Advanced Engine Research to Supply Engines for Indy Lights Until 2019

Andersen Promotions today announced Advanced Engine Research Ltd (AER) as the new engine supplier for Indy Lights.

AER was selected following a thorough review of proposals submitted by five prospective engine suppliers.

AER is owned by Rob and Chris Dyson and company Managing Director Mike Lancaster. The partnership between Andersen Promotions and AER, cough which extends through 2019, will see a slightly modified, long-mileage version of the multiple sportscar championship-winning AER-P07 2.0 liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine installed in the new Dallara IL-15 chassis prior to testing next August. The new car and engine combination will make its competition debut at the start of the 2015 Indy Lights season.

“I am very grateful for the tremendous amount of interest from so many manufacturers in our 2015 Indy Lights car,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions. “The AER engine we have selected for use in the new Indy Lights car is a great unit with proven reliability and performance. With its light weight and push-to-pass feature, we will have a strong package for our drivers which will make for great racing and training. Rob and Chris Dyson have been friends for years. When I learned of their involvement in AER, it made the decision so much easier. They are true professionals, and I look forward to many years together on this exciting project.”

“This is an exciting opportunity for AER,” said Rob Dyson. “In addition to our successful projects in LMP1 and LMP2 prototype sportscars, the company has extensive experience in single-engine series, including a 3.5-liter V6 for the World Series by Nissan and the current GP3 Series V6 engines. The opportunity to supply the engines for the Indy Lights series was a very attractive one for us. We look forward to powering the growth of the up and coming open-wheel drivers in North America.”

European Tour’s Race to Dubai Renewed Until 2017

The European Tour’s end of season Race to Dubai series will continue until 2017, the organisers have announced.

The Race to Dubai replaced the Order of Merit in 2009 and this year’s event was won by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson who captured the lucrative prize. 

The next edition of The Race to Dubai will once again conclude with the season-ending finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates, which will carry with it an increased Bonus Pool of US$5 million. Furthermore, at least one staging of the championship will be on the complex’s Fire course between 2014 and 2017.

As a further symbol of the committed partnership between The European Tour and Jumeirah Golf Estates, The European Tour will establish an International Office within the new clubhouse, which will be operational by the staging of the 2014 tournament, as well as acquiring a property within the grounds of what is destined to become one of the world’s pre-eminent residential communities.

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “It was 25 years ago that I came to Dubai for the first time for the first Dubai Desert Classic. Since then, we have helped to grow the game here and throughout the whole of the UAE while, in addition, we are also hugely supportive of Dubai’s bid to win the right to host Expo 2020.

“They have rewarded us with an incredible growth of courses alongside the facilities they provide for all our players. Thanks to the leadership and vision of DP World, the tremendous contribution of everyone at Jumeirah Golf Estates, and the continued commitment of our partners, the future of The Race to Dubai is exceptionally positive.

“We have announced today extending The Race until 2017 and I’ve said many times that this is the perfect venue to finish our year. The climate is excellent, the facilities here are superb, and the welcome from everyone here in Dubai is simply outstanding.”

Yousuf Kazim, General Manager of Jumeirah Golf Estates, said: “We are delighted to be extending the agreement for The European Tour’s Race to Dubai and hosting the season’s final event in Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates until at least 2017.

“This partnership with The European Tour includes the hosting of the DP World Tour Championship as well as Jumeirah Golf Estates being part of the European Tour Properties family, including the recently opened European Tour Performance Institute (ETPI).

“We look forward to staging the championship on the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates and showcasing it to the world of golf at least once in the three year extension.

“This long term commitment mirrors the sustainable growth of Dubai and we are all very excited with this mutually beneficial partnership and where it is taking us.”

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Indian F1 Grand Prix in Doubt after Organisers Taken to Court

The Indian Grand Prix may be in doubt after an Indian Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear a petition seeking the cancellation of this weekend’s race because organisers have allegedly not paid entertainment taxes for the 2012 event.

India’s Supreme Court has executive powers and ordered organisers two years ago to freeze 25 percent of ticket revenues until they had settled a tax dispute with the state where the racetrack is located.

“We will hear the petition tomorrow,” Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said in court, announcing a new legal snag for Formula One in India.

That ruling came in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by campaigner Amit Kumar, who is also behind Thursday’s petition seeking the cancellation of the race on Sunday.

Kumar successfully argued in 2011 that Formula One was entertainment, not sport, and should not benefit from tax exemptions granted by the state of Uttar Pradesh, which borders the capital New Delhi.

Entertainment tax, applicable for large-scale shows and sponsored festivals, has been levied on tickets this year.

India is already not on the 2014 schedule for “logistical” reasons but were expected to return in 2015.

