February 2008

Baseball
The Los Angeles Dodgers rewarded All-Star closer RHP Takashi Saito (38) with a one-year contract for $2 million, plus another $200,000 in performance bonuses. The Dodgers also signed Japanese RHP Hiroki Kuroda (32) to a three-year contract worth a reported $35.2 million in December. (Los Angeles Times, 2/13/08)

The San Diego Padres announced that they have established a working agreement with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters from Japan. The Padres agreement with the Fighters will allow the clubs to engage in an exchange of scouting information as well as assistance in scouting efforts. The Fighters were Japan Series champions in 2006 and the Pacific League champions in 2007. (JapanBall.com, 2/21/08)

Tickets have sold out for MLB's season-opening series between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo, Japan on 3/25-26/08. Boston LHP Hideki Okajima could be the lone Japanese pitcher for the World Series champions in the two-game series, as RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka may miss the series because his wife is expecting to give birth around that time. (Yahoo!Sports, 2/21/08)

In an on-going issue that seems without resolution, Japanese baseball commissioner Yasuchika Negoro ruled that a resolution submitted by the Pacific League giving the Softbank Hawks the right to acquire RHP Jeremy Powell over the Orix Buffaloes in a contract dispute will be scrapped. The Pacific League had ruled that Softbank had the rights to the 31-year-old after Powell signed contracts with both Orix and Softbank during the off-season. This issue arose when Softbank announced on 1/29/08 that it had signed a contract with Powell nearly three weeks after Orix announced their acquisition of Powell. The Pacific League and president Tadao Koike initially ruled that both contracts were valid, but that Powell was the property of the Hawks - who checked with the PL office before attempting to sign the right-hander, and were told he was still a free agent - and the pitcher would be suspended for the first three months of the season for "causing trouble between the clubs," unless the teams can reach a deal on compensation. The Nippon Pro Baseball Players Association did not file a grievance on Powell's behalf. (JapanBall.com, 2/21/08)

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the signing of Korean RHP Byung-Hyun Kim (29) that will pay Kim $850,000 this year, with the possibility of incentives increasing that salary by $1 million. Pitching for the Marlins, Rockies and Diamondbacks last year, Kim went 10-8 with a 6.08 ERA. (MLB Press Release, 2/24/08)

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Basketball
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Fujian Peak Group (Peak) have agreed to a new multi-year marketing partnership in China. This partnership between the WNBA and Peak underscores a series of firsts, including the first time the WNBA is entering China, the first partnership that focuses on the promotion of women's basketball in China, and the first time that WNBA players are being endorsed by a Chinese corporation. (NBA Press Release, 2/16/08)

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Golf
The Phoenix Coyotes announced a one-year sponsorship deal with PGA Tour golfer Jeff Quinney. As part of the deal, Quinney will wear a shirt featuring the Coyotes logo during all PGA Tour events in 2008. (Veritix.com Newsletter, 2/7/08)

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Other Sports
Electronic Arts (EA) announced a multi-year strategic partnership with IMG for marketing and licensing in sports and entertainment. Under the agreement, IMG will partner with EA to license and market its brand in a variety of new product categories, which could include sports camps, gaming lounges, publishing products, performance apparel and more.
(ProSportsGroup.com, 2/14/08)

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China
The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be broadcast in Chinese and Korean by NBC for the first time ever in the US. NBC and Multicultural Radio will co-produce the new language coverage, which will focus on team events such as soccer, baseball and basketball, as well as offering daily highlights in Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese. NBC will also show the majority of its English language coverage in Spanish on its Telemundo network while Oxygen, a female orientated network recently acquired by NBC, will show equestrian, tennis, rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. (SportBusiness.com, 2/18/08)

Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle doubled his holdings in Chinese media company Xinhua Finance Media to 12% with the purchase of $30 million in convertible stock. Xinhua sells ads for financial publications and TV/radio stations in China. (Los Angeles Times, 2/20/08)

China Central Television (CCTV) has agreed to partnerships with social networking site MySpace China and online-video site Tudou.com to run an interactive website for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The CCTV Olympic Website, which can only be viewed in China, will offer streaming video broadcasts of events and Web profiles through which users can contact Olympic athletes. (SportBusiness.com, 2/28/08)

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India
Four minority domestic investors in Sony Entertainment India, have taken the company to court over demands on them for capital to finance SET's commitments to the upcoming IPL tournament. SET India, which operates channels like Sony, MAX, SAB TV and AXN, recently asked shareholders to infuse fresh equity of $40 million, a bid which was turned down. The four investors, Shemaroo Entertainment Managing Director Raman Maroo, actor Jackie Shroff, World Media Group Director Sudesh Iyer and MobiApps Holding's Jayesh Parekh instead demanded that their stake be sold through an initial public offer, which the parent company has refused. A case has been filed in the Bombay High Court, terming the capital call illegal. (SportBusiness.com, 2/20/08)

Disney has agreed to pay $230 million to increase its investment in leading Indian entertainment group UTV Software Communications with the company paying $200 million to up its stake in UTV from 14% to 32%, and a further $30 million for a 15% stake in UTV Global Broadcasting, a subsidiary which controls new TV channels including youth oriented Bindass and its spin-off nets. Disney took its initial stake in the group in 2006 when it bought UTV's kids channel Hungama. Other Hollywood conglomerates have recently been expanding their operations in India as well, including NBC Universal, and Viacom, who merged most of its Indian businesses with the TV18 group to form Viacom 18. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 2/20/08)

The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Omidyar Network, and Google announced a new $17 million investment company for small and medium-size businesses in India, "to create job opportunities and spur greater economic participation for a larger segment of the population." The investment company will target equity investments between $500,000 and $3.5 million. (Digital Media Wire, 2/20/08)

September 2007

Baseball
The Chinese National Team will become the first international team to participate in the Arizona Fall League (AFL), continuing the ongoing effort by MLB to help develop the squad as it trains for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The 16th season of the AFL will begin on 10/9/07. Team USA, a national team of non-40-man-roster players from MLB organizations, also will participate in the AFL. Former Major League manager Jim Lefebvre and pitching coach Bruce Hurst will lead the Chinese team on the field. Team China is training at the complex of the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Arizona. (MLB Press Release, 9/25/07)

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Basketball
The NBA and the Walt Disney Company, the sponsor of the NBA's 2004 "China Games" that sent the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets to Beijing and Shanghai for two games, are nearing a deal that has the entertainment giant buying a minority stake in the league's nascent NBA China entity. The dollar value of Disney's expected investment is not known, but some estimates have the value of NBA's China operations at up to $2 billion. (Sports Business Journal, 9/19/07)

The NBA has named Tim Chen, CEO of Microsoft Greater China, as CEO of NBA China, a new enterprise created in April to encapsulate all of the league's businesses in Greater China. NBA China will be governed by a Board of Directors that will include NBA owners, representatives of outside investors as well as Commissioner David Stern, Adam Silver, and Heidi Ueberroth, among others. The NBA is conducting more than 170 special events in 112 cities in Greater China including the NBA China Games 2007, three pre-season games in Shanghai and Macao in October. (Sportbusiness.com, 9/19/07)

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Other Sports
Tokyo formally submitted its candidacy to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, with local government proposing to build a new main stadium in the Harumi waterfront district for the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field events. Tokyo is bidding against Rio de Janeiro, Prague, Chicago and Qatari capital Doha for the right to host the Games. The International Olympic Committee will select a host city in October 2009. (Sportbusiness.com, 9/12/07)