North America

Sports industry executives in the US have responded positively to the marketing alliance between baseball?s New York Yankees and Premier League soccer club Manchester United.

Manchester United supporters have expressed concern at their club?s deal with the New York Yankees.

English Premier League soccer club Manchester United and Major League Baseball?s New York Yankees are set to sign sport's biggest joint marketing deal today.

TNN kicks off its live XFL coverage on Sunday as the Birmingham Thunderbolts and the New York\New Jersey Hitmen at Giants Stadium.

Cablevision Systems Corporation and Princeton Video Image (PVI) have formed a strategic alliance that should fuel a dramatic expansion of the PVI business.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of Australia?s greatest sporting venues, has purchased "Event Business Management Software" (EBMS) from St Louis, Missouri?based Ungerboeck Systems, Inc (USI).

Watch out for the Memphis Maniax, Orlando Rage and Chicago Enforcers - American football is about to explore a new level of sporting violence. For a report into XFL see the FEATURES section of sportbusiness.com

Australian Rugby Union (ARU) managing director John O'Neill wants France and England to join Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in the Tri-Nations series, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Ken Livingstone, the outspoken mayor of London, will hold final approval for any London Olympic bid, the British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman has said.

Reebok International Ltd, the world's No. 2 shoe maker, said its profits this year could surge 25 percent after taking rivals' market share last year with trendy brands.

IMG has acquired Disson & Associates - a new spin-off formed by respected sports marketing veteran Stephen Disson - as a wholly-owned subsidiary of IMG.

UEFA Cup and European Super Cup winners Galatasaray and European champions Real Madrid will represent Europe at the second World Club Championship from July 29 to August 12 in Spain, FIFA said on Thursday.

Las Vegas casinos emerged as the big winner following the Baltimore Ravens? 34-7 rout of the New York Giants in last Sunday?s Super Bowl.

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports has announced that 70% of the advertising time for the first 10 weeks of the XFL football league, starting February 3is sold out.

Walt Disney Co are to shut down its struggling Internet portal, GO.com, with heavy redundancies, but will maintain other web operations like ESPN and ABCNEWS.com.

Super Bowl XXXV was a ratings winner for CBS but a relative dud compared with past games as the Baltimore Ravens killer defence dazzled the New York Giants but failed to draw record numbers of viewers.