Global specialist architects, ed Populous have won a major baseball design competition in South Korea – the design of upcoming NC Dinos Baseball Park in Changwon City, near Busan, in the South of the country.

Populous is designing the 22,000 seat NC Dinos Baseball Park, with a construction value of USD $100M with roof top gardens stretching the length of the building area, takes its inspiration from the design of the High Line in Manhattan, a park built on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad.

Populous senior principal Andrew James said the project is the first true baseball ballpark for families and fans in South Korea and the design has built on the firm’s extensive experience with MLB in the United States, particularly Petco Park in San Diego and Target Field in Minneapolis.

“It’s a major breakthrough for sport and entertainment in Korea, because the stadium  is designed with post match legacy in mind, to be busy and active all year round, not just on game day.

“It is the first baseball stadium in South Korea to have 360 open views to the field and circulation around the whole stadium. The fixed seating of the infield is complimented by the casual seating areas around the outfield, with grass berms and timber terraces, to create a flexible, relaxed space for families and fans,“ he said.

The NC Dinos are one of the newest teams in the Korean Baseball League, formed in 2011, but this year was ranked second in the League with an ever growing fan base.

Their new stadium will also be surrounded by interactive parklands and all commercial spaces, in the stadium, including restaurants, fan retail shop, function room and café have also been designed for use outside game day.

Populous is designing the project with local partner Haeahn Consortium and construction is scheduled for completion in 2018.

The PGA TOUR and Mackenzie Investments announced a six-year agreement making the investment management firm the umbrella sponsor of PGA TOUR Canada.

The Tour is being renamed the Mackenzie Tour–PGA TOUR Canada, allergist effective immediately with this week’s season-opening event in Vancouver.

Read more HERE.

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Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson has agreed a deal to sell the National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise to a consortium led by Antony Ressler.

The deal was announced by the team yesterday during Game two of their round one NBA Playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets.

The agreement, healing which also includes operation of the team’s Philips Arena, apoplectic requires the approval of the NBA Board of Governors.

The exact terms of the sale were not disclosed, viagra but it is reported the deal could be worth around $850 million.

“We are honoured and thrilled to have been chosen to become the new stewards of the Hawks,” said Ressler.

“We respect the NBA’s approval process and, accordingly, can say no more other than we are incredibly excited by the Hawks’ success and wish them luck in the playoffs.”

“We are excited to welcome this new ownership group and are deeply gratified by its commitment to the Hawks and the Atlanta community,” said Hawks CEO Steve Koonin.

“We are pleased that the group is committed to continue building on the franchise’s storied history and recent success.”

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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have announced Colin Graves has been elected as its next Chairman.

Graves, apoplectic currently the Yorkshire Chairman and current ECB Deputy Chairman, and will replace Giles Clarke who has been the ECB Chairman since 2007.

The change will take place following the ECB Annual General Meeting in May.

Graves will have a five-year term as chairman.

Mr Graves said: “It is a great honour and a privilege to be elected as ECB Chairman and I would like to thank the membership of the ECB for offering me their full support.

“I would also like to express my gratitude to Giles for his outstanding leadership of ECB over the past eight years; a period which has seen unprecedented levels of investment in all areas of the game.

“My immediate priority will be to work closely with our new Chief Executive Officer Tom Harrison, my fellow Board members and the rest of the ECB’s senior leadership team to develop a comprehensive new strategy to grow cricket’s appeal still further across more diverse communities in England and Wales.

“With an Ashes series this summer and ECB hosting ICC global events in 2017 and 2019, we have a fantastic opportunity to inspire more people to play, attend and follow cricket and build on our position as the country’s number one summer sport.”

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Former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King is part of a consortium attempting to purchase Formula One team Marussia, according to Sky News.

The consortium is said to be negotiating a multi-million pound deal to save the F1 team, who went into administration last season.

Full story HERE.

While there were tears in Spain and Turkey, the Japanese were ecstatic as were the world’s best squash players and the Chinese state media got the wrong end of the stick.

Another great Olympic selection round, but this time with added digital and social media skirmishes on the side. And with some surprising results.

Because, in the build-up to the announcement, the social media winner (according to cold, hard numbers) was… Japan.

Was that a surprise? Well, perhaps the generally western-biased, English-speaking media might have thought so, but in reality the Asian market is the globe’s big consumer of both social media and new online services. (4G? Japan was 4G years ago.)

