A law firm representing the late owner of the Buffalo Bills, prostate Ralph Wilson, have begun contacting prospective ownership groups.

Two sources who are said to be familiar with the sale process told The Associated Press that potential buyers had received a seven-page, non-disclosure agreement. They were also sent background material on the Bills franchise and stadium.

Those documents were distributed by Proskauer Rose, the legal firm working on the sale, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Donald Trump confirmed that he had received documents, whilst reports suggest NHL Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula is another recipient.

The next stage in the bidding process will be for prospective owners to sign the non-disclosure agreement which will allow them access to the Bills’ financial data.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race launched two of their fleet in St Katherine Docks, London yesterday evening.

The Jamaica Tourist Board’s ‘Get All Right’ boat and Mission Performance yachts were named and displayed at the docks where the Clipper Race sets sail on September 1.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the founder and chairman of the Clipper Race,  and the Jamaican High Commissioner Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, christened the 70ft ocean racer and Sir Robin said: “Jamaica has always been one of the most popular locations amongst our crew when we visited in past editions of the Clipper Race. The Jamaica Get All Right crew are extremely proud to be representing Jamaica and I know they will do their very best to represent such a beautiful country.”

Ndombet-Assamba, the High Commissioner to Jamaica, said: “Jamaicans love a challenge. It doesn’t matter whether it is on the sports field or in business, Jamaicans love to rise to the occasion and give it their best shot.

“This year’s Clipper Round the World Yacht Race will provide an opportunity to surprise the world again, with our passion for competition and our determination.

“The crew have not only been trained to endure the challenges of round the world sailing, they have been trained in how to be Jamaican!”

Mission Performance launched

The Clipper Ventures Official Learning and Development Partner and first time Team Sponsors of the Clipper Race, Mission Performance Limited, also launched their entry yesterday.

The Mission Performance yacht was launched by Sir Robin, Corporal Paul Vice, Military Cross, Royal Marines and Founding Directors of Mission Performance, Rob Lewis and Christiaan Mcleod.

Vice represents the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund (RMCTF) and Mission Performance are supporting their efforts to raise £6m by 2014.

Sir Robin said: “I am very proud to launch the first ever Mission Performance team yacht. Mission Performance now have a strong association with the Royal Marines, an organisation I know and respect immensely.

“If they can instil even a fraction of the camaraderie, professionalism, and determination of the Royal Marines I have experienced, into the culture of their team, they will certainly be a force to be reckoned with.”

Christiaan Mcleod, Founding Director, Mission Performance added:  “The Clipper Race affords us the opportunity to study and capture lessons from ocean racing.  The competitive racing format, mixed with a team that changes with every race leg, mirrors many of the challenges faced by our corporate clients.

“We aim to transfer these lessons into very practical training modules that can be used to support a range of internal and external engagement initiatives.”

The Clipper Race starts on Sunday September 1 at St Katherine Docks, London and will return 11-months and 40,000 miles later.

Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has been charged with tax evasion by German prosecutors.

A spokesman for the Munich prosecutors said Hoeness’s lawyers have one month to respond to the charges and a court will decide whether to take him to trial.

Spokesman Ken Heidenreich refused to comment on further details of the indictement.

Hoeness originally reported himself to authorities earlier in 2013 in regards to an undeclared Swiss bank account.

The German and European champions’ supervisory board stuck by Hoeness’s side during the investigation and said he would remain in his job.

Hoeness played for Bayern Munich during the 1970s and later served as their general manager before becoming the club’s president.

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With the Olympic games currently (and understandably!) the focus of the sporting world, it’s tempting to see the road to London as the end of the journey, but for my team at British Cycling 2012, it’s another busy year that is one of many milestones along a road that began back in 2005 when British Cycling took the decision to become more actively involved in bidding for and delivering major events. 

Since that time we’ve bid for and hosted several rounds of the UCI Track World Cup, a Paracycling World Championships, 2 Mountain Bike World Cups, and now for the first time, a BMX world championships. 

Over this period we’ve built an enviable level of expertise in delivering events and had to solve a few unique challenges along the way, whether it’s how to deliver a mobile phone signal to a rural black spot or serving dinner to VIP hospitality guests in a field 2 miles from the nearest permanent dwelling, however, this week’s BMX World Championships has been our biggest challenge yet. 

