Bengals to Appear on Hard Knocks

It could be the entertainment event of the summer. The Cincinnati Bengals, the closest actual team the NFL has to the one quarterbacked by first Burt Reynolds and then Adam Sandler in The Longest Yard (one and two), is under consideration to be the featured team on HBO's training camp series Hard Knocks. After the Dallas Cowboys last year, HBO is bound to be looking for a team that will give the show more excitement and the Bengals certainly fit the bill. The producers will need to have one film crew at the training camp at Georgetown College and another mobile unit ready to go to whichever local jail gets the most Bengals showing up at any given time.

There are two reasons that the Bengals may not make it on to the cable and satellite screens around the country. One is that the owner, Mike Brown, is notorious for his refusal to talk to the press anymore than the absolute minimum required by the league. Second, I'm just not sure that the Commissioner would be willing to sign off on this selection. It's hard to envision the Bengals training camp fitting into Goodell's vision of the new, more family friendly NFL. You know, the one where Michael Vick has to earn his way back into the league.

Carnivals, We Have Carnivals

This week featured two blog carnivals that I wanted to bring to your attention. Yes folks, even in this new age of Twitter there are still blog carnivals out there worthy of your time and attention and not just because they include my posts. The first is the venerable Haveil Havalim, carnival of Jewish blogs, now featuring edition #214. The second carnival is a bit newer, but no less entertaining and informative, and is making a return after a brief hiatus, the Carnival of the NBA, edition #64.

Haveil Havalim is being hosted this week by The Rebbetzin's Husband and can be found here.


Carnival of the NBA is being hosted this week by BallerBlogger and can be found here.

Check them out - it's well worth your time.

Mazel Tov to the Hall of Fame Inductees

The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame held an induction ceremony over the weekend, inducting seven new honorees, whose exploits ranged from the broadcast desk at SportsCenter to Olympic gold and even to the courtroom. Yes, it was a mighty diverse lot. The seven honorees for this year consisted of 2 women and 5 men. Before we get to the honorees, go ahead, admit it - you didn't think there was such a thing as a Jewish Sports Hall of Fame now did you? It's not only real, but has a very impressive list of inductees compiled over the course of seventeen years.

The two women, both still active and inspirational, are Linda Cohn of SportsCenter fame and the "Grandma" of the Beijing US Olympic swim team, the incomparable Dara Torres. The five men were sportswriter Dick Schaap (posthumously), former New England Patriot linebacker Andre Tippett, former Baltimore Colts trainer Ed Block, Olympic weightlifter Gary Gubner and trailblazing executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Marvin Miller.

Cross-posted from Sportsyids

Sunday Reading

Here are a few links for your Sunday reading pleasure:

75-year old owner-trainer's one horse stable Kentucky Derby contender (Courier-Journal)
1970's fashion is back, at least on the golf course (wsj)
Will the falling pound and Britain's new tax rate be the end of the dominance of the English Premier League (Times)
The ten all-time best ballpark promotions (Love of Sports)
Derby hopefuls, why they can and why they can't (Courier-Journal)
It was a really bad week for Rick Pitino, profile of the high school kid who had committed to Louisville and now may skip his senior year to go pro in Eurpoe (NYT)

Boris Becker Cashes in at Poker Tournament

Three-time Wimbledon-champion Boris Becker has found a new career, as a poker player. “Boom Boom” made it deep in one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world – the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He finished in 37th place out of 338 entrants, outlasting some of the best players in the world, while taking home a $40,855 prize check.

Compared to the $25 million in prize money Becker made as a tennis player, that is only a drop in the sea, but the German star is definitely starting to enjoy life on the big poker scene.

"I'm certainly gaining experience and feeling a lot more comfortable, but this is the first time making it to the fourth day of a big tournament," Becker said.

It made big online poker news when Becker signed a deal with the world’s largest poker site PokerStars about a year ago and joined the site’s celebrity roster alongside hockey star Mats Sundin and comedian Jason “George” Alexander.

Becker has played in a few tournaments since then, but this was his first cash in a major event. He also plays online and will most likely show up in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Vegas this summer.

At time of writing, the WPT Championship is still running with 24 players left in the tournament. The first place prize in the event is $2,149,960.

