HRT’s foray into Formula One is likely to be over soon, according to technical director Toni Cuquerella.

It was believed the team’s departing owner Thesan Capital had set an end of November deadline for a new buyer to be found.

Indeed, as November became December over the past weekend, the FIA published the official 2013 entry list, and it made no mention of HRT F1.

But subsequent reports in Spanish newspapers suggested the dream may not be over for the team, who may have been granted more time by the governing body to pay next year’s entry fee.

However, leading team figure Cuquerella wrote on his micro-blog: “Four years ago, I suggested to a friend to make a Formula 1 team.

“Today after three seasons the last page of HRT has been written.

“It was certainly an experience,” the Spanish engineer concluded.

Ferrari test driver Marc Gene, another Spaniard, commented: “It leaves a bad taste, because the probability of another Spanish project (in Formula 1) is small and the precedent is negative.

“Support in Spain normally goes to the drivers,” he is quoted by the EFE news agency.

“I can think of several projects in which it was thought that the country would get behind it, but instead only the athletes are supported,” added Gene, a former Minardi driver.

Peyton Manning has reportedly agreed to become a part-owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, ailment according to Chris Vernon of ESPN Radio in Memphis.

The quarterback joins Justin Timberlake and former basketball player Penny Hardaway as minority owners of the team.

Ubiquiti Networks CEO Robert Pera is in the process of purchasing the Grizzlies from Michael Heisley. He has formed a group of minority owners that are looking to take over the franchise.

Pera experienced some trouble in negotiations with current ownership. He originally agreed to pay $350 million for the team, sale but his company’s shares have fallen since news of his potential purchase became public.

In July, NBA commissioner David Stern said the process of selling the Grizzlies was “proceeding on pace and we hope in the next couple months to be able to approve that.”

Manning currently plays for the Denver Broncos, but spent four years in Tennessee during his college years. There was talk of him joining the Titans in the offseason when he was released by the Colts.

The Pakistan Cricket Board will use the Decision Review System for the one-day series against Australia in the UAE next month.

A board official said  a sponsorship deal that would allow the board to use DRS technology in the series “has nearly been finalised.”

The official said: “The sponsors will tie up directly with the broadcasters to cover expenses for using the technology.” The official said that Pakistan is also “looking to implement DRS when it tours South Africa in January.”

The PCB hopes to profit from the series through its broadcasting deal with UAE-based Ten Sports, cialis and the board has reportedly sold its title sponsorship and other ground rights for between $550,000-$600,000. {jcomments on}

The Minnesota House have passed a public subsidy package for NFL’s Minnesota Vikings new stadium, sending the project marching toward final passage at the State Capitol.

The final vote came after a day of high drama and a weekend of intense lobbying by Gov. Mark Dayton and the team, and produced a relatively easy 73-to-58 approval in the House. Though Republicans hold a majority in the House, members of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party did the heavy political lifting on the final vote, producing 40 of the 73 votes. The victory was also noteworthy because House Speaker Kurt Zellers — the leading Republican in the House — voted against the project.

The stadium project now goes before the Senate, possibly on Tuesday, and could be ready for Dayton to sign into law by the end of the week.

“The voices of the people of Minnesota were heard tonight,” Dayton said after the House vote.

“There’s not many other issues that bring this many people to the Capitol,” said Rep. John Kriesel, R-Cottage Grove, one of the project’s biggest supporters. “Professional sports provides an escape from reality, a much-needed distraction from stressful lives.”

In one pivotal change however the House voted overwhelmingly to boost the Vikings’ contribution to the nearly $1 billion stadium, upping the team’s share from $427 million to $532 million. The change, which would lower the state’s share to $293 million, may not survive further legislative negotiating this week and was opposed by the Vikings.

“That particular amendment is not workable,” Vikings spokesman Lester Bagley said. “(But) I don’t want to take away from the moment.”

Bagley — notably — did not say the team would reject the overall proposal should the provision remain.

The eight-hour House debate did leave many pleading for legislators to set aside the stadium at a time of a stressed state budget. “Let’s not build a monument to misplaced priorities,” said Rep. Doug Wardlow, R-Eagan.

Though Vikings owner Zygi Wilf had never explicitly threatened to move the team — and was already committed to play in the existing Metrodome for one more year — Monday’s vote was driven by a sense that the team would leave without a new, taxpayer-supported stadium. The surge to build the stadium, which had been hotly debated across Minnesota, seemed to gain its final momentum after the National Football League commissioner made a personal visit to the state Capitol last month.

“Lo and behold, Commissioner (Roger) Goodell came to town, and people got starry-eyed,” said Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan.

For the Vikings, the victory came after years of public polls that showed widespread opposition to using taxpayer money for a new stadium and after the team watched as the Minnesota Twins won approval six years ago for its own publicly subsidized ballpark.

Monday’s vote culminated a long journey for the team, which in recent years had supported — and then rejected — plans to build a new stadium in Anoka County and more recently in Ramsey County’s Arden Hills. The Arden Hills plan in fact was still viable at the beginning of the year, but lost steam when Dayton said that only a new stadium in Minneapolis could possibly win legislative approval this year.

