The San Francisco 49ers signed General Manager Trent Baalke to a three-year contract extension through the 2016 season and promoted Gideon Yu to president and co-owner, generic the team said.

Baalke took over in January 2011 as general manager for the 49ers, arthritis who reached the National Football Conference’s championship game this season. He is in his eighth year with the team.

“Trent has distinguished himself as the man to direct our football operations for years to come,” CEO Jed York said in a team release.

Baalke thanked York and the York family, adding, “In addition, I would like to thank Coach Harbaugh, as well as our coaches, players, scouts, and entire football operations staff for their hard work and dedication this season. The success we experienced on the field was a direct result of their efforts. It is a privilege to work for the 49ers organization, alongside this group, as we continue our pursuit of championships.”

Yu was a general partner at Khosla Ventures, a venture capital company based in Menlo Park, California, until joining the 49ers as chief strategy officer last April.

Yu, previously chief financial officer at Facebook Inc. and YouTube LLC, has focused in the past year on securing funding for the 49ers’ proposed new $1 billion stadium in Santa Clara,California.

“He’s both a visionary and the ‘go-to’ guy who can lead us through the enormous opportunities ahead, such as the stadium construction, expansion of our brand and its businesses and positioning the franchise for the future,” York said in a team release.

The 49ers did not say how much of an ownership stake Yu will have in the team.

Yu will be responsible for all business operations. He and Baalke, who will lead the team’s football operations, both will report to York, the team said in its release.

by Ismail Uddin

sale helvetica, adiposity sans-serif;”>Held at the Royal Garden Hotel in London, the World Cricket Business Forum’s first day was a great success. The Forum brought together over 150 cricket business professionals from 5 different continents.

The conference kicked off with opening speeches from Haroon Lorgat, CEO of the International Cricket Council and David Collier, CEO of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The opening panel session focused on strategies for differentiating the three formats of the game, which proved an upbeat assessment of the current health of cricket and its prospects for growth.

The interactive panel was followed by an on-stage interview with South Africa star Hashim Amla, led by Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director from SportBusiness.  Hashim Amla affirmed this positive outlook for the game.  Experts including Sanjay Manjrekar, James Sutherland and Ed Smith all contributed innovative and fresh ideas on shaping the future of the sport.

Outside of the Forum programme, delegates were networking and holding various side meetings in the coffee and refreshment area.

The first day was wrapped up with a cocktail drinks reception where delegates could mingle and network with the exceptional gathering of top cricket industry professionals.

Day two will see presentations from sports outside of the industry, including one from Dan Markham of the NBA. The day will also cover effective sponsorship strategies, a session on maintaining the integrity and spirit of cricket, capitalising on broadcasting through multiple platforms and maximising the exposure of cricket through digital and social media.  The Forum will close with a keynote speech from legendary Australian All Rounder Alan Davidson.

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is in line to invest in Rangers, according to the newco’s chief executive, Charles Green.

Ashley is one of the potential investors interested in buying a stake in the club, who kick off life in the Scottish Third Division on Saturday.

Asked by Sky Sports News whether the Sports Direct magnate would invest, Green replied: “Hopefully, yes.” However, he declined to give any details of the other two potential investors.

He explained that “talks are ongoing at the minute, so it would be premature to name them” and stressed that he would not expect Ashley to put huge sums of money into the Ibrox club.

“I don’t think Mike needs to throw [money at the club] – that’s not the model that I think is sustainable for any football club and not Rangers,” he said. “What Mike will do, subject to all the agreements going through, is bring the might of Sports Direct – and that in itself, in my mind, will bring £5-10 million a year from merchandising revenues back into the club.

“That is far, far more worthwhile than Mike individually signing a cheque, because that’s not the right way to run football clubs. It’s about sustainability, it’s about continuing revenues, it’s about brand awareness. It’s about developing the brand and doing it worldwide.”

Rangers manager Ally McCoist welcomed Ashley’s possible involvement at Ibrox and said: “The one thing about Mike Ashley you would say right away is that he looks a very astute and clever businessman.

“You could argue there’s not too many of them involved in football, but he certainly ticks the box.”

McCoist added that if Ashley could “bring his expertise and some of his wealth with him to support and push the club forward, I’m absolutely delighted with that”.

UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner has today been named as the Chairman of the London 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships Organising Committee.

Warner, who led the successful bid to host the event in London has been appointed by the DCMS and Mayor of London’s office.

As Chair of London 2017, Warner will now submit a proposed corporate structure and governance framework to the IAAF for approval and will work with both the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and Mayor Boris Johnson to appoint the remainder of the board.

