A new joint venture between two major sporting promoters marks the birth of a new talent managment company aimed at representing minority entertainers and celebrities.

IMG Worldwide, a premier sports, entertainment & media company has struck a deal with Butch Lewis Productions – names after the legendary boxing promoter and film and music producer. The JV is aimed at creating an entertainment powerhouse that gives global opportunities to promote and market minority talent in the areas of endorsements, licensing and programming.

Lewis said: ” The BLP/IMG partnership will be the one-two punch combination needed to become the undisputed champion within the industry”.

Entertainment magnate Robert L Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, current CEO of the RLJ companies and current IMG board member will be an integral part in driving the success of the company by lending his experience and knowledge to the partnership.

He added: “The BLP/IMG partnership creates a win-win situation and has the potential to be the most dominant and premier minority management and marketing company in the world.”

“Butch Lewis and RObert Johnson are experts in their respective businesses,” said Geroge Pyne, president of IMG’s Sports and Entertainment Group. “Their business acumen and outstanding track record in creating successful businesses will serve our new initiative very well. We are looking forward to working with them”.

Sandy Montag, IMG senior corporate vice-president and head of IMG’s client Division, added: “We are incredibly excited to partner with these two renowned business men. Butch and Robert have both created great entertainment brands and are leaders in the world of entertainment. Over the years they have dealt with some of the great legends in boxing, music and Hollywood and we look forward to creating this new business with them.”

BLP will staff and manage the day-to-day operations utilising its extensive relationships and contacts in the world of sports, entertainment and media to introduce potential clients to the venture. IMG will staff and manage the overall sales & marketing efforts for the company. The new limited Liability Company will be headquartered in New York. The business will be co-managed by Lewis and Montag.

The Boston Red Sox have announced the appointment of Brett Miller as the first member of the club’s inaugural Rotational Business Initiative (RBI).

The Red Sox and Monster announced their collaboration and search for a candidate in July, prostate and through Monster.com and its Cool Jobs program, herbal screened thousands of applicants for the new position.

In his role, for sale Miller will assist various departments within the Red Sox organization, including Ballpark Operations, Marketing, Fan Services & Entertainment, and Premium & Group Sales.

A graduate of Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia, Miller received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and was a member of the school’s Division I wrestling team. He also served as an Athletic Operations intern at ODU and is a member of the school’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SACC).

“Boston is the epicenter of all things sports and I am excited to be working in this great city and to be part of the Red Sox organization,” said Miller. “I believe this opportunity will bring together my passion for sports and my business background. The Rotational Business Initiative will allow me to experience a number of different areas that support the daily operations of the franchise.”

Miller will begin his new role at the Red Sox on Wednesday, November 13. He will be introduced to fans during a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park during the 2014 season.

“With more than 55,000 applicants for this role, Monster was instrumental in navigating the pool of applicants and helping with evaluations,” said Red Sox Senior Vice President/Corporate Sponsorships Troup Parkinson. “We look forward to working with Brett, and thank Monster for their help finding the right candidate for this position.”

The Pan American Sports Organization named La Punta, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; and Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela as the four cities that submitted bids for the 2019 Pan Am Games.

Each city is vying for their first Pan Am hosting duties, though Venezuela and Argentina have each hosted the event before. Santiago was set to host the 1993 winter Pan American Games, but the Games was canceled when the United States threatened to withdraw over a small slate of events. 

The Pan American Games have decreased in value over the past 30 years, as the United States and Canada have shied away from sending their best swimmers to the meet. 

Water polo is the one sport that consistently feature top-flight competition at the Pan American Games, since the continental representatives for the Olympics are chosen there, as they were in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011. 

Santiago and Lima appear to have the edge over La Punta and Puerto Ordaz in that they are their country’s capital cities, meaning travel to and around those cities will be easier, and resources for constructing venues will be easier to obtain.

The Games have been held in Central and South America 12 of 17 times, with the United States last hosting the event in 1987 in Indianapolis. Canada is set to host the event for the third time in Toronto in the next iteration of the Pan American Games in July 2015. That event will likely not feature the top aquatic sports stars, as the FINA world championships in Russia will start in the middle of the Pan American Games festivities.

Sebastian Coe, London 2012 chairman has vowed to fill seats with troops and students following reports of empty seats at a few Olympic venues.

Gaps were visible at a number of venues today and yesterday, including the Aquatics Centre, gymnastics and beach volleyball – other venues such as rowing, boxing, shooting and handball were full.

Coe said students, teachers and troops had been given some of the empty seats, most of which had been “accredited seats” reserved for teams, federations and Olympic officials.

Coe said: “I don’t want to see swathes of seats empty and will make sure we can do everything we can to fill them.

“For example we looked at gymnastics today and could see empty seats in the accredited area so were able to move some troops so they were sitting there this morning enjoying the gymnastics.

“But let’s put this into perspective – those venues are stuffed to the gunwales.”

Coe added: “We can clearly sell more tickets, which we did yesterday. We sold something like 1,000 tickets over three sessions.

“The other thing is we can tactically upgrade and move people.”

Asked about how other tickets would be recycled to others in the Olympic Park, he said: “It’s very much on the Wimbledon format. It sensibly takes place in our park venues, where we’ve got classically the double headers, in sports like hockey, basketball water polo, handball.

“On handball yesterday, we recycled just under 300 tickets, about 283 tickets, and they went out to adults at £5 and children at £1.

“Those numbers will increase over the course of the Games.

“It’s sensible. People who classically have gone to see one specific team, but the ticket covers them for the next session, and they leave to go to do something else.”

IOC communications director Mark Adams insisted that sponsors were not to blame for the problems.