Keeneland Handle a Sign of the Times

Churchill Downs opens its Spring Meet today marking the official start of Derby Week. It also means that the Spring Meet at Keeneland, that historic and tradition bound track in the little city to the west of here has ended. It's an appropriate time then to take a look at the meet's handle and attendance to see what effect the economy has had.

It's easy to see that the recession has hit hard in Central Kentucky even though most of the plants there are still operating relatively normally, including Toyota's main North American assembly plant in Georgetown. While the meet boasted near record attendance, the handle was down sharply. The total attendance of 240,755 was the third-highest in track history, down 1.1 percent from 243,606 last year. The 16,050 average daily crowd was up 5.4 percent from last year and was the second-highest in Keeneland history.

However, the wagering figures were not so bright. Preliminary results showed a 19.3 percent drop in all sources handle to $117 million, with a 9.8 percent decline to $19.2 million in on-track handle for Keeneland's races. This was the first time that Keeneland races were on all four major off-track wagering outlets and the handle was still down precipitously. That is not a good omen for racing. If the numbers carry forward to Churchill Downs' spring meet, then the industry should reexamine its marketing strategies because they are apparently not working too well in this economic climate.

Twitter

If you're looking to find the Twitter feeds of athletes and coaches, a speoial area has been set up to make that easier for you. You can just go here and find them all in one place.

While we're on the subject, SportsBiz has joined Twitter. You can catch the SportsBiz Twitter feed by going here.

Baseball's Rich Get Richer

If you listen to Bud Selig, you would believe that this is the golden age of baseball. Attendance has never been higher. Parity, in his mind, has come to the game, as the participants in the World Series have been changing every year. Television deals have been signed at ever higher numbers, notwithstanding the ever shrinking ratings and new stadiums are coming on line almost every year. So, what's not to like?

Try this, according to Forbes latest listing of the value of baseball franchise, one-third of the clubs lost money last year. Remember, this is not the owners claiming to have lost money in a year in which they are either trying to get a stadium built and paid for by taxpayers or they are negotiating with the players union; no this is Forbes' own estimate of profit and loss. While Selig's labor negotiators may think that is a good thing as the collective bargaining agreement will be up for negotiation soon, heading into the teeth of the recession/depression with that money clubs already losing can't be a good sign . That number can only dramatically increase after this season.

That is exactly why this parity that Selig loves to claim is a myth. Sure, the teams in the playoffs may change from year to year, but the teams at the team of the Forbes leaderboard almost never do. The same large market teams are at the top with the same top three of Yankees, Mets and Red Sox every year. It took Arte Moreno a few years to turn around the Angels and reposition them into a Los Angeles team, but now they will be on the leaderboard for the foreseeable future too. True parity can only come with a hard salary cap that would prevent the Yankees from having a payroll equal to that of the Rays, Marlins, Pirates and Nationals combined. Sure, New York is a bigger market but the Giants and the Jets don't get to spend that much more than the Dophins do they, and we all know which sport is America's true national sport. Think about Bud, everybody but ESPN is tired of seeing the Yankees-Red Sox every other week.

Wimbledon Ups Prize Money; Unveils Centre Court Roof

The stodgiest of the four tennis majors, Wimbledon joined the 21st century this week as the All England Club unveiled a new folding roof for Centre Court. Gone will be those interminable rain delays that played havoc with the draw and caused more than a few people the opportunity to use the tickets that had cost them about a month's income to buy. Now, when rain is expected the roof can be closed and matches can continue unimpeded until 10:00 PM, when they will be halted in accordance with the agreement between the Club and local authorities, a curfew if you will. However, remember, only Centre Court has a roof; all other courts are open to the sky and rain will continue to trash the draw during week one and the early part of week two.

In order to cope with the global financial crisis, the prize money has been increased 6.2% to a total of $18.2 million. The winners will now receive 850,000 pounds or roughly $566, 666, a 13% increase. The reason behind the increase is to offset the weakness in the pound against both the dollar and the euro. The pound has dropped 25% against the dollar and 10% against the euro since last year's tournament.

