A new study has revealed brand exposure for sponsored jerseys will reach $160 million if the NBA moves ahead with it’s plans to allow corporate sponsor logos on the front of its jerseys for the 2013-14 season.

That could bring a new demand for the proposed 2.5-inch jersey sponsorship logos that could land on teams such as the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls or Dallas Mavericks.

“The large number of broadcast hours devoted to the NBA each year coupled with the projected visibility of the jersey logos during those telecasts obviously makes this a very desirable piece of sponsorship real estate from a brand recognition standpoint,” said Eric Wright, president and executive director of research for Michigan-based Joyce Julius & Associates, in a written statement.

There would be added exposure opportunity through photos appearing in print articles and the Internet, along with video highlights, he said.

The NBA tested the idea with a league-branded patch during the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder five-game series in June. The patch garnered an average of five minutes, 41 seconds of close-up camera time per team, per game.

That television exposure equates into nearly 16 hours of on-screen time for the patch during a regular season. For highly-desired NBA teams, this could push the exposure value to $6 million to $8 million for a season.

Several leading Bangladeshi players have expressed their support for The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) to give contracts to 120 cricketers from January 2013

The development was a huge boost to the morale of many cricketers who have endured financial uncertainty. Domestic player Enamul Haque jr said:

“It is a positive move for Bangladesh cricket. For the next generation of cricketers, it will be a massive encouragement. There is always the motivation to play cricket and to play for the country, but to have a salary is a massive boost. When we used to play in the Under-19s or Academy, there wasn’t much money so this will help the youngsters.”

Enamul, a 27-year-old left-arm spinner, was the leading wicket-taker in the 2011-12 National Cricket League and is also the only Bangladesh bowler to take more than 300 first-class wickets. Enamul, however, hasn’t played for Bangladesh since 2009 and had to play club cricket in England

“When I saw the news last night I was really happy. I can see that everyone here in the Bangladesh A camp is equally delighted,” Enamul said. “It should have happened a few years ago, but finally the board has taken this decision. In Sri Lanka I think 70-odd cricketers are contracted with the board.”{jcomments on}

 

 

The Pro Bowl game is dangerously close to being suspending for this season and beyond, according to league sources.

The Pro Bowl currently is on the NFL’s calendar the week before the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 3 but no game site has been listed because of its precarious status, sources added.

iSportconnect reported in February, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s disdain for the current format of the game and considered axing it then. He voiced his displeasure with the lack of competitiveness of recent Pro Bowl games. The issue has been raised again according to sources.

Beyond 2013, another league source believes the Pro Bowl is “DOA (dead on arrival).”

If the game is suspended, the league still would have a Pro Bowl balloting process to identify the season’s top players and would direct teams to negotiate Pro Bowl clauses into player contracts and to honor Pro Bowl incentive clauses to avoid any serious conflict with the NFL Players Association. Those players also likely would be honored in some fashion during Super Bowl week.

Goodell has asked NFL players recently for suggestions to make the game more attractive but has yet to embrace a solution, sources said.

Even those within who league support continuance of the game have been unable to persuade Goodell that the game has merit alone on reasonably strong television ratings.

However, the diminishing quality of the game has weighed more heavily on the commissioner who believes it reflects poorly on the league and its players. Sources say Goodell does not hold any ill-will toward the players’ lackluster effort because of player safety issues.

In an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning” on Super Bowl Sunday, Goodell said the league must address the quality of the game and even said he would consider eliminating the all-star game if it can’t be improved upon.

The AFC routed the NFC 59-41 in last season’s Pro Bowl game that drew boos at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu for its lack of early intensity.

by Ismail Uddin

Multi-sports team acquirer Randy Lerner, owner of the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns, has won a court order for the return of the remainder of his $40 million investment in a hedge fund that had refused to say where the money was invested.

Lerner’s funds were improperly refused to be returned by Paige Capital Management, a corporation known for buying faltering companies amd was kept for selfish reasons for generating management fees, Delaware Chancery Court, Judge Leo Strine concluded.

“I order a remedy requiring the immediate return” of all Lerner’s capital invested in the fund along with interest tied to the delay in handing over the funds, Strine said in 100-page ruling. The fund is run by Michele Paige, a former investment manager for billionaire Carl Icahn along with her husband, Christopher Paige.

