North America

Following recent renewal deals with the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland Raiders, and Oakland Athletics,

International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch has said he wants more experienced players to improve the standard of soccer at the Sydney Games, a move that could spark a new row with Europe's top clubs.

Washington has been confirmed as the venue for this year?s Major League Soccer championship match.

Minard Hamilton, formerly senior vice president, ESPN International, has been named general manager of international business for ESPN Internet Group (EIG), a part of GO.com .

Single Market Events, organisers of Brand Licensing London, have formed a strategic alliance with Avanstar Communications, organisers of the New York International Licensing Show.

Motor racing boss Bernie Ecclestone has agreed to sell 37.5 percent of his Formula One business to U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for #625 million ($1 billion), according to a report in the UK?s Sunday Times newspaper.

Four Italian Serie A soccer clubs have said they did not plan to leave pay-TV group Stream but could sell their stake to co-shareholders Telecom Italia and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the right price.

ESPN has retained design firm Razorfish to further develop its X-Games branding.

UPS will launch its five-year agreement to become the official express delivery company of NASCAR at this Sunday's Daytona 500.

Dr. Harvey W. Schiller, former president of Turner Sports, a division of TBS, has been named Chairman and CEO of YankeeNets, the recently completed merger between the World Champion Yankees and the New Jersey Nets.

INTERVU Inc., a service provider for Internet audio and video delivery solutions, has been selected by Time Warner to provide streaming media services for the Winter Goodwill Games in Lake Placid, New York, February 17-20. INTERVU will deliver video highlights each day of the event to the Goodwill Games Web site located at: www.goodwillgames.com.

News Corp. Ltd., seeking to capitalise on the increased interest in golf, this week said it would publish a new sports/lifestyle magazine called Maximum Golf, with planned circulation of 350,000.

The NHL has purchased all IBM shares of NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises, (NHL Ice) and will become sole owner of the property, in a deal estimated to be worth $10m.

Andrew Sippel has been promoted to publisher and vice president of the sports publication ESPN The Magazine.

David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, and Michael Levy, CEO of CBS SportsLine will keynote a seminar focusing on ``Reinventing Sports in the Age of the Internet '' for the Jupiter Consumer Online Forum, March 1-3, at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in New York City.

Sales of athletic shoes are declining because sports are losing their appeal for many young people, according to the Zandl Group, a New York City-based trends research firm.