Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has announced the significant demand for the 2014 FIFA World Cup with over one million tickets requested within seven hours of going on sale.

Germain Arena, Southwest Florida’s premier sports and entertainment venue, and the East Coast Hockey League’s (ECHL) defending Kelly Cup Champion Florida Everblades, are being put up for sale effective immediately.

The announcement was made by Germain Arena and Everblades owner Peter Karmanos, owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, an Everblades affiliate, and Executive Chairman of Compuware Corporation. Both the team and venue, located in Estero, Florida, were founded in 1998.

“I am at a point in time where I want to simplify my life. While I have thoroughly enjoyed owning the arena and team and seeing the tremendous benefit they have been to the community, it is now someone else’s turn,” said Karmanos.

“With the rapidly improving economy in Southwest Florida, this is an excellent time for someone to acquire the team and the arena,” said Craig Brush , Florida Everblades President and General Manager. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished over the last 15 years and believe that greater successes are on the horizon for both Germain Arena and the Everblades.”

Sports investment bank Park Lane, led by its Founder and Managing Director Andrew Kline, will serve as the exclusive sell-side banker for both the team and the arena.

Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade has officially departed Jordan Brand and reportedly joined Beijing-based company Li-Ning.

Wade had been with Jordan Brand since 2009, his contact expired on October 1.

“The Jordan Brand and Dwyane Wade have mutually agreed to end our relationship. We wish Dwyane well as he continues his career,” Jordan Brand said.

Wade said: “We went our separate ways. I still feel honored to have represented my favorite player of all-time and his brand, and the opportunity I was given. But I’m not disappointed at all.”

On Monday, Philadelphia 76er Evan Turner, who represents Li-Ning, tweeted a welcome to Wade that was later removed.

The terms of Wade’s contract with Li-Ning are yet to be disclosed.{jcomments on}

The Philadelphia Phillies’ regular-season sellout streak at Citizens Bank Park was snapped at 257 consecutive games during Monday night’s 6-1 loss to Atlanta.

It ends as the longest streak ever in the National League and third longest in Major League history.

“You kinda know it’s gonna happen,” said Jimmy Rollins, the longest-tenured Phillies player. “You would hope that it wouldn’t. You would hope that one bad season wouldn’t break it up, especially after the five winning seasons that we had and division championships. But that’s the way it goes. People aren’t gonna spend money and come to the game if they don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth. And this year we’ve been a little short.”

Manager Charlie Manuel, whose club fell to 49-60 on Monday night, said: “It’s kind of up to us to make sure we get our team together and get better and get our crowd back. I’m sure we can. I know we still had 40,000 or something like that. I’m sorry we didn’t sell out. That just goes to show you what kind of season we’ve had.”

The streak started during a 4-3 loss to the Reds on July 7, 2009. From that game through Sunday’s, the combined paid attendance was 11,585,952, with an average of 45,082 per game. During the streak, the Phillies went 154-103 at Citizens Bank Park in the midst of three NL East championship seasons.

“The number of sellouts could not have been possible without the tremendous loyalty of our fans who continue to lead all of Major League Baseball in average attendance this year,” Phillies president David Montgomery said.

The paid attendance for Monday’s game against the Braves was 41,665.

The Phillies’ streak trails only the Red Sox’s current string of 772 consecutive sellouts and the Indians’ run of 455 in a row from 1995-2001.

“It was a heck of a run. We had fun. I know I go out every night, first thing I do is look up and see how many seats are empty at the beginning of the game, and by the third inning, see how many of those seats were filled. It was something we came to expect really. … That’s a lot of baseball games. There’s been a lot of winning in that time. Hopefully, they enjoyed it as much as we did.”

The NBA announced that player training camps and all pre-season games for the 2011-12 season have been postponed indefinitely because a new collective bargaining agreement has not been reached with the National Basketball Players Association increasing the likelihood that there will be a delay to the season.

