Troon Golf  has announced a corporate partnership with Digital Caddies, Inc., a market leading tablet-based golf course navigation and content platform.

Troon operates nearly 200 public and private golf facilities throughout the United States and 27 other countries and is the largest golf management company in the world.

“We’re extremely impressed with the Digital Caddies Players Network and the company’s sound business strategy — we see where this is heading,” said Scott VanNewkirk Senior Vice President, Global Business Development for Troon. “Through this agreement, we’re now able to leverage advanced technology to even further improve the service experience we offer to our golf properties and our customers.”

Earlier this year, Digital Caddies launched The Player’s Network — a tablet-based technology platform installed on golf carts that connects to the Web through Sprint’s high-speed wireless network and improves guests’ experiences by providing instant and accurate yardages, real-time interaction with the clubhouse, and other content golfers demand.

The platform is also a powerful tool for golf course operators to build guest loyalty, increase course revenue and lower operating costs. The content on the platform is specifically designed to promote interaction between the golfer and the device throughout their round and thus provides an excellent opportunity for golf course operators and advertisers to interact directly with golfers in ways that have never been possible before.

“The addition of Troon and their portfolio of exceptional public and private courses will contribute to both the quality and growth of the Digital Caddies Players Network,” said Digital Caddies President Mike Loustalot. “This is a big step toward gaining the critical mass of quality golf courses and golfers that makes the Players Network an attractive vehicle for digital advertisers, both locally and nationally.”

“Sprint is delighted to see how The Players Network value proposition is resonating with the golf industry and especially with a major leader like Troon,” said Kimberly Green-Kerr, Regional Vice President, Sprint. “We’re proud to provide nationwide 3G connectivity for one of the most innovative experiences in golf today.”

Sussex County Cricket Club have announced their financial results for the year ending October 31 2012.

The club revealed an unchanged operating income of £5.2million, sale pills an operating surplus of £227, viagra buy 775 (a significant improvement on 2011’s £12, ailment 026) and an accounting deficit on £325,375 (compared to £123,718 in 2011).

Sussex treasurer Simon Crundwell said: “Whilst a £227k operating surplus is a credible outcome, it was boosted by the one-off receipt of £133k in respect of the settlement of a legal claim.

“Alongside continuing challenging economic conditions, the unseasonal weather in 2012 contributed in part to our match income being 22% down on prior year.

“However, alongside the legal claim, income from our home Clydesdale Bank 40 semi-final and home Friends Life t20 quarter-final was vital. Encouragingly, our non-match day revenue continues to grow, 28% ahead on the prior year, which is an important cornerstone of our medium-term business plan.

“The deficit of £325k recorded is after charging increased depreciation of £553k, reflecting the completion of our ground redevelopment. Importantly however, the club remains cash positive at an operating level with £95k generated from continuing operations after interest and before non-repeat income and depreciation.”

Sussex chairman Jim May said: “The county club business model is marginal and without our success in one-day competitions, Sussex would have made an operating loss. However, it is pleasing that, whilst the playing side remains strong, we are making progress year on year on the business front.

“Sussex is a stable club with no borrowings and cash reserves of around £1m. Having invested nearly £10m in our wonderful ground at Hove in recent years, a major focus for our new chief executive, Zac Toumazi, is to increase attendances both at cricket and other events.”

Geoff Cousins, erectile Jaguar Global Director, Sponsorships and Brand Partners, is the latest panellist to join the iSportconnect Directors’ Club London taking place on 3^rd October.

 

Cousins will join other high profile speakers Roger Draper, Chief Executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, and Barry Hearn, Chairman of Matchroom Sport, the Professional Darts Corporation, World Snooker and Leyton Orient Football Club at the event, in partnership with Generate Sponsorship and Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP.  The event returns to London following the successful inaugural event in February, with the Directors’ Club also returning to Munich on 17^th October and New York for the first time on 5^th November.

 

“I am really looking forward to taking part in the panel debate on 3rd October,” said Cousins.  “It is actually my first interaction with iSportconnect Directors Club but given everything I have read and heard from people, it promises to be an interesting and lively debate with a great opportunity to network in the right environment.”

