2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, pills who declared himself for the National Football League Draft last week, buy has hired LeBron James’s marketing manager to help him with business, cough media, entertainment and merchandising opportunities as he embarks on a professional career. 

Manziel, 21, said last week he’d enter this year’s NFL draft after throwing 63 touchdown passes and rushing for another 30 scores over two seasons at Texas A&M University.

Manziel, who’s nicknamed “Johnny Football,” will work with Maverick Carter of LRMR Management Company LLC in partnership with Fenway Sports Management, as his marketing agent. Carter, the chief executive of LRMR, was a high-school teammate and longtime friend of James, who’s won four National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player awards.

Manziel also hired Erik Burkhardt of Select Sports Group as his agent for NFL contract negotiations and the Sanderson Strategies Group to coordinate public and media relations.

Manziel said the partnerships will allow him to “focus on the hard work and training that I need to do to get ready for the NFL combine and upcoming draft.” The NFL draft starts on May 8 and Manziel is projected as a top-five pick.

The Denver Broncos have confirmed today plans to expand and renovate their their team headquarters at Dove Valley.

The two-part project will include the construction of an indoor practice facility as well as major upgrades to the existing Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre, capsule which was built in 1990. Construction on the indoor practice facility will begin with a ceremony on Tuesday and modifications to the current complex will begin at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

Funded by the Broncos and Owner Pat Bowlen, ailment the investment will ensure that the team’s facilities will be state-of-the-art and among the best in all of professional sports.

The new 115,000 square-foot indoor practice facility, which will be built to the west of the current practice fields, will include an 85,000 square-foot field house as well as a 30,000 square-foot support space. The full-length field, locker room and football service area will be accompanied by meeting spaces, a video production room and a Broncos retail outlet among other features.

In addition to providing the team with a year-round venue for training, the grounds surrounding the new indoor facility will enhance the training camp experience for fans beginning in 2015. A larger public viewing area, including additional ADA seating, will be accompanied by additional parking and improved restroom facilities.

A sizeable investment is being made to the existing facility to expand the building on the north end and renovate the lobby, media room and other existing infrastructure on the south side.

The 12,000-square foot building expansion to the north will include a new commercial kitchen and cafeteria as well as new video operations and football technology offices.

A front lobby renovation and expanded media room will highlight the upgrades on the south end of the facility. Several new offices and workspaces along with more than 3,000 square feet of additional conference space will also be created as part of the project.

Les Wells of The Wells Partnership is serving as the Owners Representative Company for the entire project with Saunders Construction, Inc., being utilized as the contractor. The indoor field house was designed by Sink Combs Dethlefs, a firm that specializes in sports architecture, and the facility renovations were planned by Intergroup Architects.

The PGA Tour’s reported hot pursuit to purchase the European Tour has been denied by commissioner Tim Finchem.

A number of reports had circulated that suggested the United States-based PGA tour had made a bid for its European rival.

“Certain news reports today have indicated that the PGA Tour has made an offer to acquire the European Tour,” he said in a statement. “Those reports are inaccurate.

“However, as I have stated publicly on several occasions, the integration of professional golf can create additional value for our players, sponsors and fans.

“Such integration has been ongoing since 1994, with the founding of the International Federation of PGA Tours, and has led to the establishment of the World Golf Championships in 1999 as well as the World Cup as a Federation-sanctioned event.

“More recently, all the major golf bodies around the world worked together to bring golf back to the Olympic Games.”

Some players on the European Tour have become frustrated at what they see as its failure to make the most of its potential, while the eurozone’s financial turmoil has led to gaps on the calendar and less prize money than on the PGA Tour.

“There are so many good things about the European Tour, and it can be such an unbelievable product, given the places we go to and the players we have.”

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Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone is ready to open negotiations to extend Bahrain’s Formula 1 contract by a further five years.

There are still three seasons left on the race and pro-democracy protests saw the race cancelled in 2011.

However Ecclestone is happy to extend the deal and take the race to 2021. He said: “I feel they do a super job and we’re more than happy to give them a new contract for five years. I don’t see any problems.”

Bahrain circuit Chairman Zayed R Alzayani commented: “We’re still contracted to 2016, but obviously we are willing to look beyond that.

