North America

First Entertainment, a leading Multimedia Internet Entertainment Company, will stream live video of the PGA Compaq Classic of New Orleans on the company's F2 Sports Network. The live streaming will take place between May 1 - 7 from the English Tern Golf and Country Club in New Orleans.

The Commissioners of the four major US sports have met in New York to discuss the role of new technology in sports? future. David Stern of the National Basketball Association, Paul Tagliabue of the National Football League, Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League, and Bud Selig, head of Major League Baseball discussed the need for additional online sports content, web video, and a significant increase in internet interactivity with fans. In addition, the commissioners expanded on the revenue stream potential of the internet.

SportBusiness.com new media editor Andrew Gellatly reports from the Interactive Sports 2000 conference in Los Angeles.

A scientist at Sydney's top Olympic training centre, the New South Wales Academy of Sport, has been suspended after being charged with illegally importing steroids ordered over the Internet.

Cuban American players and coaches on at least four Major League Baseball teams benched themselves on Tuesday to honour a strike in Miami protesting the federal raid that reunited Elian Gonzalez with his father.

The Wall Street Journal has added fuel to speculation raised during Sport Business 2000 that stadium naming rights deals are coming to Europe. The newspaper reported: ?At least a dozen European premier division soccer-club owners over the past year have been privately huddling with U.S. fund managers about following the American model of raising corporate sponsorship cash to underwrite the construction of new grounds.?

Miami?s Pro Player stadium is set for yet another name change.

A new annual international sports awards ceremony will be inaugurated in Monaco on May 25. The Laureus Sports Awards, will be hosted by stars of the entertainment world such as Jeff Bridges, Ashley Judd and Dylan McDermott and will broadcast to a hoped-for global audience of 1 billion viewers.

San Diego Soccer Development Corporation (SDSDC) has named Gabriel Luna De La Fuente as the Company's Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Sponsorships. De La Fuente will oversee all aspects the San Diego Flash?s corporate sponsorship department.

One-On-One Sports Network, the most-listened-to 24-hour US sports radio network broadcasting on over 425 affiliated stations, has named Alex Gomez to the position of Vice President of Marketing.

The U.S. Postal Service is to issue commemorative postage stamps featuring 20 ?Legends of Baseball?. All 20 players were honoured last season as part of Major League Baseball's "All-Century Team" programme.

Former chief executive of Wal-Mart, David Glass, has won the approval of the board of Major League Baseball?s Kansas City Royals to buy the team in a deal worth $96m.

All 20 members of the US Women?s team that won the World Cup last summer are committed to the Women?s United Soccer Association ? the new eight team league that is to start next April.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has agreed a multi-year partnership with car manufacturers Lincoln.

Orlando Predators Entertainment(OPE), owners of the Predators Arena Football franchise and 8% stake-holder in the Arena Football League, has reported a year end profit of $215,355 compared to a loss of $884,341 for the year ended 1998. The company reported total revenues of $5,105,969 compared to $3,719,329 in 1998.

Michael Knight, the Australian Minister for the Olympics, has introduced the Olympic Arrangements Bill in the New South Wales Parliament to ensure that the ?over-commercialisation? and transportation ?shambles? of Atlanta 1996 is not repeated.