Canada
Sponsorship & Marketing

European sports information provider Infostrada Sports and North American equivalent STATS have formed a strategic content and technology sharing alliance.
Business

UK Alternative Investment Market-listed sports and entertainment management group, CSS Stellar has acquired GEM Group, the North American consumer marketing consultancy specialising in sport, for an initial payment of $9.5million in shares (80 percent) and cash (20 percent).

Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) teams, the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames stand to benefit to the sum of $1.3 million after a new sports lottery funding project was approved by the state of Alberta.
Business

US season ticket management company Season Ticket Solutions (STS) has launched a ticket exchange that will allow ticket holders from major league sports teams and venues to resell unused tickets through a transaction that is legal in all 50 states and Canada.
Business

Organisers of the Edmonton 2001 World Athletics Championships have named the final two sponsors for the event, which takes place on August 3-12.
Business

The Bush administration will remain neutral on Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics, despite powerful appeals from members of Congress to oppose the proposal on human rights grounds.
Business

South America's top international soccer tournament, the Copa America, due to be held in Colombia next month, was put on hold until a kidnapped senior Colombian soccer official is freed, a Colombian spokesman said.
Business

Canadian television network CTV has put its 40 percent stake in sports broadcaster Sportsnet up for sale in line with regulatory requirements following the network’s purchase of rival broadcaster TSN.
Business

FIFA does not plan to intervene over next month's Copa America, world soccer's oldest tournament, which has been put on hold after the kidnapping of a senior Colombian official.
Sponsorship & Marketing

Toronto, despite being one of the front-runners to stage the 2008 Summer Olympics, faces an uphill battle, according to International Olympic Committee (IOC) marketing chief Dick Pound.
Business

The Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) said it submitted on Thursday what it believes to be a winning bid to host next month's Copa America soccer tournament after South America's federations vetoed Colombia over concerns of kidnapping and violence.
Sponsorship & Marketing

South American football rights and marketing company Traffic is claiming that Brazil will replace Columbia as hosts of the troubled Copa America soccer tournament.
Sponsorship & Marketing

South American soccer rights and marketing company Traffic says it will lose $10million from the postponement of the Copa America tournament, which will now be played next year.
Business

French President Jacques Chirac, promoting the Paris bid to stage the 2008 Olympic Games, has told Russian Olympic officials that the organisation of the Games would be problem-free if they were held in the French capital.
Stadia

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has given the go-ahead for the relocation of the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis, marking the first NBA franchise relocation since the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento in 1985.

About 200 Tibetans marched through the Indian capital on Wednesday in protest at Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games and China's poor human rights record.
Business

The best rugby players from the northern and southern hemispheres will play each other in an annual grudge match starting next year, the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced on Thursday.

Colombia is engaged in an intense counter offensive to reclaim the Copa America soccer tournament for this month and avoid a major economic disaster.