When the successful bid was announced on Saturday, the Japanese channels (we’ve taken Facebook and Twitter for this poll) boasted 198,802 followers, while Madrid had (and an annoying link which didn’t take you to their Page, but your own…) 353 Facebook followers and 62,505 and Istanbul had a total of 115,217. Not the outcome you’d have predicted…

The London 2012 took a very long-term, slowburn approach to social media. And it worked. The agencies involved were ahead of the curve in social media terms, but what will be interesting to see now is how Japan fares from here on in. Keeping up momentum, content and global interest is going to be challenging for the next eight years. Do they leave it dormant, attempt one major social media strategy or

Are these Pages relevant in the build-up? Of course. Just ask the good people at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The ground-swell of support for Formula One, not a sport with the greatest relationship with Uncle Sam, can be seen to a large degree to have come via social media channels. What will be of interest now is how the Japanese use their social channels to promote the games and also promote the country and the safety of its environment.

Much like the Eurovision Song Contest, the Olympic bid is a chance for old political sparring partners to don their gloves again and so it was with both Turkey and Japan being on the receiving end of online campaigns highlighting historical chapters which weren’t in their bid documents. China scored an own goal when state media erroneously announced its neighbour hadn’t won. This may not have been good for its reputation as an impartial, accurate news source. But then this was the same state media which repeated The Onion’s story last year that North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un had been recognised as the ‘sexiest man alive’ for 2012.

One other winner, and a sport which utilized an online army was squash. The World Squash Federation orchestrated a clever campaign which saw the launch of the Squash 2020 Facebook Page (at nearly 125,000 Likes saw a 21% increase in the week running up to the announcement), its Back the Bid YouTube clip had 153,000 views and @Vote4Squash Twitter account had 10,000 followers. It also courted global support from everyone from Egypt to India.

So, time to keep an eye on what happens next for both Squash and Tokyo. How will they fill those channels, keep engagement and countdown to 2020 without losing momentum. Is it possible?

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Having spent eight seasons in Formula One managing the digital channels for world champions Red Bull Racing, David Granger now runs Fact 51 (www.fact51.com) a social and digital content agency.

David’s 

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During Euro 2012 in Poland 600 foreign supporters and tourists spent approximately PLN 900 million. This number is far higher than the originally expected level of expenditure by foreigners. PLN 768 m had been the foreigner-related revenues estimated for the Tournament in ‘Impact’ report released in June 2010 which researched the influence of Euro 2012 on the Polish economy. More significant, though, than the short-term revenues are the medium-term benefits for the country attributed to the improvement in the country’s image internationally, increase in tourist activity and large-scale transport infrastructure modernization. PLN 24 bn is aggregate Euro 2012 – related revenues that Poland will obtain between 2013 and 2020.

Euro 2012 in Poland was a success widely recognized by the national and Western-European media. The success would not have been possible but for a joint effort and considerable commitment by more than 170 public entities whose work had been adeptly coordinated by PL.2012. As a result of Euro 2012 organization, infrastructure in the country has been substantially developed and modernized. Moreover, the three-week Tournament has brought about a positive change in the country’s image.

The survey conducted by PBS has found that 85% of the foreigners participating in the Championships in Poland find the organization very good, 80% of them claim that they will revisit the country and almost everybody – 92%- will recommend Poland as an attractive tourist destination to their acquaintances.

The improved image is to attract 0,5 m more tourists annually. As a result of it overseas visitors will boost the tourist revenues by PLN 4,2 bn until 2020. The outcome goes along the line with the Poles’ opinions as according to PBS’ survey 93% Poles believe that Euro 2012 has strengthened country’s image abroad, and 72% Poles think Euro 2012 contributed to the economic growth in the country in the time of the economic crisis.

PLN 94 bn has been invested in the modernization of the country related to Euro 2012 to construct modern multifunctional stadiums, airports, railway stations, motorways and expressways. This historic large scale of infrastructure construction and modernization will benefit the Polish for many years to come. None of the construction projects has been completed solely for Euro 2012. But, the preparation for Euro 2012 definitely accelerated the projects by 3-5 years. This positive impact has also been recognized by the majority of Poles. PBS’ survey has found that 71,4% of them believe that the preparation for the Tournament has contributed to the infrastructure development and life quality upgrading.

Owing to the infrastructure development and modernization as well as growth in economic productivity in Poland, the Polish GDP will go up by PLN 20 bn in total between 2013 and 2020.

The preparation and organization for Euro 2012 in Poland were not only about infrastructure development. 252 organizational projects were implemented jointly by PL.2012 and over 170 public partners and they affected directly the quality and safety of the Tournament in Poland. The organizational projects will also make key legacy of the Tournament for years in the form of extremely valuable know-how, professionalism in public administration and social involvement.

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About Marcin Herra:

Marcin Herra is the Chairman of the PL.2012 Board – the company responsible for leading, coordinating and supervising activities associated with the preparation of UEFA EURO 2012™ football tournament in Poland.

Marcin Herra’s

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