The British Basketball Association (BBA) has today announced further plans to establish the UK’s premier professional basketball competition.

Capitalising on the growing interest in basketball across the UK, adiposity the nationwide league will showcase leading British players alongside international basketball talent and provide a timely boost for the sport in the country. 

The development of the league will be spearheaded by the BBA Chief Executive Officer, Ron Scott, and newly-appointed Chief Commercial & Operating Officer David Paton who joins from Grant Thornton where he led the company’s Sports Advisory Group.

Paton and his team at the BBA have started to actively market the league franchises to businesses and entrepreneurs who are interested in tapping into a sport that enjoys an avid and growing fanbase in Britain. Basketball is currently the fourth highest participation team sport for ages 16 and over, and is the number two sport for team sports played in secondary schools in the UK.

With an initial pool of eight franchised teams, each covering a major UK city, the BBA aims to stage its first pre-season game in October 2014 with the first league game following in November 2014. The BBA will then have the option of increasing the number of franchises to 14 depending on the level of demand.

The BBA management team operates from offices in both London and the US and is formed of business, marketing and basketball experts, including John Amaechi who, as Co-Director, will provide counsel on specialist basketball matters.   

Ken Olisa OBE, Chairman of BBA, said: “There’s an established and fast growing basketball fanbase in the UK and, with a mix of star talent and the best in sport entertainment, I’m confident the BBA league matches will become key dates in the sporting calendar. We’re passionate about complementing what the NBA stands for globally and we have the right management team in place and an inviting business proposition that we hope will attract considerable interest.”

David Paton, Chief Operating and Commercial Officer, BBA, said: “We’re extremely excited about realising our ambitious but realistic vision to create the UK’s leading professional basketball league. The BBA league will deliver the sport in a new and exciting way and make basketball more accessible than ever before nationwide, to live and televised audiences. ”

The ICC World Twenty20 is set to reach an audience of more than 1.5 billion across 226 territories, treat a record for any cricket event, thanks to new and extended agreements secured by ESPN STAR Sports.

This includes a groundbreaking partnership with ESPN in the US, Caribbean, Central and Latin America and the continued coverage of the ICC World Twenty20 in Europe via Eurosport, this time in 18 languages.

Following on from the world class production of the ICC Cricket World Cup last year, ESPN STAR Sports will produce High Definition (HD) broadcast coverage using 29 cameras, an array of on-air enhancements and compelling graphic presentation to accompany the insightful and trusted voices of its expert group of commentators.

The live broadcast will feature 16 commentators and legends of the game from the leading participating countries. These include Sourav Ganguly, Sanjay Manjrekar, Wasim Akram, Ramiz Raja, Ian Chappell, Tony Greig, Mark Waugh, Damien Fleming, David Lloyd, Nasser Hussain, Ian Bishop, Simon Doull, Pommie Mbangwa, Russel Arnold, Harsha Bhogle and Alan Wilkins.

Campbell Jamieson, ICC General Manager – Commercial, said: “The ICC World Twenty20 2012 will have the best reach ever for a cricket event and combined with the unique passion and enthusiasm for our great sport in Sri Lanka, the event is set to create a new benchmark.

“And for those people around the world who can’t be there in person, ESPN STAR Sports’ distribution efforts have ensured that more than 1.5 billion people across the globe can view every single match from the comfort of their own home.”

Peter Hutton, ESPN STAR Sports’ Managing Director, said: “We believe that this event is an excellent way of attracting new audiences to the game worldwide, and hope that our production and commentary teams will ensure the best possible experience for viewers across six continents.” 

There will also be extensive radio coverage of the ICC World Twenty20. In Sri Lanka, national broadcaster Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) will cover the event. Outside of host country, the event will have radio coverage from Channel 2 (Middle East & North America), All India Radio (India) BBC (UK), SABC (South Africa), Sport Radio (New Zealand), Croc Media (Australia) and CMC (Caribbean). Channel 2 is also doing live commentary on the internet via Cricket Radio.

The Green Bay Packers have announced record profits of $42.7 million for the fiscal year that ended March 31.