The NIA in Birmingham is a well -known entertainment venue that hosts everything from Indoor athletics to pop concerts and this busy venue has a packed diary of events right through the year that means we’ve had a short window to build our track (7 days instead of the normal 6 months) and we’ll have an even shorter one to get out after the weekend. This and the need to build a lightweight track on a venue that sits on top of a railway tunnel means that we’ve had to devise and implement some unique solutions for this event. 

To deal with the weight loading issues we came up with the idea of building the course on a base of wooden pallets, we ended up using 8,000 of these to create the shapes of the jumps onto which we then compacted 3,000 tonnes of limestone to create the course that’s in use today.

So these are the kinds of things that we’re taking on behalf of our sport on an annual basis, working along with UK sport, with towns and cities to bid for, host and create events that excite and inspire. Over the next 5 years we’ll be continuing to do this so watch this space for our next adventure in the world of events.

Jonny Clay: Cycle Sport and Membership Manager, British Cycling

Jonny’s team is responsible for all sporting event administration and its development,the major domestic and international event strategy and its delivery. It also looks afterthe direct delivery of certain major international events, and the identification, training and resourcing of key event officials and volunteers, the Regional Events Officers and RCAs. The department is also responsible for all competition related Commissions and thedevelopment of future event related legislation. Jonny also oversees the development of allservices associated with British Cycling membership, licence holders and clubs.

Jonny enjoyed a professional cycling career during which he had the rare honour ofrepresenting his country at Elite level in the World Championships of three disciplines– road, track and mountain bike. A Bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, a World and Commonwealth Games Silver medal, plus many National titles were amongst key highlights.

Jonny retired from competitive cycling in 2000, after which he was appointed as British Cycling’s Regional Talent Manager for the North East, having sat on British Cycling’sBoard for the last five years of his cycling career. In 2004 he took over management of themembership department before being appointed to his current role in 2009.

www.britishcycling.org.uk

Johnny’ Clay’s 

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This week has seen Arsenal added to the ever-growing list of EPL football clubs sold into foreign ownership. Meanwhile, illness Chelsea has failed once more to deliver its owner’s dream of European Cup success. Both of these events reflect different facets of the same sporting conundrum – the inherent conflict between an individual’s passionate support for a team and the need for commercial success to sustain it.

Unlike the days in which wealthy benefactors like Jack Hayward at Wolverhampton and Jack Walker at Blackburn funded loss-making clubs from their personal fortunes out of a longstanding commitment both to the team and its local community, today’s owners are much more interested in the commercial possibilities of club ownership.

This is because football at the highest level has transformed from a sport to a business. But it is a business unlike any other. This was recognised almost immediately by the markets following the rush to convert to PLC status in the 1990s. The investment community likes to see a year on year improvement on its returns, yet the very definition of the sports club means that results both on and off the pitch are mostly uncertain. To compensate for this inconvenience, some clubs began to diversify into non-core activities requiring large-scale capital investment and management skills not traditionally associated with winning football matches.

The twin challenge of stock market indifference and the need to sustain success on the pitch while diverting funds into new capital projects led several clubs to seek new benefactors. What they got is a new breed of owners who see the strong cash flows leveraged from matchday, media and commercial activities as a more attractive opportunity than those available from traditional business sectors. The trick for these investors is to balance a fan’s natural passion for success on this pitch with a hard- headed appreciation that this comes with a high price tag as the cost of acquiring match-winning talent and the salaries they command spirals ever upwards.

In this brave new commercial world, the basic business disciplines of leveraging debt, controlling expenditure and investing only what can be afforded from growing existing revenue streams are being ruthlessly implemented. The beauty of this model is that to a large degree, the ultimate objectives of both fans and owners are aligned. For without the success on the pitch that is craved by the fans, the owners are unlikely ever to receive the commercial rewards they desire.

Only those clubs whose benefactors have the financial resources to ignore the commercial reality of spending more than they earn can break the virtuous circle. In so doing, and if success does not materialise before UEFA’s new financial fair play rules put an end to such behaviour, the question of whether their passion and patience is deeper than the reservoir of their financial support remains to be answered.

