GolTV Obtains U.S. Open Cup Rights Until 2014

GolTV is to air the U.S. Open Cup in a new three-year agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation.

The final of the 2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, prostate the oldest national soccer tournament in the U.S., cialis will air live Wednesday, cheap pills August 8 at 9 p.m. (ET), when the three-time defending champion Seattle Sounders FC faces off against Sporting Kansas City at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.

Known then as the National Challenge Cup, the U.S. Open Cup was first played in 1913 and is open to teams at all levels in the States, from amateur sides to the Division I professional teams of Major League Soccer. All told, 64 teams competed in the final stages of the 2012 tournament, with the winner to add its name to the Dewar Cup and earn a spot in the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League. Teams from MLS have won 15 of the last 16 U.S. Open Cups.

“Acquiring the broadcast rights to the final of the U.S. Open Cup through 2014 is an important milestone for GolTV as we continue to offer our passionate viewers more soccer content than any other network,” said Rodrigo Lombello, COO of GolTV, in announcing the acquisition. “With concerted efforts to expand our portfolio of matches from the Americas, we are tapping into one of the fastest growing markets, as the popularity of the sport in the U.S. continues to reach new heights.”

Birmingham City President Helping Police with Criminal Investigations in Hong Kong

English Premier League soccer club Birmingham City FC’s president Carson Yeung is helping police in Hong Kong with criminal investigations, according to the club’s website.

A statement put out by acting chairman Peter Pannu said Mr Yeung, who is Birmingham’s largest single shareholder with a 29.9% stake, was assisting police in Hong Kong, according to Birmingham International Holdings’ lawyers, who had informed him of the situation.

He said he believed the inquiries were nothing to do with the club’s parent company or subsidiaries.

He said he had also been informed by the lawyers that Mr Yeung was assisting with inquiries that had nothing to do with BIHL in Hong Kong and therefore nothing to do with the operation of club.

The statement said: “People are reminded that in recent years members of the previous board were placed on bail for a significant amount of time and nothing came of it. I am only using this as an example to calm any fears.”

The statement also said the law says a person is innocent until proven guilty and that until the club found out any more information there would be no further comment.

Yeung is Birmingham’s largest single shareholder with a 29.9% stake.

HRTV Acquire Breeders’ Cup Broadcast Rights

HRTV, ampoule the television network co-owned by Churchill Downs and the Stronach Group, allergist will broadcast all of the Breeders’ Cup races for this year’s event live with the exception of the Classic under a deal reached with Breeders’ Cup covering cable broadcast rights.

The deal is the first in Breeders’ Cup history allowing a network other than the primary rights-holder to broadcast races live on television. This year’s Breeders’ Cup will be broadcast live by NBC and its related networks, viagra sale under a four-year deal reached last year replacing ESPN and ABC.

The deal also gives HRTV the rights to produce the Breeders’ Cup simulcast show, a production that is distributed to simulcast sites around the world. HRTV’s main competitor, TVG, had previously produced the simulcast show.

According to an HRTV official, the network’s television coverage will be different than the simulcast show, which caters more heavily to gamblers who may or may not be able to hear the show’s audio feed.

Under earlier television-rights agreements, horse racing networks were not allowed to broadcast the Breeders’ Cup races live. An exception occurred last year, when ESPN allowed TVG to broadcast the Breeders’ Cup Marathon live. ESPN’s coverage of the Friday races began after the Marathon had been run.

The Breeders’ Cup races also will be streamed live on HRTV.com and breederscup.com.

This year’s Breeders’ Cup is scheduled for Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita Park in Southern California. HRTV is based at Santa Anita.

River Plate Relegation Heavily Damages TV and Sponsorship Revenue

River Plate, Argentina’s most successful soccer club, faces a major financial overhaul after their relegation from the top flight of Argentinian soccer left the club facing a possible 90% drop in broadcast revenues.

The Buenos Aires-based giants were relegated to the Primera B Nacional for the first time in its 110-year history after failing to overturn a two goal deficit against Belgrano in a play-off on Sunday. The match ended 1-1 and was abandoned with a minute left to play due to security fears as angry fans fans ripped up seats and threw them on the pitch.