Stadium supporters began the weekend believing they did not have the necessary votes to pass the agreement, but a handful of legislators came out in the last day to announce they would vote for it. One who changed was Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, who had helped temporarily kill the project in a House committee last month but said that despite heavy reservations he was now supporting it.

Though Winkler said the lobbying by the Vikings had shown that the affluent were “very good at bending the rules” to get what they want, the project provided “jobs for construction workers right now.”

Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, banned Lisle Austin, the former acting president of Concacaf, after he took legal action over his suspension as head of the Soccer organisation.

The disiplinary committee decided to ban Lisle Austin from taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of one year for lodging a claim related to football matters in front of the ordinary courts in the Bahamas, constituting a breach of art. 64 par. 2 of the FIFA Statutes. Lisle Austin had been provisionally suspended by the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee on 4 July 2011, the date from which the one-year suspension will start to be counted.

Austin took over as interim president of Concacaf, which runs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, after previous president Jack Warner was suspended over bribery allegations. He was banned on June 2 by the ruling body after he fired General Secretary Chuck Blazer, who made the initial bribery allegation against Warner.

Austin tried to fight the ruling in the Bahamas but was in violation of FIFA rules. The one year ban could be extended depending if Austin drops his claim.

 

Organisers of the London 2012 Paralympics have claimed more than half of the two million tickets for next summers games will cost £10 (US$16.5) or less while more than 95 per cent of tickets – for the 20 sports – will cost £50 ($82.5) or less, rx and 75 per cent will be £20 ($33) or below.

Opening and closing ceremony tickets start at £20.12 ($33.21) and go up to £500 ($825) for the event at which over 4,200 athletes from 150 nations will take part from 29 August to 9 September 2012. Applications open in September.

Tickets are significantly cheaper than those for the Olympic Games, which range from £20 ($33) to £2,012 ($3,320), and saw about 1.8 million people apply for 6.6 million tickets.

The Paralympic Games will be staged in many of the Olympic venues, including the Olympic stadium (athletics), aquatics centre (swimming) and velodrome (cycling), as well as the likes of Eton Dorney (rowing), Weymouth (sailing) and Greenwich Park (equestrian para-dressage).

The Olympic Park will also stage the five-a-side and seven-a-side football at the Olympic hockey centre and goalball at the Olympic handball arena, as well as wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball at the Olympic basketball arena, although some basketball will also be held at the North Greenwich Arena.

The ExCel exhibition centre in the Docklands will host boccia, judo, sitting volleyball, wheelchair fencing, table tennis and powerlifting while the wheelchair tennis events will be staged at Eton Manor and the archery and shooting will both be held at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.

Former Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz has been appointed chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Association on Friday, replacing Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.

The GPDA said in a statement that McLaren’s Jenson Button and Red Bull’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel would remain as directors of a body that represents the majority of F1 drivers.

“Alex will be a great GPDA Chairman. He is one of the most experienced drivers I know, full of positive new ideas, and he has seen so many different aspects of the sport throughout his career,” said Vettel.

Former Benetton, McLaren and Williams driver Wurz, who is currently competing for Toyota in the world endurance championship, hoped the GPDA could become “a more united voice for our sport”.

“We know our history, we know what heroes like Stirling (Moss), Niki (Lauda) and Jackie (Stewart), Michael (Schumacher)and Ayrton (Senna) have all helped create,” he added.

“With the support of (FIA head) Jean (Todt) and (Formula One supremo) Bernie (Ecclestone), the teams, the media and most importantly with the backing of our fans, the GPDA will now aim to become a more dynamic and positive influence for the future of our sport.”

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) will be promoting the celebration of World Softball Day 2014 all around the globe and among its 141 National Federation members on Friday, June 13th. 

The creation of World Softball Day was inspired by Olympic Day, which is celebrated annually on June 23rd, and the June 13th announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1991 that women’s softball was to be, for the first time in history, included on the Olympic programme, with its debut performance at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. 

For World Softball Day 2014, WBSC will be encouraging all its national federations and individuals of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to participate in softball activity as part of aglobal initiative to put softball at the service of society to promote heath, physical activity, social integration and international spirit, as well as to inspire future generations of boys and girls to seek excellence and become empowered through sport, and through softball. 

“World Softball Day will be a time of celebration to promote the idea that anybody in the world can become active in sport,” said WBSC Secretary General Ms. Beng Choo Low, “and that softball can serve as an attractive option for sport because it can be enjoyed almost anywhere and by children as young as two years of age to those beyond their eighties.” 

WBSC officials indicate that the World Softball Day 2014 has been set up to “boost awareness” — particularly during the Olympic Agenda 2020 review on the formation of the Olympic Programme — that softball, along with baseball, serves as a common bond for millions of people from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in more the 140 nations around the world — and especially young people and females — to participate in sport and to make sport increasingly relevant to them. 

“With World Softball Day 2014, WBSC will continue building baseball/softball’s position together as one of the world’s leading and most inclusive, gender-balanced global sports,” added WBSC Executive Vice-President Dale McMann. 

The newly elected WBSC officials have already confirmed they will study the potential implementation dates of a World Baseball Day and a World Baseball Softball Day.