Sports agency Team8, headed by Roger Federer’s long-time agent Tony Godsick, will represent New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for off-ice marketing deals.

Lundqvist led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup finals last season and helped Sweden win a silver medal in hockey at this year’s Sochi Olympics. His Rangers contract is worth $59.5 million over seven years.

Lundqvist is the first athlete from a sport other than tennis to be represented by Godsick’s agency, TEAM8.

Godsick left IMG in 2012; TEAM8 launched last year.

Aside from Federer, the agency’s tennis clients are 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro and 2014 Wimbledon semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov.

The Jockey Club, which operates some of the UK’s leading racecourses,, has revealed it will be spending more than £31 million in 2014 on its facilities.

The new expenditure will further enhance the experience on offer to racegoers and horsemen, and to maintain top quality racing surfaces at its 15 courses.

More than £7 million is going into projects including amenities for racegoers, Owners & Trainers facilities and maintenance works, over-and-above an outlay of more than £24 million this year on its flagship development project at Cheltenham Racecourse. In the last three years alone, more than £5 million has been spent at Jockey Club Racecourses just on track surface projects, drainage and maintenance.

The Jockey Club’s 2014 commitment follows a programme of £150 million of investment across its racecourse estate over the previous 10 years. That rises to £175 million when including improvements at its world-class training public grounds at Newmarket, Lambourn and Epsom Downs, and The National Stud in Newmarket.

2014 investment projects – some completed and others underway – include: Owners & Trainers facilities at Carlisle, Exeter, Kempton Park, Nottingham and Wincanton; the Boulevard project for racegoers at the Rowley Mile; replacing the Family enclosure grandstand at Market Rasen with improved facilities; improved racegoer facilities at Sandown Park; and upgrading hospitality facilities at Aintree, Haydock Park and the Rowley Mile; in addition high standard maintenance of facilities and track surfaces and other projects at all 15 of The Jockey Club’s racecourses.

Paul Fisher (pictured), Group Managing Director of Jockey Club Racecourses, said: “We’ve invested £150 million in the past 10 years in our racecourse facilities, but every year we need to maintain and improve the experience we offer to the racegoing public and horsemen, while at the same time making industry-leading contributions to prize money.”

Check Out our Interview with Paul Fisher below:

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National Football League (NFL) franchise Arizona Cardinals have signed an agreement with ticket provider PrimeSport who will become the club’s official fan travel partner.

As part of the partnership, PrimeSport has official Arizona Cardinals travel packages now available for purchase for the 2014 regular season.

“We are proud to announce our new partnership with PrimeSport, a leader in providing dependable and quality packages for some of the largest sporting events in the world,” said Ron Minegar, Chief Operating Officer of the Arizona Cardinals. “We are confident that this partnership with PrimeSport will provide our incredible fans with the best possible experience when they see the Cardinals play on the road.”

“We are excited to announce our new partnership with the Arizona Cardinals and providing their fans with the PrimeSport experience throughout the 2014 season,” says Sam Soni, Chief Executive Officer at PrimeSport. “We have built a reputation in the NFL as a reliable and dependable source for fan and corporate travel, and we look forward to delivering those great experiences to Cardinals fans this year.”

National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs has signed an affiliation agreement with ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. 

“The Leafs are extremely pleased to renew our affiliation with the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL,” said Toronto Maple Leafs Senior Vice President and General Manager David Nonis. “As an organization, we are confident that our future prospects will continue to develop professionally under the tutelage of Solar Bears coach Vince Williams.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to continue our affiliation with the Maple Leafs organization and look forward to a successful partnership,” said Orlando Solar Bears President/CEO Jason Siegel.

International sports marketing company IMG has formally apologised to Giles Clarke for the way it handled a legal dispute with England and Wales Cricket Board chairman from 2010 to 2012.

A libel case was brought against Clarke after he sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India five years ago voicing his concern over the content of meetings in Mumbai between IMG, then Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi and several county representatives.

Clarke believed the intent was to set up a rebel Twenty20 league in England which would be detrimental to the structure and constitution of domestic cricket.

The issue was resolved in an out-of-court settlement in February 2012 and IMG has expressed its regret at the long-running legal battle.

In a statement IMG said: “IMG’s work on behalf of sporting federations has been a cornerstone of its business for many years. IMG has built strong and long standing relationships with sports governing bodies and their officials

“In light of that and with the benefit of hindsight, IMG deeply regrets the way in which it handled the dispute with Mr. Giles Clarke CBE (Chairman, England & Wales Cricket Board) between 2010 and 2012, and sincerely apologises to Mr Clarke and his family for the distress that the court proceedings caused.

“IMG is committed to ensuring that all of its actions are considered in a manner that is consistent with the company’s values and traditions.”

Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise Atlanta Braves have revealed plans to relocate to a new suburban stadium in 2017.

Braves executives John Schuerholz, Mike Plant and Derek Schiller told a small group of reporters that the new ballpark will be built in suburban Cobb County, at the northwest intersection of I-75 and I-285 in the Galleria/Cumberland Mall area. They said the team has “secured” 60 acres of land for the project, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Braves said the project will be built in partnership with Cobb County. The Braves will leave Turner Field when their 20-year agreement expires after the 2016 season.

