Americas

Online sports companies were given a much-needed boost after Jupiter Media Matrix, a New York-based research firm, said the online advertising market would rise in 2001.

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said on Thursday the league was considering using replacement referees if a new contract with officials was not agreed soon.

Defeated IOC presidential candidate Dick Pound has thrown doubts over the future of the Olympic organisation following last month's election - and confirmed he has written to Olympic sponsors calling on them to demand reassurances.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Wednesday that media group Kirch should not have changed the schedule of its German first division highlights programme.

EchoStar Communications Corp's $30.4billion (?34.7bn) unsolicited bid to buy the rival satellite television company Hughes Electronics Corp, including its DirecTV subsidiary, on Monday got a mixed response from Wall Street analysts, who applauded the move but largely said it would ultimately be unsuccessful.

Adidas-Salomon AG has reported second quarter net profit of $21.13million (?24m), up 22.2 percent on the same period last year and broadly in line with analysts' expectations.

Envision, the LA-based sports marketing firm run as a joint venture between former ProServ managing director Jeff Knapple and Philip Anschutz, owner of the Los Angeles Kings, has been chosen to sell the naming rights to the Louisiana Superdome.
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IEG, the Chicago-based newsletter that values sponsorship for clients, says the US postal service is not capitalising on its sponsorship of Tour de France competitor Lance Armstrong.

Athletics world governing body, the IAAF claims the US team took an athlete to the Sydney Olympic Games who had tested positive for a banned drug.

Churchill Downs Inc (CDI), in conjunction with the New York Racing Association and Television Games Network, has lost out in its bid for the purchase of New York City Off-Tracking Betting Corp (NYCOTB).

Boxing promoters Cedric Kushner Boxing (CKB), Inc plans to reverse into Zenascent, Inc, the former internet technology and e-commerce incubator company listed on New York's over the counter billboard market, as part of a merger agreement.

ESPN Star Sports has made three new appointments to its team.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the PGA Tour's procedures for determining playing positions in Senior PGA Tour events, setting aside claims from golfer Harry Toscano.

The televising of NASCAR races is keeping leading US networks in the red as they struggle to find advertisers in a bearish market.

New York's international network, many hotels and plans to build new sports arenas amounted to a strong bid to stage the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) panel said.

Executives of Oakland A?s baseball team have denied reports the franchise has been sold to an investors? group from Las Vegas for $150 million (?170.16m).