guncurug

Television
Al Jazeera intends to build a global sports brand, even bidding for UK rights to Premier League games (Reuters)

NBC laid out its Olympics coverage including live streaming of every event on NBCOlympics.com and 242 hours of 3D coverage on one delay (Engadget)

Baseball
No wonder the Marlins and Rays have had attendance problems;  Florida baseball fans' favorite team is not located in Florida (NESN)

Call it the Dodgers effect, Padres owner want $800 million for the team that only averages 24,000 fans a game (Forbes)

Frank McCourt just won't go away; currently being investigated by federal grand jury for financial irregularities with the Dodgers (BleacherReport)

Football
One of the unfortunate consequences of conference realignment is the ending of decades old rivalries. One which has not received the publicity it deserves is the Holy War in Utah (NationalFootballPost)

Did Robert Griffin III sign with Adidas because of of that suffix (Shutdown Corner)

Sometime there is justice in the world, Terrell Owens cut by indoor football league team he partially owns (Yahoo)

Further evidence of justice, Craig James received four percent of the vote in the Texas Republican Senate primary, Texas Republicans showing better judgement than I ever knew they had (CBS)

NBA
The New Orleans Hornets just recently sold by the NBA to Tom Benson, the owner of the Saints, won the draft lottery and will likely take Anthony Davis, who won the NCAA title in NOLA (ESPN)

Calvin Klein becomes founding partner of Brooklyn Nets in a $4 million per year deal (Sports Pro Magazine)


NCAA
Northwestern's women's lacrosse win NCAA title, making seven out of the last eight, but the bigger championship has been off the field (ChicagoTribune)

University of Louisville funds expansion of their baseball stadium one baseball at a time (UofL Sports)

Horse Racing
There are dopers and then there is this: trainer accused of doping In 675 harness races (NYT)

I'll Have Another's trainer suspended for 45 days starting July 1 and fined $15,000 for excessive level of carbon dioxide in one of his horses - not his first suspension (DRF)

Soccer


US Men's National Time gets a reality check with 4-1 loss to Neymar and Brazil ahead of June 8 opening of World Cup qualifying (ESPN)

The Beautiful Game is not necessarily the cleanest game; another new match fixing in Italy (Bloomberg)

When you're on a roll, the rule is to ride the hot dice and MLS is certainly doing that.  Coming on the heels of a very successful men's World Cup with never before seen fan interest in the US, a successful expansion franchise launch in Philadelphia this year and the opening of new stadia in New York and Philadelphia, MLS could rightly consider itself as well on the way to firmly establishing itself in the nation's sporting firmament. Expect the roll to continue as the league will be expanding by three more in 2011 and 2012 with franchises in Portland, Vancouver and Montreal coming on board.


Adidas has recognized the new reality voluntarily opening its ten year sponsorship agreement with the league and extending it until 2018, from its original expiration date of 2014.  In addition, the agreement is now worth more than $200 million, according to Sports Business Journal, making it one of Adidas largest investment in the sport.  That's a raise from the $150 million, 10 year deal, which the parties signed in 2004.  Of course, the league is certainly different than it was then, as I only highlighted above. There are seven new soccer specific stadiums, one football stadium filled with soccer crazed fans (Seattle, where no soccer specific stadium is necessary) and new deals with both ESPN and Univision.   Another soccer specific stadium is on the way in Kansas City.  Attendance is up, sponsorship is up, viewership is up and the league is clearly headed in the right direction.


All is not completely rosy, however.  There is still competition issues, most evident in CONCACAF Champions League games, even if nobody really cares about the results. MLS teams still have trouble competing with Mexican league teams, not to mention teams from South America.  It would be great if MLS could work with the South Americans to figure out a way to integrate MLS into the Copa Libertadores competition.  It would be great for the level of play in MLS and it would help the US Men's team.  Until then, I guess the CCL is all we have, so we'll have to make the best of it.