The Packers won the Super Bowl after the 2010 season, and they went 15-1 in 2011 before losing to the New York Giants in the NFC divisional playoff round. 

Team president and chief executive officer Mark Murphy credited booming merchandise sales at Lambeau Field as well as online, plus record attendance at the team’s Hall of Fame and for Lambeau tours.

 “We did set records in terms of local revenue, total revenue was the first time ever over $300 million, and the profit from operation was at an all-time high of $43 million,” Murphy said on a conference call. 

Even one negative from last year turned out to be a positive for the Packers from a financial standpoint. The 2011 NFL lockout led to reduced operating costs for a chunk of the year.

“It wasn’t unusual for departments to be deferring projects, waiting to see the outcome,” vice president of finance Paul Baniel said, according to Bloomberg.com. “Some of the decline is just due to the fact that we were in a slower state for those first four months.” 

The Packers reported a $17.1 million profit in the previous fiscal year. Total revenue for the latest fiscal year was $302 million, after it was $282.6 million the prior year.

MillerCoors filed a lawsuit against the National Football League’s New England Patriots on Monday after the America’s second largest brewer claims the team agreed on an exclusive and lucrative deal and chose to award that deal to its top competitor, Anheuser-Busch InBev, instead.

MillerCoors (a joint venture of SABMiller and MolsonCoors), which has been a sponsor of the Patriots for nearly 10 years, said it negotiated an exclusive beer deal with the team that would begin at the end of this season and run through 2019.

But after the deal was signed and even commemorated with a dinner by the marketing agent working on behalf of MillerCoors and the Patriots sales team, the company says the Patriots decided it was not a valid contract and chose to do the deal, for the same category and time frame of seven years, with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The suit, which was filed in Massachusetts Superior Court asks for the exclusive agreement to be deemed valid and enforceable and that the brewer be awarded additional damages to compensate them for costs and good will.

Jackie Woodward, vice president of media and marketing services for MillerCoors, said: “We expect to win and when we win we will be a great partner to the Patriots. We look forward to bringing our marketing muscle and activation prowess to bringing football to fans in New England.”

Woodward told CNBC that it was clear that her team had reached agreement on all material business terms and that “there was nothing left to discuss.” But company execs now believe that the Patriots will or have entered into an exclusive deal with Anheuser-Busch.

“We appreciate competition, but we respect the integrity of a deal above all else,” Woodward said.

A spokesman for the Patriots had not seen the suit and could not immediately comment.

As part of the pitch, the Patriots told MillerCoors that the NFL Board of Governors had agreed to expand each team’s definition of “Home Marketing Territory,” defined as the area in which team sponsors can activate their campaigns in stores. The Patriots’ territory was expanded from Massachusetts and a 75-mile radius around its Gillette Stadium to further include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut.

From 2002-03 season to the 2010-11 season, Miller Coors’ Coors Light brand was the official beer of the NFL, but Anheuser-Busch InBev paid a reported $200 million a year for the rights to get that designation for its Bud Light brand for the next six seasons. Teams can, however, do their own deals, which are mostly non-exclusive. The Patriots currently have deals, through this season with MillerCoors, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Boston Beer, parent company of Sam Adams.

Aside from its right to use league marks as part of the NFL sponsorship, Anheuser-Busch InBev has deals with 28 of 32 teams. The Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have an exclusive with MillerCoors. MillerCoors also has the rights to 17 teams on a non-exclusive basis.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board is considering launching it’s own IPL-style T20 tournament, Bangladesh Premier League in February next year.

The inaugural BPL will a 21 day event with six teams which will be franchised. The Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka and Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong will be used as the two venues for the BPL T20.

The matches will be held in a double-leg format followed by semi-finals and final. The BCB is expected to float an international tender inviting sports marketing companies to organise the competition. 

Furthermore, the BCB is planning to start it’s own channel for which a committee has also been formed under BCB Media & Communications Committee Chairman Mohammed Jalal Yunus.

Currently, the broadcast rights for international cricket in Bangladesh is held by Nimbus Sport.