Warner said: “I am absolutely thrilled to have been appointed as Chairman of the London 2017 LOC and have the opportunity to fulfil the promises we made in the bid. From the very start London 2017 has been a partnership between UKA, DCMS, the Mayor’s Office and UK Sport and I look forward to continuing that collaboration as we move into event delivery mode.”

“Our next step is to appoint a vice-chairman and the remainder of the board. In the short term UKA will be undertaking the work of the LOC until we need to increase the size of the operation to deliver the Championships.”

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said: ““The appointment of Ed Warner to chair the Organising Committee builds on the great work done by him and UK Athletics to win the bid. The challenge now will be to build on the momentum that London 2012 gives us to deliver a fantastic World Athletics Championships in 2017.”

Mayor of London Boris Johnson added: “Ed is a Londoner and I know he will lead the committee to ensure an outstanding World Athletics Championships is staged here in the capital and continue London’s great tradition of hosting the world’s biggest events.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of UK Sport, the agency responsible for the significant investment of National Lottery funds into the event commented: “Ed will do a fantastic job of leading the LOC that will stage the London 2017 World Athletics Championships. He has already shown the vision and leadership necessary to stage this event, which will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase our talented athletes, and the team here at UK Sport is looking forward to working with him to continue the momentum we have now built for hosting world class events in this country.”

Recently, Ed Warner was confirmed as a panellist for the iSportconnect Directors’ Club event on 21 February, joining Sir Craig Reedie, Sally Hancock, Paul Vaughan and Nic Coward for a special ‘question time’ session. 

by Ismail Uddin

Read Warner’s exclusive feature profile on iSportconnect here

anabolics helvetica, cheap ed sans-serif;”>Twitter joins Manchester City, order ESPN, BBC, Perform, EA and Turner whilst Nivea join Nokia, GE, Orange, NFL, Carlsberg and UniCredit at Digital and Sponsorship gathering.

The 5th and 6th October will see the biggest ever gathering of Director-level digital and sponsorship experts in sport at the Leaders Sports Summit at Chelsea FC which will be sold out within the next few days.

On 5th October at Leaders in Sponsorship, Andy Rawle, Marketing Head at Nivea becomes the latest speaker to be announced joining Daniele Penna, Head of Group Sport Sponsoring, UniCredit; Chris Katsuleres, Director, Olympic Marketing, GE; Chris Parsons, VP of International, NFL; Billy Wright, Global Sponsorship Director, Nokia; Paddy Power, Communications Director, Paddy Power; Mario Rauter, Head of Euro 2012 Project, Global Brand Team, Orange and Keld Strudahl, Marketing Director; Carlsberg amongst others.

On 6th October at Leaders in Digital Sport, Jessica Verrilli from world renowned social media giant, Twitter, has just been confirmed alongside other leaders including Ralph Rivera, Director of Future Media, BBC; Phil Sharpe, Senior VP New Media & Strategy, Turner Broadcasting; Tom Gleeson, VP of International Digital Media, ESPN; Stephen Norris, Director of Strategy, BT; Richard Ayres, Director of Digital Media, Manchester City FC; Simon Denyer, Joint CEO, Perform Group; Roy Meredith, VP Strategy, Square Enix and Andrew Wilson, Senior VP of Worldwide Development, EA Sports.

Leaders in Digital Sport and Leaders in Sponsorship take place within the Leaders Sports Summit, a coming together of 5 leading conferences including Football, Performance and the business of Horse Racing, over 5th and 6th October at Chelsea FC.  For more information visit www.leadersinevents.com, contactenquiry@leadersinevents.com or call +44 (0) 207 042 8666.

IMG Media, find a division of IMG Worldwide, stuff the global sports, fashion and media company, has signed a long-term partnership with the Alpari World Match Racing Tour to increase global viewing of the leading professional sailing series.

The engagement will see IMG Media distribute a series of highlights programs from each event, as well as a daily video news release (VNR) to all forms of media, including digital, throughout the series which begins with the first event in Langenargen, Germany, from May 15-20.

Sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) with ‘Special Event’ status, the series awards more than U.S. $1.5 million in prize money with points awarded at each event culminating in the crowning of the “ISAF Match Racing World Champion.”  The prize fund includes a U.S. $500,000 overall Tour Bonus for the top teams in the Championship.

James Pleasance, Executive Director of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour, commented: “This is a very exciting partnership for us. IMG is a global player in television programming and has a solid track record in distributing some of the best known sporting events all over the world. The Tour is a growing series and to have the expertise and resource of IMG behind us will be a great asset for us.”

