Americas

An intellectual property rights dispute over the use of the Cleveland Browns fans? ?Dawg Pound? moniker has gone to a US district court.

NBC ratings for the NBA play-off series have shown an improvement on the previous weekend but are still down on last year.

NASCAR and the Indy Racing league has added two new venues to its 2001 schedule with new stops in Chicago and Kansas City.

After thirteen years, Ryder System Inc., is giving up the role of title sponsor of the Doral-Ryder Open, the PGA Tour tournament held at Doral Country Club in Miami.

Premium seats at the planned New England Patriots stadium, due for completion in 2002, will be the most costly in the NFL.

NBC's NBA ratings are showing no sign of improvement. After a regular season that saw national ratings plunge 21% from last year and 29% from two years ago, Nielsen Media national ratings for the prime time playoff game between the Utah Jazz and Seattle SuperSonics were down 32% from the same spot a year ago.

Japan Airlines has decided to end its ten-year run as title sponsor of the LPGA?s Big Apple Classic following the conclusion of this year?s event. The current owner of the event, Golf Magazine, is now looking for a new title holder that would be willing to sign a long-term deal.

Connecticut Governor John Rowland has signed legislation to build the University of Connecticut?s Huskies college team a 40,000-seat football stadium, thereby ensuring the team?s entry into the Big East Conference by 2003.

Spain's Davis Cup semifinal against the United States in July will be staged in the northern city of Santander after a successful appeal to the International Tennis Federation.

LOS ANGELES: Andrew Gellatly, SportBusiness.com new media editor, reports from the Interactive Sports 2000 conference.

LOS ANGELES: Andrew Gellatly, SportBusiness.com new media editor, reports from the Interactive Sports 2000 conference.

The turbulent stock market may be creating funding problems for the big sports web site players as they continue to burn through cash, but Rivals.com general manager Scott Ehrlich argues that sports community niche sites will prosper because they can market themselves using the already existing connections and affinities between fans and groups of sports participants.

MSNBCSports.com, the internet home of NBC Sports, has formed an alliance with eFANshop, an e-commerce OEM portal which provides licensed sports merchandise and apparel.

LOS ANGELES: Andrew Gellatly, SportBusiness.com new media editor, reports from the Interactive Sports 2000 conference.

Dr. Richard Luker, founder of the ESPN Sports Poll presented new research at the Interactive Sports 2000 conference in Los Angeles that suggests the internet sports market is "a market place still waiting for people to come through its doors".

Communications firm Nextel has signed a deal to sponsor the debut of the Grand American Road Racing Association at Homestead-Miami Speedway.