Media

US sports website Rivals.com is to close with the loss of 80 jobs, reports the Seattle Times. The news comes after protracted talks with Yahoo failed to result in a sale of the struggling network. Rivals chief executive Saul Gamoran told the west coast newspaper; ?We tried very hard to effect a sale of the company, and we came pretty close, but we were unable to cross the finish line.?

Italy's Serie A side Fiorentina and Investment bank Morgan Stanley are in talks which could lead to the purchase of the Florence club, Italian newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Tickets to this year?s Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

News Corp. is in talks with a group of cable operators and other investors to potentially buy out their stakes in cable TV channels Outdoor Life Network LLC and Speedvision Network LLC the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday. That is why car makers and sponsors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on backing Formula One world championship racing cars.

The first Afro-Asian Games will go ahead in New Delhi in November as scheduled, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president has said.

The ISMM Group ? parent company of ISL ? has failed in its bid to postpone bankruptcy proceedings.

AmeriSuites has signed a new three-year sponsorship of American Spirit Racing's (ASR) team in the BF Goodrich Trans-Am Series.

The NHL has signed a deal with online video firm Virage to develop and distribute personalised player and team video highlights coverage of the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs on NHL.com.

French media giant Vivendi may yet pull out of its bid to take control of troubled Swiss marketing giant ISL.

TNN, which holds the US broadcast rights to the Arena Football League, kicks off its 2001 15 game regular season schedule with a rematch of last year's Arena Bowl XIV in a special primetime telecast featuring the Nashville Kats and the Orlando Predators.

One of the world?s most valuable sport stars of all time, Michael Jordan is set to return to the NBA next season, according to press reports.

The Football League has announced a #12m ($17.3m) three-year extension to its sponsorship deal with Nationwide.

Asian internet sports portal, Sportalasia, has selected Digital Island to provide content delivery and streaming media services to sports fans globally.

Golf sensation Tiger Woods? sensational display at the weekend is set to see his potential in the commercial market boom ? with many now suggesting he could be set to land more than a billion dollars in sponsorship and advertising. For the full story see the FEATURES section of sportbusiness.com.

Shares in soccer side AS Roma fell sharply on Monday after the Italian first division leaders lost 3-1 to Fiorentina, recording only their third league defeat of the season.