Americas

Olympic organisers were more confident on Wednesday of being able to prepare a soccer pitch playing surface at Canberra in time for next month's Games, averting the need to move matches away from the federal capital.

Several MLS soccer teams are planning new stadium builds following the success of The Columbus Crew stadium ? with Los Angeles Galaxy involved in the most ambitious project.

Boxing's Oscar De La Hoya, upset over what he said were suggestions by promoter Bob Arum that he retire from the sport, sued Arum in federal court on Tuesday to end their eight-year relationship.

US sports franchise owners ands operators, Palace Sports and Entertainment, have signed a multi-year ticketing and new technology agreement with Ticketmaster.

Olympic organisers could be forced to switch soccer games away from Canberra because of worries that its new playing surface would not be ready.

Huge time-zone differences and an explosion in computer use will make Sydney's Olympics the biggest event yet on the Internet with officials predicting a staggering 6.5 billion hits for the official Games site alone.

The New England Patriots have sold the naming rights to their new stadium to internet conglomorate CMGI in exchange for at least $114 million over 15 years. The stadium will be called CMGI Field.

A lesbian couple thrown out of Dodger Stadium during a baseball game because they were kissing passionately received a public apology from the Los Angeles Dodgers as well as free tickets for future games.

Total Sports has expanded its online college network of over 80 official web sites of major college athletic programs and conferences, with the addition of one new conference and two new schools.

This year?s WNBA Championship featuring a best-of-three game series between New York Liberty and the Houston Comets, will be broadcast to 154 countries and in 22 different languages.

InMotion Technologies has created an interactive web page for the X-Games 2000.

The X Games in San Francisco has become the focus of ambush marketing tactics by dot com companies keen to impress the valuable ?Generation Y? market.

Organisers of the Summer Olympics have played down concerns the playing surfaces for the soccer tournament would not be ready in time for the Games next month.

The Detroit Red Wings and former defenseman Uwe Krupp have a new date to square off over a $12.3 million arbitration case.

Computer experts will work around the clock during the Sydney Olympics to keep out cyber hackers who might try to vandalise Games websites, even changing official results and the names of medal winners.

Sports marketing giant Octagon, has taken a substantial equity position in Consultants In Sport (CIS), a leading sports marketing company in Belgium and Holland.