Cynopsis: Sports
03.04.13

Good morning. It’s Monday, March 4, 2013, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

A successful run for Tennis Night in America now takes the next step in its evolution, with the launch of World Tennis Day today, featuring events celebrating the sport around the world. Tennis Channel will air the 2013 BNP Paribas Showdown/Hong Kong on March 4 from 6:30-9:30a live from the Asia-World Arena in Hong Kong featuring John McEnroe/Ivan Lendl followed by Caroline Wozniacki/Agnieszka Radwanska. Tennis Channel then runs encore presentations of the 2009, 2012 and 2013 BNP Paribas Showdown events. ESPN2 then offers the BNP Paribas Showdown 2013 from Madison Square Garden in New York starting at 7p with Serena Williams/Victoria Azarenka followed by Rafael Nadal/Juan Martin Del Potro.

World Tennis Day was created by StarGames and is held with the support of the International Tennis Federation to promote Tennis10s, a programs designed to promote play among young players and participate in the sport at the local level. Cynopsis Sports with Jerry Solomon, President of StarGames, about the evolution of the event and how World Tennis Day is making an impact.

Solomon on the beginnings: There had always been this market for indoor tennis in the winter in New York and we thought we ought to keep going. After our first event, I thought we ought to call the night “Tennis Night in America.” We had no idea what we were doing, it just sounded like a good name. The idea was that it would be celebration about tennis. We then went to the USTA, and told them we thought Tennis Night in America has legs. I had this vision where clubs across the country would show the match, hold clinics and the USTA became instrumental in helping us focus on what we needed to do to make that happen. We went from the first year with 20 locations that participated, to 200 in the next year, then 700 and last year we had 2200 tennis facilities in the country participate.

On going global: The last couple of years we started looking beyond New York, and last year decided to take this international. We didn’t know what we were doing once again, but my feeling was that with tennis being such a worldwide sport, we could create events internationally with grassroots programs modeled after what we have been doing with the USTA. So we took that to the ITF, they got it, liked it and we entered into a partnership with them and started looking for sites, starting in the Far East with Hong Kong. So now we have 17 countries around the world that are going to participate in World Tennis Day with activities in their countries to promote junior tennis.

On developing a new generation of players: In 2011, the ITF and the USTA looked to change the way ten and under kids play tennis. They started them on smaller courts, they started them with different pressurized balls. This was a whole new initiative on a worldwide basis to introduce kids to tennis and I thought it was a phenomenal idea. You don’t start playing baseball on a Major League Baseball-sized field; you don’t start playing football with a regular-sized football. You start with something smaller. I have kids and watched them do this and it works. I think this is where we have had our biggest impact. We have given our whole ten and under program a platform to be exposed around the world and its given it some credibility and a lot of exposure.

On the Air

ESPN announced a slate of 18 midweek college football games for the 2013 season, all featuring the Mid-American Conference or Sun Belt Conference. Pre-season selections are for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday programming. MAC conference champion Northern Illinois will be featured three times, while ESPN2 will televise the 16th annual MAC Football Championship Game at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday, Dec. 6, at 8p. Meanwhile, Sun Belt Conference champion Arkansas State will play in two midweek games. The action gets underway with Troy/Arkansas St. on ESPNU on Thursday, Sept. 12.

Despite a lockout-shortened season, the NHL is looking at hockey-related revenues of around $2.4 billion this season, according to The New York Post. With ratings and attendance both up this year, the league is on pace to draw nearly 73% of last season’s revenues with just over half the season.

With the MLS season back, league Commissioner Don Garber spoke to reporters over the weekend, detailing plans to grow ratings, according to the league website. “It’s a matter of building your fanbase and being more relevant in the local markets, having fans that really care about their clubs, and care about where our clubs are in the MLS Cup tournament,” he said. “As they’re following their team, they’re also wondering what some team that’s right below them is doing, and if that team is on national television, our hope is that they’ll watch them like they do in every other major league in America.”

Bellator MMA drew its largest audience since its season premiere last week, with 901,000 viewers tuning in to Spike TV for the contests, according to Nielsen. In the M18-49 demo, the promotion drew a .8 score for a 41% boost over the previous week, while earning a .7 among M18-34 for a 46% climb. The promotion then drew another 341,000 viewers in the replay.