The event itself has been plagued with poor attendances with Jaypee, the race organiser, revealing only last week that they had sold only 20,000 tickets for the coming event.

Sauber F1 Team Principal has even suggested they have been missed an opportunity as they have failed to entice the local crowd.

“We have missed an opportunity,” Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn, an Austrian who was born in Dehradun, is quoted as saying.

“We have not been able to sell F1 well enough in these parts,” she admitted.

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IMG to Market Euroleague Rights in UK, Africa & Asia Pacific

Euroleague Basketball has announced a partnership with IMG Media, a division of IMG Worldwide, for the global sports agency to market the rights to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

IMG were instrumental in the recent deals in Spain, Italy, South Africa, the Netherlands and Georgia and is working with Euroleague Basketball to secure broadcast contracts across all forms of the media in other key territories.

These include Belgium (Flemish Region), Africa, the UK from the 2013/14 season and subsequently the Asian Pacific regions from 2014/15.

Ioris Francini, EVP of IMG Media, said: “The Turkish Airlines Euroleague is growing in popularity, not only in Europe, but around the world. The quality of the players and teams, and the excitement they generate on a weekly basis makes it an outstanding asset to media around the world.

“We are delighted to be working with Euroleague Basketball to help them grow the competition, enhance the image and increase their exposure globally.”

Jordi Bertomeu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Euroleague Basketball, said: “IMG Media is well known for providing their partners with hard to match knowledge and expertise within the sports field. IMG Media manages the rights of some of the most prestigious sports properties in the world, and we are delighted that the Turkish Airlines Euroleague is amongst them.

“IMG’s philosophy perfectly fits with Euroleague’s strategy for the next years. I am confident this deal will help us reach our goals, taking the League to the next level, both sports wise and commercially.”

The Turkish Airlines Euroleague tips off on October 11 and features 24 top teams from 18 countries in Europe. They will compete on 31 competition dates over an eight month period leading to the Final Four event in Milan, Italy from May 16-18, 2014.

Last season saw Greek side Olympiakos Piraeus beat Spanish giants Real Madrid 100-88 at London’s O2 Arena to win the title for the second successive year.

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Gloucestershire Cricket Announce Significant Profit

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club have announced imressive financial figures after a profit of £2.9million for the year ending January 31 2013.

The majority of that figure – £2.8million – comes from the decision to lease part of the Bristol’s County Ground to Linden Homes.

Despite gate income and membership being reduced by £57,000 and £30,000 respectively due to the high volume of inclement weather, the county still made a trading surplus of £108,000.

The news comes as a further boost to Gloucestershire, whose ground is being redeveloped with an enlarged pavilion set to be completed at the end of July.

Outgoing chairman Rex Body: “This has been an exceptional year for the club, with the start of our long-awaited development and the financial impact this has had.

“We are reporting a record surplus of £2.9m for the year. Stripping out the surplus on the lease to Linden we made an operating surplus of £108k, our best performance since 2007 despite the effect of the dreadful weather.

“There is still more to do, however. We are committed to substantial continued development spend as well as increased playing squad expenditure so we will continue to exercise financial prudence. Nevertheless, these results augur well for the future.”

Chennai Super Kings Unveil New Corporate Multi-Sports Tournament

Indian Premier League franchise, Chennai Super Kings today announced ‘Chennai Super Kings Super Cup’ – an all new multi-sports corporate tournament.

The Super Cup, presented by Aircel will be an annual event introduced by Chennai Super Kings in order to promote interaction among business professionals by hosting multiple sports like tennis, table tennis, badminton, snooker, chess and cricket (20-20 format). True to its goal of being a ‘Platform for like-minded people to play & interact’, corporates across industries have been selected as participants.

The tournament will commence from February 3rd in Chennai and will witness participation from 38 Corporates (from Fortune 500 cadre) from Chennai who will battle it out for their sporting glory. All the matches will be officiated by TNCA qualified umpires and scorers. Winners and runners up will be awarded with attractive prizes and trophies. The tournament will conclude on March 24th and the winners may also get an opportunity to meet the Chennai Super Kings Team at the prize distribution.

Mr. Stephen Fleming, Coach – Chennai Super Kings said: “This initiative by Chennai Super Kings is intended to encourage spirit of sportsmanship and competition among participants and  fans. We are providing a platform to promote other sports at par with cricket and this will definitely strengthen our bond with our fans.”

Mr. Chandrabhan, GM – Marketing, India Cements Ltd. said: “Through this initiative, the key decision makers of today and tomorrow will come together to compete on sports field, meet like-minded people in an informal setting and can be a harbinger of many new business ideas. We, at India Cements, believe that local businesses and fans must see a stake in the success of the home team – Chennai Super Kings. We are confident that the Super Cup will gain appreciation and will create a success story which will substantiate Chennai Super Kings as a fan-driven, sports entertainment brand.”