Reports state that TV rights revenues could drop from the US$7.5m to US$850,000, an amount which is the equal share earned by clubs in the second tier. In addition to this, River’s sponsorship contracts, which were so lucrative with the club being in the top flight, are expected to fall by about 50%. These deals include a US$20m contract over six years with Adidas and a deal worth US$2.5m per year with Petrobras.

Advertising revenue is also  expected to fall from just short of US$1m to just US$300,000 per season. These drops in revenue means River may have to sell many of it’s squad members to reduce the club’s wage bill and ease the financial burden of relegation, particularly as the club announced in November that it was in debt to the degree of US$53m, which is the biggest deficit of any Argentinian club.

Frontier Partner with Pac-12 Conference to Offer Sports Coverage to FiOS TV Customers

Frontier Communications today announced an agreement to provide the Pac-12 Networks to FiOS TV customers in the Pacific Northwest starting August 15, health when the new networks launch.

FiOS TV from Frontier will carry hundreds of live events and other specialty content including 35 football games and more than 130 men’s basketball games for fans of Washington and Oregon Pac-12 Conference teams.

“Frontier is dedicated to our local communities and proud to showcase the great tradition and excellence of Pac-12 sports to our FiOS TV customers in Oregon, apoplectic ” said Ken Gaffga, prostate Oregon Senior Vice President and General Manager, Frontier Communications. “FiOS TV from Frontier will be the place where fans can follow all the exciting college action of the powerhouse Pac-12 Conference.”

During the first three weeks of the 2012 football season, the Pac-12 Networks will televise five games from Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State, including San Diego State at Washington and OSU’s home opener in week one, as well as Fresno State at Oregon and head coach Mike Leach’s home debut at Washington State in week two.

“With football season and all of the Fall sports fast approaching, the Pac-12 Networks will be providing great content to our fans on a daily basis, and we are delighted that Frontier customers are now part of this experience,” said Gary Stevenson, President of Pac-12 Enterprises. “We are in a unique position to tell stories that haven’t been told before about our student-athletes, our coaches and our universities. Frontier customers will now have the opportunity to follow and become even more engaged with their favorite teams.”

In addition to all of the live games, the Pac-12 Networks will feature shoulder programming that will include pregame and postgame shows, football coaches’ shows and Classic Games, among others. Frontier subscribers will also be able to watch games from all six regions on Pac-12 Now, the TV Everywhere platform that allows fans to watch games on connected devices like the computer and iPad.

Gaffga went on to say, “We listened to our Oregon customers who asked for the Pac-12 Networks on FiOS TV. We are thrilled to bring our customers the kind of programming that excites them.”

Gold Cup Will Stay in USA, says Blazer

The Gold Cup, which is the international soccer tournament for the Confederation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) regions, is set to stay in the United States until another country demonstrates the ability to generate the same financial benefits through hosting the tournament, according to the organisation’s general secretary Chuck Blazer.

The USA has so far hosted all 11 editions of the biannual tournament, including this year’s tournament, which finished on Saturday with the host country losing 4-2 to Mexico. However, Blazer insisted that the event’s revenues are maximised by the competition taking place in the USA.

He said: “We have in the past solicited other countries. We have in the past looked to see what the revenue generation would be and it has been the collective will of the members of the confederation to continue the event here (in the United States) because this is how we support all the other tournaments.”

Blazer said that this has been the best Gold Cup to date, but stopped short of revealing any financial figures. Total attendances in the 25-game tournament have topped 600,000, which is an increase of more than 20% from the 2009 tournament.

Blazer added: “We have given a Gold Cup that in most respects has been better than any that we’ve done in the past. The attendance, the administration and the fan following has been extraordinary. We’ve had games that have been extremely competitive.”

beIN SPORT Gets US Rights to Capital One Cup & Football League Championship

beIN SPORT has acquired the TV and Internet rights to England’s Capital One Cup tournament as well as Football League Championship.

Beginning with the 2012-13 season, order beIN SPORT 1 will broadcast matches from England’s League Cup tournament, now known as the Capital One Cup. Plus, beIN SPORT 1 will show matches from the nPower Championship, the second division in English football and one of the most competitive and entertaining leagues in Europe.