Lions Try New Branding

What do you do when you lose all your games? Well, besides firing everybody you can find (and that means you Matt Millen) you change your branding of course. Today, the Detroit Lions unveiled new uniforms and a new Lion logo and even a new font for the Lions typeface. Will it help? Not nearly as much as not blowing the pick that comes with number one choice in the draft. On that score Lions fans, history is not on your side.

Jake and the Iditarod

or what's a nice Jewish boy doing all the way up in here in the cold with a team of dogs going nowhere? What am I supposed to say, my son the musher? Jake Berkowitz, a 22 year old dog sled racer, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, just completed in his second Iditarod, placing 31st out of 67 and the only one who finished with all 18 of his dogs. How did he get here and what should we expect from him in the future?

It was a bit of a roundabout journey to Alaska as you might guess. It took Jake from Talmud Torah in St. Paul to Israel to white water canoeing in Colorado and then a winter job in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan guiding dog sled trips. The company he was working for in Michigan, Nature's Kennel, asked him to run in the Iditarod and after competing once he was hooked. So he moved to Alaska and the rest is history.

Look for Jake in next year's race as his dogs should all be back with an additional year of training and experience. As Jake has said, his goal is a top ten finish. I don't if that would be a record for a Jewish dog sled racer, but I was hazard a guess that it just might be.

Cross-posted to SportsYids

Your Name Here Stadium

Ever want to have a stadium named after you but didn't have a spare $40-$400 million dollars to throw around, especially now that your portfolio has taken such a hit. Well, I have such the solution for you. In Rochester, New York, the Rhinos, one of the country's most successful second division (USL -1) soccer teams, has been having difficulty finding a buyer for the naming rights to their relatively new downtown stadium so they have decided to put the naming rights up for sale for $1,000. Any season ticket holder or sponsor which spends $1,000 will get one entry into a drawing for each $1,000 spent. One name will be drawn at the Rhinos home opener against the Montreal Impact. The winner will have the naming rights to the stadium for the 2009 season.

If you're interested the complete rules can be found here.

Pepsi Drops Maria Sharapova

What's the price of a shoulder injury to a tennis star? In Maria Sharapova's case, it turns out to be at least a couple of million dollars. Pepsi announced today, or rather its spokesman gave the news in an interview, that its contract with the Russian tennis star and part-time model would not be renewed. Why? “There is no particular reason other than that the contract has ended, with both parties mutually deciding to go their own way,” Huw Gilbert, a Purchase, New York-based spokesman for the world’s second-biggest soft-drink maker, said in an interview reported by Bloomberg. “We enjoyed our partnership and wish her well.”

Sharapova however hasn't commented on the contract termination making it perfectly clear that the termination emanated from Purchase New York and most likely resulted from her precipitate drop in the rankings to the low 50s. The contract was estimated to be worth about $1 million per year but since Sharapova is reputedly the world's highest paid woman athlete, earning an estimated $22 million, I think she can afford the loss. The precedent however is another story. She better hope this is an isolated case and not the start of a trend. Either that or her shoulder better heal and she better get her game back if she wants to continue her earnings reign.

Impact of the Recession Cont'd - LPGA

If you want to see Natalie Gulbis or any of these other LPGA golfers play this year, I hope you have cable or satellite. There will only be a handful of LPGA tournaments broadcast on network television this year and one of them was last week - the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first of the LPGA's four majors.

As a result of the current economic climate, the LPGA was unable to identify enough tournaments or find an umbrella sponsor, and talks the tour conducted with NBC and CBS did not progress past the exploratory stage. At the moment, 2010 looks even worse. So, if you want to see the LPGA, you better have the Golf Channel, because it looks like, save four to five tournaments a year, that will be your only option for the foreseeable future.

Perry Shows World How to Lose With Class

This one really had to hurt. After leading the Masters for 70 holes, two bogeys cost Kenny Perry the chance, at 48, to be the oldest golfer ever to win a green jacket. Those bogeys on 17 and 18 forced him into that now infamous three way playoff that he lost on the second playoff hole to Angel Cabrera, the Argentine now holder of perhaps the largest green jacket ever awarded. But Kenny Perry was also a winner yesterday. Perhaps in sports parlance, he blew the Masters, but in life, he showed us all how to lose with class and grace, something that will last in memory far longer than those bogeys will to all except Kenny himself. When was the last time you heard an athlete talk about himself like this:

"It just seems like when I get down to those deals, I can't seem to execute," Perry said. "Great players make it happen, and your average players don't. And so that's the way it is. I just didn't get the job done again, and I'll look back the rest of my life saying what could have been."

