The head of Pyeongchang’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics pledged Thursday to respect the IOC’s rules after being warned following a conflict-of-interest investigation into sponsorship contracts tied to the South Korean candidacy.

Cho Yang-ho, who is chief executive of Korean Air and head of the Pyeongchang committee, said in an e-mailed letter to the IOC Ethics Commission that the bid group and all related organizations “will strictly respect the IOC Code of Ethics, the Rules of Conduct and all proper implementing provisions.”

His comments came a day after the International Olympic Committee issued a warning to Pyeongchang and reminded the bid to “fully respect the rules of conduct.” Two South Korean companies signed sponsorship deals with international sports federations headed by senior IOC members.

Korean Air signed a two-year, $1 million sponsorship deal with the International Skating Union (ISU) in October. The IOC said both sides agreed to postpone the start of the deal until after the 2018 host-city vote in July.

Ottavio Cinquanta is an IOC executive board member who heads the ISU.

The IOC said Wednesday a separate sponsorship deal between South Korean electronics giant Samsung and the international rowing federation, known as FISA, did not break the rules. Samsung is one of the IOC’s global sponsors.

“We appreciate the logic of this decision at this time, which has also been conveyed to the International Olympic Committee,” the Pyeongchang bid group said Thursday in a statement. “We believe that this matter is now closed and we can all move forward into the next phase of the 2018 bid campaign.

“PyeongChang 2018 has always been and continues to remain committed to complying with all IOC rules and regulations.”

Korean Air said it remains committed to sports sponsorship but decided to delay the ISU deal to avoid any “misunderstanding.”

“This decision clears up any current concerns that may have arisen,” the airline said in a statement Thursday.

Cinquanta insisted he did nothing wrong.

“I wasn’t acting as an IOC member for this deal, I was acting as the ISU president,” Cinquanta told The Associated Press from his office in Milan. “The commercial rights we granted are property of the ISU, not Mr. Cinquanta. If I thought I had done something wrong maybe I would have acted differently, but I don’t know because that’s not the case.”

Pyeongchang is competing against Munich and the French town of Annecy to host the 2018 Winter Games. The IOC will select the host by secret ballot next July 6 in Durban, South Africa.

English League Two team AFC Wimbledon have revealed intentions to build a new stadium at Plough Lane in time for the 2017/18 season.

The Dons last week found out that they would be able to submit a planning application on the site of Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, near to where the now extinct Wimbledon FC played.

The team hope to construct an 11,000-seater stadium, with the possibility of an expansion to 20,000 thereafter.

“There are several challenges to overcome, but I’m hopeful we’d open up for business in 2017,” said chief executive Erik Samuelson.

“A new stadium at Plough Lane would mean a whole host of things from the trivial to the massive.

“If you’d said to any of our fans on 28 May 2002 ‘don’t worry – 15 years from now you’ll be in the Football League and opening a brand new stadium in Plough Lane’ they’d have said you’re absolutely nutty.”

The World Superbike Championship will not have a Russian Round after the organisers DWO and YMS Promotion decided to cancel the event.

The event that was set to be scheduled on the Moscow Raceway on September 21st 2014.

According to a statement: “The current political situation affects the capabilities of a number of key partner companies essential to run the event.”

“Parties regret the decision, ed but are confident that the strong partnership between DWO and YMS Promotion will prevail.”

“It is a common intention to continue with the organisation of the WSBK Russian Round in 2015 and for the remainder of the contract period up to 2021.”

The Indian Premier League have revealed South Africa as an alternate location for the 2014 tournament set to take place between April 9 to June 3.

India is still venue of choice but is expected to clash with the federal elections in India, diagnosis IPL officials said South Africa would be the “preferred” alternative. A final decision will be taken only after a meeting between the organisers and officials of the Indian government.

“We are considering so many options with regards to the venue. We are waiting first for the home ministry to check the possible dates,” Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary, told the media after the IPL governing council meeting on Thursday. “As far as possible our interest is to hold the IPL in India. Then, probably, South Africa is the preferred venue at the moment. The second option is also there and the third option is also there.”

Reports last week had singled out Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa as potential alternative venues. Patel and Ranjib Biswal, the IPL chairman, clarified that as far as possible the BCCI wanted to hold the entire tournament in India but would consider shifting matches to South Africa if the need arose.

Biswal said he was looking forward to meeting the federal government, possibly in the following week, to check on the feasibility of holding the tournament in India.

“We will be speaking to the officials in the government of India and the home ministry,” Biswal said. “We want to hold maximum number of matches in India and if we get the green signal (from the government), then probably the whole tournament can be played here.”

It has been revealed the NHL has increased its ticket prices this season by a higher percentage than the NBA, capsule NFL and MLB for a second consecutive year, illness according to an annual study by Team Marketing Report.

The news comes approximately one month after the NHL resolved yet another lockout, the third in the past 18 years, that resulted in a loss of the entire preseason and 34 regular season games.

