North America

A record first prize of $936,000 will be handed to the winner of this week's PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who was the inspiration behind the Hollywood film character Jerry Maguire, has accused his former partner David Dunn of stealing his clients through blackmail and fraud.

The family of baseball legend Roger Maris and brewing giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. are both contesting a decision that awarded the family $50 million in a Florida lawsuit against the Budweiser brewer.

The NFL Quarterback Club has made a financial investment in Canadian artificial grass manufacturers FieldTurf as part of a larger investment in the company by AIG Horizon Partners, LLC.

Bob McClaren, the president of business operations at baseball club Houston Astros, will leave the franchise at the end of the season.

In recent years, the meteoric rise of technology, telecom and media (TMT) shares on the world's stock markets has changed the face of Formula One sponsorship. The recent downfall in the sector is now hurting the sport as it struggles keep sponsors.

Dallas-based investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, is to slow down its Latin American activities to concentrate on its North American and European projects.

Washington DC has signed a 10-year deal to stage the National Grand Prix of Washington DC ? kicking off with the American Le Mans Series Race.

Boston Bruins All-Star right wing Bill Guerin will earn $5.1million (?5.74m) next season after being awarded the second largest salary in NHL arbitration history.

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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