Wouldn't RTE love to have a Super Bowl. In today's final episode of Sports Stadium, we can say goodbye to the occasional motor racing in Mondello, basketball from Tallaght and hockey from Grange Road, to name just a few minority sports which relied on the programme for coverage. At least, RTE offered some exposure.
American network NBC would not be overly concerned with such incidentals when the bottom line is considered. An average price of $1.3 million for a 30-second slot will be handed over to the National Broadcasting Company by 23 companies who hope to sell their products on the back of next January's Super Bowl.
Eight weeks before the American football "Cup Final", scheduled for the 25th of next month, and the network reports that it is sold out during the broadcast. Fifty-eight advertising slots are available, adding up to $75.3 million worth of advertising time for the game.
Beer company Anheuser-Busch believes that the slots are worth it, as does Pepsi; both firms have booked six advertisements each, totalling $7.8 million for three minutes. Nike, on this occasion, has been out-swooshed, booking only two, 30-second slots.
Leeds United's performance in the Premiership this season will hearten those who have kept the faith at Elland Road. Gary Kelly et al are doing brisk business on the pitch, but off it the Yorkshire club just aren't keeping the pace. But they aren't worried.
Having reported pre-tax losses of £6.2 million for the year to June 30th, after "investing" £13.3 million on transfers, Caspian, the company which owns Leeds, are quiet content indeed.
Leeds City Council, the owners of Elland Road, are selling it to Caspian, which will then be renamed to Leeds Sporting. In an unusual move, the council is taking £2.5 million in Caspian shares, giving it about a five per cent stake overall. The council also gets an executive box and 500 tickets to first-team games for the next 80 years; the seats will go to underprivileged children and other needy groups.
Leeds Sporting is set to develop a sports arena on land next to Elland Road and hopes to bring in outside finance to the tune of £40 million. Now, when are Shamrock Rovers going to get that planning permission in Tallaght?
End-of-year annuals can become a patchwork of advertisements from corner shops with benign articles overly concerned with praising products and controlling bodies. Not so the Irish Motor Sport Annual, edited by Michael O'Carroll. A frank interview with Eddie Jordan and Gary Anderson, chief designer at Jordan, as well as informed opinion on various aspects of the motor year, including the tobacco advertising war and an attractive design, for once bucks the trend. A stocking filler for grease monkeys.
Back to America, and baseball and record amounts of money. Where else? The New York Yankees topped the 1997 payroll list of major league clubs. The Yankee's payroll of $66.8 million was revealed in a recent study based of major league managers. Average salary in the major leagues jumped 19 per cent to $1.3 million. The Baltimore Orioles had the second highest payroll, at $64.6 million, followed by the Cleveland Indians ($61.8 million), Florida Marlins ($53.9 million) and Atlanta Braves ($52.9 million). At $1.12 billion, the payroll topped the $1 billion mark for the first time in baseball history.
Shane Warne, Monica Seles, Colin Montgomerie, Paul Gascoigne, Jan Molby, Mike Gatting, Laura Davies, Andre Agassi. What do they have in common? Slimmers all.
Recently, Warne's reluctance to give up the tinnies and pizza was noticed when he arrived at Madame Tussaud's in Melbourne to pose beside his wax model. It was difficult not to notice that the best spin bowler in the world was actually twice the size of his look-alike.
When asked by a journalist whether he thought he looked like the waxy facsimile, he stormed out, saying: "That's why I never want to talk to you guys."
Touchy. But imagine how the teenage tennis players feel when their cellulite is put under the microscope for the two weeks of Wimbledon. Women have become used to the degrading and personal comments regularly published about their physiques. Men evidently still have to adjust.
So Alex Ferguson received an advance of £1 million for his autobiography - a world record for a sports book. It is double what Kevin Keegan and Jack Charlton were paid for their life stories. There were 15 companies bidding for the book, which is due in the autumn of 1999.
It stands to reason, then, that Ferguson's book will be different to his five other publications - A Will To Win - Six Years At United - Just Champion - The Managers Diary and Light In The North. But how different can it possibly be?
Tight-head prop Peter Clohessy has just returned to the Irish squad after some time in the wilderness after a stamping incident. He says he is chastened. We must believe him. Richmond's Barry Williams has just recently been accused of stamping on the head - with both feet - of Irish scrum-half Paul Burke, who was playing for Bristol at the time.
Burke wasn't seriously injured. Neither was Olivier Roumat, who attracted Clohessy's attention. The clubs of Burke and Williams, Bristol and Richmond, are huffing and puffing. Righteous indignation on both sides prevails; Williams also has his international career with Wales to worry about. We've been down this road before. Judging by regular punishments handed out, stamping is still a regular practice which is accepted if the player who carries it out is not caught and if the player who is on the receiving end is not injured too seriously. A 60-day ban probably. Hookers jumping on the heads of scrum-halves . . . well, work it out yourself.