FOX Soccer previously held the rights to both the League Cup and Championship, but beIN SPORT beat the incumbent to the punch.

beIN SPORT is scheduled to launch in the United States on August 15. Based in Miami, the new soccer network will have two channels — beIN SPORT 1 (for English-language broadcasts) and beIN SPORT 2 (for Spanish-language broadcasts).

The challenge, however, will be for the network to sign deals with TV providers between now and the launch date to ensure that soccer fans can watch the TV network in the United States.

German Bundesliga Attendance Figures Increase for Ninth Consecutive Year

The German Bundesliga soccer league has set a new attendance record of 12.88 million fans for the 2010-11 season, with an average of 42,101 spectators watching each match.

One reason for the impressive statistic is that the average price of a ticket at a Bundesliga game is just US$33, which is considerably cheaper than ticket prices in the English Premier League.

Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German Football League, said: “For the ninth time in the last ten years we’ve had an increase in fans going to stadiums.

“The Bundesliga is booming without a doubt and yet again it is the strongest league in the world in terms of attendances, as reflected in the fact that almost 94 per cent of games were sold out.

“The key factors [in this growth] are that it is an exciting competition with attractive matches, family-friendly prices and modern stadiums.”

This season’s record represents a 0.7 per cent rise on the 2009-10 season figures. Bundesliga attendances have now risen for nine years in a row, and confirms the league’s status as the most popular in Europe.

Whilst the English Premier League had more supporters attending games overall due to having more teams in the division, the average attendance per match was 35,273.

Borussia Dortmund won the last season’s Bundesliga, finishing ahead of Bayer Leverkusen in second place and Bayern Munich in third.

ESPN Renews UFC Deal in UK

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competition, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has inked a new broadcasting deal with ESPN, giving the channel the rights to all main live UFC events until August 2013.

Confirming its status as the home of the UFC, ESPN’s extension of the existing contract guarantees that all major UFC events will be shown in the UK and Ireland for the next 12 months.

The agreement between the UFC and ESPN is for All American Pay-Per-View events and Fight Nights.

The new partnership will begin as early as Saturday August 4, with the first card to be featured under the new contract being UFC on Fox 4: Shogun vs Vera. 

ESPN televised more than 250 hours of UFC coverage and MMA-related programming in the past year, including the UK’s only dedicated, regularly televised MMA news and informaton show: MMA Live.

The world’s fastest growing sport also receives dedicated online coverage on ESPN.co.uk and ESPN.com, including the ESPN UFC Podcast.

Report Claims Spain’s La Liga in Over USD5bn Debt

According to a report by University of Barcelona professor José Maria Gay into the state of Spanish soccer finances, the country’s elite La Liga division has reached US$5.1bn in debt, as the league’s President confirmed plans to control spending.

The Premier League is still the most indebted league in Europe with a combined debt of $6.4bn, but the Spanish game has been warned that it is in danger of slipping into an “economic coma”.

League giants Barcelona and Real Madrid make up $1.7bn of the debt alone, though they also take in half of the $862m the Spanish league generates in overall TV revenue each year.

That inequality in revenues taken by Spanish top flight clubs has led many of its teams lower down in the league to spend significant sums in order to remain competitive.

After the top two, Valencia and Atletico Madrid are the clubs with the most debt, whilst a number of other teams are plagued by financial problems. Real Zaragoza applied for voluntary administration last month, whilst Racing Santander are struggling to pay off their debts.

All three teams promoted to La Liga this season, Real Betis, Rayo Vallecano and Granada, are also in administration. In addition, last season, Real Mallorca went into administration and were barred from playing in the Europa League.

To tackle the problem, La Liga will create a commission to monitor and control club finances, according Spanish Football League President Jose Luis Astiazaran who stated: “Spanish football needs to make progress towards an exemplary state of solvency.

“Among the clubs that form the LFP we currently have some dysfunctions which we have to get under control and we will make some decisions that will not be pleasant,” he added.

“It’s time to marry the sporting excellence we have achieved with financial excellence.

“Spanish soccer, and La Liga to be exact, has gained global admiration and we have to earn this distinction for economic management as well.”