von Facebook, heißt diese Funktion bei myfcb „Guad“. Anders als bei Facebook wird es auch den Button „Net Guad“ geben, um Kritik beziehungsweise Ablehnung zuzulassen. Für den technischen Betrieb und die Entwicklung des Designs wurde die Agentur Apareo beauftragt.

Dass auch monetäre Absichten hinter dem Projekt stehen, ist kaum von der Hand zu weisen. Ähnlich wie Facebook wird auch der FC Bayern Nutzerdaten sammeln und versuchen, seine Fans zu dechiffrieren. Im Stadion sind die Anhänger in der anonymen Masse kaum zu identifizieren.

Auf der Website gibt er dagegen selbst Daten preis: Zwar muss nicht der echte Name angegeben werden, doch tun dies trotzdem viele Fans. Daneben geben sie die E-Mail-Adresse, vielleicht auch Geschlecht sowie Beruf an, und ob sie lieber auf der Gegengeraden sitzt oder auf der Südtribüne steht. Diese Informationen wird der Verein nutzen, um zielgerichtet zu werben.

UEFA president Michel Platini has admitted concern that representatives of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will walk out of the FIFA Congress tomorrow, June 1, as a show of disapproval over the temporary suspension of AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam.

The Qatari was barred from all soccer activity by the FIFA ethics committee on Sunday, May 29, over allegations of colluding at bribery in the presidential election race to challenge incumbent president Sepp Blatter. China’s Zhang Jilong has taken over as acting leader of the AFC.

Frenchman Platini,who is also a vice-president of FIFA, had warned his own members at a private UEFA meeting on Monday, May 30, of the chance of an Asian walkout after a similar demonstration of discontent by the Asians took place at the 1999 Congress in a row over the number of places allocated to the AFC at the World Cup finals.

Platini said: “In 1999 Asia left, I don’t know if they will do that again. I think the election will go ahead but I don’t know.”

The AFC had been due to hold its own private meeting today, May 31, which was cancelled on the grounds that the only agenda item had been address by Bin Hammam.

The AFC issued a short statement late Monday, confirming Zhang Jilong’s interim role and saying: “We, the members of the AFC executive committee, express our deepest concern at the latest developments within FIFA and that involves the AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam.

“We will be following the investigation as it takes its course. We hope the outcome of the investigation will be in the best interests of football in Asia and beyond . . . The AFC will continue its work in promoting and further developing Asian football in the spirit of Asian unity and solidarity.”

National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that the league is prepared to make a financial contribution towards a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings after a section of the roof collapsed under heavy snow at its Metrodome arena in December.

Speaking after a meeting on Tuesday, May 17, with Governor Mark Dayton and supporters of the proposed new Vikings stadium, Goodell confirmed that efforts to build the facility are securing the team’s future in the state.

Goodell told the Associated Press: “I think the commitment here is to get something done and I think that will ensure the success of the Vikings.”

The NFL commissioner met with Dayton, legislators sponsoring the stadium bill and state Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel to talk about the team’s partnership with Ramsey County to build a US$1.1bn stadium in suburban Arden Hills. As part of its deal with Ramsey County, the Vikings pledged to pay $407m towards stadium construction, about 39 per cent of the total project cost.

Related road improvement projects surrounding the stadium are yet to be clarified, although Sen. Julie Rosen and Rep. Morrie Lanning, the chief legislative sponsors, have insisted public funding will not exceed the designated $300m for the entire development.

Lanning added: “We still have work to do in terms of pinning down what are the transportation needs over and above what’s already planned. That is the most important issue.”

Peter Wraith, the ex-Sportsbrand Media Group chief executive has joined forces with the organisation’s former marketing director Matt Whytcross to start a new company called Inverleigh Media Holdings.

Inverleigh is a market company that will be involved in the development, production and international distribution of programming for a range of media platforms. Wraith and Whytcross will act as partners in the new venture.

Wraith said: “This is in many ways a natural extension of the effective management partnership that has existed between Matt and I for over 11 years. We are aware of the likely comparisons to our former company, but I think it will be clear in a short time frame that Inverleigh is a very different animal in terms of its ambition, product offering and operational direction.”

Inverleigh will initially have offices in London and Melbourne, with each of the partners working in one of the locations.

Wraith added: “We’ve successfully worked together this way for a number of years and as our business is essentially international, there are definite advantages in us operating from different locations, particularly in terms of servicing an international client base.”

BBC have announced viewing figures for London 2012 are hitting record highs with Mo Farah’s triumphant win seeing the biggest figures.

The number of BBC viewers tuning in to watch London 2012 has surpassed those recorded for Beijing 2008 with Mo Farah’s 10,000 metre triumph drawing the largest audience of the Olympics so far.

The Briton’s race to glory pulled in a peak audience of 17.1 million at 9.45pm on Saturday night across BBC One and BBC Olympics broadcasts.

The second most watched event was the climax of the heptathlon won by the unofficial face of London 2012 Jessica Ennis, drawing in 16.3 million viewers three quarters of an hour earlier at 9pm.

Watched by 15.6 million viewers, Britain’s Greg Rutherford’s gold medal winning long jump was the third most highly watched achievement of the Games via the BBC One and BBC Olympics platforms.

Danny Boyle’s London 2012 Opening Ceremony also proved to be a winner, attracting an unprecedented average audience of 22.4 million with a five-minute peak of 26.9 million and 15 minute peak of 26.7 million.

Four years’ earlier, the Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony attracted far fewer numbers when the BBC audience averaged just 5.1 million with a five-minute peak of 5.9 million and 15 minute peak of 5.4 million.

United Data Technologies (UDT) announced their completion of the installation of the enterprise data network for the new $515 million ballpark for Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins franchise.

The future home of the Marlins will be a first-class baseball stadium, constructed on approximately 17 acres of the historic Orange Bowl site. The ballpark has a retractable roof, a natural grass playing field and 37,000 seats.

“We were honored to be entrusted to oversee technology needs for the Miami Marlins’ new facility and team headquarters,” said Gerard Amaro, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We saw this as a platform to showcase our expertise and client-focused solution set. Client opportunities of this scale and magnitude are uncommon, so it was important we selected solutions befitting this world-class project.”

UDT was selected over numerous vendors and manufacturers competing to provide the 37,000-seat ballpark’s new core enterprise data network infrastructure and uninterrupted power supply solutions. The core infrastructure supports all aspects of the ballpark, from the elevator to point-of-sale to the scoreboards.

“We are proud to have partnered with United Data Technologies,” said Claude Delorme, Marlins EVP of Operations and Events. “Marlins Park is a state-of-the-art ballpark like no other and we recruit only the best. UDT will manage our technology needs and we are confident they will excel at the task.”

UDT delivered a highly available core enterprise network on time and on budget. “We made sure we were flexible in our implementation approach to ensure we met all timelines and deadlines,” said Jesus Peña, UDT’s Vice President of Sales for Florida and the Caribbean. “Our team understood the complexity and how critical it was to have the core network available on time.”