Star Sports Marketing can help you to devise and implement an effective and robust sports marketing strategy. Visit www.starsportsmarketing.com or email steven.falk@starsportsmarketing.co.uk for an informal discussion on the possibilities for your business

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The Football Association of Serbia (FAS) has lost an appeal against the recent acceptance of Kosovo into European football’s governing body UEFA.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected Serbia’s appeal on the basis that Kosovo is ‘recognised by the majority of the United Nations member states as an ”independent state”. This means Kosovo meets the criteria for entry to UEFA, despite Serbia’s protestations that Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations and should not be granted acceptance.

The UEFA member associations voted 28-24 in favour of accepting Kosovo’s entry into UEFA, with the state joining FIFA the following week.

Kosovo currently sit bottom of the Fifa World Cup qualifying UEFA Group I, having taken one point from their first four competitive matches.

Location: Durham, UK

Closing Date: January 24, 2017

Overview: Background

Responsible for the development and implementation of a Marketing and Communications Strategy for all aspects of the Club and Venue.

To plans and direct the work of the Marketing and Communications staff and is responsible for establishing overall objectives and priorities of the department. The role will interface with a number of key stakeholders, both internal and external, with the over-arching responsibility for delivery of a consistent tone, both from a brand and communications perspective.

Ensure the Marketing and Communications functions assist in driving revenues and profitability in line with key performance indicators.

Key Responsibilities

• To create an overall Marketing Strategy and Implementation Plan and to ensure marketing campaigns for all business areas are delivered to meet agreed goals.
• Build and develop branded marketing campaigns, mixing traditional and digital media, ensuring key messages are consistently delivered.  Key marketing campaign areas will include Club membership, ticketing and event sales (including concerts), promotion of hospitality, meetings & events and non-matchday events and promotion of the Club’s Charitable Foundation.
• Ensure the development of advertising and promotional plans to promote all activities of the Club.
• Work closely with the governing body of cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board, and ensure local Club based strategies align with national initiatives and priorities.
• Develop and implement communications and media strategies that successfully deliver information and key messages to the public.
• Ensure all corporate design and visual identity is effectively managed including adherence by all to clear brand guidelines.
• Ensure the organisation engages with all relevant audiences; ensuring all target audiences are communicated with regularly, positively and consistently, measuring impact and effectiveness.
• Working with other members of the Senior Management Team to identify and drive business development opportunities and raise the profile of cricket in the community.
• Responsible for editorial direction, design, production and distribution of all Club publications.
• Coordinate media interest in the Club and ensure regular contact with target media and appropriate response to all media requests.
• Develop a Social Media Strategy and increase following of all Club social media channels.
• Management of all marketing and communications staff including developing sound working relationships with the team members to ensure all departmental objectives are delivered.
• Directs market research activities in order to keep abreast of changing demographics and other relevant issues in order to evaluate marketing and communication activities and to monitor emerging issues.
• Analyse and respond to trends in the leisure sector, sports sector and cricket community to ensure strategies remain relevant and can adapt.
• Develop and understand the use of CRM systems to support membership and cricket participants
• Overall responsibility for budget performance within the department, including setting the budgets each year with the Finance team and monitoring performance against agreed budgets throughout the year
• Make presentations to the Board on Marketing and Communication strategies and activities.

Skills & Experience Required

Desired:

• Has relevant previous experience of Marketing and Communications management, preferably in sport or leisure.
• Individual must be able to think strategically and creatively, have excellent judgement and be able to work in a changing environment.
• Experience of working with CRM based marketing systems and utilising these to drive decision making and revenue generation.
• Solid understanding of social media platforms, latest strategies and techniques and how to commercialise these
• Ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders and clearly communicate ideas, as well as the ability to negotiate and influence
• A team leader, able to inspire and influence others, in addition to getting involved in the delivery of work and has the ability to manage their own time and the teams workloads to ensure successful project delivery.

How to apply: visit http://www.sportsrecruitment.com/jobs/details/2429/head-of-marketing-and-communications