Lerner is a former chairman of financial services company MBNA Corp. who also owns the English Premier League soccer club Aston Villa, rebuffed a March offer by the Paiges to settle the case for about $3 million, according to court filings.

Lerner, with a fortune estimated at more than $1 billion by Forbes magazine last year, has been forced to inject $326 million into the Birmingham-based Aston Villa team since he bought it in 2006, according to filings with English regulators.

British Horseracing’s largest commercial group The Jockey Club, has signed on as the first partner of Leaders in Racing,

Leaders in Racing will be a new conference within the Leaders Sports Summit stable.

The inaugural event will take place in The British capital this year on 6th October alongside well-established conferences for soccer, sponsorship, digital sport and performance.

The major challenges will be the hot topic at the London conference which will welcome the major players in the Sport such as governing authorities, broadcasters, racecourses, betting operators, owners, jockeys, sponsors, government representatives and experts from other sports.

Jockey Club’s chief group chief executive Simon Bazalgette said that “Racing has a fantastic story to tell and opportunities to share. I can think of no better environment to communicate our sport’s progress, challenges and vision than within the Leaders Sports Summit, which attracts 1,000 senior level delegates and 180 media from over 45 countries. Racing is not always well represented at major sports industry events and it’s time that changed” .

James Worrall, who is the chief executive of Leaders Sports Summit added that “We are delighted to be partnering such a prestigious organisation as the Jockey Club, which is at the heartbeat of the UK’s second most attended sport. The support we are receiving will ensure that the conference will be an unprecedented success for racing and all its stakeholders.”

English Premier League leaders Manchester United have announced an across-the-board £1 (US$1.65) per match increase on ticket prices for next season a day after league rivals Arsenal upped their already league high prices by 6.5 per cent.

United and Arsenal have both claimed that the decision to raise prices is a result of the increase in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, with the former having absorbed the initial rise since the start of 2011.

Supporters purchasing a top-price season ticket will pay £950 ($1,568.5) for a 19-match home Premier League programme, a pound cheaper than that of the cheapest ticket at the Emirates Stadium, a move the Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) feels will price loyal fans out of the club.

EA Sports have become the latest partner of MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps alongisde Bell and BMO. The deal places the Whitecaps alongside European soccer giants Chelsea, Arsenal and Real Madrid.

A three-year-deal was announced on Monday making EA Sports a “Founding Partner” of the Vancouver Whitecaps and is the companies first partnership with an MLS side.

EA Sports vice-president Matt Bibley stated that “It was a very easy decision to make”. Bibley, in an interview at the company’s Burnaby studio, went on to say “We believe in the Whitecaps’ vision to become one of the top soccer clubs in the world and we want to help them achieve it.”

The deal will allow EA to showcase its FIFA Soccer games through the Whitecaps which will encompass signage, broadcast and game applications. The Whitecaps players, staff and fans will all be used to test early versions of EA’s soccer products.

The Whitecaps and a newly renovated BC Place Stadium will feature on FIFA Soccer 12 due to be released next year. Bibley predicted that the fans will be able to play as the Whitecaps in the renovated BC Place Stadium before the $563m job is completed next fall.

CEO of the Vancouver Whitecaps, Paul Barber expressed his delight at the new partnership and its potential to attract younger fans at a global level. “This is a huge step [toward making the Whitecaps a world-class brand],” he said. “EA Sports is a world-class brand in its own right and massively connected to the game of soccer globally.”

American network ESPN is to broadcast its first 3D offering outside of the US with coverage of the X Games to be screened in Australia this weekend.

The sports broadcaster has teamed up with Australian pay-TV operators FOXTEL and AUSTAR to provide eight hours of 3D coverage of the extreme sports event in Los Angeles, which is taking place from 29 July to 1 August.

The 3D broadcast will be available to all FOXTEL iQ2 and AUSTAR Mystar HD subscribers with 3D-ready television sets.

ESPN Asia Pacific vice president, Michael Morrison, said: “Extending ESPN 3D to Australia reinforces our commitment to provide fans worldwide the best quality sports programming.

“3D television has taken off in the United States and around the world and this provides ESPN 3D an outstanding opportunity to work with FOXTEL and AUSTAR in Australia to bring this exciting trial programming to Australian sports fans.”

FOXTEL’s director of sport, Pete Campbell, added: “FOXTEL was the first to bring Australians 3D television and we’re thrilled to partner with ESPN for another ground-breaking sport experience.”