The Buffalo Bills and Rogers Media announced a new agreement Friday that will keep Rogers Centre in Toronto as the team’s second home.

Buffalo will play one regular-season game at the home of the Toronto Blue Jays for the next five years, and the new contract also includes one preseason game in 2015.

The existing five-year deal — which was worth $78 million — expired when Seattle posted a 50-17 win over Buffalo Dec. 16. But an extension had long been expected despite lingering attendance problems. Only 40,770 fans attended the Seahawks’ win, far short of a sellout. Some 53,000 fans had been expected.

Defensive tackle Kyle Williams said: “It’s very similar to a road game, but also I understand the business side of things,” Williams said then. “I don’t think you’d find a guy in here that wouldn’t agree that they would much rather be in Ralph Wilson Stadium.”

The Bills recently extended their lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., for 10 years, which should solidify the franchise’s short-term future.

Athletics Australia (AA) will restructure its high-performance department, following the team’s results at the London Games, where it fell short of its medals target .”

AA Chairman, Rob Fildes said: “We will review the high-performance department in entirety, which is normal after the Olympic Games.”

Fildes said AA had decided to split head coach Eric Hollingsworth’s job into two roles. A new administrator will manage the high-performance program, with Hollingsworth continuing in the coaching role.

AA is also negotiating with the Australian Institute of Sport to establish performance centres for distance running and sprinting.

Hollingsworth is contracted until the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.{jcomments on}

Former Olympic Swimming champion Mark Spitz, viagra diver Greg Louganis and heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee are among 18 athletes suing Samsung, arguing the tech giant’s Olympic Facebook app uses their names and images without permission.

The argument surrounds Samsung’s Olympic Genome Project app. The app works through your Facebook profile to build a “family tree” of Olympians you’re connected to. Samsung says its database includes more than 10,000 past and present Olympians and Paralympians.

At least 18 of them aren’t at all happy about it.

They argue in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles that Samsung is using their names and faces to create the impression they endorse Samsung products, including Galaxy tablets and phones. Samsung is profiting from the app and “denying plaintiffs compensation for the use of their names and images,” according to the suit.

“They’re using names and images to sell products, and they’ve admitted in interviews that they’re trying to create a more positive image for Samsung,” said Richard Foster, the plaintiff’s attorney. “California law says you can’t use anybody’s name or image to market a product unless you have their consent.”

This is a problem, Foster said, because “these athletes survive on endorsements,” and some have deals with Samsung’s competitors. Being associated with the Samsung app creates ongoing problems, he said, because “once you use a celebrity’s name or image to sell a product, they’re tied to that product category. It makes it difficult for them to get an endorsement deal with other companies in that product category.”

The suit also accuses Samsung of violating Section 3344 of the California civil code, which makes it a crime to use someone’s name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness for commercial purposes without the person’s explicit permission. The plaintiffs argue Samsung did not receive their permission.

Samsung countered in a statement. The company is “disappointed by the lawsuit” and worked closely with the United States Olympic Committee for more than year, following USOC procedures in communicating with athletes.

“Athletes have had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the program and to control their participation. Samsung will continue to support Team USA and the spirit of the Olympics in our efforts,” the company said, declining to comment further.

Foster said the communication consisted of an e-mail sent to each athlete, informing them of the app and telling them to return an attached letter if they wished to opt out. Foster said not all of his clients received the e-mail, while others may have deleted it without reading it. At least “three or four” returned the opt-out letter but were still included.

medstore helvetica, sans-serif;”>The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced that it has renewed the licenses of seven World Tour events for four years. This will be of particular note and relief to the administrators of the Tour of Catalunya, an event which has been blighted by the financial problems that are currently gripping Spain and other parts of Europe.

Earlier this year the race organisers revealed that the event could be in jeopardy due to the recession sweeping the country. But a UCI statement read: “Concerning the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, which had recently made public the financial difficulties it was facing, the UCI reiterated its commitment to contribute to a sustainable development plan, the details of which have as yet to be finalised.”

The seven events granted new four-year licences are:Eneco Tour (The Netherlands/Belgium), Gent-Wevelgem (Belgium), GP Ouest France-Plouay (France), Tour de Pologne (Poland), Tour de Suisse (Switzerland), Vattenfall Cyclassics (Germany) and Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain).

by Ismail Uddin

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has confirmed that just one third of tickets to the football matches, denture 800, cheap 000 out of a total 2.3m, have been sold so far and have implemented a new strategy to drive sales of the competition.