“We’ve not started negotiations yet, but we are happy to look at it. The intentions are definitely there. We’re committed to the sport, we were the first race in the Middle East – we call ourselves the home of motor sport in the Middle East.

“We truly believe that in every sense of those words, so we are here for the long term, and we want to be known as the friendly race. Hopefully we can sign something this year.”

Alzayani also revealed that he wants to see the Bahrain race regain the season-opening slot, something the Gulf State held in 2006 and 2010. Ecclestone will consider the request.

Brazil GP staying in Sao Paulo

On the weekend Ecclestone also insisted the Brazilian GP would remain at Interlagos, as long as the  assurances from the mayor of Sao Paulo about circuit upgrades actually take place.

“We have been waiting long enough,” Ecclestone said. “If Sao Paulo does what they say they are going to do, we don’t need to move. They know what the deadline is. If they don’t do it pretty soon, it will be gone.”

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By Ismail Uddin

Jordi Bertomeu, drug president of Euroleague Basketball has revealed the gap between the organisation and the NBA is ‘still big’ when it comes to the business aspects. 

“In terms of organisation and marketing the gap is still big,” he told iSportconnect. 

“First of all, the financial strengths of the leagues in American sports are much bigger than in Europe. In Europe football is so dominant that it’s very hard for the rest of sport to grow, it’s a different system in the States. They are working, in terms of marketing for many years now, I think in this field they are doing really great and the concept of the teams are much more business-oriented.  If you talk to the resident of a football team here it will be if they win or lose, at the end their losses are on the court or the football field. “ 

The two biggest basketball leagues signed a new co-operation agreement last month which will help Euroleague learn from their American counterparts as they look to expand the brand internationally. 

“We really want to have this opportunity to grow outside of Europe. We did many things in the past, but we focus our interest in China,” he said. 

Bertomeu is also looking to establish his brand in the Sub-continent and South America. 

“There are other markets that are interesting like India and South America with more basketball tradition. We spoke to FIBA in America to organise events together with them. I think that those are probably the two more important markets or areas for us, now we are in Australia and other countries on TV. To have a closer presence, Asia and South America will be the priorities.”

Read his full interview here>>

Sun TV Network have won the rights to have a Hyderabad Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise for Rs 85.05 crores ($15, health 863, look 223) per year ending BCCI’s hunt for a new team in the wake of the controversial termination of cash-strapped Deccan Chargers.

The IPL Governing Council met on Thursday to open the bids for the new IPL franchise and Sun TV was found to have the highest bid amount.

“SUN TV Network have won the Hyderabad Franchise for an amount of Rs 85.05 crores per year. This Franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100 % above the amount paid by DCHL for the Hyderabad Franchise in 2008, pharm ” BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a release.

“The SUN TV Network bid was substantially higher than the second bid of PVP Ventures, which was Rs 69.03 crores,” Jagdale said.

In an effort to attract more bidders, the BCCI had kept the base price at a reasonable Rs 60 crores ($11,199,239) per year. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited had bought the Hyderabad franchise for Rs 428 crores for a period of 10 years.

Chennai-based Sun TV Networks Limited is one of India’s biggest television networks with 32 TV channels and 45 FM radio stations primarily catering to an audience in the four southern languages of India. Their network includes channels covering news, entertainment, film, documentary and music.

The BCCI had floated the tenders for a new IPL franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers’ contract on September 15 but the team owners DCHL had challenged it at the Bombay High Court.

The High Court had ruled in favour of the BCCI after Deccan Chargers Holdings Limited failed to furnish bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore before October 12 5pm deadline.

Later, an arbitrator had ordered for status quo but the High Court again ruled in favour of the Board.

DCHL then approached the Supreme Court which, however, declined on October 19 to interfere with the High Court decision which had set aside the status quo order passed by the arbitrator.

According to an IPL source, Sun TV has paid Rs 20 crore as signing amount and also the bank guarantee of Rs 85 crores for the first year.

The source said that the Deccan Chargers players, who are now left without a team following the termination of the franchise, will get the first option in the new team owned by Sun TV.

“Sun TV will have to inform the IPL by tomorrow as to which Deccan Charger players they want in the team,” the source said.

Those players not selected will go to the common auction pool.

The IPL season 6 will commence from April next year.