After losing out in attempts to gain preferred bidder status for the Olympic Stadium, a crucial step in the process of the venue’s award, English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur are pursuing legal action against rival bidders West Ham, to ensure their proposals are upheld.

A vital impact on the decision to award West Ham with the Olympic Park Legacy Comapny’s (OPLC) backing, was that the club had promised to ensure the athletics legacy, and in turn the running track, was kept at the stadium.

Tottenham’s joint bid with AEG consistently refuted that these plans would work and opted to offer a solution of ensuring an Olympic athletics legacy elsewhere, and the club are reportedly seeking assurances that theri rivals will not do away with their proposals to leave the track intact.

A statement from Tottenham read: “The Olympic Stadium site is an essential element in the creation of a viable Olympic Park and we know that, together with AEG, we provided a first class proposal to support the sustainability of the whole project.”

The statement added: “It was never an option, however, that we would retain the running track as we believe this to be unacceptable for our supporters and therefore wholly unviable in the long term…Much has been made of the promise to keep the athletics track within the Olympic Stadium and, therefore, we should all expect to see the retention of this track firmly embedded and legally guaranteed by those entrusted with this legacy commitment, today and in the future.”

The statement continued: “The OPLC’s decision has still to be approved by two Government departments and the Mayor’s Office. We shall continue to monitor the bid process over the coming weeks up until its final determination, whilst reviewing our position and holding discussions with our advisors. We shall spend time assessing our situation in respect of a new stadium and when we have any further information we shall update our supporters.”

Francois Fillon, the Prime Minister of France, has pledged state support for Annecy’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation commission arrived in France yesterday, February 8, for its first inspection of the three candidate cities.

Fillon travelled to the city to welcome the 11 members of the commission, which will be shown technical presentations and will undertake site visits. The inspection will take place until Saturday, February 12,  before the commission makes further trips to the other two candidate cities of Munich in Germany and PyeongChang in South Korea.

Fillon told AFP: “I met the commission with the aim of convincing them of why our bid should win. On top of this I offered the total support of the state.

“The candidature file has excellent technical quality and is focused around the two legendary hubs of Chamonix – which hosted the first Winter Games in 1924 – and Annecy. We would organise an exceptional Winter Games under a theme of sustainable development and legacy.”

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) have announced that Liebherr, buy a German manufacturing company, arthritis will become the title sponsor for the 2011 ITTF Oceania Cup.

The deal will see the company, purchase who extended their partnership with the ITTF in March, rename the event as the Liebherr 2011 ITTF Oceania Cup. The announcement was made after the recent revelations that Fox Sports Australia were agreed as host broadcaster.

Patrick Gillmann, president of the Oceania Table Tennis Federation stated: “For the first time an important Oceania event has a title sponsor that is recognised as an international company and not just any sponsor but one of the major sponsors of the International Table Tennis Federation. It gives me great satisfaction that we are able to organise a high level event in our continent with ambitious organisers, confident sponsors, live television coverage by Fox Sport and some trusting supporters with the Oceania Table Tennis Federation and International Table Tennis Federation family; the Liebherr ITTF-Oceania Cup is on track and, with all these partners, I am sure that it will be a success.”

ITTF marketing director Steve Dainton added: “It just goes to show what is possible with the right motivation, strategy and event concept; over the last two years the International Table Tennis Federation, TMS and the Oceania Table Tennis Federation have been working hard to put this together and now the results are showing.”

“Television broadcast in the region, Double Happiness as equipment sponsor, Tinsue as the sports flooring sponsor and now the announcement that Liebherr will be the title sponsor is really the icing on the cake; we are all looking forward to what will be an excellent event in 2011”.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) hosts ten team owners who are worth ten figure sums, topped by New Jersey Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov. Prokhorov is believed to have funded the club, which has been in desperate need of financial backing, with around US$250m to buy 80 per cent of the team along with 45 per cent of the Barclays Center. The injection has meant that the team will be able to push through their ambitious plans to relocate to Brooklyn, New York.

Pokhorov, a former Russian basketball player himself, earned his fortune through metal and is currently worth $13.4bn, the highest in the league. A close second is Microsoft billionaire and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, Paul Allen who is worth $12.7bn. Allen is funding a $13m upgrade of the teams home stadium, the Rose Garden.

Completing the top five wealthiest owners list for the league are Philip Anschutz, owner of the LA Lakers ($7bn), Orlando Magic’s Richard DeVos ($4.3bn) and Miami Heat’s Micky Arison ($4.1bn). Arison recently parted with around $100m to entice the league’s highest profile player, LeBron James.

The figures were released by Forbes in a top 10 list, to read the full story visit the site here – http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/16/lakers-nets-blazers-magic-business-sports-nba-billionaires.html?partner=alerts

Tangent Graphic has been named as the lead design agency for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Glasgow and New York based agency  are a multi-award winning company specialising in brand identity and art direction.

Tangent will be responsible for the development of the brand in partnership with the Glasgow 2014 organising committee. Tangent Graphic secured the contract over four other competitors by focussing on the design and strategic creation of the pictograms representing the core disciplines of the Games.

Director of marketing and sponsorship for Glasgow 2014, apoplectic  John Donnelly spoke of the deal: “After a thorough procurement process, bronchi we have appointed Tangent as the lead Graphic Design Agency to produce key areas of work such as our Pictograms for Glasgow 2014. I’m really pleased that after our thorough search we found someone right on our doorstep in Glasgow to take on this exciting project, and help us deliver an outstanding Games.”