The average price of a non-premium ticket to an NHL game is currently $61.01, 5.7 percent higher than last season. By comparison, the average price for a ticket to an NFL game rose 2.5 percent to $78.38, 3.5 percent for an NBA game, which now costs on average $50.99 per ticket and the MLB remained flat at $26.98 for the average price of a ticket. The average cost for a family of four to go to an NHL game this season is $354.82, which includes tickets and things like drinks, hot dogs and parking, 7.9 percent higher than last season.

Tickets to Canadian teams are the highest in the league. At an average cost of $124.69 U.S. dollars, the Toronto Maple Leafs have the highest ticket prices in the NHL. The Winnipeg Jets, Vancouver Canucks and  Edmonton Oilers, which have an average price of $79.27, round out the list of highest ticket prices in the NHL, respectively. At an average price of $79.25, the Washington Capitals have the highest ticket prices in the U.S. this season, followed by the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers. But it was the Buffalo Sabres who saw the highest increase in prices this season, raising ticket prices on average by more than 26 percent to $46.15 per ticket.

Despite the increases for the NHL, attendance has been on the rise this season; since the lockout, there has been a 1.1 percent increase from last season’s average through games ending Feb. 12. The average attendance to an NHL game this year rose to 17,652, roughly 200 more people per game.

Speakers of the World Yacht Racing Forum highlighted the great potential and assets of the sport of sailing.

The industry offers great opportunities to partners, viagra ed venues, athletes or events. However it needs more creativity. And a special care must be given to the return provided to the sport’s partners.

The fifth edition of the World Yacht Racing Forum started this morning, Tuesday December 11, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Over 250 delegates from all over the world attended the presentations, collected precious information and met the industry’s key actors during the networking breaks.

Most of today’s sessions focused on sponsorship, and were aimed at bettering the relationship between sailors, events or teams and their commercial backers.

How can sponsors ensure brand activation? What are the best ways to promote the sport of sailing? How can our sport generate an income? What should a sponsorship proposal contain? Those were some of the questions debated by today’s panellists.

“Sailing sponsorship, and sponsorship in general, should be envisioned in a long term perspective”, said Sven Österberg, General Manager, Volvo Event Management Sweden. “And it is essential to plan a long time ahead; at least 1 – 2 years.”

Leslie Greenhalgh, Marketing Director, Open Sports Management, spoke about her personal experience with Skandia Team GBR, and disclosed some of the key elements of a successful partnership: “It was really important to get immersed alongside the partner in order to understand their needs and objectives. To summarise, it was important to allocate time!”

Greenhalgh, on the other hand, said she has witnessed several projects which don’t provide enough return to their partners. “This is one reason why some brands have left the sport of sailing. In fact, the hard work begins the day when you sign your contract.”

“The market is changing”, insisted Mark Turner, Executive Chairman, OC Sport. “Today’s potential is in the so called emerging countries; India, China, Brasil… In fact we should rather call them fast growing countries; we are the ones stagnating. In order to guarantee the success of projects in those new markets, we must ensure that new talent emerges. Today’s crewmembers will be tomorrow’s stars. It will take time but it is essential to develop tomorrow’s talents.”

Some interesting sessions focused on the revenue streams that can be generated through the sport of sailing. Media visibility, public participation and brand activation are amongst the obvious answers, whilst TV doesn’t seem to be. “All sports struggle to sell TV rights, and sailing is virtually impossible to sell”, commented Dominique Curchod (Curchod Communications). “The revenue therefore lies in a free distribution, and the visibility associated to it.”

“The sailing industry has an obsession with television”, added Richard Moore, CEO, Capitalize. “Does sailing have a strong appeal to a wide audience on TV? The answer is no.”

Many of today’s speakers highlighted the fact that the sport needs more creativity to appeal to a wider audience. New media and social networks are at the heart of the sports development; they will be discussed during tomorrow’s sessions.

Richard Brisius, CEO, Atlant Ocean Racing, concluded day one by saying: “Sometimes, we don’t believe enough in the sport of sailing. But the fact is, it’s a wonderful sport, with great values, that can provide a lot to its partners.”

The National Hockey League announced today the cancellation of the remainder of the 2012 preseason schedule.

The League and the NHL Players’ Association failed to reach an agreement for a new collective bargaining agreement. 

The NHL already had called off all the preseason games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11.

The two sides have scheduled talks on Friday in New York, although they are on secondary economic issues as opposed to the core of the dispute — how to split more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

“I’ll reserve judgment on my sense of ‘optimism’ (or not) until we see how our meetings unfold,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Associated Press. “Ultimately, we have to meet and talk to make a deal. But until we make progress and see some compromise from the Union of their economic position, we won’t be going anywhere fast.

“We will see.”

The NHL and the union last met for formal negotiations Sept. 12, three days before the labor pact that ended the previous lockout — back in 2005 — ran out.