[b]Media[/b]
Mark Sharman, ITV’s director of news and sport, has indicated that he could drop boxing from the network as part of a rethink of its sports coverage. Sharman told UK press sources that ITV was faced with a tough decision because boxing was becoming commercially unviable for an advertiser-funded channel.
BBC Magazines is understood to be planning to launch a new weekly sports title to be edited by former Match editor Ian Foster. BBC Magazines previously published a Match of the Day magazine, which closed in 2001, reports Marketing magazine.
[b]Marketing[/b]
Everton FC have signed a new £8m three-year shirt sponsorship deal with Chang Beer beginning next season. The deal with the Thai company represents a 45 per cent like-on-like increase on the previous deal which earned Everton £4.5m and is the most lucrative sponsorship in the club's history.
brandRapport was appointed by Thomas Cook Sport to work on the sports PR and promotional marketing of its sponsorship programmes and to develop awareness for Thomas Cook Sport in the sports travel and entertainment business.
Former athletes Colin Jackson and Linford Christie have teamed up with a variety of brands including Oral-B to raise awareness of the National Day Nurseries Association’s ‘healthy body, happy me’ campaign.
[b]Events[/b]
The National Football League (NFL) will play another regular-season game in the UK in 2008, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said in a statement. "The game in London was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the entire 2007 season," he said. "We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the event from all involved - the teams, our sponsors and business partners and of course the fans themselves. We look forward to another spectacular event in 2008."
Aldershot Army base has been chosen as the training camp for the British Olympic team ahead of London 2012. The Hampshire site beat bids from universities at Bath and Loughborough with the Aldershot's proximity to London and secure location thought to be key factors in its winning bid. The Sports Consultancy, a London-based sports marketing firm set up in October 2006, advised on the winning bid.
London 2012 has set up an online business 'dating agency' to help companies across the UK compete for tenders at the Games. The site, called Compete For, will act as a brokerage service between those firms already in the London 2012 supply chain and potential suppliers
Cowes has been dropped from the Powerboat P1 World Championship calendar for 2008. With the introduction of five new venues, including its inaugural Grand Prix in the Middle East and first ever French and Spanish GPs, the season will comprise a minimum of 14 races in seven host cities. However,
Powerboat P1 Management, in association with the British Powerboat Racing Club, will resurrect the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes powerboat race in 2008.
Eurosport Events and FSTC Sports Management have announced the launch in 2008 of a new Snooker ‘World Series’ to be run from May through August of each year. The series will start with four events in 2008 starting in Poland in June 2008 and then traveling to Jersey and Russia with the fourth venue in central Europe to be announced.
[b]Finance[/b]
A report for the London Development Agency (LDA) suggests that the Government’s estimates for the amount it will recoup in land sales after London 2012 are unrealistic. The LDA said that projections that the land would fetch around £1.8 billion could be around £1 billion off the mark.
More than £26 million will be spent on safety and security for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Strathclyde Police costs will be more than £16m, while private sector security will cost £9.3m, a government Finance Committee reported.
The Guardian has revealed that the UK government was assured by the Glazer family in 2005 that ticket prices would not rise under the new ownership at Old Trafford. Since the takeover United's average ticket prices have increased by as much as 11 per cent per season.
Advertising group Havas has expanded its UK operation with the acquisition of independent media agency BLM. BLM currently has relationships with mainstream UK advertisers including Setanta Sports.
The UK government is expected in the next few weeks to reject formally the £320m offer made in September by a consortium comprising racing interests such as the Racecourse Association, the management of the Tote and LDC, the private-equity arm of Lloyds TSB, according to The Times newspaper.
Hearts have submitted a planning application for their bid to redevelop Tynecastle. The club's plans for a new 10,000-seat main stand, which will include a hotel and flats, at a cost of around £51m, have been lodged with Edinburgh city council.
[b]Recruitment[/b]
The Telegraph Media Group has hired senior Sunday Times executive Mark Skipworth to head up sports coverage across the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk. Skipworth, the Sunday Times managing editor, news, for 10 years, will be executive editor, sport.
