Australia
Events

The Australian government has said it expected this year's Sydney Olympics to give the economy a boost in the September quarter, adding about one percentage point to gross domestic product and cutting the current account deficit.

Australian elite sport groups are facing a $A15 million funding cut in April 2000. It is thought likely that the cuts will be handed down in the May Budget.
Business

Internet portal iSport has signed a deal to secure the naming rights sponsorship for canoeing?s World Cup Slalom event this April in Australia.
Business

Sportal has signed a two-year sponsorship and website deal with Formula One team Benetton.
Business

Australian swimming sensation, Ian Thorpe, has been asked to choose between two swimsuit brands vying for sponsorship exposure during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Business

IOC leader Jacques Rogge has tried to douse concern about organisational problems within the 2000 Olympics, by saying Sydney had no real worries compared to some predecessors as host city.

Next season's Australian Rules season will kick off three weeks early to avoid a clash with the Sydney Olympics, the AFL has announced.
Business

A senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) official has said he expected the Games to be held in Africa in the next 10 years.
Business

ESPN International has acquired the rights to televise Italian Serie A soccer action in Australia, New Zealand and the territories of Oceania.
Events

An Australian member of the International Olympic Committee severely reprimanded for taking free holidays in Salt Lake City has backed a possible permanent ban on IOC visits to cities bidding to host Games.
Events

Senegal lawyer Lamine Diack is present his case today to retain control of the world governing athletics body after the death of International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) president Primo Nebiolo this month.
Events

Australia's telecommunications giant Telstra Corp Ltd said it had talked to the Australian Football League (AFL), but it was not in the process of bidding for the pay TV or Internet rights of the game.
Business

Rugby league world champions Australia will kick off the 2000 World Cup at Twickenham, the first time in the sport's 105-year history that it will be played at the home of rugby union.

The International Olympic Committee has decided, that Sydney's old Showground site at Moore Park, will become an Olympic venue.
Business

Sports management groups in Australia say that sponsorship dollars are harder to come by because they are being siphoned off to Olympic contracts, the Australian Financial review reports.
Sponsorship & Marketing

The ownership of three of five official Olympic Stores in Sydney is under review in a development that adds to mounting evidence of poor public support for Olympic initiatives.

The Rugby League Council is to be asked to approve a revised five year deal worth #44 million with Sky Television in Salford.
Business

Sydney is to host the annual rugby union competition the Bledisloe Cup.