Public funding for Britain’s women’s indoor volleyball and men’s beach volleyball teams has been withdrawn.
The cut was announced earlier, but officially took effect on 1 October. The withdrawal of funds casts serious doubt over the teams’ participation at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Volleyball was one of eight sports to have its funding cut at the beginning of 2009 because of UK Sport’s £50 million (US$79.2 million) budget shortfall.
GB volleyball coach Audrey Cooper said: “This will have a massive impact on our preparations – without finance we can’t enter or put on events.
“In essence, after Friday [1 October] I shall have no full-time job. We are still working on a deal to try to ensure that I stay on in a part-time role, which will involve me trying to find new backers for the team.”
In August the women’s indoor team organised a 272-mile bike ride from Sheffield to London with the aim of raising £250,000 (US$396,000) to keep their Olympic dreams alive.
Cooper added: “We had some great publicity and made around £12,000, but the main disappointment was that no major backer came out of it and we are still looking for sponsorship.”
Amateur and professional tennis tournaments have attracted US$600 million worth of sponsorship from companies in 2010, apoplectic according to research from IEG.
The figure is a 3.2 per cent increase on 2009 and includes global, national and local deals.
The report from IEG said that tennis has largely replaced the drop in spending by financial services and car companies during the global financial crisis, with new types of sponsors such as beers and spirits.
Mexican beer brand Corona Extra now sponsors the ATP World Tour, a deal worth US$70 million over five years.
Chinese apparel brand Peak Sport Products also signed a deal with the WTA Tour this year.
The Jockey Club today unveiled a new venture, Jockey Club Services, created to provide organisations in British sport with a range of business services in which it has particular expertise, scale and the ability to provide cost savings and quality results.
Jockey Club Services offers the sports industry outsourced business services including procurement, ticketing, loyalty, finance and accounting, HR, IT, customer-related marketing, payroll, stadium Wi-Fi, live music booking and production, and consultancy around areas such as capital infrastructure, turf management, catering and retail bonds.
The largest commercial group in Britain’s second biggest spectator sport has proven through a highly successful pilot phase its ability to provide sports organisations with significant economies of scale and tried-and-tested services that save its partners money and deliver effective results.
Jockey Club Services has been working with several first-class cricket counties – including the provision of procurement services to Hampshire and Kent, ticketing for Glamorgan and the development of a loyalty programme for seven first-class county sides.
The Football League has formally partnered with Jockey Club Services to provide procurement services to its member clubs, with basic agreements now in place with 11 clubs across all three leagues.
In racing, The Jockey Club provides HR services for Racecourse Media Group and finance and accounting services for British Champions Series Limited, now under its Jockey Club Services banner.
Paul Fisher, Group Managing Director of Jockey Club Racecourses and Jockey Club Services, said: “Business services aren’t the glamorous end of sport, but they’re a vital part of the engine room of any sport business. Jockey Club Services can deliver first-class results, save many organisations money and provide insights based on our experiences that may be of real benefit.
“For example, with the buying power of 15 racecourses within The Jockey Club group, our procurement pilot has so far generated savings of up to 40 percent for the participating clubs. We’re delighted with that and as we want these relationships to be really sustainable our fees will remain limited to ensure plenty of upside for our partners to keep working with us.”
The Jockey Club each year stages some of the world’s most iconic sports events, including the Crabbie’s Grand National, the Cheltenham Festival and The Investec Derby; raised nearly £25m for capital development from British sport’s first retail bond last year; and has attracted more than half a million members for its highly successful Rewards4Racing customer loyalty scheme to date.
Shaun Harvey, Chief Executive of The Football League,saidL “With 72 clubs across England and Wales, The Football League has considerable buying power when clubs work together. We’re delighted to be partnering with Jockey Club Services to ensure that by joining forces, clubs in The Football League can get the very best prices for all the day-to-day essentials that any business needs.”
Ticket provider PrimeSport has announced today a new partnership with the San Francisco Bowl as the Official Ticket Exchange and Travel Provider for the game.
The 2014 San Francisco Bowl will be held on December 30th, 2014 in Santa Clara, CA. This year will mark the first year for the game in the new Levi’s® Stadium. Held annually, the game is one of the nation’s elite bowl games and hosts a rivalry series between teams from the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference. In addition to being the Bowl game’s new home, Levi’s® Stadium is also the new home of the San Francisco 49ers and will serve as host venue for Super Bowl 50 in February 2016.
“PrimeSport is a leader in building and managing ticket and travel experiences for high-profile sporting events,” said Gary Cavalli, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bowl. “Our goal is to provide our fans with the best bowl game experience in the country, and the unmatched service PrimeSport will provide our fans is a big part of that exceptional experience.”
As part of the partnership, PrimeSport will be managing the official San Francisco Bowl Ticket Exchange which is the only approved marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets in a convenient, safe and guaranteed environment.
“The San Francisco Bowl never fails to deliver a great matchup, and this year will be no different with the Pac-12 versus the Big Ten,” said Greg Nortman, Chief Operating Officer of PrimeSport. “We are looking forward to our new partnership with the San Francisco Bowl, and offering PrimeSport level quality and service to Big Ten and Pac-12 college football fans.”
NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins have signed an affiliation deal with ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers.
Wheeling enters its 15th consecutive season as the ECHL affiliate for both Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as well as its 16th season overall with the NHL Penguins.
“We are thrilled to extend our relationship with the Penguins and their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins,” said Nailers Governor Don Rigby. “Pittsburgh does an excellent job of balancing the values of winning and player development on the ice, while also helping us make a valuable connection with our fans off of the ice.”
Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Wheeling have a strong history of advancing players in their organization, and the 2013-14 season followed suit. Last year alone saw 14 different players dress in at least one game for both the Nailers and the AHL Penguins, including forward Anton Zlobin and goaltender Peter Mannino, whose large contributions helped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton reach the Eastern Conference Final.
“The Penguins are pleased to extend our relationship with the Wheeling Nailers. Penguins fans saw the importance Wheeling has within our organization last season when we had a handful of former Nailers see NHL action with us,” said Pittsburgh Penguins Associate General Manager Jason Botterill.
Hull will host the 2014 British Cycling National Circuit Race Championships on Wednesday 9 July, click just days after the Tour de France Grand Depart takes place in Great Britain.
The championships will see the men’s and women’s titles decided during an exciting evening of bike racing in the city. As one of the highlights of the elite road racing calendar in Britain, viagra sale the championships will be fiercely contested by the country’s top riders and teams as they fight for the honour of wearing the iconic red, white and blue national champions’ jerseys for the next year.
Many high profile riders have topped the podium at the National Circuit Race Championships over the years including former road world champion Mark Cavendish and Olympic medallists Ed Clancy, Lizzie Armitstead, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King.
With the event happening in Yorkshire just days after the Tour de France Grand Depart, enthusiasm for cycling in the region is expected to be high and the racing is anticipated to draw huge crowds to the 1.1km city centre circuit.
British Cycling’s cycle sport and membership director, Jonny Clay, commented: “We are delighted to award the 2014 British Cycling National Circuit Race Championships to the city of Hull. The championships will take place during a momentous week for British cycling and the Yorkshire region.
“Hull will provide a spectacular venue for these championships and the people of Hull will be treated to a great evening of entertainment as they witness the country’s best professional riders racing on their city’s streets.
“These championships are part of an exciting calendar of domestic racing we have in Britain and provide one of many opportunities for people enthused by the Tour de France Grand Depart to watch elite road racing in this country this summer.”
Councillor Terry Geraghty, portfolio holder for leisure and culture said: “We are proud that British Cycling has chosen Hull as the venue for this prestigious race. It will be a unique opportunity to witness such high calibre athletes here in the city, and adds to the diverse sporting events taking place in Hull this summer.”
The World Series of Boxing (WSB) have moved their Finals to Baku after Ukraine withdrew their plans to host the event due to current tense situation in the country.
The WSB accepted an offer from the Azerbaijan Baku Fires franchise to host the WSB Season IV Finals in the City of Baku, advice Azerbaijan.
The finals will take place on the following new dates: Friday 6 and Saturday 7 June.
Commenting on the announcement, the AIBA President and WSB Board Chairman Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, said: “I am very pleased that we have found a host city at this late stage after Ukraine withdrew its intention to host the Finals.”
“Baku has already hosted several AIBA and WSB competitions and we are very confident with the Azeri’s franchise’s ability to successfully organize and manage this important event.”
“We sincerely appreciate the kind support expressed by the Azerbaijan Baku Fires in such a difficult situation and we look forward to two exciting nights of world-class boxing.”
With the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four set to begin on Friday, iSportconnect’s Ismail Uddin speaks to Euroleague President & CEO Jordi Bertomeu about their preparations and activation around the event.
How have preparations been for this year’s Euroleague Final Four?
So far so good. We have worked hard to put together a quality event, a showcase, meant to engage both the international and local fan. Milan is hosting, over 1000 media, press and sponsor representatives as well as 7000 traveling fans from as much as 50 countries. Our goal is that all of these people have the ultimate Euroleague experience. Milan is a city with a long basketball tradition, and the Municipality has provided their full support to make sure we reach our goal.
This year you are having your fan zone at the Piazza del Duomo in Milan and last year the event was in London’s Trafalgar Square. How successful are these events in attracting attention to the Euroleague brand?
Piazza Duomo in Milan follows Trafalgar Square in London and Taksim Square in Istanbul, which is where our Fan Zones have been held. We are proud to be able to occupy such iconic places in the cities where we host the Final Four, bringing our game closer to the local fans and inhabitants, allowing them to experience the Turkish Airlines Euroleague first hand, participate, meet current stars and legends and much more. With the collaboration of all our marketing partners, we expect this Fan Zone to be a great success, as was the case in Istanbul and London.
Also this year’s event is a sell-out. What type of audience normally buys your tickets?
We have great diversity in our fan base and therefore we have to adapt our proposition to match this demand. Broadly we can divide our customer in three different groups. First there is the very devoted group that follows their team and buys their tickets once their team is qualified to the Final Four.
For this group, we always reserve an amount of tickets made available after qualification. Secondly, there is a group of fans which love basketball and/or major sports events. This group may follow a specific team but would want to live the Final Four experience regardless. The last group is business related and needs the Final Four to have all the ingredients to host their relationships and network, offering them a first class hospitality programme to meet their every need.
What marketing initiatives have you incorporated for this year’s event?
We have a great number of quality marketing initiatives prepared for this week that add great value for our fans. We are lucky to have such committed partners that all wish to add value to the event, making it more accessible and interactive. To name a couple of examples, Turkish Airlines will once again present the award winning Eye Of The Fan experience, with an enhanced programme, where five Fan Masters will have full access to everything related to the Final Four. Each Fan Master will have a helmet-camera, streaming exclusive behind-the-scenes content to the fans that have not been able to come to Milan. We also have EFES presenting our Cheerleader competition during the Final Four, enabling our fans to vote for their favorite squad online, bwin covering the event with their bwin Sport Girls programme and adidas presenting our Trophy Tour at the Piazza Duomo. Finally Spalding and New Era are launching tailored team balls and headwear during the Final Four. In a nutshell, this year we have even more exclusive content brought to our fans in very innovative ways.
Turkish Airlines have unveiled a new Euroleague advert (above) which has had over 2 million views to date. Are you surprised the video has that type of interaction? Due to the success of this initiative are there similar types of promotional adverts in the pipeline?
We are not surprised. It is not the first time Turkish Airlines has proved that they can deliver and engage sports fans with great content. We supported the pool dunk concept from the very beginning, aiming to present the sport and our players outside of their natural environment using a trend with a high digital and social media potential, knowing this would easily become viral. The Turkish Airlines ‘Widen Basketball Everywhere’ campaign will hit many TV stations this week helping to raise the awareness of the league across the globe. We are happy with these results but can only stress this is only beginning. Many other programs are in the pipeline, but we cannot reveal them right now!
In terms of broadcasting what sort of coverage are you expecting for the event?
This years’ Final Four will break all-time records for the Euroleague, since it will be aired in 201 countries and territories across all five continents, with the last deal we signed and that we will announce soon. We have broadcast partners almost everywhere and expect the final audience numbers to improve year after year. On a digital & PR side of things, we already have performed well over expectations this season as we have been able to partner-up with many of the leading sports media outlets in Europe.
There has been a lot of speculation about where next year’s event will go. Do you have an indication on who you want to host next year’s event?
We have been working with different candidates over the last few months, and we are now very close to announce the next host. There is always a lot of speculation, and a lot of cities are interested in bringing the Final Four to their city, which shows the importance of the event.
Jordi Bertomeu Orteu has been the CEO of Euroleague Basketball from July 2000, its Chairman since 2009 and its President since 2011.
Jordi Bertomeu earned a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Barcelona.
From its inception in March 1982 he developed tasks as Legal Advisor and Secretary General of the Spanish Basketball Clubs Association (ACB), in December 1994, he was appointed ACB Vice-president until July 2000, when he was named CEO of Euroleague Basketball.
Mr. Bertomeu was also member of the “Spanish Governmental Commission of the transformation of Basketball and Football clubs into incorporated sports companies”, “Member of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Basketball Federation” for 12 years as well as arbitrator for the Spanish Olympic Committee on the Court of Arbitration for Sport from October 1997.
He has also developed experience as Professor of Sports Management in the Masters Programme of the INEFC at the University of Barcelona and as Professor of Sports Management and Administration in the Masters Programme at the University Complutense of Madrid.
Panini America, unhealthy the world’s largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, canada order has signed an exclusive autograph trading card agreement with Australian basketball sensation Danté Exum, projected to be a top-five pick in June’s 2014 NBA Draft.
The agreement includes the release of Exum’s NBA trading cards and autographed cards exclusively through Panini America and a limited number of autographed memorabilia pieces through Panini Authentic, the autograph and memorabilia division of Panini America.
“Danté is one of the most talented and intriguing players in a rich 2014 NBA Draft Class and he will be a rookie cornerstone for us during the 2014-15 season,” said Panini America CEO Mark Warsop. “His NBA trading cards and autographed memorabilia will be in high demand from the beginning and will attract an international fan base. We’re happy to welcome Danté to the Panini family and look forward to a great relationship with him.”
An 18-year-old point guard, Exum has excelled against international competition. He averaged more than 18 ppg for Australia in the 2013 FIBA U19 tournament en route to earning All-Tournament Team honors. In January, Exum led his team to the tournament title in the Australian National High School Basketball Championships.
“This is an incredibly exciting time for me as I prepare to begin my NBA career and realize a lifelong dream,” Exum said. “The fact that Panini America has embraced me as a member of their family is an honor. I look forward to helping them create some great cards and memorabilia – and to doing everything I can on the court and off to keep their value high.”
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) have awarded Chinese Taipei, Japan and Canada hosting rights to three youth-centered Baseball World Cups.
Taichung, Chinese Taipei was named the host city of the new U21 Baseball World Cup, in which twelve countries will participate this year from 7-16 November.
Japan, which will host the Women’s Baseball World Cup this September in Miyazaki, was selected as the host of the next U18 Baseball World Cup in 2015.
The “Mecca of Japanese Baseball” — historic Koshien Stadium — will be the centerpiece of the 2015 U18 Baseball World Cup for the athletes and spectators. Built in 1924 (in Nishinomiya, Hyogo), Koshien Stadium is Japan’s oldest ballpark, is instantly recognizable by its unique all-dirt infield, and is also the storied home of one of Nippon Professional Baseball’s most famous clubs, the Hanshin Tigers.
In 2017, the U18 Baseball World Cup will go to Canada, as International Baseball executives declared member federation Baseball Canada as the host of the 28th edition of the U18 event. Baseball Canada successfully delivered the 2010 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay and had also given strong bids for the 2013 and 2015 editions.
Robust bid interest in the U18 Baseball World Cup followed the success of the 2013 U18 Baseball World Cup, which, in partnership with MP & Silva, had an enormous potential broadcast distribution reach of over 144 million homes and potential online/mobile reach of 22 million unique users.
“The bids presented were exceptional, and I am fully confident these Baseball World Cups will be in excellent hands and serve as worldwide platforms for the athletes to shine and proudly wear their national teams’ jerseys,” said WBSC co-President Riccardo Fraccari.
“Securing such high-quality hosts for our events is a key indicator of baseball and softball’s global appeal, popularity and development, and of the lasting legacy and value returned to the host communities in various countries,” Fraccari added.
Since 2009, baseball and softball world championships have been held in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and North-, South- and Central America, and include Argentina, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Puerto Rico, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United States and Venezuela.
“International Baseball properties — our Baseball World Cups — and National Team sanctioned competitions, from youth to elite, continue to grow into global commodities, which will further build, position and promote the National Team brands of our members, thus driving the growth of our events over the long-term,” said Fraccari.
Youth-centered Baseball World Cups are organised across the U12, U15, U18 and U21 age categories.