The corporates participating in this tournament are as follows: TCS, Allsec, HDFC Bank, Accenture, Ernst & Young, Cognizant, HCL, RBS, Infosys, Vodafone, WNS Global Services, Coke, Caliber Point, Danfoss Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hexaware Technology, Damco-Maersk, Verizon, HP, HSBC, CapGemini, India Cements, FreshDesk, Sutherland, Cholamandalam, VGN, Ericcson Global, SistemaShyam, Servion Global, Tata Capital, Impiger Tech, The Hindu, Jones Lang La Salle, Tata Tele, Samsung, Standard Chartered Bank, ITC and India Pistons.

Sony Tennis Sponsorship Draws Negative Response from Chinese Crowd

Sony is the latest major sponsor to be affected by tension between China and Japan over a border dispute.

Sony, a major sponsor of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), sponsored the women’s competition at the China Open.

During the women’s awards presentation, Sony was name checked as a sponsor leading to boos from the crowds.

The ongoing political tension between the two nations is expected to have negative effects on sponsorship and events, according to industry sources.{jcomments on}

 

Sporthilfe-Zahlen zu Athletenverdienst: Geringes Einkommen, hohe Belastung, kaum Absicherung

Frankfurt am Main (ots) – Zur Diskussion über Verdienstmöglichkeiten deutscher Spitzensportler weist die Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe auf die von ihr vor zwei Jahren erhobenen, cialis unverändert aktuellen Daten zur Lebenswirklichkeit von Top-Athleten hin. Deutschlands Spitzenathleten verdienen weniger als der Schnitt der bundesdeutschen Bevölkerung, erbringen einen deutlich umfangreicheren Arbeitsaufwand und sind weder sozial noch für die Zeit nach der sportlichen Karriere hinreichend abgesichert.

“Wir haben vor zwei Jahren in einer repräsentativen wissenschaftlichen Umfrage der Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln unter 4.000 von der Deutschen Sporthilfe geförderten Athleten ein Brutto-Monatseinkommen von 1.919 Euro und einen Nettoverbleib von 626 Euro im Monat ermittelt”, sagt Dr. Michael Ilgner, Vorsitzender des Vorstands der Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe. “Unsere Athleten haben im Schnitt eine 60-Stunden-Woche und sind darauf angewiesen, neben dem Sport für ihr schulisches und berufliches Fortkommen selber zu sorgen – und das bei einem durchschnittlichen Jahres-Brutto-Verdienst von gerade einmal knapp 24.000 Euro.” Daher denken 51,9 Prozent der Athleten während ihrer sportlichen Karriere gar ans Aufhören.

Um Athleten besser fördern zu können, ruft die Deutsche Sporthilfe in ihrer Spendenkampagne “Dein Name für Deutschland” die sportbegeisterte deutsche Bevölkerung dazu auf, deutsche Spitzensportler mit 3 Euro im Monat zu unterstützen. “Ohne Förderung kein Spitzensport und keine Erfolge”, lautet die Kurz-Formel von Michael Ilgner. Gleichzeitig sehen mehr als 90 Prozent deutsche Spitzensportler als Vorbilder für Leistung und zwei Drittel der Deutschen sind stolz auf die Erfolge deutscher Spitzensportler, wie eine weitere repräsentative wissenschaftliche Umfrage der Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln aus dem vergangenen Jahr ergeben hat.

“Die olympischen Erfolgsprämien der Sporthilfe für Medaillengewinner und Platzierte bis Rang acht sind nur ein kleiner Baustein der Sporthilfe-Leistungen für Athleten. Vor allem die Elite-Programme, im Übrigen auch schon für Nachwuchsathleten, und dabei besonders ElitePlus, ermöglicht von unserem Partner PwC, stellen wichtige Grundlagen für unsere Spitzensportler dar,” sagt Ilgner. “Stolz sind wir auch auf unsere Module zur Unterstützung einer dualen Karriere.” Vom Deutsche Bank Sport-Stipendium profitieren alle Studenten unter den 3.800 geförderten Athleten, derzeit sind das rund 300.