Perry went on to say: "I'm not going to feel sorry. If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I can live with it. I really can. Great players get it done, and Angel got it done. This is his second major he's won, and I've blown two, but that's the only two I've had chances of winning."

I doubt we will ever see an athlete come in second again with such grace and class. Congratulations to both Angel Carbrera and Kenny Perry for a well played tournament. Kenny, you did all of Kentucky proud.

Here's a post round interview with Golf Channel's Jim Grey:

Sunday Reading

Bluegrass win fuels Derby dream for one horse stable of retired principal (CJ)
Can Usain Bolt ever earn 1/10 of what Tiger earns a year? Can any track star? (NYT)
Celine Dion's hubby wants to buy the Canadiens; so do the cream of Quebec business community
(Montreal Gazette)
Global recession and the reality of redevelopment around Washington Nationals Stadium (WaPo)
Mike Illitch and the Detroit Tigers contribute to the GM bailout (Bloomberg)
Soon to be released; Jewish Major Leaguer baseball cards (JML)

MLS Plays the Relocation Card in DC

DC United has had a very frustrating search for a new stadium home. Jurisdiction after jurisdiction has voted down a stadium deal in what can only be described as a highly unusual spate of local legislative good sense. Following this week's surprise rejection by the Prince George's County Council, both DC United and league officials were naturally upset. That led MLS Commissioner to lay down the dreaded relocation card: "Why we don't seem to be able to get a deal done is incredibly frustrating and it could be that, if something can't be resolved, we will move the team," Don Garber said. We are getting close to the point where we can't continue to go on operating the team at RFK, a facility that didn't work for Major League Baseball, does not work for D.C. United," he went on. "We have to develop a plan to get United in a partnership with a public entity in the region sometime soon or we will have to very seriously think about alternative locations."

With several cities having applied for the expansion franchises recently awarded to Vancouver and Portland, there will be no shortage of ready and willing seekers of a transplanted franchise, all of whom will come to the Commissioner with a willing government partner in place. Those cities are likely to include St. Louis, Ottawa, Montreal, Atlanta and Miami, all of whom expressed interest in an expansion franchise but not all of whom stayed in the process until the end. MLS has announced that it will expand by two more franchises following the addition of Portland and Vancouver to the league.

DC United is one of the strongest brands in the league, right up with the Los Angeles Galaxy. It is a four time MLS Cup winner and has competed somewhat successfully internationally. Losing a franchise in the nation's capital would not be the best public relations for a league that, although growing stronger by the year, is still struggling to maintain an image of success with American sports fans and perhaps even more importantly American sports media.

Mazel Tov Angel

It's deja vu all over again for Angel McCoughtry. Fresh off of a wildly successful season leading the University of Louisville Cardinals to their first ever Final Four and national championship game appearance, the All-American small forward set another first yesterday by being selected first in the WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream. The Dream, who won all of four games last season, are not in much better shape than the Cardinal program at the time Angel showed up on campus. When she committed to play for the Cardinals, the average attendance at their games was several hundred people lost in cavernous Freedom Hall; as she leaves the program with fellow senior and All-Big East teammate Candyce Bingham, the Cards are averaging over 7,000 per game and it has become one of the more fashionable tickets in town. I'm sure the Dream hope she can do the same for them.

Good luck Angel. You had a great career in the 'Ville and we're all behind you. You too, Candyce, as you join the Silver Stars. Don't worry about where they took you in the draft. It's going to be the biggest draft steal the
WNBA has seen in its short history. I guess we'll have to become Atlanta and San Antonio fans now.

Man U Still Most Valuable Soccer Club

Forbes has released its annual ranking of the world's most valuable soccer clubs and to my great surprise there were no Major League Soccer clubs listed in the top 25. Seriously, though, what is surprising is that even in the face of the worst global economy in nearly 80 years, the value of the 25 top global soccer clubs actually increased about eight percent over last year.