The Blackhawks record run in the NHL continues to drive Comcast SportsNet Chicago, with the channel once again drawing its highest Blackhawks regular season rating ever on Feb. 28. The game against the Blues drew a 7.54 household rating for the network, with 262,754 Chicago households tuning in. In addition, the network posted its all-high regular season high for Blackhawks Post Game Live presented by Hawk Ford with a 5.10 household rating, according to Nielsen. Including the game, 16 of the Top 17 highest-rated regular season Blackhawks games in Chicago regional sports network history have occurred this season.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner made a plea for Time Warner Cable to end the Padres blackout in the market, stating “I understand that companies must make decisions that are in the best interest of their bottom line. That said, when every other major video provider in the region has reached an agreement with FOX Sports and your network has ceased discussions, one is left questioning Time Warner Cable’s true motivations.” Ouch.

Tickets are now available for the Cynopsis: Sports Media Awards, which will take place on April 17 at Yale Club in Manhattan. Click here for more info.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

Olympian McKayla Maroney formally became a spokesperson for the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, with her campaign debuting this month. The famed 17-year-old gymnast will serve as the new face for the company’s lineup of 10-calorie sodas, known as Ten. The deal covers Ten beverages for brands that include 7Up, A&W, Sunkist, Canada Dry and RC.

The Professional Bull Riders locked in a multi-year extension with Bass Pro Shops. The partnership originally launched in 2010 and will now include PBR stops at Bass Pro Shops in Arlington, Texas; Louisville, Ky.; Des Moines, Iowa; Las Vegas (in May); Tulsa, Okla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Springfield, Mo.; and Las Vegas for the PBR World Finals. As part of the partnership, Bass Pro Shops will also hold a PBR Days event in July 2013, at more than 50 Bass Pro Shops locations.

NBC Sports and Golf Channel announced that Sonic Branding agency, Man Made Music, will now create the new themes for tournaments throughout the year. The new broadcast theme recently made their debut during the airing of WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship. Tournaments include the PGA Tour, U.S. Open, The Ryder Cup, The Presidents Cup, Senior PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open, and the LGPA Tour. In addition to the main theme, Man Made Music developed multiple versions to supplement the original melody and “illuminate various elements of tournament life, including the previous days’ highlights and emotional and heartfelt behind the scene activities.”

Digital Fields

NeuLion and Major League Soccer announced the delivery of MLS LIVE, allowing fans to watch live, condensed and archived MLS games in HD via MLS streaming video. The service has seen a 125% growth in subscriptions each and every year since shifting to NeuLion’s technology platform. MLS and NeuLion recently extended their multiyear agreement with the launch of MLS LIVE for this season.

International PPV company Integrated Sports Media added an online PPV option for all four games from the upcoming Algarve Cup featuring the defending Olympic Champion U.S. Women’s National Team. The games will also be available live via iN Demand, TVN, DirectTV and DISH, for a suggested retail price of only $14.95 per match.

Roster Moves

MLB’s Nelson Pena is joining The Legacy Agency where he will serve as a Senior VP of Business Development under Michael Principe.

The Main Event

Cincinnati/Louisville on ESPN at 7p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ON THIS DAY in 1990: Eric “Hank” Gathers collapses and dies during a game while playing for Loyola Marymount.

In The Know: Chris Paul had his number retired by his former university over the weekend. Where did he go to school? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What number did Mickey Mantle wear for the Yankees? Answer: There were actually two numbers. Mantle wore #6 in his rookie year before swapping for the famed #7. Kudos: Bobby Coyle-New York Yankees Radio Network/NY; Tracy Allery-DIAGEO/NY; Doug Lipman-NBC Sports Network/NY; Brad Adgate-Horizon Media/NY; Eric P. Rhodes-Baseball Redefined/Secaucus; Adam Zimmerman-CSE/Atlanta; Juan Delgado-Telemundo/Hialeah; Joe Guarnieri-ESPN Remote Operations/Bristol; PeteSchlossmacher-NCC Media/Atlanta; Chris Hartweg-Wunderman3/Chicago; Will Allmendinger-Captivate Network/Chicago; Tim Webb-KWKT FOX 44 TV/Waco; Jim Hall-True Media/Columbia; David Hauptman/Denver; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions Inc./Santa Monica; Rick Pike-InterMedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Steve Morrow-Eclipse TV/Mill Valley; Don Surath-KPIX 5/KBCW/San Francisco.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports
03.04.13

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