Melissa Payne, Director of Event Coordination IMG Media, said, “Match racing is fast, competitive and highly strategic with in-shore racing engaging and exciting sailing fans of all ages. The Alpari World Match Racing Tour is ideally suited to all forms of media and we are confident with our expertise and worldwide network that we will be able to increase exposure and drive awareness of the Tour and its events globally.”

Manchester United have reduced the value of its stock market flotation, valuing the club at only $2.3bn and shaving as much as $100m from the anticipated proceeds for the team and its owners.

The club said its shares priced at $14 apiece, below the $16-$20 per share range it had in mind.

At the high end of the range, the team would have been valued at $3.3bn.

Manchester United priced 16.7 million shares, as planned, and raised $233.2m – which will be split equally between the club and its owners, the Florida-based Glazer family.

The loss of as much as $100m in proceeds for the club will be a blow as it copes with a heavy debt burden and seeks to buy expensive new players.

While the deal still makes it the largest sports team flotation on record, the valuation is a setback for the 134-year-old club, which had to abort plans for an offering in Singapore and then saw Morgan Stanley leave the underwriting syndicate, partly due to disagreements over valuation.

The Glazers, whose interests include shopping centres and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team, will also take in less money from the share sale, but the deal still represents a return of some 2.5 times their equity investment in the club.

The club is planning to use the money to pay down its pile of debt that dates back to the Glazers’ £790m buyout in 2005.

Manchester United’s debt stood at over £437m as of 30 June.

Some fans have protested, criticizing the Glazers for only using half of the deal’s proceeds to pay down debt. They argue that the large debt has led to reduced financial flexibility which came at the expense of investment in players and the team’s performance.

The club’s shares will begin trading on Friday under the stock market ticker Manu.

The Asian Tour has appointed former media executive Mike Kerr as its new chief executive officer with a remit to build its global profile, a statement said Thursday. 

Kerr, who joins Asia’s main golf tour from broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports, will work alongside executive chairman Kyi Hla Han at the Asian Tour’s Singaporeheadquarters from next month. 

“I am looking forward to joining the Asian Tour, which has grown immensely over the past few years,” said Kerr. 

“The Asian Tour is a global brand and these are exciting times for the game at the highest level in Asia. I’m delighted to be a part of it.” 

Han, a former top player who has overseen rapid growth in Asian golf, said the experienced Kerr would also focus on providing more playing opportunities for regional professionals. 

“He has vast senior management experience in Asia and we believe he will add value to what is already a strong management team on the Asian Tour,” said Han. 

Kerr has spent the last 12 years with ESPN STAR Sports, most recently as vice president of affiliate and multimedia sales. 

The Asian Tour expects to hold around 27 tournaments this year, including a number co-sanctioned by the powerful European or American tours.

by Ismail Uddin

South African cricketer, Hashim Amla and Australian legendary all rounder, Alan Davidson are the latest speakers to join the line up in London next week for the World Cricket Business Forum.  The World Cricket Business Forum will be held on 13-14 September at the Royal Garden Hotel.

Hashim Amla will join Kevin Roberts from SportBusiness on the stage for an interview “Catching up with Cricket’s Front Men”. Hashim is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler and is currently ranked as the No1 ODI batsman by ICC. In November 2004, Amla became the first South African team player of Indian descent.  Hashim is a devout Muslim, which has led to campaigns to remove all alcohol-promoting logos from merchandise and playing gear.

He objected to the advert for Castle Lager beer on the South African team kit and has been allowed to wear a shirt without the logo of a brand of South African Breweries, one of South African cricket’s biggest sponsors. Amla captained South Africa at the 2002 under-19s Cricket World Cup. As a Test batsman he found the initial going difficult, and his technique was criticised after he made just 36 runs in the 2004 series against England. But he proved his critics wrong in 2006 as he scored a comeback 149 against New Zealand at Cape Town, helping guide South Africa to a draw. On 27 March 2008, he scored a record 159 not out against India.

Australian Legendary all rounder, Alan Davidson will close the conference with a Q and A session. Alan was a great cricketer and in his 44 test matches, he took 186 wickets, scored 1,328 runs and took 42 catches.  He was the first person to score 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a single match.

Following his retirement from the game, Alan served for many years in Administration for NSW cricket, and is still the President of the NSW Cricket Association. He was named as one of NSW Cricketer’s of the Century, and continues to live in Sydney.

The World Cricket Business Forum will take place next week at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, following the LG ICC Awards on 12 September.  Spaces for the conference are still available. To register, please visit www.cricketbusinessforum.com