 

Founder and CEO of iSportconnect, Sree Varma, said, ‘We are pleased that Geoff is able to join us at our second iSportconnect Directors’ Club in London. We received an excellent response from the first event, attracting high profile speakers from across the industry.   We’relooking forward to making further speaker announcements in the coming weeks.”

 

iSportconnect Directors’ Club is an exclusive event for sports industry leaders to share market insight and best practice and invites senior decision makers in the sponsorship industry to share high level insight and opinion on business trends and relevant industry news.

 

A specially invited audience of premium iSportconnect members will offer questions to speakers through a ‘Question Time’ style panel, followed by a networking opportunity in a relaxed environment.

 

Further panelists will be announced in the coming weeks.

 

To register interest contact xavier@isportconnect.com

Steffi Graf ist von einem dauerhaften Aufschwung im deutschen Frauen-Tennis überzeugt. Die ehemalige Weltranglisten-Erste erklärte im Gespräch mit der “Rheinischen Post”: “Nach viel harter Arbeit darf es das deutsche Tennis besonders freuen, viagra 100mg dass unsere Damen solch beeindruckende Ergebnisse in Wimbledon geliefert haben. Das lässt auf viele weitere Erfolge hoffen.”

Insgesamt sei das Frauen-Tennis athletischer geworden. “Viele Spielerinnen haben einen starken, therapy aggressiven Zug in ihrem Spiel, shop und die Leistungsdichte in den Top 10 ist bemerkenswert”, sagte Steffi Graf, “da sticht konsequent eigentlich nur Serena Williams heraus.” Ihren Abschied vom Profi-Tennis habe sie überhaupt nicht bedauert, “weil ich mich sehr auf die Zeit danach gefreut habe. Der Tennissport nimmt einen elf Monate des Jahres völlig ein. Neben der emotionalen und physischen Anstrengung bleibt sehr wenig Zeit für Familie, Freunde und Hobbies. Ich habe mich am meisten auf mehr Gleichgewicht in meinen Leben gefreut. Heute stehen für mich meine Rolle als Mutter und Ehefrau und die Arbeit für meine Stiftung “Children for Tomorrow” im Vordergrund.”

Proposals in a new report will prohibit alcohol drink firms from sponsoring sport events, concerts or festivals in the Republic of Ireland if they are adopted.

The National Substance Misuse Strategy has recommended that drinks industry sponsorship of sport and other large events be phased out by 2016.

It supports legislation for minimum alcohol pricing.

It also calls for a “social responsibility” levy on the industry.

Another proposal is a 21:00 GMT watershed for alcohol advertising on television and radio.

Fiona Ryan, is chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, which is a member of the strategy’s steering group.

She said sports sponsorship was “very lucrative” for the alcohol industry and gave them access to the young male market.

Ms Ryan said alcohol was as much a threat to people’s health as tobacco and that one thirteenth of the country’s health budget was being spent on alcohol related illness.

“2,000 hospital beds a night are in terms of alcohol related causes, one in 11 kids tell us they are impacted by parental drinking, one in seven kids are in care because of parental drinking,” she said.

“Those figures are probaly an under-estimation and would compare quite literally with Northern Irish figures.

“We need to reduce alcohol consumption in the Republic of Ireland.”

She added that the recommendations would be subject to a parliamentary debate.

Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing and sponsorship at the agency Brand Rapport, said sports sponsorship by drinks companies was “invaluable” in the current economic climate.

“It is a very high-profile industry and a very easy target to say let’s ban sports sponsorship by alcohol companies, but all they are doing is to try and get their brand recognised,” he added.

“If you take it out of the equation people are not going to drink less, they are just going to have more of a problem deciding what they are going to drink.”

Manchester United have petitioned the Football Association (FA) about the number of tickets they have been allocated for next month’s FA Cup tie at Manchester City.

Under FA rules, United should be entitled to an allocation equivalent to 15% of the ground capacity at the Etihad Stadium, which would be 7,100 tickets.

