The National Basketball Asociation (NBA) are set to experiment with shortening the regulation time of a basketball game at a pre-season exhibition game on Sunday between Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics. 

League officials want to examine the flow of a game that utilises four 11-minute quarters instead of the standard four 12-minute quarters.

“At our recent coaches’ meeting, we had a discussion about the length of our games and it was suggested that we consider experimenting with a shorter format,” NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said.

“After consulting with our competition committee, we agreed to allow the Nets and Celtics to play a 44-minute preseason game in order to give us some preliminary data that will help us to further analyse game-time lengths.”

A reduced number of timeouts will be available in the second and fourth quarters, with each quarter including two mandatory timeouts, the first at the first stoppage of play inside of seven minutes remaining in the quarter and the next with the first stoppage inside of three minutes, both coming if neither team has taken a timeout before the first mandatory one.

The current NBA game features three mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters.

“I thought it was a unique experiment that was worth participating in,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “I’m looking forward to gauging its impact on the flow of the game. It will be interesting to see how it plays into substitution patterns.”

Celtics coach Brad Stevens noted the NBA’s history of changes, including shot clock time changes and 3-point arcs.

“I appreciate the NBA’s long history of forward thinking and willingness to try new ideas,” Stevens said. “We told the NBA that we’d be happy to participate in this trial during a pre-season game. I look forward to experiencing it and continuing the dialogue.”

The National Football League (NFL) have announced the 2015 NFL Draft will be held in Chicago moving the event from New York.

The event will be held between April 30-May 2 at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

“We are excited to have fans from throughout the midwest experience theNFL Draft,” NFL Commissioner Goodell said in a statement. “We look forward to returning the event to the city of Chicago and working with the city, Choose Chicago, and the Chicago Sports Commission to create a week-long celebration of football for our fans. Mayor Emanuel and the city of Chicago presented us with numerous ways to enhance the Draft experience for our fans and incoming players.”

The Windy City beat out Los Angeles, which was the other finalist in the running to host the league’s marquee event next year. Various sites across the country expressed interest in hosting the affair but couldn’t beat out a strong bid from Chicago that was backed by Emanuel.

“Chicago is pleased to welcome the 2015 NFL Draft to America’s heartland,”Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “Next year, NFL fans from across the country will travel here or tune in as the future of their team is decided in Chicago. We look forward to working with the Chicago Bears, the NFL, and our neighborhood partners to make this an event that highlights our world class city and reinvests in our communities.”

The event had been hosted in Radio City Music Hall in New York since 2006.

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Former tennis star Li Na has been named as the official ambassador of the WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Havas Sports & Entertainment (Havas SE), vcialis 40mg the global brand engagement network of Havas, has agreed a strategic partnership with Vincent Gaillard, a former Coca-Cola senior global sponsorship executive and former Director General of SportAccord, who recently launched the global sports consultancy, SportCom Ventures.

With SportCom Ventures based out of Switzerland, home to the majority of international sports governing bodies, this partnership will enhance Havas SE’s strategic consulting expertise at global level and strengthen connections with sports rights-holders and top sponsors.   

Havas SE will also benefit from the sports sustainability and event management knowledge of Vincent Gaillard, who, during his tenure as Director General of SportAccord, the union of international sports federations, focused on sport’s social and environmental responsibility, as he did alongside Coca-Cola when he steered their sustainability efforts around the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympics. 

This will further boost Havas SE’s expertise and offer in sustainable event management, which includes a tool developed by Havas SE and ignition called “Havas ISE” (Indicator of Sustainability Engagement), a service to help brands embed sustainability into all of their experiential programs and events. 

Lucien Boyer, Global President & CEO of Havas SE, commented: “This partnership will up-weight the strategic consultancy services we offer to brands, particularly in terms of rights-acquisition and sponsorship strategy, as well as to our other clients, which includes over 50 sports governing bodies, clubs and bids worldwide.

“We therefore hope to take advantage of the natural synergies from our common expertise and knowledge of major sporting events, complementing that of another one of our partners, bid campaign and content specialists Seven46. The fact that SportCom Ventures is based out of Switzerland will mean further proximity and closer relationships with sports stakeholders. 

Highly experienced and knowledgeable in the sports world, Vincent has contributed extensively to one of our top clients: The Coca-Cola Company, where he held several roles managing FIFA and Olympic partnerships around the world. We are already working together on a number of exciting projects around sustainability and we look forward to collaborating further through this new partnership.” 

Vincent Gaillard, Founder of Sportcom Ventures, added: “Our partnership with the Havas Sports & Entertainment network comes at an important time in the development of SportCom Ventures.  It will allow us to strengthen our core communications and brand engagement expertise, ultimately creating greater value for our client-base on an international level. I am excited that our existing relationship has grown into this promising collaboration and I am confident about the successes we can achieve together.”

Bushy Park Circuit in Barbados has been announced as the host for the 2014 Race Of Champions on December 13-14.

The annual end-of-season contest, cialis which has been held for over 25 years, sale brings together the world’s greatest drivers from motor sport’s major disciplines – including Formula 1, abortion World Rally, Le Mans, MotoGP, Nascar, IndyCar, Touring Cars and the X-Games – and sets them free to battle head-to-head in identical machinery.

In recent years the Race Of Champions has visited the Stade de France in Paris (2004-2006), London’s Wembley Stadium (2007-2008), the ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic Stadium in Beijing (2009), Düsseldorf’s ESPRIT arena (2010-2011) and Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium (2012).

The public was asked to contribute to the decision on this year’s ROC host via a vote on the Race Of Champions website, Facebook and Twitter. The Bushy Park Circuit was one of the most popular choices – and after final discussions with all the leading contenders, the Barbados venue has now been selected to stage ROC 2014.

ROC organiser Fredrik Johnsson said: “We have been overwhelmed by the response to our Venue Vote over the past few weeks. We received over 14,000 votes for a mix of different stadiums and circuits all over the world – which will join our list of venues under consideration for future ROC events. As for 2014, the Bushy Park Circuit was one of the most popular venues in our vote and we are very excited to be heading to Barbados as we assemble some of the world’s greatest drivers for another festival of motor sport and entertainment.

“Hosting ROC at a circuit marks a break from our last ten years of stadium events but this is a throwback to our long-time home at Gran Canaria, which hosted the Race Of Champions from 1992 to 2003. We will certainly return to stadium events in the future but for 2014 we will take advantage of the available space to build a truly spectacular ROC parallel track at Bushy Park. We now look forward to seeing a packed house for a guaranteed weekend of thrills in December.”

Bushy Park Circuit Inc Executive Chairman Mark Maloney added: “We are delighted with the news that Bushy Park Circuit has been chosen as the facility to host the Race Of Champions for 2014. This achievement speaks volumes to the credibility of our facility and to our ability to host world class events and also to Barbados as a destination.

“Motor sport is the number one spectator sport in Barbados, ahead of even cricket and football. Now we look forward to being able to show the world what we have to offer as we continue to showcase what we consider to be the world’s premier boutique motor sports facility in tropical paradise.”

Now the Bushy Park Circuit will play host to its biggest motor sport event yet as ROC 2014 heads to the Caribbean island. The Barbados venue will house ROC’s specially constructed tarmac track with two parallel lanes linked by a unique crossover bridge. Drivers will pair up for the ROC Nations Cup, this year taking place on December 13, ahead of the individual Race Of Champions the next day.

Following calls from five national federations for the Court of Arbitration (CAS) to validify Pat McQuaid’s nomination, UCI presidency challenger Brian Cookson believes this action would lead to a ‘fair election’.

The cycling federations of the USA, Russia, Canada, Algeria and Finland have written to UCI president Pat McQuaid requesting that the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on the validity of his nomination for re-election in advance of the election, which takes place at the UCI congress in Florence later this month.

The British Cycling president agrees with the federations and sees no reason why CAS should validify his entry especially due to the recent controversy.

“I can totally understand the desire by a number of National Federations to seek clarity on the UCI Constitution in relation to the nominating procedure and how this applies to the current Presidential election,” Cookson said in a statement.

“Given the nature of the controversy it does make sense to have this matter adjudicated by CAS so that we can have a sound and fair election that is also genuinely robust.”

McQuaid’s bid for a third term as president suffered twin blows when both Cycling Ireland, his home federation, and Swiss Cycling, the federation of his country of residence, opted not to back his candidacy, but the Irishman is attempting to stand for election on the back of nominations from the Moroccan and Thai federations.

However, these nominations will only be valid if an amendment to article 51 of the UCI Constitution proposed by the Asian Cycling Confederation and the Malaysian federation is passed at UCI congress. The proposed amendment would allow a candidate to be nominated by multiple federations instead of by his home federation.

Cookson would run unopposed if the amendment to article 51 is not passed at UCI congress.

USA Cycling and the federations of Russia, Canada, Algeria and Finland have called for a resolution to the impasse to be reached before delegates convene in Florence for the election later this month, proposing that CAS make a binding ruling on the matter in advance of the election.

“At this point, USA Cycling and many other federations believe the answer is neither to sweep all the procedural challenges under the carpet nor to leave these questions open, but rather to obtain a final, incontestable decision in advance of the elections as to whether Article 51.1 allows more than one country to nominate a candidate,” read a statement from USA Cycling president Steve Johnson.

“To that end, we and several other national cycling federations (Russia, Canada, Finland, and Algeria) have proposed that the UCI agree to binding arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a definitive and binding ruling on Article 51.1’s application.”

The five federations’ letters, addressed to McQuaid and UCI director general Christophe Hubschmid, call on McQuaid to “demonstrate his allegiance to the UCI Constitution” by agreeing “to forego the spectre of any post-election litigation over Article 51.1 for the certainty of a pre-election, binding decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”