Feature: US Sports Biz - October 2005  

S&T's US correspondent Mark J Jeffers, takes another look at the wild and wacky world of the movers and shakers in sports across the other side of the pond...

It sounds like ESPN will be singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for quite awhile as the sports cable net and Major League Baseball have reached an eight-year extension of their TV rights deal.
LPGA’s favorite calendar girl Natalie Gulbis is launching a new reality TV show on The Golf Channel, you know I’ll be sitting in the front row for this one…
The NHL is back and with new rules in place to add some scoring ‘punch’. However, there is no truth to the rumor that starting this season goalies can only stop the puck with their teeth.  Reason being, as we all know, hockey players do not have teeth.
Now that the Roy Disney family owns the Harlem Globetrotters, does that mean Mickey becomes an honorary captain?
The National Football League's two New York franchises The Jets and the Giants are to share a new $800m facility that will seat more than 80,000.  With that price tag, imagine how much a hot dog and a beer will cost?
And speaking of beer and football…in other NFL news... Coors Brewing has extended its deal with the National Football League, keeping its position as the ‘Official Beer Sponsor’ through the 2010 season.  And as we all know, I am the official beer drinker for ‘Sport and Technology’. [Note from The Editor – That’s confirmed].
It looks like Captain Comcast, owner of OLN, is expanding its programming to include sailing because OLN has acquired the broadcast rights to the America's Cup, next raced in 2007.  
The NY Mets have unveiled the name of their new cable network…no, it’s not the MES Network, like the Yankees, YES network.  Instead, it will be called SportsNet New York.  Now, it just needs to find more than Mets games to broadcast to live up it to its new name.
And in more baseball news…it looks like NY Yankee manager Joe Torre will be singing the age old favorite “Tea for Two” as the Yanks skipper has signed an endorsement deal with Bigelow Tea. 
That wraps it up for this edition of ‘US Sports Biz’ folks.

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