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.”

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 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}

 

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

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

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.

London Olympics organizers have announced plans to re-open a ticket resale website on Tuesday for the Summer Games which has been out of commission for over a week but only for people who want to resell their tickets.

The ticket resale will allow people to return tickets, pilule resuming a resale effort that stalled earlier this month when the computer site crashed. London has suffered several computer glitches because demand for the July 27-Aug. 12 event has outstripped supply.

Ticket holders can offer their tickets for resale at face value until Feb. 3. Those who want to buy those Olympic tickets will have to wait until April.

Chris Townsend, the commercial director for the London 2012 organizers, said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the suspension of our ticketing resale platform. We made a commitment to our customers to give them a safe, secure and legal way of selling Olympic and Paralympic tickets which they are no longer able to use. We are delivering on that commitment.”

The decision to delay the resumption of purchases reflects a tacit acknowledgment by Olympics organizers that demand for tickets has exceeded the capability of their computers systems to address them.

London’s organizers have struggled with ticket sales — and the public anger that has emerged after several faltering efforts to make the sales fair and equitable. Frustration began from the start, with a complicated lottery system in which people blindly registered for tickets and handed over their credit card details before learning what tickets they were getting.

Two-thirds of ticket seekers failed to earn any in a first round that ended in April, with 22 million requests for 6.6 million available tickets. While some of those tickets will come back in resale, because the plans of the buyers have changed, organizers acknowledge that those numbers will be limited.

Another round was blighted by computer problems, even before the troubles with the resales earlier this month.

Global sports media and management company IMG Worldwide has struck a deal with advertising and marketing giant WPP to offer consumer products licensing and merchandising services.

In what the two companies have called a “multi-year agreement”, remedy WPP and IMG will establish a joint team, doctor sharing resources to provide licensing services to clients from WPP’s portfolio of agencies.

WPP chief executive officer Martin Sorrell stated: “More than ever, licensing is emerging as one of the new creative ways of developing brands and sales. It is a capability we see as increasingly important to our clients.

“We wanted to offer this important discipline in a global execution and with the market leader – that is IMG. In our view, there could be no better partner to help us achieve our goals in this area.”

George Pyne, president of IMG’s Sports and Entertainment Group, added: “WPP’s agencies have an impressive roster of clients coupled with the brand knowledge and consumer insights that come from years of experience working with them.

“We believe that our global execution capability and specialised expertise in the licensing business coupled with their deep-rooted knowledge and relationships with certain client companies can yield some very beneficial and successful partnerships. This is a really natural collaboration that was waiting to happen.”

Jeff Moorad, doctor chief executive of Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise San Diego Padres, has sold his US$21m stake in the team’s National League West rivals the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Moorad has transferred his minority share, believed to be around 8 per cent of the franchise, back into the hands of the team’s current partnership headed by managing general partner, Ken Kendrick.

Moorad has since confirmed to MLB.com that the deal is complete however, it wouldn’t necessarily accelerate his group’s takeover of the Padres. The Jeff Moorad Group currently own 49 per cent of the Petco Park-based franchise and have until March 2014 to complete the purchase from majority owner John Moores. Any deal will not be completed before the beginning of the 2011 season according to Moorad, though he added that he was considering buying Moores out early.

Regarding his potential takeover of the Padres, Moorad said: “We may very well accelerate it, but we’ve made no decision on when that will be.”

Moorad resigned as Diamondbacks chief executive in January 2009, enabling his group to pay US$100 million dollars for an initial 35 per cent stake in the Padres in March of that year. As per the contract signed, this investment increased to 49 per cent prior to the start of the 2010 MLB season. At the time of the initial transaction, the Padres were valued at US$530 million including debt.

For 34 seasons, Dave Niehaus narrated baseball in the Pacific Northwest.

The golden Midwestern tones and trademark “My Oh My” and “It will fly away” tags of Seattle’s first baseball icon were silenced Wednesday.

Niehaus, who called the first pitch in Seattle Mariners history and described more than three decades of occasionally good and mostly bad baseball, died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack at his suburban Bellevue home, according to his family. He was 75.

“He was one of the great broadcast voices of our generation, a true gentleman, and a credit to baseball,” commissioner Bud Selig said. “He was a good friend and I will miss him. But he will be sorely missed, not only in the Pacific Northwest, where he had called Mariners games since the club’s inception in 1977, but wherever the game is played.”

From Diego Segui’s first pitch on April 6, 1977, through the end of the 2010 season, Niehaus called 5,284 of the Mariners’ 5,385 games. He was the instructor for a region void of the major league game sans the Seattle Pilots’ one-year experiment in 1969. Adults and kids regularly tuned in on summer evenings to hear Niehaus try and put his best spin on what were among the worst teams in baseball during much of the club’s history.