After around 250,000 of the 1.8 million ticket applicants for the London 2012 Games were left disappointed and ticketless, chairman of the organising committee Sebasiten Coe defended the widely criticised process.

The system has been blasted for being too vague and weighted towards more wealthy applicants with the means to apply for hundreds, even thousands, of pounds worth of tickets.

Coe said he realised some people would be “bitterly disappointed” but defended the system as the fairest available, saying that had they used a first-come-first-served system, there would be many more complaints.

Coe added: “I think it was right to give people over a 1,000 hours to really understand what it was they were wanting, and where the venues were and session-by-session.

“There are tickets still to be had. It’s certainly not been a fiasco. We talked to the best brains in this business.”

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson told Sky News: “Ticketing is always an extremely difficult subject in any Olympic Games and I think the organising committee have done as well as could possibly be expected against some very trying circumstances”.

A further 2.2 million tickets remain to be allocated, with the majority earmarked for overseas fans through their national Olympic associations and the remainder going to sponsors, federations, the Olympic family and rights holders.

London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics official automotive partner, medic BMW, price pills has launched a new initiative which sees Team GB stars gain exclusive use of their own vehicle in the run up to the Games.

Of the eight athletes to have been signed up to partake in what has been branded the BMW London 2012 Performance Programme, some notable names include diver Tom Daley and gymnast Louis Smith. The initiative, launched in London yesterday is hoping expand its athlete pool to 25 in the coming months.

The remaining athletes to have signed up are Amy Williams, Martyn Bernard, Ellie Symonds, Mark Hunter and Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee. As well as the exclusive use of the car, other plans are in development of how to utilise the German car manufacturers performance expertise.

BMW will dispatch around 4,000 cars to be used at the Games in their role as the official automotive partner of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

The Indian national football team coach, Bob Houghton, has extended his deal with the All India Football Federation until 2013, but says there is little hope for progress from the team unless there is change from the bottom up.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Houghton said: “I have signed a contract till 2013. In my last four years’ coaching career, there has been no change in Indian football management. Our national team depends upon the I-League and domestic structure, but the clubs do not want to change.

“I can’t change the system. The executive committee meetings are packed with the clubs, who are voting members, so if I give any suggestion regarding I-League or the clubs, they ignore them and do what they want. Ultimately they have the voting rights.

“We have to change infrastructure at the domestic level, create more domestic leagues from where we can recruit good players. Without such improvements how can you ask for an improved ranking?”

 

The Football Association (FA) has appointed Andy Walker as the new senior communications manager for the England men’s team.

Walker joins The FA’s communications division from Birmingham City FC where he held the post of head of media and communications.

During his time at Birmingham, Walker has overseen media demands around the club’s 2011 Carling Cup triumph, the Barclays Premier League, the Sky Bet Championship, the UEFA Europa League and two successive UEFA Women’s Champions League campaigns.  He is a specialist in social media and has received various accolades for his work in this field.

In his new role, Walker will help shape communications around the England senior men’s team and contribute to a proactive, multi-media PR strategy in the build up to the UEFA 2016 European Championships.  He will also oversee an integrated communications approach to all the England men’s development teams from U21s downwards, assisted by PR officer James Marshall.

Walker said: “I am delighted to be starting the next chapter of my career with The FA and I relish the opportunity to further enhance England’s public relations ahead of what will be an exciting build up to UEFA Euro 2016 and beyond.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Birmingham City and the experience I have gained.  It has recently been a testing period for the football club and I’d like to thank all my colleagues at Birmingham for their continued hard work and support they have shown me over the years.”

Walker will report into FA head of media relations Mark Whittle, who said: “Andy was the outstanding candidate for this role following a highly competitive and comprehensive application process.  We are delighted to be welcoming someone with such varied experience and forward-thinking ideas to our team.”

Club England managing director and FA group communications director Adrian Bevington added: “I’d like to congratulate Andy on his appointment.  It’s an exciting and important role within The FA Group and I am sure he will be a great asset to the organisation.”

Walker replaces Stuart Mawhinney who departed for Sky Sports PR team this summer following the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Walker will begin his new role on Monday 24 November 2014.