Details aus der Athleten-Studie:

Der kalkulatorische Stundenlohn eines deutschen Athleten beträgt 7,38 Euro Brutto (zum Vergleich Brutto-Stundenlöhne im Baugewerbe: 15,49 Euro; Erziehung/Unterricht: 18,57 Euro; Bergbau: 18,72 Euro; Energie-/Wasser: 23,74 Euro; Kredit-/Versicherung: 23,75 Euro). Athleten kommen in Deutschland im Schnitt auf ein monatlich verfügbares Einkommen von 626 Euro. 52,6 Prozent der Athleten müssen davon noch Miete zahlen. Beträgt die Miete mehr als 267 Euro, liegen Athleten sogar auf Hartz IV-Niveau. 243 Euro im Monat werden allein für sportbezogene Ausgaben verbraucht. Spitzensportler tragen zudem höhere soziale Risiken: nur 28,7 Prozent zahlen freiwillig Renten- und Arbeitslosenbeiträge. Athleten sind im Schnitt 60 Stunden pro Woche tätig. 36,1 Prozent der Spitzensportler arbeiten neben dem Sport. Und sie sind 124 Tage pro Jahr in ihrer Sportart unterwegs, also nicht zu Hause.

Download der Studie “Sportökonomische Analyse der Lebenssituation von Spitzensportlern in Deutschland” unter http://ots.de/r50lz

Force India Forced to Pay Aerolab after High Court Ruling

Design company Aerolab and Formula One team Force India have settled their dispute at the High Court in London.

Aerolab had worked with Force India until 2009, when its ended the relationship over unpaid bills – with the company then starting work with the new Caterham team (then running under the Lotus name) just days later.

Force India claimed that the Lotus T127 had featured a large number of parts copied from Force India’s design and although the court stated that the intellectual property rights had been used as a ‘shortcut’ it threw out claims that there has been ‘systematic copying’ of the design and said Force India hadn’t come close to proving that to be the case.

Force India was ordered to pay outstanding fees of more than £700,000 to Aerolab, although Force India was handed just under £21,000 in compensation for use of its intellectual property.

Despite the High Court ruling, the Silverstone-based team now plans to refer the matter to the FIA for further consideration given that using the intellectual property of other teams is banned under F1 rules.

“The UK High Court judgement, in respect of the illegal copying, will now be referred for the consideration of Formula One’s governing body, the FIA,” the team said, “whilst the Italian criminal case against Mike Gascoyne, Tony Fernandes and Jean Claude Migeot remains ongoing.”

by Ismail Uddin

Trotz Doping-Urteil: Alpecin Cycling Day 2012 findet mit Jan Ullrich statt

In einer Stellungnahme verkündete die Unternehmensgruppe Dr. Wolff, buy zu der die Marke Alpecina gehört, dass „das Unternehmen wie geplant den Alpecin Cycling Day in Bielefeld veranstalten wird.“ Weiterhin hieß es: „Das ist ganz im Sinne unserer Radsporttradition. Auch an der Zusammenarbeit mit Jan Ullrich wird sich nichts ändern. Wenn er nicht fahren darf, wird er nicht fahren. In soweit respektieren wir die Regeln des „Bund Deutscher Radfahrer”.

Auf jeden Fall wird Jan Ullrich am Alpecin Cycling Day als unser Gast dabei sein.

Der Internationale Sportsgerichtshof Cas hatte den Tour de France Sieger wegen Dopings schuldig gesprochen. Sein dritter Platz bei der Tour de France 2005 wurde ihm darüber hinaus aberkannt. Wie die Richter am Donnerstag in Lausanne mitteilten, sei eine Verstrickung Ullrichs in die Doping-Affäre um den spanischen Mediziner Eufemiano Fuentes bewiesen. Einen Antrag des Rad-Weltverbands UCI, Ullrich lebenslang für alle Aktivitäten im Radsport zu sperren, wies der Cas allerdings ab.

In einer Stellungnahme verkündete die Unternehmensgruppe Dr. Wolff, zu der die Marke Alpecina gehört, dass „das Unternehmen wie geplant den Alpecin Cycling Day in Bielefeld veranstalten wird.“ Weiterhin hieß es: „Das ist ganz im Sinne unserer Radsporttradition. Auch an der Zusammenarbeit mit Jan Ullrich wird sich nichts ändern. Wenn er nicht fahren darf, wird er nicht fahren. In soweit respektieren wir die Regeln des „Bund Deutscher Radfahrer”. 

Auf jeden Fall wird Jan Ullrich am Alpecin Cycling Day als unser Gast dabei sein.

Der Internationale Sportsgerichtshof Cas hatte den Tour de France Sieger wegen Dopings schuldig gesprochen. Sein dritter Platz bei der Tour de France 2005 wurde ihm darüber hinaus aberkannt. Wie die Richter am Donnerstag in Lausanne mitteilten, sei eine Verstrickung Ullrichs in die Doping-Affäre um den spanischen Mediziner Eufemiano Fuentes bewiesen. Einen Antrag des Rad-Weltverbands UCI, Ullrich lebenslang für alle Aktivitäten im Radsport zu sperren, wies der Cas allerdings ab.