Australia

The managing director of Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), James Packer, has announced a new seven-year deal between the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and the Nine Network.

The International Olympic Committee has decided, that Sydney's old Showground site at Moore Park, will become an Olympic venue.

Overseas fans are snapping up new seating packages for the Sydney Olympics according to Australian newspaper The Sunday Telegraph.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, received a red carpet welcome to Sydney on 25 April 1998, when he attended a 25th anniversary function for the Kenvale College of tourism and hospitality management.

The Sydney Olympics' spending plans are to be further refined as SOCOG moves to keep within its budgets.

The organising committee for the Sydney 200 Olympic Games is to consider plans to ensure that all available seats at venues are full during events.

Extending viewer choice is the key to enhancing the value of Olympic Games television contracts according to IOC vice-president Dick Pound.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee, is to visit Sydney on 25 April, 1998.

Soccer Australia president, David Hill has claimed that unless completion of the $A19 million upgrade of Adelaide's Hindmarsh soccer stadium takes place, South Australia will be denied the rightto stage six Sydney 2000 Olympic preliminary soccer games.

David Lloyd, the former tennis player who sold his health and fitness clubs business to Whitbread for #200m in 1995, is re-entering the market backed by Scottish & Newcastle, the UK's largest brewer.

Sports fans will not be able to access moving pictures on the Internet during the Sydney 2000 Games, with International Olympic Committee members seeking to protect the rights of their broadcast sponsors.

An IOC report says preliminary results indicate that the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, were broadcast in more countries than ever before and that the global cumulative audience is likely to equal Lillehammer's record??.

There is a rumour that will not go away - this year's Commonwealth Games will have to be shifted from Malaysia to Australia because of smog.

The $600 million Sydney Olympic Stadium is 11 weeks ahead of schedule and on target for a spectacular opening ceremony early next year, according to Australian newspaper reports.

The Sydney 2000 Olympics are in danger of becoming the

South Africa's National Sports Council said on Sunday it was too soon to abandon plans to call for an international boycott of the rugby Springboks despite white rugby boss Louis Luyt's resignation.