Once again the list is headed by Manchester United with a value of $1.87 billion, benefiting from the first year of the new television deals which the English Premier League entered into over the last couple of years. The Red Devils were also the leaders in income with $160 million, coming in second to Real Madrid in gross revenue with a mere $512 million. ManU has two potentially significant untapped revenue sources which could bring in large sums in the next year or two to bring down a portion of its $1 billion debt. The club could sell naming rights to its venerable stadium Old Trafford, although it would risk angering its supporters once again, and its current jersey contract is with global insurer AIG, who undoubtedly would like to find a way out of the contract considering the hundreds of billions of dollars it is now losing and the hundreds of billions it is taking from the US taxpayers.

Coming in second again is Real Madrid, whose value is pegged at $1.3 billion. English clubs made up 8 of the top 25, while there are 6 German clubs, buoyed by new television rights deals, topped by Bayern Munich. There are 4 Italian clubs, all in the top 15.

In addition, there are only two Spanish clubs, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, in the top 10. One reason for the relative lack of Spanish clubs, as compared to the English, German and Italian, is the difference in the way the leagues handle television rights. The Spanish clubs are free to sell television rights individually while the other leagues sell them collectively, boosting all of the clubs, not just the top 2 or 3. Like the NFL, which has become America's game primarily through its adroit handling of its television rights, collective sale has enabled all clubs to thrive and brought balance to the league, creating more interest in the league race every year. One of these years, La Liga will learn this too.

Here's a video from Forbes on television rights for European soccer:

Auburn's Spring Game to Be Sponsored by US Navy

It's come to this. Auburn has sold the naming rights, well officially the presenting rights, to its spring game to the Navy. It will be "A Day, Presented by the US Navy". Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge Auburn's attempt to wring money out of its football program, especially in a way that doesn't hit the fans' wallet and really doesn't prostitute the university too much. However, if I was the new War Eagle coach, I would be mighty uncomfortable with the whole idea. You know about the stadium naming rights curse. Since it's unlikely that the US Navy is going to drop in market value, could selling the naming rights to the spring game mean that Auburn is going to have a losing season?

HT The Wiz of Odds

Congrats to the Lady Cards

Congratulations to the University of Louisville Lady Cards for knocking off Oklahoma last night and making it to their first ever national championship game. Waiting for them there will be the UConn Huskies, who are seeking their date with destiny. The Huskies are undefeated and have won a game this season by less than double digits. The Cards have played UConn twice this season and neither game holds out much hope for Louisville. In the regular season, UConn beat Louisville 93-65 at home in Gampel Pavilion and in the finals of the Big East Tournament, also a UConn home game, played on their alternate home court in Hartford, UConn won 75-36.

Last night's game started out like the Soooners would have no problem with the upstart Cardinals. Oklahoma jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first 5 and 1/2 minutes and led 16-2 before Louisville made its first field goal. Louisville rallied a bit and was only down 34-22 at halftime. From the start of the second half, everything was different. Louisville went on a 20-4 run to start the second half and grab a lead, which despite foul trouble they somehow managed to keep. With about 7 seconds left in the game and Louisville clinging to a one point lead, Oklahoma fouled Candyce Bingham. She hit her first free throw but the second bounced off the rim. The Cardinals' Monique Reid couldn't grab the ball but she did tip it towards the sideline, knocking precious seconds off the clock. UConn recovered the ball, and got it to Nyeisha Stevenson who had a open three point shot, which went in and came back out, sending the Cards on to a Tuesday night meeting with the Huskies.

You can see highlights of the game here.

Vote Bing For Mayor of Detroit

The latest fad in former NBA guards is to run for mayor. Following in the footsteps of Kevin Johnson, the recently elected mayor of Sacramento, Detroit has its own local hero making his political debut in a mayoral race. Dave Bing, once an all-NBA guard with the Detroit Pistons, and before that, a member of Syracuse University backcourt with Jim Boeheim, is now running hard to be mayor of Detroit. Bing is a very successful businessman, having built a company since his retirement from the NBA with 500 employees and at least $300 million in revenue.

Bing received the most votes in the primary and now faces a runoff election on May 5 against incumbent Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. Cockrel became mayor when the previous occupant of that job was convicted of lying under oath about an affair with his former chief of staff. It figures to be a tough race for Bing, who only received about 2% more votes than Cockrel in a crowded primary. Cockrel just picked up the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, which I suspect is fairly valuable in a heavily unionized area such as Detroit.