Training camps were scheduled to open on October 3. In addition, doctor the league canceled all preseason games scheduled from October 9 through October 15.

NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, said: “We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games.We will make further decisions as warranted.”

Since the start of the lockout on July 1 the NBA has cut its workforce by about 11% and postponed a program for rookie players. NBA owners have amassed losses of $300 million for the 2010-11 season and in excess of $1.5 billion over the six-year term of the previous collective bargaining agreement (CBA), are seeking significant reductions in player compensation. The previous CBA saw players receive 57% of league basketball-related income (BRI), equating to $2.176 billion from the total of $3.8 billion for the past season.

The two-day Investec Derby Festival at Epsom Downs was attended by over 150,000 people, including a crowd of more than 120,000 people on Saturday, June 4, for Investec Derby Day, making it Britain’s most attended day of sport in 2011.
 


A strong Royal presence at The Jockey Club’s Epsom Downs Racecourse saw Her Majesty The Queen joined by several family members including Prince William, Princess Kate and Prince Harry to cheer her horse, Carlton House, into third place in the world’s most famous Flat race.
 

Hospitality sales were up by 25 per cent year-on-year across the two days of the Investec Derby Festival and Paul Fisher, group managing director of Jockey Club Racecourses, said: “The Investec Derby is the most attended day in UK sport. As well as an increased attendance, we’ve also seen hospitality sales bounce back strongly.
 


“We can put this down to a combination of factors, including great promotional and sales work by the team at Epsom Downs capitalising on Her Majesty The Queen’s runner, marketing the event as Britain’s biggest day out and our fully integrated Jockey Club Catering operation. We were also blessed with some fantastic weather.”
 

Jockey Club Catering confirmed sales over the two days of 14,000 bottles of champagne, 65,000 pints of lager, 35,000 pints of Pimms and 1,000 picnics.

Fisher added: “We’ve seen strong numbers at our leading festivals this year, including the Cheltenham Festival and John Smith’s Grand National Meeting at Aintree, so the Investec Derby Festival has ensured that trend continues.”

The Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) has been fined and its former chief executive Paul King has been banned from all involvement in the sport for two years following his disastrous bid to take over boxing worldwide.

The ABAE were charged US£1,140 for what the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) claimed was, their involvement in an attempt to disrupt the 2010 AIBA Congress in Almaty, Kazakhstan, last October.

King was appointed as CEO of the ABAE in March 2005 and was on a long term secondment from the Liverpool City Council but withdrew his application to fulfil the role on a permanent basis earlier this year following his dramatic fall-out with AIBA.

King, a former AIBA Council Member, incurred the wrath of the world governing body after mounting a failed and controversial campaign to challenge Taiwanese President C K Wu before attempting to postpone the Congress.

The AIBA Congress went ahead as planned and following the re-election of Wu, the AIBA Disciplinary Commission commenced an investigation against 13 AIBA member federations to determine to what extent they were involved in attempts to postpone the event.

They have now decided to suspend King as well as General Taweep Jantararoj, the President of the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand, from all involvement in amateur boxing for a period of 24 months.

Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, England, Ethiopia, Lao, Nepal, Romania, Thailand and Ukraine have all been hit with a fine of $1,140 for their attempts to postpone the Congress.

The creation of the Olympic Public Authority has been given formal approval by Brazil’s Senate to coordinate Government preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The bill was approved last week by the lower house Chamber of Deputies and has now been approved formally, to create the Olympic body, by a 46-13 vote.

The former president of Brazil’s Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles is set to be put in charge of Autoridade Pública Olímpica (PDB) – Olympics Public Authority.

The PDB was the idea of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and is modelled on the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) set-up by London after it won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

When it is fully up and running it is expected to employ up to 500 people. Representatives from the federal, state and city Governments will make up the agency, which is expected to have a budget of around US$18bn.

The agency, whose creation was agreed upon with the International Olympic Committee, will be responsible for coordinating investments, mostly in infrastructure, planned for the Olympic Games that will take place in Rio for 2016.