The Braves released a statement explaining the move and the limitations Turner Field presents for future remodeling and expansion.

The statement said: “Turner Field is a facility that was built for three weeks of use for the Olympics, but has now served us well for nearly 20 years. The issue isn’t the Turner Field we play in today, but instead whether or not the venue can remain viable for another 20 to 30 years.

“Turner Field has served the Braves well since 1997, but it is in need of major infrastructure work, which will cost around $150 million. These upgrades are functional ones, such as replacing worn-out seats or upgrading the stadium’s lighting, and they would do little to significantly enhance the fan experience. If the Braves were to pay for additional projects focused on improving the fan experience, the additional costs could exceed $200 million.

“Those upgrades still wouldn’t address the logistical challenges outside the stadium – lack of consistent mass transit options, inadequate number of parking spaces and limited access to major highways.”

Atlanta Mayor Wishes Braves Well

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed revealed they couldn’t stump up the cash to keep the Braves in the city.

He said in a statement: “The Atlanta Braves are one of the best baseball teams in America, and I wish them well.

“We have been working very hard with the Braves for a long time, and at the end of the day, there was simply no way the team was going to stay in downtown Atlanta without city taxpayers spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make that happen. It is my understanding that our neighbor, Cobb County, made a strong offer of $450M in public support to the Braves and we are simply unwilling to match that with taxpayer dollars.

“Given the needs facing our city and the impact of Turner Field stadium on surrounding neighborhoods, that was something I, and many others were unwilling to do. We have been planning for the possibility of this announcement and have already spoken to multiple organizations who are interested in redeveloping the entire Turner Field corridor.”

iSportconnect talks to NFL UK Managing Director Alistair Kirkwood, one of the main men responsible in bring the NFL International Series to UK shores, about the unprecedented two regular season games in London and the possibility of establishing a franchise.

By Ismail Uddin

The NFL International Series games sold out in February. Did you expect the games to sell out soo quickly? 

Honest answer is you don’t know as this is the first time we have had two games. It is also the first time we have offered a ticket package for people who wanted to go to both games. There’s an aspiration that it goes well if not better than we hoped for. I think we had about a third of the stadium sold out for both games initially. That’s a good healthy sign as it means that you have really good fans who are able to go to both games. 

Can you tell us a bit more about the sponsor situation for this year’s game. How many sponsors have you acquired?

About ten or 11. New ones for us would be Brand USA and Discover America which is promoting American tourism. They are going to be sponsoring the Channel 4 highlights show which goes out on a Saturday morning. We also have Chrysler back and they will sponsor Sky’s broadcast. You also got Visa and Pepsi. Pepsi have the naming rights to the second game. We are in a pretty good place now. 

Has the task been made more difficult following Commercial Director Ben Dunn’s sudden departure?

I think everyone knows putting sponsorship deals together takes a bit of time anyway. There’s always an element of trying to work through when you have staff turnover. We staffed up prior to Ben’s departure anyway. We have new people in the team and we also have some senior expertise over form the States as well. We actually have more staff on the commercial side than we ever have had before. 

On the plus side Aon has renewed their partnership with the NFL. Why are the Wembley games so attractive for sponsors and in particular Aon?

I think first of all we are a unique proposition. Secondly we attract a very wide demographic with the average of fans at about 26 years old, 80% are male, pretty high educational levels and fans with good salary. I think we have a positive story in how much we have grown over the years and our brand is on a upward trajectory. I think we offer a lot of different diverse activities and brand association activities. For example the day before the Vikings play the Steelers we are doing an NFL street festival in Regent Street. Regent Street will be closed to traffic and you will see the NFL brand all along that street so for the likes of Chrysler that’s a great opportunity to get associated with the event as were predicting we will have about 700-800 thousand people going down on that day. 

Are there any more sponsorship announcements soon?

There may well be. I can’t tell you just now. We are working on a couple of things. 

NFL UK has secured a number of broadcast deals of late including Channel 4 adding more rights. Why did you decide Channel 4 should expand their NFL broadcasting?

We have had a great relationship with Sky since 1994. They show a substantial number of games we have more than doubled our viewership for the last three years. 

The association with free-to-air is about trying to increase greater awareness with the Sky relationship about satisfying the avid sports fan and in particular the avid NFL fan. For Free-to-air it allows us to reach out to a broader audience who are not as familiar with the NFL. The Channel 4 deal allows us to have live Wembley games that will be shown simultaneously with Sky on primetime on a Sunday afternoon. It also allows us to have a weekly highlights show on the Satuday morning which allows to showcase our sport in a more bitesize consumer friendly way. Our broadcast strategy is to satisfy the avid NFL fan with as much game content as possible and reach out to as many new fans as well. I think with the combination of Sky and Channel 4 and now we have British Eurosport on board for Monday Night Football we have the biggest broadcast package that we have ever had. 

Why did you also decide to move away from the BBC when the partnership started soo promisingly? Whose decision was it?

I think there is a chance with free-to-air channel in terms of allocating enough air time for a lot of sports. I think with Channel 4 they have given us an opportunity with free-to-air that mirrors a lot of things we do with Sky. Ultimately that is a better solution for us this moment in time.