Good luck Mr. Bing I have no idea why anyone would actually want to be mayor of Detroit, I have no idea. The fact that you do makes me question your sanity. Nevertheless, I wish you all the luck in world because if you win, you're sure going to need it.

Here's a video of Bing speaking about his strengths and weaknesses to a young professionals group in Detroit about a month ago:

Curlin Former Owners Convicted on Fraud Charges

Remember that mistrial last year in which a jury could not decide whether two lawyers who once owned Curlin were guilty of committing fraud against their clients in the fen=phen diet drug case? Their retrial ended yesterday when a jury convicted William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. of defrauding their clients out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

This time, there was a new judge, in a new venue, a new prosecutor and, most controversial, new evidence. Judge Danny Reeves (a good judge and good guy and former law partner of mine) allowed prosecutors to put the counsel for the Bar Association on the witness stand to testify at length about her investigation into the two lawyers and the circumstance of the pne-phen settlement and the handling of funds by them. In addition, he allowed into the evidence that the defendants had been disbarred by the Kentucky Supreme Court for violating ethical rules relating to a lawyer's relationship with his or her client. While I believe Judge Reeves to have made the correct decision here, it does leave the defendants grounds for an appeal, which the defendants' attorneys immediately promised would be filed.

Following the announcement of the verdict, Judge Reeves ordered the defendants be taken into custody because they were flight risks. Sentencing will be announced on July 27. The jury returns on Tuesday to decide if the defendants should be required to forfeit $94 million.

Hicks Defaults on $525 Million in Loans

In case you couldn't guess why Tom Hicks put minority interest in the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars up for sale, the answer came today as Hicks Sports Group defaulted on $525 million in loans by missing interest payments. Those loans are supposedly secured by the interests of Hicks in the Rangers and the Stars but not in Hicks' interest in English Premier League club Liverpool FC, which would account for the uncertainty surrounding its sale status last week.

Hicks Sports is involved in negotiations with its lenders over the terms and covenants of the loans, the Dallas-based company said in an e-mailed statement. The team owner decided to withhold last week’s interest payment “as part of its negotiations,” Hicks Group said.

“We are simply asking the lenders to be reasonable,” Tom Hicks, 63, said in the statement. “They need to understand that these important assets must be managed with long-term perspective and a commitment to winning.”

Fox Soccer Channel Snags Champions League from ESPN

So, it doesn't look like ESPN is quite as committed to soccer as a foundation programming as it was a couple of years ago. Earlier this year, it announced that the MLS game of the week was no longer going to have a fixed time slot on Thursday night but was going to float through the week. Now, it has been outbid for the UEFA Champions League by Fox, an outcome once deemed unthinkable in Bristol. With the loss of the Champions League, ESPN now has no major international soccer product other than games of the US National Team.

Fox, with the rights to Copa Libertadores and the CONCACAF Champions League now has the rights to the three major continental club championships. With its rights to the English Premier League, it has clearly become the channel of choice for soccer fans in the US. The only thing it needs now is High Definition and a bit more carriage. It is still limited in the number of cable systems that are carrying it, especially when compared with ESPN and ESPN2. Fox clearly intends to be the network of soccer in the US. The question is does ESPN even care to fight back? The other question is when will Fox respect its viewers enough to spend the money necessary to start broadcasting in HD, which the games so richly deserve?

Finally, congratulations to the US National Team for a stirring 3-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in Nashville tonight. It was particularly good to see them come back and play spirited and inspired soccer after a relatively dispirited game in which they were lucky to get a draw against El Salvador on Saturday in San Salvador. Congratulations are also due Jozy Altidore who justified Coach Bob Bradley's decision to start him tonight by scoring his first international hat trick, with all three goals coming on assists from Landon Donovan playing a relatively unfamiliar left mid.

UPDATE: Fox has now announced its broadcasting plans for its initial season of the Champions League which will correspond with the movement of the Final to Saturday for the first time. The league will, as expected, receive greatly expanded coverage with 31 live and 79 delayed matches shown on FSC. In addition, 16 Tuesday games will air on Fox Sports Net and the final live from Madrid on May 22, 2010, will air live on FX, a Fox property which has significantly greater penetration than either FSC or Fox Sports Net.