Instead, City have offered 5,500 – exactly the same as United were granted for the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final two years ago.

However, whilst that tie was agreed relatively quickly, the Red Devils are this time demanding their full entitlement.

City are refusing on the grounds that it would constitute a safety risk as there would not be enough space to keep the opposition fans apart, so the FA has been asked to intervene on the matter.

The issue came to light over discussions about the tie, and the potential for a replay. United would not offer City 15% of Old Trafford’s capacity for that.

However, they do have special dispensation from the FA due to the size of their stadium and City would be allocated 8,500 tickets – just over 11% of Old Trafford’s 76,000 capacity.

The row will merely heighten the atmosphere around a tie which will see the pair – currently first and second in the Premier League – meet at City in the FA Cup for the first time since 1955.

After decades of playing second fiddle to their neighbours, City have enjoyed better fortunes of late, winning last season’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and then hammering United 6-1 at Old Trafford this term.

Although that Wembley encounter passed off peacefully thanks to a significant police operation, there was trouble around the previous Carling Cup encounter at City, when 29 supporters were eventually arrested.

James Ellington, the British sprinter who put himself on a eBay auction in a bid to gain sponsorship has already beaten his £30,000 reserve.

Ellington is the second fastest sprinter in the country, but the 26-year old lost out on sponsor backing after his career was blighted by four years of injury.

Despite having his best ever season and running the 200m in 20.52 seconds – the fastest time by a British athlete this year – he had no response to his calls for a sponsor.

Ellington, who has lived in Addiscombe for the past three years, put himself up for auction last week and with four days to go until the auction ends, bids already stand at £32,250.

He said: “I knew what I was doing was a unique thing that would attract some attention, but I didn’t realise how much I would get.

“On a lot of auctions, people can go crazy in the last 20 minutes, but I don’t know if it will happen with me, we will see.

“I am more than happy with the bid, £30,000 was the minimum I would need to train full time, anything else I get is a bonus.

“If the auction did go crazy and out of control, the extra money would be used after the Olympics for the Commonwealth Games and World Athletics Championships.”

The sprinter who works part-time coaching children, says he is committed to helping young people coming through the sport.

He said “I’m definitely positive in terms of educating the kids and being the spokesperson for people coming through the sport. Whoever bids is investing in something good.”

With one year for the race to begin, Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 announced its tie up with IMG Sports Media as official television partner.

The racing will begin in Alicante, Spain on 29 October 2011.

“Our ambition is to create ‘event’ television that becomes ‘appointment to view’. A mix between live, highlights, short form and news programming will enable us to strike the right balance between the offshore ‘DNA/essence’ of the race, and made-for-television spectacles such as the in-port races,” says director of Television for the Volvo Ocean Race Adam Binns.

A host of programming will be produced and distributed by IMG including a series of ‘Golden Moments’ showcasing the footage of the ocean race.  Live video conferences, daily and weekly news updates will also be broadcast around the world.

Binns says, “IMG and SNTV are the perfect fit for us. Our race will be consumed when the viewer wants, on all kinds of devices so it is essential we work with a company whose experience across television, mobile, broadband and IPTV is unrivalled.”

The hub for the regular updates will be the new NASA-inspired Race Control room in the Spanish Race Headquarters

Six teams have confirmed for the race.

Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad says, “I believe the syndicates we are working with have had great success since the end of the last Volvo Ocean Race. We have managed to jointly, with the teams, raise over 210 million Euros in sponsorship and rights fees in this rocky economic climate and, while that is an amazing achievement, we continue the push to bring more boats to the start line next year.”

Says Frostad, “Our ambition is to become one of the top sporting events in the world and we have directed our attention towards a few key areas which we believe will help us to achieve this goal.  One component is the way in which we communicate the event to a wider audience, which has led us to appoint IMG as our television partner.”

The other partners for the race are Inmarsat, BCG, Thrane & Thrane, Puma, Volvo Penta, Ericsson amongst others.

During the nine months of the Race, which starts in Alicante, Spain in October 2011 and concludes in Galway, Ireland, during early July 2012, the teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajaí, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient.