Sponsorship & Marketing

Pepsi will be the soft drink of choice for three Chicago sports franchises. Agreements with the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks, and United Center begin September 1, 2000. An agreement with the Chicago White Sox begins November 1, 2000.

The Eurobet Arrows F3000 team has been officially launched at the Arrows F1 Team's Leafield, Oxfordshire headquarters.

Michelin will provide Jaguar with tyres next season when the French company returns to Formula One after a 16-year absence.

Argentine buyout fund The Exxel Group is going to launch an Internet soccer portal in the near future.

The New Zealand Rugby Football Union, whose All Blacks team is one of the world?s best recognised sports brands, has appointed Media Content Sports Media Advisors as television and media rights consultants.

French customs officials have seized more than 77,800 pairs of counterfeit Adidas, Fila and Sprandi sports shoes in a shipment from China at the French port of Le Havre.

Nike Inc. and Metastream Corp., a provider of marketing visualization solutions for the Web, have signed a viewer distribution agreement.

D.C United has attracted an offer from US cable company Discovery Communications to become a major sponsor of the MLS club in a one-year $150,000 (#95,000) deal, reports the soccer industry newsletter, the Soccer Investor Weekly Bulletin.

ScoreCardUSA.com, a recreational sports portal providing personalized Web services for active individual sports enthusiasts, has raised $1.6million in first-round funding, led by CrossBow Ventures of West Palm Beach, Fla., and individual private investors. ScoreCardUSA.com is scheduled to launch June 1.

In a bid to get back into professional football broadcasting, the NBC television network will form a 50-50 partnership with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc., to own and operate the new XFL football league and its eight teams.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) says it has received several offers for the television rights to Africa's top soccer competitions.

Sportal has appointed Caroline Duret ? head of PR during the soccer World Cup in 1998 ? as its new international communications manager.

A survey carried out by Scarborough Sports Marketing has determined which Major League Baseball clubs have the most passionate or ?avid? fans.

Southern Company, the international energy company, is to launch a year-long national TV ad campaign, composed of four new 15-second commercials centering around the company's role as the Official Energy Company of the PGA TOUR.

German media firm, Kinowelt, is seeking to broadcast football league games live in cinemas from August.

Dave Ogrean, the head of marketing for the U.S. Olympic Committee, has resigned.