Weekend Reading

A few stories for your weekend:

IMG is taking over college athletics and why you should care (USA Today)

Economic crisis apparently has skipped Australia, at least where footy is concerned; AFL looking for a A$1 Billion TV rights deal (AFL.com)

Economic crisis in full flavor in US; personal seat license prices drop for first time (Bloomberg)

Apparently Major League Baseball's aversion to gambling doesn't extend to lotteries, at least where there is a chance for a team to make a few bucks (Boston Herald)

Remember the NHL's lockout season - it may turn out to be the very thing that gets the league through the economic crisis relatively unscathed (Orange County Register)

Will Twitter eliminate the need for PR agents and the press who are served by them - Shaq announces latest endorsement deal on Twitter (Sportsbiz on CNBC)

49ers and Santa Clara closing in on new stadium deal, while Major League Baseball and A's explore stadium deal with San Jose (Silicon Valley Business Journal and here)

USA v. Jamaica Track Series Set for 2010

If you like speed, you're going to love this. The US Track Federation and the Jamaican Athletics Association announced the start of the USA v. Jamaica Challenge Series, meets that will feature USA and Jamaican track athletes competing against each other in a series of scored competition. The series will likely consist of races for men and women in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, the 100/110 and 400 hurdles and the long jump and the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays. Since between the two countries, they took home the vast majority of the medals in these events from Beijing, this competition will be like having a little mini Olympics in an off year without the travel hassle or the bother of all those qualifying heats. I mean who really wants to watch all those other slow people run the 100 meters anyway. When was the last time someone from Brazil won the 100?

The Challenge Series will likely start in 2010 as the international track calendar is fairly full in 2009 with World Championships, regional competitions.

Minor League Promotion of the Week

Actually, this may turn out to be the promotion of the month. The Quad Cities River Bandits (Midwest League, Class A) are having a "Van Down by the River" promotion at every home game this season. Each game, eight lucky fans will be chosen to spend the game from an outfield berm, which is located just be the river and his van. A daily jackpot will ensue and if a River Bat hits the van, then the selected lucky eight occupants will win the cash. If the van is not hit, the money rolls over until it is.

HT Deadspin

Calipari Goes to Kentucky

It just wasn't Rick Pitino's week. First, his Louisville Cardinals picked the most inopportune time to throw their most uninspired game of the year, against Michigan State in the Elite Eight, and lost a chance at the Final Four and his first national championship at Louisville. Then, his old job down the road comes open and instead of listening to him and hiring one of his old players and Kentucky family members like Travis Ford of Oklahoma State or John Pelphrey of Arkansas, Mitch Barnhardt does the unexpected and hires Pitino nemesis John Calipari. Just for the icing on the cake, Kentucky decides to pay him more than Pitino is making too. I imagine that Tom Jurich's (Louisville AD) phone is already ringing. In fact, Calipari will become the highest paid coach in college basketball with an 8 year, $31.65 million contract, that includes a $2.5 million signing bonus and a $200,000 buyout to Memphis.

So, just why would Kentucky hire Calipari and is this a marrigae that could work? This hire may be the perfect mating of university and coach. Calipari is a slicked back, hyper aggressive, workaholic, boundary stretching, limit bending and maybe crossing coach, who will do damn near anything to land a recruit and once on campus, keep him eligible to play. Kentucky is a university that will do anything, pay any price - literally and figuratively - to land a winning team and keep it eligible as long as the ultimate prize is reached at suitable intervals. The Wildcat fan base doesn't care too much for SEC titles, they expect those. The prize that they care about are Final Four appearances and regular national championships - anything less is failure and not tolerated, no matter if your name is Adolph Rupp.

Whether Calipari is really as dirty as his whispered reputation is open to question. His long association with William Wesley certainly doesn't help. However, the Kentucky fans don't care and the administration doesn't care as long as any NCAA penalties are relatively mild and not financially significant. If Calipari wins, puts fans in their seats, games on TV and donors reaching for their checkbooks, he can do pretty much any damn thing he wants - especially if he beats Rick Pitino and Louisville on a regular basis.