He said: “It’s completely wrong to say this is a sponsors issue. It’s a whole range of people – federations, athletes, some media, a handful of people, largely speaking the sponsors are in other areas.

“A majority of sponsors have turned up.”

Discuss the empty seats and ticketing system here

Transport for London (TfL) have confirmed today that they plan to deliver Wi-Fi internet access for tube commuters in time for the Olympics Games being held in the city, although access will be limited to the 120 Underground station platforms.

Commuters will be able to go online and check emails and breaking news from their smart phones or laptops as they travel possibly by this July.

The original plan was abandoned last year after funding issues and technical obstacles prevented the installation of the system.

Gareth Powell, TfL’s director of strategy and service development, told the Metro: “London Underground is continuing with preparations to install the necessary infrastructure and is on schedule to complete the project as planned.”

“An announcement of the chosen service provider will be made in early spring leaving plenty of time for this to be delivered to customers in time for the 2012 Games.”

It is unclear if commuters will be charged extra for the service and unfortunately the wireless internet service will not extend to the train carriages themselves.

FIFA have admitted that Amadou Diallo, the go-between accused of brokering bribes on behalf of Qatar’s successful 2022 World Cup bid worked for the organisation and was responsible to Mohamed Bin Hammam.

The presidential candidate hoping to dethrone current incumbent Sepp Blatter has confirmed that Diallo is a close friend but remained adamant that the accused official from Equatorial Guinea had done nothing untoward.

Diallo was named in allegations published by British Parliamentarians on information received from newspaper The Sunday Times as the middle man in the scandal that allegedly saw FIFA Executive Committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma receive backhanders for voting for Qatar. 

It is understood Diallo is currently a member of Bin Hammam’s campaign team in the run-up to the FIFA Presidential election on June 1.

A FIFA spokesman told insideworldfootball that Diallo, who left the organisation in 2007, was paid during his six years there as a “travelling freelance” involved in the GOAL project that provides funds and equipment for developing football in poorer countries.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Bin Hammam happens to be head of the GOAL bureau but it is not known how closely he worked with Diallo when the latter was employed by FIFA.

The Qatari told the Press Association: “I will not deny this friendship, he is a close friend of mine, but I am sure that he has done nothing wrong.

“I will meet up with him from time to time and he will travel with me here and there, but he is not playing any part in the decisions I take.

“If you know the role he plays you will laugh at these allegations. 

“He’s simply a friend of mine and he has nothing to do with Qatar or anyone.”

DiBenedetto said the first priority would be “to balance the books, to bring the club back into financial fair play given that we’re presently outside” before confirming that he would like to relocate the club from the Stadio Olimpico, which was built for the 1960 Olympics in the city.

He added: “We need a new and different stadium – an English-style stadium that motivates the players. Roma doesn’t have the adapted structure. Olimpico doesn’t do justice to the passion of the fans, the seats are too far from the pitch and the atmosphere is lost.”

As part of his long-term aspirations, DiBenedetto added that he wanted “a club that knows how to get the best out of new technology and communication and the social media, to reach every corner of the globe, which will enable us to sell our merchandising better and to increase our revenues to buy the best players.”

Italpetroli – the Sensi family holding company that owns Roma and was taken over by UniCredit last year – confirmed in December that it was considering a number of non-binding offers for the club.

Gerry Ryan has been appointed the new president of Cycling Australia (CA) in a pivotal period for the governing body.

The owner of professional team Orica-GreenEDGE replaces Klaus Mueller, who stepped down in August after three and a half years at the helm.

“I look forward to helping CA move forward in a more commercially viable manner,” said Ryan.

CA also announced the appointment of former senior AFL administrator Adrian Anderson as interim chief executive, replacing Graham Fredericks.

Australian Sports Commission (ASC) chairman John Wylie was understood to have played a key role in convincing Ryan – the founder of caravan manufacturer Jayco – to accept the CA presidency.

“It is fitting and most welcome that a person so well respected by corporate Australia takes on the presidency of Cycling Australia at this critical time of major reform for the sport,” Wylie said in a statement.

CA was the subject of an inquiry into its anti-doping processes last year, following the departure of vice-president Stephen Hodge and road program coordinator Matt White.

Hodge and White both admitted to using illegal drugs during their racing careers.

White was later reinstated as GreenEDGE’s sports director after serving a six-month ban.

The ASC also criticised CA’s governance, threatening to withhold 20 per cent of its government funding unless improvements were made.

The ASC demanded that CA, BMX Australia and Mountain Bike Australia merge into one governing body.

“There is certainly restructuring required to tighten processes and reduce the inefficient duplication of resources,” said Ryan.

“I look forward to working closely with Adrian over the coming months to create a collaborative environment that continues to deliver champion riders across the four disciplines, but does so in a manner that is underpinned by sound business principles.”

In addition to his ownership of GreenEDGE, Ryan has helped fund the Australian Institute of Sport’s cycling program and sponsored other races such as the Tour Down Under, the Herald Sun Tour and the Bay Classic criterium series.

Ryan’s appointment was also welcomed by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.

“Gerry has made a tremendous contribution to the sport for over two decades,” he said.

“He has supported individual riders including Kathy Watt when she won gold in 1992 and he has sponsored cycling tours, cycling programs and, more recently, he formed the GreenEDGE team.

“He is committed to the sport and his drive and passion in the role of CA president will be of great benefit to cyclists at all levels.”

Anderson will fill the interim CEO’s role until a permanent appointment is made in February.

“I look forward to progressing governance reform and working towards establishing a stable financial platform from which to grow the sport,” said Anderson.

“I also look forward to strengthening public faith in the integrity of Australian cycling by continuing to implement reforms from the Wood Review in a transparent manner.”