Archive for the ‘merges’ Category
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An unprecedented auction at the Hilton Towers hotel in Mumbai on February 20 illustrated just how dramatically sport is spreading beyond traditional boundaries and merging into the global entertainment industry.
At the conclusion, India’s one-day cricket captain Mahendra Dhoni was richer by $1.5 million for approximately six weeks’ work. Dhoni was the biggest winner after eight franchises had bid around $20 million for players to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament starting on April 18.
The sums in themselves were eye catching, if nothing outlandish compared to the purses commanded by leading prize fighters.
But they were paid for a form of cricket specifically designed to appeal to a worldwide television audience and featuring players chosen not by selectors but in a marketplace for a competition sanctioned, but not organized, by the game’s traditional authorities.
“A hundred years ago your community was your local town and village,” Mark Waller, a senior vice-president with the National Football League (NFL), told Reuters. “Two thousand of you wandered down to the stadium or the church or whatever and that was your focal point. Then it became your county or your country and now it is a global community. There are no boundaries now.
“The world is a global one. Brands, entertainment and sports properties operate at a global level and our job is to make sure that we cater to these people.”
EXPANSION PLANS
Last October, the NFL staged its first regular-season game outside the United States, a sellout meeting between eventual Super Bowl champions the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins at London’s Wembley stadium, home of the English national soccer team. Continued…
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