“We are looking forward to working on a wide range of projects for Glasgow 2014, not least one of the most eagerly-awaited design elements of any Games – the pictograms. We want to capture the drive and motion of each event in every pictogram, reflecting the energy and excitement of The Games.” added Andrew Stevenson, co-founder of Tangent Graphic.

“We are really excited about launching them, as our solution has real differentiation from previous pictograms, and maintains a strong tie in with the Glasgow 2014 brand. We are very proud to be working on an event that will mean so much to both Glasgow and Scotland”.

The ATP has announced that the men’s tennis calendar will be shortened by two weeks from 2012 giving the players a seven-week off-season.

Roger Federer is leading the calls for the ATP Tour to extend the gap in between seasons, which this year sees the top stars have just over a month off before starting another 11-month campaign.

The ATP have responded by extending the break by two weeks, but it now means that the Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals are to be held back to back.

The Paris tournament is the last qualifying event for the end-of-season eight-man showpiece, with the following week given over to practice time for the players and promotion of the event, which began a five-year stint at London’s O2 Arena in 2009.

The changes were approved at a board meeting in London on Saturday, with two weeks removed from the calendar courtesy of condensing Paris and London as well as the reallocation of three smaller tournaments to earlier in the year.

ATP executive chairman and president Adam Helfant defended the changes saying it was the only way a longer break could be brought in.

“We’re very happy with the result,” said Helfant. “The length of the off-season is arguably the biggest issue confronting the sport of tennis, and it was the responsibility of the ATP to find a way to address the problem.

“As you can imagine, there were quite a few options that were on the table. And the board weighed up all the different considerations and ultimately decided that the calendar as you see before you reflects our best options for achieving our goal, which was to create a more meaningful off-season.”

World number one Rafael Nadal has been a particular critic of the gruelling nature of the tennis season but it remains to be seen whether the players believe this represents the best option.

There will be concern the changes will negatively impact on the World Tour Finals, but Helfant insisted that will not be the case.

He continued: “We promote this tournament all year long. In fact, when you leave the arena on Sunday after the finals, we will be promoting next year’s finals.

“The success of this event does not depend on a couple of promotional activities that have traditionally taken place in the week before our last Masters 1000s and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.”

Source: Sky Sports

San Francisco moved closer to becoming the host city for the 34th America’s Cup, after city officials made a deal with the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which says Spain is out as a rival.

San Francisco officials completed a deal with Golden Gate Yacht Club, backers of America’s Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing, that could lead to the 2013 Cup being staged with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.

Tom Ehman, a spokesman for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, said Valencia, the Spanish port that hosted the 2007 and 2010 America’s Cups, is no longer a candidate for the main regatta but could still host a preliminary regatta.

That would leave Italy as the lone rival to San Francisco and unless the Italian offer equals or beats what San Francisco offers, Ehman said he expects the America’s Cup to be hosted in California in 2013 pending city approval.

A host city agreement was submitted Tuesday to San Francisco’s board of supervisors, which must approve it before any deal could be finalized.

The board voted 9-2 last month to approve a term offer and six supervisors are co-sponsors of the agreement, which pledges civic help in raising 270 million dollars to help cover costs of staging the event.

Source: AFP

Canada has become the most respected country brand in the world. It bumped the US from the top spot as it leveraged the 2010 Winter Games to extend the global reach of its tourism brand.

The ranking comes from the Country Brand Index by FutureBrand, unhealthy a New York-based global brand consultancy. Michele McKenzie, sale president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), will be present at the formal awards ceremony on Nov. 11 in London, England, at the 31^st annual World Travel Market (WTM), one of the world’s largest travel, trade and media showcases.

As Ms. McKenzie sums up, “Several years ago, CTC set out to refresh Canada’s tourism brand in anticipation of being on the world stage in 2010. We believed that—with the right strategy—a legacy of the Games could be more interest in Canada as a travel destination, and ultimately more visitors.”

The CTC and our partners seized the once-in-a-generation opportunity provided by the Games to showcase Canada’s tourism brand internationally. We placed stunning video shot from coast to coast to coast directly into the hands of broadcasters from all the countries in which the CTC markets. Initial results of the CTC’s marketing campaigns conducted before, during and after the Games indicate that the number of trips booked has increased over 2009 as a result of the awareness created of Canada as a top-ranked travel destination.

The CTC’s Olympic strategy, which runs to the end of 2012, was funded by a $26 million federal investment.

impotent helvetica,sans-serif;”>The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has terminated the World Series Boxing (WSB) franchise rights of the Delhi team and named Incheon in South Korea as a replacement on Thursday. The Delhi franchise faced an uncertain future after the main sponsor Videocon pulled out in September.

Its cash cow and star, Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Vijender Singh, had earlier this week distanced himself from the WSB. Vijender made it clear he didn’t want to turn professional, an inevitable career move once a boxer signed up for the WSB.

The Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has been searching for a sponsor since Videocon pulled out but failed to find a new one by the end of last week by which time the deadline set by AIBA expired.

Teams including Mexico, Milan and Moscow had not only announced their squads but also named the home stadiums, while Delhi had only named the boxers, who ultimately were reluctant to sign on the dotted line. It is learnt that Vijender and Dinesh were not ready to sign on the contracts as it would have meant a conflict of interest with their promoters Percept Sports.