To avoid the embarrassment of empty stadiums during the Games, it is planning a print, outdoor and digital campaign, which will break in April, immediately after the draw for the competition.

Matches are taking place in Glasgow, Newcastle, Coventry, Cardiff and Manchester, as well as in London. LOCOG is therefore set to target those living near the venues to compensate for a potential lack of visitors from overseas attending  those games being played outside the capital.

Ads, by McCann London, will run primarily in local newspapers, a shift from the outdoor-led campaign promoting the general ticket sale last year.

LOCOG is confident that sales will increase once the draw has taken place. Countries that have already qualified to compete in the 16-team men’s tournament include  Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, Switzerland, Belarus, Egypt, Morocco and Gabon. As the host nation, Great Britain qualified automatically.

LOCOG’s ticketing arrangements caused controversy earlier this month when its website, which  allows consumers to re-sell unwanted tickets acquired in last year’s ballot, crashed after technical difficulties.

The aim had been to enable the public to sell on and purchase tickets in real time, but a glitch meant that consumers were attempting to buy tickets that had already been sold.

After being taken down for 11 days, an overhauled system has been put in place, enabling consumers to sell unwanted tickets until 3 February, be-fore a second ballot in April.

IMG College, the global sports and media business’ collegiate licensing arm, has agreed a deal with American clothier chain Brooks Brothers to sell the official sporting merchandise of 15 different schools. Under the agreement, sporting teams from top universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Cornell will have their apparel become available on the high street for the first time.

The deal sees Brooks Brothers enter the lucrative market of college sports which is estimated to have over 172 million followers. IMG figures suggest that 20 per cent of that audience earn an annual salary of over US$100,000, and that college merchandise has generated a reported US$4.3bn in sales during the past year, providing a potentially lucrative stream of revenue for Brooks Brothers.

Karl Haller, vice president of strategy and business development for Brooks Brothers said: “The key for us is re-establishing our connection with what we call the college community — students, faculty and alumni. We have a pretty well-educated customer and there’s a built-in opportunity with alumni who are already our customer base.”

Scott Bouyack, senior vice president for brand and business development at IMG College, added: “As stewards of the college brand, we long looked at Brooks Brothers as an ideal partner in terms of a retail outlet that targets a key group of alumni and a demo that fits with the college market.”

The New York Mets fell from third to fifth in Forbes magazine’s list of Major League Baseball (MLB) team values, while the New York Yankees remained the sport’s richest team.

The Mets are worth 13 per cent less than this time last year, at US$747m, while the Yankees’ value rose 6 per cent to $1.7bn, almost doubling that of the Boston Red Sox, who at $912m are the second richest baseball team.

The Yankees trail only the National Football League’s (NFL) Dallas Cowboys as the most valuable team in U.S. sports, which Forbes valued at $1.805bn last August.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are third in value at $800m after a 10 per cent increase from last year, followed by the Chicago Cubs $773m, and the Mets.

According to Forbes, the average team is now worth an all-time high $523m, a 7 percent increase from last year as new ballparks and regional sports networks boosted revenue 4 per cent to $6.1bn.

The Philadelphia Phillies’ value rose 13 per cent to $609 million, making them the sixth most valuable team, while World Series champion San Francisco Giants were seventh at $563m, a 16 per cent increase.

Texas Rangers, who in 2010 reached the World Series for the first time in team history, were eighth at $561m after a 25 per cent increase in value, the highest among the top 10 teams on the list.

Completing the top ten were the Los Angeles Angels, worth $554m and the Chicago White Sox.

ESPN Star Sports, the official broadcaster for the upcomign ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, has roped in big bang sponsors for the cricket’s marquee event, according to sportzpower.com, India’s leading sports business portal.

Sony, Pepsi, Maruti Suzuki, Nokia and Philips are some of the sponsors who have come on-board as the broadcast sponsors.

Sources say that ESS is looking at 10 sponsors with three co-presenting and seven associate sponsors.

The broadcaster has also launched the marketing campaign for the event with “One Billion Hearts. One Wish” being the theme of the campaign.

When contacted an ESS spokesperson remained tight lipped about the developments.

Souce: sportzpower.com